Home Remodeling 101: Tips on How You can Remodel Your Home ...

Remodeling your home can be an amazing experience. Not only does it give you fulfillment in expressing your creative self, but it also hones your quest for design quality. You may find home remodeling a bit daunting at first, but the important thing is to keep composed through the planning and decision-making and not get overwhelmed by all the choices. To get you past the initial hurdle, here are essential tips on how you can remodel your home like a pro.

Know the extent of the renovation From the beginning, know the scale of the renovation project you're going to undertake. A minor renovation would just involve paint job on the exterior or interior component of your home, installation of wallpaper, decors and appliances. While a major one includes total strip down of the kitchen space, living area, bedroom, or bathroom area (I.e. walls, floorings, appliances, furnishings, etc.) and the installation of newer components.

List every home detail that needs remodeling If you're remodeling a huge part of your home, say a kitchen, you need to list down every detail that needs remodeling. Decide if you need a new flooring installation, appliances, cupboards or kitchen furnishings. Don't forget about the aesthetic value of space; it's just as essential as the objects or installations that occupy it. If you don't take context into view, you're bound to fret over every last detail which could make you into an impossible perfectionist.

Consider a contractor When planning for Omaha home improvement, consider the services of a contractor even if you have prior experience in home remodeling. Unless you are a true home building DIY hobbyist, the odds of doing a fair, clean job of dismantling, refurbishing, painting, and putting things back together, may not be in your favor. You'll need the help of a highly skilled and knowledgeable contractor to ensure that the task gets the quality service you require.

Organize well If you're going to be your own general contractor for the Omaha remodeling, make sure to keep everything organized. You don't want to be all over the place once the construction starts, so keep an expandable folder where you have a list of all the remodel itineraries. Have a separate file for the plumbing, electricity, kitchen or bathroom plans.

Know the entire remodel's worth As you know, home remodeling can be quite extravagant. It's not only the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or Omaha roofing components you're going to finance, you also need to pay your contractors, too. By allocating a fixed budget for home remodelling and the contractor's salary, you keep a tight rein on your budget and not run into excess fees later on. Visit renovation101.com for more information.

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Flavor Is the Price of Tomatoes? Scarlet Hue, Geneticists Say

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A gene mutation that breeders latched onto because it makes a tomato uniformly red also stifles genes that contribute to its taste, researchers say.

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Tens of thousands flee raging Colo. wildfire

COLORADO SPRINGS (Reuters) - A wildfire raging near some of Colorado's most popular tourist sites grew suddenly more ferocious on Tuesday, forcing 32,000 people from their homes, prompting evacuations from the U.S. Air Force Academy and swallowing numerous houses at the edge of Colorado Springs.

From the vantage point of a command post about 10 miles from the path of advancing flames, the entire community of Mountain Shadows, a northwest subdivision, appeared to be enveloped in an orange glow after dark.

"This is a fire of epic proportions," Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown said as ash drifted down on the city, sirens wailed and the thick smell of smoke permeated the air.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper flew into the city Tuesday night by helicopter to meet with fire commanders and tour the fire zone first-hand. He noted that the blaze was one of at least a dozen burning throughout the state. Four people have died in Colorado wildfires so far this year.

"This is the worst fire season in the history of Colorado," he said during an impromptu news conference, adding that from the air he saw many homes destroyed in a glowing landscape that looked "surreal."

The Waldo Canyon Fire, which has roared through at least 6,200 acres of dry timber since Saturday, has grabbed attention for days because of its proximity to landmarks like the famed mountaintop of Pikes Peak and the Air Force Academy.

The blaze claimed its first property losses on Tuesday as wind-driven flames swept over containment lines into Colorado's second-most populous city, consuming an unknown number of homes on the town's outskirts as authorities hurried to evacuate residents.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said 32,000 people had been evacuated, and an Air Force Academy spokesman said the evacuation zone included two communities of single-family homes on academy grounds housing civilian and military personnel and their families.

"We are in a very critical situation now. Unfortunately we do have structures and homes that are burning in the northwest corner of Colorado Springs. We have mandatory evacuation over a considerable area," fire information officer Rob Deyerberg told Reuters.

A mushroom cloud of gray, black and brown smoke, topped by billowing, white cumulus clouds, rose nearly 20,000 feet into the sky and hung over the area as residents scrambled to heed evacuation orders.

The sudden closure of service stations along with other businesses, leaving fleeing motorists unable to fill up their cars, added to a sense of urgency as roads filled with traffic.

Columns of vehicles carrying evacuees and hastily packed belongings stretched bumper-to-bumper for miles, crawling slowly southward out of town along Interstate 25.

Closer to the blaze, which has been fanned by winds blowing into the southern Rockies from the prairies to the east, trees were visibly twisting from the heat of the flames.

"It's a very hostile environment out there," fire information officer Anne Rys-Sikora said.

Asked how quickly the fire was spreading after the latest flare-up on Tuesday afternoon, incident commander Rich Harvey said, "If I gave acreage right now, it would be wrong in five minutes. It's growing."

Hickenlooper said he was consulting with Pentagon officials. The Air Force Academy issued a statement saying the military was preparing to dispatch up to 25 more helicopters to join the firefighting effort.

Authorities earlier said that half of the fleet of eight Air Force C-130 cargo planes equipped as air tankers were already at work, dropping flame-retardant chemicals over the blaze.

DEATH IN UTAH

Still, the Waldo Canyon Fire, burning primarily within the Pike National Forest on the western fringe of Colorado City, was dwarfed in size by wildfires elsewhere across the state, and by a fatal blaze that flared with renewed intensity in Utah.

Authorities said on Tuesday a body was found in the ashes the fast-moving Wood Hollow Fire about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City, marking the first fatality in a blaze that has scorched over 39,000 acres of rolling hills covered by parched cheat grass and sagebrush.

