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Cleaning oil-soaked wetlands may be impossible

The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said.

Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil.

They warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good. The only viable option for many impacted areas is to do nothing and let nature break down the spill.

More than 50 miles of Louisiana's delicate shoreline already have been soiled by the massive slick unleashed after the …

Hunt for biological mother turns into fight for millions; Woman finds she has link to Jell-O fortune

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Elizabeth McNabb was born out of wedlock in1955 in an Oregon hospital to a biological mother who disappearedafter the birth, leaving little information about herself.

Five decades later, McNabb could inherit more than $3 millionfrom the birth mother who put her up for adoption. As it turns out,McNabb's biological mother was Barbara Woodward Piel, a descendantof the Le Roy, N.Y., family that made vast fortunes with theproduction and mass marketing of the popular treat Jell- O.

McNabb learned about her mother's name -- and wealthy lineage --only after a 14-year search that took her from her home in Oregon toNew …

Matfield: south hard hit by injuries at World Cup

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Veteran Springboks lock Victor Matfield says southern hemisphere teams have suffered more from injuries than northern hemisphere sides at the Rugby World Cup because they had less recovery time before the tournament began.

Matfield missed two of South Africa's four pool matches because of a hamstring strain he carried into the tournament and said the effects of the Super 15 and Tri-Nations seasons may be taking a toll on SANZAR teams.

Northern teams appear to be heading into this weekend's quarterfinals with fewer injury concerns than their southern rivals. For the south, New Zealand's loss of flyhalf Dan Carter and South Africa's of center Frans …

Custer, Arthur

Custer, Arthur , American composer; b. Manchester, Conn., April 21, 1923. He studied engineering at the Univ. of Hartford (1940–42). After graduating in music from the Univ. of Conn, at Storrs (1949), he pursued training with Pisk at the Univ. of Redlands in Calif. (1949–51), Bezanson at the Univ. of Iowa (1952–55), and Boulanger (1960–62). He taught at Kansas Wesleyan Univ. (1952–55) and the Univ. of Omaha (1955–58); then was asst. dean of fine arts at the Univ. of R.I. (1962–65) and dean of the Philadephia Musical Academy (1965–67). After serving as director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Educational Center for the Arts (1967–70), he was director (1970–73) …

It's official: Dorothy Brown announces her candidacy for mayor of Chicago

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown officially announced Thursday what some Black community leaders suspected all week: she is a mayoral candidate for the city of Chicago.

Flanked by her sister, actor/comedian/activist Dick Gregory and other supporters from the circuit court and religious communities, Brown announced her intention to become Chicago's first African American woman mayor to about 350 people in a small meeting room at the Allegro Hotel, 171 W. Randolph St.

"I have heard the call from many of the citizens of the city of Chicago...," Brown told the excited crowd as they chanted "Run Dorothy Run," and "Win Dorothy Win."

"Today I am answering that …

Stock Prices Are Mixed in Early Trading

NEW YORK - Stock prices are mixed today after a slew of dealmaking news lifted some sectors, but investors remained jittery about rebounding bond yields and upcoming data on the U.S. service sector. In the opening minutes, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 34.47 at 13,542.83.

The Standard & Poor 500 index is down 1.29 to 1,523,58. But the Nasdaq Composite Index is higher by 0.25 qat 2,645.20.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of service sector activity in June, scheduled to be released at 10 a.m., is expected to slip to 58.1 from 59.7 in May, indicating that non-manufacturing industries saw slower expansion.

A much lower reading could signal …

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Rarick gears up for challenge by Davies

Just when Cindy Rarick could sleep again, she learned thatEngland's Laura Davies is on her way to the LPGA/Chicago Sun-TimesShoot-Out.

Rarick ended a midseason slump by winning the Northgate Classiclast week. She'll try for two victories in a row when the $425,000Shoot-Out - Chicago's first LPGA event in 18 years - begins a 72-holerun today at Oak Brook Golf Club.

Last week's victory came in Rarick's native Minnesota with aflood of family support.

"I had to get over 75 day passes, and that wasn't enough,"Rarick said. "For two nights I was too excited to sleep. I'm justgetting my swing back in synch."

While Rarick doesn't believe long hitters …

Hopes cool for freedom of American jailed in Cuba

HAVANA (AP) — A standoff between former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and the Cuban government stretched into a second day Friday, with the U.S. statesman insisting he will not quit the island until he is allowed to meet with a jailed American he says is ailing and ought to be sent home.

Richardson said Friday that he was concerned about the health of 62-year-old Alan Gross, who has reportedly lost 100 pounds since his arrest in December 2009, and had no timetable for leaving Cuba unless he sees him.

"There are reports of Mr. Gross's health deteriorating," Richardson said. "I have decided to stay in Cuba until I see Alan Gross."

Richardson, who had described Gross as …

Stock rally at start of 2010 augurs well _ maybe

If the stock market holds to a pattern it has followed for most of the past 40 years, 2010 could be a big year for investors.

Since 1973, a big advance on the first trading day of January has been a strong sign stocks will post robust gains for the rest of the year.

On Monday, upbeat news about manufacturing lifted the Dow Jones industrial average 155 points, or 1.5 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 17 points, or 1.6 percent.

When the S&P 500 has gained more than 1 percent on the first day of trading, the index has ended the year higher 86 percent of the time, according to Schaeffer's Investment Research.

After a big …

Smithsonian nixes foie gras celebration

WASHINGTON The Smithsonian Institution canceled a celebration offoie gras - produced by the forced feeding of ducks and geese - aftercomplaints from advocates for animals.

Officials suspected that "something untoward" might happen at thesession, spokesman David Umansky said Monday.

He said his staff spoke with a cross-section of 120 people who hadpaid $25 and $30 for the event and they were concerned as well.

