Currently up for $50,000 in funding on Kickstarter, the Wheelharp delivers the sounds of a chamber string orchestra via a keyboard and a full chromatic set of real strings. Oh, and it's pretty much the most striking instrument we've ever seen. Developed by Los Angeles-based Antiquity Music, the device reacts to a user's press of the keys by moving a corresponding string to a rotating wheel with an edge that bows the string. The instrument gives the player plenty of controls; the right pedal controls wheel speed, while the left mans the strings' damper system.
Though an early version was demoed at NAMM this year, the Wheelharp is currently in R&D mode, and Antiquity plans to put much of the Kickstarter money toward researching the optimal string selection. Hit up the source link to hear the instrument in action. Just don't get too excited; the instrument will retail for a cool $12,500 -- or a slightly more palatable $10,000 through the crowdfunding site.
The weather is beautiful. But you know what else is quite ravishing? The beaucoup pieces of design, art, and architecture we had you feasting your eyes on this week, from a plan for New York's collapsing harbors to LED wallpaper. Here are some of our favorites:
Increase in unintentional marijuana ingestion among children following new drug laws in ColoradoPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Whitehead Elizabeth.Whitehead@childrenscolorado.org 720-777-6388 The JAMA Network Journals
Following modification of drug enforcement laws for possession of marijuana in Colorado, there was an apparent increase in unintentional marijuana ingestions by young children, according to a report and accompanying editorials published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.
Several states and Washington, D.C. have enacted laws to decriminalize medical marijuana and two states, Colorado and Washington, have passed amendments to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. In late 2009, the Justice Department issued a policy instructing federal prosecutors not to seek arrest of medical marijuana users and suppliers, if they were complying by state laws. According to background information in the study, tetrahydrocannabinol, the active chemical in marijuana, is incorporated into medical marijuana products in higher concentrations. "In addition, medical marijuana is sold in baked goods, soft drinks, and candies," the authors note.
George Sam Wang, M.D, from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, and colleagues compared the proportion of marijuana ingestions by young children who sought care in a children's hospital emergency department before and after the modification of drug enforcement laws in October 2009 regarding medical marijuana possession. A total of 1,378 patients younger than 12 years of age were evaluated for unintentional ingestions: 790 patients before September 30, 2009 and 588 patients after October 1, 2009.
"The proportion of ingestion visits in patients younger than 12 years (age range 8 months to 12 years) that were related to marijuana exposure increased after September 30, 2009, from 0 of 790 to 14 of 588," the authors report. "Eight of the 14 cases involved medical marijuana, and 7 of these exposures came from food products." The authors note most of the children were male and were admitted to or observed in the emergency department. "Because of a perceived stigma associated with medical marijuana, families may be reluctant to report its use to health care providers. Similar to many accidental medicinal pediatric exposures, the source of the marijuana in most cases was the grandparents who may not have been available during data collection."
"Physicians, especially in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana, need to be cognizant of the potential for marijuana exposures and be familiar with the symptoms of marijuana ingestion. This unintended outcome may suggest a role for public health interventions in this emerging industry, such as child-resistant containers and warning labels for medical marijuana," the authors conclude.
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.140. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editorial: Effects of Marijuana Policy on Children and Adolescents
In an accompanying editorial, Sharon Levy, M.D., M.P.H., from Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, writes that "the finding reignites the debate over whether and how legalized marijuana impacts children and adolescents."
Dr. Levy reports that nationwide rates of adolescent marijuana use are climbing rapidly. "The skyrocketing rates of adolescent marijuana use indicate that we are losing an important public health battle and we have a lot of work to do if we want to reverse these trends. Physicians have a key role to play in educating our young patients and their families about the health consequences of marijuana use regardless of its legal status."
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.100/jamapediatrics.2013.2270. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com).
Editorial: Anticipated Medical Effects on Children: A Poison Center Perspective
"The legalization of recreational marijuana, especially the solid and liquid-infused forms permitted in Washington, will provide children greater access to cookies, candies, brownies, and beverages that contain marijuana," write William Hurley, M.D., from the University of Washington and Washington Poison Center and Suzan Mazor, M.D., from Seattle Children's Hospital.
"Ingestion of marijuana results in the absorption of delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) and stimulation of cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system. This produces stimulation with hallucinations and illusions followed by sedation," the authors state. The authors recommend additional training for emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine and primary care pediatric physicians to recognize and manage these toxic reactions.
