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Luciole Press Blog: Monthly Archives for December 2008

Happy New Year! Spectacular 2009 celebrations across the globe

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 10:41 PM | Add Comment

Stunning images from Hubble space telescope that show the life cycle of stars

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 10:16 PM | Add Comment

Twin sisters Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore celebrate their 101st birthday, saying secret to long life is 'not sitting still too long'

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 10:11 PM | Add Comment

Harold Pinter "directs his own funeral." Mourners listen to a number of readings and poems that Pinter had chosen to mark his passing

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 9:57 PM | Add Comment

The campaign for NASA chief Michael Griffin to keep his job

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 9:51 PM | Add Comment

Smoking ban leads to major drop in heart attacks

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 9:48 PM | Add Comment

Celestial Show Set for New Year's Eve

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 12:45 AM | Add Comment

Reminder: The next issue of Luciole Press will be delayed (please read)

Posted by kluciole at 12/31/2008 12:32 AM | Add Comment

Björk has teamed up with Reykjavik-based Audur Capital to raise money to invest in sustainable businesses in Iceland, most notably green energy

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 4:31 PM | Add Comment

Catch of the day: How a tiny kingfisher caught six different types of fish in two hours in Wales

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 4:30 PM | Add Comment

Gazans unsure where to flee violence: "Even those who managed to flee to Egypt during a border breach on Sunday were returned to the coastal territory"

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 4:17 PM | Add Comment

Ugandan rebels killed more than 400 people in Christmas massacres in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 4:13 PM | Add Comment

Photo: Two-and-a-half-month-old Persian leopard cub Chui and her nine-year-old mother Cezi, seen in their enclosure in Budapest Zoo, Hungary

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 1:59 AM | Add Comment

Hope: Trying to prevent lymphedema, manifesting as painful and often severe arm swelling, after breast cancer (plus the myraid other areas affected with lymphedema with various cancers; it caused Sen. John McCain to have serious face swelling)

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 1:49 AM | Add Comment

Photo: Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate

Posted by kluciole at 12/30/2008 1:45 AM | Add Comment

Photo: a White Pointer shark

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 10:31 PM | Add Comment

Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through the Swat Valley, and now control most of the picturesque northwest region once dubbed "'the Switzerland of Pakistan"

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 10:22 PM | Add Comment

Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), says Israel attacked during a 48-hour "lull" in attacks, suggesting there was a possible violation of an informal truce

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 10:03 PM | Add Comment

Yellowstone photos (wolves and bison), plus article: "Scientists eye unusual swarm of Yellowstone quakes"... Don't forget, almost the entire park is a volcanic caldera: "One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lies beneath Yellowestone"

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 7:06 PM | Add Comment

From the ongoing series sent in by author and Luciole Press Contributor Kurt Kamm: FIREFIGHTER'S WORDS -47- AN EMT AND A MOTHER

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 6:57 PM | Add Comment

Pilot killed in harrier jet crash near Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Base (MCAS) in North Carolina

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 6:50 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 6:48 PM | Add Comment

Top 10 Most Literate U.S. Cities

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 1:02 PM | Add Comment

Firefighters use baby oxygen masks to revive six cats overcome by smoke in house blaze

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:56 PM | Add Comment

Photo: A dog looks out of a shelter, in the largest animal shelter "Rzhevka" (housing about 400 domestic animals) in St. Petersburg

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:53 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

How one family's mortgage is linked to meltdown: Cynthia Goldrick's daughter is in and out of the hospital for brain surgery, her mother has Stage 4 lung cancer, her husband is off work for a job-related injury. Then the adjustable mortgage rate reset

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:47 PM | Add Comment

Photo: Children play soccer during sunset at a beach in Lima, Peru

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:41 AM | Add Comment

Photo: a man rides a bicycle amid snowfall at a park in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:38 AM | Add Comment

Stalin voted third most popular Russian in a nationwide poll, despite millions having perished of starvation, slavery and/or execution during his rule. One Russian worries, "We may find ourselves in a situation where absolute power... may prevail (again)"

Posted by kluciole at 12/29/2008 12:28 AM | Add Comment

Shark attack victim Brian Guest's family call for shark to be spared; Australian authorities have called off their hunt

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:55 PM | Add Comment

Walking in nature is good for the brain as well as the body: "just an hour strolling through the countryside increases the brain's performance by a fifth"

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:48 PM | Add Comment

Study shows a third of Britain's mammals are now endangered - and some could be wiped out completely

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:40 PM | Add Comment

'40s femme fatale star Ann Savage dies at 87

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:37 PM | Add Comment

After 30 years, John Warner exits Senate at peace

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:32 PM | Add Comment

Sculptor Robert Graham dies in California at 70

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:25 PM | Add Comment

Politico: Obama bristles as the bubble closes in; "(he) appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, the routine demands of press coverage, and is beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller"

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 9:19 PM | Add Comment

Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will attempt to create an artificial sun on earth

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 4:13 AM | Add Comment

Playful emperor penguin chicks look like characters from the film "Happy Feet," but face an icy fight for survival the harsh Antarctic conditions

