Appalling: 633 Rhinos Poached

More than 60 percent were killed in the country's largest wildlife reserve, the Kruger National Park. Read more

 

Endangered Moon Bears Find Home in China Sanctuary

 

Two beautiful moon bears find a new home safe from the cruel practice of bile farming. More

‘Giant serpent’ invades island near Phuket in Thailand

Mysterious giant tracks appeared overnight on Friday December 14 on Koh Mai Pai (Bamboo Island, just north of Phi Phi), emerging from the forest, going through the local school and then into the sea, leaving students, parents and teachers worrying that they were made by some enormous serpent. The tracks consisted of a long line of pairs of circles, each circle 20 centimetres in diameter. Local experts estimated that the serpent that made the tracks must be at least 15 metres long.

Pannee Atwaree, a teacher at the school, alerted Damrong Sinto, President of the Koh Panyee Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor), who went to inspect the tracks, which emerged from the forested hill in front of the school, then wound through the school entrance, across the playing field, through the open ground floor of the school and out into the back, before disappearing into the waters of Phang Nga Bay.

Baan Koh Mai Pai village chief Anan Sansamuth noted that the night before they saw the trace, the sea level was very high. At around 11pm he heard some ducks quacking frantically, but thought nothing of it. He said some goats and ducks on the island had disappeared recently but villagers had thought they were eaten by a python – many years ago an eight-meter python weighing 70 kilos was caught on the island.

After surveying the tracks, Mr Damrong ordered Mr Anan to run the island’s electricity generator all night and to prepare implements for catching or at least defending against the supposed serpent. Mr Damrong and Koh Panyee OrBorTor officers, along with Bamboo Island civil defense volunteers, have also established a 24-hour watch until the mysterious animal is found.

Parrots Have Personal Musical Tastes

They are known as great mimics, but now scientists have discovered that parrots also have varied musical tastes - and an intense dislike of dance tunes. Researchers monitored the listening preferences of a pair of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and found that while one favoured soothing 'middle of the road' music, the other opted for more upbeat, modern pop.

Both birds also enjoyed rock and folk music and 'danced' along, by bobbing their heads and legs. They even 'sang along,' by squawking. But neither animal appreciated electronic dance music, which left them both distressed.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Don't let them fool you the fairytale is older still than what the Egyptians copied. And don't forget Mithras from Roman tradition - same story.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Cape Town, South Africa

Kangar, Malaysia

Paris, France

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Aquadilla, Puerto Rico

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Tbilisi, Georgia

Waterloo, Canada

Bangi, Malaysia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Izmit, Turkey

Puchong, Malaysia

Centurion, South Africa

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

George Town, Malaysia

Phuket, Thailand

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Petaling, Jaya, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Sampaloc, Philippines

Klang, Malaysia

Bekasi, Indonesia

Lahore, Pakistan

Ampang, Malaysia

Doha, Qatar

Phom Penh, Cambodia

Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Belgrade, Serbia

Dumaguete, Philippines

Alor Setar, Malaysia

San Jose, Costa Rica

Cainta, Philippines

Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Cairo, Egypt

Milan, Italy

 

Today is Xmas

We are posting a minimum number of posts over the next few days so that the editors and staff can celebrate the various holidays and festivals occurring right now.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

