Another tragedy rocks motorsport after Simoncelli is killed in MotoGP crash

Motorsport was mourning its second death in the space of a week after Italian Marco Simoncelli was killed in a crash at the Malaysian Moto GP.

The Gresini Honda rider lost control of his bike on the second lap of the circuit in Sepang and appeared to be hit by Colin Edwards and then Valentino Rossi as he slid across the track.

Agony: Marco Simoncelli's father is comforted as he waits outside a medical centre where the rider was taken following a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix

The 24-year-old's helmet came off in the collision and he was taken to the medical centre for treatment, but died from his injuries.

Moment of horror: Simocelli loses control on the second lap before fatally colliding with Colin Edwards as Valentino Rossi ahead manages to escape

Simoncelli's death comes exactly a week after British racing driver Dan Wheldon, a former IndyCar champion and two-time Indy 500 race winner, was killed in a 15-car pile-up at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Buckinghamshire driver was 33.

Tragedy: Race marshalls attend to Honda rider Simoncelli (C) following his fatal crash just four minutes after the start of the Malaysian MotoGP race

The organisers cancelled Sunday's race as soon as the extent of Simoncelli's injuries became apparent.

A statement on the MotoGP official website read: 'On Sunday 23rd October, during the MotoGP race at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit, San Carlo Honda Gresini's Italian rider Marco Simoncelli suffered a serious accident in which he received critical injuries.

Moment of horror: Simoncelli loses control on the second lap

Collision: Simoncelli fatally falls off of his Honda after colliding into Colin Edwards

Fall: Edwards spins off the track along with Simoncelli's bike as the 24-year-old Italian devastatingly lies motionless

'The race was stopped immediately with the red flag and Simoncelli was transported by ambulance to the circuit medical centre where the medical staff worked to resuscitate him.

'Despite their efforts, Marco sadly succumbed to his injuries at 4:56pm local time.

Sorrow: Honda team members (above and below) react to the sad news

'Everybody involved in MotoGP extends its deepest condolences to Marco's family, friends and team at this tragic loss.'

Losing control: Simoncelli (No 58) crashed on the second lap of the race, riding between Edwards and Valentino Rossi

Emergency: Race marshalls quickly arrive at the scene to assist the stricken Simoncelli

Simoncelli, who won the 250cc world championship in 2008, clinching the crown in Sepang, stepped up to MotoGP in 2010.

His death was the first fatality in MotoGP since Japan's Daijiro Katoh died from his injuries sustained at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix.

Wheeled away: Track officials remove Simoncelli's motorcycle after the dreadful accident

Newly-crowned champion Casey Stoner admitted immediately after the crash he had feared for Simoncelli.

'As soon as I saw the footage it just makes you sick inside,' the Australian told BBC2.

Cancelled: Rubbish covers the track after the race was abandoned early in Sepang

'Whenever the helmet comes off that's not a good sign.'

Tributes poured in for Simoncelli from teams and riders.

British MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow wrote on Twitter: 'RIP Marco Simoncelli! A great rider and all round nice guy. My thoughts are with all his family & friends. I will never forget today.'

Delivering the news: MotoGp officials relay the tragic announcement

Formula One driver Mark Webber tweeted: 'R.I.P Marco A special talent that will be missed... Thinking of your loved ones, and all the motogp paddock..mark.'

A message on Simoncelli's Gresini Honda team website read simply 'CIAO "SUPER SIC'"'.

Support: Simoncelli girlfriend Kate is consoled by a TV crew member following her partner's tragic crash

Paolo Simoncelli, Marco's father, is comforted by his son's manager Carlo Pernat outside the medical center following the accident

The Rizla Suzuki team wrote: 'All at Rizla Suzuki are deeply affected by today's tragic events and send their deepest condolences to Marco's family and friends during this time of great loss.

'R.I.P Marco Simoncelli, 20 January 1987 - 23 October 2011 - A true competitor.'

MARCO SIMONCELLI: 1987 - 2011

1987: Born in Cattolica, Italy on January 20.
1996: Runner-up in the Italian Minimoto Championship.
1999: Champion of the Italian Minimoto Championship.
2000: Claims a back-to-back title in the Italian Minimoto Championship and is runner-up in the European Minimoto Championship.
2001: Moves up to the the Italian 125cc Championship and wins the title in his rookie year.
2002: Wins the European 125cc title.
2003: Takes part in his first full season in the 125cc World Championship with the Matteoni Racing team.
2004: Joins the Rauch Bravo team and wins his first Grand Prix at a rain-soaked Jerez.
2005: Completes another 125cc campaign with the Nocable.it Race team and finishes fifth in the final standings.
2006: Moves up to the 250cc class riding for Gilera. Finishes the season in 10th overall with a sixth place finish at the Chinese Grand Prix his best result.

2008: June - Wins his first 250cc race at the Italian GP in Mugello in controversial circumstances when Hector Barbera crashed into him after Simoncelli appeared to try to block him off.October - Wins the 250cc World Championship after a successful season with Gilera with a third place finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
2009: Finishes third overall in the 250cc World Championship behind Japan's Hiroshi Aoyama and Spain's Barbera.
2010: Moves up to ride in his debut MotoGP season for Honda. Finishes 16 of the 18 races en route to eighth place in the championship.
2011: May - Collides with Dani Pedrosa while battling for second in the French GP. The resulting crash saw Pedrosa break his collarbone and Simoncelli receive a ride-through penalty, eventually finishing fifth. Simoncelli accepted he needed to re-evaluate his driving style and at times be more cautious.June - Claims his first MotoGP pole at the Catalan GP but a poor start resulted in a sixth placed finish.October 23 - Killed in a crash during the Malaysian GP in Sepang.

Eastern Turkey hit by 7.3 magnitude quake

Eastern Turkey has been hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, the US Geological Survey reports.

 

 

The quake struck at 13:41 (10:41 GMT), some 19km (12 miles) north-east of the city of Van.

The extent of any damage or injuries is not yet known, although Turkey's Anatolia news agency reports that several houses have collapsed.

Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.

Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the north-west of the country.

While the US Geological Survey put Sunday's quake at a magnitude at 7.3, Turkey's Kandilli observatory gave it a preliminary magnitude of 6.6.

Anatolia reported that rescue workers were trying to reach people thought to have been trapped under the wreckage of a seven-storey building in the city of Van, close to the Iranian border.

A Reuters news agency reporter in the town of Hakkari, around 100 km (60 miles) south of Van, said he felt his building sway for around 10 seconds, but there was no immediate sign of casualties or damage in Hakkari. 

Avoid alcohol three days a week, doctors warn

 

Drinking alcohol daily leads to a higher risk of liver disease, the Royal College of Physicians has warned

 

A night of drinking should be followed by two or three alcohol-free days, doctors have advised.

The liver needs time to recover if people are consuming more than just a small alcoholic drink, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has said.

Government advice is a maximum of 21 units per week for women and 28 for men - but the RCP said it should also take into account how often people drink.

The Department for Health said it had no plans to change its guidance.

