Chinese developer unveils replica Austrian village

A worker spray water on plants at an European-style houses in Hallstatt See, a replica of the Austrian town of Hallstatt, in Boluo county, Huizhou city, south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 2, 2012. A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it. The original is a centuries-old village of 900 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A worker spray water on plants at an European-style houses in Hallstatt See, a replica of the Austrian town of Hallstatt, in Boluo county, Huizhou city, south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 2, 2012. A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it. The original is a centuries-old village of 900 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Chinese women carry their children while visiting a European-style houses in Hallstatt See, a replica of the Austrian town of Hallstatt, in Boluo coutny, Huizhou city, south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 2, 2012. A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it. The original is a centuries-old village of 900 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A worker walks at an European-style houses in Hallstatt See, a replica of Austrian town of Hallstatt, in Boluo county, Huizhou city, south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 2, 2012. A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it. The original is a centuries-old village of 900 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A worker walks past a diorama of an European-style houses in Hallstatt See, a replica of the Austrian town of Hallstatt, in Boluo county, Huizhou city, south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 2, 2012. A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it. The original is a centuries-old village of 900 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

HUIZHOU, China (AP) ? A group of Austrians whose scenic mountain village has been copied down to the statues by a Chinese developer attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project but were still miffed about how the company did it.

Minmetals Land Inc.'s replica of Hallstatt, a quaint Austrian alpine hamlet, is located in subtropical southern China.

The original is a centuries-old village of 800 people and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a China famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard.

The Chinese Hallstatt features a church spire, a town square ringed by pastel-colored buildings and angel statues. They're among architectural flourishes inspired by the original.

Members of the Hallstatt delegation said they were proud to be copied but also disappointed with the way it was done.

"They should have asked the owners of the hotel and the other buildings if we agree with the idea to rebuild Hallstatt in China, and they did not," hotel owner Monika Wenger said ahead of the opening ceremony. "And that was a big problem we had with this project here."

People in Hallstatt first learned a year ago of Minmetals' plan when a Chinese guest at Wenger's hotel who was involved with the project inadvertently spilled the beans. Minmetals staff had been taking photos and gathering data while mingling with tourists, raising suspicions among villagers.

Minmetals Land is the real estate development arm of China Minmetals Corp., China's largest metals trader.

Wenger said she was "disappointed" the company didn't ask permission.

Mayor Alexander Scheutz, who signed a cultural exchange agreement Saturday with the new Hallstatt, was more diplomatic, saying "we are very proud."

While construction was continuing at the Chinese project, located in Guangdong province's Huizhou city, about 60 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Hong Kong, the site was already open to visitors.

But some were skeptical the copycat version would ever match the beauty of the original, a scenic jewel with hill-hugging chalets, elegant church spires and ancient inns all reflected in the deep still waters of an Alpine lake, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) west of Vienna.

"Chinese architecture is very characteristic and stylish," said Zhong Ping, a Huizhou resident. "Just work on your own style. Why do you have to copy others? Even the flowers are fake ? I can tell they are fake at first glance."

___

Online: http://www.minmetalsland.com/en

___

AP videojournalist Kelvin M. Chan contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Summer season lacks fireworks for U.S. retailers

(Reuters) - With a weak job market, signs of rising inventories and the shopping-intensive festive season still months away, U.S. retailers are bracing for a bland second quarter.

Quarterly earnings for the retail sector are expected to rise 8.8 percent in the quarter from a year ago, after jumping 12.2 percent in the first quarter when unseasonably warm weather and colorful clothes helped sales, according to Ken Perkins, president of research firm Retail Metrics.

Last year in the second quarter, earnings rose 8.2 percent, according to Perkins.

Analysts and investors are curbing their enthusiasm as the global economy seesaws and U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly cooled in May, falling to the lowest level in four months, according to a report released on Tuesday. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added only 69,000 jobs in May, well below expectations. That growth is the weakest in a year.

"The recovery just doesn't seem to have happened like we expected it to. But that said, we did have a good first quarter and I think for most of 2012 we'll see positive comparable store sales," said Mark Larson, global head of retail at corporate auditing firm KPMG .

When the weather was warm and shoppers were feeling better, retailers took advantage and sold more at full price.