Xmas is a time of merrymaking and feasting. North American customs are a combination of those of the various European countries from which the original settlers came. On Xmas Eve children hang stockings for Santa Claus to fill with gifts. The Xmas tree, usually an evergreen, was first used in Germany. Topped with a star or spire and decorated with colored lights and shiny ornaments, the tree plays an important part in the celebration. Mistletoe was sacred to the Druids, priests of ancient Britain and Gaul. The Norse used holly and the Yule log to keep away evil spirits. Gifts were exchanged during the Roman celebration of the Saturnalia, a feast to the god Saturn. Gift-giving came to symbolize the gifts Odin left in exchange for the oats left for Odin's horse as he rode the sky on mid-winter's night. The most popular Xmas legend however, is that of Santa Claus, who is modeled after Odin.
376		In Milan, Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, forces the emperor Theodosius to perform public penance for his massacre.
800		The pope crowns Charlemagne emperor in Rome.
1066		William I is crowned king of England.
1621		The governor of New Plymouth prevents newcomers from playing cards.
1651		The General Court of Boston levies a five shilling fine on anyone caught "observing any such day as Xmas."
1776		Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops during the American Revolution. Washington hoped to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Xmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey.
1861		Stonewall Jackson spends Xmas with his wife; their last together.
1862		John Hunt Morgan and his raiders clash with Union forces near Bear Wallow, Kentucky.
1862		President and Mrs. Lincoln visit hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this Xmas Day.
1912		Italy lands troops in Albania to protect its interests during a revolt there.
1914		German and British troops on the Western Front declare an unofficial truce to celebrate Xmas during World War I.
1918		A revolt erupts in Berlin.
1925		U.S. troops in Nicaragua disarm insurgents in support of the Diaz regime.
1927		The Mexican congress opens land to foreign investors, reversing the 1917 ban enacted to preserve the domestic economy.
1939		Finnish troops enter Soviet territory.
1941		Free French troops occupy the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
1944		Prime Minister Winston Churchill goes to Athens to seek an end to the Greek civil war.
1946		Chiang Kai-shek offers a new Chinese constitution in Nanking pledging universal suffrage.
1950		Scottish nationalists steal the Stone of Scone from the British coronation throne in Westminster Abbey. The 485 pound stone was recovered in April 1951.
1962		The Bay of Pigs captives, upon their return to the United States, vow to return to Cuba and topple Fidel Castro.
1965		Entertainer Chris Noel gives her first performance for the USO at two hospitals in California, she will eventually entertain in Vietnam.
1973		U.S. astronauts on-board the Skylab space station take a seven-hour walk in space and photograph the comet Kohoutek.
1976		Over 100 Muslims, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, die when their boat sinks.
1979		Egypt begins major restoration of the Sphinx.
1991		Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's first and last executive president, resigns. The Soviet Union no longer exists.
2006		James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul", dies at age 73.

Non Sequitur

Xmas Sky Show

Tuesday evening, after you've had Christmas dinner with the family, go outside set up the telescope if you have one. Jupiter and the moon are having a Christmas conjunction.

For anyone who gets a telescope for Christmas, the timing is perfect. Jupiter and the Moon are among the most satisfying targets for backyard optics. A quick sweep of the telescope from Jupiter to the Moon and back again will reveal Jupiter's storms and cloud belts, the Moon's mountains and impact craters, and of course the four Galilean satellites circling the giant planet like a miniature solar system.

Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot will also be on display--and it is worth a look. Astronomers recently announced that the enormous swirling storm, twice as wide as the planet Earth, is "spinning up."

Actually, explains planetary scientist Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "the Red Spot is shrinking." He likens it to "the iconic picture of a figure skater pulling her arms in to spin faster. As the size contracts, the spin rate increases."  

Even if you don't have a telescope, you'll still be able to see Jupiter, although not the red spot. More

The Best Camera-trap Pictures of 2012

National Geographic posted a gallery of six animal self-portraits from all over the world. Pictured here is a common genet captured by camera trap in Yemen. They are all beautiful, but I don't understand why this one didn't make the cut. More

Cutest Baby Animal Photos of 2012

We're still here, so take a tour of the cutest baby animal photos of 2012. Read more

A Baby Orangutan And Her Proud Mother

Proud simian mother Rosa is happy with all the attention her baby Sayang is getting at the Frankfurt Zoo, and she wants to let her cute little critter shine for all to see.
Sayang, on the other hand, is still a bit shy about all the oohs and aahs, and would rather curl up in her mother's arms than put on a show for the zoo's visitors.
Someday Sayang will ham it up, but for now she just needs a belly full of warm milk and a mother's embrace.

More

Oldest of zoo gorillas turns 56 in central Ohio

The first gorilla born in a zoo is turning 56 and celebrating her birthday with some special treats at her central Ohio home.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums says the female western lowland gorilla named Colo is the oldest gorilla in any zoo. She was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in 1956.

The zoo marked Colo's birthday Saturday with a cake specially prepared for her and other gifts, including her favorite food, tomatoes. The zoo included guests in the fun by having them sing "Happy Birthday."

Colo is a mother of three. Her family tree includes more than two dozen descendants living at zoos across the country.