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 4:04 AM | Add Comment

A timely reminder to be careful what you feed your animal friends: Kamal, an Arabian stallion, was "killed with kindness" after passers-by fed him 'treats' like dog biscuits

Posted by kluciole at 12/28/2008 3:57 AM | Add Comment

Stop burning the Christmas Goat!! "Christmas straw goat burned down again in Sweden"

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 11:15 PM | Add Comment

Publication of disputed Holocaust memoir canceled. Previously featured story here on Luciole, where one person left comments that the upcoming book by Herman and Roma Rosenblat, "Angel at the Fence," was fake... (turns out their story is fiction)

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:42 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

Alaska winter trip: Northern Lights and much more (travel article). "Last winter, my 10-year-old son and I headed to a destination that had friends and family wondering if we'd lost our minds. We went to Fairbanks. In February"

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:33 PM | Add Comment

Influential US political scientist Samuel Huntington, author of "The Clash of Civilizations" and a professor at Harvard University, dies at the age of 81

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:26 PM | Add Comment

Photos of snow in Central Park and Times Square in NYC

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:21 PM | Add Comment

Lung Cancer: Still the Biggest Cancer Killer, by Far... "killing more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined"

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:13 PM | Add Comment

Can group of bottlenose dolphins survive winter in NJ rivers?

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 10:09 PM | Add Comment

Video: Lux Aurumque, by Eric Whitacre

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 7:53 AM | Add Comment

Angels uncovered during restoration of 350-year-old painting "A Portrait of a Lady and a Boy with Pan," by John Hayls (Baroque painter)

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 7:46 AM | Add Comment

Article a day late: Southeast Asia remembers tsunami on anniversary; the loved ones lost, the progress made, the state of the coral reefs

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 7:42 AM | Add Comment

UPDATED: at least 200 dead, over 400 injured.... Israel launches air strikes on Gaza; military officials said more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on Gaza by mid-afternoon

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 5:26 AM | Add Comment

Photo: Eleven-year-old orangutan Sinta holds her baby Natalia, at Taman Safari zoo (Indonesia)

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 4:01 AM | Add Comment

More than 150,000 Pakistanis flocked to the mausoleum of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to offer flowers and kiss her grave on the first anniversary of her assassination

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 3:55 AM | Add Comment

TIME article: The Shoe-Thrower Becomes an Issue in Iraq Election

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 3:50 AM | Add Comment

Abolishing leap second could spell the end of GMT in just two years, but "international timekeepers are going to recommend abolishing the leap second, replacing it with a leap hour every 600 years or so." And -- "2009 to Arrive Not a Second Too Soon"

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 3:39 AM | Add Comment

Amateur photographer and wildlife enthusiast Stan Kemish captures image of white bucks at the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary in the New Forest (Britain)

Posted by kluciole at 12/27/2008 3:35 AM | Add Comment

Photos: a tiger relaxes after its meal at Central Zoo in Kathmandu. The zoo says it has stopped feeding the tigers for one day a week to keep the wild cats slim

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 10:42 PM | Add Comment

TVA utility doubles estimate of eastern Tennessee ash deluge; the burst dike at its coal-fired power plant has spilled millions more cubic yards of ash than originally estimated

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 10:34 PM | Add Comment

Photo: a newborn aardvark named Amani, at the Detroit Zoo

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 10:33 PM | Add Comment

Death Valley works to preserve its night sky, one of the nation's most unspoiled stargazing spots... but light-polluting Las Vegas is only 85 miles away, and "You can see the Luxor vertical beam"

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 8:49 PM | Add Comment

Brazilian police have detained a rancher suspected in the slaying of rain forest activist and U.S. nun Dorothy Stang, for allegedly illegally acquiring titles to land. Stang defended the rights of poor settlers against powerful ranchers wanting their land

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 8:35 PM | Add Comment

Photo: heavy snow in Crested Butte, Colorado

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 8:21 PM | Add Comment

Britain's wildlife takes a hit as topsy-turvy weather takes a toll on animal numbers (puffins have seen numbers drop by 35% in five years)

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 8:16 PM | Add Comment

NYC man has designed a Bubble Wrap calendar; customers can pop a bubble each day to mark the passage of time

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 8:12 PM | Add Comment

Big Duke: The five-year-old shire horse is 6'7'' at his shoulders (19.3 hands), weighs a ton, and is continuing to grow

Posted by kluciole at 12/26/2008 7:08 PM | Add Comment

Photo: a curator holds up a mummified cat in Sydney in preparation for an exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts. An Australian man's been arrested in Egypt after trying to leave the country with a 2,000-year-old preserved cat in his suitcase

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 11:06 PM | Add Comment

Jewish groups blast Belgian TV show in which a standup comedian jokes about the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews: "the Holocaust cannot happen again because Jews are much smarter now"

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:58 PM | Add Comment

A wolf has been captured by forestry workers near part of China's Great Wall popular with tourists