Flames fanned by high winds into a second county forced the closure of Utah's state Route 89 for a second time and prompted the evacuation of the entire town Fairview, a community of more than 1,200 residents according to the latest census, state emergency managers said.

The blaze already has leveled an estimated 30 homes and killed 75 sheep, authorities said.

The Wood Hollow Fire is believed to be one of just two western wildfires that have claimed lives in recent weeks.

The other is the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Colorado, south of Denver, which now ranks as that state's second-largest blaze on record and its most destructive ever, having consumed 87,250 acres in steep mountain canyons since it was sparked by lightning two weeks ago.

The High Park has destroyed 248 homes and killed a 62-year-old grandmother, whose body was found in the ashes of her cabin, while leaving an estimated 4,300 residents displaced by evacuations.

Colorado accounts for several of the 29 large active wildfires being fought across the country on Tuesday. The bulk of them were in seven western states -- Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona and California, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.

Although federal authorities say the fire season got off to an early start in parts of the northern Rockies, the number of fires and acreage burned nationwide is still below the 10-year average for this time of year, according to fire agency records.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Miller in Grand Junction, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City and Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho. Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Lisa Shumaker and David Brunnstrom)

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Facebook Now Lets You ?Follow? Someone In Any App, Get Their Updates In News Feed Where The Ads Are

Ads, not payments, are the future of Facebook monetizing mobile, but it needs content to show them beside. The new Follow action announced today could deliver that content by letting you follow someone in a mobile app, and then sending the updates you'd normally see in that app back to your ad-laden news feed. More content -> more engagement and return visits -> more ad impressions, more money, and more reason for investors to buy. It will send referral traffic to developers, and it's actually convenient for users too. Why trapse from site to site and app to app when you can see everything your friends are doing everywhere, all from your news feed? You won't. You'll sit right there where Facebook can advertise to you.

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Free 1001 Best Slow-Cooker Recipes eBook

Amazon is offering a FREE download of 1,001 Best Slow-Cooker Recipes eBook. Amazon ebooks can read on a Kindle device or on a PC, MAC, Blackberry, Android, iPhone or iPad (download required, some items will not be available for all devices). Make sure this is still free before you checkout. Amazon often changes the prices on the ebooks.

About the book: Seasoned cookbook author Sue Spitler covers every aspect of using slow-cookers. Included are more than a thousand scrumptious recipes ? all thoroughly tested ? for appetizers, entrees, side dishes, breads, sandwiches, and desserts.

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Video: Outsourcing vs. Offshoring, Does Obama Get It?

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Teralink | Surprising Predictions for the Future of Media and ...

In my previous blog entry, I talked about broadcasters and content providers discovering new telecom solutions to deliver their product to as many consumers as possible. Now, I want to tell you about another innovation taking hold in Europe and predictions for the future of the technology, media, and telecommunications industries. My colleagues at TERALINK and I uncovered all this information during a workshop we recently held for key players in TV.

I discussed previously how over-the-top (OTT) content is actually something telcos can embrace. Thierry Abraham, Chief Technology Officer for FTA Communication Technologies, said that along with Over-The-Top services, media companies will also need to shift to Hybrid Broadband TV (HbbTV). HbbTV aims to combine and synchronize broadcast TV reception with broadband internet services through Smart TVs and set-top boxes.

In the workshop presentation, Thierry said HbbTV is being deployed more and more in Europe and is also pushed by DVB standardization body. Afterwards, he said that the ultimate goal for TV broadcasters is to aggregate more content to catch more viewers attention. They will need to take advantage of HbbTV and OTT services to offer additional services in order to enrich their programs. That?s why those in media will need to embrace telecom solutions. Thierry said, ?Telcos are key players in the interactive TV value chain, they will be more and more?requested to enrich the live TV content.?

Several Deloitte Luxembourg professionals agree that the technology surrounding TV goes to reinforce and strengthen the content. Joanna Denton, Director in the Indirect Taxes Department at the professional services firm, presented its technology, media, and telecommunications predictions for 2012. In fact, the three industries used to each get their own predictions report, but over the last two years, they have become so intertwined that Deloitte now publishes them all in one report.

The results of the predictions estimate that this year, 95% of TV programming will be viewed live or within one day. That?s because TV is still very much a part of the national conversation, and no one wants to be late to the party. What does this mean for broadcasters? They can capitalize on counter-programming and demonstrate the benefits of a set schedule to advertisers.

Another prediction: an increased demand for consumer technology this year, despite economic difficulties. Consumers may be willing to sacrifice vacations to buy a new TV or tablet. That?s because they?re trying to get the most out of their money. They see consumer electronics as great value for the money.

The key theme we learned at the workshop is that all the key players, whether they?re broadcasters, content producers, device manufacturers, or telcos, will need to cooperate and trust one another to further their goals. Rather than competing against each other, we can all work together for the latest solutions.

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Long Island Mudcats Black ? USSSA 11u Youth Baseball Champions

It all started out very bleak.? The thunderstorms on Friday night and early Saturday morning put the USSSA 11u Youth Baseball Championship at risk.? If not for the work of the Town of Smithtown Parks Department (along with a couple of the coaches from the Oceanside Bulldogs), the fields would not be playable.? Since the men worked from 7am Saturday until the delayed game time of 12pm, the Championship could be played.? The Global Recreation Network thanks the Town of Smithtown Parks Department for their work and for allowing us to play our tournament.?

The USSSA 11u Championship, played at Flynn Field in Smithtown, featured six teams; Diamond Jack Super and Diamond Jack Gold of New Jersey, Long Island Mudcats Black and Long Island Mudcats Grey, Oceanside Bulldogs and the Long Island Gators.