The program "Foie Gras: A Gourmet's Passion" had been scheduledfor Sept. 21 to include a talk by Michael Ginor, whose Hudson Valleyfarm in Ferndale, N.Y., makes the product. …

Snakes, hunger stalk Pakistan flood victims

BADIN, Pakistan (AP) — Flood victims camped out near inundated fields and crowded hospitals on Monday as authorities and international aid groups struggled to respond to Pakistan's second major bout of flooding in just over a year.

Monsoon rains since early August have killed more than 220 people, damaged or destroyed some 665,000 homes and displaced more than 1.8 million people in the southern Sindh province, according to the government and the United Nations, which Sunday made an emergency appeal for funding.

"First it started to rain, then water gathered here and there and later the floods came," said Mohammad Hashim, who was sitting by the side of a main road in Badin …

US service sector growth slows in June

The U.S. service sector grew more slowly in June, an industry trade group said Tuesday, offering the latest sign that growth could weaken in the second half of the year.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its index tracking service-oriented companies slid to 53.8 last month from 55.4 in May _ the highest point since the recovery began.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion. June's reading is well above the 37.2 low in November 2008. But it's far below the pre-recession high of 67.7 in 2004.

The index was broadened in January 2008 to consider four areas of information: business activity, employment, supplier deliveries and new orders. Before that, it only looked at business activity.

The dip in the non-manufacturing index follows last week's raft of economic data that points to a slowing recovery. For the second straight month, private-sector job creation was weak. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits is on the rise, a sign that layoffs have yet to ebb. Home sales are plunging and factory orders are down.

Slower growth in the service sector didn't interrupt a rally on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 130 points in morning trading.

A robust service sector, which accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. employment, is crucial to keeping the economy expanding and adding jobs. Service-oriented jobs include those in hospitals, shops, restaurants, airlines, schools, construction, banks and consulting firms, among others.

These businesses mainly depend on shoppers' spending for revenue. Consumers have increased purchases only moderately, about 2 to 3 percent in the second quarter, said research firm Capital Economics. High unemployment, a still-rocky housing sector and volatile stock markets are weighing on people's desire to spend.

ISM also says hiring plans dipped in June after growing in May for the first time in 28 months.

The employment index dropped 49.7 last month from 50.4 in May. The sluggish rebound in hiring plans of service companies mirrors the slow pace of private-sector hiring seen in the government's jobs report. Companies added only 83,000 jobs in June, much fewer than the 200,000 new jobs needed each month to bring down the unemployment rate.

Of the 18 industries surveyed, 15 said they were growing. They were led by real estate and arts and entertainment. The finance and insurance sector and "other services," a collection of smaller industries, said they were shrinking; educational services grew at the same pace in June.

Candidate Wants Coffins Out of GOP Ads

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A Republican congressional candidate on Wednesday condemned a TV ad by his own party that uses images of soldiers' flag-draped coffins to attack his opponent, but the committee that paid for the piece said it will continue to air.

"It is unacceptable for them to use American soldiers' coffins in any advertising," Max Burns told The Associated Press. "They need to remove those immediately."

The National Republican Congressional Committee ad, which attacks Rep. John Barrow on homeland security issues, shows numerous television screens displaying rows of coffins draped in American flags.

An announcer says, "Barrow is funded by an organization that used coffins of dead American soldiers in a fundraising ad."

It's a reference to a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee video posted on the Internet in July. The Democratic group, which denies it was produced to raise money, took down the video after several Republicans and Democrats - including Burns and Barrow - complained that it exploited the deaths of American service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Burns, a former GOP congressman who lost to Barrow in 2004, asked the NRCC to take down the ad or edit it to remove the caskets, but the committee refused.

"Our production of the ad is completely independent of former congressman Burns and we have no plans to take it down," said NRCC spokesman Jonathan Collegio.

Barrow called it "utter hypocrisy" that Republicans would attack him with images they considered off-limits months ago.

"They're not trying to insult the memories of fallen soldiers to raise money, they're doing it to get votes," Barrow said. "It's just as insensitive either way."

The ad began airing Tuesday in Barrow's eastern Georgia district. Both the NRCC and the DCCC have been spending heavily on attack ads in the final week of the Barrow-Burns race.

---

On the Net:

Rep. John Barrow, http://www.barrowforcongress.com

Max Burns, http://www.maxburns.com

Bush says in interview new attack on US his worst worry, says he quit golf because of Iraq war

President George W. Bush said Tuesday he was disappointed in "flawed intelligence" before the Iraq war and was concerned that if a Democrat wins the presidency in November and withdrew troops prematurely it could "eventually lead to another attack on the United States."

In an interview with the political newspaper Politico and the Internet portal Yahoo, Bush also said he gave up golf in 2003 out of respect for U.S. soldiers killed in the war, which has now lasted more than five years.

"I didn't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

Bush said he made his decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.

A question submitted from the online audience asked Bush whether he felt he had been misled about Iraq as he made the decision to go to war.

"`Misled' is a strong word," he said. "Not only our intelligence community, but intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment. And so I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was."

"Do I think somebody lied to me? No, I don't. I think it was just, you know, they analyzed the situation and came up with the wrong conclusion," he added.

He acknowledged concerns about leaving the unfinished Iraq war to a Democratic successor. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have said they will bring troops home if elected.

Bush said his "doomsday scenario of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States."

Also in the interview to an online audience, Bush:

_Said more is known about global warming than when he first took office in 2001. Asked if it was real, Bush said, "Yes, it is real, sure is." Still, he defended his opposition to the Kyoto treaty on climate change. "I could have supported a lousy treaty and everybody would have went, `Oh, man, what a wonderful-sounding fellow he is. But it just wouldn't have worked."

_ Criticized the Democratic-led Congress, claiming it had dragged its feet on trade, on renewing surveillance powers and failing to respond appropriately to the housing crisis. "And so I would call them stalled. I would call them, so far, good at verbiage and not so good at results."

