By John Johnson
A sad detail from a lightning strike last week that killed a couple at the Grand Canyon—they were young honeymooners, reports the Arizona Republic . Aram Kawewong and Ratchaya Tantranon, both 20, had recently married in Thailand and had come to the US for their honeymoon, the woman’s American cousin… …read more
Flash flood waters swept a tour bus with 33 people aboard hundreds of yards down a wash in northwestern Arizona. The vehicle flipped on its side, but, amazingly, no one was injured, say officials. The Las Vegas-bound bus was returning yesterday afternoon from a day-trip to the Grand Canyon’s west… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Four months after he was found unconscious in a Palm Springs, Calif., motel, doctors are looking into the mystery of a Florida man who awoke with no memory of his past and speaking only Swedish.
Michael Boatwright, 61, woke up with amnesia, calling himself Johan Ek, The Desert Sun reports. Boatwright was found unconscious in a Motel 6 room in February. After police arrived, he was transported to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs where he woke up.
Hospital officials said Boatwright may have been in town for a tennis tournament in the Coachella Valley. He was found with a duffel bag of exercise clothes, a backpack and tennis rackets. He also carried four forms of identification — a passport, a California identification card, a veteran’s medical card and a Social Security card — all of which identified him as Michael Thomas Boatwright.
Palm Springs police have documented his information in case anyone lists Boatwright as missing or wanted, authorities said.
In March, doctors diagnosed Boatwright with Transient Global Amnesia, a condition triggered by physical or emotional trauma that can last for several months.
The rare mental disorder is characterized by memory loss, “sudden and unplanned travel,” and possible adoption of a new identity, according to the Sun.
After an extensive search, medical personnel and social workers have been unable to locate Boatwright’s next of kin. Authorities are still unsure of his birthplace, listed on his ID as Florida — photos show him in Sweden at a young age.
Boatwright doesn’t recall how to exchange money, take public transportation, or seek temporary housing like homeless shelters or hotels, the social worker assigned to his case, Lisa Hunt-Vasquez, told the Sun.
He doesn’t remember his son and two ex-wives, either.
He has no income or insurance, further complicating his treatment at Desert Regional. And he has little money he can access — only $180. He also has a few Chinese bank accounts, but can only access one account, which holds $7, according to the newspaper.
Doctors don’t know how much longer he will be able to stay at the center — aside from his amnesia, Boatwright is in good health. The hospital is currently looking for alternatives that would keep him off the streets. For now, Boatwright is unsure of both his past and his future.
“Sometimes it makes me really sad and sometimes it just makes me furious about the whole situation and the fact that I don’t know anybody, I don’t recognize anybody,” Boatwright told the newspaper.
Last year, a North Dakota college student who went missing for nearly a week before turning up in Arizona said she had a bout of amnesia and didn’t know who she was.
Amber Glatt, a 22-year-old Valley City State University student, vanished on the Fourth of July, prompting aerial searches. She contacted her mother five days later from the Grand Canyon. Her mother said Glatt has had recurring amnesia since suffering a head injury years ago.
Glatt told WDAY-TV (http://bit.ly/NmbSnR ) that after she lost her memory she met a man in a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Lead ammunition continues to take a deadly toll on endangered California condors that live in and around the Grand Canyon. Seven of the 80 wild condors in Arizona and Utah have died since December; three of those deaths have been definitively linked to lead poisoning from ingesting spent lead ammunition fragments in carrion and lead poisoning is suspected in the other four deaths.
Astrophotographer Jeff Berkes sent in an image of the Milky Way soaring over the Grand Canyon. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
By Neal Colgrass An energy company plans to reopen its uranium mine near the Grand Canyon despite a 20-year federal ban on new uranium mines in the area, the Arizona Republic reports. The Huvasupai Tribe and environmentalists are hopping mad, but Energy Fuels Resources has an argument: Its mine is grandfathered because it… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
This 2,500-mile system is one of the larger canyons in the solar system. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
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WASHINGTON — TV ads show smiling seniors enjoying an “active” lifestyle on a motorized scooter, taking in the sights at the Grand Canyon, fishing on a pier and high-fiving their grandchildren at a baseball game.
