How Animals Stay Warm with Blubber

Can landlubbers use blubber?: Discover one of the tricks some animals have evolved to keep warm in chilly waters. Image: George Retseck

Key concepts
Temperature
Heat transfer
Adaptation
Insulation
Fatty tissue

Introduction
Have you ever wondered how whales and other marine mammals survive and keep warm in the cold oceans? Warm-blooded mammals can live in these chilly conditions because their bodies have some cool warmth-saving adaptations, thanks to generations of natural selection.

In other words, to pass on characteristics (via their genes), the predecessors of modern marine mammals had to overcome different challenges to reproduce, and their descendants received the genes that allowed for their survival. This kind of change in organisms over time is what fuels evolution. An important adaptation for marine mammals is blubber, a thick, insulating layer of fat beneath the skin that helps to keep body warmth in and the cold of the air or water out. Will a layer of fake blubber?in the form of shortening?help you keep from getting cold?

Background
Mammals that have evolved to live in cold waters, such as whales, seals, sea lions and polar bears, commonly have a layer of blubber. Whether they are living in cold waters near the North Pole or around Antarctica or are visiting the deep ocean, these animals' blubber is vital to their survival. During the winter, the air in the Arctic (the northernmost part of the world) is often below ?40 degrees Celsius (?40 degrees Fahrenheit). Antarctica, the coldest place in the world, can be below ?60 degrees C (?76 degrees F). Depending on the species, whales dive more than 400 or 500 meters (about one fourth of a mile) deep in the ocean, where the water can be colder than 12 degrees C (54 degrees F).

Blubber helps these marine mammals from getting too cold. (Cold-blooded marine animals, such as fish, sharks or crabs, do not need to stay warm and can let their body temperatures get closer to that of the water. Thus, they do not need to have this extra insulation.) Blubber is a thick layer of fat (adipose) tissue. Animals store extra digested food in the form of adipose tissue, which contains molecules called lipids. Adipose tissue has a relatively low thermal conductivity, which means that it does not transfer heat as well as other tissues and materials?such as muscle or skin. That way, it helps to insulate an animal's body.

Materials
??? ?Two bowls
??? ?Cold water
??? ?Warm water
??? ?Ice cubes
??? ?Shortening (such as Crisco)
??? ?Paper towels
??? ?Stopwatch
??? ?Thermometer
??? ?A partner

Preparation
??? ?Put an equal number of ice cubes into each bowl without filling either bowl too full. Add cold water to each bowl.
??? ?Measure the temperature of the water in each bowl with a thermometer. They should be the same temperature. When the temperature levels off (which should happen quickly), the water is ready for the test.

Procedure
??? ?Cover your pointer finger on one hand with a thick layer of shortening, covering the entire area that will be submerged in the water. Leave your other pointer finger clean and bare.
??? ?Have your partner prepare the stopwatch. When he or she is ready, put the pointer finger of each hand into one of the bowls of ice water and have your partner start timing you. As soon as your finger feels too cold to keep it in the water any longer, take it out. How long did you leave each finger in the bowl?
??? ?Let your fingers warm up and return to their normal color. If any shortening came off of the covered finger, reapply it.
??? ?Have your partner help you pour the cold water down the sink and refill the two bowls with warm water (make sure it is warm but not hot enough to burn the skin).
??? ?Measure the temperature of the water in each bowl with a thermometer. They should be about the same. In the warm water, do you think you'll see the same result?
??? ?Have your partner time how long you can leave each finger in the bowls of warm water. How long did you leave each finger in the bowl? Was the time difference between the two fingers larger or smaller than when you put your fingers in the ice-cold water?? ?
??? ?Extra: How consistent are your results? You can repeat this activity two or three times, recording the temperature of the different waters tested and the time each finger was in the water. Then make a graph out of your results. In which environment did the shortening "adaptation" consistently give an advantage?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8ae4eeb7f911f517c64e7f6e4113b90f

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Hundreds of Iraqis cheer departure of US forces (AP)

BAGHDAD ? Hundreds of Sunni Muslims gathered in Baghdad Friday to celebrate the withdrawal of American forces, but in a sign of the sectarian divisions that re-emerged immediately after their departure, Shiite Muslims did not join the event.

The celebration took place near the Abu Hanifa mosque, the main house of worship in the primarily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad. To secure the event, Iraqi troops blocked traffic on roads leading to the mosque and searched people approaching the area.

During the rally, men and children waved Iraqi flags and raised banners praising those who resisted the U.S. presence in Iraq.

"Baghdad is the castle of resistance," one banner read. "The deeds of the heroes are stronger than the weapons of the occupiers," read another banner. Women threw chocolates to the crowd as a sign of joy.

In his sermon, the mosque's preacher, Sheik Ahmed al-Taha, accused the Americans of stirring up sectarian tension among Iraqis.

"The occupiers created the sectarian conflict as an exit from the quagmire they found themselves in when they were facing 200 military operations against them every day. By dividing Iraqis, the Americans made Iraqis attack each other instead of attacking them," al-Taha told worshippers.

The preacher also called on the government to demand compensation from the Americans for the loss of lives and damage caused during the occupation.

The lingering sectarian divisions Iraq faces was clear during the prayer service and rally, which was almost entirely Sunni. Shiites had been invited to join the celebration but did not show up.

Shiites have even given the departure of the U.S. forces a different name than the Sunnis have. Sunnis generally call it the "evacuation day," whereas Shiites often refer to it as the "fulfillment day" as a way to show that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who leads a Shiite-dominated government, fulfilled his promise to get all the troops out of the country.

Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites have deepened since al-Maliki's government issued an arrest warrant for the country's top Sunni politician. The government is also trying to push out another member of his government, leaving many Sunnis to question whether they will ever have a place in the Iraqi power structure.

In spite of the problems, some Sunnis were optimistic.