_Said his Christian faith increased while in office, saying he sought to understand his weaknesses, better himself "and get closer to the Lord."

_Criticized former President Jimmy Carter for advocating what he called a "blame-Israel-for-every-problem" mentality to the Middle East.

_Said he sympathized with the two candidates in the long-running Democratic primary race. "I feel like this primary has been a long, hard campaign. I remember what it was like in 2000, and I was exhausted. And my primary ended pretty quickly, compared to this one. And so I _ both those candidates have got to be just worn out. They haven't had time to get their feet on the ground or rest."

_Said he was not concerned about an ugly conversation about race if Obama wins the Democratic nomination. "I think most Americans are open-minded people, and they're going to pick the president who can keep America safe and keep taxes low. And so I think _ my own judgment is, is that race will only enter in if it's provoked by the press."

_ Said he would return to using e-mail after he leaves office, saying he gave it up to avoid leaks. He said he looks forward to "e-mailing to my buddies. I can remember as governor I stayed in touch with all kinds of people around the country, firing off e-mails at all times of the day to stay in touch with my pals."

Ellington, Coward music to air on WTTW-TV

Ellington, Coward music to air on WTTW-TV

The multiple programs at the 1999 Chicago Humanities Festival on Duke Ellington and Noel Coward in celebration of their centennials are the subjects of short documentaries broadcast respectively today and tomorrow, on WTTW Channel 11.

Beginning at 8 p.m. (CST) each night, the two programs highlight the intensive efforts the CHF took in celebrating these two great music legends of the 20th century.

The Duke Ellington mini-documentary includes clips from Festival programs and performers' commentary on Ellington's music. Featured artists include jazz master Sir Roland Hanna; Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis; singer Oscar Brown Jr., with his daughter Maggie Brown; jazz biographer Gary Giddins; John Edward Hasse, curator of American Music at the Smithsonian; opera star William Warfield; noted pianist Kevin Cole; and William Russo conducting the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. The half-hour program airs at 8 p.m. Dec. 20.

The Noel Coward program will feature the "After the Ball" story, explaining the restoration of this 1954 musical by the Chicago Humanities Festival in honor of the composer's centennial. The show features clips from the musical, which took place on Saturday, November 13 at the Auditorium Theatre, as well as interviews with cast members and the production team including: director Paul Curran; conductor John McGlinn; Coward's biographer and "After the Ball" editor, Barry Day; and Festival producer Eileen Mackevich - as they discuss the life and music of Noel Coward, the show itself, and the restoration of the piece.

The half-hour program begins at 8 p.m. December 21, followed immediately by a two-hour documentary on the life of Noel Coward.

The Coward and Ellington centennials at the 10th annual Chicago Humanities Festival were highly successful. More than 40,000 people attended the Festival programs over the two weekends.

The 11th annual Chicago Humanities Festival, "NOW!" will take place Nov. 2-12, 2000, at various sites around the city and promises to be the most exciting, provocative, and broadly appealing Festival to date by exploring the immediate, the cutting-edge and the engaging.

Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.

Soviets are happy to return unhappy wanderer

LITTLE DIOMEDE, Alaska (UPI) The northern lights may have seenstranger sights, but the strangest this little village ever saw wason the banks of the Bering Strait when the Soviets brought back thewanderer.

John Weymouth, 33, a tall, surly, taciturn man with blond hairand spectacles, has spent years wandering through the North and Westin search of some private dream.

Two weeks ago the dream took him out onto the ice toward theimaginary line that divides the Alaskan island of Little Diomede fromthe Soviet Union, only 2 1/2 miles away on Big Diomede. ConcernedEskimos tried to stop him, because the only other man who did thisnever came back.

But Weymouth snapped at them, told them to leave him alone anddisappeared into the fog.

The Soviets evidently found the wanderer no more agreeable, forTuesday afternoon an orange Red Army helicopter clattered into viewand landed by the village. The entire population of 135 poured out.

A stern Soviet officer in a gray greatcoat and black boots,accompanied by an interpreter who appeared to be a civilian, got offthe helicopter with Weymouth and handed him over to Thomas MenadelookJr., the town's public safety officer.

Menadelook asked the officer if it would be all right to callauthorities in Nome before signing the release papers. The officersuddenly became agitated.

"Nyet!" he barked, and the interpreter chimed in:

"If we wait any longer to give this guy to you, it's going to be10 days before we get rid of him."

Asked if he was glad to be back in the United States, Weymouthsnapped:

"No. Sorry."

Asked what he wanted to do, he said: "Keep on walking."

Weymouth said the Soviets, who maintain a military post on BigDiomede, took him into custody for violating the border.

He said the Soviets asked him a lot of questions but neverconsidered him a spy. Asked what he did while in custody, he said:"Daydream."

His release was negotiated by the State Department and theKremlin. He spent the night in jail in Nome, but he faces nocharges. Following interviews with military counterintelligence, theFBI and a psychiatrist, he was to be sent to Anchorage to catch a flight to California.

Weymouth is a nephew of San Francisco Chronicle columnist HerbCaen and the son of pianist Estelle Barrett, who sent him a planeticket home.

His mother said the wandering started three years ago. He"wandered through California," she said, and "didn't like that. Hewandered through Oregon. He didn't like that. He wandered throughWashington. He didn't like that."

He appeared in Alaska last year, carrying only a simple daypack, a tarpaulin, a sleeping bag and a .22-caliber revolver. Heworked at odd jobs in Nome to raise the money for a flight to LittleDiomede island.

After interviewing Weymouth, officials said he had intended towalk into the Soviet Union but did not know why.

