Last Titanic Survivor Dies At 97

The last living survivor of the Titanic, ­Millvina Dean, has died at the age of 97 in Southampton after catching pneumonia.

As a two-month-old baby, Dean was the youngest passenger on board the giant liner when it sank on its maiden voyage with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Her parents had decided to leave England for America, where her father had family in Kansas and hoped to open a tobacco shop.

The Deans had not chosen to be aboard the Titanic, but because of a coal strike they were transferred to the ship and boarded it as third-class passengers at Southampton.

Her father felt the crunch of the ship's collision with the iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, and went up to investigate. He returned to their cabin telling his wife to dress the children and go up on deck.

Dean, her mother, and brother were placed in lifeboat 10 and were among the first off the liner out of the 706 passengers and crew who escaped.

Her father, however, remained aboard and was among those who drowned when the giant ship finally went down in the early hours of next day.

Dean, born on 2 February 1912, had been in hospital last week with pneumonia, having worked as a secretary until her retirement. Her death came just a month after Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, stars of the Hollywood blockbuster about the disaster, stepped in to help pay her nursing home fees. The pair joined with James Cameron, the director of the Oscar-winning film, to donate £20,000 to The Millvina Fund.

Dean lived at Ashurst in the New Forest, not far from where she set sail on the liner. In the last year she had to sell some of her family's possessions at auction to pay for her stay in the nursing home.

Items included a suitcase filled with clothes given to her family when they arrived in America, and compensation letters sent to her mother from the Titanic Relief Fund. The mementos sold at auction were returned to her by the buyer.

Dean had become the very last survivor of the Titanic when another woman who had been a baby on board, Barbara Dainton, from Cornwall, died in October 2007, at age 96. The last American survivor, ­Lillian Asplund, had died at age 99 in 2006.

Prince Harry Plays Polo

Prince Harry reminded New Yorkers on Saturday how much his mother had loved their city, then climbed onto a pony for a rousing game of polo to raise money for impoverished children in Africa.

On a brilliantly sunny day on Governors Island in New York Harbor, the 24-year-old prince drew a crowd that included stars like Madonna, actresses Kate Hudson and Chloe Sevigny, and rapper LL Cool J, but also lots of ordinary New Yorkers out for a rare sight: a polo game in the city.

The Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic was a fundraiser for Sentebale, the charity that Harry has set up with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help poor children and AIDS orphans in that small African nation surrounded by South Africa.

His team, named after the charity, proceeded to defeat the opposing Black Watch team 6-5. Harry assisted on the winning goal in the last seconds, drawing the biggest cheer of the afternoon. Both teams included prominent polo stars like Argentine Nacho Figueras, also a Ralph Lauren model, who played for Black Watch.

It was the second and final day of Harry's first official visit to the United States, which began with a sober visit Friday to the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. On Saturday morning, the prince toured Harlem's Children Zone, a community organization that offers families social and educational services. He and Prince Seeiso chatted with students working preparing for a Regents Exam.

Harry, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, is third in line to the British throne, after his father and older brother, William. He's been dubbed the "party prince," and his New York trip seemed designed partly to counter that image with a focus on his charity work.

The event was free to the public, but guests in the VIP tent on the opposite side of the field had paid from $50,000 a table down to $500 a head to picnic on the lawn. In true polo-watching fashion, there were more hats than at an Easter parade; for the women, they were topped by flowers, feathers and even butterflies climbing up a wire trellis.

Harry, though, was casual before the match in a navy blue blazer, open-collared shirt and white jeans, and loafers. And Madonna, accompanied by her sons, Rocco and David, was positively dressed down: She wore jeans and a denim jacket as she chatted with designer Marc Jacobs.

Another spectator who'd never seen a polo match was LL Cool J.

But his trip wasn't over after the match: Leaving Governor's Island, the prince took a Coast Guard cutter up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan's west side.

He spent about 30 minutes waving to visitors, inspecting the World War II aircraft carrier and checking out the cockpit of a retired British Airways Concorde jet. Museum president Bill White said the staff presented the prince with a section of the 1943 carrier's original wooden flight deck.

