Heat's winning streak ends at 27 in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) ? The Miami Heat's 27-game winning streak was snapped Wednesday night by the Chicago Bulls, 101-97, when a furious comeback by LeBron James and his teammates fell short.

The Heat finished six games short of the record held by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

Luol Deng scored 28 points, Carlos Boozer added 21 points and 17 rebounds, and the Bulls brought the Heat's pursuit of the record to a screeching halt despite another big game from James.

Miami's superstar did all he could to keep the run going, scoring 32 points in a physical final few minutes that saw the MVP even collect a flagrant foul.

The Heat hadn't lost since the Pacers beat them in Indianapolis on Feb. 1. But after grinding out some close wins lately, including a rally from 27 down in Cleveland, they simply came up short down the stretch in this one.

For the better part of two months, they were the NBA's comeback kings. They erased seven double-digit deficits during the streak. They found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter 11 times, and won them all.

Not Wednesday.

And when they walked off the floor in Chicago, they were not happy. Faces were stoic as the Heat trudged toward the locker room. James turned and glared at one fan who grabbed at his head. Meanwhile, the Bulls whooped and slapped hands with anyone they could reach, with some acknowledging that being the team that snapped the streak meant plenty.

It will go down as the second-longest winning streak in the history of American major pro sports, behind only the Lakers. And some of those who helped that 33-game run become reality were openly cheering for the Heat as Miami's streak rolled along, with Jerry West among those saying that he believed the reigning champions had a real shot at pulling the feat off.

The streak began on Super Bowl Sunday in Toronto, a day when Heat players were mildly annoyed about having to miss football's title game. When San Francisco and Baltimore were to be playing, the Heat were to be flying home for a game the following night.

So team officials team changed course, as a surprise.

Miami beat Toronto that afternoon, then stayed in the city several more hours to watch the Super Bowl together, an event highlighted by Shane Battier giving an unplanned speech about appreciating little moments as a team.

For whatever reason, the Heat were unbeatable for nearly the next two months.

And they won games in a number of different ways.

They blew out good teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Bulls, then inexplicably struggled with lottery-bound Cleveland, Detroit, Sacramento, Charlotte and Orlando. They rallied from 13 points down in the final 8 minutes to beat Boston, from a 27-point third-quarter hole at Cleveland, and from 11-point deficits against Detroit and Charlotte ? all those coming in a seven-day span, no less.

"There are several teams that can do it," Pistons guard Jose Calderon said, when asked what it would take for someone to beat Miami. "It's difficult to maintain this concentration every day. It will likely take everyone to have a bad day."

Even when those bad days happened, the Heat found ways to win.

A buzzer-beater by James against Orlando. Double-overtime against Sacramento. Huge comebacks. Whatever it took.

"To do something like this, everyone needs to step up," said Battier, who was part of a 32-game winning streak at Duke, a 22-gamer with the Houston Rockets and now played a role in this epic Heat run.

There were times when even the Heat themselves didn't know how long the streak was. Because it was interrupted by the All-Star break, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was surprised when a staff member said something about Miami having won nine in a row. When it was at 24 games, Dwyane Wade made a reference to "23, 24, whatever it is."

They insisted they did not care about it, whatever the number was.

Heat President Pat Riley played for the Lakers team that won 33 in a row, and remained silent throughout Miami's streak, mainly because he rarely gives interviews these days but more so because the official team stance was that it simply did not matter. This season is championship-or-bust for Miami, one where nothing else other than raising yet another Larry O'Brien Trophy will satisfy.

"I understand the history of the game," James said after the streak reached 25. "I appreciate the history of the game. But this team has a bigger goal than winning a number of consecutive games in a row."

Still, the streak will go down as the story of the regular season.

When it started, Miami was 5? games behind San Antonio for the overall NBA lead, only a half-game ahead of New York in the Eastern Conference race, held just a four-game edge over Atlanta in the Southeast Division and were the league's ninth-best road team in terms of winning percentage.

Funny what two months or so without losing can do.

The Heat now sit atop the overall NBA standings, gained 12 games over New York in the East entering Wednesday, put away the Hawks for good several weeks ago and are now, by far, the league's best road team. And with the streak over, all that's left now is getting ready for the postseason.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heats-winning-streak-ends-27-chicago-025709118--spt.html

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Anti-spam group at epicenter of one of worst cyberassaults in history

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 23 min.

Some Internet users are finding themselves collateral damage in a war between one of the world's leading anti-spam groups and a Dutch Web hosting company in what is being called one of the Internet's biggest attacks.

The distributed denial-of-service assault, which started March 15, is resulting in slower Internet speeds and difficulty in accessing websites for some in Europe, and to a lesser degree, the U.S., although most users are not affected. Access to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks in the U.S. appears to be normal despite the ongoing turmoil.

"This the largest DDoS attack we've seen," Matthew Prince, CEO and founder of CloudFlare told NBC News Wednesday. CloudFlare is a website performance company that is working with the victimized anti-spam organization, Spamhaus. The attack, he said, "is significantly larger in volume than large attacks we've seen against U.S. financial institutions or organizations like WikiLeaks."

Steve Linford of Spamhaus told the BBC that the scale of the attack is "unprecedented," peaking at 300 gigabits per second. Normally, he said, "when there are attacks against major banks, we're talking about 50 gigabits per second."

Johannes Ulrich of the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, a U.S. security research organization, told NBC News the attack is indeed "one of the larger DDoS attacks the Internet has seen so far."

However, he said, "I don't think the impact is being felt by average Internet users, unless (they're) in specific locations that are more impacted by the attack."

The New York Times said that "millions of ordinary Internet users have experienced delays in services like Netflix or could not reach a particular website for a short time." (NBC News has contacted Netflix for comment and will update this story when we hear back.)

Distributed denial-of-service attacks happen when a website is inundated with traffic meant to delay or disrupt its performance, and are a common tool of hackers.