"Methods to prevent accidental exposures to marijuana need to be studied for efficacy and progressively developed. Parents and providers should be encouraged to call the Poison Center for data collection, information, education, and management advice," the authors conclude.
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2273. Available to the media pre-embargo at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
###
Editor's Note: Please see articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Increase in unintentional marijuana ingestion among children following new drug laws in ColoradoPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Whitehead Elizabeth.Whitehead@childrenscolorado.org 720-777-6388 The JAMA Network Journals
Following modification of drug enforcement laws for possession of marijuana in Colorado, there was an apparent increase in unintentional marijuana ingestions by young children, according to a report and accompanying editorials published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.
Several states and Washington, D.C. have enacted laws to decriminalize medical marijuana and two states, Colorado and Washington, have passed amendments to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. In late 2009, the Justice Department issued a policy instructing federal prosecutors not to seek arrest of medical marijuana users and suppliers, if they were complying by state laws. According to background information in the study, tetrahydrocannabinol, the active chemical in marijuana, is incorporated into medical marijuana products in higher concentrations. "In addition, medical marijuana is sold in baked goods, soft drinks, and candies," the authors note.
George Sam Wang, M.D, from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, and colleagues compared the proportion of marijuana ingestions by young children who sought care in a children's hospital emergency department before and after the modification of drug enforcement laws in October 2009 regarding medical marijuana possession. A total of 1,378 patients younger than 12 years of age were evaluated for unintentional ingestions: 790 patients before September 30, 2009 and 588 patients after October 1, 2009.
"The proportion of ingestion visits in patients younger than 12 years (age range 8 months to 12 years) that were related to marijuana exposure increased after September 30, 2009, from 0 of 790 to 14 of 588," the authors report. "Eight of the 14 cases involved medical marijuana, and 7 of these exposures came from food products." The authors note most of the children were male and were admitted to or observed in the emergency department. "Because of a perceived stigma associated with medical marijuana, families may be reluctant to report its use to health care providers. Similar to many accidental medicinal pediatric exposures, the source of the marijuana in most cases was the grandparents who may not have been available during data collection."
"Physicians, especially in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana, need to be cognizant of the potential for marijuana exposures and be familiar with the symptoms of marijuana ingestion. This unintended outcome may suggest a role for public health interventions in this emerging industry, such as child-resistant containers and warning labels for medical marijuana," the authors conclude.
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.140. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editorial: Effects of Marijuana Policy on Children and Adolescents
In an accompanying editorial, Sharon Levy, M.D., M.P.H., from Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, writes that "the finding reignites the debate over whether and how legalized marijuana impacts children and adolescents."
Dr. Levy reports that nationwide rates of adolescent marijuana use are climbing rapidly. "The skyrocketing rates of adolescent marijuana use indicate that we are losing an important public health battle and we have a lot of work to do if we want to reverse these trends. Physicians have a key role to play in educating our young patients and their families about the health consequences of marijuana use regardless of its legal status."
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.100/jamapediatrics.2013.2270. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com).
Editorial: Anticipated Medical Effects on Children: A Poison Center Perspective
"The legalization of recreational marijuana, especially the solid and liquid-infused forms permitted in Washington, will provide children greater access to cookies, candies, brownies, and beverages that contain marijuana," write William Hurley, M.D., from the University of Washington and Washington Poison Center and Suzan Mazor, M.D., from Seattle Children's Hospital.
"Ingestion of marijuana results in the absorption of delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) and stimulation of cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system. This produces stimulation with hallucinations and illusions followed by sedation," the authors state. The authors recommend additional training for emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine and primary care pediatric physicians to recognize and manage these toxic reactions.
"Methods to prevent accidental exposures to marijuana need to be studied for efficacy and progressively developed. Parents and providers should be encouraged to call the Poison Center for data collection, information, education, and management advice," the authors conclude.
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 27, 2013. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2273. Available to the media pre-embargo at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
###
Editor's Note: Please see articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
(Reuters) - A gunman randomly firing from his pickup truck killed one person and wounded five, including the sheriff of Concho County, Texas, on Sunday before the suspect was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, officials said.
Authorities recovered an assault rifle, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the suspect, who was said to be 23 years old and from North Carolina. The name was withheld pending notification of relatives, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
The statement identified the dead victim as Alicia Torres, 41, who was shot dead in her car, the statement said.
The Texas Rangers, local law enforcement and Texas Parks and Wildlife were investigating multiple scenes in Concho County, about 250 miles southwest of Dallas, following the early morning shooting spree.