Sir Ian Gilmore, special adviser on alcohol and former president of the RCP, said: "In addition to quantity, safe alcohol limits must also take into account frequency.

"There is an increased risk of liver disease for those who drink daily or near daily compared with those who drink periodically or intermittently.

"We recommend a safe alcohol consumption limit of between 0 and 21 units a week for men and 0 and 14 units a week for women provided the total amount is not drunk in one or two bouts and that there are two to three alcohol free days a week.

"At these levels, most individuals are unlikely to come to harm."

In an interview with Radio 4's Today show, Sir Ian added: "If someone drinks one drink a day, one small drink every day of their life, they're most unlikely to run into harm. But if you are going out and having a lot to drink then you should perhaps rest your body."

The latest NHS figures showed that alcohol-related hospital admissions reached record levels last year.

More than a million people were admitted in 2009-10, compared with 945,500 in 2008-09 and 510,800 in 2002-03. Nearly two in three of those cases were men.
Hazardous drinking

In a written submission to MPs on the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee, the RCP said government advice on sensible drinking limits should be regularly reviewed.

It said: "Government guidelines should recognise that hazardous drinking has two components: frequency of drinking and amount of drinking.

"To ignore either of these components is scientifically unjustified.

"A very simple addition would remedy this problem, namely a recommendation that to remain within safe limits of alcohol consumption that people have three alcohol-free days a week."

The RCP also quoted a recent report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists that recommended safe limits for drinking alcohol by older people should be drastically cut.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists suggested a "safe limit" for older people was 11 units per week for men and or seven units per week for women.

The RCP's submission to MPs added: "The current guidelines are based predominantly on evidence for younger age groups and there is concern that current guidelines are not appropriate for older people."

Speaking to the BBC News Channel after his address to the Royal College of GPs' conference in Liverpool, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said alcohol abuse needed to be addressed.

"Essentially in this country we have two ways in which people abuse alcohol. One is binge drinking - far too much drink at one time - the other is chronic alcohol abuse and we need to act on both, and we are acting on both." 

Zombie craze continues to infect popular culture

This weekend an estimated 3,000 people dressed as zombies took to the streets of Brighton. It's the latest proof, if any was needed, that the undead are really on the march - culturally at least.

If the zombie craze has passed you by then you probably haven't been hanging out with any children lately.

In my own random poll, conducted outside a set of school gates not far from BBC HQ, every one of the little rascals I spoke to admitted playing one particularly popular zombie killing game, despite its 18-certificate rating.

Ten-year-old Mark very obligingly offered to give me a demonstration.

He asked his mum if I could come round to play, she said yes, then there I was watching Mark and his friends destroying an army of zombies dressed as Nazis.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

    Maybe zombies speak to austerity Britain in a way other monsters don't”

Dr Marcus Leaning University of Wincester

The conversation between them went a little like this:

"Shoot! Shoot!"

"He's only got one eye."

"Uggh, that looks gross."

"You've just shot his head off."

It was a brief but gory glimpse into the world of zombie video games, a niche market which makes millions of dollars a year and consumes millions of hours of our youngsters' leisure time.

But it's not just games.

The undead's insatiable appetite for publicity has, in recent years, seen ever-growing legions of them appearing on our TV and cinema screens.

If news of the blockbuster series like The Walking Dead or Dead Set or of Brad Pitt's latest zombie movie World War Z has passed you by, then perhaps you haven't been hanging out with anyone at all.
Beach of the dead

But if you do still need convincing that the zombie has truly arrived as something of a cultural phenomenon then a trip to Brighton this weekend would have done the trick.

Some 3000 people, dressed in zombie costumes, groaned their way through Brighton city centre

 

and along the sea front.

"For fun," one man with fake blood running down his face told me when I asked him why he'd come to the event.

"Why do people go walking, or why do others jump out of planes? We like our fun on the ground, with make-up," he explained.

But some media critics and cultural commentators have begun to wonder whether this explosion of zombie enthusiasm is, as well as a bit of fun, an expression of something else.

After all, it's often been argued that the boom in sci-fi tales of alien attack in 1950s and 1960s America was in some way an expression of the fear of Soviet invasion.

So what might the current zombie craze tell us about the world we're living in now?
Mass of rotting flesh

Dr Marcus Leaning, programme leader for media studies at the University of Winchester, believes the shambling mass of rotting flesh now colonising our cultural space is well worthy of academic attention.

 

"Zombies are incredibly popular, the growth is phenomenal - not only are they in films, TV shows and fan productions on YouTube, but there's a vast growth in books, with zombie survival guides selling very, very well on Amazon," he told me.

"You even see small garden ornaments dressed as zombies - zombie garden gnomes."

In fact, Winchester is soon to become the first university in the UK to offer a study module devoted entirely to zombies.

"We're living through the hardest economic times in most young people's memories," Dr Leaning said.

"Maybe zombies speak to austerity Britain in a way other monsters don't."
Living dead

Nick Pearce, director of the left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), is a man who spends much of his time reflecting on the interplay of democracy, economy and citizenship.

A man perhaps well qualified then to explore whether art is indeed, in the case of zombies, imitating life.

He gallantly rose to the challenge and was soon attempting to put the flesh on the bones of a theory linking zombies to the underlying social reality.

"Even before the global economic crisis we saw young, unskilled young men finding it much harder to get a foothold in the labour market," he told me, "and since the crisis we've seen a rocketing of youth unemployment."

"There is something in the idea that if you can't see a future, if you don't have a sense of progress for yourself personally, then you are stuck in the present tense, and this would lend itself to the notion of a kind of recurrent nightmare of repeatedly being a living-dead."
System eating itself

In fact, the idea that zombies offer some kind of commentary on the monotony and emptiness of our modern lives can be found in some of the best films of the genre.

 

Some of Brighton's 'un-dead' said they dressed as zombies just for fun

 

In one of the most celebrated scenes from George A Romero's 1978 film, Dawn of the Dead, a couple stand and watch zombies pacing aimlessly through a shopping mall.

"What are they doing? Why do they come here?" the woman asks.

"Some kind of instinct. Memory. What they used to do," comes the reply. "This was an important place in their lives."

Paul Gilding, former chief executive of Greenpeace and author of a new book The Great Disruption, is another thinker happy to engage with the idea that something more profound might lie behind the recent boom in zombie culture.

There's a good reason, he suggested, why the anti-capitalist protesters on Wall Street and elsewhere have sometimes dressed in zombie costumes to underline their point.

"The system is eating itself alive," he said. "The idea that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet is just not physically possible."

"The old system is dead, in this case it's the walking dead. That's why we have this diffuse protest movement, sometimes with very vague demands and expectations, because no-one has the solution. We just know the current thing isn't going to work."

So have zombies really been rising in such numbers in recent years because they're a metaphor for our times?

Many of the undead that I bumped into in Brighton would say that that's thinking too hard. 

