From a team standpoint, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has one reason to play on a sprained ankle ? avoiding the all-time franchise record for losses in a season.? But Peterson has other reasons to give it a try.
Apart from being 128 yards from his fifth 1,000-yard season and 165 yards from the franchise rushing record held by Robert Smith, Peterson wants to help his owners not named Wilf.
?It?s very important, especially for my fantasy team owners,? Peterson said Thursday, according to Mark Craig of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.? ?They?ve been giving me a hard time.?
Peterson was smiling when he said that, something his fantasy owners likely haven?t been doing lately.? And Peterson said that he has been hearing from his fantasy owners on Twitter.
?They?ll say, ?Will you please [play]. I?ll send my wife down to visit you,?? Peterson said.? ?Sometimes, it?s like, wow.? Some of the things I read on there is crazy.?
Last week, Peterson said he was 70 percent.? This week, he says he?s at 85 percent.? But he?s no longer limping, and he has practiced on a limited basis each of the last two days.
Peterson suffered a high ankle sprain last month against the Raiders.
HONOLULU ? Hundreds of Japanese-American veterans of World War II are being honored Saturday with a parade in Honolulu ? nearly 70 years after they volunteered to fight for their country even as the government branded them "enemy aliens."
About 200 veterans will ride along Kalakaua Avenue in convertibles, troop carriers and trolleys. The event celebrates the Congressional Gold Medal the veterans received last month.
Thousands of Japanese-Americans served in World War II even as the government viewed them with suspicion because their ancestors were from the country that bombed Pearl Harbor. Some on the mainland enlisted from internment camps, where the federal government had imprisoned 110,000 Japanese-Americans.
Fragile health prevented many of the surviving veterans ? the youngest of whom are in their 80s ? from traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend a ceremony at which the medal was presented.
Two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans who served were from Hawaii. Many others were from California, Oregon and Washington state.
The medal recognizes the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion which together saw some of the most brutal fighting in the war as the soldiers pushed their way through Italy, France and Germany.
By the end of the war, the combined unit became the most highly decorated military unit in U.S. history for its size and length of service.
The medal also honors Japanese-Americans who served as translators and interpreters against Japan, often on the front lines with Marines and soldiers fighting from island to island across the Pacific.
As members of the Military Intelligence Service, they deciphered key Japanese communications, including one that tipped off the U.S. to the flight plans of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto ? the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor ? in 1943. The U.S. shot down his plane, dealing a major blow to Japan.
The parade is also honoring members of the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion who were stationed on Oahu during the war.
The elite medal has been given selectively since 1776, when George Washington was awarded the first. Other honorees include the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Rosa Parks and the Dalai Lama. The Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of black fighter pilots, received the medal in 2007.
COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama made prime time with his "60 Minutes" interview with Steve Kroft. It almost makes you forget how few press conferences he's had during his first term in office. Is he scared of the media outside of the one-on-one interview? Or is here merely following a trend adopted by presidents over the years?
"Whatever the specific questions, it's clear that Obama doesn't love the cattle-call milieu and feels a lot less comfortable in front of a crowd of reporters," write Glenn Thrush and Julie Mason in their Politico article "Obama Gives First Press Conference in 3 Months."
So he's not dodging the media, but is he really ducking the outings which involve unscripted questions flying from a variety of reporters?
"Since taking office, Obama has done 13 full-on solo White House news conferences, as opposed to the so-called two-and-two sessions with foreign leaders, in which each country's press corps is allocated a pair of questions. Obama's rate is better than the eight solo pressers during the same period for former President George W. Bush - but far fewer than the 23 convened by former President Bill Clinton and the 44 by George Bush the elder, according to records compiled by [Towson University Political Science Professor Martha Joynt] Kumar," as noted in Thrush and Mason's Politico story .
Why has Obama held fewer press conferences than Clinton and Bush Sr.? Kumar tells Thrush and Mason that it's because Professor Obama gives long responses to short questions (as many do in my profession). But that wouldn't explain why Bush Jr. gave fewer press conferences than even Bush Jr. for the same time period. Additionally, why wouldn't the scholarly Obama do the same for a single interviewer?
In fact, Obama has given many one-on-one interviews in his career. "Through April 30, Obama sat for no fewer than 306 press interviews - one every few days on average. During the same period in their presidencies, George W. Bush did 91, Clinton 139 and George H. W. Bush at least 87, though records for him are incomplete," noted Thrush and Mason in their Politico piece.