The first incident took place about 4:30 a.m. when the suspect opened fire on vehicle near Eden, wounding a woman, who was later hospitalized in San Angelo, the statement said.
The suspect wounded two more people a short time later as they sat in their vehicle outside a convenience store in Brady, and then returned to Eden, where he fired on another vehicle and wounded another person. Those three were treated and released.
About 6 a.m., Torres was found shot to death in her car in Eola.
Some 15 minutes later, Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane encountered the suspect on a highway north of Eden. The sheriff was wounded and taken to a San Angelo hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the statement said.
The gunman was killed in a shootout with a Highway Patrol trooper and game warden who arrived to assist the sheriff, the statement said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Bill Trott)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sen. John McCain, a proponent of arming Syrian rebels, quietly slipped into Syria for a meeting with anti-government fighters Monday.
Spokeswoman Rachael Dean confirms the Arizona Republican made the visit. She declined further comment about the trip.
The visit took place amid meetings in Paris involving efforts to secure participation of Syria's fractured opposition in an international peace conference in Geneva.
And in Brussels, the European Union decided late Monday to lift the arms embargo on the Syrian opposition while maintaining all other sanctions against Bashar Assad's regime after June 1, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said following the meeting.
Two years of violence in Syria has killed more than 70,000 people. President Barack Obama has demanded that Assad leave power, while Russia has stood by Syria, its closest ally in the Arab world.
McCain has been a fierce critic of Obama administration policy there while stopping short of backing U.S. ground troops in Syria, but he supports aggressive military steps against the Assad regime.
Gen. Salem Idris, chief of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, accompanied McCain across the Turkey-Syria border. McCain met with leaders of the Free Syrian Army from across the country, who asked him for increased U.S. support, including heavy weapons, a no-fly zone and airstrikes on Syrian government and Hezbollah forces, according to The Daily Beast, which first reported the senator's unannounced visit.
The White House declined to comment late Monday.
A State Department official said the department was aware of McCain crossing into Syrian territory on Monday. Further questions were referred to McCain's office.
Last Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to provide weapons to rebels in Syria, as well as military training to vetted rebel groups and sanctions against anyone who sells oil or transfers arms to the Assad regime. McCain is a member of the committee.
__
Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Paris contributed to this report.
BERLIN (AP) ? An auctioneer says one of Apple's first computers ? a functioning 1976 model ? has been sold for a record 516,000 euros ($668,000).
German auction houseBreker said Saturday an Asian client, who asked not to be named, bought the so-called Apple 1, which the tech company's founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built in a family garage.
Breker claims it is one of only six known remaining functioning models in the world. Breker already sold one last year for 492,000 euros.
It says the computer bears Wozniak's signature. An old business transaction letter from the late Jobs also was included.
The Apple 1, which was sold for $666 in 1976, consisted of only the circuit board. A case, a keyboard and a screen had to be bought separately.
Some long time readers may remember that I used to work for a shoe company. I used to be on the Naturalizer Product Development team right after college, which was such a fun job. One of my own little projects while I was there was to start blogger reviews of our shoes. I was interested in getting into marketing, and of course loved blogs, and so arranged to have a few fashion bloggers try and giveaway a pair of shoes.
Sidewalk Ready was one of our favorites.
Later that year my company started outsourcing a lot of their marketing, which is part of the reason I left. There weren?t going to be many positions I was interested in.
FAST FORWARD TWO YEARS, A FEW MONTHS AGO:
I get an email from a PR agency asking if I want to participate in Naya and Naturalizer?s blogger review program.
I ABOUT DIED.
My program! My baby project! I just thought it was so funny that it had come full circle.
Anyway, I emailed the girl back explaining the funny situation and said that I?d love to! She said I could choose a pair of shoes from either Naturalizer?s spring line, or Naya?s. Naya is part of Naturalizer, but is it?s eco-friendly, romantic, higher-end line.
I tried on bunches of pairs of Naya when I worked there, but never bought any myself. Most are just a wee bit out of my price range because of the high quality, hand finished, eco-friendly leather. They are all very feminine, extremely comfortable, and have fine details that our other lines skipped over to reduce cost. These are really well made shoes.
So now I have my very own pair of Naya shoes, and I LOVE THEM.
The Helena.