But in this case, Spamhaus is accusing a company, Dutch-based Web host Cyberbunker, of being behind the attacks, along with "criminal gangs" from Eastern Europe and Russia, according to a Spamhaus statement made to the BBC. (NBC News has contacted both Spamhaus and Cyberbunker, and will update this story if we hear back.)

Spamhaus, a nonprofit volunteer organization with offices in London and Geneva, hunts for spammers on the Internet and publishes a list of servers that spammers use, so that email system administrators can filter out that spam.

The group is "directly or indirectly responsible for filtering as much as 80 percent of daily spam messages," Prince of CloudFlare wrote in a recent blog post. And, in a post Wednesday, he said that the "challenge with attacks at this scale is they risk overwhelming the systems that link together the Internet itself."

Cyberbunker, which uses a former NATO bunker as its base of operations, says on its site that it has more than 100,000 dedicated servers, and is proud of "hosting services to controversial clients who are harassed by governments and other organizations." (Cyberbunker says on its site it does not host any content or services related to terrorism or child pornography, however.)

"We value freedom of speech, and have always stood for privacy and the protection of our clients," the company says on its site, which also features a photo of controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its home page slideshow.

At the time of publication, the Spamhaus website was up and running, while Cyberbunker's was down, or at least very slow to load.

"Attacks of this type are growing in terms of quantity as well as scale," security firm Kaspersky Lab noted in The Telegraph. "Among the reasons for this growth is the development of the Internet itself (network capacity and computing power) and past failures in investigating and prosecuting individuals behind past attacks."

Whether the current attack will continue or worse remains to be seen. Ullrich, of the Internet Storm Center, said "there is not really much the average Internet user can do, other than making sure their own PC is not infected by malware and used to participate in the attack."

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, TODAY Tech and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a114e79/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Canti0Espam0Egroup0Eepicenter0Eone0Eworst0Ecyberassaults0Ehistory0E2B910A8546/story01.htm

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Track Facebook and Twitter analytics, schedule posts, and more with Buffer for iPhone

Buffer is a service that allows you to monitor and post to your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and App.net. This includes queueing up posts to be shared at a later time or date, monitoring information such as retweets, likes, and replies on posts, and more. The Buffer for iPhone app allows you to take the service with you wherever you are and check data or post things on the fly. This can be especially useful for business owners that find value in knowing how well their social media techniques are working.

Once you've downloaded the Buffer for iPhone app you can either sign into an existing Buffer account or create a new one. You can sign up for the Buffer service for free and start adding your accounts but you'll be limited to how many accounts you can add on a free plan. If you want to add Facebook pages and multiple Twitter accounts, you'll need to subscribe to the paid plan for $9.99/month through the Buffer site. Free users are also limited to how many posts they can buffer at once as well where paid users have no limitations on posts and can add up to 12 accounts.

While Buffer does work great for free users that just want to monitor their personal profiles, it's really geared towards business owners and those using social networks as marketing tools. Buffer allows you to queue up posts quickly and easily for any of the accounts you'd like. It will then share them with those networks at certain intervals that you've scheduled with the Buffer service online. You can also choose a post now option if you'd rather share the post now instead of queueing it for a later time. Schedules with Buffer are a great way to prevent a social networking site from going stagnant and this is especially important for businesses who need to keep their users engaged.

When it comes to actually queuing up and buffering content, you can embed content from tons of places and include photos, links, and many other media types. Buffer is widely supported across several apps such as Feedly, Reeder, Instapaper, and many more. You can even email things to your Buffer account instantly.

The actual Buffer app for iPhone doesn't give you a lot of the same functionality that you get with the website version but it does the trick while on the go. You can view posts that are ready to go up as well as post them now, edit, or delete them. Unfortunately, you can't change the posting time within the app or schedules at all for that matter. The developers do say that scheduling options are coming to the iPhone app, we just aren't sure when just yet. Some people may not like having to be tethered to a web version of a service but this will be the case, at least for now, with Buffer.

The app will, however, let you view statistics on posts. For instance, with Twitter you can view already posted items and the analytics data for them such as how many people responded to it, retweeted it, or favorited it. You'll also see a potential number of people that may see that post. The more retweets you get, the higher that number will be. The same concept holds true for Facebook, LinkedIn, and App.net.

The good

• Inexpensive way to manage your networks from the computer and while on the go
• Nice interface that's easy to navigate around
• Support for many of the most popular networks
• Users who don't want to pay a fee can use the Buffer service with their personal accounts, just not actual business pages
• You can post directly to business pages and Twitter accounts simultaneously, there aren't very many apps out there that let you do this
• Widely supported by many other apps and platforms, including browser extensions

The bad

• No Instagram support, this would be killer for sharing photos to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram simultaneously
• If you need to edit a Buffer, you'll have to do it across all the networks you've queued it up for - this can be irritating
• There's no way to change the post time within the Buffer for iPhone app, only post now or queue at the next available time
• Deleting a post will have to be done across all networks it is shared to individually

The bottom line

Buffer for iPhone is meant to be a complimentary app to an already great service. While the web version is definitely more powerful and where you're meant to spend most of your time, it would still be nice to see some of the web options become available on the iPhone.

It'd also be epic to see Instagram support come to Buffer. I currently can't find any app that will let you post to a Twitter page, Facebook business page, and Instagram all at once and it's something a lot of business users would benefit from.

Aside from that, Buffer is a great service that's very reasonably price and if used correctly, can greatly help businesses better manage their social networks and boost them to their full potential.

• Free (limited features without a Buffer subscription) - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/T_Yf2uzOG-8/story01.htm

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Are Agriculture's Most Popular Insecticides Killing Our Bees?

Workers clear honey from dead beehives at a bee farm east of Merced, Calif.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Workers clear honey from dead beehives at a bee farm east of Merced, Calif.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Environmentalists and beekeepers are calling on the government to ban some of the country's most widely used insect-killing chemicals.