Christmas Bird Count Underway

The 113th annual Christmas Bird Count is now underway, with Audubon making it easier than ever for you, your family and friends to participate in this fun and rewarding holiday tradition. Read more

Animal Pictures

 

The Daily Drift

It's Xmas Eve

Some of our readers today have been in:

Phuket, Thailand

Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Kangar, Malaysia

Cainta, Philippines

Waterloo, Canada

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Cairo, Egypt

Cape Town, South Africa

Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

San Jose, Costa Rica

Izmit, Turkey

George Town, Malaysia

Lahore, Pakistan

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Puchong, Malaysia

Sampaloc, Philippines

Belgrade, Serbia

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Doha, Qatar

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangi, Malaysia

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Bekasi, Indonesia

Ampang, Malaysia

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Minsk, Belarus

Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Ankara, Turkey

Hanoi, Vietnam

Today is Xmas Eve

 We are posting a minimum number of posts over the next few days so that the editors and staff can celebrate the various holidays and festivals occurring right now.  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1638		The Ottomans under Murad IV recapture Baghdad from Safavid Persia.
1812		Joel Barlow, aged 58, American poet and lawyer, dies from exposure near Vilna, Poland, during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Barlow was on a diplomatic mission to the emperor for President Madison.
1814		A treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, ending the War of 1812, is signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news does not reach the United States until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at New Orleans).
1861		The USS Gem of the Sea destroys the British blockade runner Prince of Wales off the coast at Georgetown, S.C.
1862		A Christmas present arrives a day early for the Federal troops at Columbus, Kentucky, in the way of artillery on board the USS New Era.
1914		Over 577,000 Allied soldiers are to spend Christmas as prisoners in Germany.
1917		The Kaiser warns Russia that he will use "iron fist" and "shining sword" if peace is spurned.
1943		General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed the Allied Supreme Commander, even though almost everyone believed the position would go to American Chief of Staff George C. Marshall.
1947		An estimated 20,000 communists, led by guerrilla General Markos Vafthiades proclaim the Free Greek Government in northern Greece. They issue a call to arms to establish the regime throughout the nation.
1956		African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats.
1963		New York's Idlewild Airport is renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.
1964		The U.S. headquarters in Saigon is hit by a bomb killing two officers.
1966		A Soviet research vehicle soft-lands on the moon.
1967		The Greek Junta frees ex-Premier Papandreou.
1968		The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon.
1970		Nine GIs are killed and nine are wounded by friendly fire in Vietnam.
1972		Hanoi bars all peace talks with the United States until U.S. air raids over North Vietnam stop.
1974		An oil tanker's spill pollutes 1,600 square miles of Japan's Inland Sea.

Non Sequitur

Oxlajuj Baktun

 "End of an Era, More of the Same," photo essay by James Rodriguez

James Rodriguez, a brave and talented photojournalist in Guatemala, has a striking photo-essay up on his blog.

On this occasion I share a photo essay documenting events in the Guatemalan northern city of Huehuetenango during the much-awaited end of the Mayan Oxlajuj Baktun. These provide a clear reflection of the divisions and challenges faced by Mayan communities today. The media exploited erroneous apocalyptic rumors, the government and business sectors viewed it as an opportunity to gain economically through tourism, and progressive groups seized the opportunity “to strengthen ancestral wisdom and never-ending search for balance” while vindicating what seem never-ending struggles for justice, inclusion, and self-determination.

View the full essay here. Photo editors, you can license the pics (and support his work) here. Below, Anselma states: “I think it was the foreigners who invented this whole end-of-the-world scenario so they could make movies and profit from it.”

Mayan Priests denied access to Guatemala ceremonial sites

The Guatemalan gov't. Tourism board's "official" Oxlajuj Baktun celebration(with modification).

At Global Voices, Renata Avila writes about how indigenous practitioners of traditional Maya spiritual practices were once again marginalized on the day where it seemed everyone in the world was talking about "ancient Mayan beliefs." What a crock and an outrage.

Guatemala, the heart of Mayan culture, has started their festivities for the 13 Baktun - the last cycle of the Mayan calendar, due to end on Friday, December 21, 2012. But sadly the celebrations were dominated by staged government shows which were neither led nor shared by indigenous communities or spiritual leaders.
On stage, non-indigenous peoples were wearing indigenous clothes in a folklore show while non-indigenous attendees from the Guatemalan elites were in the most important ceremonial Mayan center, Tikal, waiting for the new era to arrive. Indigenous peoples were left outside, were they were demonstrating, playing the traditional instrument marimba.

Racism against the indigenous population is rampant in Guatemala, where previous governments waged what was effectively a 36-year civil war against rural Maya. Current president Otto Pérez Molina is a former military officer charged with genocide and torture during that war.
"Institutional, interpersonal, and structural racism" are reflected in the exclusions reflected in the new Mayan era celebrations, Renata continues.
"Let's hope the Mayan priests will be allowed in and celebrate according their traditions and beliefs on the following days, as the festivities end on December 30 and that their voices and demands are finally heard by the international community."