With Easter gone, they took to discounting again. On Thursday, many U.S. retailers reported stronger-than-expected sales for May, but shoppers were lured by bargains.

Meanwhile, companies like Tiffany & Co , Abercrombie & Fitch and Ralph Lauren Corp have cited economic problems in Europe, while chains like Home Depot Inc said they saw some cooling in demand in April after a jump in home improvement projects earlier in the year because of a warm winter.

EYES ON COMPARABLE SALES

As economic indicators blow hot and cold, investors are looking at comparable sales trends to place their bets.

"I think if people stayed with companies that are posting positive comparable sales ... they are good," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. Among the companies he likes are Lowe's Companies Inc , Home Depot and Target Corp . He also mentioned Internet shopping giant Amazon.com Inc. .

U.S. home prices rose for the second month in a row in March and gains in some of the hardest hit areas suggested the improvement was becoming more broad-based, a potential boon for Lowe's and Home Depot.

Kuby was unfazed by weak demand forecasts from those two companies.

"I think they didn't want analysts to get overly optimistic and set the bar too high for the rest of the year. People are spending money on their houses and the economy is better than the headlines," he said.

GETTING GROOVE BACK

Investor Michael Bigger of trading firm Bigger Capital is betting on clothes and shoe companies like Guess Inc , Abercrombie & Fitch and Skechers USA Inc . "Skechers is now starting to get its groove back. My picks are very company-specific," he said.

Both Kuby and Bigger said they are likely to stay away from traditional consumer electronics retailers. Companies like Best Buy Co Inc have been in trouble for some time because of so-called showrooming, as shoppers tend to use its stores to check out gadgets and then order online from rivals like Amazon.

Best Buy is also dealing with a scandal related to ex-CEO Brian Dunn, who abruptly resigned from the top job during a probe that eventually found he had an improper relationship with a female employee.

"Their model does not seem to be working and there also does not seem to be any drivers to get people kicked about the sector right now. That struggle is likely to continue," Kuby said, referring to consumer electronics retailers. He added that related companies like video games maker Gamestop will also experience "real softness."

"The showrooming issue is a big problem in this sector and ... (will) continue to be an issue going into the next year," said Eric Anderson, professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

That is troubling, as 20 out of 36 retailers tracked across various sectors like clothes, electronics, drugstores and specialty retail have seen a rise in first-quarter inventories over the year, according to S&P Capital IQ.

This could add to the levels of discounting in the second quarter in domestic markets.

Tracy Travis, finance chief for Ralph Lauren, said on a call earlier this month that first-quarter trends at stores in the United States and Europe were challenging as customers continued to be somewhat restrained with their discretionary and luxury clothes shopping.

In contrast, off-price leader TJX Europe, a unit of TJX Companies Inc , posted its highest-ever first-quarter profit. Comparable sales increased 13 percent, signaling that shoppers were looking for inexpensive alternatives. TJX Europe operated 335 T.K. Maxx stores and 24 HomeSense stores as of April 28.

Given the need of retailers to plan ahead when ordering inventory, most of them are unable to react quickly if things suddenly go good or bad, said the Kellogg School of Management's Anderson.

"They've placed their bets already in terms of inventory, promotional plans. And they are still cautious. I think the second quarter will be relatively flat."

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago, additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)

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List of Important Bicycle Accessories You Should Have

Buying a bicycle is not enough if you are serious with cycling. You not only need a good, comfortable and reliable model but you also need the appropriate accessories to pump up your bicycle and most importantly keep you safe. Additionally, with the technology today, you don?t need to go out of your way and buy these accessories you can buy online at Eureka Cycles Sports. This is the one-stop shop to buy all your cycling and accessories need.

