Chimpanzee Who Knew Sign Language Dies

Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept. Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language in a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University's Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.

She died Tuesday night, according to Roger and Deborah Fouts, co-founders of The Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute on the campus. She was born in Africa about 1965.

She was taken to the veterinary hospital at Washington State University on Wednesday for a necropsy. Her memorial will be Nov. 12.

"Washoe was an emissary, bringing us a message of respect for nature," Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold, assistant director of the nonprofit institute, said Wednesday.

The Fouts went to Central Washington from Oklahoma in 1980 to create a home for Washoe and other chimps.

"The entire CWU community and the Ellensburg community are feeling the loss of our friend, Washoe, one of our daughters," said CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre.

Washone also taught sign language to three younger chimps who remain at the institute, Central Washington spokeswoman Becky Watson said. They are Tatu, 31, Loulis, 29, and Dar, 31.

Washoe was the only chimpanzee at the institute born in Africa and was the matriarch of the chimpanzee family. She was named for Washoe County, Nev., where she lived with Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1966 to 1970.

Primate researcher Jane Goodall, in Roger Fouts' book "Next of Kin," noted the importance of the work with Washoe.

"Roger, through his ongoing conversations with Washoe and her extended family, has opened a window into the cognitive workings of a chimpanzee's mind that adds new dimension to our understanding," Goodall was quoted as saying.

In 1967, the Gardners established Project Washoe to teach the chimp ASL. Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to imitate vocal languages had failed. Roger Fouts was a graduate student of the Gardners.

For Washoe to be considered "reliable" on a sign, it had to be seen by three different observers in three separate instances. Then it had to be seen 15 days in a row to be added to her sign list.

But there was controversy over whether the chimp was really using ASL. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has contended the notion that Washoe was the first non-human to acquire a human language was without scientific support.

Six Wounded, One Killed in D.C. Halloween Shootings

Halloween night proved very violent in the district's Columbia Heights and Park View neighborhoods, where police recorded at least three shootings that killed one person and wounded six others. The first incident was reported about 10:20 p.m. along 14th Street near Harvard Street. Investigators believe a gunman in a minivan opened fire on a group standing on the sidewalk. Four people were wounded. Police issued a lookout for a green or teal 1990 Ford Windstar van.

About 12:10 a.m., police responded to a shooting near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Lamont Street. Investigators say a man was critically wounded when he was shot in the back during a robbery.

About 40 minutes later, police received reports of two shootings just one block apart- one in the 600 block of Morton St., NW and one in the 600 block of Park Rd., NW. The Morton Street victim was shot in the leg. The body of the Park Road victim was found in the parking lot of a public housing complex.

Ubuntu Developer Summit lays out vision for strong Hardy Heron release

The first day of the Ubuntu Developer Summit began with roundtable sessions which focused on high-level planning for Hardy Heron, the next major release of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. I attended the Hardy Heron desktop roundtable to get the inside scoop about the future of Ubuntu on the desktop.

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The primary goal for the Hardy development cycle is to make existing features more usable and robust rather than adding a lot of new functionality. This differs significantly from the Gutsy Gibbon development cycle which focused on delivering highly experimental features—like compositing by default—that improved the user experience at the expense of robustness in certain documented areas. Stability and resilience are important for Hardy Heron because it is a long-term support release and will be supported on the desktop for three years.

The guts of Heron
The Compiz window manager, which adds sophisticated visual effects to the Ubuntu user interface, will be a big target for usability improvements. Keyboard bindings and session management were noted as two areas where Compiz still needs some work. The potential for better integrating Compiz effects with the Ubuntu look and feel was also briefly discussed.

PolicyKit integration is also another topic that is considered highly relevant for Hardy Heron. PolicyKit is a new framework for secure privilege elevation. When programs currently need to perform operations that require permissions higher than those of a regular user, privileges for the entire program must be elevated—typically with a graphical sudo utility. PolicyKit will instead require developers to isolate functionality that requires higher privileges in individual non-graphical utilities and services that will be accessed by programs through a D-Bus interface. This will also permit administrators to establish more nuanced controls over which users can perform certain tasks and the contexts in which those tasks are permitted. PolicyKit will still use password prompts like gksudo, so the switch to PolicyKit will not significantly change the way that users are accustomed to interacting with Ubuntu. PolicyKit is being developed by Red Hat and will be used with HAL in Fedora 8.