 

Golden Joystick Awards: Portal 2 named ultimate game

 
GT5, Fallout: New Vegas and Portal 2 were all among the winners

Portal 2 has been crowned the ultimate game of the year at the Golden Joystick video game awards.

It beat competition for the top prize from the likes of LA Noire, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Gran Turismo 5.

With more than two million votes cast across 14 categories, organisers claim it is the biggest video games award ceremony in the world.

However this year, with no game winning more than one award, there was no particular standout title.

Angry Birds continued its seemingly unstoppable rise to the top of the smartphone gaming world, with the best mobile award for its Rio edition.

The biggest seller of the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops, had a quiet ceremony by the series' standards, picking up just one award, best shooter.

In the best sports game category FIFA 11 pipped its rival Pro Evolution Soccer.

But the big winner at the awards was Portal 2 - a first person puzzle-platform game that sees players trying to make it through a series of chambers by using a special gun to create portals.

The game has also been praised for its humour, with Stephen Merchant - from The Office and Extras - providing the voice for one of the characters.
Sonic 'honoured'

Arguably the second most significant prize is the one to watch award, and that went to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - good news for its makers ahead of next month's release.

Meanwhile, the outstanding contribution gong was won by Sonic The Hedgehog, who is celebrating 20 years since first being unveiled by Sega.

David Corless, Sonic brand director, said the hedgehog was a timeless character who had transcended video games and whose appeal had been extended by the boom in smartphone gaming.

"It's quite rare in any forms of media that TV or cartoons for kids can endure for such a long time. Even in a video game it's quite rare.

"The fact that Sonic is still around and still doing as well as he is is fantastic, and testament to the little blue blur as we call him."

Mr Corless added that Sonic's traditional rivalry with Nintendo's Mario was now a thing of the past.

"It was a Blur versus Oasis thing about 10 or 15 years ago, but they recently joined forces and appeared in some games together.

"We've put all those dark days behind us," he joked.

Steve Jobs vowed to 'destroy' Android

 

The relationship between Steve Jobs and Google chairman Eric Schmidt soured over Android

 

 Steve Jobs said he wanted to destroy Android and would spend all of Apple's money and his dying breath if that is what it took to do so.

The full extent of his animosity towards Google's mobile operating system is revealed in a forthcoming authorised biography.

Mr Jobs told author Walter Isaacson that he viewed Android's similarity to iOS as "grand theft".

Apple is suing several smartphone makers which use the Android software.

According to extracts of Mr Isaacson's book, obtained by the Associated Press, Mr Jobs said: "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

He is also quoted as saying: "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion [£25bn] in the bank, to right this wrong."
Sour times

Apple enjoyed a close relationship with Google prior to the launch of the Android system. Google products, including maps and search formed a key part of the iPhone's ecosystem.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

    I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

At that time, Google's chief executive, now chairman, Eric Schmidt also sat on the board of Apple.

However, relations began to sour when Google unveiled Android in November 2007, 10 months after the iPhone first appeared.

In subsequent years, Apple rejected a number of Google programs from its App store, forcing the company to create less-integrated web app versions.

Android has subsequently enjoyed rapid adoption and now accounts for around 48% of global smartphone shipments, compared to 19% for Apple.

But its growth has not gone uncontested. Apple has waged an aggressive proxy-war against Android, suing a number of the hardware manufacturers which have adopted it for their tablets and smartphones.

Motorola was one of the first to be targeted, although it is Samsung that has borne the brunt of Mr Jobs' ire.

The South Korean firm is currently banned from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and Germany because of a combination of patent infringements and "look and feel" similarities. A smartphone ban is also pending in the Netherlands.

Samsung is counter-suing Apple for infringing, it claims, several wireless technology patents which it holds the rights to.
Defence mechanism

Patents blogger Florian Mueller, who has been following the court cases closely, said Apple would be conscious of its past, where other companies exploited some of its early ideas.

"If Apple doesn't want the iPhone and iPad to be marginalised the way it happened to the Macintosh at the hands of the Wintel duopoly, it has to use the full force of its intellectual property to fend off the commoditization threat that Android represents," he told BBC News.

Mr Mueller - who has previously undertaken consulting work commissioned by Microsoft - was also critical of Eric Schmidt's dual role at the time: "The fact that Eric Schmidt stayed on Apple's board while he was preparing an iOS clone was an inexcusable betrayal of Steve Jobs' trust."

Mr Schmidt resigned from the Apple board in August 2009. He was later quoted by Bloomberg as saying: "I was on the board until I couldn't stay on the board anymore."

German satellite falls to Earth

 
The Rosat spacecraft had some robust parts that should have survived all the way to the surface

A big German spacecraft has made an uncontrolled fall from the sky.

The Roentgen Satellite (Rosat) re-entered the Earth's atmosphere between 01:45 and 02:15 GMT.

Just as for Nasa's UARS satellite, which plunged into the atmosphere in September, there was high uncertainty about the final moments of Rosat.

But if the timings are correct, any wreckage would probably have dived into the Indian Ocean - although no eyewitness reports have yet come in.

If anything did manage to make landfall, the likely areas to be affected would have been Myanmar and China.

What made the redundant German craft's return interesting was that much more debris was expected to survive all the way to the Earth's surface.

Experts had calculated that perhaps as much as 1.6 tonnes of wreckage - more than half the spacecraft's launch mass - could have riden out the destructive forces of re-entry and hit the planet.

In the case of UARS, the probable mass of surviving material was put at only half a tonne (out of a launch mass of more than six tonnes).

The difference is due to some more robust components on the German space agency (DLR) satellite.

Rosat was an X-ray telescope mission and had a mirror system made of a reinforced carbon composite material. This mirror complex and its support structure were expected to form the largest single fragment in what could have been a shower of some 30 pieces of debris to make it through to the surface.

But again, as was the case with UARS, any Rosat wreckage was strongly tipped to hit the ocean, given that so much of the Earth's surface is covered by water.
Destructive design

UARS' final resting place was tracked to a remote region of the Pacific, north-east of the Samoan islands.

Rosat's operating orbit meant it could have come down anywhere between 53 degrees North and South latitude - a zone that encompasses the UK in the north and the tip of South America in the south.

Future spacecraft sent into orbit may have to meet stricter guidelines that limit the amount of debris likely to fall back on to the planet, but these rules are still some way from being introduced said Prof Richard Crowther, an expert on space debris and adviser to the UK Space Agency.

"Up until now we've designed satellites to survive the harsh environment of space, and we haven't given much thought to designing them for destructive re-entry," he told BBC News.

"But in future, we will have to consider whether we have got this balance right, and perhaps satellites should be designed in such a way that we can ensure more of what comes down is destroyed in the atmosphere and doesn't hit the surface.

"Unfortunately, there is a whole legacy of spacecraft - 50 years of satellites - and we are going to have to put up with this situation for quite some time, I'm afraid."
Science success

Rosat was launched in 1990 to survey the X-ray sky. It mapped more than 100,000 sources of this high-energy radiation. X-rays tend to come from the hottest and most violent parts of the cosmos, such as the regions around exploded stars and the "edges" of black holes.

