News article:

National Library of MedicineArchive-It Partner Since: Mar, 2009Organization Type: National InstitutionsOrganization URL: http://www.nlm.nih.gov The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health, collects, preserves, and makes available to the public information about health, medicine, and the biomedical sciences. To continue fulfilling this mission, NLM is collecting and archiving related Web content, which also serves to document the histories of health and medicine. ||||| Albert Lin is hunting for Genghis Khan.

 Legend has it that Khan, the ruthless conqueror who was the first emperor of the Mongol Empire, was buried in an unmarked tomb in northern Mongolia about 800 years ago.

 But finding said tomb is a task that has eluded scientists for years. Mongolia encompasses more than 600,000 square miles of largely uncharted, rural territory, which makes Lin’s mission an extremely challenging one.

 Luckily, the explorer and research scientist at the University of California at San Diego has more than 7,000 people around the world helping with his mission, called the Valley of the Khans Project. The idea is to find the tombs of Genghis Khan and his descendants, and other ancient Mongolian artifacts.

 Lin’s army of helpers are amateurs, working from the comfort of their home computers.

 Through a Web site called Field Expedition Mongolia, which Lin and his colleagues developed jointly with National Geographic, volunteers are helping sift through 85,000 high-resolution satellite images of Mongolia.

 Every time volunteers log in to the site, they are shown some of these images. An online tutorial instructs them on how to look for particular objects and tag them as “roads,” “rivers,” “modern structures” or “ancient structures.” They can zoom in and out and scroll in all directions.

 They are also told to simply tag places as “other” if they see something peculiar. This is the sort of vague judgment that humans can perform but that computers cannot, Lin said.

 “What a computer can’t do is look for ‘weird things,’ but when you ask a human brain, you don’t have to tell it what ‘weird’ is; we know,” Lin said.

 Those weird things could be important archaeological finds, he said.

 Last summer, Lin and his colleagues were in Mongolia inspecting the places that had been tagged by the online volunteers. Anytime there was a cluster of tags marked as “ancient structure” or “other,” they would note the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, grab their GPS devices and scope it out.

 “We’d literally jump on horses or get in a helicopter and go check it out,” said Lin. “Every tag was weighted on how many other people tagged the same thing.”

 Projects like this one mark a new twist in “citizen science,” where new technology, when used effectively by large groups of people, can help speed up scientific developments, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

 Sometimes online volunteers led the explorers to disappointing finds, such as a herd of sheep on a satellite photo that looked like an ancient structure. But there were also some remarkable ones, such as the discovery of 3,000-year-old Bronze Age tombs, remnants of large cities and ancient monoliths hidden in the region’s vast, grassy steppe.

 “These are hard to find on horseback, but from space and in the images, you can make out these shapes,” Lin said.

 Making it fun

 Though professional scientists have collaborated with amateurs for decades, social networking and the Internet are making it more fruitful than ever.

 “We found that we could make something that was engaging enough to inspire people to participate without having to pay them,” says Lin. “This is the part of citizen science that is most interesting to me: How can we motivate people to dedicate their time?”

 How? By making it fun, Lin said.

 Lin began thinking about creating an online expedition that tied into his real one about five years ago, when Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk made its debut.

 An online crowdsourcing marketplace, Mechanical Turk allows requesters with small tasks to pay people for their time. Anyone with an Amazon account can participate, and the tasks are usually quite simple, such as “pick out the images with tattoos from this set,” or “verify the existence of these business Web sites.” Some tasks pay just pennies, per task or verification, while others pay more.

 Lin believed that he could get more traction by creating a site that offered a fun experience rather than a paid one. “People are so excited to learn about Mongolian archaeology,” he said. “They start to learn stuff about what they’re doing and feel more connected to what’s going on in that part of the world.”

 Every volunteer who logs on to the Valley of the Khans project site, developed with a design company called Digitaria, gets to feel like an explorer, digging through images and playing what feels like a game but performing work that has much more significant ramifications.

 “It connects you more on a personal level than going to a museum,” said Allison Shefcyk, a 24-year-old in Connecticut who tagged more than 50,000 images from her home computer. “I ended up picking up some books on Genghis Khan and Mongol culture, and even though I never set foot there, it all provided a deeply moving experience."

 Biomedicine and galaxies

 The Khan expedition is not the only research project engaging people on their home computers with gaming strategies.

 Another is EteRNA, created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford universities. It allows players to tinker with nucleotide bases and come up with synthetic RNA designs.

 The creators of the site hope that by generating a large assortment of designs, they can speed up discoveries in biomedicine. Every week, the most promising designs are actually synthesized by scientists in a lab at Stanford.

 An older project, Galaxy Zoo, allows volunteers to help classify images of galaxies taken by a robotic telescope in a project called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

 There were thousands of images to classify, so researchers decided to create a crowdsourcing tool that uses the public’s help in making classifications.

 To participate, volunteers flip through images and answer simple questions, such as whether a certain galaxy looks completely round, partially round or cigar-shaped.

 A year after its July 2007 launch, Galaxy Zoo had more than 50 million classifications from more than 150,000 people. The project so far has generated more than 20 academic papers by researchers around the world in astrophysics and astronomy journals.

 And birds, too

 Another project, run by the U.S. Geological Survey, is using crowdsourcing and technology to digitize a project called the Bird Phenology Program.

 The project was started by Wells Cooke, an American ornithologist who wanted to gather information on bird migration. Starting in 1881, amateur bird-watchers mailed in thousands of index cards detailing information on birds they had seen, first to Cooke and then to the American Ornithologists’ Union. The federal government maintained the program in its final years, but participation declined and it was closed in 1970.

 But the cards, and the wealth of information they contain, remain in file cabinets. The U.S. Geological Survey is scanning the cards, and volunteers can log on and enter the information into a central database.

 It’s secretarial work, not rocket science, said Jake Weltzin, executive director of the National Phenology Network, the USGS-funded organization that is coordinating the program, but “people really like to contribute to the scientific process and really feel they are contributing to a bigger project,” Weltzin said.

 “These are all volunteers; one person has digitized 20,000 cards,” Weltzin said. “We couldn't afford to pay her.”

 Eventually, researchers will be able to use the data to study population changes, and perhaps better understand the effect of climate change on birds and their habitats.

 Shefcyk, the enthusiastic volunteer in the Valley of the Khans project, said that participating was particularly meaningful to her.

 As a child, Shefcyk had trouble fitting in with other kids and was eventually identified as having an autism spectrum disorder. But she spent her time devouring books on archaeology and reading nonstop about dinosaurs, Egyptian pyramids and Mayan ruins.