Unlike other online websites, buying at Eureka Cycles is easy and reliable. The staff and crew uses their expertise to ensure that their customers buy the product that is right for them. Their vast experience and knowledge in selling parts and equipments is what most customers like about the website. with the many bicycle accessories available, you need to buy first what your bike needs to make sure when you do bike around, you are safe.

a. Headlight and rear light
Buying lights is needed especially when you are into biking at night. These lights are your road guide and the light also helps other bikers and drivers on the road predict that they are following a biker ahead of them. The headlight is more important than having the rear light because this serves as your guide as you bike through the pavements. You also need to have reflectors so that the car or bike following you can determine that there is a bike in front of them.

b. Mirrors
If you use your bike to drive around the area, mirrors are important because it helps you check if there is a car at your back before you make a turn. It helps you decide if you should turn or not depending on the distance of the car to your bike. Like in motorcycles, the mirrors should be clipped into the handlebar.

c. Repair kit
This is one of the most important bicycle accessories you should have. A little kit with the basic repair needs like the tire levers, the spare tube, puncture kit and a multi-tool essential for the basic adjustments is needed so that you can easily repair your bike whenever little problems arise. The kit can fit into your bike bag so that you can easily carry it wherever you go.

d. Bike pumps
This is another must-have in your accessories list. There are different pump according to the tire valves so you need to make sure that you have the right one. Experts suggest that you invest in these pumps so that you can use it for a long time. Also, make sure that you know the right amount of tire pressure when you inflate the tires of your bike.

If you are looking for quality Bicycle Accessories, you should have a look at Eureka Cycles at http://www.eurekacyclesports.co.uk/

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US slams Russia over Syria arms sales

The United States lashed Moscow for arming the Syrian government and warned of the threat of civil war, as it stepped up diplomatic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Denmark, said that Russia's policy of resisting UN Security Council action against Damascus was only increasing the chance of civil war erupting.

The Russians "are telling me they don't want to see a civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going (to) help to contribute to a civil war," Clinton said.

At the United Nations, US Ambassador Susan Rice described Russian arms shipments to Syria as "reprehensible" while accusing Damascus of a "blatant lie" by denying involvement in a massacre in which 108 people were killed.

Their comments came after UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that Syria risked a "catastrophic civil war" following the massacre in the village of Houla last week in which 49 children were killed.

As Syrian rebels threatened to escalate their operations unless Assad's regime meets a 0900 GMT Friday ultimatum to observe a UN-backed ceasefire, activists called for nationwide protests.

The rallies will honour the children killed in Houla, activists said on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, describing them as "flares of victory".

China and Arab nations meanwhile jointly urged Syria's warring parties to fully implement a UN and Arab League ceasefire plan, which includes a halt in fighting that should have taken effect on April 12 but has been violated daily.

Implementing the plan "is essential to avoid the danger of a foreign intervention and the scenario of anarchy and civil war", the countries said in a statement issued after talks in the eastern Tunisian city of Hammamet.

"The international community must redouble its efforts and exhort the Syrian authorities to strictly and immediately apply the Annan plan," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.

Speaking in Istanbul, UN chief Ban said Damascus must implement the six-point peace blueprint brokered by Kofi Annan.

"The massacres of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war, a civil war from which the country would never recover."

The UN says some of the 108 people killed in the central Syrian town of Houla last Friday and Saturday were killed by artillery tank fire.

But the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says most were summarily executed, and some UN officials have said there were suspicions of involvement by pro-government shabiha militiamen.

Damascus on Thursday insisted a preliminary investigation showed "armed gangs" carried out the Houla killings.

"It appears that all the victims came from peaceful families who refused to rise up against the government or take up arms, but had rows with armed groups," said General Kassem Jamal Sleiman, head of the probe.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi dismissed Ban's warning.

"It is regrettable that the Secretary General of the United Nations has departed from his mission of maintaining peace and security in the world to becoming a herald of civil war," Makdisi told reporters.

Rice's condemnation of Moscow's "reprehensible" arms deliveries to Syria came after reports last week that a Russian ship carrying weapons had arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus.

The ship, the Professor Katsman, apparently turned off its transponder on May 26 in the vicinity of Tartus, Sadia Hameed of the Human Rights First group told AFP. The vessel had been tracked from Piraeus in Greece.

Hameed said she could not be sure of the cargo because there was no official manifest. "The sense we get is that (the ship's contents) are small arms and ammunition."

Rice said: "With respect to the reported docking of a ship carrying Russian arms, this is obviously of the utmost concern given that the Syrian government continues to use deadly force against civilians."

Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has rejected criticism of the arms sales insisting they are legal and have no influence on the Syria conflict.

The rebel Free Syrian Army's command inside the country, meanwhile, gave Assad's government an ultimatum of midday on Friday (0900 GMT).