The commercials, which promise freedom and independence to people with limited mobility, have driven the nearly $1 billion U.S. market for power wheelchairs and scooters. But the spots by the industry’s two leading companies, The Scooter Store and Hoveround, also have drawn scrutiny from critics who say they convince some seniors that they need a scooter to get around when many don’t.
Members of Congress say the ads lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary spending by Medicare, which is only supposed to pay for scooters as a medical necessity when seniors are unable to use a cane, walker or regular wheelchair. Government inspectors say up to 80 percent of the scooters and power wheelchairs Medicare buys go to people who don’t meet the requirements. And doctors say more than money is at stake: Seniors who use scooters unnecessarily can become sedentary, which can exacerbate obesity and other disorders.
“Patients have been brainwashed by The Scooter Store,” says Dr. Barbara Messinger-Rapport, director of geriatric medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “What they’re implying is that you can use these scooters to leave the house, to socialize, to get to bingo.”
The scooter controversy, which has escalated with a raid by federal authorities on The Scooter’s Store’s New Braunfels, Texas, headquarters last month, underscores the influence TV ads can have on medical decisions. Like their peers in the drug industry, scooter companies say direct-to-consumer advertising educates patients about their medical options. But critics argue that the scooter spots are little more than sales pitches that cause patients to pressure doctors to prescribe unnecessary equipment.
The Scooter Store and Hoveround, both privately held companies that together make up about 70 percent of the U.S. market for scooters, spent more than $180 million on TV, radio and print advertising in 2011, up 20 percent from 2008, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media. Their ads often include language that the scooters can be paid for by Medicare or other insurance: “Nine out of ten people got them for little or no cost,” states one Hoveround ad.
Hoveround didn’t respond to a half-dozen requests for comment. The Scooter Store, the nation’s biggest seller of scooters, said that most people who contact the company after seeing the ads do not ultimately receive a scooter.
“The fact that 87 percent of the persons who seek power mobility products from The Scooter Store under their Medicare benefits are disqualified by the company’s screening process is powerful evidence of the company’s commitment …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Concrete rubble litters streets lined with shuttered shops and dark windows. A collapsed roof juts from the ground. A ship sits stranded on a stretch of dirt flattened when the tsunami roared across the coastline. There isn’t a person in sight.
Google Street View is giving the world a rare glimpse into one of Japan‘s eerie ghost towns, created when the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami sparked a nuclear disaster that has left the area uninhabitable.
The technology pieces together digital images captured by Google’s fleet of camera-equipped vehicles and allows viewers to take virtual tours of locations around the world, including faraway spots like the South Pole and fantastic landscapes like the Grand Canyon.
Now it is taking people inside Japan‘s nuclear no-go zone, to the city of Namie, whose 21,000 residents have been unable to return to live since they fled the radiation spewing from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant two years ago.
Koto Naganuma, 32, who lost her home in the tsunami, said some people find it too painful to see the places that were so familiar yet are now so out of reach.
She has only gone back once, a year ago, and for a few minutes.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited I can take a look at those places that are so dear to me,” said Naganuma. “It would be hard, too. No one is going to be there.”
Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba said memories came flooding back as he looked at the images shot by Google earlier this month.
He spotted an area where an autumn festival used to be held and another of an elementary school that was once packed with schoolchildren.
“Those of us in the older generation feel that we received this town from our forbearers, and we feel great pain that we cannot pass it down to our children,” he said in a post on his blog.
“We want this Street View imagery to become a permanent record of what happened to Namie-machi in the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.”
Street View was started in 2007, and now provides images from more than 3,000 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Rob Quinn 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
A visit to the Grand Canyon was a long time coming. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
State Dining Room
2:06 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon, everybody.
Ken Salazar likes to say that the Department of the Interior is actually the Department of America. Other members of my Cabinet may not entirely agree with that statement, but you can see where he’s coming from. The Secretary of the Interior is in charge of overseeing 500 million acres of public land — including places like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon — and protecting our natural heritage for our children and our grandchildren and their children to come.
But the job also requires keeping an eye on America’s future, and making smart decisions about how we create jobs and help businesses grow, and put ourselves on a path towards energy independence. And that’s not always an easy balancing act, but with enthusiasm and skill and dedication, that’s exactly what Ken Salazar has done over the last four years.