The spacecraft worked for eight-and-a-half years before its star tracker failed and it could no-longer work out its position and point correctly. It was shut down in February 1999.

Tracking stations will typically witness the uncontrolled return of at least one piece of space debris every day; and on average, one intact defunct spacecraft or old rocket body will come back into the atmosphere every week.

Something the size of Nasa's UARS satellite is seen to enter uncontrolled perhaps once a year.

Much larger objects such as space station cargo ships return from orbit several times a year, but they are equipped with thrusters capable of guiding their dive into a remote part of the Southern Ocean.

Proven Not Trigger Cell Phone Brain Cancer

A large-scale studies show no link between long-term mobile phone use with an increased risk of brain tumors. The study conducted by researchers from Denmark was conducted on 35,000 mobile phone users who were monitored for 18 years.

Previous studies suggest a link between mobile phone use and tumors are considered unfinished because no long term studies.

Earlier in June, the world health organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) states that electromagnetic radio frequencies released by cell phones may be carcinogenic in humans.

But the theory was disproved by research done by researchers from Denmark. The study was conducted by comparing the cancer risk that is owned by the owners of mobile phones in Denmark (approximately 420 000) people, with the entire population in Denmark.

Patrizia Frei, a postdoctoral researcher and member of the Danish Cancer Society is conducting this research, analyze health data belongs to 358,403 mobile phone users between 1990 and 2007. Generally diagnosed with a tumor in the central nervous system of 10,729 people.

However, in people who use mobile phones in the long term (more than 13 years), the incidence of cancer is almost the same with people who do not use the phone.

"Follow-up studies of long-allowed us to investigate the effects of mobile phones in people who use more than 10 years. It turns out this is not related to cancer risk," researchers said.

However, according to them the results of this study may not apply to the possibility of increased cancer risk for very heavy cell phone users or those who used their phones for more than 15 years.

"Further study with larger populations is essential to eliminate bias and investigate for sure," he said.

Currently there are an estimated 5 billion mobile phone users around the world and the numbers will continue to rise. Besides the amount of time people spend an estimated cell phone use is also increasing.

IARC itself recommends the use of SMS or features hands-free wear earphones to reduce cell phone radiation exposure.

Ruth Madoff Regretted Standing By Bernie, Daughter-in-Law Says

Ruth Madoff refused to turn her back on her notorious husband, Bernie, despite a desperate plea from her suicidal son. It was only on the day last December when Mark Madoff killed himself that Ruth expressed regret for her decision, saying in an email to his widow, "What a fool I was."

The revelation is contained in a new book written by Mark Madoff's widow, Stephanie Mack, titled, "The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life."

Mark Madoff had cut off all contact with his father, Bernie Madoff, on the day that his huge Ponzi scheme was revealed. However, according to Mack, he also refused to see his mother, Ruth, as long as she stood by Bernie's side.

Read Bernie Madoff's handwritten letters from prison.

"He never wanted to hurt Ruth, he just wasn't ready to see her yet," said Mack. "He couldn't understand how she could continuously stand by this man who ruined so many lives. Who ruined his life."

The only time Mark Madoff reached out to Ruth was in July of 2009, when she was evicted from her apartment by U.S. marshals. On that day, Ruth was forced to hide in the trunk of a car to escape the media. 

"He sent her an email, saying, you know, 'I'm sure today must have really sucked. You know I'm thinking about you and I love you,'" said Mack.

Meanwhile, Mack said she stayed in touch with Ruth out of sympathy, helping her look for a new apartment and allowing her to see her grandchildren Audrey and Nick. "She just seemed so lost to me," said Mack.

Mack said the unrelenting scrutiny from the public and media over the Madoff scandal drove her emotionally sensitive husband into a deep depression. In October 2009, Mack said she and her husband had an angry argument about Ruth, with Stephanie demanding that he deal with his mother head-on instead of being eaten up inside. Instead, Mark left the apartment, checked into a hotel and unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by swallowing 60 sleeping and anti-anxiety pills.

Madoff was admitted to a psychiatric ward, where he issued an ultimatum to Ruth, who he thought had betrayed him: He would never speak to her again unless she cut off all contact with Bernie.

However, Mack said, to her tortured husband's astonishment and despair, Ruth refused to stop seeing Bernie, even though he was serving a 150-year prison sentence.

"She felt that she needed to be with Bernie. But that didn't make sense to me. Bernie was gone," said Mack. "My husband is lying in a psych ward, just swallowed sixty-plus pills to try and kill himself. And you're still gonna stand by Bernie? A monster?"

After leaving the hospital, Mark Madoff appeared to recover. However, in December 2010, two years to the day after his father's arrest, he committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling beam in his apartment.

On the day that Mark died, his mother Ruth emailed Stephanie admitting it was a huge mistake to stay with Bernie.

"I'll regret to my dying day that I didn't do what he asked about me not seeing Bernie. This week was a brutal one, and I was about to change. It's too late. What a fool I was," the email read.

Despite news reports that Ruth Madoff has indeed cut off all contact with Bernie, Mack said she was not yet ready to forgive Ruth.

"My husband felt very abandoned by his mother," said Mack. "And he just never got over the fact that she chose Bernie Madoff over her own son."

Iraq War Over, US Troops Coming Home, Obama Says

America's long and deeply unpopular war in Iraq will be over by year's end and all U.S. troops "''will definitely be home for the holidays," President Barack Obama declared Friday.

Stretching more than eight years, the war cost the United States heavily: More than 4,400 members of the military have been killed, and more than 32,000 have been wounded.

The final exit date was sealed after months of intensive talks between Washington and Baghdad failed to reach agreement on conditions for leaving several thousand U.S. troops in Iraq as a training force. The U.S. also had been interested in keeping a small force to help the Iraqis deal with possible Iranian meddling.

The task now is to speed the pullout of the remaining U.S. forces, nearly 40,000 in number.

Staying behind in Iraq, where bombings and other violence still occur, will be some 150-200 U.S. military troops as part of embassy security, the defense attaché's office and the office of security cooperation. That's common practice but still a danger to American forces.

Obama, an opponent of the war since before he took office, nevertheless praised the efforts of U.S. troops in Iraq. He said American soldiers would leave "with their heads held high, proud of their success."

For Obama, Friday's announcement capped a remarkable two days of national security successes, though there's no indication how much they will matter to re-election voters more concerned with economic woes at home.

On Thursday, the president heralded the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and a day later the end to one of the most divisive conflicts in U.S. history.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the U.S. more than $1.3 trillion.

Obama did not declare victory.

He did speak, though, about the string of wins on his watch — none bigger than the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Afghanistan war still rages, but there, too, Obama has moved to end the combat mission by the end of 2014.

This was, in essence, the third time Obama had pronounced an end to the war, allowing him to remind the nation he had opposed it all along — a stance that helped his White House bid in 2008.