Omar Abdul-Aziz, 28, said the sectarian conflicts Iraq experienced just a few years ago "won't be repeated because Iraqis now understand that sectarianism was planned by the occupiers."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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Verizon data network down. Again. Again.

For the third time in almost as many weeks, Verizon seems to be having data network issues. We haven’t gotten that many reports from iPhone users this time,...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/tsI2FG1bfkQ/story01.htm

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Constitutionality of home insurance laws questioned | House Keys ...

A local public insurance adjuster and the president of a home inspectors group allege that parts of property insurance laws passed this year and last hurt their industries and are unconstitutional.

Public adjuster restrictions

In a lawsuit filed this month in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, Eduardo Rodriguez is suing the state over changes made by a a sweeping law this year that prevent public adjusters who represent state-backed Citizens Property Insurance policyholders from getting paid for their services until the insurer makes an offer. The law also limits what they can charge after that.

Public adjusters are hired by policyholders to prepare, file or complete claims. The new law restricts fees for public adjusters representing Citizens policyholders to 10 percent over the original amount the insurer offered for a claim.

Rodriguez, president of Expert Claims Adjusters in Miami, notes in the suit that the law doesn't define an original offer but documents from Citizens imply it's a written offer after the insurer has adjusted and investigated the claim. He said the time before that is critical because a policyholder may make decisions that affect how much money they'll receive such as finding all the damages and preserving evidence.

The law "does not allow a public adjuster remuneration for performing inherent and necessary tasks until Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has made a nebulous, vague and undefined 'original offer,'" according to the suit. That violates a public adjuster's "right to contract and [other rights] such as the right to be rewarded for industry."

The same restriction doesn't apply to private insurers' policyholders: State law caps their public adjusters' fees at 10 percent for hurricane claims made during the first year and 20 percent for all other claims.

Home inspector restrictions

Steve Taylor, president of the Florida chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors, wrote a letter to state officials recently saying changes that allow licensed contractors or engineering firms to hire unlicensed people to do inspections to verify hurricane insurance discounts but bar home inspection firms from doing the same violate unfair trade practice regulations.

"The contractor and engineer business owner can hire a non-licensed individual at a much lower wage than the other business entities who can only hire licensed individuals...As a result, the contractor and engineer business owner can deliver the wind mitigation service to the consumer at a much lower fee than the other business entities, thus creating an unfair market advantage," Taylor wrote to the Financial Services Commission, which is made up of the Cabinet.

Regulators made changes to a form used to verify hurricane insurance discounts based on changes required by a 2010 law. Despite the letter from Taylor, the Florida Cabinet approved the new form this month.

The state Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a lawsuit alleging a 2009 law barring public adjusters from soliciting business right after a disaster violates free speech.

Photo: An employee of Category 5 Hurricane Shutters installs shutters on a home in Delray Beach. (Jim Rassol, Sun Sentinel)

Source: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/12/public_adjusters_and_home_insp.html

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Photos | Best Couples Of 2011

Best Couples Of 2011

Related Artists

• Britney Spears
• Justin Bieber
• Selena Gomez
• Jay-Z
• Beyoncé

Source: http://www.mtv.com/photos/best-couples-of-2011/1676483/6801328/photo.jhtml

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NHL players may be at risk for concussions more than other sports

PHILADELPHIA -- As with football, the hitting of opponents - both legally and otherwise - is seen as being part of the game in ice hockey.

So it comes as no surprise that players suffer concussions, as Flyers Claude Giroux, Chris Pronger and Brayden Schenn have this season.

But head-injury experts suspect that the true number of concussions is far greater than what is reported, both in hockey and other sports, both in professional and youth leagues.

And in some respects, hockey players may be at greater risk than athletes in other sports, said Douglas H. Smith, director of the University of Pennsylvania?s Center for Brain Injury and Repair.

Concussions occur when the head comes to a sudden stop and the brain keeps moving inside it -- a phenomenon that is all too prevalent in a fast-moving game with a hard playing surface surrounded by rigid walls.

"You have a skimpy helmet and a bunch of hard surfaces," Smith said. "It?s not a good combination. And you?re on ice."

The true scope of the problem is hard to grasp. Many past studies have relied on players or team officials to report the number of concussions. Both groups may underreport the incidence of these head injuries, either because they don?t want players to come out of a game, or because they do not realize what symptoms constitute a concussion, physicians say.

A more rigorous approach was used in a 2010 study published in the journal Neurosurgical Focus. Physicians observed junior-hockey games in Canada, in which the players? average age was 18, and evaluated players with suspected concussions on the spot.

A concussion was diagnosed by a physician in 19 of the 52 games observed -- or 36.5 percent of the games -- whereas a previous study of NHL games found concussions in just 3 percent of games.

The authors also looked at concussions as a function of "athlete exposures," defined as one player playing one game.

The 2010 study found 21.52 concussions per 1,000 athlete exposures - seven times the highest rate that had previously been reported for ice hockey.

Of the hits that caused concussions in the study, 80 percent occurred on purpose, said lead author Paul Echlin, a sports-medicine physician in Canada whose coauthors included Boston University physician Robert Cantu, one of the top sports-concussion specialists in the United States.

In an interview, Echlin said he used to be a team physician for junior-level hockey but stopped because he felt that in the culture of the sport, there was too little concern for the gravity of the injury.

"I just couldn?t accept it anymore," said Echlin, who is a physician at the Elliott Sports Medicine Clinic in Burlington, Ontario.

He has since devoted himself to education, helping to set up an online library - www.sportconcussionlibrary.com _ for parents seeking information.

___

Source: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/hockey/other_nhl/view.bg?articleid=1391321&srvc=rss

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Brees sets passing mark, Saints top Falcons 45-16 (AP)

NEW ORLEANS ? After Drew Brees broke an NFL passing record that stood for nearly three decades, his teammates called on him to make a speech in the Saints' locker room.