More.

Rising Life Expectancy – but not in the US

In the news this week was a huge British study in The Lancetabout longevity trends worldwide. The headlines were about the ...

Continue Reading 

Trojan horse 'eliminates' cancer

Trojan horse 'eliminates' cancer

An experimental 'Trojan-horse' cancer therapy has completely eliminated prostate cancer in experiments on mice, according to UK researchers.

Telepresence robots let employees 'beam' into work

Engineer Dallas Goecker attends meetings, jokes with colleagues and roams the office building just like other employees at his company in Silicon Valley.

But Goecker isn't in California. He's more than 2,300 miles away, working at home in Seymour, Indiana.

It's all made possible by the Beam — a mobile video-conferencing machine that he can drive around his company's offices and workshops in Palo Alto. The five-foot-tall device, topped with a large video screen, gives him a physical presence that makes him and his colleagues feel like he's actually there.

"This gives you that casual interaction that you're used to at work," Goecker said, speaking on a Beam. "I'm sitting in my desk area with everybody else. I'm part of their conversations and their socializing."

Suitable Technologies, which makes the Beam, is now one of more than a dozen companies that sell so-called telepresence robots. These remote-controlled machines are equipped with video cameras, speakers, microphones and wheels that allow users to see, hear, talk and "walk" in faraway locations.

More and more employees are working remotely, thanks to computers, smartphones, email, instant messaging and video-conferencing. But those technologies are no substitute for actually being in the office, where casual face-to-face conversations allow for easy collaboration and camaraderie.

Telepresence-robot makers are trying to bridge that gap with wheeled machines — controlled over wireless Internet connections — that give remote workers a physical presence in the workplace.
These robotic stand-ins are still a long way from going mainstream, with only a small number of organizations starting to use them. The machines can be expensive, difficult to navigate or even get stuck if they venture into areas with poor Internet connectivity. Stairs can be lethal, and non-techies might find them too strange to use regularly.
"There are still a lot of questions, but I think the potential is really great," said Pamela Hinds, co-director of Stanford University's Center on Work, Technology, & Organization. "I don't think face-to-face is going away, but the question is, how much face-to-face can be replaced by this technology?"
Technology watchers say these machines — sometimes called remote presence devices — could be used for many purposes. They could let managers inspect overseas factories, salespeople greet store customers, family members check on elderly relatives or art lovers to tour foreign museums.
Some physicians are already seeing patients in remote hospitals with the RP-VITA robot co-developed by Santa-Barbara, Calif.,-based InTouch Health and iRobot, the Bedford, Mass.,-based maker of the Roomba vacuum.
The global market for telepresence robots is projected to reach $13 billion by 2017, said Philip Solis, research director for emerging technologies at ABI Research.
The robots have attracted the attention of Russian venture capitalist Dimitry Grishin, who runs a $25 million fund that invests in early-stage robotics companies.
"It's difficult to predict how big it will be, but I definitely see a lot of opportunity," Grishin said. "Eventually it can be in each home and each office."

His Grishin Robotics fund recently invested $250,000 in a startup called Double Robotics. The Sunnyvale, Calif.,-company started selling a Segway-like device called the Double that holds an Apple iPad, which has a built-in video-conferencing system called FaceTime. The Double can be controlled remotely from an iPad or iPhone.

So far, Double Robotics has sold more than 800 units that cost $1,999 each, said co-founder Mark DeVidts.
The Beam got its start as a side project at Willow Garage, a robotics company in Menlo Park where Goecker worked as an engineer.
A few years ago, he moved back to his native Indiana to raise his family, but he found it difficult to collaborate with engineering colleagues using existing video-conferencing systems.
"I was struggling with really being part of the team," Goecker said. "They were doing all sorts of wonderful things with robotics. It was hard for me to participate."
So Goecker and his colleagues created their own telepresence robot. The result: the Beam and a new company to develop and market it.
At $16,000 each, the Beam isn't cheap. But Suitable Technologies says it was designed with features that make "pilots" and "locals" feel the remote worker is physically in the room: powerful speakers, highly sensitive microphones and robust wireless connectivity.
The company began shipping Beams last month, mostly to tech companies with widely dispersed engineering teams, officials said.

"Being there in person is really complicated — commuting there, flying there, all the different ways people have to get there. Beam allows you to be there without all that hassle," said CEO Scott Hassan, beaming in from his office at Willow Garage in nearby Menlo Park.