If the regime "does not meet the deadline by Friday midday, the command... will no longer be tied by any commitment to the Annan plan... and our duty will be... to defend civilians," a statement said.

The FSA said it would announce in the coming days "a series of decisive and courageous decisions for the next phase" of the conflict.

The political opposition, the Syrian National Council, meanwhile urged Annan to raise the number of UN truce observers in Syria from their present number of 300 to 3,000.

The Houla massacre has prompted Western governments, including the United States, Britain, France and Australia, to expel the senior Syrian diplomats in their countries.

As the international community mulled fresh moves against Syria, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said any military action in Syria would need backing from the United Nations, but called recent violence "intolerable".

Asked if he could foresee a scenario in which the United States would back military intervention even without UN authorisation, Panetta said: "No, I cannot envision that."

President Vladimir Putin is expected to face pressure for Russia to drop its resistance to UN action on Syria when he meets the leaders of two of Europe's key powers on Friday.

Putin is due to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Francois Hollande as part of his first foreign visit after returning to the Kremlin for a historic third term.

On the ground, Syrian forces resumed shelling in Houla, which had begun on Wednesday, with a young boy killed by a sniper, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And battles raged as troops and rebels clashed across the country, with the Observatory saying a total of 44 people were killed on Thursday, 25 of them civilians in Homs province.

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UI's Scudder makes first observations of process linked to northern lights

Public release date: 1-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gary Galluzzo
gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu
319-384-0009
University of Iowa

An astronomical illumination

A University of Iowa researcher wants you to visualize a plate of spaghetti when you think of the northern lights.

That's because Jack Scudder, UI professor of physics and astronomy, and his colleagues have reached a milestone in describing how the northern lights work by way of a process called "magnetic reconnection."

The details are contained in a paper published in the June 5 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters; however, the process is best imagined as untangling twisted strands of spaghetti.

Diffuse gascalled plasmaflows outward from the sun as the "solar wind" and carries with it magnetic field lines ("spaghetti") from the sun.

The entanglement between magnetic field lines (spaghetti) from the sun and other field lines (spaghetti) anchored in the Earth's core occurs when these field lines are brought together by gusts of solar wind.

"In the process of smoothing this entanglement, one or more holes are created that now link field lines, with one originating in the sun and the other in the Earth's metallic core," says Scudder. "This linkage allows charged particles to cross a previously forbidden boundary that separates the Earth's volume from the sun's. The formation of these inter-connections represents a stress reduction. The aurorae are a byproduct of this change in how the strands of spaghetti are connected, since with the hole, charged particles from the sun are now allowed access into the atmosphere below the Earth's magnetic shield."

One result is the beautiful colors of the northern lights. "Most effects of solar weather that have an earthly influence gain entrance through holes of this type that are in place when a solar disturbance hits," Scudder says. "In this sense the sites of reconnection are the 'keyholes' for the intrusion of solar weather into near Earth space.

"After more than 30 years of research, my colleagues and I have announced a milestone discovery in astrophysicsthe first experimentally resolved and unequivocal site of collisionless magnetic reconnection, in which magnetic field energy is converted into energetic particles," Scudder says. "When this process occurs, previously separated volumes of space become interconnected by magnetic fields, providing new highways for the prompt interchange of high temperature gases."

Because magnetic reconnection is thought to occur elsewhere in the universe, Scudder and his colleagues are delighted to have observed evidence of a hard-to-see hole.

In astronomical terms, the size of a hole is relatively smallabout 1 kilometer in diameter seen at a distance of 57,000 kilometers from the Earth. If magnetic reconnection were occurring on the surface of the sun, at another star, or at a planet in another solar system, scientists would never be able to see it, Scudder says. Consequently, Scudder's work is all the more important because it serves to "bench test," or prove, an astrophysical process that mankind will never be able to directly corroborate in deep space.

In addition to being small, the hole Scudder observed was in constant motion.

Because the hole was in an unknown state of motion relative to the spacecraft, it could have been traversed many times previously without having been detected. To correct for this situation, researchers developed new techniques to reduce the time interval between "snapshots" by a factor of 11 using the same detector and without flying a new detector.

"This 'trick' is like having access to a microscope for the first time to re-examine data that was thought to have been acquired too slowly to find these holes. Resolving these holes in magnetic fields is somewhat similar to looking at stagnant water through a microscope for the first time and seeing the writhing molecular behavior that was only suspected previously," he says.

