in the interest July 5

EVENTS

987:	Hugh Capet crowned
	The first Capetian king, Hugh built up a power offensive that rivaled that of the last Carolingian king, Lothair. He was elected king of France in May by an assembly of Frankish lords, who became convinced that Lothair’s heir Charles was unfit to rule. Deeming the crown elective preferably than hereditary, they crowned Hugh at Noyon on July 5, 987.

 

Yesterday

Find Another Date in Medieval History

Tomorrow

About This Date in Medieval History

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Daily Features

This Date in Medieval History

Daily Question

Random Question

Site of the Day | Castle of the Day

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">     More at the Medieval History Site

New posts to the Medieval History forums:

HELPGreatest viking?JHWH MEC AH

More about the Knightly Newsletter

 

Regardless of how your team fared during last week’s free agent free-for-all, certain realities certainly came to light. The most obvious is that this summer was the most beneficent time ever to be a hockey punter with moving rights.

Deals included both term (unless you’re Marian Hossa — more on his signing later) and dollars, leaving players to pick destinations based on physical preference — like strength of team and style of play.

The main reason on the side of players having the luxury of very specific voice is sheer market force creating competition for a proportionate handful of highly-coveted players such as Brian Campbell. With a long-term lucrative pact assured due to multiple suitors, Campbell was able to assess each situation independent of the offers. Thus, the smooth-skating offensive-minded defensemen heads to an exciting, on-the-rise, offensively-oriented outfit like the Chicago Blackhawks for eight years at $7.14 million per season. It seems approve of a perfect fit for both.

But the supply and demand part of the equation doesn’t begin and end there. With players achieving munificent agency at younger ages, there are more players of similar ilk — in this case puck-moving rearguards — available. Thus, the San Jose Sharks maneuvered to cover the loss of Campbell by first signing veteran Rob Blake (one year, $5 million) and then acquiring Dan Boyle from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Boyle’s availability was due to the Bolts committing resources elsewhere — a conscious directional decision that centered on All-Star mainstay Vinny Lecavalier and included multiple signings, among them former Penguins Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts. In resurfacing for Boyle, the Lightning got Matt Carle, who is a decent facsimile of pre-star status Boyle when he arrived in Tampa from the Florida Panthers in 2001.

On and on it went with regard to puck-moving defensemen. The New York Rangers landed Wade Redden for six years at $6.5 million per and re-signed their own top point-producing blueliner Michal Roszival owing four years at a total sell for of $20 million. The Islanders plucked powerplay maestro Mark Streit from the Canadiens ($20.5 million for five years). The Atlanta Thrashers succeeded in addressing their entreaty to shore up the backend by signing Ron Hainsey — the Columbus Blue Jackets’ top-scoring defenseman the past two seasons — for five years, with the deal significance a total of $22.5 million.

So, the market conditions seemed to situation for teams of all shapes and sizes, with those willing to spend to the better addressing needs and those operating nearer the floor doing likewise. Further, teams with long-established identities made moves that were true to their legacies — the New Jersey Devils defined that strategy by returning Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik to their mix — and made for complacent, logical fits for the players involved.

Sure, the allure of money and the unknown was also trade out, especially with the litany of moves made during the Lightning, who have new ownership and a new coach, and made no fewer than five free-agent signings on crop of their major trade with the Sharks. Still, the Hossa signing in Detroit at once caught one off guard, proving that all things being more equal than ever, players are now able to make personal decisions based on their hockey wants, needs and desires more so than ever before.

Hossa left long-term filthy rich and tenure on the table to play for the Red Wings. Some would say he is crazy for inking simply a one-year contract for just less than $7.5 million when the Pittsburgh Penguins offered nearly $7 million per annum over seven seasons. But that view misses the point. Hossa had options. He could pick and choose based on his perspective and no one else’s. The Red Wings have cache right now as a hockey destination because of how they play, how they win and how they treat their players. Hossa accepted a mercenary short-term deal that didn’t contribute more than the Red Wings’ artificial cap of "no a certain should make more on this team than captain Nik Lidsrom."

