Willie Wilkins, Veteran, Gets Back Dog Tag He Lost In World War II

FROM

Click link below picture

.

Carol Wilkins leaned over the side of her father’s wheelchair and handed him the small red box, a heart-shaped cutout revealing its contents: a weathered, bent silver dog tag.

“Oh, Daddy, look,” Wilkins exclaimed as her 90-year-old father opened it, his eyes beaming and smile wide. “They’re back.”

Sixty-nine years after losing his dog tag on the battlefields of southern France, Willie Wilkins reclaimed it Wednesday after a trans-Atlantic effort to return it to him. It started more than a decade ago in a French backyard and ended with a surprise ceremony in Newark City Hall.

“I am so happy,” Carol Wilkins said. “You don’t know what joy is on my heart for what you have done for my father.”

.

.

.Click link below for story, video, and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/willie-wilkins-dog-tag-world-war-ii_n_3238591.html?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl40|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D311526

.

___________________________________________________

The Cicadas Are Coming: Billions Of Insects To Emerge After 17 Years Underground

FROM

Click link below picture

.

If you live on the East Coast between Georgia and Connecticut, get ready for the air to be filled with billions of large, buzzing insects known as cicadas, a massive brood of which have been feeding on roots underground for the past 17 years — all in preparation for this one moment.

A small number of the “Brood II” cicadas, which are one of seven different species of the insect, have already begun emerging in some eastern states, according to Magicicada.org, a website run by John Cooley, a cicada expert and research scientist at the University of Connecticut.

By the end of May, the inch-and-a-half-long insects will come out in full force, swarming in massive, noisy clouds up and down the eastern seaboard, reports CBS New York.

.

.

.Click link below for story, videos, and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/the-cicadas-are-coming-locusts-17-years_n_3223584.html?utm_hp_ref=green&icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl2|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D309216

.

_____________________________________________________

California Wildfire Grows, But Weather May Aid Fight

Click link below picture

.

A big cool-down in weather calmed a huge wildfire burning in Southern California coastal mountains Saturday, and firefighters worked to cut miles of containment lines while conditions were favorable.

High winds and withering hot, dry air were replaced by the normal flow of damp air off the Pacific, significantly reducing fire activity.

“The fire isn’t really running and gunning,” said Tom Kruschke, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

The 43-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 30 percent contained.

Despite the favorable conditions, evacuation orders remained in place for residents in several areas.

.

.

.Click link below for article:

http://weather.aol.com/2013/05/04/california-wildfire-grows-but-weather-may-aid-fight/?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl1|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D308569

.

_____________________________________________________

Cave Fossils In Spain Suggest Ancient Carnivores Were Lured To Their Deaths

FROM

Click link below pictures

.

A cavern in Spain may have lured ancient carnivores to their deaths by offering the promise of food and water, new research suggests.

The new study, published May 1 in the journal PLOS ONE, may explain how the carcasses of several carnivore species, including saber-toothed cats and “bear dogs,” wound up in an underground cavern millions of years ago.

“Only the carnivores were daring enough to enter,” said study co-author M. Soledad Domingo, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan. “But they were unable to make their way out.”

.

Hyena skeleton found in Spanish cave. Researchers carefully analyzed the type, age, and orientation of fossils like this one to figure out what happened to ancient carnivores.

The researchers reconstructed the history of the cave. Sediments from the surface fell through fissures in the Earth and formed the cave. Young predators were lured in by the promise of food or water, but became trapped. The smell of their rotting carcasses would then attract other predators. Over time, the cave was filled in by flooding, until it became hidden from view.

.

.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/cave-fossils-spain-ancient-carnivores-deaths_n_3200239.html?ref=topbar

.

____________________________________________________

Swan Lake

RECEIVED THIS LINK IN AN EMAIL FROM A FRIEND

.

Click link below picture

.

WOW!!!  This is a remarkable, unbelievable performance!

I don’t think Tchaikovsky had this choreography in mind when he wrote ” Swan Lake “. How could anyone imagine the performance you are about to see. With a population of 1.3 billion, the Chinese had to locate two great dancer/athletes…… and they did!!!

See it and believe it …It is almost unbelievable!!!

.

Swan Lake

.

.Click link below for video:

http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

.

___________________________________________________

The Myth of Ponce de León and the Fountain of Youth

Click link below picture

.

On April 2, 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his crew became the first recorded Europeans to set eyes on Florida. Legend holds that they made this discovery while searching for the Fountain of Youth, a magical water source supposedly capable of reversing the aging process and curing sickness. A closer look, however, reveals that the fountain likely provided little to no motivation for their voyage. In fact, no surviving documents from the time, including letters from Ponce de León himself, ever mention such a fountain. Only later did Spanish and U.S. writers connect the two, thereby turning Ponce de León into a poster boy for gullibility.

.

.

.Click link below for article:

http://www.history.com/news/the-myth-of-ponce-de-leon-and-the-fountain-of-youth

.

_____________________________________________________

Hermit accused of hundreds of burglaries after 27 years in Maine woods

Click link below picture

.

For years, stories about the North Pond Hermit circulated around central Maine.

According to lore, the shadowy figure would sneak into cabins, camps and houses surrounding North Pond, and steal food, clothing, camping gear and other supplies. But he never took money and never caused damage, according to a 2005 story on the hermit in the Kennebec Journal newspaper.

Locals, the newspaper reported, said they found odd caches of goods in the woods. Some speculated the hermit slipped out on wet or dark nights, gliding across the 273-acre pond in a boat to burglarize camps, the newspaper reported.

.

.

.Click link below for article:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/10/justice/maine-hermit-arrest/

.

____________________________________________________

Body’s anti-HIV ‘training manual’ offers vaccine hopes

Click link below picture

.

The body’s own “training manual” for attacking HIV has been recorded by US scientists and it is hoped it can be used to design vaccines.

HIV mutates in order to survive the onslaught of a patient’s immune system.

However, some patients develop highly effective antibodies that can neutralise huge swathes of HIV mutants.

A North Carolina team analysed the arms race between body and virus, published in the journal Nature, and has shown how these antibodies are made.

When someone is infected with HIV, their body produces antibodies to attack it. But the virus mutates and evades the offensive, so the body produces new antibodies that the virus then evades and the war goes on.

.

.

.Click link below for article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22002455

.

___________________________________________________

Robotic Jellyfish ‘Cyro’ Unveiled By University Of Virginia

FROM

Click link below picture

.

We’ve seen a slew of robotic animals in the past year or so — robotic cockroaches, robotic tunafish, robotic dragonflies. And now, thanks to Virginia Tech, we’ve got two robotic jellyfish.

On May 29 of last year, Virginia tech engineers unveiled “Robojelly,” a robotic jellyfish “roughly the size of a man’s hand.” And last week, the same group of engineers revealed their second jelly named “Cyro,” who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and 170 pounds.

The U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research are funding the robotic jellyfish. According to a press release, the aim of the project “is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.”

.

.

.Click link below for story,videos, and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/robotic-jellyfish-cyro_n_2981532.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

.

_____________________________________________________

Beautiful Creative Photographs

RECEIVED THESE PHOTOGRAPHS IN AN EMAIL FROM A FRIEND

.

Click link below picture

.

Look closely at the photographs in the collection, they are composed of humans photographed in different configurations.  They are a creative wonder!

.

One example!

.

.Click link below for an unusual slideshow:

HumanBodies

.

____________________________________________________