The two Diamond Jacks are part of Diamond Nation at the Jack Cust Academy out of New Jersey.? The Long Island Mudcats are part of a seven-team organization with teams from 8-years old to 13-years old.? The Oceanside Bulldogs are an 11u team that has won fourteen tournaments in the past three years and have a 30-6 record so far in 2012.? Out of Levittown, New York, the Long Island Gators is another single team organization that actively prepares their players for future baseball activities.

The Championship was set up over a two-day schedule.? On Saturday, Long Island Mudcats Grey, Diamond Jacks Gold and Oceanside Bulldogs played each other head to head On Flynn Red.? After the three-game head to head series, the Oceanside Bulldogs were to top ranked team in their bracket with a 2-0 record, followed by the Long Island Mudcats Grey and Diamond Jacks Gold.? On Flynn Blue, the Long Island Mudcats Black went undefeated on Saturday to grab the top seed in their bracket, followed by Diamond Jacks Super and the Long Island Gators.

The following games were scheduled for Sunday after the seeds were set: Diamond Jacks Gold vs. Diamond Jacks Super with the winner playing the Oceanside Bulldogs and Long Island Mudcats Grey vs. Long Island Gators with the winner playing Long Island Mudcats Black.

Diamond Jacks Super was superior over their friends in Gold and the Long Island Mudcats Grey defeated the Long Island Gators.? In the semi-finals, Diamond Jacks Super defeated the Oceanside Bulldogs and Long Island Mudcats Black avenged a defeat a week earlier by beating the Long Island Mudcats Grey.? This set up the finals of Long Island Mudcats Black against Diamond Jacks Super.

In a highly contested game, both on and off the field, the Long Island Mudcats Black defeated Diamond Jacks Super 6 to 4 to give the USSSA 11u Youth Baseball Championship to the Mudcats Black.? Looking at the Diamond Jacks website, part of their Mission Statement includes that their mission is to provide education?under the supervision?and direction of our outstanding baseball staff.? In a poor showing of respect for the Global Recreation Network Staff and of the rest of the teams in the tournament, the Diamond Jacks Super coach refused to accept the 2^nd Place trophy that his team had earned and did not allow his players to accept participation trophies that were awarded to all participating players.? We at the Global Recreation Network are still wondering what lesson the Diamond Jacks Super coach was teaching his players.

The Long Island Mudcats Black celebrated as a team, with their families and friends and were awarded the 1^st Place trophy in a ceremony at home plate on Flynn Red.? Each player had a part in the undefeated tournament.? Congratulations go out to the entire roster of the Long Mudcats Super, their coach Mike McKenna and its entire staff on their victory in the USSSA 11u Youth Baseball Championship.

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Average cost of health insurance per month - HEALTH, BEAUTY ...

Otherwise, they have to provide you with all of the available insurance items. Affordable Medical Health Insurance To be able to make the most affordable medical health insurance plan in New York you are going to need to perform some price comparisons. Listed here are available alternatives for such items you could easily and instantly consider and prefer. With time your tooth of becomes loose, then loss of tooth. Without movement it might be progressively a hardship on our minds to keep an eye on where we? re over time and space, therefore it starts to change our stabilisers of and gravity begins tugging us lower. Other nations having a government run healthcare system need to rely month on other nations to develop new and more great ways to treat the problems of their population. The next details are all of the healthy vitamins. Well, you are able to wager your existence the ? nutritious dietInch incorporated within the research above didn? t include anything cost health as strongly advantageous because the Klamath Lake Blue- Eco- friendly Algae, which indicates even individuals amazing results could be enhanced upon. The ball now rests in the courtroom from the people who may have a shot from the havoc they feel when purchasing medical health insurance snus plans in Florida. For those who have a minimum of two employees, but only 50, your small company medical health insurance could be affordable and price- effective. Now is a superb time look around the several choices that are around if this involves getting quality and affordable coverage of health. Temporary medical health insurance Medical health insurance Florida will end up more profitable health and affordable once the Affordable Care Act is implemented completely. These businesses rates are high and can make sure you to supply better coverage. And if you fit in with a connection, club or group. Poor quality fever: Normally, this is triggered through the body burning an elevated sum of proteins and might average be short resided and insurance never annoying enough to discontinue treatment. Like individuals would be the people you interface with 90% of times when you are receiving treatment for any disease or need surgery. citizens. Youthful men might feel this really is a thing per that only affects males over the age of snus health them, which is usually the situation. Grandmother understood that her old remedies labored even when she could not show the scientific world. You may encourage children to put together a common bath toys making up tales about fundamental hygiene which include them. This really is accomplished through balance from the mind, body, and spirit. The proven average cost of health insurance per month advantages of Shilajit The proven advantages of Shilajit are thought the following: You can use it like a health tonic, which improves the defense mechanisms. Vomiting and nausea: Mix honey, rock salt, sugar to fresh juice of ripe mangoes and sip the preparation. Using the buying average cost of health insurance per month energy of Group Medical Health Insurance When you enroll in a particular corporate house being an worker that which you instantly do is leverage the purchasing energy of this company, so far as Group Arizona Medical Health Insurance Plans are worried.

Related Post Average cost of health insurance per month

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Acquittal for Australian over frenzied parent killings

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Are you as well read as the average 10th grader?

Forty-five US states have adopted the Common Core, a set of standards that spell out what US public school students learn in each grade, from kindergarten to graduation. How would you match up? Test yourself on everything from Ovid to Shakespeare to see how familiar you are with the novels, short stories, plays, and poems that the Core expects 9th and 10th graders to have read.

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SalesBlogcast: Equality Setback - PA Does Not Recognize NJ Civil Union For Estate Tax http://t.co/Ct3n0Zqd

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Vegetable oil, dish soap used to free stuck baby raccoon in Michigan

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. - A baby raccoon that got stuck head-first in a sewer grate is free thanks to the quick and slippery work of some city workers in suburban Detroit.