The pesticides, called neonicotinoids, became popular among farmers during the 1990s. They're used to coat the seeds of many agricultural crops, including the biggest crop of all: corn. Neonics, as they're called, protect those crops from insect pests.

But they may also be killing bees.

Christian Krupke, a professor of entomology at Purdue University in Indiana, is among the scientists whose research has alarmed beekeepers. Last month, I caught up with Krupke at a DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington, Ill., where he was giving a talk to several hundred farmers and the agricultural consultants who advise them about seeds, fertilizer and pesticides. The meeting was organized by GrowMark, a farm supply company.

This was a skeptical audience, filled with people who make their livings using or selling pesticides. They listened quietly as Krupke laid out the reasons why neonicotinoids have fallen under suspicion.

These pesticides are typically applied to seeds ? mainly of corn, but also other crops ? as a sticky coating before planting. When a seed sprouts and grows, the chemicals spread through the whole plant. So insects, such as aphids, that try to eat the plant also get a dose of poison.

But could they be killing more than aphids? Krupke put up a picture of a beehive surrounded by a carpet of dead honeybees. In several places across the Midwest, there have been reports of bees dying in large numbers like this. And tests detected the presence of neonics on them.

It seemed like a mystery. How could bees come into contact with chemicals that are buried in soil with crop seeds?

Krupke put up another slide: a picture of a huge machine that's used for planting corn. This equipment is apparently part of the answer.

These machines use air pressure to move seeds from storage bin to soil. A slippery powder ? talc or graphite ? keeps everything flowing smoothly. The air, along with some of the powder, then blows out through a vent.

Krupke explained how he tested that planter exhaust and found amazing levels of neonic pesticides: 700,000 times more than what it takes to kill a honeybee.

That toxic dust lands on nearby flowers, such as dandelions. If bees feed on pollen from those flowers, that dust easily can kill them. A tell-tale clue: These bee die-offs all happened during corn-planting season.

The farmers clapped politely when Krupke's talk was over. There weren't many questions.

Krupke has given this talk to several farm groups. Most farmers just listen, he says, but some are moved to action.

Each time, "it's probably at least two or three people who will say, 'I care enough about this problem that I will seek to not use these materials,' " he says.

Some environmentalists believe that this shouldn't be left up to farmers to decide. They say the Environmental Protection Agency needs to step in.

Last week, a coalition of environmental groups and beekeepers sued the EPA, demanding that the courts force the agency to revoke its earlier approval of two of the most prominent neonicotinoids ? clothianidin and thiamethoxam.

"The EPA should immediately take these two neonicotinoid pesticides off the market," says Paul Towers, from the Pesticide Action Network.

Towers says that the problem with these pesticides goes well beyond those cases where lots of bees died all at once ? maybe because of toxic dust from corn planters.

Neonics also show up in the pollen of corn, canola and sunflowers that grow from treated seed. Bees feed on that pollen. The amount of pesticide they get is so small that it won't kill the bees outright. But Towers says it may have other effects: "Disorientation; reduced ability to gather food; impaired memory and learning; and lack of ability to communicate with other bees."

Towers says this low-level exposure to neonics, from millions of acres of seed-treated crops, may be weakening honeybee hives, killing them slowly.

Bayer CropScience, the biggest seller of these pesticides, insists that most studies show that neonics are quite safe.

David Fischer, the company's director of ecotoxicology, says that in the real world, one cannot observe these chemicals causing any widespread harm to bees. For instance, he says, "in Canada, virtually all the canola is grown from neonicotinoid-treated seed. And the health of bees in that area of Canada, the prairie provinces, is as good as anywhere else in Canada."

Yet Bayer CropScience is reacting to reports of bee kills. The company is working on a new system for planting corn that replaces the powder in planting machinery with a waxy substitute. The company says just making that change can cut the amount of neonics released from corn planters by 50 percent.

For critics of these pesticides, though, cutting releases in half isn't good enough.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/25/175278607/are-agricultures-most-popular-insecticides-killing-our-bees?ft=1&f=1007

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Springpad note-taking service gets interface overhaul, now an even worthier rival to Evernote

Springpad may lack Evernote's commercial clout, but it makes up for it in a number of ways -- not least with free-of-charge features like offline access from its mobile apps (which certain rivals charge for) and Pinterest-style sharing options. The interface hasn't been a particular strong point, but that could be about to change as version 4.0 has just gone live for at least some users of the web interface. The new UI centers everything on three key buttons along the top:

• Springs -- which gives you immediate access to your latest notes, regardless of which device you made them on
• Notebooks -- for organizing your notes into projects
• Search & Do -- which, needless to say, lets you search your notes, but also suggests activities based to-do tasks you've created.

The same, simplified philosophy is due to hit Springpad's iOS and Android apps soon, although there's no sign of that happening just yet. In meantime, check out the web interface for yourself at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile

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Source: Springpad

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/cTL9tvHnZjY/

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Myanmar sets curfews to curb spread of violence

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Authorities in Myanmar imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in three townships after anti-Muslim religious violence touched new parts of the country, edging closer to the main city of Yangon.

State television Tuesday reported incidents in the three townships in Bago region, all within 150 kilometers (100 miles) of Yangon. The latest attack Monday night was in Gyobingauk, where it said "troublemakers" damaged a religious building, shops and some houses.

The report said similar attacks on religious buildings, shops and houses occurred in nearby Otepho and Min Hla on Sunday night. Official reports use the term "religious buildings" in an apparent attempt to dampen passion, though in most cases the targets were reportedly mosques.

The announcement said an emergency law known as Section 144 would be applied in the three townships which will ban public assemblies, marches and speeches, and impose a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

The religious unrest began with rioting a week ago in the central city of Meikhtila that was sparked by a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Tuesday that eight more bodies were found in Meikhtila as soldiers cleared devastated areas set ablaze by anti-Muslim mobs during three days of rioting, bringing the death toll to 40. State TV said Tuesday that although calm had been restored in Meikhtila, a 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew has been imposed to prevent any new violence.