Not surprisingly, Suitable Technologies has fully embraced the Beam as a workplace tool. On any given day, up to half of its 25 employees "beam" into work, with employees on Beams sitting next to their flesh-and-blood colleagues and even joining them for lunch in the cafeteria.

Software engineer Josh Faust beams in daily from Hawaii, where he moved to surf, and plans to spend the winter hitting the slopes in Lake Tahoe. He can't play ping-pong or eat the free, catered lunches in Palo Alto, but he otherwise feels like he's part of the team.

"I'm trying to figure out where exactly I want to live. This allows me to do that without any of the instability of trying to find a different job," Faust said, speaking on a Beam from Kaanapali, Hawaii. "It's pretty amazing."

Boeing engineers use spuds to improve in-air Wi-Fi

 If the wireless Internet connection during your holiday flight seems more reliable than it used to, you could have the humble potato to thank.

While major airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi on many flights, the signal strength can be spotty. Airlines and aircraft makers have been striving to improve this with the growing use of wireless devices and the number of people who don't want to be disconnected, even 35,000 feet up.

Engineers at Chicago-based Boeing Co. used sacks of potatoes as stand-ins for passengers as they worked to eliminate weak spots in in-flight wireless signals. They needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they couldn't ask people to sit motionless for days while data was gathered.

"That's where potatoes come into the picture," Boeing spokesman Adam Tischler said.

It turns out that potatoes — because of their water content and chemistry — absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body does, making them suitable substitutes for airline passengers.
"It's a testament to the ingenuity of these engineers. They didn't go in with potatoes as the plan," Tischler said.
Recapping the serendipitous path that led to better onboard wireless, Tischler said a member of the research team stumbled across an article in the Journal of Food Science describing research in which 15 vegetables and fruits were evaluated for their dielectric properties, or the way they transmit electric force without conduction.
Its conclusions led the Boeing researchers to wonder if potatoes might serve just as well as humans during their own signal testing. Despite some skepticism, they ended up buying 20,000 pounds of them.
Video and photos of the work, which started in 2006, show a decommissioned airplane loaded with row upon row of potato sacks that look like large, lumpy passengers. The sacks sit eerily still in the seats as the engineers collect data on the strength of wireless signals in various spots.

The Boeing engineers added some complicated statistical analysis and the result was a proprietary system for fine tuning Internet signals so they would be strong and reliable wherever a laptop was used on a plane.

Boeing says the system also ensures Wi-Fi signals won't interfere with the plane's sensitive navigation and communications equipment.

"From a safety standpoint, you want to know what the peak signals are, what's the strongest signal one of our communications and navigation systems might see from a laptop or 150 laptops or 350 laptops," Boeing engineer Dennis Lewis explains in a video.

In a nod to the humor in using a tuber to solve a high-tech problem, researchers dubbed the project Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution, or SPUDS.

The company says better Wi-Fi signals can be found already on three Boeing aircraft models flown by major airlines: 777, 747-8 and the 787 Dreamliner.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

 

Cumulus Cloud

Some of our readers today have been in:

Doha, Qatar

Hanoi, Vietnam

Bekasi, Indonesia

Aquadilla, Puerto Rico

Belgrade, Serbia

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Waterloo, Canada

Bagkok, Thailand

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cape Town, South Africa

Panama, Panama

George Town, Malaysia

Izmit, Turkey

Jakarta, Indonesia

Puchong, Malaysia

Phuket, Thailand

Lima, Peru

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Minsk, Belarus

Manchester, England

Ampang, Malaysia

Ankara, Turkey

Dublin, Ireland

Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Today is Festivus

 We are posting a minimum number of posts over the next few days so that the editors and staff can celebrate the various holidays and festivals occurring right now.  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1861		Lord Lyons, The British minister to America presents a formal complaint to secretary of state, William Seward, regarding the Trent affair.
1900		The Federal Party, which recognizes American sovereignty, is formed in the Philippines.
1919		Great Britain institutes a new constitution for India.
1921		President Warren G. Harding frees Socialist Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners.
1933		Pope Pius XI condemns the Nazi sterilization program.
1937		London warns Rome to stop anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
1939		The first Canadian troops arrive in Britain.
1940		Chiang Kai-shek dissolves all Communist associations in China.
1941		Despite throwing back an earlier Japanese amphibious assault, the U.S. Marines and Navy defenders on Wake Island capitulate to a second Japanese invasion.
1944		General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirms the death sentence of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American shot for desertion since the Civil War.
1947		President Harry S Truman grants a pardon to 1,523 who had evaded the World War II draft.
1948		Japan's Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo and six other collaborators are hanged for war crimes.
1950		General Walton H. Walker, the commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, is killed in a jeep accident. Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgeway is named his successor.
1967		U.S. Navy SEALs are ambushed during an operation southeast of Saigon.
1974		The B-1 bomber makes its first successful test flight.
1986		The Voyager completes the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load of fuel. The experimental aircraft, piloted Americans Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California after nine days and four minutes in the sky.