Movie revives interest in US nun killed in Amazon

In Daniel Junge's chilling new documentary "Who Killed Sister Dorothy," a defense lawyer for one of two ranchers accused of ordering the killing of 73-year-old American nun Dorothy Stang dryly explains the circumstances that led to her murder.

"She irritated a lot of people. In this region, if you irritate people, you don't live long," Americo Leal says, laying down the law of the land in Brazil's rough and tumble Amazon.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Stang spent the last 30 years of her life building schools and teaching poor settlers from Brazil's drought-ridden Northeast to respect the rain forest and to stand up for their rights along the Amazon's hardscrabble logging frontier.

On Feb. 23, 2005, her work earned her six revolver shots at close range on a muddy stretch of red dirt road sandwiched between two dense walls of green jungle.

Stang, who wanted to preserve a stretch of rain forest that a rancher wanted cut down, was just one of over 1,000 activists killed in land disputes since Brazil began pushing to open up the Amazon region in the 1980s.

But her age and American citizenship drew the kind of international attention not seen in the region since the environmental activist and rubber tapper Chico Mendes was murdered in 1988.

That notoriety helped speed the conviction of the gunman, his accomplice and a middleman, all within a little over a year after the murder _ record time in Para state, where trials usually drag on for decades.

The wheels of justice began to grind to a halt, however, when it came time to prosecute the ranchers.

An initial conviction at a high profile-trial for one of the ranchers, Vitalmiro Moura, was hailed as a new chapter for justice in a state where only three other men have ever been convicted of ordering the kind of land-related killings that plague the region.

That conviction was short-lived, however, because Brazilian law grants an automatic retrial to any first offender sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

At the second trial, which took place after interest in the case began to fade and with no members of the international media present, the jury found Moura not guilty.

Another considerably richer rancher, Regivaldo Galvao, has been charged with the killing but has, so far, managed to avoid trial altogether.

Now, pressure is once again building for Brazil to bring Stang's killers to justice.

Stang was posthumously awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in November, and Junge's documentary, narrated by actor Martin Sheen, is set to premiere on HBO on March 25. It is also slated for theatrical release in Brazil.

"I think the momentum of the film is going to force the politicians' hands, or I hope it will," Junge said in a telephone interview from Colorado. "Two senators saw the film in Brasilia and said they were going to personally take it to president for him to see."

The film takes the viewer to Brazil's bad back country, where "pistoleiros" routinely force settlers from their homes in order to raze the forest for timber and cattle pasture. The region's politicians and courts are in the pocket of land-grabbing ranchers whose holdings can rival the size of some European nations.

Mostly, the documentary details the ranchers' Byzantine efforts to elude justice.

Drawn from over 400 hours of footage filmed over three years during eight trips to Brazil, Junge's work captures the high theater of Brazilian courts and the gritty back room dealings that often determine the outcome.

Defense attorney Leal, whose flowing gray beard and black robes give him the air of a fire and brimstone preacher from an earlier era, denounces Stang as an agent of American imperialism _ linking her, in the same breath, to the abuses at Guantanamo and the bombing of Hiroshima.

Junge also follows the defense lawyers as they storm around town in black suits and sun glasses like something out of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," wielding their cell phones like weapons.

The amount of access the defense lawyers provide Junge and his cameras as they brazenly game the system, railroading the gunmen to protect the ranchers, only serves to highlight the routine nature of their actions.

Not long after Amair Feijoli, the man convicted of acting as the intermediary between the gunmen and the ranchers, agrees to testify against them, he was placed in a special cell with another inmate who beats him so badly he fails to appear at the trial the following day.

Footage of his battered face is interspersed with that of a court clerk explaining the defense will be calling one less witnessed than planned.

"The film reveals the entrails of how impunity is constructed in the Amazon and in Brazil, especially in relation to land ownership," said Brazilian Sen. Jose Nery, who arranged for a special showing of the documentary in the country's Senate last month.

"I hope the film can be an instrument to mobilize Brazilian society to demand that the judiciary punish these crimes, and that this case serve as an example," Nery added in a telephone interview from Brasilia, the nation's capital.

There are already concrete signs that interest in the case is being revived by the film, which, along with the U.N. human rights prize awarded to Stang, has won awards at film festivals around the U.S. and Brazil and was short-listed for the Oscars.

Earlier this year, rancher Galvao was jailed on federal charges of illegally trying to seize the plot of land over which Stang was killed.

State Prosecutor Edson Cardoso Souza, who is in charge of the murder case, says he believes the film has helped step up pressure for Galvao to be put on trial.

"The film presents the case from many angles, which allows for a clearer analysis of what really happened," Souza said, in a telephone interview from Para state.

He says he expects Galvao will face trial sometime this year and remains hopeful that a court will overturn the acquittal last year of the other defendant, Moura.

Understanding Phase

This is one of those things that you must always be conscious about during sessions, much like listening for instrument tuning, which just so happens to carry some of the same principals.

It's safe to say that audio signals are made up of two basic principals: time (frequency) and volume (amplitude). These factors make up a sin wave (sinusoidal wave) when displayed on a graph. This is where the term "sound wave" comes from. The sin wave moves in both the positive and negative direction. The height of the wave represents the amplitude, and the length of the wave represents the frequency. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz), which is just a fancy way of saying "cycles per second." One cycle is when the wave travels from zero to "its" amplitude in the positive direction, then to its amplitude in the negative direction, and then back up to zero (Fig 1.1). The amount of cycles that happen in one second gives you the frequency. For example, twenty cycles in one second is 20 Hz and 20 thousand cycles per second is 20 kHz, which is also the average audible range for humans. We listen to audio in its analog form because our ears work like mics. A speaker pushes out in the positive direction of the wave, and pulls back in the negative direction of the wave. Our ears react in the opposite direction so on a speakers "push," our eardrums "pull," and vice versa - like talking into a mic.

Why am I telling you about sound waves?