Amid fears of spreading violence, shop owners in Yangon, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Meikhtila, were told to close Monday evening by 8:30 p.m. or 9 p.m.

The fears appeared unfounded, but most Yangon shops were closed Tuesday for a national holiday.

The upsurge in sectarian unrest casts a shadow over President Thein Sein's administration as it struggles to make democratic changes after a half-century of military rule. Hundreds of people were killed last year and more than 100,000 made homeless in sectarian violence in western Myanmar between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/myanmar-sets-curfews-curb-spread-violence-012405562.html

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Nissan and Gibson Combine Forces with NV200 Mobile Guitar ...

Two Tennessee based companies partner on co branded Gibson Nissan NV200 Compact Cargo debuting at the 2013 New York International Auto Show

Gibson and Nissan have combined their respective expertise in professional music and practical, small business vehicles to create the Gibson NV200 Mobile Repair & Restoration Van. The van acts as a mobile guitar repair shop, serving the needs of both working musicians and casual pickers and can service major music markets or locales where guitar players congregate, such as major music festivals, concerts, recording studios or even private homes.

?The NV200 Compact Cargo van?s small footprint makes it ideal for maneuvering in tight places, which is perfect for both urban music venues and crowded outdoor concerts where space is at a premium,? said Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. ?The large cargo bay with standard integrated mounting points and available cargo hooks help make the vehicle configurable and customizable to suit the needs of a working guitar technician.?

Class-leading combined fuel economy of 24 mpg*, provided by a 131-horsepower 2.0-liter inline 4-cylinder engine matched with an efficient Xtronic CVT transmission, further increases the road-worthy appeal of a vehicle that can log as many miles as the typical touring band.

?The Nissan NV200 Compact Cargo van is perfect for small businesses, entrepreneurs and dreamers,? said Joe Castelli, vice president, Commercial Vehicles and Fleet, Nissan North America. ?By partnering with Gibson on the NV200 Mobile Repair & Restoration Van, we?re showing the ultimate expression of what can be done with this vehicle for those with a viable business concept, a little creativity and with a starting price of $19,990**, an appreciation of great value. As this is a van meant for trades, vocations and working people, we couldn?t be more excited than to see it put to good use in the hands of some of the most skilled craftsmen in the world.?

The Gibson NV200 Mobile Repair & Restoration Van, built by Nissan, is an extension of both Gibson Pro Audio and Gibson?s fabled Repair & Restoration shop, based in Nashville, Tenn. This facility is where the best and brightest guitar builders go to ply their craft for one of the oldest and most-respected guitar companies.

As the Repair & Restoration shop fixes and customizes guitars owned by both the top professional musicians in the world and passionate enthusiasts, the Gibson NV200 Compact Cargo acts as a quick response support vehicle for professional and part-time musicians in need of timely repairs, as well as serving as an educational tool to the public representing the art of guitar building and repair, or luthiery.

NV200 Compact Cargo provides 122.7 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats and a 53-inch cargo height, which is comparable to many standard roof full-size vans. It also offers tall cargo door openings ? including the standard 40/60-split rear doors ? and a low load floor height of 19.5 inches. Payload capacity is rated at 1,500 pounds (S model).

This capability plays right into the heart of the vehicle ? a pullout bench that features an array of luthier?s tools such as calipers, scale rulers, fret files, fret pullers, different types of sandpaper, super glue, wood glue, tuning forks, a radius planer, various guitar parts (strings, tuning machines, frets, nuts, bridges, knobs, linseed oil, potentiometers, pickups), pliers, screw drivers and a soldering station. Luthiers can either extend this bench to the lip of the NV200 to work on instruments or guide in on its pair of casters to a separate location to perform repair or setup work on guitars.

Located directly behind the front seat is a custom rack that holds up to four guitars in various stages of repair and disrepair. The cockpit has been customized to evoke Gibson?s classic designs with wood veneers in the dashboard that evoke classic Gibson materials such as mahogany and flamed maple and special leather-appointed seats.

Gibson Pro Audio is also represented throughout the vehicle with a custom audio system provided by Onkyo, Gibson Pro Audio consumer electronics? brand.

The vehicle is sheathed in a full body wrap that reads, ?Gibson Repair & Restoration? on one side, and ?Gibson Pro Audio? on the other. The wrap also contains images of classic Gibson stringed instruments and Gibson Pro Audio products such as speakers made by Cerwin-Vega! and KRK and Onkyo- and Stanton-branded headphones.

Castelli explains, ?Gibson and Nissan are both Tennessee-based companies that build products worthy of consumer passion yet suitable for everyday use. We?ve sought a way to combine forces for many years now, and the introduction of the 2013 NV200 Compact Cargo van gives us the perfect opportunity to do so. Working with Gibson has been a dream come true for many of us here at Nissan, and we look forward to the next steps collaborating with them.?

The Gibson NV200 Repair & Restoration Van made by Nissan will debut on March 27th at the 2013 New York International Auto Show.

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Source: http://www.lotpro.com/blog/2013/03/24/nissan-and-gibson-combine-forces-with-nv200-mobile-guitar-workshop/

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Harvard's 1st NCAA win brings 'unexpected pride'

Harvard Crimson guard Siyani Chambers (1) celebrates after the Crimson beat New Mexico in the NCAA tournament at EnergySolutions Arena on Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Scott Sommerdorf)

Harvard Crimson guard Siyani Chambers (1) celebrates after the Crimson beat New Mexico in the NCAA tournament at EnergySolutions Arena on Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Scott Sommerdorf)

Harvard's Siyani Chambers (1) celebrates with teammate Christian Webster, right, after defeating New Mexico 68-62 during a second-round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament in Salt Lake City Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Harvard's Kenyatta Smith (25), Laurent Rivard (0) Wesley Saunders (23) huddle in the second half during a second-round game against New Mexico in the NCAA college basketball tournament in Salt Lake City Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Harvard head coachTommy Amaker shouts to his team during a second-round game aginst New Mexico in the NCAA college basketball tournament in Salt Lake City Thursday, March 21, 2013. Harvard defeated New Mexico New Mexico 68-62. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Harvard players celebrate on the bench after beating New Mexico during a second round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament in Salt Lake City Thursday, March 21, 2013. Harvard beat New Mexico 68-62. (AP Photo/George Frey)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? Michael Lesley crisscrossed Harvard Yard, looking up from his copy of David Hume's "The Natural History of Religion" only to avoid the tourists that shuffled through the snow-covered quadrangle.