Non Sequitur

Audits of businesses for illegal immigrants rising

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reached its highest number yet of companies audited for illegal immigrants on their payrolls this past fiscal year. Audits of employer I-9 forms increased from 250 in fiscal year 2007 to more than 3,000 in 2012. From fiscal years 2009 to 2012, the total amount of fines grew to nearly $13 million from $1 million. The number of company managers arrested has increased to 238, according to data provided by ICE.

The investigations of companies have been one of the pillars of President Barack Obama's immigration policy.

When Obama recently spoke about addressing immigration reform in his second term, he said any measure should contain penalties for companies that purposely hire illegal immigrants. It's not a new stand, but one he will likely highlight as his administration launches efforts to revamp the nation's immigration system.

"Our goal is compliance and deterrence," said Brad Bench, special agent in charge at ICE's Seattle office. "The majority of the companies we do audits on end up with no fines at all, but again it's part of the deterrence method. If companies know we're out there, looking across the board, they're more likely to bring themselves into compliance."

While the administration has used those numbers to bolster their record on immigration enforcement, advocates say the audits have pushed workers further underground by causing mass layoffs and disrupted business practices.

When the ICE audit letter arrived at Belco Forest Products, management wasn't entirely surprised. Two nearby businesses in Shelton, a small timber town on a bay off Washington state's Puget Sound, had already been investigated.
But the 2010 inquiry became a months-long process that cost the timber company experienced workers and money. It was fined $17,700 for technicalities on their record keeping.
"What I don't like is the roll of the dice," said Belco's chief financial officer Tom Behrens. "Why do some companies get audited and some don't? Either everyone gets audited or nobody does. Level the playing field."
Belco was one of 339 companies fined in fiscal year 2011 and one of thousands audited that year.
Employers are required to have their workers fill out an I-9 form that declares them authorized to work in the country. Currently, an employer needs only to verify that identifying documents look real.
The audits, part of a $138 million worksite enforcement effort, rely on ICE officers scouring over payroll records to find names that don't match Social Security numbers and other identification databases.
The audits "don't make any sense before a legalization program," said Daniel Costa, an immigration policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "You're leaving the whole thing up to an employer's eyesight and subjective judgment, that's the failure of the law. There's no verification at all. Then you have is the government making a subjective judgment about subjective judgment."

An AP review of audits that resulted in fines in fiscal year 2011 shows that the federal government is fining industries across the country reliant on manual labor and that historically have hired immigrants. The data provides a glimpse into the results of a process affecting thousands of companies and thousands of workers nationwide.

Over the years, ICE has switched back-and-forth between making names of the companies fined public or not. Lately, ICE has emphasized its criminal investigations of managers, such as a Dunkin' Donuts manager in Maine sentenced to home arrest for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants or a manager of an Illinois hiring firm who got 18 months in prison.

Many employers also wonder how ICE picks the companies it probes.

"Geography is not a factor. The size of the company is not a factor. And the industry it's in is not a factor. We can audit any company anywhere of any size," Bench said. He added ICE auditors follow leads from the public, other employers, employees and do perform some random audits.

But ICE auditors hit ethnic stores, restaurants, bakeries, manufacturing companies, construction, food packaging, janitorial services, catering, dairies and farms. The aviation branch of corporate giant GE, franchises of sandwich shop Subway and a subsidiary of food product company Heinz were among some of the companies with national name recognition. GE was fined $2,000.

In fiscal year 2011, the most recent year reviewed by AP, the median fine was $11,000. The state with the most workplaces fined was Texas with 63, followed by New Jersey with 37.

The lowest fine was $90 to a Massachusetts fishing company. The highest fine was $394,944 to an employment agency in Minneapolis, according to the data released to AP through a public records request.

A Subway spokesman said the company advises franchise owners to follow the law. A Heinz spokesman declined comment.