It's because phase, in essence, is the direct comparison of sound waves being played overtop of each other. Let's use a portion of a 20 Hz wave as an example. If we zoom in on one cycle, we see that it begins at zero, and travels to the positive (push) amplitude, and then to the negative (pull) and back to zero. If we put the exact same 20 Hz frequency overtop of it that has the same amplitude, we end up adding the two waves' amplitudes together to make a theoretically louder 20 Hz. If we "reverse the phase" on one of them, we get a "figure eight" type of sin wave (Fig 1.2). All we've done is started the wave from zero to its negative amplitude first, and then to its positive amplitude and back down to zero. It's a mirror image split horizontally. The result is a complete theoretical cancellation of both waves, which means no sound! This comparison can also be made using two waves with different amplitudes or frequencies. Their sum, however, follows some pretty complex physics and mathematics. The result is an altered wave in both frequency and amplitude.

How does this affect us in the real world? Imagine a vocalist that wants to record in the control room using the studio monitors to listen instead of headphones. We can apply the cancellation theory in this case. First we must set up a mic and speaker on the points of an equilateral triangle (Figl.3). The height of the mic must be at the height of the centreline of the speakers as well. We have to switch the control room mix to mono, which means that both speakers are emitting the exact same wave. If we reverse the positive and negative wires on one of the speakers, we have just flipped the phase of that speaker. In theory, at the point where the wave from the left speaker meets the right speaker (exactly where you placed the mic), the sound will cancel out, leaving you with a vocal track that amazingly has only vocal on it. Because the vocalist's ears are further back from the crossing point of the two waves, they can still hear the track while they are singing, it just sounds out of phase. Listening to something out of phase is causing one of your eardrums to push and the other to pull, making it seem unbalanced and unpleasant, but it gets the job done! If you are going to attempt this trick, make sure you double check that you have set it up properly - triple-checking your measurements, and starting off at a very low volume. If you do screw it up, you will probably get the worst feedback loop ever, which could blow up both your eardrums and your speakers, so be careful!

[Sidebar]

DNA Recording Facilities is owned and run by Chris and Dave Tedesco and hosts Steve Chahley as Chief Engineer.

Serving the underserved, local financial services group thrives

Weymouth resident Ralph Mitchell finds clients where other financial advisors do not deign to go. The army reservist signs up fellow weekend warriors and their families for the services of his company, Carthage Financial Group. He helps those of modest means as well as more affluent people to grow their assets.

Whereas most financial advisors serve predominantly white customers, Mitchell and his employees have a clientele that is roughly half white, 30 percent black and 20 percent Latino.

The diversity of his customers reflects the wide range of venues in which Mitchell advertises his services. From military bases to church gatherings where he is invited to speak to the flock about financial planning, Mitchell has gradually built up his business since he founded it in 1992.

The Braintree-based company now has three employees besides Mitchell. Carthage manages approximately $36 million in assets.

So what is the secret ingredient to Mitchell's success? Drive.

"Going into business for myself was something I'd always wanted to do," said Mitchell. "The funding came out of my personal savings."

Mitchell grew up in Columbus, Georgia. After graduating from Columbus College (now Columbus State University) with a degree in finance in 1977, he served in the army for six years, working his way from lieutenant to captain.

Mitchell came to Boston soon after, working as a sales representative for Hershey's Chocolate Company and a pharmaceutical representative for Johnson & Johnson before earning his Master's in Finance at Suffolk University.

From there, Mitchell jumped into the world of financial management as a stock broker for Meryl Lynch, in their now-defunct Boston office, he said.

The apparent unfairness in promotions at Meryl prompted him to launch his own business.

"I got frustrated when I saw people bringing in less money, who were less educated, getting told about in-house training programs and getting promoted, then going to tell me I need to work harder when, when they were at my level, I ran rings around them on a regular basis," he said.

Fed up, Mitchell founded Carthage, working out of his house and building a clientele at first from friends and family.

"You put together a list of 100 people you know, friends, family, former classmates," he said. "Anybody who might have a little bit of money. No people deeply in debt."

Gradually, he expanded, utilizing his broad range of investment knowledge garnered through his schooling and experience at Meryl.

"A lot of people who do what I do, you'd be surprised," he said. "They only have a high school diploma. They went out and got their insurance license and call themselves financial advisors. But they only have a limited number of products they can provide."

Mitchell invests his clients' money with insurance companies, mutual fund houses, brokerage houses, real estate investment trusts, equipment leasing programs and oil and gas partnerships.

The type of investment depends on the level of risk each client is willing to take. Generally, the greater the risk, the greater the potential return on an investment.

Mainly, clients are investing as a way of increasing their savings for occasions such as weddings, retirement, vacations or the education of their children or grandchildren.

"A person in my line of work will sit down with them and say, "What are your different life events coming up?'" he said. "My job is that come that day on the calendar, there's sufficient cash available to make it a reality instead of a pipe dream."

African Americans tend to have less inclination to invest, according to Mitchell, due in large part to family history. But he urges them to join in on the asset-building game that white people have been playing for generations.

"A lot of what I have to tell people, people of color have been left out of the loop for a long time," he said. "Prior to civil rights laws being passed, a lot of Southern states had on the book that a person of color could not have a life insurance policy that amounted to more than $500. They paid a lot more in terms of a premium than the plan would ever pay them or their families."

The scams created a wariness or ignorance about investing in many families.

But many black families do invest, a fact which has helped Mitchell grow his business. And he hopes to continue growing it.

"I always wanted to have something to do until I'm an old man and senile," he said. "I'm not drawing in millions personally each year. I'd like to at some point."

For those wishing to start their own financial advising businesses, Mitchell recommends they get a college degree and become certified public accountants.

"CPA you'll always have as a safety net," he said. "Then, if you want to get your insurance broker's license or get a license to do securities trades, you can."