 “I didn’t have many friends, and archaeology was the whole world to me,” she said. “I would always start conversations and ask things like ‘Who’s your favorite Mayan king?’ ”

 Flash forward 15 years and Shefcyk is still fascinated by archaeology and is a frequent visitor to the National Geographic Web site. When she found out that ordinary people could help Lin with his project, she was intrigued. So every day last summer, while Lin’s team was in Mongolia, she would tag images and look out for blog posts from the scientists. She was enthralled to read their chronicles and get quick feedback on the sites they visited. The explorers also offered tips to help volunteers tag objects more accurately.

 “It’s one of those things where you’re adding your piece, and it’s about knowing that you’re something that’s much bigger than yourself, no matter how small the involvement,” she said.

 As for whether any of the tagging has gotten him closer to finding the burial site of Genghis Khan or one of his successors, Lin is coy. “I can’t say yet what we found,” Lin said. “We’re in the midst of compiling the research.”

 Bhanoo is a science writer based in the San Francisco Bay area. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Armchair history buffs, take note: A University of California scientist needs all the help he can get finding the tomb of Genghis Khan. The only thing participants need to join the Valley of the Khans Project is a computer and an Internet connection, reports the Washington Post. Under the program, volunteers go to the Field Expedition Mongolia website to sift through satellite images of Mongolia and flag things that look unusual. “What a computer can’t do is look for ‘weird things,’ but when you ask a human brain, you don’t have to tell it what ‘weird’ is; we know,” says Albert Lin. About 7,000 volunteers are already taking part in the program, which was developed with National Geographic. Lin and other explorers on the ground visit sites that get enough flags, but so far the resting place of Genghis and his family remains a mystery.


Here is a news article: Story highlights A Chinese ship picked up a signal on Friday and Saturday, authorities say

 An Australian naval vessel is pursuing a more recent detection in a separate location

 An official calls the sounds "an important and encouraging lead" but urges caution

 Up to 10 military planes, two civil aircraft,13 ships will assist in Sunday's search

 Search teams looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are investigating a number of sounds detected by ships in the southern Indian Ocean, authorities said Sunday, but it's not yet clear if any of them are from the missing plane's so-called black box.

 A British Royal Navy vessel is on its way to an area where a Chinese ship reported picking up electronic signals twice, once on Friday and again on Saturday, said Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating search operations.

 And the Australian naval ship Ocean Shield, which has highly sophisticated equipment, is pursuing "an acoustic noise" that it detected in a different area, Houston said at a news conference.

 He said the detections were "an important and encouraging lead," but he cautioned that they be treated "carefully" as they haven't been verified as being related to Flight 370.

 Fevered search

 Searchers are desperately seeking any clue about the location of the airliner that disappeared nearly a month ago with 239 people on board.

 Up to 10 military planes, two civil aircraft and 13 ships will assist in Sunday's search for the airline. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) plans to search three separate areas Sunday about 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles) northwest of Perth. That area totals about 216,000 square kilometers (83,000 square miles).

 Australian planes are being deployed to the area where the Chinese ship, Haixun 01, picked up signals that would be consistent with those emitted by an aircraft's flight recorders, said Houston, the chief coordinator of Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre.

 A number of white objects were sighted about 56 miles (90 kilometers) away from where the sound was detected, he said.

 But he stressed that were was so far no confirmation that the signals and objects are related to Flight 370.

 "In the days, weeks and possibly months ahead, there may be leads such as the one I'm reporting to you this morning on a regular basis," Houston, a retired air chief marshal, said.

 Handheld hydrophone

 Video on Chinese state-run CCTV shot Saturday shows crew members from the Haixun 01 boarding a small yellow dinghy and using what appears to be a handheld hydrophone. The three men on board lower the device into the water on a pole.

 The handheld ping-locating technology used by the Chinese ship is not as versatile as a U.S. Navy towed locator, which goes as deep as 20,000 feet, far from surface noise, according to experts.

 The U.S. Navy hydrophone -- or underwater microphone, is on board the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which recently joined the search for Flight 370.

 The state-run Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said a detector deployed by the Haixun 01 patrol ship picked up the signal around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude.

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 That puts it about 1,020 miles (1,640 kilometers) west-northwest of Perth, Australia, between current and previous search zones, and about 220 miles (354 kilometers) south of the closest of the three areas searched Saturday, said Judson Jones, a meteorologist with CNN International.

 Houston said Sunday that the sounds were detected "in the high probability area."

 White objects spotted

 Also found Saturday -- spotted by a Chinese air force search plane -- were white objects floating near the search area.

 Investigators have failed to link any of the many previous sightings of debris to the missing plane. But the proximity of the two finds raised hopes that this time might be different.

 The ship first detected a signal Friday but couldn't record it because the signal stopped abruptly, a Shanghai-based Communist Party newspaper said. The signal detected Saturday, the Jiefang Daily said, occurred at 3:57 p.m. Beijing time (3:57 a.m. ET) and lasted about a minute and a half. It was not clear whether the signal had anything to do with the missing plane.

 A China Central Television correspondent aboard the Haixun-01 (pronounced "high shuen") reported that the 37.5 kHz signal was detected for a minute and a half.

 Fleeting acoustic

 Houston confirmed the two separate detections and said they showed "some promise."

 But the signals picked up by the Chinese searchers were "fleeting acoustic events," he said. "It's not a continuous transmission. If you get close to the device, we should be receiving it for a longer period of time."

 The signal "is the standard beacon frequency" for the plane's cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, said Anish Patel, president of pinger manufacturer Dukane Seacom.

 "They're identical."

 The frequency was chosen for use in the recorders "to give that standout quality that does not get interfered with by the background noise that readily occurs in the ocean."

 Photos: The search for MH370 Photos: The search for MH370 Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board. Hide Caption 1 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight. Hide Caption 2 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft. Hide Caption 3 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was. Hide Caption 4 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead. Hide Caption 5 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane. Hide Caption 6 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public. Hide Caption 7 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014. Hide Caption 10 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014. Hide Caption 12 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370. Hide Caption 16 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions. Hide Caption 17 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 19 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 20 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived." Hide Caption 21 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia. Hide Caption 24 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search. Hide Caption 25 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight. Hide Caption 26 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet. Hide Caption 28 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014. Hide Caption 29 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean. Hide Caption 30 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014. Hide Caption 33 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014. Hide Caption 35 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand. Hide Caption 36 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 37 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 38 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 39 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said. Hide Caption 43 of 43

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 But he said he would like to see more evidence. "I'd like to see some additional assets on site quickly -- maybe some sonobuoys," he said, referring to 5-inch-long sonar systems that are dropped from aircraft or ships.