Scudder and his colleagues were able to observe the magnetic reconnection site in space by using data from NASA's Polar spacecraft and its Hydra, MFE and EFI experiments. Scudder says the process he observed is active not just in creating the northern lights, but many other astronomical phenomena as well.

"The experimental documentation of the physical process that enables this phenomenon provides the first support of the prevailing theories for explaining the production of solar flares, x-rays from black holes, as well as the causes of the aurorae that brilliantly light up the polar skies," he says.

The manner in which Scudder and his associates made the landmark observation involved five different comparisons across three independent detectors to reinforce the detection, similar to the teamwork involved in professional sports.

As part of NASA's Polar/Hydra program at the UI, data from three separate experiments were shown to reproduce the extreme signatures predicted by computer models of the process. These signatures were so unusual that nothing approaching their extremes had been recorded in 50 years of space research. Using the largest computer resources at NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy, the reference computer models solved six trillion equations of motion in order to predict the observations for the three experiments.

By showing scientists what combinations of observations can help identify these regions, Scudder's work will save time and energy for researchers preparing to explore magnetic reconnection in detail by using NASA's Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) mission set for launch in 2014.

###

Scudder's collaborators and co-authors include UI graduate students R.D. Holdaway and J.Y. Lopez. His other colleagues are H. Karimabadi and V. Roytershteyn of the University of California, San Diego; W.S. Daughton of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.; and C.T. Russell of UCLA.

The UI Department of Physics and Astronomy is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The research was funded in part by grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

---

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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.

Public release date: 1-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gary Galluzzo
gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu
319-384-0009
University of Iowa

An astronomical illumination

A University of Iowa researcher wants you to visualize a plate of spaghetti when you think of the northern lights.

That's because Jack Scudder, UI professor of physics and astronomy, and his colleagues have reached a milestone in describing how the northern lights work by way of a process called "magnetic reconnection."

The details are contained in a paper published in the June 5 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters; however, the process is best imagined as untangling twisted strands of spaghetti.

Diffuse gascalled plasmaflows outward from the sun as the "solar wind" and carries with it magnetic field lines ("spaghetti") from the sun.

The entanglement between magnetic field lines (spaghetti) from the sun and other field lines (spaghetti) anchored in the Earth's core occurs when these field lines are brought together by gusts of solar wind.

"In the process of smoothing this entanglement, one or more holes are created that now link field lines, with one originating in the sun and the other in the Earth's metallic core," says Scudder. "This linkage allows charged particles to cross a previously forbidden boundary that separates the Earth's volume from the sun's. The formation of these inter-connections represents a stress reduction. The aurorae are a byproduct of this change in how the strands of spaghetti are connected, since with the hole, charged particles from the sun are now allowed access into the atmosphere below the Earth's magnetic shield."

One result is the beautiful colors of the northern lights. "Most effects of solar weather that have an earthly influence gain entrance through holes of this type that are in place when a solar disturbance hits," Scudder says. "In this sense the sites of reconnection are the 'keyholes' for the intrusion of solar weather into near Earth space.

"After more than 30 years of research, my colleagues and I have announced a milestone discovery in astrophysicsthe first experimentally resolved and unequivocal site of collisionless magnetic reconnection, in which magnetic field energy is converted into energetic particles," Scudder says. "When this process occurs, previously separated volumes of space become interconnected by magnetic fields, providing new highways for the prompt interchange of high temperature gases."

Because magnetic reconnection is thought to occur elsewhere in the universe, Scudder and his colleagues are delighted to have observed evidence of a hard-to-see hole.

In astronomical terms, the size of a hole is relatively smallabout 1 kilometer in diameter seen at a distance of 57,000 kilometers from the Earth. If magnetic reconnection were occurring on the surface of the sun, at another star, or at a planet in another solar system, scientists would never be able to see it, Scudder says. Consequently, Scudder's work is all the more important because it serves to "bench test," or prove, an astrophysical process that mankind will never be able to directly corroborate in deep space.

In addition to being small, the hole Scudder observed was in constant motion.

Because the hole was in an unknown state of motion relative to the spacecraft, it could have been traversed many times previously without having been detected. To correct for this situation, researchers developed new techniques to reduce the time interval between "snapshots" by a factor of 11 using the same detector and without flying a new detector.