"This record isn't about one person. There might be just one name that goes in ledger under the record, but it's really about the team," Brees told his teammates. "I want everyone to feel a huge part of this, that this record would not have been possible without them."

It was quite a night for Brees and the Saints ? a record and a rout.

Brees set the NFL mark for yards passing in a season, breaking a record Dan Marino held for 27 years, and New Orleans wrapped up the NFC South title with a 45-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

Brees nearly topped Marino three years ago, finishing with 5,069 yards passing. But that pursuit rang a little hollow because the Saints were 8-8.

This time, Brees' prolific passing has led New Orleans (12-3) to the playoffs and a legitimate shot at its second Super Bowl in three seasons.

"We all want this (record) very badly," Brees began, "but it's all about winning and we know if we just focus on that, all that other stuff will take care of itself."

Brees threw for 307 yards and four touchdowns, the last a 9-yard strike to Darren Sproles that set the record with 2:51 to go.

It was Brees' final pass of the game and it gave him 5,087 yards passing ? with one game left. Marino finished with 5,084 yards for the Miami Dolphins in 1984.

Minutes after Brees broke the record, Marino offered congratulations on Twitter.

"Great job by such a special player," Marino wrote.

As Sproles spiked the ball, Brees thrust his fist triumphantly in the air and started walking toward the sideline while the Superdome crowd went wild and his teammates chased him down. Offensive guard Carl Nicks was the first one to get there and tried to lift Brees onto his shoulder, but couldn't do it as teammates swarmed around.

"If I could have put him on my shoulders and paraded him around the whole stadium I would have done that. He deserves it," Nicks said. "It's like a movie, man. Just a movie ending. It's beautiful. ... You could tell by everyone's reaction after he did it how much people care about that guy. We all love him."

Brees pushed his touchdown total to 276, moving him ahead of Joe Montana (273) and Vinny Testaverde (275) for ninth on the career list. The former Purdue star is the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 5,000 yards twice.

Brees' first scoring pass went for 8 yards to Marques Colston and the second for 9 yards to Jimmy Graham. Graham's TD catch was his 10th of the season, a franchise high for a tight end. In the third quarter, Brees hit Robert Meachem for a score from 24 yards to make it 28-10.

The Saints (12-3) also had 463 total yards, giving them 6,857 offensive yards for the season, breaking the 2008 club record of 6,571. New Orleans continues to close in on the NFL record of 7,075 offensive yards set by the 2000 St. Louis Rams.

Brees might have broken the record in the third quarter if not for Sproles' 92-yard kickoff return, which set up John Kasay's 29-yard field goal. Brees also threw two interceptions, but New Orleans was still dominant enough to take a big lead.

The game became a romp when Julio Jones was stripped by Scott Shanle and Malcolm Jenkins returned it 30 yards for a score to make it 38-16 in the fourth quarter. The Superdome crowd was in full celebration by then, but the play also meant fans would have to wait until later in the fourth quarter before Brees finally got his chance to break the passing record.

The Saints can earn the No. 2 seed and a first-round playoff bye with a win Sunday over Carolina and a San Francisco loss at St. Louis, which is 2-13.

Atlanta (9-6) is headed to the playoffs as a wild card.

Uncharacteristically, Brees had only a yard passing during a span of a little more than 18 minutes in the second half. Fans howled, "Drehttp://wwww!" each time he took the field, and he finally gave them what they wanted after Atlanta failed on a fourth-down try at its own 33. That gave Brees, who needed only 30 yards for the record at that point, just enough space to work with.

The Saints didn't need another score, but Saints coach Sean Payton said he thought giving Brees a chance to go for the record was "appropriate."

Falcons coach Mike Smith diplomatically deflected questions about that, saying only, "It is our job to go out there and stop them. It doesn't matter if they are running the ball or throwing the ball."

Matt Ryan had 373 yards passing and one TD, including an early 21-yard scoring strike to Jones.

"We didn't really play well enough in any phase of the game to give ourselves a chance," said Smith, whose team came in with a chance to stay in the hunt for the division title. "It's not the type of effort that you want to have with so much on the line with what the outcome could have meant to our team."

Pierre Thomas scored New Orleans' first touchdown on a 4-yard run, after which he pulled a bow from his uniform pants, put it on the football and offered it as a gift to a woman with a parasol in the front row behind the end zone.

The referees weren't cutting Thomas any slack on his Christmas-themed celebration, flagging him for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Notes: Brees has passed for 300 yards or more an NFL-record 12 times this season. ... New England quarterback Tom Brady could also pass Marino next week ? and maybe even Brees, too. Brady has thrown for 4,897 yards. ... The Saints are 7-0 at home and never have gone undefeated at home in a full season.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_on_sp_fo_ga_su/fbn_falcons_saints

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Driver Profile and Cheap Car Insurance - Guitars are my Passion

By admin on December 27, 2011

Cheap car insurance will disappear during the quote process if you the driver doesn?t have a perfect driving record. Each insurance company will compare risk factors related to driving habits and then give you a price on a policy. Some of the best car insurance companies will refuse to cover a driver with multiple traffic violations and accidents in order to obtain cheap car insurance. The driver?s record has a greater influence on car insurance premiums than anything else.

?

Although some may differ in price; every car insurance company looks favorably on good credit ratings. The company will award a discount to what they see as mature behavior. The actual percentage of discounts is different with each car insurance company. Staying focused on good credit practices and let those practices be your guide to cheap car insurance.

?

Most car insurance carriers will reward drivers that take training courses to develop their driving skills. A number of cheap car insurance companies may offer a 20 percent discount for attending a class.

