There?s no question that solitary confinement?the nebulous, undefined, and largely undocumented practice that Amnesty International, the NYCLU, and the UN call torture?can cause horrific psychological damage to prisoners. But are the architects who build these structures responsible for them?
Coach John McCarthy with Home Run Baseball Camp talks Harry Kaplan, 12, through a proper pitch at Friendship Recreation Center in Bethesda, Md., on June 25.
Heather Rousseau/NPR
Coach John McCarthy with Home Run Baseball Camp talks Harry Kaplan, 12, through a proper pitch at Friendship Recreation Center in Bethesda, Md., on June 25.
Heather Rousseau/NPR
The ability to throw a baseball or any object with speed and precision is unique to us humans. And that ability depends on certain features of our anatomy that arose in our ancestors over two million years ago, according to a study published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
It's not that other animals can't throw. But their throws aren't as powerful as ours. Consider our closest relative, the chimp. "An adult chimpanzee can throw only about 20 miles per hour, despite being very athletic," says Neil Roach, an anthropologist at George Washington University and an author of the new study. In comparison, a professional baseball pitcher or cricket bowler can throw a ball at speeds of 90-100 mph.
So, what makes us such good throwers? To answer that question, Roach enlisted 20 athletes at Harvard University, many of them baseball players. He stuck reflective markers on their bodies ? at the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist and the waist ? and filmed the students using 3-D cameras as they threw balls into the distance.
"That allowed us to know how the motion was generated in three dimensions," Roach says. Next, he and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to analyze the individual movements of the parts of the body involved in throwing.
Harry Kaplan practices pitching during Home Run Baseball Camp at Friendship Recreation Center June 25. Kaplan's arm is stretched long and toward the ground as his hips are faced away from the pitcher. A chimp, in contrast, could never throw a fastball.
Heather Rousseau/NPR
Harry Kaplan practices pitching during Home Run Baseball Camp at Friendship Recreation Center June 25. Kaplan's arm is stretched long and toward the ground as his hips are faced away from the pitcher. A chimp, in contrast, could never throw a fastball.
Heather Rousseau/NPR
Our shoulders, it turns out, are crucial to high-speed throws, Roach says, because they store a lot of elastic energy, thanks to a crisscross of ligaments and tendons.
These bands of connective tissue are thick and short. When a pitcher prepares to throw by cocking his arm, the fibers controlling the shoulder get stretched like an elastic band. When he whips the arm forward to throw, the muscles, ligaments and tendons spring back to their original positions and release their elastic energy ? propelling the ball from his hand. The pitcher's shoulder acts like a slingshot.
Human shoulders are broader than our primate cousins', and our shoulder blades are located along the flat of the upper back says Daniel Lieberman, a physical anthropologist at Harvard University and a co-author of the study. The shoulder blades of chimps on the other hand, are positioned more along the side of the body, he explains. "If your shoulders are more vertically oriented ? like in a chimpanzee ? then the muscles can't generate that much power."
Our earliest ancestors also had chimp-like shoulders," Lieberman says. But evidence from two fossils suggests that may have changed with Homo erectus,a species that lived about 2 million years ago. The fossils Lieberman and his colleagues examined had shoulders resembling a modern day human's.
Homo erectus shared two more features with humans that Lieberman and his team think crucial to the ability to throw with power: a slender, flexible waist, which allows us to move our torso in relation to our hips and legs, and a twist in the shape of the humerus, the bone that connects the shoulder to the elbow. These features "evolved bit by bit," Lieberman says, "but they appear all in a package in Homo erectus."
He and his team think the ability to throw also gave this ancestral species an evolutionary advantage. "We don't have fangs. We don't claws and massive paws," Lieberman notes. Without such built-in weapons, the ability to hurl objects with force and precision must have allowed Homo erectus to become a more efficient hunter.
Barry Zito, of the San Francisco Giants, pitches against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 19 in Denver, Colo.
Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
"Homo erectus's long limbs and relatively slender body have long suggested to anthropologists that there's something different about this creature," says John Shea, an anthropologist at Stony Brook University who wasn't involved in the study. He notes that previous studies by Lieberman have suggested that Homo erectus was a good runner.
"You put these things together," Shea says, "and you have the primate equivalent of a fighter jet ? something that can run for a long time, and has projectile weapons on board."
Shea thinks those projectile weapons were likely to have been stones of some sort. (The oldest spears go back only about 400,000 years.) Archaeologists often find "hand-grenade-sized stones" along with skeletons from that era, he says. And scientists, initially, thought the rocks might have been raw materials for stone tools. But, in light of the new findings, Shea says, those stones may well have been weapons used by ancient humans to hunt or to chase away another predator from their kill.
The best whale watching tour boat businesses are always looking for new ways to improve and expand. If not, there is no point continuing. Here are things to consider in order to keep your business growing.
While you might not think whale watching tour boat business cards work, they can lead people to your business. If you hand out your business cards to people, you might tempt them to come into your business and make a purchase. Hand out your whale watching tour boat business cards to everyone and participate in promotions in order to keep your business on everyone's mind.
As a whale watching tour boat business owner it is of great important to find out what things produce the greatest results in business. Typically it will be only 10% of profits that come from your customers. The other 90% is from other profits. Find out how to bring up that 10% and you will be on the right track for a successful business.
Google Maps may be the most underused way for whale watching tour boat business discovery. Whale Tour Business visibility is key to growing your business. Go to Google Places and add your business today! Fill in all of the fields and include images and video when applicable for the greatest results.
Annoying your customer is not the best way to sell a product. No customer wants to shop at a whale watching tour boat business where they feel harassed by the sales people. Be there to give information about your product, but do not push a product onto an unenthusiastic customer if you want to have any return business.
If you want to expand your tour boat company, the absolute first thing you need to do is come up with a plan for growth. Without an organized plan, you whale watching tour boat business will simply fall apart as soon as you try to get things moving. Sit down and create your strategy for growth today.
Install Google Analytics. This really is completely free, and can let you know how many people are looking at your site every day. Should you be only getting a few hits each day, then you understand that you are going to have to alter a couple of things to make it a lot more well-known or searchable.
If you want your clients to be satisfied with your tour boat company, you need to make sure that you are meeting all of their needs and expectations with your products. Your products should all be of only the highest possible quality. This will increase your sales exponentially and make your whale watching tour boat business much more profitable.
When trying to attract new patrons to your whale watching tour boat business, the "gardening" approach wins over the "hunting" method every time. Don't have the mindset of hunting and trapping new clientele. Instead, try for "gardening" them with a symbiotic relationship. If you establish a back-and-forth with your customer, they will see that future purchases from your tour boat company are mutually beneficial.
President Barack Obama and Senegalese President Macky Sall leave after a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama and Senegalese President Macky Sall leave after a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama listens as Senegalese President Macky Sall speaks during a news conference at the Presidential Palace, in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? The United States won't be scrambling military jets or engaging in high-level diplomatic bartering to get National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden extradited to the U.S., President Barack Obama said Thursday.
Dismissing him as "a 29-year-old hacker," Obama sought to downplay the international chase for Snowden, lowering the temperature of an issue that has already raised tensions between the U.S. and uneasy partners Russia and China. Snowden turned 30 last week.
Obama said the damage to U.S. national security has already been done and his top focus now is making sure it can't happen again.
"I'm not going to have one case with a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly be elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system," Obama said at a joint news conference with Senegal's President Macky Sall.
Snowden's intercontinental efforts to shirk U.S. authorities ? taking him from a hotel hideout in Hong Kong to an airport transit zone in Moscow, where he's believed to be holed up ? has already undercut Obama's efforts to strengthen ties with China and threatened to worsen tensions with Russia just as Obama is seeking Moscow's cooperation on Syria. At the same time, Snowden's attempts to seek asylum from Ecuador and other nations have underscored Obama's limited sway in a number of foreign capitals.
Obama said he hadn't personally called either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping to request their cooperation.
"I shouldn't have to," he declared.