 And he said he was puzzled that only one signal had been detected, since each of the recorders was equipped with a pinger, which is also called a beacon.

 No confirmation

 Other experts cautioned that no confirmation had been made that the signal was linked to the missing plane.

 "It ought to be easy to rule it in or rule it out, and they ought to go do it," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 Saturday's leads came as concern was rising that the batteries powering the missing Boeing 777's locator pingers would soon go dead. The plane disappeared on March 8; its batteries were guaranteed to work for 30 days underwater, and are predicted to die slowly over the following days. Monday marks day 30.

 The batteries on Flight 370's black boxes were due to be replaced in June, the Malaysia Airlines chief executive said Saturday.

 "We can confirm there is a maintenance program. Batteries are replaced prior to expiration," Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.

 Relative reacts

 The tentative nature of the first report of an acoustic signal was not lost on one Chinese relative of one of those aboard. "There is not confirmation, and we are all waiting patiently," the relative told CNN Producer Judy Kwon in a text message.

 Still, Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, was sanguine: "Another night of hope-praying hard," he tweeted in response to the initial detection.

 "We've had a lot of red herrings, hyperbole on this whole search," said oceanographer Simon Boxall, a lecturer in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton. "I'd really like to see this data confirmed."

 If this proves to be what investigators have been searching for, "then the possibility of recovering the plane -- or at least the black boxes -- goes from being one in a million to almost certain," he said.

 But, he added, "It could be a false signal."

 CNN aviation analyst David Soucie was less skeptical. "This is a pinger," the airplane accident investigator said. "I've been doing this a lot of years, and I can't think of anything else it could be." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Oceanographer Dr Simon Boxall: "If this is the pulse, this becomes a viable search"

 A Chinese ship searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean has picked up a pulse signal, Chinese media say.

 They say the signal has a frequency of 37.5kHz - the same as those emitted by the flight recorders.

 However there is no evidence so far that it is linked to MH370.

 Dozens of ships and planes have joined the search, with the operation moving into its most intensive phase before batteries on the data recorders fade.

 On Saturday the Haixun 01 - one of two Chinese ships in the area - picked up the signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

 "It is yet to be established whether it is related to the missing jet," it cautioned.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Richard Westcott reports on the use of a pinger locator to find a black box

 China's Liberation Daily reported that three people on board had heard the signals, which were not recorded as they came suddenly.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Officials said there was "some hope" the locators would be able to find the black box

 The head of the Australian agency co-ordinating the search said the reported signals "are consistent with the aircraft black box" but "there is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft".

 The flight is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, although no confirmed debris has been found.

 Analysis This could be potentially significant, but caution is necessary. There have been many apparently promising leads over the past few weeks that have looked like the search team closing in, only for those leads to turn into nothing. The tantalizing element is the frequency of the signal supposedly picked up. It is consistent with a black box pinger. But we know very little more about the nature of the contact. The Chinese ship is not among those that have been mentioned before as having special equipment to search for the black box pinger, but it is a very modern search-and-rescue vessel. Even with the sophisticated listening devices now being deployed in the search, the size of the search area, the range of the pinger signal, and the depths of water involved all mean it would need a lucky break at this stage to detect a signal.

 It is still not known why the plane diverted from its planned flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing four weeks ago with 239 people on board.

 Race against time

 Two of the ships searching an area of about 217,000 sq km (84,000 sq miles) have underwater locator capabilities.

 Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield is using a "towed pinger locator" from the US Navy, while HMS Echo, which has similar capabilities, is also searching.

 They are trying to detect an underwater signal emitted by the data recorders.

 The battery-powered signal fades after 30 days.

 The area - about 1,700km (1,000 miles) north-west of Perth - has been picked on the basis of analysis of the satellite data.

 On Saturday, Malaysia announced it had set up three ministerial committees to help co-ordinate the search, and a new investigation team which would include members from Australia, China, the US, the UK and France. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Could it be? A Chinese ship searching for Flight 370 has picked up a ping in the southern Indian Ocean, reports CNN and the BBC. Both cite a report in China's Xinhua news agency. The pulse is 37.5 kHz, the frequency for the Malaysian plane's black-box data recorders, says the president of the beacon's manufacturer. All the reports caution that it could turn out to be yet another false hope, however. "This could be a variety of things," says one oceanographer, noting that the frequency is used by lots of instruments. For the record, the Chinese ship detected the signal at 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, says the state-run Xinhua. "It is yet to be established whether it is related to the missing jet," the report says. The development comes as dozens of ships and planes intensify their sweeps in the search zone, given the finite battery life of the data recorders.


Here is a news article: These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| The Mars warship was carrying hundreds of soldiers when it exploded in the Baltic Sea in 1564 during the Northern Seven Years’ War.

 Cannons, hand grenades, and up to a thousand soldiers were on board the large Swedish warship when it exploded in the Baltic Sea, 454 years ago.

 The ship, known as Mars, belonged to the Swedish navy and was one of Northern Europe’s largest and most feared naval vessels used in the Northern Seven Years’ War.

 The remains were discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in 2011, near to the Swedish island of Öland.

 The latest discoveries from the wreckage were revealed during a press conference in Öland.

 “This year, we have come closer to the people aboard. We found more skeletal parts, including a femur with trauma around the knee which we believe to stem from a sharp-edged weapon,” says maritime archaeologist Rolf Fabricius Warming, who is one of the researchers involved in the investigation.

 “We also found large guns and a hand grenade. We can see from the wreckage that it was a very intense and tough battle. Between 800 and 1,000 men were on board. That is comparable to the population of an entire medium-sized town at the time. Most of them died in the explosion or when the ship sank into the watery depths,” he says.

 Read More: Researchers discover remains of sunken Swedish warship

 The ship contained silver treasure

 Researchers had previously discovered silver treasure among the Mars wreckage. This time, one of the most spectacular finds was a large grapnel (grappling hook) an anchor-like hook, which hung from the bowsprits of warships and was used to cling onto another ships in order to board it.

 Grapnels are illustrated in historical sources from the 16th century, but no actual surviving examples are known apart from this particular one, says Warming.

 “It’s totally unique. Together with other exciting finds, it can shed new light on Medieval and Early Modern naval warfare. ,” he says, and adds that the divers also found remains of possible arms and armour, including helmets and swords.

 Read More: The Viking’s grave and the sunken ship

 Danish and Lübeckian soldiers were on board

 Mars sunk due to a gunpowder explosion at the front of the ship. But shortly before, it had been under attack by Danish and Lübeckian warships according to written sources.

 “Soldiers fought with hand grenades, lances, and spears, which they threw down from the masts. The fighting was structured and carefully calculated but an absolute ruckus” says Warming.