We were just reminiscing a little bit — I’ve known Ken since we were both running for the Senate together and became the only two incoming Democrats in our Senate class — Pete Rouse remembers this. It was a lonely time. (Laughter.) We actually lived in the same building when we first arrived in Washington. And, Ken, you'll recall it was a little discouraging because basically everyone else who lived there was 20 or 25. (Laughter.) So we were the two geriatrics in this building.
But I came to appreciate quickly not just his friendship — which, if you've got Ken Salazar as a friend, you've got a real friend. Not only did I come to appreciate his jump shot — he is surprisingly quick on the court — (laughter) — but also his patriotism, and his belief that we've got a responsibility to care for the land with which we’ve been blessed.
And it's not surprising that Ken feels this way — after all, his ancestors were living here before the Mayflower set sail. As he explains it — and relevant, as we are working to get immigration reform passed — his family did not cross the border, the border crossed them. (Laughter.) And that’s why, when I needed somebody to lead Interior, I didn’t have to look very far.
Since being confirmed, Ken has cracked down on waste. He's improved the management of the Department to make it work better for the American people. He has ushered in a new era of conservation for our land, our water and our wildlife. He's established seven new national parks, 10 new national wildlife refuges. He has opened more public land and water for safe and responsible energy production, not just gas and oil but also wind and solar, creating thousands of new jobs and nearly doubling our use of renewable energy in this country. He has helped to forge what is probably the strongest working relationship with tribal leaders that the federal …read more
Source: White House Press Office
Legions of young people have spent at least one summer packed next to their siblings in the back of a sweltering Ford Pinto during a multi-day tour to the Grand Canyon. Now, thanks to Google, this great American road trip destination is now online. The search giant has added to Street View on Google Maps more than 9500 panoramic images of the Grand Canyon, one of the great natural wonders of the world, covering more than 75 miles of trails and surrounding roads.
Now you can revisit the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails from the comfort of your armchair and reminisce about your pilgrimage to Arizona during the summer of ’88. Ah, memories: the ennui from seeing nothing but open road for hours on end, eating at dingy gas station diners, and enduring regular cries of “are we there yet?” from your younger sister.
A team of Google Street View cartographers spent several months trekking through the Grand Canyon carrying 40-pound backpacks mounted with 15-lens, 360-degree cameras. The end result is a stunning collection of Street View panoramic images. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights, and don’t worry; no donkeys were harmed during the Grand Canyon photo project.
Now that Google, in its quest to map the entire world, has conquered the Grand Canyon, what’s next? The search giant is now working on bringing Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, in Canada’s Far North to Street View. The company is also developing more detailed regular maps of North Korea.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Can’t make it to the Grand Canyon? No worries. Google Street View will bring the Grand Canyon to you. In their continued effort to make the world seem like a smaller, more accessible place, Google is bringing the majesty of the Grand Canyon into the comfort of your own home with the help of Trekker, an Android-operated 15-lens camera mounted on a 40-pound backpack.
On their official blog, Google announced that users can now utilize Google Maps to explore over 75 miles of trails and exposed paths in the Grand Canyon, including the Bright Angel Trail and the South Kaibab Trail. With a few clicks of a mouse, armchair explorers can now appreciate the scenic views surrounding the Colorado River and virtually hike the rim of Meteor Crater without ever having to navigate the rocky terrain or unpredictable temperature fluctuations of one of the world’s Seven Natural Wonders.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Tech
Google Maps opened a virtual path to the wonders of the Grand Canyon on Thursday by adding panoramic images gathered by hikers with Android-powered camera systems strapped to their backs.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Kevin Spak 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By <a href="/author-detail/44">Adam Garber</a>
This week, President Hamid Karzai came to the White House, as did nine newly posted foreign ambassadors and the President held the final news conference of his first term before signing executive orders initiating 23 separate executive actions to prevent gun violence.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House
AP
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
Posers beware: Arizona’s tolerance for Internet bullies, brats and liars is at an all-time low. And now one lawmaker in the Grand Canyon state says she wants to crack down on people faking their identity on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter – and she wants to send them to prison if they get caught.
Posers beware: Arizona’s tolerance for Internet bullies, brats and liars is at an all-time low. And now one lawmaker in the Grand Canyon state says she wants to crack down on people faking their identity on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter ? and she wants to send them to prison if they get caught.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Most Popular