Bench didn't have specifics on what percentage of fines come from companies having illegal immigrants on their payroll, as opposed to technical paperwork fines in recent years.

Julie Wood, a former deputy director at ICE who now runs a consulting firm, said she'd like to see the burden of proving the legality of a company's workforce go from the employer to the government. She'd like to see a type of program, such as E-Verify, be implemented with the I-9 employment form. E-Verify is a voluntary and free program for private employers that checks a workers eligibility.

"At the end of the day, the fine is the least of it," she said. "Usually the company will spend more on legal fees. But it is a huge headache for the company to lose workers."

Wood said she'd like to see the agency go after more criminal charges and focus on companies that treat workers inhumanely.

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Worker formally reprimanded for excessive farting

A federal employee was formally reprimanded this month for excessive workplace flatulence, a sanction that was delivered to him in a five-page letter that actually included a log of representative dates and times when he was recorded “releasing the awful and unpleasant odour” in his Baltimore office. In a letter sent on Decenber 1oth accusing him of “conduct unbecoming a federal officer,” the Social Security Administration employee was informed that his “uncontrollable flatulence” had created an “intolerable” and “hostile” environment for coworkers, several of whom have lodged complaints with supervisors. The worker, a 38-year-old Maryland resident, reportedly submitted evidence that he suffered from “some medical conditions” that, at times, caused him to be unable to work full days. But a SSA manager noted in the reprimand letter that, “nothing that you have submitted has indicated that you would have uncontrollable flatulence. It is my belief that you can control this condition.”

A redacted copy of the letter was recently circulated among officers of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents the SSA worker. The SSA worker is pictured with his wife in the photo below, which apparently was taken at an amusement park. The employee is a claims authorizer at the SSA center that handles disability cases for the entire country. According to the letter of reprimand which is the least severe administrative sanction that can be levied against a federal worker the man was first spoken to about his flatulence during a May 18 “performance discussion” with his supervisor. He was informed that fellow employees had complained about his flatulence, and that it was “the reason none of them were willing to assist you with your work.” The supervisor referred the employee to a SSA unit for “assistance with what could have been a medical problem that was affecting everyone in the module.”

Two months later, on July 17, a second SSA manager spoke with the man “in regards of your releasing of bodily gas in the module during work hours.” The manager asked the employee if he could “make it to the restroom before releasing the awful and unpleasant odor.” She also recounted what appeared to be a prior conversation during which the worker suggested that he would “turn your fan on when it happens.” The manager recounted advising him that, “turning on the fan would cause the smell to spread and worsen the air quality in the module.” On August 14, a third administrator - a SSA “Deputy Division Director” - spoke with the worker about his “continuous releasing of your bodily gas and the terrible smell that comes with the gas.” The manager noted that the worker had said he was lactose intolerant and planned to purchase Gas-X, an over-the-counter remedy. The manager informed the employee that he “could not pass gas indefinitely and continue to disrupt the work place.”

Despite these repeated warnings, the man apparently continued to struggle with his flatulence throughout the late-summer and fall. After stating that, “It is my belief that you can control this condition,” the author of the reprimand letter then noted, “The following dates show the time of your flatulence.” What followed was a log listing 17 separate dates (and 60 specific times) on which the employee passed gas. For example, the man’s September 19 output included nine instances of flatulence, beginning at 9:45 AM and concluding at 4:30 PM. The man was also accused of launching a trio of attacks on September 11. The letter’s author wrote that the employee’s conduct had been “discourteous, disrespectful, and entirely inappropriate,” and was worthy of a formal sanction, which is placed in a worker’s personnel files for up to one year. The reprimand, the manager noted, “is the least severe penalty available to impress upon you the seriousness of your actions and is necessary to deter future misconduct.”

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Today in History

1135		Stephen of Blois is crowned the king of England.
1775		Esek Hopkins takes command of the Continental Navy — a total of seven ships.
1807		Congress passes the Embargo Act, which halts all trading completely. It is hoped that the act will keep the United States out the European Wars.
1829		The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opens the first passenger railway line.
1918		The last of the food restrictions, enforced because of the shortages during World War I, are lifted.
1929		Soviet troops leave Manchuria after a truce is reached with the Chinese over the Eastern Railway dispute.
1941		Japanese troops make an amphibious landing on the coast of Lingayen Gulf on Luzon, the Philippines.
1942		The Soviets drive German troops back 15 miles at the Don River.
1944		During the Battle of the Bulge, General Anthony McAuliffe responds to a German surrender request with a one word answer: "Nuts!"
1945		The United States recognizes Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
1965		The EF-105F Wild Weasel makes its first kill over Vietnam.
1966		The United States announces the allocation of 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine in India.
1989		The Romanian government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown, ending 42 years of communist rule.