The Detroit Free Press reports Dearborn Heights Department of Public Works Director Bill Zimmer was in his front yard Wednesday when he noticed the critter. He called fellow Public Works employees for help. They used vegetable oil and dish soap to free the raccoon.

A release from Dearborn Heights says the crew took the raccoon to the Public Works yard for a "much-needed shower" before letting it go in the woods.

The animal was OK after the ordeal.

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Parting Schotts: Union's Gostisbehere picked by Flyers in 3rd round of NHL draft (updates with Flyers GM Paul Holmgren video)

Union's Gostisbehere picked by Flyers in 3rd round of NHL draft (updates with Flyers GM Paul Holmgren video)

The Philadelphia Flyers selected Union sophomore defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere in the third round of the NHL draft Saturday morning.

"I was with my family, and we went pretty nuts," Gostisbehere said in a telephone interview from his home in Margate, Fla. "We didn't get a call saying that I was going to go early. We were watching TV, and my name just popped up. We went nuts."

Also, Union recruit and Nobles defenseman Tim Boyle was picked in the fourth round by Ottawa. Boyle is the brother of New York Rangers center Brian Boyle.

Gostisbehere had an outstanding freshman season, collecting five goals and 17 assists in 41 games. He was named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie team, and was selected to the ECACH All-Tournament team.

"I had heard some rumors that I might go in the third round, or fourth," Gostisbehere said. "I just took it in stride. I'm just happy I went."

The selections of Gostisbehere and Boyle give Union seven NHL draft picks all time. They join goalie Justin Mrazek (eighth round by Washington, 2004), goalie Brandon Snee (fifth round by the New York Rangers, 2000), goalie Steve Baker (No. 44 overall pick by the Rangers, 1977), forward Kip Churchill (141st overall pick by the Detroit Red Wings, 1977) and forward Dean Willers (175th overall pick by the Red Wings, 1977).

"If anybody has ever gone through it, it's quite an exciting time," Union coach Rick Bennett said. "Just getting off the phone with him, he sounds like he's on Cloud 9 with his family."

Gostisbehere was ranked 148th among North American skaters in the final NHL Central Scouting Bureau ratings. Bennett wasn't surprised he was a third-round pick.

"Because of what he did throughout the second half of the season, and even in the playoffs," Bennett said. "In the playoffs, he was one of our better defensemen. That speaks volumes. Everything he got today was because of hard work."

Getting selected by the Flyers caps a big week for Gostisbehere. On Monday, he was invited to the U.S. National Development Camp to try out for the U.S. team that will play in the World Junior Championships Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Ufa, Russia.

"It's probably one of the best weeks of my hockey career, I'm not going to lie," Gostisbehere said.

To watch an interview with Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren on Flyers TV, click here.

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James Pethokoukis Smacks Down Eleanor Clift: GOP Isn't 'Anti-Immigration' - 'That's Just Wrong'

A common media deception is to accuse Republicans of being anti-immigration.

When Newsweek's Eleanor Clift tried this on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday, US News & World Report's James Pethokoukis quickly scolded, "They?re anti-illegal immigration. They?re not anti-immigration...That?s just wrong" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

---

During a discussion about President Obama's recent edict concerning young illegal immigrants not being deported, Clift said of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, "If he?s elected president, he will be leading a party that is largely anti-immigration."

Pethokoukis pounced, "No, I think they?re anti-illegal immigration. They?re not anti-immigration. They?re not anti-immigration. That?s a talking point. They?re pro-immigration. That?s just wrong."

Yes, it is just wrong, but you can't swing a dead cat in this country without hitting a liberal media member such as Clift making this dishonest claim.

Fortunately for Friday's viewers there was a conservative on the set to correct her for all too often there isn't and the offending party gets to make his or her talking point without challenge.

This deceit has been going on for years and it's high time the media get their facts straight on this controversial issue.

Or is that asking too much?

To receive my articles hot off the presses follow me on Twitter ow.ly/btalc and Facebook ow.ly/btald.

? Noel Sheppard (@NoelSheppard) June 9, 2012

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Sonoma takes over as track where tempers flare

Driver Jamie McMurray (1) leads Josh Wise during practice for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, June 22, 2012, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Driver Jamie McMurray (1) leads Josh Wise during practice for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, June 22, 2012, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Driver Robby Gordon (7) leads Greg Biffle during practice for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, June 22, 2012, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) ? It used to be that short tracks were the guaranteed place for the bumping, banging and blown tempers. It's now shifted to road courses, specifically Sonoma, where more than a few drivers will likely be raging mad by the end of Sunday's race.

"I think this has turned into the most no-holds-barred, crazy, people-running-into-each-other race, more so than any of the short tracks we go to now," said Sprint Cup Series points leader Matt Kenseth.

NASCAR's last two visits to the winding road course in Northern California wine country have been demolition derbies. Jeff Gordon was the bad guy in 2010, when he tangled on track with at least four drivers in a race he deemed a "disaster ? just one of those terrible days where I made a lot of mistakes, no doubt made a lot of people unhappy."

The lasting image from last year's stop at the 12-turn, 1.99-mile picturesque track was of Tony Stewart's car backed into and suspended high on a wall of tires, where he landed after Brian Vickers intentionally spun him as payback for earlier contact. But tempers were flaring all over the garage after the race. Juan Pablo Montoya left mad at Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne was angry with Montoya, and Joey Logano's parting shot for road course ace Robby Gordon was that "he drives like a moron every week."

Denny Hamlin, who said last year he'd been "Dinger'd" after he was involved in a wreck with AJ Allmendinger, said all driver etiquette seems to be out the window when the series shifts to Sonoma.

"It just seems like people don't give each other room like they used to and everyone is just a little bit more aggressive," Hamlin said. "I think people talk about driver ethics and things like that ? this is a very gray race track when it comes to that. I think people can get away with a little bit more, maybe pay some guys back for things that happen at other tracks.