 Danish soldiers, allied with soldiers from Lübeck, managed to defeat the Swedish crew and capture the warship. When the ship exploded and sank, it had three to four hundred Dano-Lübeckian soldiers aboard.

 A 3D- model of the shipwreck. (Video: Ocean Discovery / Ingemar Lundgren)

 A Swedish change of tactics

 The new examination of the Mars shipwreck provides new insights into the events that took place between Denmark and Sweden during the Northern Seven Years’ War between 1563 and 1570.

 They have documented a change in Swedish tactics from a focus on close quarter combat to long distance fighting, as indicated by large cannons up to 4.8 metres long.

 Despite the large cannons, the Swedish crew did not manage to avoid engaging in close quarter combat with their enemies. The soldiers aboard were positioned underneath a net that covered the deck and was designed to prevent the enemy from jumping on board – a so-called anti-boarding net.

 “We know about the use of anti-boarding nets in this battle from richly detailed written sources. The Swedish Admiral, Jacob Bagge, describes in his own account of the battle how he was injured in the shoulder by a javelin thrown from one of the fighting tops of the enemy ships. t. We are told he became furious and began shooting at those who had injured him with arquebuses so that they fell into the net below,” says Warming.

 Read More: Medieval shipwreck hints at psychological warfare

 A snapshot of a moment in time

 Until 2011, historians relied on written sources for information about what happened to Mars, including letters from the Danish admiral Herluf Trolle and the Swedish admiral Jacob Bagge, and official royal documents.

 But the shipwreck provides an entirely different type of documentation.

 “There’s some ‘fake news’ in the written sources. Many people wanted to claim the honour of defeating the Mars for various political reasons. But when we study the wreckage itself we see a large congruency between the wreck site and the historical sources. One of the most striking observations was that it really was sunk by a large explosion. It was so violent that the front of the ship lies 40 metres away from the other remains,” says Warming.

 For maritime archaeologist Mikkel Thomsen from the Viking Ship Museum, Denmark, looking at the well preserved, and complete remains captures a snapshot of a moment in time.

 “You really feel that you’re in the killing fields,” says Thomsen, who was not involved in the study.

 “The wreckage gives a snapshot of a piece of military and political history. It’s also an international history as the Seven Years’ War was fought across national boundaries,” he says.

 Read More: Historic shipwrecks could be preserved in the Antarctic

 Divers filmed the shipwreck

 The Mars remains lay 70 metres beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea—so deep that researchers could not go down themselves to investigate. Instead, professional divers and ROVs were deployed to film the wreck.

 The footage and recordings were used to create 3D-models of the wreck and the artefacts found on the site.

 Scientists and divers have not been granted permission to touch or remove anything from the wreck or nearby, which might be for the best, according to Thomsen.

 “The Baltic Sea has extremely good preservation conditions. The water is low in oxygen, cold, and fresh. So boring worms that are usually the greatest threat to wood cannot live there,” says Thomsen.

 Lifting the remains out of the water would lead to breakdown and damage of the materials, he says.

 “Moreover, it would be very difficult and extremely expensive to retrieve it from such deep water,” says Thomsen.

 The exploration of Mars was carried out by researchers from the Marine Research Institute MARIS at Södertörn University in Sweden, and divers from the diving organization GUE, Västervik Museum, Ocean Discovery, and MMT.

 Fifteen divers and ten researchers have participated in the latest exploration of the ship.

 ---------------

 Read the original article in Danish at Videnskab.dk

  |||||
A summary of this is?

– Seven years after it was found, a 454-year-old shipwreck in the Baltic Sea is still revealing its treasures. Cannons, a hand grenade, possible remains of helmets and swords, and a large grappling hook used to rein in enemy ships are among recent discoveries aboard Mars, a Swedish warship that sank following a battle in 1564 with Danish and German soldiers, reports National Geographic. The battle was "an absolute ruckus," as archaeologist Rolf Fabricius Warming puts it to ScienceNordic, describing grenades, lances, and spears hurled from the tops of enemy ships at Mars. The vessel had an anti-boarding net, but as many as 400 enemy soldiers were among the 800 to 1,000 on board when a gunpowder explosion at Mars' bow sent it to rest 250 feet below the sea's surface near Öland. "It was so violent that the front of the ship lies [130 feet] away from the other remains," says Warming, noting any soldiers not killed in the explosion would have drowned. In the latest search of the untouched wreck by divers and underwater vehicles, "we have come closer to the people aboard," he adds. "We found more skeletal parts, including a femur with trauma around the knee which we believe to stem from a sharp-edged weapon." But it's the grappling hook Warming finds most exciting. He calls it "totally unique," noting no other examples from the 16th century exist, except in illustrations. The hook will remain where it lies, however, along with silver treasure previously found. Researchers haven't been granted permission to disturb the wreck, which lies in cold, low-oxygen water ideal for preserving wood. (Legend has it the ship was cursed.)


Here is a news article: UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council called Saturday for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict centered on the Gaza Strip.

 A council statement approved by all 15 members calls for de-escalation of the violence, restoration of calm, and a resumption of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace agreement based on a two-state solution.

 The statement calls for "the reinstitution of the November 2012 cease-fire," which was brokered by Egypt, but gives no time frame for when it should take effect.

 Palestinian U.N. envoy, Riyad Mansour stressed, however, that the Palestinians' understanding is that the cease-fire should go into effect immediately.

 "We will observe very closely whether Israel will abide by this call and we hope they do," Mansour told reporters. "If they don't, we have a lot in our arsenal, and we will not allow the Security Council to rest for a minute. It is its job to maintain international peace and security, and it is its job to stop this aggression against our people."

 In a sign of increasing international pressure to end the conflict, British Foreign Secretary William Hague also called for a cease-fire Saturday and said he would meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of Germany and France in Vienna on Sunday to discuss a halt to the fighting. Mansour said Arab foreign ministers will also meet Monday "to continue the effort to stop the aggression against our people."

 The press statement, which is not legally binding but reflects international opinion, is the first response by the U.N.'s most powerful body, which has been deeply divided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 The United States, Israel's most important ally, has defended the Israeli attacks in response to the barrage of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas. But other council members have decried the escalating Israeli attacks which Mansour said have killed or injured more than 1,000 Palestinians. There have been no fatalities in Israel from the continued rocket fire.

 A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, reiterated American support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas attacks.

 "That said, we remain concerned about the risk of further escalation and reiterate the need for all sides to do everything they can to protect the lives of civilians and restore calm," the official said. "The United States remains ready to help facilitate a cease fire and hope an end to the current violence can be quickly brought about."

 The council statement does not directly mention either the Hamas rocketing or the Israeli response.