Source: http://learntoplayguitarshop.com/driver-profile-and-cheap-car-insurance

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Get ThisisSomerset.co.uk updates on Twitter and Facebook

It's now easier than ever before to keep in touch with all the latest breaking news appearing on ThisisSomerset.co.uk.

As well as the daily news and sport updates on our website, we also keep our Twitter followers and Facebook friends right up-to-date with all our latest content.

To receive updates on Twitter, find @thisissomnews and follow us.

To get Facebook updates, visit This is Somerset on Facebook and click 'Like'.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5664044925

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Mourning Syrians rally for Assad, U.N. condemns bombs (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Funerals for 44 people killed in twin suicide car bombs in Damascus turned into a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, with thousands of mourners denouncing the United States and its Arab allies for interfering in Syria.

The United Nations voiced grave concern over the bombings, which marked an ominous step up in the violence that has rocked the Arab nation for nine months, claiming at least 5,000 lives.

Syria said al Qaeda terrorists were behind the attacks. The media displayed gruesome pictures of dismembered bodies and heads. There has been no claim of responsibility.

Opposition members said they suspected the Assad government carried out the bombings itself, to prove to the world it is facing a ruthless insurgency by armed Islamic fundamentalists.

In Cairo, Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi said he would go to Damascus on Saturday as head of an Arab League monitoring mission which intends to fan out over Syria to verify compliance with an Arab peace plan.

The first batch of about 50 monitors is expected to reach Syria on Monday. Assad's foes say the mission will only be used to gain time while security forces try to smother the revolt.

"I am optimistic that the mission of the monitors will be successful and that events such as yesterday's blasts in Damascus will not affect the mission," Dabi told reporters.

The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that seven army and police "martyrs' killed in clashes with insurgents had been buried on Saturday. The government says 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed in the unrest since March.

"OUR BLOOD FOR BASHAR"

Thousands of Syrians chanted "Death to America" during the funeral processions in Damascus, cheering Assad, calling for revenge and denouncing Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani who has become one of Assad's main Arab critics.

The crowd, carrying posters of Assad and Syrian flags, chanted "We want your head, Hamad" and "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you Bashar" and "God, Syria and Bashar only."

The coffins, draped in Syrian flags, were lined up inside the gilded 8th century Umayyad Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, in scenes shown on state TV. Many were marked "unknown."

Leading Sunni Muslim cleric Said al-Bouti said he hoped the attacks would lift "the veils on the eyes of the Arab League ... so that they see who is the murderer and who is the victim."

Al Qaeda are Sunni Muslim militants. Assad and Syria's power elite belong to the Alawite branch of Shi'ite Islam while most Syrians, including protesters and insurgents, are Sunnis.

Hamas, a Sunni Islamist Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, condemned the bombings and called for a "quick" political solution to end the bloodshed in Syria.

Hamas has its headquarters in Damascus, but diplomats say dozens of its operatives have quietly returned to Gaza from Damascus as the group scaled back its presence in Syria and gauged the uncertain future of Assad. Hamas denies such reports.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks.

"Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and ... any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable," it said in a statement.

Western powers say the security forces have perpetrated most of the violence in Syria. But Russia, an old ally of Damascus, wants any U.N. resolution on the crisis to be even-handed.

"If the requirement is that we drop all reference to violence coming from extreme opposition, that's not going to happen," U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in New York after Russia submitted a revised draft resolution to the council.

"If they expect us to have an arms embargo, that's not going to happen," he said. The experience of Libya showed it would be one-sided and used against the government, Churkin said.

Assad has used tanks and troops to try to crush mainly peaceful street protests inspired by other Arab uprisings this year. Armed insurgents and army deserters are now fighting back.

"A NEW PHASE"

Syria has generally barred foreign media from the country, making it hard to verify accounts of events from either side.

But Friday's blasts signaled a dramatic escalation.

"It's a new phase. We're getting militarized here," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. He said the bombs were a "small premonition" of what may come in a country that some analysts see slipping towards civil war.

"This is when the Syrian opposition is beginning to realize they are on their own," he added, referring to Western reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria.

A Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman said 166 people were wounded by the Damascus explosions, which blew human limbs into the streets. It broadcast footage of mangled bodies being carried in blankets and on stretchers into ambulances, a row of corpses wrapped in sheets lying in the street.

The Arab League peace plan stipulates a withdrawal of troops from protest-hit cities and towns, release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition. Opponents of Assad have ruled out any negotiations until the violence against protesters stops.

Damascus says more than 1,000 prisoners have been freed since the Arab plan was agreed and the army has left cities.

Anti-Assad activists say no such pullout has occurred.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 civilians were killed by security forces outside the capital on Friday, eight of them in Homs, a bastion of the revolt.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111224/wl_nm/us_syria

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Etta James hospitalized for breathing trouble (AP)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? Etta James' longtime manager says the terminally ill blues singer has been hospitalized after experiencing difficulty breathing.

Lupe De Leon says James' family is with her at a Southern California hospital where she was taken earlier this week.

De Leon, who has been James' manager for 30 years, says the singer is "in pretty bad shape" but it remains unknown whether she will be able to be released. He says James was taken to the hospital on Wednesday evening and is on a breathing apparatus.

James' doctor recently announced that the "At Last" singer has been diagnosed with terminal leukemia. The Grammy-winner and Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame member is also suffering from dementia. She has been receiving mostly at-home care.

A judge on Monday set aside $350,000 for James' treatment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_en_ot/us_people_etta_james

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In Memoriam: Nate Dogg, Heavy D Among Stars We Lost In 2011

MTV News remembers 'Jackass' daredevil Ryan Dunn, Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and Cali Swag District's M-Bone, among others.
By Tami Katzoff

Nate Dogg
Photo: Mark Sullivan/ WireImage

This year we lost some of our brightest stars: artists that spanned the genres of rock, hip-hop and pop, as well as TV and film. They were at different stages in their careers — some just starting to rise, others already legends — but all left a distinct mark on pop culture, and their deaths affected us deeply.