"This 'trick' is like having access to a microscope for the first time to re-examine data that was thought to have been acquired too slowly to find these holes. Resolving these holes in magnetic fields is somewhat similar to looking at stagnant water through a microscope for the first time and seeing the writhing molecular behavior that was only suspected previously," he says.

Scudder and his colleagues were able to observe the magnetic reconnection site in space by using data from NASA's Polar spacecraft and its Hydra, MFE and EFI experiments. Scudder says the process he observed is active not just in creating the northern lights, but many other astronomical phenomena as well.

"The experimental documentation of the physical process that enables this phenomenon provides the first support of the prevailing theories for explaining the production of solar flares, x-rays from black holes, as well as the causes of the aurorae that brilliantly light up the polar skies," he says.

The manner in which Scudder and his associates made the landmark observation involved five different comparisons across three independent detectors to reinforce the detection, similar to the teamwork involved in professional sports.

As part of NASA's Polar/Hydra program at the UI, data from three separate experiments were shown to reproduce the extreme signatures predicted by computer models of the process. These signatures were so unusual that nothing approaching their extremes had been recorded in 50 years of space research. Using the largest computer resources at NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy, the reference computer models solved six trillion equations of motion in order to predict the observations for the three experiments.

By showing scientists what combinations of observations can help identify these regions, Scudder's work will save time and energy for researchers preparing to explore magnetic reconnection in detail by using NASA's Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) mission set for launch in 2014.

###

Scudder's collaborators and co-authors include UI graduate students R.D. Holdaway and J.Y. Lopez. His other colleagues are H. Karimabadi and V. Roytershteyn of the University of California, San Diego; W.S. Daughton of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.; and C.T. Russell of UCLA.

The UI Department of Physics and Astronomy is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The research was funded in part by grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

---

[ | 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.

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Atlanta Artist to Host Workshop at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial ...

ORANGE CITY ? Gretchen Neal, Atlanta-based artist and art teacher, will bring her creative talents to Orange City for the first-ever Braz Cauz workshops on Monday, June 11 and Wednesday, June 13 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial Cancer Institute, Summit Building, 1055 Saxon Boulevard, Orange City. Braz Cauz is an annual artistic event that raises funds to provide mammograms to women in need.

Neal has taught art classes in the metro Atlanta area for the past 24 years. She conceived and managed the ?Design Your Own Coke Bottle? event for Coca-Cola?s 125th anniversary celebration at Atlanta Olympic Park, hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

The former Ormond Beach resident learned about Braz Cauz last summer when she returned to the area to facilitate her annual Summer Art Camp for kids, held at St. James Episcopal Church in Ormond Beach.

She designed a bra for last year?s event and was so inspired by the project, she decided to come back to the area again and donate her time and talent to the cause. She will teach the workshops in June to help educate the community about the need for local breast cancer services.

The Braz Cauz workshops are free; however, a suggested donation of $10 is requested to help defray the cost of the materials.

Braz Cauz began four years ago when Shawn-Marie Batchelder, a Deltona resident and breast cancer survivor, was inspired with the idea of inviting the community to decorate bras, and then auction them, using the proceeds to aid women who need mammograms. Florida Hospital Fish Memorial has worked with Braz Cauz since its inception in 2009, and together, has provided free mammograms to more than 250 women.

To reserve your space at the Braz Cauz workshops, please contact Camille Murawski at the Florida Hospital Fish Memorial Foundation by calling (386) 917-5525 or emailing Camille.murawski@fhfm.org.

About Florida Hospital Fish Memorial
Florida Hospital Fish Memorial is a 175-bed full-service hospital providing inpatient and outpatient services as well as 24-hour emergency and critical care. It is a member of Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant not-for-profit hospital system in the nation and works to provide exceptional, patient-focused care to the Deltona and Orange City community. For more information about Florida Hospital Fish Memorial, visit www.fhfishmemorial.org.

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Parks & Rec: Wellington with more than enough to offer | The ...

Moun?tain bik?ing, kayak?ing, canoe?ing, camp?ing, fish?ing, base?ball, hik?ing ? it?s all avail?able this out?door sea?son, and it?s all in Wellington.