 Instead, it expresses "serious concern regarding the crisis related to Gaza and the protection and welfare of civilians on both sides" and calls for "respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians."

 Mansour said the Arab and Islamic world and the Palestinians' international supporters were "outraged" that the Security Council dragged its feet in responding to the Israeli offensive, which began Tuesday.

 He said a proposed Security Council resolution, drafted by the Palestinians and their supporters, "contributed to pressuring the Security Council to adopt this statement."

 If the Israelis do not respond immediately to the cease-fire call, Mansour said one option is to go back to the council to pursue approval of the draft resolution, which if adopted would be legally binding.

 The initial draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would condemn all violence against civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and call for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire."

 It expresses "grave concern" at the escalating violence and deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories due to Israeli military operations, particularly against Gaza,, and at the heavy civilian casualties including among children. But it makes no mention of the rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, which would likely make it unacceptable to the United States, which as a permanent council member has veto power. ||||| The Israeli military said four soldiers were wounded Saturday night during a brief incursion to raid a rocket launching site in northern Gaza.

 It was the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered Gaza in the current offensive, the Associated Press reported.

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 Earlier Saturday, the Israeli military ordered Palestinians residing in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes "for their own safety."

 In leaflets dropped on the area, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israel “is currently attacking, and will continue to attack, every area from which rockets are being launched at its territory.”

 “The IDF’s campaign is to be short and temporary,” the IDF added. “Those who fail to comply with the instructions will endanger their lives and the lives of their families. Beware.”

 A military spokesman said Israeli forces would strike the area with heavy force over the next 24 hours in a signal that operations against Hamas militants are due to increase despite international concerns

 Five days of Israeli airstrikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip have resulted in at least 156 casualties and threatens to climb higher as the bombardment shows no signs of letting up.

 The Israeli army Twitter account said overnight that rocket fire has struck “over 60 targets, making a total of 1,160 since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge.” One of the sites was a mosque, where government forces believed the militant group was storing weapons.

 The mosques’ destruction could further enflame the conflict as it happened during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 Both President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have reached out to their Israeli counterparts to express concern over the latest round of violence. While both endorsed Jerusalem’s right to defend itself, they cautioned against any escalation.

 “We want to do everything we can to help stop what's going on and encourage all sides to not escalate and not let this -- these hostilities get out of control any more than they are and that we would be available to play a role in helping,” Hagel said on Friday during a Pentagon press conference.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel was “preparing for all options,” including sending ground forces into Gaza, which is home to 1.7 million people.

 This story was originally published on July 12 at 9:43 a.m. and last updated on July 13 at 8:04 a.m. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The Israeli military says it is ordering Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate the area "for their own safety." In a statement today, the military said it would send messages to residents overnight to leave the area. Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz, the chief military spokesman, said Israel planned to hit the area with heavy force in the next 24 hours as it steps up an offensive against Gaza militants. Officials say the area has been used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv. The death toll in Gaza has hit at least 135 and more than 920 have been injured after five days of airstrikes, the Hill reports. Meanwhile, more than 200 rockets fired from Gaza have gotten through Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, and rockets are coming from southern Lebanon as well. Also today, the UN Security Council called today for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict centered on the Gaza Strip. A council statement approved by all 15 members calls for de-escalation of the violence, restoration of calm, and a resumption of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace agreement based on a two-state solution. The statement calls for "the reinstitution of the November 2012 cease-fire," which was brokered by Egypt, but gives no time frame for when it should take effect. (Click for more on that.)


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– A generally gushing review in the New York Times of a book by its own Washington correspondent hit an Internet landmine when it referred to the book as "chick nonfiction," observes New York Magazine. The reconfiguration of the term "chick lit" was no doubt meant to be witty when Douglas Brinkley discussed Jodi Kantor's bestseller The Obamas, which follows the first couple's relationship in the White House. But bloggers and tweeters are stunned. The label seen as a sexist slight by many comes in the wake of years of criticism of the Times for predominantly reviewing books penned by male authors. "That alleged lack of respect—and to call a book 'chick nonfiction' is to call it unserious—extends not only to the woman who is the author, but also to the woman who is the subject," notes The Scroll, referring to Michelle Obama. When a woman writes even a serious book in Times-land, argues novelist Jennifer Weiner, "it can only be gossip, and the writer, however skilled a reporter, is still merely a chick." A Washington Post blogger took the opportunity to zing the Times. The Obamas is "among the very best books on this White House," notes Ezra Klein. "It’s a serious, thoughtful book on the modern presidency in general. So no, I’m not going to call it ‘chick nonfiction.’” So far no response to request for comment from the Times, notes The Scroll.

Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. ||||| "Call it chick nonfiction, if you will; this book is not about politics, it’s about marriage, or at least one marriage, and a notably successful one at that." —Douglas Brinkley reviewing Jodi Kantor's surprisingly controversial book The Obamas. His vaguely sexist-sounding characterization, in what was otherwise a quite positive review, immediately raised howls (and tweets) of protest. [NYT] ||||| In a largely positive review of Jodi Kantor’s book The Obamas in the New York Times Book Review, Douglas Brinkley—a historian who has published books about several presidents—wrote, “Call it chick nonfiction, if you will; this book is not about politics, it’s about marriage, or at least one marriage.”

 Call it chick nonfiction? Some people most definitely won’t.

 It’s a little outside my ordinary purview—though Kantor, a New York Times reporter, is Jewish—but the line struck me as newsworthy, particularly given recent discussion accusing the Times Book Review of giving short shrift to woman authors. Here, that alleged lack of respect—and to call a book “chick nonfiction” is to call it unserious—extends not only to the woman who is the author but also to the woman who is the subject. The book documents the First Marriage, with an emphasis on the first lady and how she was able to influence White House policy. “The story of the book is of people who had equal power in a marriage and one giving up the power,” said Rebecca Traister, a writer for Salon, in an interview with Tablet Magazine. And even less-positive reviewers—including Brinkley—acknowledge that no book about this marriage can be entirely free of political content.

 Jennifer Weiner, a novelist who prominently supported accusations in 2010 that coverage of Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom reflected the Times’, and arguably the publishing industry’s, larger bias against woman writers, emailed this morning: “My suspicion is that if a male reporter had written a detailed, well-researched, revealing book about the First Marriage, it would have been praised as a serious work of journalism. However, when the old, pernicious double standards still apply, if it’s a lady doing the investigation, the personal can never be political … it can only be gossip, and the writer, however skilled a reporter, is still merely a chick.”

 Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein wrote, “Jodi Kantor’s The Obamas is among the very best books on this White House. It’s a serious, thoughtful book on the modern presidency in general. So no, I’m not going to call it ‘chick nonfiction.’ ”

 Brinkley has not replied to a request for comment.