Beloved hip-hop icons Nate Dogg and Heavy D influenced the generations of artists who followed them. Nate (born Nathaniel Hale) died at age 41 after suffering several health setbacks related to a stroke. One of the key players in the birth of the West Coast G-Funk sound, the crooner's silky smooth vocals touched classic tracks from Snoop Dogg and Warren G to 50 Cent and Ludacris. Fun-loving Heavy D, a major force in the New Jack Swing era, had hits with songs like "We Found Love" and "Nuttin' But Love," but he had also branched out into film and theater. He was 44 when he died this past fall.

Photos: The celebrities gone too soon in 2011.

We lost Mike Starr, former bassist for the groundbreaking Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains. Like Amy Winehouse, who also died this year at the age of 27, Starr's talent was often overshadowed by dependency on alcohol and drugs.

Gun violence claimed the life of 22-year-old Montae Talbert, the Cali Swag District dancer otherwise known as M-Bone. And Australian actor Andy Whitfield, who got his big break when he was cast as the lead in the Starz TV series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," was 39 when he succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Finally, the MTV family mourned the death of "Jackass" daredevil and "Viva La Bam" star Ryan Dunn. The 34-year-old died on a rural Pennsylvania road along with his 30-year-old passenger, Zachary Hartwell, when their car slammed into a guardrail and caught fire.

Share your memories of those we lost this year in the comments below.

MTV continues our Best of 2011 coverage by looking back at the biggest pop-culture stories of the year. As we count down the newsmakers that mattered to you most, also check out our Best Artists, Best Songs, Best MTV Live Performances and Best EDM Artists of 2011.

Related Videos

• Remembering Nate Dogg
• Remembering Heavy D
• Remembering Ryan Dunn

Related Photos

• In Memoriam: Stars We Lost In 2011

Related Artists

• Nate Dogg
• Heavy D & The Boyz
• Amy Winehouse

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676441/dead-celebrities-2011-nate-dogg-heavy-d-amy-winehouse.jhtml

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Fox Sports wins ruling in Dodgers bankruptcy case

DOVER, Del. --?

A U.S. District Judge in Delaware on Friday dealt a significant blow to the Los Angeles Dodgers' plans to sell the media rights to future games, halting the sales process while he consider an appeal by Fox Sports.

Judge Leonard Stark also said he likely will agree with Fox's position that a bankruptcy judge who authorized the sale process erred when he determined that certain protections granted to Fox in its existing contract with the Dodgers were unenforceable in bankruptcy.

"The court is also likely to conclude that the bankruptcy court opinion and/or order are based on one or more clearly erroneous findings of fact," wrote Stark, who said he would issue an opinion on Tuesday further explaining his reasons for granting Fox's request for an emergency stay of the bankruptcy order.

Attorneys for the Dodgers and the team's creditors committee had warned Stark at a hearing Thursday that issuing the stay could torpedo plans to sell both the team and the media rights by the April 30 deadline included in a settlement between the Dodgers and Major League Baseball.

But Stark noted in his order that it is "undisputed" that the team itself will be sold by April 30, even with entry of the stay, and that the stay will not substantially injure the Dodgers or the creditors committee.

"LAD has no comment other than that it will be reviewing the court's opinion when issued on Tuesday," a Dodgers spokeswoman wrote Friday in an email replying to a request for comment.

Fox Sports spokesman Chris Bellitti also had little comment.

"We're letting the legal process play out," he said.

Lawyers for Major League Baseball and a spokesman for the league did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Stark is set to hear arguments on the merits of Fox's appeal at a Jan. 12 hearing, but Thursday's hearing on whether to issue the emergency stay offered a prelude to next month's arguments.

Fox attorney Catherine Steege argued Thursday that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross exceeded his authority in authorizing the media rights sale, saying Gross effectively rewrote the existing contract between Fox and the Dodgers.

That contract gives Fox an exclusive 45-day period starting in October 2012 to try to negotiate a contract extension with the Dodgers. The contract also prohibits the Dodgers from talking to other potential buyers of the media rights before Nov. 30 of next year and gives Fox a limited right of first refusal on competing offers received after that date.

But in his order, Gross said those "no-shop" provisions were unenforceable in bankruptcy, a finding that Stark indicated likely will not pass legal muster.

The sales process approved by Gross also moves up the exclusive negotiating period by about 10 months, giving Fox until Jan. 19 to strike a new deal with the Dodgers. Even if current Dodgers management reaches a new telecast rights agreement with Fox, that agreement still would be subject to approval by the successful bidder for the team, a condition Fox says decreases its leverage in negotiations.

Stark said Fox had met its burden of showing that it would be irreparably harmed without the stay because the media rights sale process approved by Gross gives Fox a lesser chance of winning the right to televise Dodgers games after 2013 than it had before Gross entered his order.

Stark also said the bankruptcy court order compels Fox to negotiate with the Dodgers without the full leverage that Fox contracted for, and that issuing the stay was in the public's interest, particularly in seeing that contractual rights are enforced.

The Dodgers sought bankruptcy protection in June after baseball Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a new TV deal with Fox that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was counting on to keep the franchise solvent. After the bankruptcy filing, attorneys for Selig successfully fought to force the Dodgers to accept bankruptcy financing from Major League Baseball, arguing at the same time that McCourt should be forced to sell the team.

After threatening to seek bankruptcy court permission to sell the media rights without the approval of MLB, the Dodgers reached an agreement with the league that calls for a sale of both the team and the media rights.

The April 30 sale deadline in the settlement between the Dodgers and MLB coincides with the deadline for McCourt to pay $131 million to his ex-wife, Jamie, as part of their divorce settlement.