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:47 PM | Add Comment

Christmas Trees 'Round the World

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:22 PM | Add Comment

A photo retrospective of the great Eartha Kitt, who has died at the age of 81

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:15 PM | Add Comment

New Law Gives License to Abuse in Italian Circuses? Concerns Are Growing Over the Abuse of Animals and People

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 12:07 PM | Add Comment

Mesmerizing photo of a lightening storm, watched at sunset from a balcony by a monk at the Kopan Monastery in Katmandu, Nepal

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:20 AM | Add Comment

Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter dies at 78

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 10:17 AM | Add Comment

Previously featured photos: some of my favorites from this year. Two artist's conceptions of the extrasolar (outside of our solar system) Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 4:47 AM | Add Comment

Found: The Dimmest Bulbs in Space. "A pair of failed stars (brown dwarfs) takes the record of being the dimmest bulbs ever detected, astronomers find"

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 4:40 AM | Add Comment

Too sick to work? Need health care? Take a number. One senator says: "When it comes to people dying of cancer, you can't help but be sympathetic... But at a time when we have a big downturn in the economy, it may be questionable what can be done"

Posted by kluciole at 12/25/2008 4:34 AM | Add Comment

Greenland cruise: In the wake of the Vikings. "On a summer day, you can hear birdsong and the sigh of wind and sea among the abandoned houses straggling beneath a stark mountain, its crags wreathed in mist"

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 11:53 PM | Add Comment

Alternative story of Jesus: the Japanese who say they are his descendants; that his brother was accidentally crucified whilst Jesus lived to be 106 and father many children in Shingo, Japan

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 11:47 PM | Add Comment

Photo: a Metro bus is routed around a tree that fell across a very snowy Highway 99 in Seattle

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 9:29 PM | Add Comment

Caroline Kennedy's pursuit of Senate seat facing backlash as New York politicians complain that she is jumping the line ahead of others with far more experience. She met with reporters in Syracuse for 30 seconds, in Buffalo for 2 minutes

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 9:19 PM | Add Comment

LiveScience article: Slow Starvation of Brain Triggers Alzheimer's

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 9:12 PM | Add Comment

Problems seen in e-voting overseas: election ballots could be safely distributed electronically to Americans overseas, but getting their votes back securely could present problems

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 9:09 PM | Add Comment

Australia aims to halve homelessness by 2020, says Prime Minister Rudd. "A country like this should not have this problem"

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 9:05 PM | Add Comment

Photo: Visitors look at a giant ice sculpture of Santa Claus for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 3:05 PM | Add Comment

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity has lost more than 15 million dollars -- nearly all of its assets -- in the Madoff scheme

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 2:48 PM | Add Comment

A special entry from author and Luciole Press contributor Kurt Kamm: A Christmas Tail (remember poor Lil Smokey, a bear cub burned this summer during the fires?)

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 2:10 PM | Add Comment

A team from the European Southern Observatory has captured a breathtaking picture of the "Christmas Tree Star Cluster"

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 1:51 PM | Add Comment

Bees acts as bodyguards for flowers by protecting them from munching insects

Posted by kluciole at 12/24/2008 1:47 PM | Add Comment

Photos: Kuchani the African lioness investigates Christmas packages left in her Savannah-themed habitat at Taronga Zoo in Sydney

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 8:11 PM | Add Comment

Romeo, the black wolf of Juneau, is back for the winter

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 8:07 PM | Add Comment

Cities mark Edgar Allan Poe's birthday bicentennial, battling over his legacy; the author of "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and other poems was born in Boston and lived in Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 8:00 PM | Add Comment

Giant pandas make historic trip to Taiwan amid eased China ties (lots of photos of the charming acrobats)

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 7:54 PM | Add Comment

Israelis unearth Byzantine gold hoard of more than 250 gold coins, from the seventh century

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 7:50 PM | Add Comment

Four calves of the world's rarest species of rhino have been found in remote jungle on Indonesia's Java island, giving hope to efforts to save them from extinction

Posted by kluciole at 12/23/2008 7:36 PM | Add Comment

Photo: a Palestinian boy dressed as Santa Claus makes his way to the Latin Catholic Church in Gaza City

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:50 PM | Add Comment

4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs unveiled near Cairo

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:40 PM | Add Comment

Photo: snow drifts in Buffalo, New York

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:38 PM | Add Comment

Photos of some of the billions of tiny creatures that live in our oceans: spider crab larva, jellyfish larva, sardines in enbryo

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:24 PM | Add Comment

Photo: Fabienne Mogue, French restorer of dolls and teddy bears, repairs a broken doll in her workshop "La clinique des poupees" in Bordeaux

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:22 PM | Add Comment

Hate Crime -- A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, brutally gang raped: "The level of trauma, physical and emotional, this victim has suffered is extreme." Richmond police are offering a $10,000 reward

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 9:12 PM | Add Comment

International Christmas photos, from the Manezhnaya Square in front of the Kremlin in Moscow to the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church in Place Royale in Quebec (included: Russia, Canada, Monaco, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Belgium)

Posted by kluciole at 12/22/2008 3:48 AM | Add Comment
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