Improving Tracker integration is another important goal for Hardy Heron. Tracker is an indexing and search tool that is included by default in Ubuntu 7.10. The search tools that come with Tracker are currently very weak and will need a lot of refinement. Another goal is to find a way to replace inotify, the kernel-level file monitoring component used by Tracker. Developers have expressed concerns that inotify is too resource- and i/o-intensive. Developers also hope to use Tracker for system-wide search functionality, replacing the antiquated updatedb mechanism. Several contributors have also suggested various ways that Ubuntu can better use Tracker's advanced metadata storage capabilities. For instance, Robert Carr is working on developing a userspace filesystem with FUSE that will integrate with Tracker and make it possible for users to access their files by using tags, eliminating the need to descend through complex directory structures.

Odds and ends
A complete visual refresh is also planned, including a completely new icon theme that will use more SVG and integrate better with the Tango icons used by GNOME and other upstream projects. Another topic that was very briefly discussed was the possibility of creating a GTK theme that takes advantage of compositing functionality, something that probably won't happen within the Hardy development cycle. The visual refresh plans are extensive, and were discussed in greater detail during the Hardy theming spec session.

A few other usability issues were discussed as well, like finding more practical ways of enabling users to install content that can't legally be distributed in certain countries. The new codec installation tools in Ubuntu 7.10 have improved the situation considerably, but there are still holes.

Most of the goals for Hardy Heron look very promising and feasible. Shifting away from the emphasis on new features in order to improve reliability is a good way to shore up some of the biggest gaps so that the long-term support release is very strong. As major hardware vendors begin to consider joining Dell in offering Linux preinstallation, the availability of a robust release with three years of support will make Ubuntu much more tempting for these companies.

Killer storm heads toward the Bahamas

PIEDRA BLANCA, Dominican Republic - Tropical Storm Noel triggered mudslides and floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, pushing the death toll to 66 on Wednesday and forcing some parents to choose which of their children to save from the surging waters.

The storm lurched out of Cuba and stalled over the ocean, but was projected to skirt Florida and batter the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A tropical storm watch was issued for parts of southeast Florida.

With rain still falling two days after the storm hit, rescuers were struggling to reach communities cut off by flooding on the island of Hispaniola. As they did, they found a rising toll of death and damage — at least 41 dead in the Dominican Republic, 24 in Haiti and one in Jamaica.

A swollen river overflowed its banks Monday night and swept away the hamlet of Piedra Blanca in the central Dominican Republic, forcing Charo Vidal to climb a tree. She watched her neighbor struggle to do the same nearby, clutching infant twins while water swept an older daughter away.

"She couldn't take care of all three," Vidal said Wednesday. "That is something very significant, to have a child snatched from your hands and you cannot do anything for them."

The mother, Mary De Leon, was inconsolable. "The river tore her from my hands as I held her," she said through tears.

"A lot of people had to choose between losing one child and losing another one," said Liony Batista, a project manager for Food for the Poor, an international Christian relief organization.

Sagrario Diaz, a 42-year-old farmer, also struggled to hold on to his son in the surging waters but failed. "I fought, I swear I tried to save him, but I couldn't," Diaz said. "I would like to die."

A neighbor, Lucia Araujo, said she heard the boy scream: "Daddy, I don't want to drown. Help me, I don't want to drown."

At least seven people died in Piedra Blanca, emergency officials said.

About 200 homes were destroyed in the nearby town of Bonao, Batista said.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez declared a state of emergency for the next 30 days and asked for international help, especially rescue teams and helicopters. He ordered residents in 36 communities to evacuate because they were in potential flood zones.

At least 50,500 Dominicans fled their homes, 12,000 of which were damaged, said Luis Antonio Luna, head of the Emergencies Commission. Flooding also forced the evacuation of about 1,000 inmates from a prison north of the Dominican capital.

Luna said officials were trying to reach dozens of isolated communities, but bad weather, a lack of helicopters and damage to bridges and highways slowed rescue efforts.

The southwestern town of San Jose de Ocoa was in a precarious situation, unreachable by air, land or water, Public Works Secretary Victor Diaz Rua said.

"We have been told that the town has a limited food supply, so we're looking for a way in," Diaz said.