Wellington?s Com?mu?nity Park, the MetroParks Reser?va?tion, and Find?ley State Park have upgraded and enhanced their facil?i?ties, trails, and recre?ational oppor?tu?ni?ties for villagers.

The Wet?land Mit?i?ga?tion Project allowed for the MetroParks to develop the Welling?ton Reser?va?tion in 2005. A once bar?ren flood plane has been trans?formed into a 550-acre park with free hik?ing, pad?dle?boat?ing, fish?ing and explor?ing on the shores of the 21-acre reservoir.

?There are parts of the park that peo?ple don?t even get to. I sug?gest peo?ple see the back loops and the restored prairie,? said con?ser?va?tion super?vi?sor and park man?ager Chris Grame, who has been with the park sys?tem for 18?years.

?It?s the largest lake in our park sys?tem,? Grame?said.

Many orga?nized activ?i?ties are also offered at the?park.

This June there will be a full-moon hike, yoga classes, nature hikes, youth explorer club, a kayak?ing float, fit?ness walks, and scrap?book?ing at the?park.

Res?i?dents can also par?tic?i?pate in the hik?ing stick pro?gram where explor?ers can com?plete six des?ig?nated hikes in four dif?fer?ent reser?va?tions to earn a stick or?pin.

Other than the inva?sive plants like bush hon?ey?suckle and autumn olive, Welling?ton Reser?va?tion is pre?pared for all the guests that come for the busy season.

Wellington?s Com?mu?nity Park has seen growth and improve?ment over the last cou?ple of years. Park?ing improve?ments, drainage, added fields and facil?i?ties have helped make Com?mu?nity Park more than just grass and slides.

?Teams come from all over the state and I always hear it?s some of the best facil?i?ties that I?ve seen. They are con?stantly improv?ing it,? said Mark Care?vic, orga?nizer of the Welling?ton Memo?r?ial Day base?ball tour?na?ment played at Com?mu?nity?Park.

With well-kept fields, the young play?ers have a place to compete.

?About 50-60 kids from Welling?ton will be play?ing,? Care?vic?said.

Being able to host the tour?na?ment is a shot in the arm for local busi?nesses as?well.

?With each team hav?ing around 50 indi?vid?u?als, you?re look?ing at 660 peo?ple. Add par?ents, sib?lings, etc., and the tour?na?ment brings around 2,000 peo?ple into Welling?ton. It?s a boom for the local econ?omy, gas sta?tions, gro?cery stores, restau?rants,? Care?vic?said.

The Splash Pad is now open at Com?mu?nity Park as well. The free, cool-off zone that goes through 5,000 to 7,000 gal?lons of water daily gives younger res?i?dents a chance to have wet sum?mer?time fun with?out the need for a?pool.

New addi?tions can also be found at Find?ley State?Park.

?We have a new 18 hole disc golf course, that used to be nine, but now is fin?ished. Also, a new boat ramp with lights,? said Ranger Bob Thuemling.

Find?ley State Park encom?passes 900 acres and a 93-acre lake.

For tent trekkers, the park has 273 camp?sites, with 91 hav?ing elec?tri?cal hookups.

For those look?ing to get on the lake, many options are available.

Elec?tric motor boat?ing is per?mit?ted, and vis?i?tors can also rent row?boats, kayaks and canoes at the beach/marina area.

With a valid fish?ing license, anglers can cast into a bass, bluegill and cat?fish filled lake.

The nine-mile moun?tain bike trail is a key attrac?tion as?well.

?Peo?ple come from all over to ride the moun?tain bike trial, from Penn?syl?va?nia, Michi?gan, Ken?tucky, all the sur?round?ing states,? Thuem?ling?said.

The park also offers time trail races and even an antique car show with around 500 automobiles.

?You can spend the whole week?end here. Pull in on Fri?day, bring enough food, and stay until Sun?day,? Thuem?ling?said.

Con?tact the?parks:

? Welling?ton Reser?va?tion, 535 Jones Road, 440-647-2509, www.metroparks.cc.

? Welling?ton Com?mu?nity Park, end of Johns Street, 440-647-3827, www.villageofwellington.com.

? Find?ley State Park, 25381 St. Rt. 58, 440-647-4490, www.findleystatepark.org.

by ADAM?FOX

Enter?prise reporter

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