Press conferences are less scripted and less predictable, of course. But the 1:1 interview is really just that: a confrontation between one journalist and one subject. There's no 40:1 ratio. The subject can point out inconsistencies in the interviewer's questions, as Obama did with Kroft as the reporter seemed to forget that he had accused the president not compromising at all with Republicans, when he chided the president for compromising too much with the GOP later in the interview. In a press conference, reporters have few chances to contradict themselves or make a similar gaffe. Even when one stumbles, the other 39 are still out there to, waiting for their chance to one-up the President of the United States.
It's not just Obama either. According to the data from the White House Press Office, I have found that Hoover gave an average of 67 a year, while FDR averaged 83 a year for his 12 years in office. Truman only have about half as many as Roosevelt, and Eisenhower's rate was only a little more than half of Truman's. Since Nixon, the number of press conferences has been below 20 per year, with most presidents having fewer press conferences in their entire term than Hoover gave in a year, with George W. Bush having the fewest per year. So many it isn't just Obama. All presidents seem to be increasingly hiding from the media pack, if not the interviewer.
Dear Mexican: This is the second rant I've felt I had to send to you. I don't know if readers are allowed "seconds" but here it goes: Much has been said about the terrible things happening to the United States and its citizens by the Mexican drug cartels. But what's the difference between the modern-day cartels and the Big Four of the period between 1492 and 1775? I refer you to the kings of England, France, Portugal, and Spain who invaded the Americas during the above-noted period. The invaders didn't bring cocaine, pot or meth but they brought various diseases that, if I read history correctly, led to the death of many thousands of native peoples. And, of course, they brought their heavyweight weapon, the one I believe that Lenin called the opiate of the masses: religion. Today, many people and our economy are hurt by today's cartels, and I'm not defending them in any way, but it strikes me the cartels of today are pikers compared to their predecessors, who killed an untold number of native peoples and stole a continent.
Mexica Tiahui!
Dear Wab: Sloppy seconds are always welcome here, cabr?n! It was Marx who dropped the line about religion, not, Lenin (he wrote of religion that it's "a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man"), and the natives were muy religious, but otherwise, your analysis doesn't go far enough. You forgot to mention how, like the cartels, the conquistadors fought each other for trade routes, killing each other and innocents in the process. How they demanded tribute from villagers, and terrorized them with public displays of brutality to keep them in line. How the conquistadors built empires that enriched only themselves, and created serfs out of those whom they didn't bribe into submission. The only real difference between the conquistadors and drug cartels is that the former did it in the name of Christ--and even the narcos aren't that pendejo to pull that card.
Does it make any sense to you that, in some cities in Mexico, there are statues of the Spanish conquistadors? After all these were the same people who believed that they were superior than the Mexicans so they had to force their ways on them, and not to mention the whole slaughtering of thousands of Mexicans, too.
Lies my Maestro Told Me
Dear Wab: Of course it does. Because, while though the conquistadors raped and murdered countless indigenous folks, they represent order and progress to Mexico's elite, the very people who have the money to erect statues and are more that proud to claim direct ancestry to the barbarians. Witness the furor that happened last year, when the city of Merida in the Yucatan erected a statue to its founder, the conquistador Francisco de Montejo. Even though Montejo laid waste to the Mayas back in the 16th century, and even though the descendants of the vanquished protested loudly, the city's elites erected the statue. And the same controversy happens whenever someone commemorates Juan de O?ate, the conquistador who swung his sword through New Mexico, much to the delight of the Hispanos who claim no Injun blood in their veins and to the horror of everyone else. But it's not just an elite-Mexican thing to side with the cruel--just look at the Southern love for the Confederacy.
MEET THE MEXICAN'S FRIEND! Legendary cartoonista Lalo Alcaraz will sign copies of his posters, calendars, and books this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Calacas, 324 W. Fourth St., #B, Santa Ana, (714) 662-2002. Lecture, FREE; books, BARATO.
Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @gustavoarellano or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Vladimir Putin's ruling party clung to a much reduced majority in parliament on Monday after an election that showed growing weariness with the man who has dominated Russia for more than a decade and plans to return to the presidency next year.
President Dmitry Medvedev said the election was "fair, honest and democratic," but European monitors said the field was slanted in favour of Putin's United Russia and the vote marred by apparent manipulations including ballot box stuffing.