The prince's visit began Friday morning with a prayerful stop at ground zero. There, he spent about 15 minutes quietly speaking to a half-dozen relatives of 9/11 victims.

Harry then attached a wreath to a chain-link fence overlooking the Sept. 11 memorial under construction, bowing his head in silence for a few minutes. He also visited the firehouse across the street that houses Engine 10 and Ladder 10, which lost five members on Sept. 11, talking and laughing with firefighters there.

Later Friday, Harry formally named the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square downtown to honor the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack. He also visited Manhattan's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, touring a clinic that treats veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and the prosthetics facilities.

Bing, Google, or Yahoo?

In the arena of world-class search, can Bing bring the hurt to Google and Yahoo? Microsoft's newest search engine comes packed with search tools such as an Explorer Pane for refining searches, Quick Previews for sneaking a peek at a site before visiting it, and Sentiment Extraction for making sense of product reviews.

Google and Yahoo, meanwhile, are no chumps. Google has outwitted its competitors by delivering solid search results and cool tools such as Street Views. Yahoo has done a masterful job of integrating search results with its rich network of Yahoo content. Search for the musician Sting within Yahoo, and presto--you're watching Yahoo music videos or listening to streaming audio of Sting singing "Desert Rose" from within your search results.

How do these services stack up against each other? Bing targets four categories of search: shopping, local, travel, and health. In a highly subjective comparison, I tested Bing, Google, and Yahoo in these areas and in others.

James A. Williams Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison

The man accused of killing Seattle Sierra Club worker Shannon Harps near her Capitol Hill home has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

James A. Williams, 50, pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder in the New Year's Eve 2007 stabbing. After hearing from Harps' family and friends, King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson on Thursday sentenced Williams to the lengthy prison term.

Williams, who has been held at Western State Hospital during much of the time since his arrest in January 2008, has a long history of schizophrenia and violent crime.

Harps, 31, was stabbed to death in the stairwell of her apartment building. Police later found Williams' DNA on a kitchen knife found nearby, and arrested him shortly thereafter.

Due to an earlier criminal conviction, Williams was living in a home for extremely mentally ill offenders when the attack occurred. A community corrections officer supervising him wrote that Williams "was barely able to hold himself together" the day Harps was stabbed to death.

The unprovoked attack prompted widespread concern around the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Police initially identified another suspect in the attack; later cleared, that man, William Ball II, was himself slain months later in an unrelated attack.

Responding to the plea last week, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a statement that Harps' slaying illustrated a need for better coordination between the mental health system and law enforcement.

"This is a good resolution to a tragic case which will result in, essentially, a life sentence for the defendant," Satterberg said previously. "This case highlighted a lot of work that still needs to be done in improving the overlap between the mental health system and the criminal justice system."

101 Swine Flu Deaths

CHICAGO (AP) — A second person in Illinois has died from complications of swine flu — pushing the world's death toll past 100.

Illinois officials said the latest victim was a woman from northwest suburban Cook County who had other medical problems that might have made her illness more severe. They did not give her age, and said no other information would be released.

The death reported Wednesday was the 15th in the U.S. and the 101st worldwide linked to the virus that has sickened more than 12,000 people. The deaths of two more New Yorkers were linked Tuesday to swine flu.

Elsewhere, 83 deaths in Mexico, two in Canada and one in Costa Rica have now been linked to swine flu.

What Is Facebook Actually Worth?

Holy cow, Facebook is worth $10 billion? That may be how the social networking Web site would like the world to interpret its latest capital infusion. But don’t be fooled. While that may represent a target valuation for Facebook, the actual worth, today, of Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room creation may be much lower.

That’s not to completely dismiss the headline figure. Under terms announced Tuesday, the Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies is plugging $200 million into the company for about a 2 percent stake. By that arithmetic, Facebook would indeed be worth $10 billion.

For a company that, by its own admission, won’t generate positive cash flow until sometime next year, that’s an impressive figure to bandy about. True, Facebook’s last capital-raising 18 months ago, which brought Microsoft and the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing in as investors, put a $15 billion price tag on the company. But considering the trajectory of financial markets since then, the valuation attached to Digital Sky’s trade actually looks even more robust.