Shortly after taking office, Obama declared in February 2009 that the combat mission in Iraq would end by Aug. 31, 2010. And when that milestone arrived, he said it was "time to turn the page" on Iraq and put the focus back on building up the United States. On Friday, he said: "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March of 2003 after reports, later discredited, that the country was developing weapons of mass destruction. By early April, American Marines were helping Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Saddam was captured in December of that year and executed in 2006, but the war dragged on.

The ending was set in motion before Obama took office. In 2008, President George W. Bush approved a deal calling for all U.S. forces to withdraw by Dec. 31, 2011.

At issue was whether that deal would be renegotiated to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Iraq. The Obama administration and Iraqi government spent months debating whether the United States would keep troops to maintain a training force, to provide added stability in a country where spectacular attacks still occur, and to serve as a hedge against Iran.

Throughout the talks, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.

Obama never mentioned that issue on Friday.

He said that after speaking with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, both were in agreement on how to move forward. Obama said the two nations will now deal with each other in the normal fashion of sovereign countries and will keep open the idea of how the United States might help train and equip Iraqi forces.

"Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home," Obama said. "The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

The Associated Press first reported last week that the United States would not keep troops in Iraq past the year-end withdrawal deadline, except for some soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy.

"Both countries achieved their goals," said Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi. "Iraq wanted full sovereignty while the United States wanted its soldiers back home, and both goals are achieved."

In addition to remaining military forces, Denis McDonough, White House deputy national security adviser, said the U.S. will have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for American diplomats.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States will now "turn our full attention to pursuing a long-term strategic partnership with Iraq based on mutual interests and mutual respect." He said the goal is to establish a relationship with Iraq similar to other countries in the region.



"Iraq is a sovereign nation that must determine how to secure its own future," Panetta said.

Obama's announcement was applauded by congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called it "the right decision at the right time."

Republicans were more skeptical. Many praised the gains made in Iraq and gave Obama at least partial credit but expressed concern that getting troops out would bring that progress into question.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he feared that "all we have worked for, fought for and sacrificed for is very much in jeopardy by today's announcement. I hope I am wrong and the president is right, but I fear this decision has set in motion events that will come back to haunt our country."

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused Obama of an "astonishing failure" to secure an orderly transition in Iraq, and said, "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."

The U.S. said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a U.S. troop presence was not a sure thing.

The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.

But administration officials said they feel confident that Iraqi security forces are well prepared to take the lead in their country.

McDonough said that one assessment after another of the preparedness of Iraqi forces concluded that "these guys are ready; these guys are capable; these guys are proven; importantly, they're proven because they've been tested in a lot of the kinds of threats that they're going to see going forward."

The president used the war statement to once again turn attention back to the economy, the domestic concern that is expected to determine whether he wins re-election.

"After a decade of war," he said, "the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own."

——

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Jim Kuhnhenn, Erica Werner and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this story.

Obama: Iraq war will be over by year's end; troops coming home

President Barack Obama on Friday announced that virtually all U.S. troops will come home from Iraq by the end of the year -- at which point he can declare an end to America's long and costly war in that Middle Eastern nation. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," Obama said. "The coming months will be a season of homecomings. Our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays." Of the 39,000 troops in Iraq, about 150, a negligible force, will remain to assist in arms sales, a U.S. official told CNN. The rest will be out of Iraq by December 31.

The president said he was making good on his 2008 campaign pledge to end a war that has divided the nation since it began in 2003 and claimed more than 4,400 American lives.The announcement also came after talks that might have allowed a continued major military presence broke down amid disputes about whether U.S. troops would be immune to prosecution by Iraqi authorities. Obama spoke with Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki in a video conference Friday, after which he said both nations were comfortable with the decision on how to move forward.

The new partnership with Iraq will be "strong and enduring," Obama said.
"The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their head held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops," Obama said.

According to a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office, al-Maliki and Obama "shared the same point of view on the need to start a new phase of strategic relations." That includes agreeing to a high-level meeting within two weeks.

Beyond the human cost, the price tag for U.S. military activity in Iraq has been steep as well.
A report from the non-partisan, government-funded Congressional Research Service found that the Defense Department spent nearly $757 billion for military operations in Iraq over the past decade, $50 billion higher than the estimate released by the Pentagon. Another $41 billion for Iraq was spent on State Department and USAID initiatives, plus $6 billion for troops' health expenses, the CRS report stated.

Paul Rieckhoff -- an ex-Army soldier who heads the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the first and largest such organization for these veterans, according to its website -- cheered Friday's announcement as "really good news for the troops serving overseas."
"It's a really poignant time, especially for the veterans community," Rieckhoff told CNN. "Many of us gave large parts of our lives, some gave all in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn."

While Democrats largely applauded Friday's announcement, some Republicans disagreed with the president. Sen. John McCain called it a "consequential failure" for the Obama administration, which he said wasn't focused on succeeding in Iraq, and Iraq's government.

"Today marks a harmful and sad setback for the United States in the world," said McCain, an Arizona Republican who faced off against Obama in the 2008 presidential election. "This decision will be viewed as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."
Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough dismissed the notion that Friday's decision would affect Iran, which he claimed already is "weaker and more isolated" due to U.S. and allied efforts unrelated to Iraq.

"We don't need to try to exercise our influence on those matters through Iraq," McDonough told reporters Friday. "We're obviously concerned about Iran's willingness to live up to its obligations ... but we don't have concerns about our ability to make sure that the Iraqis can exercise the kind of sovereignty that they want."

Another U.S. official -- who is not authorized to speak for attribution -- acknowledged that "the Iranians have been trying to gain influence in Iraq for some time," but stressed that "Iranian influence in Iraq has limits." The official said the Iraq "will not roll over" to Iran, with whom it has a long history of border disputes including a bloody eight-year war in the 1980s.
The current Status of Force Agreement had called for U.S. troops to leave by the end of 2011. But lengthy negotiations in recent months had led some to expect that American troops -- roughly 40,000 of which are in Iraq -- would remain there into next year.

These talks, however, broke down over the prickly issue of legal immunity for U.S. troops in Iraq, a senior U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the discussions told CNN this month.

U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment patrol Iskandariya, Iraq, on July 17, 2011.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top brass have repeatedly said any deal to keep U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the withdrawal deadline would require a guarantee of legal protection for American soldiers.

But the Iraqis refused to agree to that, opening up the prospect of Americans being tried in Iraqi courts and subjected to Iraqi punishment.
The negotiations were strained following WikiLeaks' release of a diplomatic cable that alleged Iraqi civilians, including children, were killed in a 2006 raid by American troops rather than in an airstrike as the U.S. military initially reported.
U.S. troops have already started the drawdown. For instance, a brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, that was originally scheduled to be among the last to leave Iraq was being pulled out of the country months ahead of its planned departure, military officials told CNN last week.
Besides withdrawing more units, others will not head overseas as planned. That includes about 775 Georgia-based soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which announced Friday it will not deploy to Iraq in December as previously scheduled.

Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has said that Iraq wouldn't be able to defend its borders if U.S. troops pulled out and also questioned Iraqi forces ability to defend its airspace. But Panetta, en route to Indonesia, said history shows that Iraq will be ready.
"We've taken out now about 100,000 troops and yet the level of violence has remained relatively low," the defense secretary said. "And I think that's a reflection of the fact that the Iraqis have developed a very important capability here to be able to respond to security threats within their own country."

Regardless, officials insisted that the drastic pullback of troops does not mean an end to the U.S. government's presence in Iraq.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner described Friday's development as the start of "a new chapter in our relationship" with Iraq -- while acknowledging the challenges of the change.
"You can't flip a switch and go from a military operation to a civilian operation; there has to be a transition and we're working on that transition," he said. "But we believe we're ready."
Toner also noted substantial improvements in the capabilities of the Iraqis, even as he admitted the continued importance of addressing "security needs" of the hundreds of nonmilitary U.S. personnel who will remain there.

That includes about 1,700 diplomats, law enforcement officers and various economic, agriculture and other professionals and experts who will be in Iraq into 2012, according to the State Department. In addition, 5,000 security contractors will protect the U.S. diplomats and another 4,500 contractors will serve other roles, such as helping provide food and medical services, until they can be done locally.
Toner said the U.S. and Iraqi governments are still talking about security and other matters, though he stressed any such discussions should not change the basic decision announced Friday.
"We continue to talk about the post-December 31 arrangement (and) security relationship," Toner said. "At the same time, we are very committed to meeting the December 31 deadline."
Panetta, too, did not rule out the possibility that U.S. forces would head to Iraq to train forces there.
"As we ... look at developing this normal relationship, a lot of it is going to depend on what they want, what their needs are and how we can best meet them," he said.

Orionid Meteor Shower and the brightest star

meteor ilustration


Orionid meteor shower peaks, as in previous years, estimated at summit on October 21 to 22. Orionid meteor shower will be quite busy this time because other than the shower itself, many object to be seen, ranging from the constellations, the brightest star, seven star until an angel.


This year, the Orionids meteor shower will peak tonight. "The best time for observation is after 22.00 until about 1:00 o'clock in the morning. Because after 1:00 o'clock in the morning the Moon will appear in the east so that the light is disturbing," said Mutoha Arkanuddin of Jogja Astro Club community.
As is known, the observation of celestial objects requires a dark sky conditions. The brighter the sky by the light of moon or light pollution caused by lighting in the neighborhood, the potential to see the smaller celestial bodies.
Mutoha said, "Orionid Meteor shower this is not a major. Maybe we can only see 15-20 meteors per hour. Moreover, this time there is a disturbing light month, maybe we can hanye see less than 15 meteors."
But not to be disappointed, you can still expect to see a fireball, meteor which appears to be quite large and bright. Although it can not be ascertained how many could be seen, one would expect that the most fitting time for waiting for him when the Moon is not shining brightly.
"In addition to meteor showers, we can also see Jupiter to be the opposition on 29 October with the naked eye. Constellation Orion itself can also be seen, this is interesting because this constellation also marked the beginning of the rainy season," said Mutoha. In addition, there is the constellation Canis Mayoris. "There we can see the brightest star, Sirius. Then we also can see seven stars angel. So there is a lot we can see," he added.
Orionid meteor shower peaking every year in October. This meteor shower occurs because the rest of Halley's comet dust enters Earth's atmosphere and burned. Orionid meteor shower is named because the meteors seemed to come from the constellation Orion. To be able to see, live observer directs the eyes to the east. In addition, to observe the need in a location convenient to the sky as dark as possible to be maximal in the observations. Jogja Astro Club will hold their own observations on the beach Parangkusumo, Parangtritis, Yogyakarta.

Robots to Help Children With Autism

Bandit the robot helps children understand social cues and emotional responses

An endearing little robot named Bandit may be the newest technology to help children with autism better understand social cues and emotional behavior.

Researchers at the Robotics Research Lab at University of Southern California have created studies for children with autism to interact and play with Bandit, a small human-like robot with movable eyebrows and mouth, and motion sensors that allow him to back away or move forward.

The designers hoped to create a balance between human and robot so that he is approachable and engaging without being too realistic or intimidating.

"In autism, there was already anecdotal evidence that children with autism often respond favorably to robots and show social behaviors they do not display with unfamiliar people," Maja Mataric, co-director of the Robotics Research Lab at USC, told ABCNews.com. "Some work had already been done with toy-like robots before we got involved in the research. We were specifically interested in using human-like child-sized robots which would serve as peers, not toys, in the interaction with children."

In initial pilot experiments with the robots, Mataric and colleagues found that children with autism exhibited unexpected social behaviors, including pointing, initiating play, imitating the robot and even showing empathy. 

"We were very encouraged by these responses and have been developing new robot capabilities to enrich the interaction," Mataric said.

"One of our successes is the development of software that can analyze the movement of the child interacting with the robot and determining, automatically, whether the child is having a positive, desirableinteraction or not," said David Feil-Sefer, a PhD student who has worked on all the autism studies with Mataric.

Mataric said she first became interested in using technology for developmental treatments when she realized that it could be used to fill the "care gap" in personalized medicine.

Many populations consist of individuals who need one-on-one personalized care, she said, but that care can require many hours per day, for years or even a lifetime.

"Bandit is more simplistic looking with obvious emotional expressions," said Dr. Stefani Hines, developmental and behavioral pediatrician with the Beaumont Health System's Center for Human Development in Michigan. "He's probably less intimidating than human beings for children with autism. We may be able to use him to fade into naturalistic settings."

About one percent of American children ages 3 to 17 have an autism spectrum disorder and it is the fastest-growing developmental disorder, according to the Autism Society.

"Researchers know that to help children with autism, they need to develop new, more effective interventions," said Debra Dunn, outreach director for the Center for Autism Research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Some children with autism spectrum disorders have an affinity for technology and for machines and may be particularly engaged during this therapy."

Eye tracking research has shown that children with autism prefer looking at objects rather than human faces. They have difficulty understand facial expression and even sometimes recognizing a person's identity. But the lack of experience in reading faces could be contributed tot that difficulty in facial recognition, Dunn said.

Robot Named Bandit Helps Autistic Kids

But, Dunn warned that, in a world where children with autism tend to retreat into a world of objects, robots may not be the best solution.

"Being engaged while playing with a robot and gaining skills from using it are two different things, and research is needed to test the effectiveness of this and any new intervention," said Dunn.

Mataric and colleagues have already expanded Bandit's assistance beyond children with autism. Researchers said they plan to test Bandit out in other populations, including Alzheimer's patients, stroke survivors and in elderly people living alone.

"We are developing new capabilities for Bandit, such as more sophisticated imitation games, the abilities to positively influence people's behaviors including encouraging them to exercise and socialize (to mitigate isolation and depression), to maintain a healthy diet and to adhere to taking medications," Mataric said. "We are interested in putting Bandit in the playground to have it interact with many children and serve as a catalyst for bringing children with autism spectrum disorders and typically developing children together in a natural playful and educational setting."

