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Health/wellness expert Amy Hendel available for interviewsHoping to keep the flu at bay? A strong immune system helps. Enjoying the bounty of colorful fruits and vegetables available right now can be an important step toward supporting your family's immune system this cold/flu season. In addition to vitamins, minerals and fiber, fruits and vegetables contain phytonutrients, believed to come from the com-pounds that give these foods their vibrant colors. These phytonutrients provide a wide range of health benefits, includ-ing supporting a healthy immune system. A new study, America's Phytonutrient Report, found eight in 10 Americans are missing out on the health...

The maples and other showy trees are done now. The weather has turned dour again and the maple leaves are falling fast. These are pictures taken (mostly) around town near the end of the high season. Most are maples, but there are other trees, including a cherry and a willow oak.

LONDON (Reuters) – The amazing eyes of a giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could hold the key to developing a new type of super high-quality DVD player, British scientists said on Sunday. Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. They can see in 12 primary colors, four times as many as humans, and can also detect different kinds of light polarization -- the direction of oscillation in light waves.

Humans come in a rainbow of hues, from dark chocolate browns to nearly translucent whites. This full kaleidoscope of skin colors was a relatively recent evolutionary development, according to biologists, occuring alongside the migration of modern humans out of Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. The consensus among scientists has always been that lower levels of vitamin D at higher latitudes — where the sun is less intense — caused the lightening effect when modern humans, who began darker-skinned, first migrated north. But other factors might be at work, a new study suggests. From the varying effects of frostbite...

Birds, more than any other group of animals, are a celebration of color. They have evolved to every extreme of the spectrum, from the hot pink of flamingos to the shimmering blue of a peacock’s neck. Yet, for decades, paleontologists who study extinct birds have had to use their imaginations to see the colors in the fossils. Several feather fossils have been unearthed over the years, but they have always been assumed to be colorless vestiges. Now a team of scientists has discovered color-producing molecules that have survived for 47 million years in the fossil of a feather. By analyzing...

Healthcare reform important to BlacksBy: Brian D. Smedley, NNPA Guest Commentary Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 12:00 pm Health inequities are deep, persistent, and not new. From the cradle to the grave, racial and ethnic minorities suffer from shorter life spans, higher rates of disease and disability, and higher mortality relative to national averages. These problems have plagued generations of African Americans and other people of color in the United States. Yet these issues have historically received scant attention in Washington - until now. Both Congress and the Obama Administration are ramping up efforts to improve health and health care...

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), says one of the reasons he’s supporting Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president is his belief that Obama would have an easier time dealing with Muslim nations because “he is half Wog.” “Senator Obama is dark-skinned just like most Muslim leaders,” Kerry observed. “He will be accepted by them. After all, he is half Wog. Even though his mother was a typical white person, his father was a Muslim from Kenya. This should open many doors for him in the Middle East.”

In the mov­ie This is Spi­nal Tap, a less-than-cerebral rock gui­tar­ist, up­on view­ing a rec­ord-al­bum cov­er de­signed as sol­id black, de­liv­ers an im­promp­tu speech. “It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the an­swer is none,” he pro­claims. “None more black.” His in­ar­tic­u­lateness is matched, sad­ly, by an ig­no­rance of phys­ics. You can get much black­er than black card­board, which re­flects a good deal of light where­as true black re­flects none. Find­ing an ab­so­lutely black ob­ject on Earth, though, is as likely as en­coun­ter­ing the rock group of that 1982 film. Both are only fic­tions. On the oth­er...

No one would argue that some dyed in the wool democrats and republicans will always vote their party’s ticket. Loyalty to a party can be both a plus and a minus depending on who the candidate is. Other reasons we vote could be considered outright discriminatory if they occurred in a different setting. Let’s see!

Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris, a beautifully balanced blue-purple, as the color of the year for 2008. Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement. "From a color forecasting perspective, we have chosen PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris as the color of the year, as it best represents color direction in 2008 for fashion, cosmetics and home...

Skin Color Evolution In Fish And Humans Determined By Same Genetic MachineryOcean sticklebacks are dark colored fish that often migrate into new environments. Multiple stickleback populations have evolved lighter gill and skin colors following colonization of new lakes and streams at the end of the last ice age. Ocean (upper) compared to freshwater creek (lower) sticklebacks, both collected near Vancouver, British Columbia. Scientists have identified a genetic change controlling rapid evolution of skin color in fish, and shown that the same mechanism also contributes to recent evolution of skin color in humans. (Credit: Frank Chan, Craig Miller, and David Kingsley;...