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Low-water rivers offering up glimpse of history

From sunken steamboats to a millennium-old map engraved in rock, the drought-drained rivers of the nation's midsection are offering a rare and fleeting glimpse into years gone by.

Lack of rain has left many rivers at low levels unseen for decades, creating problems for river commerce and recreation and raising concerns about water supplies and hydropower if the drought persists into next year, as many fear.
But for the curious, the receding water is offering an occasional treasure trove of history.

An old steamboat is now visible on the Missouri River near St. Charles, Mo., and other old boats nestled on river bottoms are showing up elsewhere. A World War II minesweeper, once moored along the Mississippi River as a museum at St. Louis before it was torn away by floodwaters two decades ago, has become visible — rusted but intact.

Perhaps most interesting, a rock containing what is believed to be an ancient map has emerged in the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri.

The rock contains etchings believed to be up to 1,200 years old. It was not in the river a millennium ago, but the changing course of the waterway now normally puts it under water — exposed only in periods of extreme drought. Experts are wary of giving a specific location out of fear that looters will take a chunk of the rock or scribble graffiti on it.

"It appears to be a map of prehistoric Indian villages," said Steve Dasovich, an anthropology professor at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. "What's really fascinating is that it shows village sites we don't yet know about."

Old boats are turning up in several locations, including sunken steamboats dating to the 19th century.

That's not surprising considering the volume of steamboat traffic that once traversed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Dasovich said it wasn't uncommon in the 1800s to have hundreds of steamboats pass by St. Louis each day, given the fact that St. Louis was once among the world's busiest inland ports. The boats, sometimes lined up two miles deep and four boats wide in both directions, carried not only people from town to town but goods and supplies up and down the rivers.

Sinkings were common among the wooden vessels, which often were poorly constructed.

"The average lifespan of a steamboat on the Missouri River was five years," Dasovich said. "They were made quickly. If you could make one run from St. Louis to Fort Benton, Mont., and back, you've paid for your boat and probably made a profit. After that, it's almost like they didn't care what happened."

What often happened, at least on the Missouri River, was the boat would strike an underwater tree that had been uprooted and become lodged in the river bottom, tearing a hole that would sink the ship. Dasovich estimated that the remains of 500 to 700 steamboats sit at the bottom of the Missouri River, scattered from its mouth in Montana to its convergence with the Mississippi near St. Louis.
The number of sunken steamboats on the Mississippi River is likely about the same, Dasovich said. Steamboat traffic was far heavier on the Mississippi, but traffic there was and is less susceptible to river debris.
Boiler explosions, lightning strikes and accidents also sunk many a steamboat. One of the grander ones, the Montana, turned up this fall on the Missouri River near St. Charles. The elaborate steamer was as long as a football field with lavish touches aimed at pleasing its mostly wealthy clientele. It went to its watery grave after striking a tree below the surface in 1884.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers urge sightseers to stay away from any shipwreck sites. Sandbars leading to them can be unstable and dangerous, and the rusted hulks can pose dangers for those sifting through them.

Plus, taking anything from them is illegal. By law, sunken ships and their goods belong to the state where they went down.

While unusual, it's not unprecedented for low water levels to reveal historic artifacts.

Last year, an officer who patrols an East Texas lake discovered a piece of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart and burned on re-entry in 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard. And the remains of a wooden steamer built 125 years ago recently were uncovered in a Michigan waterway because of low levels in the Great Lakes.

But treasure hunters expecting to find Titanic-like souvenirs in rivers will likely be disappointed if they risk exploring the lost boats.

"It's not like these wrecks are full of bottles, dishes, things like that," said Mark Wagner, an archaeologist at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. "If there was anything on there in the first place, the river current pretty much stripped things out of these wrecks."

Such was the case with the USS Inaugural, a World War II minesweeper that for years served as a docked museum on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Great Flood of 1993 ripped the Inaugural from its mooring near the Gateway Arch. It crashed into the Poplar Street bridge, and then sank.

In September, the rusted Inaugural became visible again, though now nothing more than an empty, orange-rusted hulk lying on its side not far from a south St. Louis casino.

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