Shares in the technology bellwethers Microsoft and Google have plunged about 45 percent since November 2007. Assume a similar decline in Facebook’s value and, on a market-adjusted basis, Digital Sky is arguably paying at least a 20 percent premium to Microsoft’s entry price, ignoring growth in Facebook’s business in the meantime.

Either way, though, for those trying to value Facebook, there’s a catch in these headline figures. The company didn’t sell just regular stock to Digital Sky or to Microsoft, for that matter. It sold preferred shares. The company won’t talk about the details, but these shares confer rights and privileges not attached to common stock. They are therefore worth more.

So while $10 billion could be a valuation Facebook and Digital Sky Technologies are aiming for, it probably doesn’t reflect the company’s market worth right now. But Digital Sky has also agreed to buy $100 million in shares held by Facebook employees. The price it pays for these shares — and the price at which insiders are willing to part with them, bereft as they are of special privileges — will reveal more about the company’s value today than any press release it might create.

Blog Posting On Hold

I am sorry to say, but I am about to embark on a business trip to Southern California. I am thankful to have such loyal followers, and I will continue posting on Tuesday, May 26, 2009. For now, happy blogging!

Earth Awareness Reminder

With all the Global Warming frights going around, I thought that I should give you a lovely picture and a reminder to continue to protect this beautiful planet that we live on.

Evolutional Fossil Key Found

Scientists say a 47-million-year-old fossil found in Germany may be a key link to explaining the evolution of early primates and, perhaps, telling them about developments that led to modern human beings.

The fossil, of a young female that probably resembled a modern-day lemur, is described as "the most complete primate fossil ever found." It is small -- its body is about the size of a raccoon -- but it has characteristics found in later primates and in humans.

"We realized, when I was offered this specimen," said Dr. Jorn Hurum of the University of Oslo, who led the two-year effort to determine the fossil's importance, "that it was the most complete primate in the fossil record."

The fossil was unveiled today amid great fanfare at a news conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Hurum nicknamed it "Ida," after his own six-year-old daughter.

It has, among other things, opposable thumbs, similar to humans' and unlike those found on other modern mammals. It has fingernails instead of claws. And by examining the structure of its hind legs (one of which is partly missing), scientists say they can see evidence of evolutionary changes that would eventually lead to primates standing upright.

California Sets Car Pollution Standards

California is planning the next stage of clean car standards even as U.S. President Barack Obama announces federal plans based on the state's model, its top climate change official said on Tuesday.

Obama on Tuesday set 2016 mileage and carbon emissions goals for U.S. fleets, which will be codified by the federal Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other state plans for vehicle emissions, from caps on pollution by big rig diesel trucks to requirements that gasoline and other providers cut the amount of carbon in their fuel, are still under way, despite the state's agreement to work with the federal government on car emissions.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will set a 35.5 miles per gallon fleet average target. The Environmental Protection Agency will set a fleet goal of tailpipe emissions of 250 grams of carbon per mile traveled by 2016, matching the California goal, but ramping up at a slower rate.

The three big U.S. car makers had average fuel efficiency of 24-25 miles per gallon in 2007, while carbon emissions for 2009-model vehicles range from a low of 135 grams per mile for the Toyota Prius to 400 and higher for SUVs, according to California.

California, with federal approval, sets its own vehicle standards. It effectively works as a laboratory -- the federal government often later adopts its standards.The federal government is expected to let it regulate tailpipe emissions in June, which it would coordinate with Obama's new policies.

Longer term, the state will focus on performance targets like carbon emissions, although it has set targets for production of zero-emission vehicles, such as all-electric cars. The board will consider rebates of vehicle fees later this year, too.

CFC's and Ozone Depletion

I am sending out a warning about CFC's and ozone depletion. For those of you who don't know what it is, listen up. CFC's (Chlorofluorocarbons) have been burning a hole through our ozone layer for as long as we have been using spray bottles. Company's have been working together to ban CFC's and the hole in the ozone it slowly starting to shrink. Below is a picture of what the ozone layer looked like on October 4, 2004. For more information, Click Here.

Astronauts Revive Hubble Imaging Device

Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts on Sunday repaired a failed instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope used to discover black holes and other galactic phenomena following a tedious spacewalk mired by equipment glitches.