 While The Obamas’ primary subject is the marriage itself, Kantor is a White House reporter for the Times, and the book broke several bits of news concerning Michelle Obama’s frustration with a perceived failure to enact her husband’s agenda—particularly with regard to health care and immigration reform—and her indirect conflict with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “Everyone from The Associated Press to POLITICO has focused their stories on the tensions involving Michelle Obama, Gibbs and Emanuel,” reported Politico.

 Kantor declined to comment for this story, and Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Times Book Review, did not reply to a request for comment. As a sometime-contributor there, I would be surprised if the phrase “chick nonfiction” was not flagged by an editor or copy editor, which would mean (although this is only conjecture on my part) that it was then included at Brinkley’s insistence.

 Many reviews have accused the book of various flaws. Though earlier on Kantor interviewed the First Couple, ultimately they did not cooperate with the book, and some have said this refusal significantly hindered what Kantor was able to reveal. Others have alleged errors of fact, although it turns out that many of the allegations were themselves erroneous. Many have said certain conceits, specifically a reconstructed scene featuring Michelle Obama alone, have gone a step too far into the speculative.

 But no review I’ve read went quite so far in questioning the book’s basic seriousness (even while elsewhere appearing to take the book very seriously). In addition to the “chick nonfiction” line, Brinkley refers to Kantor as “a reportorial wunderkind” who had “gumption,” implying that she is green. But Kantor’s reputation as a wunderkind stems from her being named editor of the Times Arts section at the age of 27. Now, 36, she has been a Washington reporter since 2007, and, for example, wrote the paper’s “Man in the News” profile of Obama on the eve of the 2008 convention.

 Traister noted that much of the review was positive, but in a way that makes the allegedly condescending tone of certain parts of it all the more puzzling—and stark. For instance, Brinkley writes of Kantor, “She reconstructs a half-dozen or so strange, gossipy moments that hardly hold up as serious journalism, but provide insight nonetheless.” Said Traister, “It’s the crazy combination of being positive about the material in a professional, serious way, but then just assuming that we don’t take it seriously.”

 Weiner added, “Using a politician’s personal life as the prism through which to view the choices he or she makes has always been the work of reporters and historians and even novelists. Yet I don’t remember the Times calling Joe Klein’s Primary Colors chick lit, or complaining that recent histories about politicians’ personal lives, from Jon Meacham’s Franklin and Winston to Jacob Weisberg’s The Bush Tragedy to Robert Dallek’s An Unfinished Life, took a tabloid tone.”

 The difference isn’t only that those books were by male authors. It’s that this book is primarily about the president’s wife.

 And not just any wife, as Traister eagerly pointed out. “When you’re talking about [Michelle Obama’s] influence on [President Obama], you’re talking about someone who began as his professional mentor, and was his professional equal,” she said. “This was not true of any other First Lady until Hillary Clinton. You can’t actually draw the historic comparisons without acknowledging that there’s a radically different set of circumstances and context for, for example, her opinions on policy, since she and the president were professional and intellectual equals.” Traister added, “[Michelle Obama] comes at this with a completely different range of opinions, education, and experiences than what you’re going to attribute to Jackie Kennedy or Lady Bird Johnson or Nancy Reagan”—three first ladies to whom Brinkley does compare Obama. “Maybe it’s a critique that Jodi Kantor should have made that a more central theme in the book. But to not acknowledge the fundamental qualities that make it an entirely historic dynamic!”

 Added Traister, “This is not to say someone had to give it a great review. But nothing I read about his review except for the implied femininity of author, subject matter, and lead character actually made it unserious. Because everything about how it was crafted and reported was positive.”

 Indeed. Here are some good things Brinkley had to say: “A few of the anecdotes Kantor includes are riveting;” “Kantor skillfully elucidates;” “the vivid prose stays, at all times, free of snark;” and “The author is pretty much a straight-ahead reporter with an ear attuned to verifiable gossip.”

 Yet in the same paragraph as that last sentence, Brinkley also writes, “On a couple of occasions, the tabloid scent in the book is so strong that one would be forgiven for thinking Kantor writes for Us Weekly, not The Times.”

 The First Marriage [NYT Book Review] |||||


News article:

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 John Goodlett hasn’t even completed a full week of work at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and already he’s getting national attention for being an exemplary employee, just for lending a helping hand.

 A photo of him carrying one of a customer’s twin infants as he processed her rental car is winning over the internet, after the mother posted the picture on her Facebook page.

 Coty Vincent / Facebook A photo of John Goodlett is going viral after the Enterprise employee held one of Coty Vincent's twin babies to help out the boy's mother.

 It started last week when Goodlett, 25, went to pick up Coty Vincent from her Tulsa, Oklahoma, home and brought her back to the Enterprise office. She had brought car seats for each of her 11-month-old boys, but didn’t have a stroller that could hold both of them, so she asked Goodlett for help.

 RELATED: See how this man warmed the hearts of many — with only an umbrella

 “He grabbed one of the boys out of his car seat and I grabbed the other and we went inside,” she told TODAY.

 Vincent, 25, expected Goodlett to hand off her son “and let me fend for myself” with the boys. Instead, Goodlett headed straight for the counter and began processing her order.

 “So I kind of moseyed on over to where he was working, playing with one son while he had the other one. He was working away, holding him like a champ, like he’s done it his whole life,” Vincent said. “I can’t even multitask that good.”

 The small gesture moved Vincent, who snapped a photo of Goodlett, typing on the computer with one hand while holding her son with the other. She posted the picture to Facebook that evening.

 RELATED: Mom of child with autism thanks Apple employee for empathy toward her son

 “While he helped me with my rental due to a hit and run accident, he held one of my twin sons as I don't have a double stroller,” she wrote in the caption. “One of the most compassionate and caring people I've ever met. We need more people like John who go that extra step. Be a John. #BeAJohn”

 Courtesy of Coty Vincent Coty Vincent and her 11-month-old sons, Levi and Holt

 She shared the post with some of her Twin Mom groups, where members encouraged her to make the post public. Once she did, the post got picked up and went viral on various Facebook pages. On her own page, the post received more than 224,800 reactions and 24,600 shares.

 Goodlett said he was surprised by the attention, and by why people have made such a big deal about something that should come naturally to others.

 RELATED: See the cool surprise a thoughtful boy left his mailman during a heatwave

 “I’m still blown away. It just makes you wonder: What did I do so special? This was something that’s part of my instinctual way to do. It’s kind of shocking to see the world took it as such a big motion,” he told TODAY. “But I hope it helps get the message out that this is the way people are supposed to treat each other every day. We could all help each other and be a little friendlier.”