"Typically, at this race track, because speeds are so low, the risk of injuring someone is slim to none."

Jamie McMurray, an innocent victim in last year's Stewart-Vickers clash, had a much simpler explanation: "The wrecks are happening from people being idiots," he said.

"You can't be the guy that's run 17th all day, and on the last restart expect that you are going to pass six rows of cars in turn seven. That's what happens here every single year," McMurray added. "Somebody just does something silly. Most of the time the wrecks here just happen from people losing their mind."

Double-file restarts are likely the overwhelming cause of the problem.

Because Sonoma has a limited number of passing zones, drivers tend to try to make up as much ground as possible on the restarts. It leads to aggressive moves on a tight course, and if a driver fails to move through the field as he had hoped, he can get stuck behind a slower car and lose all patience in trying to gain position.

So for all the attention Bristol and Martinsville and Richmond receive as the places where mayhem happens, Kevin Harvick believes it's Sonoma that has moved to the top of the list of tracks where drivers tangle.

"It has been for the last few years," Harvick said. "I think a lot of that comes from the double-file restarts, and I think it escalates as the day goes on. When you get those opportunities to pass, you have to dive in there and take that opportunity. Sometimes you make a mistake and get into a guy and get into his door or whatever the case may be."

There are probably only three true passing zones on the course ? in turns 3, 7 and 11 ? but drivers don't seem to wait anymore for those opportunities.

"I started road course racing however long ago it was, and there was always road course etiquette," Kenseth said. "You would only pass in certain zones, and when people got alongside you to pass in those zones, you would drop back and fall in line and go on. You would really race the race track the entire race and race the fuel mileage and tires and try to be in position.

"I think the two-wide restarts has really thrown almost all of (the etiquette) out the window and everybody is bunched up. You can't wait for one (slow) car on the restarts because you might lose eight or 10 spots before you know it."

Associated Press

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Report: Calif. to get seas rising 6 inches by 2030

The West Coast will see an ocean several inches higher in coming decades, with most of California expected to get sea levels a half foot higher by 2030, according a report released Friday.

The study by the National Research Council gives planners their best look yet at how melting ice sheets and warming oceans associated with climate change will raise sea levels along the country's Pacific coast. It is generally consistent with earlier global projections, but takes a closer look at California, Oregon and Washington.

Although the six inches expected for California by 2030 seem minor, the report estimated that sea levels there will be three feet higher by 2100. About 72 percent of the state's coast is covered by sandy cliffs, and the rest include beaches, sand dunes, bays and estuaries.

"Rising seas increase the risk of coastal flooding, storm surge inundation, coastal erosion and shoreline retreat, and wetland loss," the report said. "The cities and infrastructure that line many coasts are already vulnerable to damage from storms, which is likely to increase as sea level continues to rise and inundate areas further inland."

Northern California, Oregon and Washington can expect a less dramatic increase ? about four inches by 2030 and two feet by 2100 ? because seismic activity is causing land to rise north of the San Andreas Fault, offsetting increasing sea levels, and drop south of it. The fault runs out to sea at Cape Mendocino.

The most immediate threat over the next few decades will come from periodic ocean-warming El Nino events, said Gary Griggs, director of the Institute for Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who was one of the scientists assembled by the council to produce the report.

"During those events, sea level is elevated as much as a foot above normal and then we've got typically larger waves coming in with the high tides," particularly in the Northwest, he said.

If a major earthquake occurs beneath the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, in what is known as the Cascadia subduction zone, that could cause the land to drop, allowing sea level to rise another three feet, the report said. Such a major temblor occurred 300 years ago.

The report was commissioned by states and federal agencies looking for detailed information so they can plan for an accelerated rate of erosion along beaches, bluffs and sand dunes that are already crumbling into the sea.

"A lot of the data we had before was worldwide data or has the caveat, 'Can't be used for planning purposes,'" said Susan Hansch, chief deputy director of the California Coastal Commission. "It all comes down to the better data you have, the better decisions you can make."

Sea levels rise for two reasons due to global warming.

Warmer water expands, which can cause as many as 23 inches of sea level rise by 2100, according to the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Then, warmer temperatures cause ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica to melt slowly, adding another foot or more to sea levels by 2100, scientists said. But those estimates are for the planet as a whole. Some places will see higher seas and others will get less dramatic increases.

Globally, sea levels have risen about eight inches over the last century, but the rate has been increasing significantly, said Griggs.

The report summarized published projections, such as the IPCC report of 2007, and updated it with computer modeling, as well as an analysis of tidal gauge readings and satellite measurements along specific sites on the West Coast.

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DeMarco: Baseball on the rise in LA

Dodgers have been surprise team, but Angels also likely a playoff team

Mark J. Terrill / AP

Baseball is up in Los Angeles this season, as both the Dodgers and Angels look like playoff teams.

OPINION

By Tony DeMarco

NBCSports.com contributor

updated 8:46 p.m. ET June 21, 2012

Tony DeMarco

Over the last couple of off-seasons, a group of Phoenix-area baseball writers and broadcasters has gathered periodically for meals and hot stove discussion. One of our crew's annual rites has become what we'll refer to here as no-way propositions.

In other words, propose something you think will happen in the upcoming season that spits directly into the wind of conventional wisdom. Such as this one from early-February: The Dodgers will win more games than the Angels in 2012.

To better set it up, let's quickly flash back to just before the onset of spring training, when the Los Angeles area's two teams were in this contrasting juxtaposition:

Hamstrung by their messy ownership situation, the Dodgers could do nothing more than add a couple of veteran, back-of-the-rotation arms to an offensively challenged team that had to rally to finish 82-79 in 2011.