Funny Results: Men Get More Laughs Than Women

The Tina Feys, Amy Poehlers and Kristen Wiigs of the world are getting a hearty laugh from this new study.

The research, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, found that men are funnier than women. But before men get too comfortable in their winning role, the margin between the more and less funny genders was small.

“There is some shred of truth to the received wisdom about men being funnier, but it does not come close to explaining how much funnier they think they are,” said study author, Laura Mickes, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC San Diego department of psychology. “The stereotype that males are funnier than females has always puzzled me, because in my experience, and my intuition was that, we are equally funny.  I know I am.”

“Even more surprising, though, is that it was pretty much just other males who found males funnier,” said Mickes.

During the first phase of the study, male and female USC student participants were told to fill out blank New Yorker cartoons and create several captions as funny as possible.

Thirty-four men and 47 women were then instructed to rate the funnier of two random captions matched together in a tournament-style rating system.

Captions were then scored on a 5-point system based on how far they got in the tournament. True, men did better, but not by much.  They received an average of .11 more points more than the female writers. But, when broken down even further, women gave an average of .06 points more to male writers, but men gave .16 more points to the male writers.

Authors noted that men used vulgarity and sexual humor slightly more than their female counterparts.

But, here’s the annoying part, ladies: In the second phase of the study, the unfunny cartoons were more misattributed to women and the funny captions were more often mistaken as being written by men.

“I think the results do suggest that our thinking that men are much funnier makes us remember them as having been funnier,” said Mickes. “Lots of stereotypes can work that way. We are conducting follow up experiments in which we are measuring more aspects of why men do appear to have some humor advantage. For example, do they try harder, more often, in more contexts?”

Zanesville Animal Preserve Owner's Wife Wants Surviving Animals Back

 

A leopard, one of six of the animals that were captured and 
taken to the Columbus Zoo, a day after their owner released 
dozens of animals and then killed himself near Zanesville, 
Ohio, is shown.

 

Terry Thompson, the Zanesville man who set his exotic animals loose before killing himself, owed almost $70,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS and the county. The wild animal enthusiast had two federal tax liens filed against him last year, according to the Associated Press, and other well-documented woes, including prison time, animal abuse charges and marital problems, offering new insight into what could have driven

Thompson to commit suicide and send his beloved animals out to their deaths. Dozens of animals, including Bengal tigers, lions, wolves, monkeys and bears were freed from the Zanesville, Ohio, animal preserve and had to be killed by police. Police stalked the animals through the night Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon, 49 of the 50 animals were confirmed dead, ending a potentially

catastrophic threat to people in the area. Three leopards, a grizzly bear and two Macaques were the only animals that survived, and they are at the Columbus Zoo, receiving around the clock care. According to zoo officials, the animals are "stressed," but eating, drinking, and playing with ball toys.

Preserve Owner's Wife Wants Surviving Animals Back

Thompson's wife, Marian Thompson, visited the surviving animals, which she called "her children," on Thursday and desperately pleaded for their return.

"This is a person that's very bonded to the animals," said Tom Stalf, a zoo official who helped transport surviving animals to zoo. "She wanted to see them and make sure that they were doing OK, and she missed them."

Though she wants the surviving animals to be returned to her, zoo officials said they will continue to care for the animals, and leave it up to the sheriff's department to decide if the animals will go home, to another facility, or remain at the zoo.

Marian Thompson, who shielded herself from reporters, told a zoo official that she is especially bonded with the surviving pair of primates. She revealed to Stalf that when she was still living at the farm the surviving female Macaque would sleep with her.

ABC News exclusively obtained images of Terry Thompson, trading kisses with a bear and caring for a camel on his farm just two years ago. The images of Thompson bonding with his animals stand in stark contrast to the chaos officials encountered when they arrived at Thompson's private preserve Tuesday evening. Stalf, who saw the dead animals sprawled across the lawn of the preserve and the conditions the animals were kept in, said the scene was haunting.

"I grew up on a farm so I've been around animals all my life and I've never seen that and I don't ever want to see that again," he said. "That was bad."

Photos of animals saved and animals slain in Zanesville. Some photos are graphic.

Police hunted down and killed the ferocious animals, set free by their suicidal owner.

According to police, just seconds after Thompson set his beloved animals free and shot himself with a handgun, an animal bit him in the head, and likely dragged him along the driveway where he was eventually found.

The bite wound on Terry Thompson's head was "consistent with the bite from a larger type cat," Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said.

Thompson's body was found near a pile of chicken parts. Lutz said Thompson often used chicken to feed the animals, but it's unclear whether he had intended to draw the animals to his body.  

The animals that were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday included 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, a pair of grizzlies, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon.

The dead animals were buried on the preserve Wednesday, Lutz said.

Hand washing can clean your mind?

Not only can remove the dirt on your hands, wash your hands it can also cleanse the hearts and minds. Clean-up activity not only have a positive impact on physical health, but also psychological.

According to a study conducted by a team from the University of Michigan, USA, hand washing can also help clean up bad feelings.

With hand washing, bathing or even just by thinking about it, "may reduce or eliminate feelings of immorality, not luck or doubt," said Spike Lee was one of the researchers was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

"The experience of the body to eliminate the physical residue can eliminate the mental residue that is more abstract," he said.

A study published in the Journal of Current Directions in Psychological Science reveals that the psychological effects arising from the cleaning yourself. Many cleaning function can eliminate the annoyance.

The researchers asked a group of respondents to assess the quality of their morality. They were asked to think about immorality in the past.

14 000 New Stars Detected

NASA scientists have succeeded in detecting image details of the formation of new stars at great distances from Earth. Amazing image was taken with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Based on the publication of the Daily Mail, Sunday (10/16/2011), the image shows the Carina Nebula, an area of ​​Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way, which became the birthplace of new stars. So far, 14,000 stars have been detected in the area within 7500 million light years from Earth.

Once analyzed, the scientists believe that some giant stars that have been destroyed in a supernova explosion. They knew it from the X-ray reduction that occurred in the northern cluster called Trumpler 15.

Detection of a possible six neutron star, the dense core left after a supernova explosion, adding to evidence that supernova activity increased in Carina. Previously, only discovered a new star in Carina.

Zanesville Animal Massacre Included 18 Rare Bengal Tigers

A dead lion lays on the ground in Terry Thompson's farm near Zanesville, Ohio, Oct. 18, 2011.

The massacre began Tuesday evening when sheriff deputies arrived at a notorious wild animal preserve in Zanesville, Ohio, to see Bengal tigers, lions, bears and other ferocious animals wandering away, some headed for the highway.

Fearing the animals would scatter and terrorize the town, officers began dispatching the wildlife with their pistols.

"These animals were on the move and were showing aggressive behavior," said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.

"There were some very close calls," the sheriff said. At times it was "almost hand to hand" combat with the animals, Lutz said.

"These are 300 pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," he said.

During the night of chaos, an escaped lion killed a monkey, and bears and lions were charging at horses kept at the preserve, he said.