Did he bother to watch Harvard's victory over No. 10 New Mexico on Thursday night, the first NCAA tournament win in school history?

No.

Will Lesley, a fourth-year doctoral student in religion, tune in when the Crimson play Arizona for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday?

"Absolutely. Are you kidding me?" he said on Friday afternoon, a day after the Ivy League champions upset the third-seeded and heavily favored Lobos 68-62 in Salt Lake City.

"I think the attitude was, 'We'll see what happens,'" said Lesley, who followed the reaction to the game on Facebook. "To see everyone light up, it is exciting."

Harvard undergraduates are on spring break this week, so the dorm windows ringing the Yard were absent of the banners that usually herald, say, a big football game against Yale or a particularly avant-garde student production of a Samuel Beckett play. A day after the Crimson's unprecedented NCAA win, the centuries-old quad was bustling with guided tours in English, Japanese and Spanish but largely absent of students on their way to class.

That didn't stop the Harvard community from celebrating the victory.

"They did a good job, man, I'm happy for them," Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin, the biggest basketball star to come out of Harvard, said after the NBA team's shootaround on Friday morning. "It's a great win. They made history."

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust was in Seoul giving a speech during the game, but a spokesman said she followed the second half closely and called coach Tommy Amaker to congratulate the team and wish them luck in the next round.

Senior Molly Stansik, who was flagged down in her dormitory courtyard, said she missed the game because she flying back from a spring break trip to Puerto Rico on Thursday night. But there were eight or nine other Harvard students on the plane, and one of them was able to stream the basketball game on his computer.

"I could hear him across the plane," Stansik said. "Everyone was screaming and reacting accordingly."

Although the campus was quiet, Lesley watched as the students bonded over social media. "Everyone's rather thrilled," he said.

"At a place like this, people are talking about the first win in 377 years, as if basketball has been around as long," Lesley said with a chuckle. "There's just a lot of unexpected pride."

The oldest and perhaps the most prestigious university in the nation, Harvard has produced a handful of U.S. presidents, dozens of Nobel Laureates and enough bankers, lawyers and politicians (and comedy writers) to prompt the Harvard Lampoon to tweet after the game: "America, we are sorry for messing up your brackets and also your financial system and everything else."

The Crimson football team won the Rose Bowl in the leather-helmet days and famously tied Yale in 1968, and the Harvard rowers can hold their own against Oxford and Cambridge in the Henley Regatta. The school has placed first in the annual U.S. News & World Report academic rankings for five consecutive years.

But, until recently, Harvard has had little to brag about in basketball.

Then Lin emerged as an NBA star in 2011, when the Crimson also won a share of their first-ever Ivy League men's basketball title. And, last year, they won the conference championship outright to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1946. (They lost to Vanderbilt 79-70.)

The chances of a repeat were said to be doomed when Harvard's senior co-captains withdrew from school last fall in the wake of a plagiarism investigation. But senior Christian Webster, who played little last year, and freshman Siyani Chambers emerged to lead the Crimson to a third straight Ivy title.

Harvard was such an underdog that only 4.5 percent of the more than 3 million brackets collected by Yahoo Sports picked Harvard to beat New Mexico. But the Crimson pulled off the biggest surprise of the tournament's first full day, knocking out the Mountain West champions and earning the school's first-ever victory over a team ranked in The Associated Press Top 10.

"They had a rough year, losing the two team captains and relying a lot on freshmen and sophomore players," said Lin, who graduated in 2010 and never made it to the NCAAs. "It's just pretty cool."

And maybe now Harvard is, too.

"You could tell, even last night, just everyone saying 'nerd, geek, whatever, whatever, whatever,'" Lin said. "All that stuff, they keep saying it and, yeah, it's a joke. But I think eventually people will realize that even though you go to Harvard, you can still hoop."

___

Follow Jimmy Golen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jgolen

___

AP Sports Writer Chris Duncan contributed to this story from Houston.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-22-BKC-NCAA-Hail-Harvard/id-49e5be914fa94fedb55ed31f4e2cde37

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AP Photos: Cities go dark for 'Earth Hour'

It's something of a voluntary rolling blackout: Communities around the globe are going dark for an hour on Saturday evening as part of an initiative called "Earth Hour," to raise awareness of climate change.

In more than 7,000 cities and towns across the planet, millions of residents are turning off their lights for an hour from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time to show their environmental concern.

Here are some photos of "Earth Hour" observances.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-cities-dark-earth-hour-202919283.html

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Bombs kill nearly 60 on Iraq invasion anniversary

By Patrick Markey and Kareem Raheem

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda are regaining ground in Iraq, invigorated by the war next door in Syria and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.

One car bomb exploded in a busy Baghdad market, three detonated in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City and another near the entrance of the heavily fortified Green Zone that sent a plume of dark smoke into the air alongside the River Tigris.

A suicide bomber in a truck attacked a police base in a Shi'ite town south of the capital, and another blew himself up inside a restaurant to target a police major in the northern city of Mosul.

"I was driving my taxi and suddenly I felt my car rocked. Smoke was all around. I saw two bodies on the ground. People were running and shouting everywhere," said Ali Radi, a taxi driver caught in one of the blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City.

The Iraq war began shortly before dawn in Baghdad on Thursday, March 20, 2003, with U.S. air strikes on the capital. Shortly afterwards, President George W. Bush, addressing Americans on television late on March 19 U.S. time, said the offensive was under way.