In the biggest electoral setback for Putin since he rose to power in 1999, the Central Election Commission said United Russia was set to lose 77 seats in the State Duma and end up with 238, a slim majority in the 450-member lower house.
At a government meeting, Putin emphasized that a simple majority of 226 was enough to pass most legislation and suggested it was sufficient to maintain the stability he says he has helped secure for Russia.
"United Russia has been a significant part of the foundation of our political stability in recent years, so its successful performance in the election was important not just for the government but, in my view, for the whole country."
But Medvedev, who led the party into the election at Putin's behest, said voters had sent "a signal to the authorities" and hinted officials in regions where the party did badly could face dismissal if they do not shape up.
"United Russia did not do too well in a series of regions, but not because people refuse to trust the party itself ... but simply because local functionaries irritate them," he said. "They look and they say ... if that's United Russia, there's no way I'm going to vote for him."
Opponents said even United Russia's official result -- just under 50 percent of the vote -- was inflated by fraud. The leader of the Communist Party, on target to increase its representation from 57 to 92 seats, said the election was the dirtiest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Although Putin is still likely to win a presidential election next March, Sunday's result could dent the authority of the man who has ruled for 12 years with a mixture of hardline security policies, political acumen and showmanship but who was booed and jeered after a martial arts bout last month.
"Many Russians voted against the system and Putin is the head of that system," said Stanislav Kucher, a commentator with Kommersant FM radio station.
"Putin has a very difficult choice. To survive politically he needs to reform but he can only reform if he gets rid of many vested interests in the ruling circle. To stay as he is means the opposite of political survival."
Putin has cultivated a tough man image with stunts such as riding a horse bare-chested, tracking tigers and flying a fighter plane. But the public appears to have wearied of the antics and his popularity, while still high, has fallen.
Many voters, fed up with widespread corruption, refer to United Russia as the party of swindlers and thieves and resent the huge gap between the rich and poor. Some fear Putin's return to the presidency may herald economic and political stagnation.
PUTIN SAYS OPTIMAL RESULT
Putin and Medvedev, the protege he ushered into the Kremlin when he faced a legal bar on a third consecutive term in 2008, made a brief appearance at a subdued meeting at United Russia headquarters late on Sunday.
Medvedev said United Russia, which had previously held a two thirds majority allowing it to change the constitution without opposition support, was prepared to forge alliances on certain issues to secure backing for legislation.
As Putin said on Monday, United Russia will have enough Duma seats to pass most laws without turning to other parties.
Putin has as yet no serious personal rivals as Russia's leader. He remains the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.
But there was little to cheer for Putin, 59, who has dominated Russian politics since he became acting president when Boris Yeltsin quit at the end of 1999 and was elected head of state months later.
His path back to the presidency may now be a little more complicated, with signs growing that voters feel cheated by his decision to swap jobs with Medvedev next year and dismayed by the prospect of more than a decade more of one man at the helm.
COMMUNIST GAINS
The Communists made big gains and official projections put left-leaning Just Russia on 64 Duma seats, up from 38, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalist LDPR on 56, up from 40.
Many of the votes were cast in protest against United Russia rather than in support of communist ideals because the Party is seen by some Russians as the only credible opposition force.
"I voted against United Russia to support some kind of opposition in the country," said Tamara Alexandrovna, a pensioner in Moscow. "I've seen a one-party system and we cannot go back to that."
The other three parties on the ballot, including the liberal Yabloko, fell short of the 5 percent threshold needed to gain even token representation in the Duma.
A prominent party of Kremlin foes led by Putin's first-term prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred from the ballot in advance because it was denied registration earlier this year.
United Russia's opponents complained of election violations across the country spanning 9,000 km (5,600 miles).
They say the election was unfair from the start because of authorities' support for United Russia with cash, influence and television air time. International observers added weight to those claims.
Election preparations "were marked by a convergence of the state and the governing party, limited political competition and a lack of fairness," observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly said.
The vote count "was characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulation, including several serious indications of ballot box stuffing," the monitors said in their preliminary report.
"The country has never seen such a dirty election," said Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who dismissed the official results as "theft on an especially grand scale."
Zyuganov said police had barred Communist monitors from several polling stations and "some ended up in hospital with broken bones." Some ballot boxes were stuffed before voting began.
Medvedev said alleged violations must be investigated but asserted that there was no major fraud, saying, "All this talk about unrestrained use of administrative influence...where did this happen?"