Obama said such matters are routinely dealt with at a law-enforcement level, calling Snowden's extradition "not exceptional from a legal perspective." He said the U.S. has a wide-ranging economic relationship with China that shouldn't be dwarfed by the hunt for one fugitive, and that the U.S. has had "useful conversations" with Moscow over efforts to return Snowden to the U.S. Putin has called Snowden a "free man" and refused to turn him over to Washington.
"My continued expectation is that Russia or other countries that have talked about potentially providing Mr. Snowden asylum recognize that they are a part of an international community and they should be abiding by international law," Obama said, noting that the U.S. doesn't have a formal extradition treaty with Russia.
Snowden has acknowledged seizing highly classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of U.S. phone and Internet records. He shared the information with The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He also told the South China Morning Post that the NSA hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal text message data. The Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has said Snowden still has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents.
"I get why it's a fascinating story," Obama said. "I'm sure there will be a made-for-TV movie somewhere down the line."
Obama says the fact Snowden walked off with so many secret documents shows significant vulnerabilities at the NSA that must be solved. But Obama said he's also focused on fostering a "healthy effective debate" about the balance between security and privacy in America.
"In terms of U.S. interests, the damage was done with respect to the initial leaks," Obama said.
Obama's comment came on the first full day of a weeklong, 3-country trip to Africa, his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago.
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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.
The recent gun control measures approved in Colorado have already taken a toll on local individuals, businesses, and ?communities throughout the state. Those who work in the outdoor recreation industry, along with entire towns and counties that center around hunting and fishing, have been the first to experience the real economic effect of the new firearm regulations.
Tom Bowers is an outdoor recreation guide and the owner of Colorado?s High Lonesome Outfitter & Guides located in Yampa. Bowers shared with Media Trackers Colorado how the new gun legislation has already affected his business.
?Many of my hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and rafting clients are choosing to recreate in other states because of the new laws. Before the [gun control] legislation passed I got 15-30 calls from potential clients a day, now I get less than 5.?
Eric Layman with Western Colorado Outfitters in Montrose experienced the same drop off in business bookings, reservations, and correspondence as Bowers. After the gun control package cleared the legislature, ?the phone calls and emails suddenly stopped. It?s hard to tell if the state is being boycotted if you don?t hear it from anyone directly,? Layman told Media Trackers Colorado.
Neither Bowers or Layman are isolated cases. As Media Trackers Colorado previously reported, Magpul Industries has also had to make plans to close its doors in Colorado and move elsewhere, taking with it a business that employed over 600 Coloradans and generated more than $85 million in taxable revenue for the state. Various shooting sports competitions have been cancelled and hunters have launched a Colorado boycott.
Layman confirmed this reality and added that, ?my friend and neighbor was supposed to host the shooting event that was cancelled. That will really hurt the local hotels and restaurants also.?
?I?m thinking about sending the legislature a bill for lost business,? Layman concluded frankly.
In a normal year, Bowers and his High Lonesome Outfitters guide between 35 and 40 big game hunters. This year, he said he would be lucky to get 20-25. One big game client, whom he has served as a guide?for 15 years, told Bowers that he will not be rebooking or coming back to Colorado. Bowers recalled the conversation with the client, who told him: ?It is not because of you, it is because of your Governor. I am not giving any money to that state?.
Bowers? clients who booked before the new laws still plan to come this season, but many of them have told him it will be the last time they come to Colorado for any kind of outdoor recreation, even beyond hunting.
As such, Bower?s losses are not limited to hunting, as he attests to the fact that many of the fisherman and rafters he guides will no longer be returning to Colorado to recreate either. ?He explained: ??Now we are a gun control state. My type of clients think if they come to the state of Colorado they are going to be violating gun laws.?
Layman, from Western Colorado Outfitters, echoed the fact that the boycott is spreading far beyond the hunting crowd, saying that while ?the hunter forums show comments indicating that the boycott is in full effect, even summer visitors and skiers are joining in.?