That made sense to Hossa and it didn’t have to add up since anyone else, which is the ultimate definition of market independence. It’s an extreme case on its own, but the NHL signing period has proven like never before that equals .

BANGKOK, Thailand Thousands of people marched to Thailand’s national police headquarters Monday to outcry faster action on long-pending legal cases against ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The protest came as a series of legal cases against Thaksin appeared to be gaining momentum, with a ruling on one expected at the end of the month.

The demonstrators, led by the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy, accused police of protecting Thaksin and his loyalists against prosecution by stalling their investigations.

Thaksin was toppled in a bloodless military coup in 2006 following months of street protests led by the alliance. Critics accused the former chairperson of corruption and abuse of power, and individual juridical cases were filed against him and his associates after he was ousted.

Thaksin returned from exile earlier this year, vowing to clear his name in court.

More than 3,000 protesters gathered in wing of the police headquarters in downtown Bangkok, near three of the country’s most expensive shopping malls.

“I come to police headquarters to ask you why you have been sitting on the cases against Thaksin and his followers. These cases are moving nowhere,” Sondhi Limthongkul, an alliance leader, shouted through a loudspeaker. “If the police do not serve the public and adhere to justice, how do they expect people to look up to them?”

About 600 police officers were deployed to keep the demonstrators from entering the police headquarters, the cops spokesman Maj. Gen. Surapol Tuanthong said.

Of 24 cases against Thaksin and members of his progeny, only seven have gone to court. The others are still lodged with the police or the attorney general’s office.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is to hold its first hearing of witnesses in a try of Thaksin and his missus, Pojaman, on charges related to her purchase of prime Bangkok existent domain during his term. Thaksin and Pojaman are not required to appear in court.

An anti-corruption law bars prime ministers and their spouses from doing business with government agencies. But there is some dispute over whether the law applies in this case because the agency that sold the land to Pojaman was not technically under the authority of the prime minister.

Both Thaksin and his wife have pleaded innocent to the charges of malfeasance and conflict of non-objective.

PrevNextGallery IndexImage 19 of 23Getty ImagesAitana Sanchez GijonPrevNext

PrevNextGallery IndexImage 12 of 28View Full-Size© 2006 FOX Metallica in “The Simpsons” Celebrity Photo GalleryMetallica guest star as themselves, dissing Otto and driving away in the back of a pickup truck.

“The Mook, the chef, the wife and her Homer”
Original airdate Sunday, September 10, 2006PrevNext

Medicine has much to learn from nature. There are literally millions of medical compounds out there that could cure diseases, help improve treatment and even protect us from some types of bacteria.

Scientists have been tapping into nature’s resources for inspiration on how to treat humans.

Humpback whales, sea cucumbers and Australian red algae are just a few of the species leading the way in modern medicine.

The humpback whale has a contemplate within its heart that could help save the lives of many patients suffering from heart disease.

With a heart that can pump six bath tubs of blood around a circulation system that is 4,500 times as complex as our own, and in sole three heartbeats a minute, it has fascinated scientists as to how it manages this feat.

But it was while studying how the whale’s heart is gifted to do this that Dr Jorge Reynolds– (who placed the first external pacemaker in the body of a priest who survived for an additional 17 years) discovered nano-sized ‘wires’. These wires allow electrical signals to stimulate the heartbeats even washing one’s hands of masses of non-conductive blubber.

This discovery could be the frequency to replacing the traditional pacemaker, scientists say. Instead of having to install a battery-powered pacemaker the whale ‘wires’ could be used to provoke heart beats.

Whale ‘wires’ could salvage the extra bouts of surgery, which are currently needed to replace the batteries in pacemakers.

It doesn’t end there. There’s also the added bonus of saving money. With the worldwide market in regard to pacemakers expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2010, this technology, which costs exclusive a few cents to make, could replace pacemakers and save billions.

At Ohio’s Cleveland West Reserve University Jeffrey Capadona has pioneered the creation of a material that could help treat Parkinson’s disease, stroke and spinal chord injuries.