(Fun fact: Shoe names are all based on the first letter. You design the sole (or ?bottom?) of the shoe, and give it a letter. Then all ?uppers? ?- the top ?of the shoe ? you put on that sole have to start with that letter. We?d call the Helena an ?H bottom? and might have Helena, Helga, Hillary, and Hightop all on the same type of ?sole. I loved naming shoes:))
These are a style I wouldn?t normally splurge on, just because it?s not quite as classic as I usually go for. However I adore the boho look and the pale leathers. They really work as a neutral and I?ve been wearing them to death.
And the COMFORT. Pretty remarkable. Not a single growing pain with these shoes. They were immediately cushy ? like walking on air.
I have worn them non stop since I received them. They are my new go-to shoe when I don?t want to wear just cheap-o flip flops. I now slightly regret never spending a little more money on summer sandals before because these just feel a little more special that the other Target sandals I live in during the summer
I adore them. Even if they don?t photograph well. Or rather, I don?t photograph them well.
Naya is sold at lots of Nordstrom stores, but also in Naturalizer stores and online. ?You can find a store on their website. They also have a blog!?
I highly recommend these shoes, as well as checking out the other Naturalizer and Naya styles. Thank you, Naya!
Disclosure: I received these sandals for free from Naturalizer/Brown Shoe Company, but all opinions are my own.?
Austin Agee was a brother to my great-grandmother, Viva Lena Agee Edwards. Their father, Ari Austin Agee, died in 1938. Austin signed over his interest in the inheritance (not that it was a lot of money) over to his wife, Cleo.? I?m not exactly sure why he would do this.
ASSIGNMENT OF INTEREST
I, Austin Agee, of full age and under no legal disability, do this 7th day of July 1938, assign, transfer, and _______ any and all interest that I have in the estate of my father Ari Austin Agee, late of the County of Ringgold and the State of Iowa, to my wife, Cleo Agee, for the sum of One Dollar and other valuable consideration, the receipt thereof is hereby acknowledged, and I further authorize the person or person whosoever in charge of his estate to pay my inherited interest to the said Cleo Agee, she having bought my interest in the estate of my father.
Dated at Hastings, Nebraska
{signed} Austin A. Agee
{signed} Ernest Johnson, Notary Public?? Adams County, Neb.
EPHRATAH, N.Y. (AP) ? The crash of a volunteer Angel Flight in upstate New York that killed at least two people is under investigation, and the search for the missing pilot is ongoing, authorities said.
Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey said the flight's two passengers were found dead near where the twin-engine plane crashed in a wooded area in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany. He said the search for the pilot will continue Saturday morning. Officials did not immediately identify the passengers or pilot.
"The bulk of the plane is in the water, in a pond, completely submerged and we have to wait until daylight to put divers in," the sheriff said.
The twin-engine Piper PA 34 departed from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., and was headed to Rome, N.Y., before it crashed just after 5 p.m. Friday, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
Angel Flight is a nonprofit group that arranges free air transportation for sick patients from volunteer pilots. Larry Camerlin, president and founder of Angel Flight Northeast, said the organization was "tremendously saddened" by the tragic news of the crash.
"We all offer our thoughts and prayers to the families of those affected," Camerlin said in a statement. "Our volunteer pilots are the most compassionate and generous individuals who donate their time, aircraft and fuel to transport patients and loved ones for free to essential medical care that would otherwise not be readily available to them. There are no words that can adequately express our sorrow."
An employee at an ice cream shop in nearby Johnstown who refused to give her name said she heard what sounded like engine failure and then a loud explosion, "like a gun shot."
She said she went outside and "there were pieces of airplane coming out of the sky."
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, including what the weather conditions were like at the time of the accident.
At the time of the crash, in Rome, N.Y., visibility was 10 miles, there was slight rain and winds of about 13 to 14 mph, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Montgomery.
Angel Flight Northeast said since it was founded in 1996 the group has set up free air transportation and medical care for more than 65,000 children and adults on about 60,000 flights covering a total of more than 12 million miles.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Haynes Johnson, a pioneering Washington journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the civil rights movement and migrated from newspapers to television, books and teaching, died Friday. He was 81.
The Washington Post reported he died at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. In a statement to the Post newsroom, Managing Editor Kevin Merida said Johnson died of a heart attack.
Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer in 1966 for national reporting on the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala., while with the Washington Evening Star. He spent about 12 years at the Star before joining its chief rival, The Washington Post, in 1969. Johnson was a columnist for the Post from 1977 to 1994.
Dan Balz, the Post's senior political reporter, said Johnson was already a legend before they worked together at the newspaper.