Now a decade after U.S. and Western troops swept Saddam from power, Iraq still struggles with insurgents, sectarian friction and political feuds among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions who share power in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

In a sign of concern over security, the cabinet on Tuesday postponed local elections in two provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, for up to six months because of threats to electoral workers and violence there, according to Maliki's media adviser Ali al-Moussawi. The polls will go ahead elsewhere on April 20.

No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, but Islamic State of Iraq, a wing of al Qaeda, has vowed to take back ground lost in its war with U.S. troops. This year the group has carried out a string of high-profile attacks.

Violence is still below the height of the sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands after Sunni Islamists bombed the Shi'ite Al Askari shrine in 2006, provoking a wave of retaliation by Shi'ite militias.

But security officials say al Qaeda's local wing is regrouping in the vast desert of Anbar province bordering Syria and suicide bombers have carried out attacks nearly twice a week since January, a rate not seen for several years in Iraq.

Further complicating security, thousands of Sunni protesters are also rallying in Anbar against Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led government they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam.

Syria's war next door is also whipping up Iraq's volatile mix. Iraq is exposed to a regional tussle for influence between Turkey, which backs Sunni rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, and Shi'ite Iran, the Syrian leader's main ally. Assad's Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

UNENDING POLITICAL CRISIS

After Operation Iraqi Freedom promised to liberate the Iraqi people, Iraq has struggled with a decade that drove the country into sectarian mayhem which killed tens of thousands and the turmoil of a young democracy emerging out of dictatorship.

Since the last election in 2010, Maliki's Sunni and Kurdish critics have accused him of consolidating his own authority, abusing his control of the security forces to pressure foes and failing to live up to a power-sharing deal.

The political turmoil has only worsened since American troops left Iraq in December 2011, removing the symbolic buffer of U.S. military power and weakening Washington's influence.

Iraq's Arab-led central government and the country's autonomous Kurdistan region, where ethnic Kurds have administered their affairs since 1991, are locked in a feud over control of disputed territories containing some of the world's richest oil reserves.

Both have sent troops from their respective armies to reinforce positions along their contested internal border.

Some of the current tensions may be posturing before the provincial vote and parliamentary elections in 2014, and a full-scale Iraqi breakup looks unlikely.

But after more than a year of crisis, rival Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders are hardening positions along sectarian and ethnic lines.

"Iraqi politics have not transcended sectarian structures. It's an integral part to electioneering," said Ramzy Mardini at the Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies. "When election seasons come around, it's time to push on the fear accelerator."

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/series-bombs-kills-least-22-baghdad-police-062534749.html

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Financial benefits of plant-based, Mediterranean diet

Mar. 20, 2013 ? Researchers from The Miriam Hospital and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank report individuals who participated in a six-week cooking program and followed simple, plant-based recipes decreased their total food spending, purchased healthier food items and improved their food security.

The study, published in the March issue of the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, is believed to be the first to show a decrease in food insecurity -- or a lack of access to nutritional foods for at least some days or meals for members of a household -- as the result of an intervention.

Mary Flynn, Ph.D., RD, LDN, the study's lead author and a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital, designed the study with Andrew Schiff, Ph.D., the chief executive officer of Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the study's co-author. The study is based on Flynn's research of a plant-based diet she developed that emphasizes cooking with olive oil and follows a Mediterranean diet pattern.

"I had a number of people -- mainly women from my breast cancer weight loss study -- say how inexpensive a Mediterranean-style diet was, so I approached the food bank about designing a study using food pantry items for the recipes," says Flynn.

She points out that meat, poultry and seafood are the most expensive items in a food budget, especially the recommended lower-fat versions. Typical households of lower socioeconomic status spend grocery money first on these items, allocating far less to vegetables and fruits. However, by changing the focus to the elimination of foods not needed to improve health -- such as meat, snacks, desserts and carbonated beverages -- a healthy diet can be quite economical, Flynn says.

A total of 83 clients were recruited from emergency food pantries and low-income housing sites for the 34 week study. Sixty-three completed the diet protocol and the six-month follow-up requirement. As part of the study, participants attended six weeks of cooking classes, where instructors prepared quick and easy plant-based recipes that incorporated ingredients like olive oil, whole grain pasta, brown rice and fruits and vegetables. The participants were then followed for six months after the cooking program ended.

Participants were not required to assist in the preparation, but staff discussed the benefits of some of these ingredients and encouraged participants to look for these items in their own food pantry. However, no additional nutrition or food information was provided.

All cooking class participants were provided with a bag of groceries that contained most of the ingredients to make three of the provided recipes for their family members during the six weeks of the cooking classes. Grocery receipts were collected throughout the study and researchers observed significant decreases in purchases of meat, carbonated beverages, desserts and snacks, even though staff never instructed participants not to purchase these items. At the same time, there was an increase in the total number of different vegetables and fruits consumed per month.

"Not only did study participants cut their food spending by more than half, saving nearly $40 per week, we also found that the reliance on a food pantry decreased as well, from 68 percent at the start of the study to 54 percent, demonstrating a clear decline in food insecurity," Flynn says.

Following a plant-based diet also yielded some unexpected health benefits, Flynn adds. Approximately half of all participants lost weight, which was not a study objective, and there was an overall decrease in body mass index, or BMI.

"Our results also suggest that including a few plant-based meals per week is an attainable goal that will not only improve their health and diet, but also lower their food costs," Flynn says.

Flynn is also an associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Lifespan, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Mary M. Flynn, Steven Reinert, Andrew R. Schiff. A Six-Week Cooking Program of Plant-Based Recipes Improves Food Security, Body Weight, and Food Purchases for Food Pantry Clients. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2013; 8 (1): 73 DOI: 10.1080/19320248.2012.758066

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/B7qx-yDh7xA/130320115334.htm

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Engadget Expand wrap-up: Google, Kinect, electric cars, robots, makers and more!