Meanwhile, an 86-win Angels team had been bolstered by the big-money signings ? $317.5 million, to be exact ? of free-agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, not to mention the possibility of 20-year-old Mike Trout's emergence as one of the game's new stars.

Ah, but as the two teams head into this weekend's showdown at Angels Stadium, the standings read: Dodgers 42-28, Angels 38-32, and one correct (so far) "no-way" proposition.

Truth is, the Dodgers' surprising lead is narrowing. The Angels are 12-6 in June and 20-7 since May 21, while the Dodgers are 10-8 in June and 12-14 since peaking at 30-13 on May 22.

But the point is, both teams have good reason to believe they'll be part of an expanded postseason field, and baseball hasn't been this good in SoCal since 2009, when both the Angels and Dodgers lost in the LCS round.

The Angels are becoming the team everybody thought they would be back in spring training, when they stormed through the Cactus League, with Pujols leading the way. Adjustments? What adjustments? Pujols just raked: .383/.437/.850 with seven homers and 20 RBI in 63 at-bats.

Then came April, when he scuffled along at .217 with no homers and four RBI, dragging the Angels down with him to a terrible 8-15 first month.

Pujols still isn't back to his peak-efficiency numbers, but June has been a lot more like it: .292/.375/.538 with three homers, 15 RBI, seven doubles and 10 walks in 18 games. And as for what happened in April, he's willing to admit to pressing too much, and a lack of patience at the plate, if nothing else.

"I continue to fight; there's a lot of time left,'' Pujols said recently. "When we were going through the losing stretch, I was chasing pitches out of the zone. Now I'm taking walks. I'm a guy that walks 100 times a year, and only had (six) in April. You have to take what the other side is willing to give you.

"I've done that, and the numbers look better. I don't feel like I have to do everything. In April, everybody was pressing. Not just me. But we have been able to come through it.''

Another big reason why is the transformation of the back end of the Angels bullpen, which has stabilized since the acquisition of Ernesto Frieri from the Padres. And for that, the Angels can thank the bullpen acumen of general manager Jerry Dipoto, an eight-year big-league relief pitcher.

"(The bullpen) is never very far down my list of priorities,'' Dipoto said.

To that end, Dipoto ? with the aid of big-league scout Tim Schmidt ? zeroed in on Frieri, who had quietly but efficiently filled a setup role for the Padres over the last one-plus seasons while they gave save opportunities to Heath Bell, Huston Street and others.

Since the May 3 deal for infielder Alexei Amarista and minor-league right-hander Donn Roach, Frieri's wipeout slider/mid-90s fastball combo has been all but untouchable: 19.2 innings, three hits (yep, three), no runs, 13 walks and 35 strikeouts.

"Sometimes, you have to get a little lucky,'' Dipoto said of the deal. "Ernie doesn't have that career history (of a dominant closer), but he has brought stability. He's allowed Scott Downs to pitch when Scott Downs needed to, and not when he had to. And Jordan Walden got a chance to breathe, and let his stuff play the way it can. We think we have three legit back-end of the bullpen guys.''

And there is no questioning the impact both Trout and Mark Trumbo have had since being installed as regulars. Trout jumped to second in the AL batting race upon qualifying last week, already leads the AL in stolen bases, and scored 40 runs in his first 48 games. Trumbo leads the Angels in hits, homers, RBI, slugging and OPS.

Jered Weaver is back from a DL stay, Ervin Santana's scheduled Friday start will be his first since a one-hit shutout, and Garrett Richards should be able to step in for Jerome Williams, so the rotation has stabilized. In fact, the Angels' staff ERA currently is the AL's lowest, and the 90-plus-win season that looked bleak on April 13 now looks attainable.

The Dodgers weren't going to play nearly .700 baseball all season, so the 12-14 stretch since their 30-13 start really isn't that alarming. The schedule has toughened up a bit, they still are playing without Matt Kemp, and the great first two months of Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis have turned into struggles in June.

But the Dodgers still have the NL's best record and run differential, and 4-to-5-game cushions in the NL West and wild-card races. They're scoring just enough runs (ninth in the NL) ? although trending downward ? and the staff ERA is second in the NL only to Washington's.

Kemp and underrated contributor Mark Ellis won't be out forever ? both likely will be back around the All-Star break ? and it's no secret that the capacity and motivation to add payroll is there, so expect a significant addition or two before July 31. And don't underestimate this roster's resourcefulness and self-confidence that manager Don Mattingly says began to take hold in a 34-20 final two months of 2011.

The expanded playoff field will keep more teams in the wild-card chase longer, but already in seller mode are the Cubs, Astros, Padres, Rockies, Twins, Mariners and A's. The Royals, Brewers and even the Phillies could be there before July 31. So there will be options for Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti to land at least one bat (first base, third base or left field), a starting pitcher and a second left-handed reliever to join Scott Elbert.

But to make quality upgrades, the Dodgers most likely will have to part with some of their highly regarded pitching prospects, as they are thin on position-player prospects.

? 2012 NBC Sports.com? Reprints

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Iraq violence leaves at least 12 dead

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World stocks fall amid U.S. jobs, housing gloom

BANGKOK (AP) ? World stock markets fell Friday as gloomy economic reports from the world's two biggest economies heightened fears of a sharper global downturn. In Europe, leaders were set to weigh options for fixing the continent's debt crisis.

The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain are gathering in Rome on Friday to try to hammer out proposals for easing the widening financial crisis spreading across the 17-member euro currency union.

Concrete proposals will be brought to a wider gathering of EU leaders on June 28 and 29.

European stocks dropped in early trading, mirroring losses in Asia. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.9 percent at 5,516.30. Germany's DAX fell 1 percent to 6,277.90 and France's CAC-40 slipped 0.8 percent to 3,089.24.