Fox Sports has argued that a sale of the team itself without the media rights will generate enough money to pay Dodgers creditors in full without subjecting the team or its new owner to damages for breaching the existing contract with Fox.

Source: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/12/24/3621024/fox-sports-wins-ruling-in-dodgers.html

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Bambi on ice rescued from frozen lake in Canada

Three intrepid men set out to save a deer stranded on a frozen lake in Ontario, Canada.

Two rescuers and a cameraman went to the aid of the deer after it became stuck on the frozen waters at Black Sturgeon Lake in Kenora, southern Canada. Equipped only with iceskates and a makeshift harness the amateur rescue team tried to drag the stranded creature back to land.

YouTube link.

Initial attempts to harness the wild animal were frustrated as it twitched and wriggled free. But persistence paid off and the team finally managed to secure the strap under the deer's front legs and slide it back to safety.

The exhausted four-legged creature required a final push from the cameraman to get it up the bank, meaning that the final scenes of the rescue were not captured. The cameraman reassures viewers of the happy ending: "The deer is great! She ran off a day after resting on the shore to gain her strength."

Source: http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2011/12/bambi-on-ice-rescued-from-frozen-lake.html

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The history of Santa Claus: 7 interesting facts (The Week)

New York ? From why he wears a red suit to when he got hitched to Mrs. Claus, a look at the mythmaking behind jolly old St. Nick

As Christmas approaches, children around the world have Santa on the brain. They're anxiously wondering if they've been overly naughty or sufficiently nice, and eagerly daydreaming about their potential gift hauls. But exactly how did the jolly, bearded North Pole resident evolve into the cultural icon we know today? Here, seven interesting facts about his evolution:

1. He was real... sort of
Folklore may have turned Santa Claus into a toy distributor who mans a sleigh led by eight flying reindeer, but he is actually based, loosely, on a real person. Born around the year 270, St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, a town in what is now Turkey. He earned a reputation as an anonymous gift giver,?says MSNBC, by paying the dowries of impoverished girls and handing out treats and coins to children ? often leaving them in their shoes, set out at night for that very purpose. Since his death, Nicholas has been canonized as the patron saint of children.

SEE MORE: Why are there no new Christmas songs?

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2. He's only been 'Santa Claus' for 200 years
A Dutch tradition kept St. Nicholas' story alive in the form of Sinterklaas, a bishop who traveled from house to house to deliver treats to children on the night of Dec. 5. The first anglicizing of the name to Santa Claus was in a story that appeared in a New York City newspaper in 1773.

3. Satire first sent Santa down a chimney
In his satiric 1809 book A History of New York, Washington Irving did away with the characterization of Santa Claus as a "lanky bishop," says Whipps. Instead, Irving described Santa as a portly, bearded man who smokes a pipe. Irving's story also marked the first time Santa slid down the chimney, says the U.K.'s Independent.

SEE MORE: The Secret Santas who are paying strangers' debts

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4. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" introduced the reindeer
Clement Moore's 1822 poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas ? which is now more commonly referred to as "Twas the Night Before Christmas" ? was first published anonymously in the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823. The 56-line poem introduced and popularized many of Santa's defining characteristics ? chiefly, that he drove a sleigh guided by "eight tiny reindeer."

5. Coca-Cola created the modern Mr. Claus
When Father Christmas first began showing up in illustrations, he wore many different colored robes: Green, purple, blue, and brown, among others. Beginning in the late 1800s, it became popular to outfit Santa in a red suit. Artist Louis Prang depicted him that way in a series of Christmas cards in 1885, and The New York Times reported on the red garments in 1927. But the modern image of Santa Claus as the jolly man in the red suit was seared into American pop culture in 1931, when artist Haddon Sundblom illustrated him that way for a widely-circulated campaign for Coca-Cola.

SEE MORE: America's 'booming' Christmas tree business: By the numbers

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6. The department store Santa is a 120-year-old tradition
In 1890, Massachusetts businessman James Edgar became the first department store Santa, according to The Smoking Jacket. Edgar is credited with coming up with the idea of dressing up in a Santa Claus costume as a marketing tool. Children from all over the state dragged their parents to Edgar's small dry goods store in Brockton, and a tradition was born.

7. Santa was a bachelor until the late 1800s
The first mention of a spouse for Santa was in the 1849 short story A Christmas Legend by James Rees. Over the next several years, the idea of Mrs. Claus found its way into several literary publications, like the Yale Literary Magazine and Harper's Magazine.?But it wasn't until Katherine Lee Bates' widely-circulated 1889 poem Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride that Santa's wife was popularized. ("Goody" is short for "Goodwife," or "Mrs.")

SEE MORE: Is the U.N. declaring 'war on Santa'?

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Sources: Colour Lovers, Independent, MSNBC, The Smoking Jacket

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Obama's Christmas tree tax: 'Knucklehead move'?

Fact Sheet: Tips from Santa training school: Managing kids' gift expectations

Instant Guide: Toygaroo: Will parents really rent kids' Christmas gifts?

EssayThe last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.

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Engineers achieve record conductivity in strained lattice organic semiconductor

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Organic semiconductors could usher in an era of foldable smartphones, better high-definition television screens and clothing made of materials that can harvest energy from the sun needed to charge your iPad, but there is one serious drawback: Organic semiconductors do not conduct electricity very well.

In a paper to be published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, researchers at Stanford led by chemical engineer Zhenan Bao have changed that equation by improving the ability of the electrons to move through organic semiconductors. The secret is in packing the molecules closer together as the semiconductor crystals form, a technique engineers describe as straining the lattice.

Bao and her colleagues have more than doubled the record for electrical conductivity of an organic semiconductor and shown an eleven-fold improvement over unstrained lattices of the same semiconductor.

"Strained lattices are no secret. We've known about their favorable electrical properties for decades and they are in use in today's silicon computer chips, but no one has been successful in creating a stable strained lattice organic semiconductor with a very short distance between molecules, until now," said Bao.