SO where, you might wonder, would you find the pot of gold? That's what the myth says you will find at the end of the rainbow. But sadly for treasure-hunters, this one has no end. This awesome sight in the skies over Malaysia this week was not really a rainbow at all but a rare optical illusion called a sundog. These appear when the sun is low and its rays catch the thin vapour formed of ice crystals that lies in the atmosphere six miles above the Earth's surface. The rays are refracted by the crystals, producing what looks like...

They are the most remarkable pictures of one of the most hellish places on earth. Never seen before, these astonishing photographs, lovingly hand-touched in colour to bring to life the nightmare of Passchendaele, were released this week to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle that, between July and November 1917, claimed a staggering 2,121 lives a day and in total some quarter of a million Allied soldiers. Killing field: A German machine gun unit strafes No Man's Land at Passchendaele as artillery shells churn up hte ground and mustard gas billows over the front What was once pretty countryside...

University of Queensland Date: February 25, 2007 No Single Gene For Eye Color, Researchers Prove Science Daily — A study by researchers from The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research is the first to prove conclusively that there is no single gene for eye colour. Says Dr. Rick Sturm, the IMB researcher who led the study: "... the model of eye colour inheritance using a single gene is insufficient to explain the range of eye colours that appear in humans. We believe instead that there are two major genes -- one...

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years. US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients. The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise...

The Color of His Skin Imagine him white. Barack Obama, that is. Amidst all the glowing talk about the possibility of his becoming America's first black president in 2008, it's an interesting thought experiment to imagine whether Mr. Obama would elicit this swooning buzz if he were white. That is, let's imagine a white guy with all of Mr. Obama's pluses: crinkly smile, sincere concern for the little man, fine speech a couple of years ago about bringing the nation together, a certain charisma, wrote a touching autobiography. Let's call him Barrett O'Leary. I do not think Mr. O'Leary would...

Zurich, Switzerland, (SPX) Aug 23, 2006 Scientists have unveiled a new technology that could lead to video displays that faithfully reproduce a fuller range of colors than current models, giving such a life-like viewing experience that it could be hard to go back to your old TV. The invention, based on fine-tuning light using microscopic artificial muscles, could turn into competitively priced consumer products in eight years, the scientists say. In ordinary displays such as TV tubes, flat-screen LCDs, or plasma screens, each pixel is composed of three light-emitting elements, one for each of the fundamental colors red, green, and...

Black minister, Nagin critic enters mayor's raceBy CHEVEL JOHNSON Associated Press Writer February 17. 2006 4:50PM The Rev. Tom Watson III, an influential black pastor and frequent critic of Mayor Ray Nagin, declared his candidacy for mayor Friday, saying Hurricane Katrina exposed the weaknesses of Nagin's administration. "We have put up with the political foolishness for a long time and the impact from poor leadership was not shown until the storm showed it," Watson said to about 50 supporters on hand for the formal announcement. Watson is the first black challenger to Nagin, who also is black. Nine others, all...

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars—it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color POPSCI EXCLUSIVE The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue. He's also stained his face, his car, several bathtubs and a few dozen children. He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes. He's ruined...

Tiny dots produced by some laser printers are a secret code that can allow the government to track down counterfeiters, a new study concludes, raising the hackles of privacy advocates. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said its researchers recently broke the code behind the tiny tracking dots and said the US Secret Service confirmed that the tracking is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers to identify counterfeiters. "We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of...

RACINE - Racine Unified School District principals will decide if the National Rifle Association's "Eddie Eagle" coloring books will be used in their elementary schools, the district said Thursday. But to get the controversial coloring books - which were approved for Racine Police Department officers to use in gun-safety training classes by the City Council this week - an elementary principal would have to ask the Police Department to bring the books to their school. If that's done, the material would go before the district's curriculum committee, which would determine whether the books meet curriculum standards. "The district then could...

BISHKEK, June 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Kyrgyz police have taken the Supreme Court building under their control here. Protestors had seized the building earlier today, until it was recaptured by the police and the Kyrgyz National Guard. The military and police have encircled the building. URGENT: The crowd has stormed into the Supreme Court in Bishkek 10:23 BISHKEK, June 1 (RIA Novosti) - About 100 people have stormed into the building of the Supreme Court in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. About 200 of people remained in front of the building. RIA Novosti correspondent on the site heard the sounds...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Black Caucus have become seemingly desensitized to racial slurs. The Caucus did not even blink when the extreme Left’s new champion, Howard Dean, made prejudiced statements right before their very eyes. From Dean’s comments, it seems he believes that a Black person’s place is to be cleaning toilets at a hotel in which whites stay. According to the Washington Times, On Feb. 11, the day before he was elected party chief, Mr. Dean asked, at a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people...