But most of all, he says it takes good organizational skills and the ability to carry out a plan to become a successful financial advisor.

"You have to be organized," he said. "You have to sit down, plan an agenda. You can't do it off the cuff. Then, you need to have the discipline to carry out the plan you just worked on."

Article copyright The Bay State Banner.

Photograph (Ralph Mitchell)

Wrigley 2Q Profit Rises 21 Percent

CHICAGO - Growing international sales and a weak U.S. dollar helped propel Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s profit up 21 percent during the second quarter, the gum and candy maker said Monday.

The confectioner's net income rose to $169.8 million, or 61 cents per share, during the April-through-June quarter. That's up from $140.6 million, or 51 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Results included a penny-per-share charge related to supply chain restructuring.

Meanwhile, revenue surged a better-than-expected 14 percent to $1.38 billion from $1.21 billion last year, beating Wall Street forecasts.

"I think it was a continuation of the strong performance we've seen from the company, especially internationally," said Morningstar analyst Mitchell Corwin.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 59 cents per share on revenue of $1.34 billion. The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The Chicago-based confectioner said shipments rose worldwide, driven in part by a 23 percent sales growth in Europe and Asia. North America net sales grew 3 percent to $452 million, but volume fell 1 percent due to price increases.

"Our focused investments in key geographies - in terms of product innovation and brand support - are producing excellent results," Wrigley's President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Perez said in a statement. "All major regions contributed to our growth in the quarter, particularly Europe and Asia."

A third of revenue growth was attributed to the weakened dollar.

Wrigley's popular Orbit and Eclipse gum continued to perform well in the U.S., especially in a new plastic bottle package, the company said.

Meanwhile, Perez said Wrigley is aiming for a full-year earnings growth of anywhere from nine to 11 percent.

"Our strong first half performance and our ongoing focus on operational efficiency puts us in an excellent position to make the necessary investments in second half product and marketing initiatives to keep our business growing, while still achieving full-year results within our long-term earnings growth objective of nine (to) 11 percent," he said.

The company doesn't traditionally provide earnings guidance, but Corwin said he believes the gum maker is preparing for lower earnings in the year's remaining quarters.

"I would say they're definitely trying to get in front of what they see is probably some lower margins in the second half of the year," he said.

Wrigley shares fell 7 cents to $57.05 in late afternoon trading Monday.

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On the Net:

http://www.wrigley.com

Vonn and Mancuso have nothing to lose in GS

Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso have both already won two medals at these Olympics. Any more in Wednesday's giant slalom would be a bonus for either skier.

Vonn has never reached the podium in giant slalom, traditionally her most challenging event. Mancuso is the defending Olympic champion in GS but hasn't finished better than 13th in the discipline this season.

"I have nothing to lose," Mancuso said. "I'm really, really proud of my Olympic career so far."

Mancuso and Vonn are both ranked 28th in the World Cup GS standings, meaning they won't get one of the coveted early start numbers in the opening run reserved for the higher-ranked skiers.

Vonn will also have to deal with her bruised right shin, which will take more pounding in GS than the speed events. Her best career result in the discipline was fourth in Aspen, Colo., last season.

This season, Vonn has had trouble with the conditions on GS courses injected with water to create icier surfaces. She blamed alternating conditions after hurting her wrist in a fall in Lienz, Austria, at the end of December.

While Vonn is hoping organizers don't inject the Olympic course, several GS specialists _ such as Denise Karbon of Italy _ would like to see more ice so they can show off their technical skills.

Yet racers that only ski the GS and slalom have only just arrived in Whistler and haven't even skied the course yet.

"We only saw it from the gondola," Karbon said. "It looks real nice. It's full of bumps and there aren't too many flats which would put us at a disadvantage."

Karbon won four consecutive giant slaloms back in 2007-08 but has struggled with injuries throughout her career, undergoing eight surgeries, the latest an operation on her right meniscus in December.

"The injury is forgotten now," Karbon added. "I'm able to go 100 percent in training."

Karbon finished fourth in the GS at last season's world championships in Val d'Isere, France _ which was won by Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany.

Hoelzl has kept up her good form, and is the only skier to win two GS races this season, putting her atop the World Cup GS standings. Kathrin Zettel of Austria is second, super-G silver medalist Tina Maze is third and Tanja Poutiainen of Finland is fourth.

Poutiainen won the final GS before the Vancouver Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and has also just arrived in Whistler. She took silver behind Mancuso four years ago.

Swedish standout Anja Paerson is a two-time world champion in GS, but hasn't posted a victory in the event in four years. Still, Paerson is chasing a seventh Olympic medal _ which would move her past her former rival Janica Kostelic as the most successful female Alpine skier in games' history.

"I've been skiing good in training and I feel very comfortable with my skis and everything is where I want it to be," Paerson said.

Mancuso entered these games with low expectations after a two-year dry spell and everything has suddenly come together here.

"As long as I give my all, that's what I've been looking for in these games," Mancuso said. "I feel like I've reached the moment where I'm in the start gate doing exactly what I need."

Computer puts a bite in soap opera scripts

Can computers take the guesswork out of picking hits by writinghits? Michael Lebowitz, associate professor of computer science atColumbia University, is designing a computer program that will writesoap opera scripts.

"So far it can generate a few plot outlines, but we're still inthe early stages," he says. "We're trying to figure out what elementsof creativity aren't so creative, in the sense that we can get acomputer to do it easily. Soap opera writers don't figure outbrilliant new plot twists every day. They have a library of plotideas that happen over and over again. If you take those simple plotideas and plug in different characters and different situations, theywill play out in limitless ways."

By carefully monitoring a few years' worth of "Days of OurLives," Lebowitz tried to figure out that elusive problem: What makesa story interesting? "The one thing you can't allow," he found, "isto let the characters do what they'd normally do in real life. It'stoo dull. In the real world, lovers want to be together. In TV, youneed some force keeping them apart."