In neighboring Haiti, floods rushed through houses in the capital's Cite Soleil slum, carrying away a 3-year-old boy as relatives frantically shouted for help and tried unsuccessfully to reach him through the muddy, debris-filled water.

Two people were killed when their house collapsed in a mudslide in the hillside suburb of Petionville, and at least three others died in Jacmel, where officials said 150 people were trapped on rooftops awaiting aid.

Some Haitian shelters were overwhelmed by evacuees. One in Cite Soleil, guarded by U.N. troops, had one blanket for every two people.

Noel is the deadliest storm in this part of the Caribbean since Tropical Storm Jeanne hit Haiti in 2004, triggering floods and mudslides that killed an estimated 3,000 people.

For the Atlantic region as a whole, Noel is the second deadliest of the 2007 season. Hurricane Felix, a monster Category 5 storm, killed at least 101 people in early September, mostly along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Noel was centered about 190 miles south-southwest of Nassau, Bahamas, and about 240 miles south-southeast of Miami. Forecasters said it had been almost stationary for several hours but would likely curve north over the next 24 hours. It had sustained winds near 50 mph, up from 40 mph earlier in the day.

Eastern Cuba got soaked but apparently escaped major damage. It also was raining in the Bahamas, where authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at grocery stores and gas stations in Nassau, the capital.

Rough surf warnings were in effect for much of South Florida. Waves were pounding beaches in the Miami area, and residents of a waterfront condominium in South Palm Beach were urged to evacuate after the surf destroyed a retaining wall damaged by another storm.

Forecasters said the rain would likely miss drought-stricken Georgia, Alabama and other southeastern states.

Harry Potter Lexicon - Rowling completes book of fairy tales

Harry Potter Lexicon: JK Rowling to auction her new book


J.K. Rowling has completed her first book after her wildly popular series on teen wizard Harry Potter - an illustrated collection of magical fairy stories titled "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."

Only seven copies of the handwritten book have been made, Rowling said Thursday. One will be auctioned next month to raise money for a children's charity, while the others have been given away as gifts.

Rowling drew the illustrations herself and provided the handwriting for the five stories that make up the collection of fairy tales.

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is mentioned in the final Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," as a gift left by headmaster Albus Dumbledore to Harry's friend Hermione, and provides clues that help destroy evil Lord Voldemort.


In this undated photo issued Thursday Nov. 1, 2007, by London auction house Sotheby's, showing a page from a book, a hand-written and hand-illustrated copy of 'The Tales Of Beedle The Bard' by JK Rowling, which will be auctioned in December 2007 to raise money for a children's charity. There will only be seven copies of the book printed, which are handwritten and extensively illustrated by the author, bound in brown morocco embellished on upper cover by Edinburgh silversmiths Hamilton and Inches, with a starting price of 30,000 pounds (US$62,000; euro43,000). One copy of this collection of wizarding fairy stories is to be auctioned, and the other copies of the book are to be given away by the author as gifts.

"'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a statement.

The volume, bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with silver and semiprecious stones, will be auctioned at Sotheby's on Dec. 13 with a starting price of $62,000. Proceeds will go to The Children's Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe.

"Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in Harry's adventures, was published in July. The seven books have sold nearly 400 million copies and have been translated into 64 languages.

Rowling told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the book of fairy tales had helped her say goodbye to Harry's world.

"It's not about Harry, Ron and Hermione, but it comes from that world," she told BBC radio in an interview broadcast Thursday. "So it's been therapeutic in a way."

Rowling said she was working on a new book, "a half-finished book for children that I think will probably be the next thing I publish."

On Wednesday, Rowling and the makers of the Harry Potter movies filed a lawsuit against RDR Books, a small U.S. publisher that plans to bring out a companion volume based on the Harry Potter Lexicon fan Web site.

Rowling has said she plans to produce her own encyclopedia of the wizarding world and says the book would infringe on her intellectual property rights.

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Martina Hingis Retires - Tests Positive for Cocaine

Martina Hingis, the former #1 female tennis player in the world, announced she had tested positive for cocaine at Wimbleton and also announced her retirement.

Hingis denies she uses cocaine and stated; "I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous, that I have decided to confront it head-on by talking to the press."

Hingis is a fan favorite and will be missed in the tennis arena. Despite several injuries, the 27 year old tennis star not only achieved the #1 world ranking but has won five Grand Slam singles titles, nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles and two Sony Ericsson Championships titles.