Today, Monday, 10-18-04, 2:21 EDT, I'm checking the latest political news and when I stop on MSNBC, I see Kerry in Florida and he has a decidedly greenish cast to his hair, his suit, so much so that I wonder if my color adjustment on my television has mis-cued (sorry, about the non-pun) -- and I switch to CNN, which is running the exact same scene of a green-hued Kerry among his devotees, on the campaign stump. All the other newscasts, including our local stations, showed the same brilliant green hue, from top to bottom. Green hair, green tie, green...

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Today, Bush-Cheney ’04 Communications Chair Renee Amoore released the following statement in regards to John Kerry’s campaign travel to Philadelphia: “John Kerry has succumbed to his most appalling political impulses by taking what should be an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the African-American community in a constructive way and instead using it to peddle a condescending message of fear and division. “Rather than celebrate the success and new opportunities available to Americans of every color, John Kerry prefers to stir up a climate of separation seeking to split America into black voter against white. This...

At what point will all be satisfied that the price of justice has been paid in full?

Mary Jo Campbell used to use red to grade her student's papers, until she got a paper back from a teacher while getting a Ph.D. "I went to the teacher and said, 'What happened? Did you have an accident and bleed on this paper, because there's so much red ink here,'" said Campbell, a former Woodland Hills teacher who now teaches at Edinboro University's school of education. "When I got back from sabbatical, I threw out all my red pens." Campbell is not alone. Students see red less often these days as teachers like Campbell turn to kinder, gentler hues...

Link post, to alert interested readers to the post in the FR 'chat' section, where any discussion and comment should be posted. (Linked page above is the direct catalog page with various resolutions of the image, if you want to save time and not leave comments in the thread.) Geology Picture of the Week, June 27-July 3, 2004: United States in True Color

I thought this was fitting for a week just before the Fourth of July. The image below is the very low resolution image. If you click it, you'll get the high-resolution (large) JPEG. If you go to the linked article page above, you can download an 11.0 MB TIFF image. I thought that the isolation of Bermuda was particularly striking in this image. Also of note (on quick perusal): White Sands National Monument, two-toned Great Salt Lake, the turquoise Bahamas Banks, strange sediment patterns in northern Lake Erie, the Painted Desert.

<p>Betty Bislocky remembers the first color television set her family purchased in the early 1960s at Kaufmann's.</p> <p>"There were only two or three color shows on at the time," said Bislocky, 80, of Beechview. "'The Flintstones' ... That's what sold us."</p>

Anthropologists Hail Romania Fossil Find Sat Mar 6,11:27 AM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo! By ALISON MUTLER, Associated Press Writer BUCHAREST, Romania - Experts analyzing remains of a man, woman and teenage boy unearthed in Romania last year are convinced that the 35,000 year-old fossils are the most complete ever of modern humans of that era, a U.S. scientist said Saturday. International scientists have been carrying out further analysis to get a clearer picture on the find, said anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, of Washington University in St. Louis. But it's already clear that, "this is the most complete...

Here's a dilemma for you.... With all your honor and dignity what would you do? This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. Please don't answer it without giving it some serious thought. By giving an honest answer you will be able to test where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation, where you will have to make a decision one way or the other. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and consider each line - this is important for the test to work...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 January 7 Red Mars from Spirit Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA Explanation: Rocks are strewn across the broad, flat Gusev crater floor in this sharp color picture from NASA's Spirit rover. Recorded by the rover's panoramic camera, the picture is part of Spirit's first color image of Mars - the highest resolution picture yet taken on the surface of another planet. Already revealing alluring and...

PASADENA, Calif. - Thrilled by the apparently flawless landing of the Spirit rover on Mars, NASA scientists pored over photos and other information Sunday, awaited a stream of even more tantalizing data and worked on the days-long process of getting the robot ready to roll. Spirit made a nerve-racking but safe landing on Mars late Saturday on what scientists believe is the rocky bed of an ancient lake that once may have harbored life. Just three hours later, the six-wheeled rover began zipping the first black-and-white images of its surroundings to Earth, 106 million miles distant at the time. Scientists...

U.S. Prepares to Assign Color Codes to Air Travelers; Critics Fear System Will Be Too Intrusive. WASHINGTON Sept. 9 — The government and the airlines reportedly will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk of every passenger who boards a flight in the United States by using color codes. According to the Washington Post, passengers will be assigned one of three codes, based in part on their travel plans, traveling companions and the date the ticket was purchased. Sources say those coded "green" will easily pass through security checkpoints. Others will be coded "yellow" and face...