The forces keeping them apart on "Days of Our Lives" were ratherpredictable, Lebowitz found. In a two-year period, three "dead"spouses turned out to be alive; four of the lovers died (at leastfor a little while); three developed serious illnesses (amnesia,blindness and heart attack); and one unhappy couple turned out to besiblings.

There's more to an interesting story, however, than unfulfilledlove. "Roughly speaking, what makes something interesting is thatit's novel," Lebowitz says. "It's not exactly like something else youknow, and yet it's connected to other things. A story that's totallyoff the wall isn't so interesting, yet one that's too mundane isn'tinteresting, either."

Will Lebowitz's program ever be able to write stories ascreative as those on TV? He doesn't think so. "If you did puttogether a program like that, it might be a big step backwards," hesays. "It'll get you `Rocky 18,' and the 14 clones of `Star Wars' -but it won't get you `Star Wars.' Whatever that spark is which makesa show `Dallas' rather than just another soap opera is much, muchharder to figure out."

Arkansas QB Mallett defends answers at combine

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett has tried to distance himself from the rumors of possible drug use that have followed him lately.

He attempted Tuesday to also put some distance between himself and the other quarterbacks vying to be first round picks in April's NFL draft.

Mallett said at Arkansas' pro day that he didn't feel ambushed by the questions he received at the NFL combine in Indianapolis about the drug use rumors. He added that he doesn't regret any of the answers he gave.

Mallett said he's dealt with the same scrutiny since his days as a star high school quarterback in Texarkana, Texas. At the combine, he said simply that teams know what they need to know about him.

"I answered the same questions about four times, so I don't know what else you want me to say," Mallett said.

Mallett didn't elaborate on the answers he gave NFL teams, stating only that he has remained consistent with his answers.

"If you ask me six (times), I'm going to answer the same question six times the same way," Mallett said.

Representatives from every NFL team were in attendance to get another look at the 6-foot-6, 238-pound Mallett, who was the SEC's leading passer in 2010.

Mallett ran the 40-yard dash in 5.37 seconds. He pulled up almost immediately after taking off on his first attempt down the indoor track, stating afterward that he got off to a bad start. He decided against running the sprint a third time.

"I'm not Mike Vick, everybody knows that," Mallett said.

Mallett posted a vertical jump of 26 inches and a broad jump of 8 feet, 7.25 inches. He showed his strong arm while throwing passes to several of his former Arkansas wide receivers and tight ends, including a few deep throws that were on target.

"I thought I had a pretty good workout. It was good to get back and throw with some guys I hadn't thrown with in a while," Mallett said. "They looked really good, so they went out there and made me look good and let it fly a little bit."

Mallett opted to skip his senior season to enter the draft. Last season, he threw for 3,869 yards and 32 touchdowns in guiding the Razorbacks to their first BCS game, a 31-26 loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.

Asked if the scrutiny about his personal life has bothered him, Mallett responded: "It means I'm doing something right."

Key dates in Pakistan's troubled transition to democracy

Pakistan votes for a new parliament on Monday. Here are some key dates charting the country's troubled transition back to democracy after the 1999 coup by the army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf:

_Oct. 12, 1999 _ Musharraf takes power in a coup after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tries to fire him as army chief. Sharif is jailed, then exiled.

_Sept. 11, 2001 _ Al-Qaida launches attacks in the U.S. Musharraf throws his support to the U.S., abandoning the Taliban and enraging many devout Muslims.

_April 30, 2002 _ Musharraf holds a widely criticized referendum to secure himself a five-year term as president and promises to restore democracy.

_Oct. 10, 2002 _ Flawed elections install a pro-Musharraf parliament. Islamist parties boosted by opposition to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan gain control of two of Pakistan's four provinces.

_Dec. 30, 2004 _ Musharraf reneges on promise to stand down as army chief, gains support of parliament to stay on until 2007.

_March 9, 2007 _ Musharraf suspends Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, sparking a protest movement against military rule.

_July 20, 2007 _ Supreme Court clears Chaudhry of charges he abused his office and restores him as Pakistan's top judge.

_Oct. 6, 2007 _ Parliament votes Musharraf a new five-year term despite boycott by opposition parties who call the election unconstitutional.

_Oct. 18, 2007 _ Opposition party leader Benazir Bhutto returns from exile to Pakistan. She narrowly escapes a suicide bombing that kills about 150 people during a homecoming procession in Karachi.

_Nov. 3, 2007 _ Musharraf imposes a state of emergency, suspending the constitution and purging the Supreme Court, which was set to rule on the legality of his re-election.

_Nov. 25, 2007 _ The other key opposition leader, Sharif, returns from exile to campaign against Musharraf and to lead his party in upcoming elections.

_Nov. 28, 2007 _ Musharraf resigns as army chief, remains as a civilian president.

_Dec. 27, 2007 _ Bhutto dies in a suicide attack, sparking deadly riots and forcing a six-week delay in elections. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, takes control of her Pakistan People's Party.

_Feb. 18, 2007 _ Pakistan votes for a new parliament.

Georgia's Caleb King suspended for 2 games

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Coach Mark Richt said Tuesday his two-game suspension of tailback Caleb King will make it more difficult for Georgia to build off last week's win over Tennessee.

King is Georgia's 11th player to be arrested this year.

Richt announced King's suspension on Tuesday following King's arrest on Monday for failure to appear at a court date for a speeding ticket in nearby Walton County.

King, the team's second-leading rusher, will miss Saturday's game against Vanderbilt and the game against Kentucky on Oct. 23.

Georgia ended a four-game losing streak with it's 41-14 win over Tennessee last week.

Richt said King's arrest could hurt efforts to build on the win.