 Courtesy of John Goodlett John Goodlett with his twin sister, Jalisa

 Goodlett noted he has something in common with Vincent: He's a twin himself. He lives with a sister, and jokes about their “love-hate relationship.”

 “Just like any sibling, one moment we got each other’s back, one moment we’re yelling at each other’s throats,” he said. “But it’s a real thing. It’s a natural love and it’s deep.”

 Courtesy of John Goodlett The Goodlett twins

 Marlyn Jones, the Enterprise branch manager where Goodlett works, said his new employee has jumped into his job without hesitation and that even colleagues have noted his performance. Although he wasn’t in the office the afternoon Vincent came in, Jones said other employees told him what had happened.

 “They were like, ‘Man, John was holding a baby. John went above and beyond. He went the extra mile,’” he said.

 RELATED: 'They need each other': Twins born holding hands still inseparable 2 years later

 Enterprise’s corporate office offered to reward Goodlett with a gift card for his service. Instead, he chose to donate the funds to his favorite charity, a local Boys & Girls Club run by the Salvation Army. The organization will receive scholarship money and new sports equipment, Jones said.

 Vincent also heard from Enterprise’s corporate office, which ordered her a double stroller that will finally allow the single mom to leave the house without needing an extra set of hands to help.

 But Vincent is just as excited that her post about "a simple act of kindness" has touched so many hearts around the world.

 “There are a lot of great Americans in this country and that’s what we really need to see, because people are getting depressed and hearts are getting so heavy from everything going on right now,” she said.

 “It’s up to us to turn this around. So many have forgotten we are humans and we do kind things and we do treat with each other with respect, and smile and hold doors open and do these little things. I want to remind people they can be kind to one another." ||||| Story highlights A mom of twins got a helping hand while renting a car

 A photo of John Goodlett holding one of her sons went viral

 (CNN) A simple gesture of kindness is earning an Enterprise Rent-A-Car employee in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a lot of love online.

 The employee, John Goodlett, was helping Coty Vincent, a mom of twin boys, rent a car last week after hers was damaged in a hit-and-run accident.

 Vincent literally had both hands full with the boys, so Goodlett just picked one of them up while he continued to help Vincent get a rental vehicle.

 A picture of Goodlett holding the toddler went viral on Facebook and has been shared almost 25,000 times.

 In the post, Vincent said Goodlett knows a thing or two about twins.

 Read More |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Coty Vincent's car was smashed last week after a hit-and-run accident, so she lugged her twin boys to a rental car company, CNN reports. But the Oklahoma mom didn't find only a vehicle at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Tulsa: She also found a young man she says is "one of the most compassionate and caring people I've ever met," per her Facebook post. She tells Today that the car company sent 25-year-old employee John Goodlett to her home to pick up her and the 11-month-old babies and bring them to the office. She didn't have a double stroller, so she asked Goodlett to carry one of her sons in—and once inside, Vincent figured he'd hand the baby back to her and "let me fend for myself." Instead, he held onto his young charge and started working on her order on the computer. Vincent was so touched that she took a photo of him holding the baby and posted it online, where the image quickly went viral (it's got more than 25,000 shares on her Facebook page). There's a reason Goodlett may have felt a special kinship with the little ones: He has a twin sister. "Just like any sibling, one moment we got each other's back, one moment we're yelling at each other's throats," he tells Today. "But … it's a natural love." Vincent, meanwhile, has started a #BeAJohn hashtag, noting, "This world would be a better place if we all would just be a John." Enterprise is doing its part: After getting wind of Goodlett's interaction with Vincent, it bought the mom a double stroller and made a donation to the Boys & Girls Club where Goodlett spent time when he was a kid (he turned down a gift card for himself). "I'm still blown away," he tells Today. "It's kind of shocking to see the world took it as such a big motion. I hope it helps get the message out that this is the way people are supposed to treat each other every day." (This mom has her hands full.)


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(Reuters) - A Michigan woman pleaded guilty on Monday to a scheme in which she and her husband used their medical cadaver business to sell infected body parts to unwitting medical and dental students, prosecutors said.

 Elizabeth Rathburn, 56, of the Detroit suburb of Grosse Point Park admitted selling human remains she claimed were disease-free, but which had tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis B, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in eastern Michigan said in a statement.

 Prosecutors said Rathburn and her husband, Arthur Rathburn, ran a company called International Biological, Inc. that would sell or rent human remains to medical and dental students.

 Prosecutors said the couple would purchase diseased specimens from suppliers at a discount and misrepresent the remains to maximize profit, defrauding customers and exposing them to infection.

 An attorney for Rathburn did not immediately return a call for comment.

 The couple was indicted in January and Elizabeth Rathburn was charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to a police officer, FBI spokeswoman Jill Washburn said.

 She reached a deal with prosecutors that had her plead guilty to wire fraud and is set to be sentenced on July 18, according to the attorney’s office.

 Arthur Rathburn was also charged with transporting hazardous materials and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to begin trial on April 5, court records show.

 The January indictment alleged that Arthur Rathburn would dismember the cadavers with chainsaws and other non-standard autopsy devices, and would stack human heads directly on top of each other.

 In one instance, Rathburn was charged with shipping the head of a person who died from sepsis and pneumonia among seven other severed heads on a Delta Cargo flight. The heads were stuffed in trash bags inside coolers that also contained pools of human blood, according to the indictment.

 Attorneys for Arthur Rathburn did not immediately return calls for comment. ||||| Elizabeth Rathburn, 56, of Grosse Pointe Park, pleaded guilty today to her role in her husband's body parts business. (Photo: Regina Boone)

 For years, they worked side by side. He cut up the bodies. She dealt with the customers.

 Together, the FBI says, the Rathburns of Grosse Pointe Park made big bucks renting out body parts to medical and dental researchers.

 And they dismembered their relationship along the way.

 In U.S. District Court Monday, Elizabeth Rathburn cut a deal in which she pleaded guilty to helping her now-estranged husband run a shady cadaver business and agreed to testify against him in a case that could send him to prison for 20 years. With Arthur Rathburn in court, Elizabeth Rathburn pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting that she took human remains infected with HIV and hepatitis B to an anesthesiology conference in Washington, D.C., in 2012, claiming that the body parts were disease free when she knew otherwise.

 Under the terms of her plea deal, Elizabeth Rathburn faces four to 10 months in prison and has to pay $55,225 in restitution to the American Anesthesiology Association, which had rented the diseased body parts from the Rathburns' company, Detroit-based International Biological Inc.