In an attempt to pick up his bookings for this year, Bowers recently lowered the retail cost of his services by a whopping 40 percent. Since he reduced the rates, Bowers has received a total of 20 emails. In previous years, he received between 75-130 emails during the same time frame ? at normal prices.
Bowers finished by expressing his desire simply to stay in business. ?If the trend continues I will be out of business within four years, which would mean losing my home and ranch as well.? Bowers said that he started his?business twenty six years ago with ?two horses and one saddle.?
The blow to the outdoor recreation industry will affect many businesses in Colorado. There are 10 counties across the state where the highest proportion of employment is related to hunting and fishing.
According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, ?The shooting sports are so much more than simply pulling a trigger or releasing a bowstring. They represent financial opportunity for every American community, especially rural economies. Each purchase made by hunters sets off a chain reaction of economic benefits.?
Moreover, the losses will affect more than just local gas stations, restaurants, and hotels. The State of Colorado usually collects over $8 million in taxes from the hunting industry, while the federal government collects over $43 million in Colorado.
Exact losses to Colorado?s $1.8 billion dollar hunting and fishing industry will not be fully recognized until next year.
Anthony Kennedy DOMA opinion is more about individual rights than states' rights.
Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
It?s a rare moment when a court can write a stream of words and make the lives of many thousands of people instantly better. That?s what five Supreme Court justices have done today by striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. Their historic, tremendously exciting, and full-throated stand for equality will bring federal benefits raining down on legally married gay couples in a dozen states?and resonate far beyond even that important change.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in this 5?4 case, joined by Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor. You could say that he has been writing his way to this day since 1996, when he ruled against a Colorado law that took away rights for gay people granted by a local ordinance. Kennedy established a principle then that was key to his ruling Wednesday: The government may not single out a group it disapproves of for injurious treatment. In 2003?10 years exactly from today?Kennedy, again joined by the court?s liberals, struck down state laws that criminalize sodomy in the name of liberty and personal dignity. Today he used the word dignity nine times, by my count, this time joining it to the concept of liberty the court has now embraced.
The constitutional flaw in DOMA, Kennedy wrote, was that its enactment and text demonstrate ?interference with the equal dignity of same-sex marriages.? This dignity was conferred by states like New York (now numbering 12), which recognize same-sex marriage. DOMA stomped into this domain of domestic relations ?to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal,? Kennedy wrote. ?The principal purpose is to impose inequality, not for other reasons like governmental efficiency.? Then there is this classic Kennedy line: ?Responsibilities, as well as rights, enhance the dignity and integrity of the person.? And the opinion?s ringing conclusion:
?The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.?
Kennedy could have put most of the weight of striking down DOMA on the states? ?exercise of their sovereign power,? in the domain of domestic relations. That?s in the opinion, but it?s secondary. That fulfills the hopes of the gay rights lawyers who chose this case with such care, as the first step on the path to a constitutional right to gay marriage in every state. This case is about federalism but it is also about equal rights.
Eric, you point out that Kennedy doesn?t designate gay people as a suspect class?the protected status for a group, based on race, religion, and to a large degree gender that makes courts especially leery of laws that treat them differently. And you think he?s being vague, in the end, about the legal underpinnings for today?s decision. But I think the groundwork Kennedy laid in the Colorado case (Romer v. Evans) and in Lawrence v. Texas is more solid than you do. The purpose of DOMA was about stigma and what the court has called ?animus? against one group, for no reason other than dislike (which, really, amounts to prejudice). In my favorite moment of the argument in March, Justice Elena Kagan pointed out that DOMA ?does something that?s really never been done before,? continuing, ?I?m going to quote from the House report here: ?Congress decided to reflect and honor collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality.? ?
She took the lawyer arguing to uphold DOMA, Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement, by surprise. ?Does the House report say that?? Clement asked, before catching himself: ?Of course the House report says that. And if that?s enough to invalidate the statute, then you should invalidate the statute.? He called it right there.
More from me soon on the dissents in the DOMA case, and the outcome in the California case?which Walter and perhaps even Slate, through him, was instrumental in bringing about!