When the carnage was over, 49 animals were slaughtered, including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, a pair of grizzlies, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon.

View Photos of the Exotic Animals Warning: photos of the slain animals are graphic.

The animals had been released by Terry Thompson, the owner of the preserve, who then killed himself, Lutz said.

"These killings were senseless. For our guys to have to do this, it was nonsense, it was crazy," the sheriff said.

ABC News' wildlife expert Jack Hanna, who advised Lutz during the crisis, said it was especially heartbreaking to see so many Bengal tigers killed when they are on the verge of extinction. But the actions by the police saved a catastrophe, he said.

A vet shot one tiger with a tranquilizer from 15 yards away and Lutz said it "just went crazy," and started to run, so officers were forced to shoot it with lethal ammunition. Another animal that got away, described as a big cat, was hit by a car on a highway some distance away, he said.

One animal, a macaque monkey, is still missing and Lutz said it is "highly likely" that it is infected with herpes B virus.

Herpes B isn't dangerous to monkeys, but "it's very dangerous for humans," said Dr. Barb Wolfe, Director of Conservation Medicine at Ohio wildlife conservatory The Wilds.

When passed to humans the rare disease can lead to deadly brain infections, according to the National Primate Research Center in Wisconsin.

Wolfe urged the public not to approach the monkey and to call 911 if it's spotted.

During the chaos, several individuals were arrested for attempting to steal the carcass of a lion that had been killed.

Six animals were still in their cages on the 73-acre spread, and Thompson's wife returned to find at least 30 of her animals lying dead on the ground.

"She's in a state of shock right now obviously," Hanna said. "She cried on my shoulder and said please don't take my family."

The remaining living animals -- a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys -- are being taken to the Columbus Zoo.

"We'll be passing a law here very shortly that she'll have to adhere to as well as the other people in Ohio," Hanna said. "It sometimes takes things like this to make things better."

Thompson, 61, was recently released from prison after serving one year on federal weapons charges. According to investigators he has been cited in the past for animal abuse and neglect.

Lutz described Thompson as "a guy who kind of kept to himself, was always willing to push the envelope a little bit."

"We feel that Mr. Thompson died from a self-inflicted wound. We also feel he had released these animals at some point. Not only were the gates open but some of the pens were open," Lutz said.

Zanesville Animal Massacre

Hanna said he "can see this happening," based on his knowledge about the animal world.

"The guy was depressed and he loved the animals that much, maybe," Hanna said.

Lutz said the Sheriff's department has been aware of animal farm for several years, and that it "has been a huge problem."

Hanna described the conditions as "abominable," saying the animals were living in "filth."

During the hunt to find all 56 animals, the Ohio State Highway Patrol had cordoned off seven square miles near Interstate 70 and officers used infrared devices during the night to find the animals.

On "Good Morning America" today Hanna said that in controlling this situation human life and animal life must both be considered, as does timing of capture.

"Human life has to come first but that's what we have to look for. We have to take care of our animal life. You cannot tranquilize an animal at night. It's hard enough during the daytime," Hanna said.

Danielle White, one of Thompson's neighbors, said that she saw a lion in the area in 2006.

"It's always been a fear of mine knowing [the preserve's owner] had all those animals," she said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."

Thompson has been warned repeatedly over the last decade to get his animals under control – and no less than 30 times in the past year. He was arrested in April of 2005 for cruelty and torture of cattle and bison he had on his property, according to the website pet-abuse.com.

He was charged with one count of having an animal at large, two counts of rendering animal waste and one count of cruelty to animals.

Missing Baby Lisa Parents Not Answering Vital Questions, Police Say

The parents of missing toddler Lisa Irwin haven't submitted to an interview with detectives for the last 10 days to answer questions about things "they might only know," police said today.

The 11-month-old girl vanished from her crib Oct. 3. Police have not named any suspects in the girl's disappearance, but the story of mother Deborah Bradley has altered somewhat and she has admitted to being drunk that night, possibly even blacking out.

Kansas City Police Capt. Steve Young expressed some frustration today with Bradley and the girl's father, Jeremy Irwin.

"There are things the detectives need to flesh out with the parents that only they would know and we no longer have that opportunity to sit down with them," Young told ABC News this afternoon. "We have not had an unrestricted conversation since Oct. 8th."

"And that time, and previous times, there came a point when Deborah became uncomfortable and stopped the questioning," Young said.

Young conceded that the parents have spoken with detectives since Oct. 8, but only to clarify information about tips that have come in.

He said the contact has been limited to conversations about details that need to be cleared up such as, "Do you know this person?"

"We strongly believe that that parent's cooperation and involvement is critical [in finding Lisa]," Young said.

Baby Lisa's Parents Not Answering Some Questions

Police have previously accused the parents of halting their cooperation, although the parents have insisted they continue to answer officers' questions. Today's comments by police were more specific.

Young also bristled today at criticism by Joe Tacopina, the high powered defense lawyer who is now representing Bradley and Irwin.

Tacopina told "Good Morning America" today that the way some of the local authorities conducted themselves in the hours following Lisa's disappearance was "baffling."

"I am aware that he offered some vague criticisms of the police department," Young said. "I think all reasonable people know that are doing things and we know things that are not a matter of public record."

"Should we develop something that we think will benefit the case by making public, by all means we'll be doing that," the captain said. "But to make the assumption that we're putting all our eggs in one basket would be wildly inaccurate."

Tacopina has also expressed his desire for more "boots on the ground" efforts to search for the girl, although police have been conducting searches every day since Lisa's disappearance in places including woods, fields, landfills, drainage areas, abandoned houses and a well.

Young said the police have so far cleared over 550 tips and leads.

The captain's comments about the parents and their lawyer came as questions grew over how much Bradley drank on the night Lisa disappeared. After store surveillance video showed her buying a box of wine that day, she initially admitted to drinking some wine. That has escalated to her concession she drank enough to be drunk and most recently to the possiblity that she blacked out from intoxication.

"Blacking out is a scientific term and I don't know if we can say that, but she had some wine that night," Tacopina told "Good Morning America" today. "And don't forget, it was Deborah who said that when she put Lisa to bed she had wine."

Tacopina said that there was no video or evidence of his client drinking, so there would have been no need for her to be so forthcoming if she had anything to hide.

"I was drinking, but it has nothing to do with my daughter's disappearance," Bradley told "GMA."

Tacopina also defended the perceived "inconsistencies" in Bradley's timeline after the interviews she gave Monday. For the past two weeks, she had been saying that the last time she saw Lisa was when she put her to bed at 10:30 p.m. On Monday, Bradley said she put Lisa to bed at 6:30 p.m., almost four hours earlier than previously stated.

"There's not a four-hour gap," Tacopina said. "There's not because what she said was she put the baby to bed at around 6:30 p.m. At one point during the 13 hours of [police] interviews, she has said she believed she checked on her at 10:30 p.m. It's not an inconsistency."

"It may be a recollection refreshed at some later point, but it's certainly not material to whether or not she had anything to do with the disappearance of her baby," he said.