He said United Russia's result reflected exactly its level of support among Russians -- "no more, no less. And in this sense the election was fair, honest and democratic."
The result is a blow for Medvedev, whose legitimacy to become prime minister in the planned job swap with Putin after the presidential vote could now be in question.
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Thomas Grove, Douglas Busvine and Darya Korsunskaya, Writing by Steve Gutterman, Editing by Timothy Heritage.)
Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxiesPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley
Astronomers discover 2 10-billion-solar-mass black holes in giant elliptical galaxies
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
These black holes are at the centers of two galaxies more than 300 million light years from Earth, and may be the dark remnants of some of the very bright galaxies, called quasars, that populated the early universe.
"In the early universe, there were lots of quasars or active galactic nuclei, and some were expected to be powered by black holes as big as 10 billion solar masses or more," said Chung-Pei Ma, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy. "These two new supermassive black holes are similar in mass to young quasars, and may be the missing link between quasars and the supermassive black holes we see today."
Black holes are dense concentrations of matter that produce such strong gravitational fields that even light cannot escape. While exploding stars, called supernovas, can leave behind black holes the mass of a single star like the sun, supermassive black holes have presumably grown from the merger of other black holes or by capturing huge numbers of stars and massive amounts of gas.
"These black holes may shed light on how black holes and their surrounding galaxies have nurtured each other since the early universe," said UC Berkeley graduate student Nicholas McConnell, first author of a paper on the discovery being published in the Dec. 8 issue of the British journal Nature by McConnell, Ma and their colleagues at the university of Toronto, Texas and Michigan, as well as by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona.
To date, approximately 63 supermassive black holes have been found sitting in the cores of nearby galaxies. The largest for more than three decades was a 6.3 billion solar mass black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87.
One of the newly discovered black holes is 9.7 billion solar masses and located in the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster of galaxies, 320 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. The second is as large or larger and sits in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster about 336 million light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices.
According to McConnell, these black holes have an event horizon the "abandon all hope" edge from which not even light can escape that is 200 times the orbit of Earth, or five times the orbit of Pluto. Beyond the event horizon, each black hole has a gravitational influence that would extend over a sphere 4,000 light years across.
"For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, whose event horizon is one fifth the orbit of Mercury," McConnell said.
The brightest galaxy in a cluster
These 10 billion solar mass black holes have remained hidden until now, presumably because they are living in quiet retirement, Ma said. During their active quasar days some 10 billion years ago, they cleared out the neighborhood by swallowing vast quantities of gas and dust. The surviving gas became stars that have since orbited peacefully. According to Ma, these monster black holes, and their equally monster galaxies that likely contain a trillion stars, settled into obscurity at the center of galaxy clusters.
Ma, a theoretical astrophysicist, decided to look for these huge black holes in relatively nearby clusters of elliptical galaxies as a result of her computer simulations of galaxy mergers.
Astronomers believe that many, if not all, galaxies have a massive black hole at the center, with the larger galaxies harboring larger black holes. The largest black holes are found in elliptical galaxies, which are thought to result from the merger of two spiral galaxies. Ma found, however, that mergers of elliptical galaxies themselves could produce the largest elliptical galaxies as well as supermassive black holes approaching 10 billion solar masses. These black holes can grow even larger by consuming gas left over from a merger.
"Multiple mergers are one way to build up these behemoths," Ma said.
To look for these monster black holes, Ma teamed up with observational astronomers, including James Graham, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto, and Karl Gebhardt, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. Gebhardt had obtained the mass of the previous record holder in galaxy M87.
Using telescopes at the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and at McDonald Observatory in Texas, McConnell and Ma obtained detailed spectra of the diffuse starlight at the centers of several massive elliptical galaxies, each the brightest galaxy in its cluster. So far, they've analyzed the orbital velocities of stars in two galaxies and calculated the central masses to be in the quasar range. Having such huge masses contained within a volume only a few hundred light years across led the astronomers to conclude that the masses were massive black holes.
"If all that mass were in stars, then we would see their light", Ma said.
Modeling these massive galaxies required use of state-of-the-art supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
"For an astronomer, finding these insatiable black holes is like finally encountering people nine feet tall, whose great height had only been inferred from fossilized bones. How did they grow so large?" Ma said. "This rare find will help us understand whether these black holes had very tall parents or ate a lot of spinach."