Snoop Dogg isnt wild about 'Girls Gone Wild' anymore.The rapper who appears as host on one of the raunchy strip videos, told the Associated Press that he is done with the series because it does not feature women of color.'If you notice, there hasn't been no girls of ethnicity in those tapes,' Snoop Dogg complained during a recent interview.'No black girls, no Spanish girls-all white girls and that stuff aint cool.' Snoop Dogg whose real name is Calvin Broadhus, sais he plans to do his own version of Girls Gone wild to 'bring some flavor to the table'-and to satisfy...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 May 29 Frizion Illume Credit & Copyright: Peter Wasilewski, (Goddard Space Flight Center) Explanation: Scientific images of cosmic dust clouds or even frozen water can be esthetic too. In fact, this picture of thin layers of forming ice crystals uses a scientific understanding of light's wave properties solely for artistic purposes. Titled "Illume", the picture was created by astrophysicist Peter Wasilewski. To make the picture, the crystals...

April 13, 2003 Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes People with synesthesia--whose senses blend together--are providing valuable clues to understanding the organization and functions of the human brain By Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard When Matthew Blakeslee shapes hamburger patties with his hands, he experiences a vivid bitter taste in his mouth. Esmerelda Jones (a pseudonym) sees blue when she listens to the note C sharp played on the piano; other notes evoke different hues--so much so that the piano keys are actually color-coded, making it easier for her to remember and play musical scales. And when Jeff Coleman...

As the Boy Scouts of America Motto says "BE PREPARED"This is simply the very basics of what to do in each "security color condition".I am doing research into more specifics on what a community must do, what a neighborhood need to do, and what YOU MUST DO if / when we get to CONDITION RED. Orange, blue, green, purple with polka dots?! Home Security What in the world do these "terrorism threat" color codes mean? Are we going to be attacked with paintball guns? If the threat of terrorism wasn't enough to make you insane, just figuring out the warnings could!...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 2 In the Center of the Trapezium Credit: J. Bally, D. Devine, & R. Sutherland, D. Johnson (CITA), HST, NASA Explanation: Start with the constellation of Orion. Near Orion's belt is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion or M42. In this nebula is a bright star cluster known as the Trapezium, shown above. New stellar systems are forming there in gigantic globs...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 25 M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason (Celestial Images) Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust...

U.S. TREASURY AND FEDERAL RESERVE ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR REDESIGNED NOTESNexGen notes are latest in series to add anti-counterfeiting features In keeping with their strategy of maintaining the security of Federal Reserve notes by enhancing the design of U.S. currency every seven to ten years, the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (Bureau) and the Federal Reserve Board today announced plans to release the next generation of redesigned notes, with improved security features to deter counterfeiting. The new design, referred to as NexGen, affects the $100, $50, and $20 notes. Circulation of the NexGen series could begin...

<p>IWALKED OUT of New York's Penn Station right into a horde of bodies that couldn't quite avoid smashing into each other along 7th Avenue near 34th Street. After about 20 minutes, I figured the driver who was supposed to take me to Queens wasn't going to show.</p> <p>So down into the subway I went, to hop one of those cars to Queens that former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker said were so horrible. (The ride wasn't that bad.) My debating partner, Congress of Racial Equality national spokesman Niger Innis, picked me up in Queens, and the two of us headed for the Rev. Floyd Flake's huge church.</p>

<p>As if a year that has given us corporate criminality, pedophile priests and a new Adam Sandler movie were not already odious enough, now the notorious University of California regent is back in the headlines. You remember Connerly, the black -- and he would probably disavow that characterization -- activist who spearheaded the successful 1996 drive to end affirmative action in Golden State government and universities and, more recently, failed to do the same thing in Florida.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 2 The Average Color of the Universe Credit: Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry (JHU) Explanation: What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire sky was smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted above, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. To determine this,...

What Is A True Color Image? Image with intrinsic color relationships. Same image roughly convolved with the response of the human eye. What is a true color astronomical image? Is it what an astronaut would see if there was an eye piece on, say, the Hubble Space Telescope? Or is it one that captures the intrinsic colors emitted by the stars, nebulae, and gas clouds in galaxies? For the Hubble Heritage image of globular cluster, M15, we constructed an image which attempted to captured these intrinsic colors as closely as possible given Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data. The detail...

Headline Developing...

Last month, police in Charlottesville, Va., charged 10 teen-agers in a series of attacks on college students. Police said the first attack, in September, was unplanned. The attackers didn’t know their victim. They just picked him out at random along the street. After that first attack came five more. In some cases, the attackers were in groups as large as eight. The victims were usually walking alone, but in a few cases, there were two or three. Almost always, they were far outnumbered by their assailants. Some of the cases turned into robberies, but in others, the only apparent goal...

Color schemeWASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- In Washington, punditry is big business. For many years there have been complaints that political reporters inject their biases into their stories. Books have been written on the subject and several academics, most notably Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, have become well known through efforts to prove the point empirically. The three cable news channels -- Fox, MSNBC and CNN -- provide an around-the-clock mix of news, analysis and commentary. Many of the more recognizable journalists in American today, like Bill O'Reilly and Fred Barnes on Fox and Robert...