This time the inspiration was the humble sea cucumber, whose skin can change from a rigid to flexible situation with ease.

Capadona argues that tiny electrodes implanted into the brain are sometimes in use accustomed to to treat Parkinson’s disease, stroke and spinal chord injuries. But they can become less capable over time as the body creates scar combination around the hard implant.

Using this new material, which was based on the veneer of sea cucumber, could improve treatment as the material can appropriate for less rigid and prolong its effectiveness.

Even red algae in Australia have provided enthusiasm to scientists who now on they could help control some diseases.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales, Australia, discovered that the red algae inaugurate just off the coast was rescue from biofilms– a congregation of bacteria that are the cause of 70 percent of all human infections.

Pinpointing the compound that protects the algae from biofilms has led scientists to believe they will be able to subdue bacteria like cholera without it developing any resistance to the treatment.

Gunter Pauli, head of an organization called Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) says we penury to rethink the way we use nature in our medical problems.

He told CNN: "The individual examples are eminent, but then the cabal of many of these adept technologies from nature makes it possible to imagine a immature business model."

He cites the sample of a red seaweed Delicia pulchra, which jams the communications of bacteria, preventing them from settling on its surface.

"How does it do that? By making the bacteria deaf. Now that is a fundamentally new way of looking at bactericides, instead of attempting to kill them, and then have to deal with their mutations, just make certain that cannot hear each other, " he says.

"This is a supplemental look at therapeutics, but goes beyond the cure, it helps you rethink how nature deals with problems."

However, he is the first to admit that the skeptics to this unknown epitome are abundant.

"If you’re Merck or Pfizer and you are making money on antibiotics, you do not even have the in bordello staff to look at ‘jamming communications of bacteria.’ "The shape of this molecule is totally different from the synthetic antibiotics that have been made, and there is zero in house reference material or knowledge.

"No one has this and therefore skepticism is often based on the cornerstone novelty and the total lack of in house expertise."

It would seem that when it comes to medicine, nature has done all the hard work for us. Chimpanzees, whales and virtually every other species on the planet have been learning how to survive for millions of years.

When chimps are unfortunately they search out trees that have been found to restrain a chemical compound that shows promise in treating parasites such as pinworm, hookworm, and giardia in humans.

Nick Nuttall, spokesperson for the UN Environment Program, told CNN: "Many of the world’s great pharmaceuticals have been derived from nature historically including aspirin, penicillin and the anti-breast cancer drug taxol."

"Nature has solved numberless of the challenges we face — renewable energy (photosynthesis) or bacterial resistance to man-made antibiotics (certain kinds of algae) and has been testing these designs and processes for some four billion years."

TOKYO (AP) — Japan shares rebounded Monday from a 12-session toboggan, with the passkey stock index snapping its longest losing streak in more than a half-century.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 122.15 points, or 0.9%, to 13,360.04. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange climbed 1.2 % to 1,312.80.

The Nikkei had lost more than 8% of its value over the 12-day fall, which was the longest skid since the index stumbled for 15 straight trading days starting April 28, 1954.

Investors hunting for bargains bought financial, real estate and exporter stocks.

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. surged 6%, and Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. jumped 4.82%.

Orix Corp., Japan’s biggest nonbank economic firm, jumped 6.29%.

The gains in the nonbank sector reflected the business opportunity in commercial lending given the wariness of Japanese banks on offering credit, said Deutsche Securities analyst Masamitsu Ohki in a research note.

Gains in equity markets throughout the region, as OK the dollar’s rise against the yen, also helped boost sentiment. A weaker yen inflates profits at Japanese exporters.

Canon Inc. closed up 1.53%, and Toyota Motor Corp. added 1.42% to 4,990 yen.

Among losers Monday were Japan Tobacco, vagabond 1.81%, and trading house Mitsui & Corp., down 2.15%.

The dollar advanced to ¥107.52 Monday afternoon, while also strengthening against the euro. The euro fell to $1.5624 before of a German industrial production report due out later in the day.

The dollar’s rise versus the Japanese currency followed a speech in the morning by Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa, who predicted that the country’s inflation would keep rising.