In the past, engineers have tried to compress the lattices in these materials by synthetically growing the crystals under great pressure. "But, as soon as you release the pressure, the crystal just goes back to its natural, unstrained state," said Bao. "We've been able to stabilize these crystals in tighter formations than ever before."

Fine-tuning

Bao's team used a solution shearing technique similar to a coating process well known in the semiconductor industry. Solution shearing involves a thin liquid layer of the semiconductor sandwiched between two metal plates. The lower plate is heated and the upper plate floats atop the liquid, gliding across it like a barge. As the top plate moves, the trailing edge exposes the solution to a vaporized solvent and, heated by the lower plate, the crystals form into a thin film.

"Using a process so similar to current industry technology is important, as it could speed these new semiconductors to market," said Bao.

The engineers can then "tune" the speed at which the top plate moves, the thickness of the solution layer, the temperature of the lower plate, and other engineering factors to achieve optimal results.

The crystals form in differing structures based on the speed at which the top plate moves. These differences are clearly evident in photographs. At slow speeds, the crystals form in long, straight structures, in line with the direction the top plate is moving. At higher speeds, the crystals form wildly irregular patterns, and in other speeds the patterns resemble tiny snowflakes.

The engineers next tested the various crystalline patterns for their electrical properties. They found that optimal electrical conductivity was achieved when the top plate moved at 2.8 millimeters per second, a speed in the middle of the range they tested.

"In comparing the photographs of the crystals, it is not the longest, straightest structures that result in the best electrical characteristics," said Bao, "but the one with a shorter, yet highly consistent pattern."

New structures, new analyses

Bao's new semiconductor proved challenging in at least one other regard: Measurement and visualization of the lattices to understand how and why they work. To gain this understanding, she turned to Stefan Mannsfeld, PhD, a staff scientist and expert in x-ray scattering at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a co-author of the paper.

"We have been able to improve how we analyze the relative brightness of the peaks we can see in x-ray diffraction images," said Mannsfeld. "Previously this was only possible when analyzing relatively big single crystals, but we have for the first time been able to duplicate this for very thin films of these crystals."

With improved analysis, the team was able to understand the physics behind the improvement. "Our analysis made it possible not only to see the impact of the strain on the lattice geometry, but also to determine the exact way in which the molecules pack in the lattice. As a result we obtained a better understanding of why such structures improve the molecule-to-molecule electrical coupling that improves the electrical efficiency," said Mannsfeld.

In the paper, Bao describes her new technique as general enough as to be applicable to other materials that might someday yield even better electrical characteristics in in a wide range of organic semiconductors.

###

Stanford School of Engineering: http://soe.stanford.edu

Thanks to Stanford School of Engineering for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 30 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116231/Engineers_achieve_record_conductivity_in_strained_lattice_organic_semiconductor

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Doc_0: We could sell everything and only be .012% in debt! Yay! RT @SenMikeLee: As of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%: http://t.co/f1VM1swO

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We could sell everything and only be .012% in debt! Yay! RT @SenMikeLee: As of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%: ow.ly/87Rv1 Il y a environ 6 heures via TweetDeck Retweeted by 7 people

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Church Fire Could Be Arson

Investigators believe a fire that broke out at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in University Heights could be a case of arson.

The fire in the staging area of the church on Adams Ave. was reported around midnight, according to firefighters.

The fire was knocked down quickly.

The cause was believed to be suspicious in nature.

"We do our own investigation after the initial knock down and were unable to find the cause determination. So the mast unit came out to investigate the fire," said Chuck Adams from the San Diego Fire Dept.

Posted Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 - 8:10 AM PST

Source: http://feeds.nbcsandiego.com/click.phdo?i=4bfffa7017347b8e9aaf5e5cb93391a4

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House begins debating Republican proposal rejecting Senate's two-month payroll tax cut (Star Tribune)

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652 dead, 808 missing in Philippine floods (AP)

ILIGAN, Philippines ? The Philippine Red Cross says the death toll from a storm that ravaged a wide swath of the south has risen to 652 with 808 others still missing.

Red Cross Secretary-General Gwendolyn Pang said Sunday that flash floods set off by Tropical Storm Washi killed 346 people in Cagayan de Oro city and 206 in nearby Iligan city. Deaths were also reported in five other southern and central provinces.

Pang said more people have reported missing relatives, including 447 in Iligan and 347 in Cagayan de Oro.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ILIGAN, Philippines (AP) ? As a storm that killed more than 530 in the southern Philippines raged outside the store where she works, Amor Limbago worriedly called home to check on her parents, but their cellphones just kept ringing and later went dead.

Limbago, 21, rushed home as soon as the flash floods receded and confirmed her worst fear: Her parents and seven other relatives were gone, swept away from their hut by the river. They had eagerly planned a small Christmas dinner in that hut just days earlier.

"I returned and saw that our house was completely gone," a weeping Limbago told The Associated Press from Cagayan de Oro city. "There was nothing but mud all over and knee-deep floodwaters."

Tropical Storm Washi blew away Sunday after devastating a wide swath of the mountainous region on Mindanao island, which is unaccustomed to major storms.

Most of the victims were asleep Friday night when flash floods cascaded down mountain slopes with logs and uprooted trees, swelling rivers and killing at least 532 people. The late-season tropical storm turned the worst-hit coastal cities of Cagayan de Oro and nearby Iligan into muddy wastelands filled with overturned cars and broken trees.

Most of the dead were children and women, Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang said.

With 458 others reported missing, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and top military officials flew to Cagayan de Oro to help oversee search-and-rescue efforts and deal with thousands of displaced villagers. Among the items urgently needed are coffins and body bags, said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.

"It's overwhelming. We didn't expect these many dead," Ramos said.