But Wall Street appeared headed for a higher opening, a day after the Dow sustained its second-worst loss of the year. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.4 percent to 12,546 and S&P 500 futures added 0.4 percent to 1,323.50.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to close at 8,798.35 and South Korea's Kospi slid 2.2 percent to 1,847.39. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.4 percent to 18,995.13 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 1 percent at 4,048.20.

Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia fell while the Philippines rose. Markets in mainland China were closed for a public holiday.

On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the four-week average of applications for unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in nine months. Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5 percent in May.

A further sign of weakness in the world's No. 1 economy came from the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve, which issued a report showing that manufacturing in the northeast had experienced a sharp decrease due to a steep fall in company orders.

Appetite for financial assets such as stocks was also dented by the results of a monthly HSBC survey, which showed that manufacturing in China has continued to contract. China's growth has been a pillar of the global economy in recent years, so its slowdown has been of particular concern to investors.

"With signs of weakness in the US economy, the persistence of the eurozone debt crisis and the threat of a hardlanding in China looming, the prospect of a synchronized economic slowdown is real," analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a market commentary.

Sentiment was also shaken after Moody's Investors Service lowered the credit ratings of 15 major banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, saying their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.

Downgrades generally make it more costly for banks to raise money by selling debt because investors demand higher interest in return for taking on riskier debt.

"Of course, they deserve it for years of mismanagement and speculative trading activities ... and also the exposure to sovereign bank debt," said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. "So, as a result, all these major international banks are being downgraded to a more realistic level."

Asian financial shares sputtered after the ratings slap. South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group Co. tumbled 3 percent while Australia & New Zealand Banking Group lost 1.4 percent. Hong Kong-listed Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest bank by market value, fell 1.2 percent.

Falling commodities prices hurt mining and raw materials shares in Australia. BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, fell 2.1 percent. Newcrest Mining Ltd. dropped 3 percent. Hong Kong-listed Jiangxi Copper Co. fell 2 percent.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was up 10 cents to $78.31 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.25, or 4 percent, to settle at $78.20 per barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro fell slightly to $1.2556 from $1.2558 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 80.33 yen from 80.29 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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Closing arguments set for Sandusky abuse trial

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) ? Seven women and five men poised to hear closing arguments in Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial would begin jury deliberations without the benefit of having the former Penn State assistant football coach take the witness stand in his own defense.

More than a week of often-explicit testimony wrapped up Wednesday after Sandusky's defense team rested without calling their client. That set up closing arguments for Thursday morning, and jurors could start meeting behind closed doors that afternoon to start weighing Sandusky's fate.

Once famed for his coaching acumen, Sandusky is charged with 51 criminal counts for the alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years in hotels, at his home and in the football team's showers. Sandusky has maintained his innocence, and his attorneys have tried to weaken the prosecution's case by discrediting police investigators and suggesting that accusers are hoping to cash in on potential civil lawsuits.

Sandusky's arrest in November sparked an explosive scandal that led to the ousters of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and the university president, and cast a critical eye on the role of college administrators in reporting abuse allegations. The sweeping case also led to renewed focus on child abuse issues.

The defense called just four new witnesses Wednesday, including a physician who they used to try to poke holes in the story of a Penn State assistant coach who testified that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy in the team showers more than a decade ago.

Defense attorneys finished in three days, resting around lunchtime Wednesday only after a longer-than-expected recess during which Sandusky and his lawyers huddled in private amid rampant speculation in the courtroom that he would take the witness stand.

Now, closing statements await the 12 jurors in a trial moving at a quick pace, more briskly than even the three-week time frame that Judge John Cleland had once estimated.

Cleland said he will begin Thursday by issuing jury instructions. The defense would then present its closing remarks before the prosecution takes its turn.

Then it's the jury that will determine the schedule depending on how long they take in deliberations. If convicted, the 68-year-old former defensive coordinator could be sent to state prison for the rest of his life.

Jurors will have to decide whether the defense was able to create sufficient doubt based on how the investigation was conducted, the reliability and motives of the accusers, and Sandusky's decades-long reputation as a man who worked tirelessly to help underprivileged children.

Prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including eight young men, ages 18 to 28, who alleged a range of abuse from grooming, kissing and massaging to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

Many of the 28 defense witnesses testified briefly to vouch for Sandusky's reputation. The defense's case has consisted of character witnesses who defended Sandusky's reputation, a psychologist who said Sandusky had a personality disorder and the ex-coach's wife, who said she did not see her husband do anything inappropriate with the accusers. His lawyers showed that an investigator had shared information with an accuser about other alleged victims' stories and repeatedly suggested that accusers have financial motivations for their claims.

Sandusky was only heard from via a November interview with NBC's Bob Costas, saying he probably shouldn't have showered with boys; and in letters he wrote to one of his accusers.

One of the last witnesses called was Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a physician summoned to the home of Mike McQueary's father in February 2001 to hear McQueary's account of seeing Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in the campus showers. The boy, known only as Victim 2, has never been identified and isn't known to prosecutors.

Dranov testified that McQueary told of hearing "sexual sounds" and seeing a boy in the shower before an arm reached around to pull him out of view. McQueary said he made eye contact with the boy and Sandusky later emerged from the showers, Dranov said.

That account is different from what McQueary told a grand jury and testified to at a preliminary hearing and at the trial. He has said he saw Sandusky directly behind the boy's back, moving his midsection enough to convince McQueary it was a sex act.

Dranov told the jury that McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but did not provide him with a graphic description of what he saw.

"It just seemed to make him upset so I backed off that," Dranov said.

Asked to describe McQueary's demeanor, Dranov said: "His voice was trembling. His hands were shaking. He was visibly shaken," Dranov said.

McQueary's report to his superiors ? and Penn State officials' failure to go to outside law enforcement ? led to the firing of Paterno, who died of cancer in January.