###
Other coauthors of the Nature paper are Hubble postdoctoral fellow Shelley A. Wright at UC Berkeley and graduate student Jeremy D. Murphy of the University of Texas; Tod R. Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; and Douglas O. Richstone of the University of Michigan.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UC Berkeley's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
[ | 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.
Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxiesPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley
Astronomers discover 2 10-billion-solar-mass black holes in giant elliptical galaxies
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
These black holes are at the centers of two galaxies more than 300 million light years from Earth, and may be the dark remnants of some of the very bright galaxies, called quasars, that populated the early universe.
"In the early universe, there were lots of quasars or active galactic nuclei, and some were expected to be powered by black holes as big as 10 billion solar masses or more," said Chung-Pei Ma, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy. "These two new supermassive black holes are similar in mass to young quasars, and may be the missing link between quasars and the supermassive black holes we see today."
Black holes are dense concentrations of matter that produce such strong gravitational fields that even light cannot escape. While exploding stars, called supernovas, can leave behind black holes the mass of a single star like the sun, supermassive black holes have presumably grown from the merger of other black holes or by capturing huge numbers of stars and massive amounts of gas.
"These black holes may shed light on how black holes and their surrounding galaxies have nurtured each other since the early universe," said UC Berkeley graduate student Nicholas McConnell, first author of a paper on the discovery being published in the Dec. 8 issue of the British journal Nature by McConnell, Ma and their colleagues at the university of Toronto, Texas and Michigan, as well as by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona.
To date, approximately 63 supermassive black holes have been found sitting in the cores of nearby galaxies. The largest for more than three decades was a 6.3 billion solar mass black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87.
One of the newly discovered black holes is 9.7 billion solar masses and located in the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster of galaxies, 320 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. The second is as large or larger and sits in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster about 336 million light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices.
According to McConnell, these black holes have an event horizon the "abandon all hope" edge from which not even light can escape that is 200 times the orbit of Earth, or five times the orbit of Pluto. Beyond the event horizon, each black hole has a gravitational influence that would extend over a sphere 4,000 light years across.
"For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, whose event horizon is one fifth the orbit of Mercury," McConnell said.
The brightest galaxy in a cluster
These 10 billion solar mass black holes have remained hidden until now, presumably because they are living in quiet retirement, Ma said. During their active quasar days some 10 billion years ago, they cleared out the neighborhood by swallowing vast quantities of gas and dust. The surviving gas became stars that have since orbited peacefully. According to Ma, these monster black holes, and their equally monster galaxies that likely contain a trillion stars, settled into obscurity at the center of galaxy clusters.
Ma, a theoretical astrophysicist, decided to look for these huge black holes in relatively nearby clusters of elliptical galaxies as a result of her computer simulations of galaxy mergers.
Astronomers believe that many, if not all, galaxies have a massive black hole at the center, with the larger galaxies harboring larger black holes. The largest black holes are found in elliptical galaxies, which are thought to result from the merger of two spiral galaxies. Ma found, however, that mergers of elliptical galaxies themselves could produce the largest elliptical galaxies as well as supermassive black holes approaching 10 billion solar masses. These black holes can grow even larger by consuming gas left over from a merger.
"Multiple mergers are one way to build up these behemoths," Ma said.
To look for these monster black holes, Ma teamed up with observational astronomers, including James Graham, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto, and Karl Gebhardt, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. Gebhardt had obtained the mass of the previous record holder in galaxy M87.
Using telescopes at the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and at McDonald Observatory in Texas, McConnell and Ma obtained detailed spectra of the diffuse starlight at the centers of several massive elliptical galaxies, each the brightest galaxy in its cluster. So far, they've analyzed the orbital velocities of stars in two galaxies and calculated the central masses to be in the quasar range. Having such huge masses contained within a volume only a few hundred light years across led the astronomers to conclude that the masses were massive black holes.
"If all that mass were in stars, then we would see their light", Ma said.
Modeling these massive galaxies required use of state-of-the-art supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
"For an astronomer, finding these insatiable black holes is like finally encountering people nine feet tall, whose great height had only been inferred from fossilized bones. How did they grow so large?" Ma said. "This rare find will help us understand whether these black holes had very tall parents or ate a lot of spinach."
###
Other coauthors of the Nature paper are Hubble postdoctoral fellow Shelley A. Wright at UC Berkeley and graduate student Jeremy D. Murphy of the University of Texas; Tod R. Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; and Douglas O. Richstone of the University of Michigan.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UC Berkeley's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
[ | 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.
Getty Images
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
Share ]