"I don't say this lightly. He was a great journalist," Balz said Friday. "He had everything a good reporter should have, which was a love of going to find the story, a commitment to thorough reporting and then kind of an understanding of history and the importance of giving every story kind of the broadest possible sweep and context."
Former Post executive editor Leonard Downie told the newspaper, "Haynes was a pioneer in looking at the mood of the country to understand a political race. Haynes was going around the country talking to people, doing portraits and finding out what was on people's minds. He was a kind of profiler of the country."
The author, co-author or editor of 18 books, Johnson also appeared regularly on the PBS programs "Washington Week in Review" and "The NewsHour." He was a member of the "NewsHour" historians panel from 1994 to 2004.
"I knew I wanted to write about America, our times, both in journalism and I also wanted to do books," he told C-SPAN in 1991. "I wanted to try to see if I could combine what I do as a newspaper person as well as step back a little bit and write about American life, and I was lucky enough to be able to do that."
Johnson had taught at the University of Maryland since 1998.
"Hundreds of our students learned how to cover public affairs from one of the best journalists America has ever known," Merrill College of Journalism Dean Lucy Dalglish said in a written statement released by the university. "It was equally obvious to anyone who looked through the window that Haynes was in his element in the classroom. His entire face lit up when he was in the middle of a classroom discussion."
Johnson had attended graduation ceremonies on Monday for the journalism college.
Kathryn Oberly, Johnson's wife, told the school's Capital News Service that Johnson entered the hospital earlier this week for heart tests and died Friday morning of a heart attack.
Johnson also had teaching stints at George Washington University, Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania.
He was born in New York City on July 9, 1931. His mother, Emmie, was a pianist and his father, Malcolm Johnson, a newspaperman. The elder Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for the New York Sun in 1949 for his reporting on the city's dockyards, and his series suggested the story told in the Oscar-winning film "On the Waterfront."
Johnson studied journalism and history at the University of Missouri, graduating in 1952. After serving three years in the Army during the Korean War, he earned a master's degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin in 1956.
Johnson resisted working in New York journalism to avoid being compared to his father. He worked for nearly a year at the Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal before joining the Star as a reporter.
He received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on civil rights in Selma, Ala., where hundreds of marchers bound for the state capital of Montgomery were brutally beaten in March 1965 by state and local law officers. Martin Luther King, Jr., came to the city, and after a federal judge found that the demonstrators had a right to march, they completed their journey later that month.
"Haynes had roots in the South," Balz said. "He was raised in New York, but he had Southern roots. He had a special appreciation for the civil rights struggle and what African Americans were going through."
It wasn't long before Ben Bradlee, the newly appointed executive editor of The Washington Post, came calling. As Bradlee was seeking to elevate the newspaper, he recruited both Johnson and The New York Times' David S. Broder to strengthen the paper's political reporting.
"He reached out, held out his hand, and I grabbed it, and that was it," Johnson recalled in Jeff Himmelman's 2012 biography of Bradlee. "There was no contract, nothing. It was just, 'Come, we want you,' and I've never forgotten that."
Johnson's books include "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election," (2009) with Balz; "The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years" (2001); and "The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point" (1996) with Broder, who died two years ago.
Johnson and Broder helped redefine Washington reporting, getting outside the Beltway to talk with voters about candidates and issues, rather than letting politicians dictate coverage. Both then wove that reporting into broader articles that examined the mood of the country and the workings of government.
"Hayes was a giant," journalism professor and author Carl Sessions Stepp commented on the University of Maryland's website. "He had the mind of a scholar and the soul of a regular citizen, and nobody has ever better combined insider digging and outside-the-Beltway pulse-taking."
Gene Roberts, who helped lead The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times and co-authored a book on media coverage of the civil rights movement, said he was amazed with Johnson's work ethic.
"I think he was one of the most important reporters in the country during his journalistic career and later as he got more into books," Roberts said. "I was amazed. Most writers take a breather between books, but when he finished one book he always started immediately on another book."
Johnson and Roberts taught together at the University of Maryland. Roberts said Johnson was an inspirational teacher and a serious historian. In recent years, he said, Johnson had been focused on having his father's "Waterfront" articles printed in book form.
He had also just begun work on a 19th book, looking at the speed with which breaking news was covered in the social media era, according to Capital News Service.
Johnson married Julia Ann Erwin in 1954; they had three daughters and two sons and later divorced. In 2002, Johnson married Kathryn Oberly, an associate judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
___
Zongker contributed from Washington.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Barry Schweid reported on foreign policy, the Supreme Court and national politics for The Associated Press in Washington for more than 50 years.