Like Hubble's advanced camera, which was rewired during a spacewalk on Saturday, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph was not designed to be overhauled in space.

The device, known by the acronym STIS, splits light into its component wavelengths. It was shut down in 2004 after electronics problems cut off its power.

It was the fourth of five back-to-back spacewalks planned for shuttle Atlantis' 11-day servicing mission, NASA's fifth and final visit to the observatory before the shuttles are retired next year.

NASA hopes the improvements will keep Hubble operational until at least 2014 so it can work in tandem with its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Spacewalkers Michael Massimino and Michael Good had expected problems unscrewing 111 fasteners on the STIS cover plate, which had to be removed to access its faulty circuit board. But what frustrated the astronauts was a stripped bolt on a handrail that needed to be removed before they could reach STIS.

Massimino ended up tearing off the handle with brute force.

The spacewalkers then installed a custom-made device to catch the 111 screws, but when Massimino went to use his battery-operated screw-driver, nothing happened.

Massimino returned to the shuttle's airlock to pick up a spare tool and recharge his spacesuit with oxygen.

On previous servicing calls to Hubble, astronauts installed two new science instruments, replaced Hubble's steering system and half its batteries, and repaired the advanced camera.

Engineers tested the camera overnight and found that one of its three channels was not restored.

NASA only had time and resources to rewire one part of the camera and scientists' chose the more popular wide-field mode.

With the refurbishments already accomplished, NASA is close to fulfilling its goals for the mission, with only the installation of another three batteries remaining. That job is scheduled for the mission's last spacewalk on Monday.

The instrument was used, for example, to survey galaxies for black holes. It also made the first measurements of the atmosphere of a planet in another solar system.

Sri Lankan Army Pushes On

After the latest bloodbath in Sri Lanka, it seems increasingly clear that we are witnessing an attempt at genocide.

Against all evidence, the Sri Lankan government claims that the shelling in which as many as 1,000 ethnic Tamil civilians have died is not even occurring. Fleeing Tamils who escape "safe zones" are placed in military-run camps where they face food shortages and systematic sexual abuse. In the past two weeks, the Sri Lankan government -- one of the world's most hostile where journalists are concerned -- has expelled a British news team that reported on the abysmal camp conditions and the abuse of Tamil women fleeing the war zone.

The U.N. Security Council's suggestion that the Tamil rebels simply surrender is neither realistic nor helpful. Rather, the United Nations should invoke the "responsibility to protect" doctrine and deploy an international monitoring group with the aim of creating conditions in which both sides would be forced to agree to a cease-fire.

Former president Bill Clinton has said that, when she was first lady, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted the United States to intervene in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and that his administration's failure to act was one of his biggest regrets. Today, President Obama and Ms. Clinton can help restore our international reputation as a peacemaker by intervening in a similar conflict before it reaches the same magnitude.

Pope Renews Peace Call

Pope Benedict XVI ended his pilgrimage to the Holy Land yesterday with his strongest call yet for the creation of a Palestinian state, insisting that peace was possible. On the tarmac of Tel Aviv's airport, he said the state of Israel had the right to exist in peace. "Let it be likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland. Let the two-state solution become a reality, not remain a dream," he said. Earlier, thousands of soldiers and policemen were deployed as the pontiff walked into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

NSF Global Climate Change Report

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a report on global climate change, entitled "Solving the Puzzle: Researching the Impacts of Climate Change around the World," that describes how, over nearly 60 years, NSF-funded researchers have found signs of a changing climate in nearly every corner of the globe, from the icy expanses of Earth's polar regions to its equatorial ecosystems. For the full report, Click Here.

Kenya Increases Park Protection Efforts

Kenya plans to build thousands of miles of electric fencing around its key national parks and to double the number of armed guards in an effort to protect resources as the effects of climate change become more serious.

The country is suffering from a drought that left more than 5 million people without food this year. In combination with changing weather patterns and rapid population growth, the outlook is grim.