"It's hard to have great continuity week-by-week if a young man has done something to keep himself from being on the field," Richt said. "Again, it's our job also to deal with those things, but also not take away from the preparation and not take away from the focus of the team. It's something I'd prefer not to have to manage, but we've been managing it.

"This week, I don't think there is any doubt our guys will be focusing on Vanderbilt."

Richt said as players continue to find trouble, his standards have become tougher.

"Oh yeah. No doubt, but they knew that," Richt said.

Washaun Ealey, who leads Georgia with 246 yards rushing, is expected to start at tailback. Carlton Thomas is questionable with a hamstring injury.

Ealey was arrested in late August and was suspended for the opening game after he struck a vehicle in a school parking deck while driving his roommate's car on a suspended license.

After Ealey's arrest, Richt said his staff checks with players "to make sure their licenses are up to date and if they're not, making them aware of that."

On Tuesday, Richt said he is increasing efforts to monitor the players' licenses.

"You can check the licenses to see if they are in good standing on a periodic basis," Richt said. "Monthly we've been doing that, but now we're are going to do it weekly and maybe we can catch something at the last moment. We don't want it to get to that point.

"... We are not taking care of it. We just have to make sure it gets taken care of by the student-athlete."

Richt said he is talking with new athletic director Greg McGarity about the ongoing problem with arrests.

"He and I have already been discussing some things and we'll implement some things as time goes on that I think will help us," Richt said. "It will be an ongoing conversation, but I really have a lot of confidence that he's got some good ideas in that regard and I'm willing to listen to those and see if we can get better at that."

Richt wouldn't reveal details of the plans.

This is the second offense for King, a junior. As a freshman, King was cited for riding on a scooter with a suspended license.

Richt's tough talk, suspensions and even dismissals haven't kept Georgia players out of local police reports.

Most recently, freshman linebacker Demetre Baker was dismissed from the team by Richt on Sept. 26 following a drunken driving arrest.

On Sept. 3, safety Alec Ogletree was suspended for a game following a misdemeanor theft charge.

Tailback Dontavius Jackson left the team before the season after an arrest on DUI and other charges.

Quarterback Zach Mettenberger, linebacker Montez Robinsoin and backup punter Trent Dittmer were dismissed from the team after arrests before the season.

Receiver Tavarres King was suspended for the opening game after he was charged with underaged possession of alcohol.

When asked if Richt was sending a message with the suspension of Caleb King, Tavarres King said players already knew the standard is strict.

"Everybody knows at this point in time if you get in trouble you're going to get a pretty good lashing," Tavarres King said.

Caleb King was not available for comment.

Richt said freshman tailback Ken Malcome could play for the first time against Vanderbilt.

Center Ben Jones said Malcome (6-0, 218) has emerged in practice with his tough runs.

"He's not scared to run anybody over," Jones said. "He runs really hard. He's not going to hold anything back."

Consumers need more financial protection

These days, it seems almost everyone has a Bad Bank Story.

In fact, complaints about banks jumped 42 percent last year, the most for any industry, according to the Better Business Bureau.

That's why there has been a big push for a new consumer financial protection agency. That's also why Congress should go ahead and create the agency, which is called for in financial reform bills now in both the House and Senate.

If you're looking for a Bad Bank Stories, you don't have to look far.

�People with debit cards have seen banks purposely process transactions from largest to smallest and ahead of deposits so as to rake in overdraft fees of up to $39 per transaction. A person who makes a deposit and thinks there is a sufficient balance could easily wind up owing hundreds of dollars.

�Prepaid debit cards, typically used by low-income people, can carry more than two dozen fees, including stiff "activation fees," additional charges for every transaction and monthly maintenance and inactivity fees.

�Banks have started behaving like mob loan sharks, offering "early access" withdrawals from checking accounts even before customers put the money in. The exorbitant interest rates make payday loans look like a bargain.

No wonder 36 percent of all bank customers say their banks mistreated them or someone they knew in the last two years, according to a December survey by AlixPartners, a global business advisory firm.

Some reforms already have been made. Last year, President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which will go into effect in July. It will prohibit forms of exploitation, such as allowing debit card overdrafts without the consumer's approval and manipulating overdraft penalties to maximize bank profits.

Since Obama signed that law, however, new bank fees have proliferated. And the whole recent history of the finance industry illustrates the need for a new agency that would regulate mortgages, credit cards, debit cards, installment loans and other products issued by financial institutions.

The House has approved a bill that would create an independent consumer agency. The Senate Banking Committee last month approved a similar bill, but the Senate would make the new agency an arm of the Federal Reserve.

In a meeting Monday with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, Sen. Dick Durbin said the proposed consumer agency is the "most contentious" part of the Obama administration's financial overhaul plans, which together would constitute the biggest reforms for the industry since the New Deal.

Banks "just can't stand the notion that somebody is going to have some oversight on consumer protection," Durbin said.

The strongest argument against the new agency is that the Federal Reserve and other regulatory agencies already possess much of the authority needed to protect consumers. But their inaction on consumer issues in recent years shows their focus is elsewhere.

A second concern is that financial institutions would be handcuffed in their ability to offer even beneficial new products, said Professor Robert S. Chirinko, interim head of the finance department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"Do you want people to have a more restrictive set of products . . . vs. more innovative products?" Chirinko said. "That is the tradeoff."

Also, there is the problem of what academics refer to as the "regulatory dialectic": Financial institutions will have an incentive to find alternative routes to their goals despite new regulations.

But at this newspaper, we've heard too many stories from Chicago area residents whose lives were ruined because, for example, they signed mortgages they didn't understand. A consumer financial protection agency would likely impose sensible rules to make sure ordinary folks are fully informed before signing on the bottom line.

Then, maybe, we'll have a few more Good Bank Stories to tell.

Read the Sun-Times Commentary blog BackTalk at suntimes.com.