Not all that long ago, we were staring at spreadsheets, table layouts and sketch-ups, squinting our eyes and attempting to wrap our brains around all of it. On Friday, we popped by Fort Mason in San Francisco, to test drive ZBoard's latest and greatest electric skateboard, and things were already underway, the stage was being erected and banners with our familiar logo were draped everywhere. That moment, however, had nothing on the surreality of the following morning, when, bright and early, the companies began setting up tables.

Outside, a Tesla Model S was parked for test drives, and inside were a pair of electric Toyotas, one sporting a giant, decorative plug on its roof. There were big booths from Lenovo and Nokia, an Indie Corner jam-packed with and impressive displays like the the Ekso Bionics robot exoskeleton and Da Vinci's truly awe-inspiring surgical robot. Next to that, was Insert Coin, a gathering of all the semi-finalists for our first-ever startup competition, who had flown from all over to show off a truly diverse and impressive selection of innovation.

On stage, an equally diverse array of panelists joined us, from reps for companies like Google, Microsoft, Toyota, and OUYA, to 3D printing companies, roboticists, futurists, sci-fi writers, space explorers, indie gamers and a multimedia DJ / philosopher. Frankly, we're exhausted. And we can't wait to do it again. See you in New York.

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Cameras, Displays, Misc, Gaming, GPS, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, Laptops, Peripherals, Robots, Tablets, Transportation, Wearables, Wireless, Storage, Networking, Science, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Alt

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/09dXMO4JjAI/

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FBI to reveal new details of 1990 Boston museum heist

BOSTON (Reuters) - The FBI on Monday plans to reveal new information about one of Boston's longest-running crime mysteries: Who was behind the 1990 theft of 13 paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the costliest art theft in U.S. history.

Officials declined to release details ahead of a 2 p.m. ET press conference, where they plan to reveal "investigative developments" as well as a publicity campaign related to the theft.

The 13 paintings, including Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee" and Edouard Manet's "Chez Tortoni," were stolen on the night of March 18, 1990, when two men dressed as police officers arrived at the private museum's front door and a security guard let them in.

The thieves allegedly overpowered both guards, who were found duct-taped to chairs in the museum's basement the next morning.

The FBI solved Boston's other long-running crime mystery in June 2011, when it found accused mobster James "Whitey" Bulger hiding in a seaside California community. Bulger was arrested on a tip that came in after the FBI launched a publicity campaign aimed at tracking him down; he had been on the run since 1994.

The Gardner Museum was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner, an art collector who died in 1924. Her will contained very particular conditions on the running of the museum, including the arrangement of her collection and free admission to anyone named Isabella, a practice it continues today.

(This version of the story corrects the spelling to "Stewart" from "Stuart" throughout.)

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-reveal-details-1990-boston-museum-heist-160339345.html

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Elite athletes also excel at some cognitive tasks

Mar. 18, 2013 ? New research suggests that elite athletes -- Olympic medalists in volleyball, for example -- perform better than the rest of us in yet another way. These athletes excel not only in their sport of choice but also in how fast their brains take in and respond to new information -- cognitive abilities that are important on and off the court.

The study, of 87 top-ranked Brazilian volleyball players (some of them medalists in the Beijing and London Olympics) and 67 of their nonathletic contemporaries, also found that being an athlete minimizes the performance differences that normally occur between women and men. Female athletes, the researchers found, were more like their male peers in the speed of their mental calculations and reaction times, while nonathletic females performed the same tasks more slowly than their male counterparts.

The study appears in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

"I think we have learned that athletes are different from us in some ways," said University of Illinois psychology professor and Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer, who led the study with graduate student Heloisa Alves.

"We found that athletes were generally able to inhibit behavior, to stop quickly when they had to, which is very important in sport and in daily life, " Kramer said. "They were also able to activate, to pick up information from a glance and to switch between tasks more quickly than nonathletes. I would say these were modest differences, but they were interesting differences nonetheless."

Overall, the athletes were faster at memory tests and tasks that required them to switch between tasks. They were quicker to notice things in their peripheral vision and to detect subtle changes in a scene. And in general, they were better able to accomplish tasks while ignoring confusing or irrelevant information.

Perhaps the most interesting discovery was that female athletes had significant cognitive advantages over their nonathletic counterparts, Kramer said, advantages that minimized the subtle speed differences between them and the men. The female athletes were faster than their nonathletic peers at detecting changes in a scene and could more quickly pick out relevant details from a distracting background. Their performance on these and the other tasks was on par with the male athletes, whereas nonathletic males consistently outperformed their female peers.

Nonathletes excelled at only one of the cognitive tests the researchers administered. In this test, called the stopping task, participants were asked to type a "Z" or "/" key as soon as they saw it on a computer screen -- unless they heard a tone shortly after the character appeared, in which case they were told to refrain from responding. Nonathletes tended to be faster in cases where the tone never sounded, while athletes were better at inhibiting their responses after hearing a tone.

The ability to inhibit a response is one marker of what brain researchers call "executive function," the capacity to control, plan and regulate one's behavior, Kramer said. While it has obvious advantages in sport, the ability to quickly inhibit an action also is useful in daily life, he said.

"One way to think about it is you're in your car and you're ready to start off at a light and you catch in your side vision a car or a bicyclist that you didn't see a second ago," he said. Being able to stop after having decided to go can be a lifesaver in that situation.

"So both facilitating and inhibiting behavior is important," he said.

Kramer said the athletes' slower performance on this one task might be the result of a strategic decision they had made to wait and see if the tone sounded before they committed to pressing a key.

"My bet is that the athletes were just learning to read the task a little better," he said. "So if I'm a little slower in going, I'll be a little better at stopping if I need to."

All in all, the new findings add to the evidence that those who spend years training on specific physical tasks tend to also have enhanced cognitive abilities, Kramer said.