Footballers' Fugs

Alex Curran is, according to Wikipedia, an über-WAG -- meaning she, as the spouse of Liverpool's rather cute Steven Gerrard, is considered a Queen Bee of the wives and girlfriends of English footballers. And by that I mean soccer, which I am not clarifying because I think anyone out there does not realize this; rather, because whoever styled her for this photo shoot may have mistaken her as being involved with America's version of football:

[Photo: infdaily.com]

Many of our nation's linebackers would covet shoulder pads like those.

I think my favorite part of the photo, though, is the very FACT of it: that OK! magazine is pairing up with this woman to hawk a perfume. Have you ever read a tabloid and thought to yourself, "I would give any amount of money to smell like this publication's magic essence"? And what exactly would that smell like? Ink? Sex and drugs? Dirt, since that's what they're peddling?

Further, I'm unclear as to what her dress is doing in the front there -- it LOOKS, from this angle, as if it has formed a shelf onto which she can set the bottle of perfume when it becomes too heavy (or stow a football, or a baby, or a thermos full of cosmopolitans). It's like a built-in table. How handy would THAT be at cocktail parties? Maybe somebody should explore making this an actual party trend. Because sometimes you can't hold a drink AND eat your finger-food at the same time, and that is one of life's real tragedies that a dress-desk would ably address. Come on, Lagerfeld, let's get on this.

Letter of Truth: Part An Infinite Supply of Bad Idea Jeans

Um! Look. I don't know WHY y'all are all acting all WORKED UP every time I leave the house, but I was taught that just because things are going all backasswards in your life like when OLD FAT JUDGES decide that just because you can't always tell your kids apart maybe you should stop doing drugs, it doesn't mean you're not allowed to dress up like a P-I-M-P and get your drink on, okay? I saw on Judge Joe Brown yesterday that it's NORMAL for people to use ALCOHOL to solve their problems so why don't all y'all just LEAVE ME ALONE. But take my picture first.

Whatever the opposite of LOVE is,

BRITNEY.

Lindsay Not Ready for Close-Up in Crash Suit

Lindsay Lohan's lips won't be sealed when it comes to testifying in her pending negligence lawsuit. But if she has her way, her deposition will.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the rehabbed actress' attorneys are seeking to prevent her Dec. 3 deposition from being videotaped, and, should that motion be denied, to ensure that any would-be recordings remain under seal.

"The court should act to prevent such an unwarranted invasion of [Lohan's] privacy, especially where the nature of the allegations...are so inflammatory," states the motion, which was submitted Friday and made public today.

In addition to preempting any potential leaks of the would-be taping, Team Lohan is swinging for the fences and seeking to have all related depositions and witness testimony sealed as well.

The motion was filed due to the intense media interest in the case, her lawyers said, as manifested by coverage of what amounted to a rather "mundane" hearing in the matter on Sept. 11. Lohan was not even present when the judge denied her request to dismiss portions of the lawsuit.

Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern declined to immediately rule on the videotape issue, instead saying he would consider the motion at a Nov. 28 hearing.

If very recent precedent is any indication, Lohan may be successful in her bid to avoid the prying eye of the court's cameras. On the same day Lohan's attorneys filed their paperwork, a separate judge granted Britney Spears' identical request not to be videotaped in a deposition relating to her child custody suit, ruling that the likelihood of it leaking to the media was too great a risk.

Lohan's deposition stems from a negligence suit filed in June by Raymond Ortega. The busboy claims the Mean Girls star had been drinking at the Ivy and then triggered an October 2005 car crash that left his van totaled. He also asserts the star was not paying attention to the road because she was fleeing a flock of paparazzi.

Ortega is seeking $200,000 in damages from the suit.

Last month, shortly after Stern declined to dismiss portions of the suit against her, Lohan filed a negligence countersuit against Ortega. She denied she was under the influence at the time of the smashup and insisted he was at fault for the crash as he was making an illegal U-turn at the time of the accident.

Lohan cited a California Highway Patrol report of the incident, which states she was sober and that Ortega was responsible. Ortega's lawyer claims the report is "hearsay" because no field-sobriety test was conducted.

For her troubles, the actress is seeking $75,000 in damages to cover repairs to her black Mercedes-Benz SL65 and the cost of rental cars.

Abhishek Bachchan Aishwarya Rai -Wedding pictures just released -Watch here.

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