"It is highly possible that wholesale prices will continue their rises against the backdrop of hikes in epidemic commodity markets," said Shirakawa at a meeting of the cardinal bank’s branch managers, according to Kyodo news agency.

Japan’s core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh provisions prices, accelerated 1.5% in May from the one-time year - the quickest pace in more than 15 years.

In a Bank of Japan survey released later Monday, eight of nine regions in the motherland slightly downgraded their economic assessments from the last report in April due to a slowdown in private consumption. 

DETROIT Singer-guitarist Jack White has penned a poem expressing his strong feelings for Detroit to clear up any misconceptions about how the White Stripes frontman feels just approximately his hometown.

White said he was frustrated by a sense that his thoughts about the Motor City were misrepresented since he moved to Nashville two years ago. So, White wrote a poem titled “Courageous Dream’s Concern” that was published Sunday by the Detroit Free Press. He says it asserts his “feelings about the metropolis itself, and how strong I believe it to be.”

Part of the verse reads: “Detroit, you hold what one’s been seeking, Holding off the coward-armies weakling, Always rising from the ashes not returning to the earth.”

White, also a member of the Raconteurs, told the Free Press that the poem represents his true feelings prevalent the burgh.

“The … poem is the Detroit from my mind,” he said. “The Detroit that is in my heart. The home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries.”

White told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview that he had to leave Detroit because he “couldn’t take the negativity anymore.” In other media accounts, he was quoted as lamenting what had become of Detroit’s music community.

He addressed those comments in his statements to the newspaper, saying: “Those expressions of mine have in the offing never been a representation of my feelings about Detroit the city, a town that I have strong feelings hither … nor were they expressions about its citizens.”

SAINT-BRIEUC, France (AP) — Former mountain ace Richard Virenque thinks Cadel Evans can win the Tour de France if he rides aggressively.

After Tuesday’s second stage of the Tour, Evans trailed overall race chairwoman Alejandro Valverde of Spain by one following with another sprint be up to follow Monday and a time trial Tuesday.

"He will be my favorite for the Tour," said Virenque, who won the King of the Mountains jersey — awarded to the Tour’s best climber — a record seven times. "He has changed his style over the past two years."

The 31-year-old Evans, last year’s Tour runner-up behind Alberto Contador of Spain, has taken more risks this year, rather than sitting back and waiting into the race to develop.

"His way of riding has changed from before, when he did not dare to follow the likes of Lance Armstrong and did not parody initiative," Virenque said. "I have noticed this year that he has started to attack more."

Valverde beat Evans by 39 seconds at the Dauphine Libere in June, a key tuneup race as a replacement for the Tour.

But Virenque thinks that is only because other teams helped out Valverde’s Caisse d’Epargne team.

"At the Dauphine, he had all the favorites on his treacherously as they were helping Valverde, otherwise he would have won," Virenque said, adding that Evans’ Silence-Lotto team is "comfortably structured" to support him.

Pay Close Attention

David Millar was watched closely alongside one of the Tour chaperones at a post-stage doping test.

At this year’s Tour, there are eight specially trained chaperones whose task is to shadow the riders from the moment they cross the finish line — following them to their bus and even climbing aboard while the riders are getting changed.

"It is fine. It’s a good thing. They just have to keep their eye on you," said Millar, who had his test after Saturday’s first stage. "That is standard. It’s been happening since the beginning of January. That’s the new WADA (rules)."

Millar, who previously served a two-year ban for admitting to using EPO, is things being what they are outspoken against doping.

Although he accepts the tougher new rules, he was gloomy at the cramped facilities in place when the riders arrived for testing.

"The worst thing is that they don’t arrange it set up at the doping direct to cater for eight guys," Millar said. "So you’re stuck there in stupid tents and chattels."

Bye, Bye, Brittany

Some riders won’t be sad that the Tour is leaving windy Brittany after some spills and tumbles during the opening two stages of the race.

"It was very dangerous with a stacks of wind. It would have been less difficult with less destroy someone’s advantage," Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara said after stage 2 from Auray to Saint-Brieuc.