“The long rains have failed for the first time. The implications for food security and water scarcity and energy are profound. Kenya will face these three crises in the next 10 years, without doubt. If we carry on the way we are going, in 20 years, the consequences will be horrific,” said Julius Kipng’etich, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Almost 80 percent of Kenya’s drinking water and hydroelectric power comes from national parks, heightening the importance of their protection. The Mau Forest, the largest forest in Kenya, is currently home to 15,000 people who live there illegally and continue to drain its resources. Nearly 257,000 acres of trees have been cut down in the past 15 years.

The protection plan intends to double the number of guards in Kenya’s parks over the next five years while extending the line of fences around Mount Kenya, the Mau Forest, Mount Elgon and the Cherangani Hills, which is already well on its way toward completion.

Earth (2009)

Thte movie Earth is a story of three animal families and their amazing journeys across the planet we all call home. The film combines rare action, unimaginable scale and impossible locations by capturing the most intimate moments of our planets wildest and most elusive creatures. It is rated G and has a running time is 1 hour and 30 minutes. I would give this movie a strong B+. Click Here for more information.

The Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope has opened new windows into deep space and enabled astronomers to travel visually to nearly the beginning of time.

Orbiting Earth every 97 minutes for the past 19 years, the observatory also has beamed down thousands of stellar and planetary portraits so vivid they appear three-dimensional. Iconic images have included stars in the throes of birth and death, galaxies stalking galaxies and chunks of comet slamming into Jupiter.

The spectacular scenes are merely grace notes to astronomers, who use the telescope to probe far-off specks of light for data on movement and molecules. But they've made the school-bus-sized telescope the world's best-known piece of scientific equipment. Let us pray that this magnificent telescope continues to help us see beyond our planet, Earth. For more information, Click Here.

H1N1 (Swine) Flu Update

H1N1 flu has infected 4,379 people in 29 countries, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, increasing its count by almost a thousand in a day.

The U.N. agency said Mexico has reported 1,626 confirmed cases, up from 1,364 on Saturday, and repeated that 45 people have died there from the new flu strain that is a genetic mixture of swine, bird and human viruses

United States Consumption Report

The United States of America: home to the land of the brave, the land of the free, and sadly, the land of consumption. Less than 4% of the U.S. forests have been destroyed, and over 40% of the U.S. waterways have become undrinkable. 80% of the world’s forests are gone. In the Amazon rain forest alone, we’re losing over 2,000 trees a minute. We have only 5% of the world’s population, yet we are using over 30% of the world’s resources. If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets, but we only have one! Click Here for the full United States Consumption Report.

Biography of Barack Obama

Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, and since then has been working hard to rebuild America. Click Here for a short biography on Barack Obama.

Scary Facts About Poverty

1. Over three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day.
2. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book.
3. 40% of the world’s poorest population accounts for 5% of global income.
4. Over 400 million children have no access to safe water.
5. 1.6 billion people live without electricity.
   

Israel Won't Apologize for Gaza War

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday called a U.N. investigation accusing Israel of recklessness during the war in Gaza "outrageous" and said the Jewish state will not apologize for defending its citizens against Hamas missile attacks. For more info, Click Here.

Ways To Prevent Global Warming

• Install Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL): Visit your local hardware store and ask for a Compact Fluorescent light bulb. They will save you about $30 for every light bulbs lifetime and last up to 10 times longer.

• Turn Off The Lights: Everyone forgets to turn of the light once in a while, but remembering to turn off the light every time you leave the room will save you money on your energy bill.

• Take Public Transportation: Take the bus or the train that you see passing by every morning. Transit systems are set on a clock, so even if there is nobody waiting there for it, it still wastes energy transporting nobody. Another upside with taking public transportation is that you can take a nap and save the world on the way to work.

TOMS Shoes

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple idea: For every pair you purchase, they will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. They use the purchasing power of individuals for the greater good. I personally have bought a couple of pairs and have been very satisfied, and I would highly recommend purchasing a pair yourself. Click Here to visit the official TOMS Shoes website.

First Post!

Hooray, this is our first official post! I am so excited to finally be on the web and I can't wait to get this blog moving! Click Here for my Triond profile. Click Here for my Twitter page, and if possible, please follow me on both my Twitter page and my blog to receive even more updates. I hope you have a wonderful day.