"Our understanding is imperfect because we don't know whether these abilities in the athletes were 'born' or 'made,' " he said. "Perhaps people gravitate to these sports because they're good at both. Or perhaps it's the training that enhances their cognitive abilities as well as their physical ones. My intuition is that it's a little bit of both."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Heloisa Alves, Michelle W. Voss, Walter R. Boot, Andrea Deslandes, Victor Cossich, Jose Inacio Salles, Arthur F. Kramer. Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Elite Volleyball Players. Frontiers in Psychology, 2013; 4 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00036

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/MGGdIeiAfaw/130318151634.htm

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After decade of criticism, student grouping rises (The Arizona Republic)

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Bandana Kaur: Sikhism's Ecological Roots: Protecting Mother Earth

Earlier this winter, seventy new medicinal plants were sown in the garden of Naulakha Bagh in Kiratpur Sahib, Punjab, along the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. As aged fingers reached down through the dirt to create space for young saplings, this group of Sikh elders revived a centuries old tradition of planting culturally important plants at historic Sikh sites.

In fact, it was on this ground that five centuries earlier, the seventh Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Har Rai Ji, established a wildlife sanctuary and planted flowers, medicinal herbs, and fruit-bearing trees. According to Sikh tradition these efforts created a salubrious environment, attracting birds and animals to the town and turning it into an idyllic place to live. Naulakha Bagh became famous for wide varieties of rare medicinal herbs, and as memories recount, event the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan sought medicine from Guru Har Rai Ji for curing his son, Dara Shikoh.

To honor the Sikh tradition of preserving 'Mata Dharat' (Mother Earth), Sikhs will host a week of celebrations for 'Sikh Vatavaran Diwas' (Environment Day) the third week of March, which also corresponds to the New Year in the Sikh Nanakshahi calendar. The environmental celebrations this year consist of a total of 1,500 grassroots projects by Sikhs across six continents to protect our planet: from tree plantings to sapling distributions, water conservation projects to solar energy installations, organic farming workshops to nature marches through streets and villages. All these celebrations are inspired by Sikh teachings that recognize the Divine force as Nature.

Sacred Earth in the Sikh Tradition

The Sikh tradition affirms the sanctity of the earth.

The teachings of the Sikhs are contained in the Guru Granth Sahib, a compilation of the writings of the Sikh Gurus (1469-1708) describing the universal presence of the Divine. Sikhs honor Guru Granth Sahib as their timeless Guru and teacher.

As described in the Guru Granth Sahib, the ecological basis of Sikh tradition rests in the understanding that the Creator ('Qadir') and the Creation ('Qudrat') are One. The Divine permeates all life, and is inherent in the manifest creation around us, from the wind that blows across land and skies, to the water that flows through rivers and seas, to the forests and fields that humans rely on for food and shelter, as well as all the creatures of land and sea that depend on the earth for sustenance. The Sikh Gurus teach that there is no duality between that which makes a flower grow and the petals we are able to touch and sense with our fingers.

The Sikh Gurus also refer to the earth as 'Dharamsaal,' a religious sanctuary where union with the Divine is attained. Guru Nanak describes this in the morning recitation for Sikhs known as Jap Ji, that amid the rhythms of Creation, the changing seasons, air, water, and fire, the Creator established the earth as the home for humans to realize their Divinity in this world.

The Sikh Gurus' writings are also a rich compendium on the biodiversity of South Asia. Throughout Guru Granth Sahib, birds and trees especially are used to describe the metaphoric relationship between a disciple and the Divine. Traditional birds like the peacock, flamingo, hawk, cuckoo, nightingale, crane, swan, owl, and the koyal, and trees like the banyan, pipal, and sandalwood of Punjab are used in the Gurus' metaphors, along with many, many other species. This diversity of life affirm's the Divine's creative current through land, water, and sky.

This understanding of the universe is all embedded within the Khalsa ideal for Sikhs, a word that also signifies the 'sovereign' body of Sikhs who make a commitment to protecting the most marginalized among us, a strong call to environmental justice.

The Path Before Us

The challenge that rests before us is tremendous, and weighs a heavy burden on human wellbeing and the survival of our planet. With reports surfacing daily of the severity of the ecological crisis before us, can a spiritual tradition that is centuries old really stand the test of our planetary systems today?

Take the ecological crisis currently facing the region of Punjab as an example, where 25 million of the world's Sikhs reside. Punjab was the testing ground of the Green Revolution, which sought to increase food production for the subcontinent in the 1960s, but not without the serious erosion of the region's ecological base. This once thriving alluvial plain home to croplands interspersed with grasslands, forests, wetlands, and rivers, now has fallen extremely low in national environmental rankings. Due to unchecked demand on resources, the region claims some of the highest damage to soil and water systems, severe biodiversity losses, and pollution from industrial units that spew named carcinogens into waterways.

The EcoSikh movement was born of the vision that the Sikh Gurus' message is indeed relevant for our time, and that a harmonious relationship with our planet a human life. This collective Sikh effort for the environment not only represents the spiritual foundation to protect our environment, but also the power of 25 million working together.

It is the power of Sikhs from all over the world affirming their connection with the planet.

It is the power of Sikhs to work with scientists, policy makers, and business owners and remind us all of the inherent value of Nature.

It is the power of Sikh elders sharing knowledge that sustained earth's systems for generations, and young people in choosing to honor it.

It is the power of the Sikh Gurus that remind us that living a spiritually exalted life means caring deeply about Creation.

In other words, the mainstream environmental dialogue is strengthened by voices of spiritual traditions that not only represent sizable populations but also inspire us to a deeper environmental sensibility and action. This is why 'Sikh Vatavaran Diwas,' our environment day, is not just about what happens today, but it is about our future, and living powerfully in the present so that others may do so one day as well.

It is on this day, the 545th Sikh New Year, that EcoSikh wishes all a happy Sikh Vatavaran Diwas - Environment Day. May all remain spiritually exalted, and always in service of the Universal, Creative force that sustains this earth.

Follow EcoSikh on Twitter: @EcoSikh

?

Follow Bandana Kaur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BandanaKM

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bandana-kaur/sikh-environment-day-the-ecological-roots-of-sikhism_b_2884402.html

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