Although the disaster-prone Philippines is lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms annually, the devastation shocked many, coming close to Christmas ? the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's most-awaited time for family reunions. Army officials in the south said they canceled Christmas parties and would donate the food to homeless survivors.

Limbago said she and her mother, Jean, 50, and father Amancio, 63, planned to have a simple Christmas dinner of spaghetti. Those plans had evaporated Sunday as she and surviving relatives checked crowded morgues, hospitals and evacuation centers for any sign of her missing parents.

Others lost homes and belongings but were happy to have survived.

Edmund Rubio, a 44-year-old engineer, said he, his wife and two children scrambled to the second floor of their house in Iligan city as floodwaters engulfed the first floor, destroying his TV set and other appliances and washing away his car and motorcycle.

Amid the panic, he heard a loud pounding on his door as neighbors living in nearby one-story houses pleaded with him to allow them up in his second floor. He said he brought 30 neighbors into the safety of the second floor of his house, which later shook when a huge floating log slammed into it.

"It's the most important thing, that all of us will still be together this Christmas," Rubio told the AP. "There was a nearby shantytown that was smashed by water. I'm afraid many people there may not have been as lucky as us."

Army officers reported unidentified bodies piled up in morgues in Cagayan de Oro, where electricity was restored in some areas, although the city of more than 500,000 people remained without tap water.

At least 239 died in Cagayan de Oro and 206 in nearby Iligan, the Red Cross said. The death toll was expected to rise because many isolated villages still had not been reached by overwhelmed disaster-response personnel.

"Our fear is there may have been whole families that perished so there's nobody to report what happened," Red Cross chief Pang said.

Both Iligan, a bustling industrial center about 485 miles (780 kilometers) southeast of Manila, and Cagayan de Oro were filled with scenes of destruction and desperation.

A lone worker gingerly embalmed scores of bodies laid side by side in an Iligan city funeral parlor. Outside the embalming room, seven white coffins were placed in a corridor, surrounded by weeping relatives.

"Many mothers, fathers were walking from one funeral parlor to another, looking for their children," said army Maj. Eugenio Osias, who led a rescue effort in Cagayan de Oro.

Ramos attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite four days of warnings by officials that one was approaching.

In just 12 hours, Washi dumped more than a month of average rain on Mindanao.

Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of local police, reservists, coast guard officers and civilian volunteers were mobilized for rescue efforts, but were hampered by flooded-out roads and lack of electricity. Rescuers in boats rushed offshore to save people swept out to sea.

___

Jim Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press writers Oliver Teves and Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_storm

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Flash floods kill at least 450 in Philippines (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? Flash floods devastated a southern Philippine region unaccustomed to serious storms, killing at least 450 people as they slept and turning two coastal cities into muddy waterways strewn with overturned vehicles and toppled trees.

With nearly 300 people missing, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and top military officials were to fly to the worst-hit city of Cagayan de Oro on Sunday to help oversee search-and-rescue efforts and deal with thousands of displaced villagers, as the weather began to clear and floodwaters receded. Among the items urgently needed are coffins and body bags, said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.

"It's overwhelming. We didn't expect these many dead," Ramos said.

Army officers reported unidentified bodies piled up in morgues in Cagayan de Oro city, where electricity was restored in some areas, although the city of more than 500,000 people remained without tap water.

Most of the victims were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters cascaded from the mountains after 12 hours of rain from a late-season tropical storm in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago.

Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home in Cagayan de Oro late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water quickly rose ankle-deep inside. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's two-story house.

"It was a good thing, because in less than an hour the water rose to about 11 feet (3.3 meters)," filling his home up to the ceiling, he said.

At least 450 people were killed in the floods, Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang and other officials said. At least 229 died in Cagayan de Oro and 144 in nearby Iligan, which has more than 300,000 residents. The rest died in several other southern and central provinces, Pang said.

Many of the bodies were unclaimed after nearly 24 hours, suggesting that entire families had died, she said.

The Office of Civil Defense said 274 people were missing, but Ramos said the number would likely rise as more field reports come in. So far, 437 people have been rescued.

Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were filled with scenes of destruction and desperation.

A swollen river sent floodwaters gushing through neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. A man floated in an inner tube in muddy water littered with plastic buckets, pieces of wood and other debris. Ten people in one home stood on a sloping roof, waiting for rescuers even as water still flooded the lower floors.

Local television footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One car was thrown over a concrete fence and others were crushed and piled in a flooded canal.

Ramos attributed the high casualties in Mindanao "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite four days of warnings by officials that one was approaching.

Thousands of soldiers backed up by hundreds of local police, reservists, coast guard officers and civilian volunteers were mobilized for rescue efforts, but they were hampered by the flooded-out roads and lack of electricity.

The missing included prominent Filipino radio broadcaster Enie Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said.

Authorities recovered bodies from the mud after the water subsided. Parts of concrete walls and roofs, toppled vehicles and other debris littered the streets.

Rescuers in boats rushed offshore to save people swept out to sea. In Misamis Oriental province, 60 people were plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about six miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Cagayan de Oro, said disaster official Teddy Sabuga-a.

Cruz said the Philippine coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off Iligan for survivors or bodies that may have been swept away to sea.

In just 12 hours, Tropical Storm Washi dumped more than a month of average rains on Mindanao. The storm hit the western province of Palawan on Sunday and was expected to blow out of the country into the South China Sea later in the day.

Forecaster Leny Ruiz said records show that storms that follow the same path as Washi come only once in about every 12 years.

Palawan officials said mobilized emergency crews were on standby as the storm approached.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that the Obama administration offered its "deepest condolences" for the devastation in the southern Philippines.

"The U.S. government stands ready to assist Philippine authorities as they respond to this tragedy," the statement said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected."

___

Associated Press writers Oliver Teves and Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_storm

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