McQueary had testified earlier in the trial that he wasn't "over-descriptive" in his conversation with Dranov, saying he told the doctor that what he saw was sexual, wrong and perverse.

David Hilton, who met Sandusky through a summer camp of his charity, testified Wednesday he felt like investigators were trying to coach him into accusing Sandusky.

"When it got to the second or third time I felt like they wanted me to say something that isn't true," he said.

During cross examination, lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan told Hilton that Hilton's uncle had contacted authorities out of concern after hearing of the initial charges against Sandusky.

Prosecutors allege that Sandusky met his alleged victims through The Second Mile charity. Sandusky founded the organization that once was lauded for its efforts to help at-risk children.

Sandusky didn't take the stand after his lawyer suggested in opening statements that he might and a day after his wife, Dottie, testified. In interviews Sandusky did shortly after his arrest in November, with the support and presence of defense attorney Joe Amendola, his responses were halting and uncertain, raising doubts about how he might stand up to cross-examination.

Criminal defendants in Pennsylvania, in serious crimes, generally are required to waive their right to testify on their own behalf, although that does not always happen in open court.

One of the jurors was excused from the case Wednesday with an illness; the female juror was replaced by an alternate, also a woman.

Sandusky attorney Karl Rominger also asked Cleland to dismiss five counts related to so-called Victim 8, the other boy never identified by investigators. Rominger argued that the timing of the charges had not been proven by the testimony of a janitor's co-worker, who said the janitor had told him he saw Sandusky molest the boy in a shower. The Penn State janitor himself was ruled not medically competent to testify.

The judge didn't immediately rule on the motion.

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James Napoli: Rock, Paper, Scissors: A Dialogue -- The Season Finale

So, you think you're enlightened? So did our three intrepid inanimate objects at the end of our previous episode. But if you don't stay conscious, enlightenment can slip out of your grasp like, well, like something you can't hold onto.

This concept is demonstrated only too well in the season one finale of RPS, in which cynical Scissors learns that his fellow inanimate objects may need a little more schooling.

James Napoli is an author and humorist. More of his web content can be found here.

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Head Start: Scientists Trace a Wiring Plan for Entire Mouse Brain

News | Mind & Brain

The first images from a rodent research project that has set out to map the whole mouse brain are now publicly available

By Saswato R. Das ?| June 20, 2012?|

WIRING DIAGRAM: A single mouse brain imaged by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at light-microscope resolution. It produces about a terabyte (1 trillion bytes, or 1000 GB) of data. Image: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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One of the items high on the big science project to-do list is to devise a wiring diagram for the human brain. Its 100 billion neurons and the hundreds of trillions of connections among these cells consign this goal and the specifics of achieving it to the long-term bin. A first step, though, is a complete diagram of the mouse brain.

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in Long Island, N.Y., have started making public detailed images of mouse brain circuitry, releasing on June 1 the first installment of about 500 terabytes. The goal of the effort, called the Mouse Brain Architecture Project (MBA), is an entire rodent brain wiring plan that would represent the first such mapping of the circuits of a vertebrate brain.

"Current knowledge of brain circuitry is incomplete," says Jonathan Pollock, chief of genetics and molecular neurobiology research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The lack of knowledge about neural circuitry has led to recognition by the scientific community of the need map the brain at the macro-, meso- and microscopic scale."

The MBA complements other efforts, such as the National Institutes of Health's Human Connectome Project and the ALLEN Brain Connectivity Atlas. Pollock says that because the mouse serves as a general model for mammal genetics, the knowledge gleaned could help in the study of diseases such as Alzheimer's, autism, schizophrenia, depression and addiction. In recent years researchers focusing on mammalian brains have placed much attention on individual synapses, connection points between neurons, using electron microscopy. This approach is too complex and currently impractical for application to the whole mouse brain

"I wanted an approach that could pragmatically approach the architecture of the whole nervous system. Our project utilizes tracer injections to delineate the wiring diagram of the whole brain," says Partha Mitra, a bio -physicist at CSHL and the leader of the project.

The CSHL researchers use four injected tracers to delineate the circuitry. Two of these are "classical" tracers?choleratoxin subunit B and biotinylated dextran amines. Additionally, there are two viral tracers?the adeno-associated virus and a modified version of the rabies virus.

The project produces high-definition images (each image is approximately one billion pixels) of mouse brain sections. Each brain is represented in some 500 images, with each image showing an optical section through a 20-micron-thick slice of brain tissue. Information from other data sources publicly available over the Internet are added to the images and everything is made available to neuroscientists as well as interested members of the general public at http://mouse.brainarchitecture.org. The site can be used as a "virtual microscope" to look inside a mouse brain, with the ability to zoom in to show individual neurons and their processes. Users have access to a multi-resolution viewer that allows them to progress from the front of each brain to the back and follow in 3-D the actual neuronal pathways.

Mitra says the intention was to share data with the community, akin to how the astronomy data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey was made publicly available. "I come from a physics background where open distribution of results prior to publication via a preprint archive (arXiv) has been standard practice for a long time and predates the current growth in open-access journals," he says. Because it can take months?sometimes years?to get a paper published in a journal, he prefers an approach where "scientific communications can be made much more directly and quickly by posting data and results on the Web as they become available."

Mitra's team intends to provide tutorial materials that would allow any curious person to engage with data on the Web site. They have already put up one tutorial so far on major brain pathways, using one of the myelin stained brains displayed on the site. "This is a good entry point to thinking about the overall connectivity structure of the brain," Mitra says. "During the Renaissance," he notes, "artists carried out detailed studies of anatomy, and they were able to do this because the structures were visible to the naked eye. The same is not true for neurons; however, with the virtual microscope that we are providing, it should be possible even for the layperson to engage in some degree of neuroanatomical study. We will be working on tools to enable this further."

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