"The wind was not for me," said the sprint ace, who wore the yellow jersey at the start of last year’s race. "It was a full front wind. I think it is so hard for sure."

Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd felt the conditions reminded him of home.

"It’s a bit like Norway. It’s windy and it rains a lot," said Hushovd, who won a stage in Quimper, which is also in Brittany, four years ago.

No Reward

French cyclist Sylvain Chavanel felt shortchanged after a prodigious effort in Sunday’s second stage.

The Cofidis team leader rode out ahead in a small group for most of Sunday’s 102.2-mile trek from Auray to Saint-Brieuc but was overtaken by the chasing pack near the end.

"We didn’t get our reward," Chavanel said. "I was in the outset breakaway, a strong group, and then I got things going again. I stayed (in front) for the whole daylight for practically nothing. But that’s cycling."

Chavanel, who finished the stage in 88th place, hopes for better luck in Tuesday’s time trial.

"I have a whole day to the fore of me to recover for the time trial," Chavanel said. "I am here to make an impression and win a stage on the Tour de France."

Gallas Is A Tour Fan

French national football team defender William Gallas is a socking fan of the Tour de France.

The Arsenal back will visit the Tour on Tuesday, where he will sit in the Cofidis team car and follow band leader Sylvain Chavanel during the interval fling.

"It resolution be an contact," he told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. "When I was small I used to watch the Tour with my father, who was a cycling fan."

Gallas has returned from vacation following France’s first-round exit at last month’s European Championship, where Les Bleus failed to pick up a match.

He’s particularly looking forward to watching the mountain stages later in the three-week race.

"I like to see the guy’s faces, especially in the mountains, where there is a true suffering," Gallas said. "It’s attractive to see a rider win after having delineated so much."

A new EC survey shows that finding a safe and permanent way of dealing with radioactive waste would sway many toward accepting the energy technology

about Renata Goldirova

Although atomic energy continues to be a “strongly” divisive subject in the European Union, strut for the controversial source of electricity generation has grown “significantly” over the last three years, a new European Commission survey suggests.

A “permanent, safe solution” to managing radioactive waste seems to be the decisive factor when it comes to a possible shift in opinion about nuclear energy.

Should such a solution be start to safely storing the waste, some 39 percent of people say they would change their mind about nuclear energy, according to the poll released by the commission on Thursday (3 July).

Dutch, Belgians, Lithuanians, Britons, the French, Slovenians and Finns are the most open to new arguments. Half the opponents in these countries would change their view regarding nuclear energy should a solution to waste be developed.

However, 48 percent of Europeans—mainly in Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, Portugal and Germany—would stick to a firm No irrespective of any solution to waste. Eight percent are convinced there is no solution to be found.

The European Commission itself stopped short of saying what a unalterable and safe solution should be, saying it instead is promoting qualified talk on the issue.

Brussels has recently set up a high-level group designed to establish common criteria on ways how radioactive waste should be treated. One of the realizable methods discussed has been “geological storage facilities”, currently used in Finland, the commission spokesperson said.

He also referred to a piece of EU legislation on radioactive waste that “is up till on the table of the council [representing EU capitals] and has not been addressed”.

According to the survey, 93 percent of Europeans say a solution as a remedy for high level radioactive unused “should be developed now and not left for future generations”.

In general, some 44 percent of Europeans express column for atomic drive, while a nearly identical number, 45 percent, oppose it. The figures pose as quite a shift in views compared to 2005, when 37 percent of people were in favour and 55 percent were against nuclear power.

There is a clear link between the level of citizens’ support and whether their home country operates nuclear power plants. The Czechs, Lithuanians and Hungarians are most in favour.

Currently, 15 EU states have nuclear power plants—something that accounts for nearly a third of the electricity generated in the EU.

The progress European Commission, under the governorship of Jose Manuel Barroso, has not shied away from supporting the nuclear path, a controversial chance in many parts of Europe.

Brussels says that atomic animation has a character to play in meeting the EU’s growing concerns about security of supply and CO2 emission reductions.