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey rolled out some of its big guns Friday to proclaim that the shore is back following Superstorm Sandy, using Gov. Chris Christie and the cast of MTV's "Jersey Shore" to tell a national audience the state is ready for summer fun.
In fact, they even hired fun. ? the rock band whose anthem "We Are Young" captures the spirit of this blue-collar oceanfront playground that was devastated by the Oct. 29 storm and has been furiously rebuilding ever since. The band played a free concert on the beach.
"This is known as a happy place," said Paul "Pauly D" Del Vecchio, one of the cast members of "Jersey Shore," which was filmed here until wrapping up last year. "Right after the storm, it was the exact opposite: dead, silent. To see this place being rebuilt makes me happy."
Christie, who has been racing up and down the shore opening boardwalks and talking up shore tourism all week as the summer kickoff approached, appeared on the "Today" show Friday, giving him a national pulpit to preach his message of recovery.
"Anybody who lives in New Jersey, the Jersey shore is in your heart," Christie said. "This means everything to our state."
The show was broadcast from Seaside Heights, where the storm swept a roller coaster into the ocean, making for one of Sandy's iconic images. The roller coaster was taken away this month, but Casino Pier, the seaside amusement park where it used to sit, plans to have 18 rides open this summer.
Christie said about 80 percent of the shore will look as it did last summer, and acknowledged more work needs to be done to fully recover. He is to tour parts of the storm-hit shore next Tuesday with President Obama.
Declaring the shore officially open for the summer, the governor cut a 5.5-mile long ribbon symbolically linking some of the shore towns that were hardest hit by the storm. Mike Janela, an adjudicator for Guinness World records, said the ribbon set a new record, besting the previous longest ribbon by about a mile in length.
Tourism is a $38 billion industry in New Jersey, and shore towns are counting on a good summer to help them recoup major losses they incurred after the storm. A storm that parked itself over the shore and was expected to bring rain through Sunday morning didn't exactly help.
But Kevin Stewart, owner of JR's Ocean bar & Grill on the boardwalk, led a Champagne toast with his bar employees right after Christie cut the ribbon.
"Here's to a great summer!" he said as they clinked plastic cups that would normally be filled with beer.
JR's only put up its new sign at 5:30 a.m. Friday, about 90 minutes before Christie arrived for his broadcast. The business was devastated by Sandy, with 6 feet of water in it that left behind 5 feet of sand. It lost all its inventory and signs, which cost about $300,000 to replace.
But Stewart said he is optimistic about this summer at the shore.
"If we get good weather, the people will still come here," he said. "Ninety percent or better of this town is rebuilt and ready to go. At the end of the day, this just might work."
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, of "Jersey Shore," said crowds will be back this summer.
"You just come here to have a good time," she said. "It's a great place. You come here with your friends. Everybody's here, it's getting rebuilt; it's just amazing."
Her cast-mate Deena Cortese urged tourists to patronize Seaside Heights as it recovers.
"It's kind of like a family on the boardwalk here," she said. "Everybody needs to come this summer, especially for them."
Mark Romanowski, a bartender at JR's, said the "Jersey Strong" slogan that has adorned T-shirts, bumper stickers and sweatshirts for fundraising efforts since the storm is not a cliche.
"It really is the mentality we have here," he said. "People in Jersey, we may have our differences but the one common denominator is we have each other's backs."
___
Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
', search:''
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if (colCount % 7 == 0) {
out += renderTemplate('week', {week:days});
days = '';
}
}
// Tack on the last week
if (days != '') {
out += renderTemplate('week', {week:days});
}
// Render to the DOM
out = renderTemplate('calendar', {days:out});
out = renderTemplate('controls', {month:months[month], year:year}) + out + templates.search;
$container.html(out);
// Determine whether the previous/next buttons should be shown
date.setDate(1);
if (date 12) {
month = 1;
year++;
}
makeCalendar(new Date(month + '/1/' + year));
}
},
// Init
init = function() {
$container.addClass('gnmCalendar');
makeCalendar(now);
};
init();
};
Microsoft's Kinect provided gamers with a hands-free way to play their favorite titles. But when the controller was removed from the situation, so was the haptic force feedback that can enhance gameplay. Most of us were ok with the tradeoff, but not the Imagineers at Disney Research who've come up with a way to provide tactile force feedback using nothing but targeted puffs of air.
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Public release date: 27-May-2013
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