 The head of the company was Arthur Rathburn, who prosecutors allege purchased body parts from Arizona and Illinois suppliers, stored them in an old rundown warehouse in Detroit, then rented them out to medical and dental researchers with the help of his wife, who dealt with the customers. It was a lucrative business. A human body is worth from $10,000 to $100,000 if sold in parts, court records show. Brains can fetch $600; elbows and hands $850.

 Elizabeth Rathburn is already proving to be forthcoming with information about her husband, if her actions in court Monday are any indication. She notified authorities that he recently sent her a birthday package with a note attached to it, when he's under a court order not to have contact with her. According to her lawyer, the birthday gesture caused her "distress."

 Arthur Rathburn was taken aback. "Oh Jesus," he mumbled under his breath in the courtroom, adding he had no idea he couldn't send his wife a birthday message.

 His lawyer stressed to him: "No contact means no contact."

 Meanwhile, Arthur Rathburn's case is headed toward trial, which will be full of grisly exhibits and allegations that he committed many crimes, like cutting up bodies with chainsaws, shipping blood-filled coolers of fresh heads on commercial airliners — falsely claiming the blood was Listerine — and storing more than 1,000 body parts on ice at his warehouse. The FBI raided his Detroit warehouse in 2013, seizing more than a thousand body parts — heads, hands, legs, torsos — that were then stored in a deep freezer at the Wayne County Morgue.

 Arthur Rathburn is free on bond, living in a Detroit halfway house pending the outcome of his case.

 Though Rathburn's name first surfaced a decade ago in a book called "Body Brokers," he did not fall under the FBI's radar until years later, when federal agents started tracking what appeared to be bizarre shipments arriving for Rathburn at Metro Airport, including a bucket full of human heads that arrived from Israel one year.

 Among the examples outlined in the indictment was a 2011 transaction in which the Rathburns allegedly rented a head and neck to researchers for $13,108 to be used in a course titled "Advances in Periodontology" at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. The head and neck came from an individual who tested positive for hepatitis B, though the Rathburns hid that.

 Arthur Rathburn faces charges of wire fraud, aiding and abetting and making false statements. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

 Before getting into the body parts trade as a private dealer, Rathburn was the coordinator of the University of Michigan's anatomical donation program from 1984-90, but he got fired after he was caught selling bodies. In 1989, he started his own business supplying body parts. He called it Biological International and ran it out of an industrial warehouse on Grinnell Avenue, near the old Detroit City Airport.

 "While this trade is not, in and of itself, illegal ... ," an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit, "crimes have been committed."

 Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

 Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1pFZQza |||||

– A Detroit woman faces up to 10 months in prison for fraud after admitting to renting diseased body parts to researchers. Elizabeth Rathburn, 56—to be sentenced in July—also must pay $55,225 to the American Anesthesiology Association, whose researchers were told the body parts were clean, reports the Detroit Free Press. But her estranged husband, Arthur Rathburn, 62, could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted of charges related to his work as a cadaver dealer. The trade of body parts "is not, in and of itself, illegal," but "crimes have been committed," an FBI agent says in an affidavit. Under the Rathburns' company International Biological Inc., Arthur Rathburn is accused of purchasing discounted body parts infected with HIV and hepatitis B, then renting them to unsuspecting customers who could have been exposed to infection, per the Detroit News. Arthur Rathburn worked with the University of Michigan's anatomical donation program for six years until he was fired for selling bodies in 1990. He then worked as a private dealer. Prosecutors say he cut up bodies with chainsaws "without using sanitary precautions," and kept more than 1,000 body parts at a warehouse. He's also accused of selling bodies for $5,000 on the black market. Heads were allegedly sold for $500, while arms fetched $750. In one instance, prosecutors say he shipped fresh heads—which reportedly sat in pools of blood inside coolers—on a commercial plane. Rathburn faces charges including wire fraud, making false statements, and transporting hazardous materials at trial on April 5, per Reuters. His wife "will assist the government with any knowledge that she has," her lawyer says. "Her life has been ruined largely in part because of her association with Mr. Rathburn."


Write a summary based on this article:

These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDem lawmaker resurfaces 2013 Trump tweet criticizing Obama for Syrian airstrikes Schumer says Trump strikes 'appropriate,' warns against greater involvement in Syria Trump authorizes military strikes in Syria MORE (R-Ky.) pushed back Wednesday on President Trump's latest comments about the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying there "are no good neo-Nazis."

 “We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms," the Senate GOP leader said.

 He added that "we all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head.”

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 McConnell's comments come after the president blamed both the "alt-left" as well as white supremacists and neo-Nazis for the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend, adding that there were "very fine people" on both sides.

 “I have condemned neo-Nazis. I have condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. ... Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee," Trump said.

 Several GOP lawmakers slammed Trump over his comments, which came after he had been under criticism for failing to immediately condemn racist protesters, including neo-Nazi groups and the KKK, by name, a step he took at a Monday press conference.

 A 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed on Saturday in Charlottesville after being hit by a car allegedly driven by a man with far-right views who plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters. Her death came amid rallies aimed to "Unite the Right."

 White nationalist groups are now planning a rally in Lexington, Ky., over the removal of two Confederate statues, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

 McConnell added on Wednesday that the groups "are not welcome" in Kentucky or in America.

 “The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-Nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America," he said. ||||| Story highlights Mitch McConnell also is taking a cautious approach to the President

 The Senate majority leader will need to work with Trump soon to avoid a fiscal crisis

 (CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has publicly avoided criticizing President Donald Trump's remarks on Charlottesville, is privately upset with the President's handling of the episode, according to a source close to the Kentucky Republican.

 Despite the immediate uproar that Trump caused by his stunning comments Tuesday where he defended some of the protestors during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, McConnell remained silent and out of public view.

 But McConnell, who has a long history of working on civil rights issues, is deeply concerned that Trump is reopening long-festering racial tensions, something that could fan the flames ahead of demonstrations expected in Lexington, Kentucky, the source told CNN.

 The morning after Trump's comments, McConnell released a statement Wednesday ahead of a rally in Lexington similar to the one that turned violent in Charlottesville over the weekend.

 "The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America," McConnell said in his statement. ||||| Mitch McConnell: 'We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence'

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in Bowling Green, Ky. (Photo: Austin Anthony, AP)

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups that are reportedly planning a rally in Kentucky are not welcome there and "should not be welcome anywhere in America."

 "The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-Nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington," the Republican senator from Kentucky said in a statement. "Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America."

 McConnell did not mention President Trump by name, but he said there "are no good neo-Nazis" and that everyone has "a responsibility to stand against hate and violence."

 Trump drew strong criticism from senators and House members in his own party Tuesday when he doubled down on his controversial statements that "both sides" were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday that resulted in a woman's death. The woman, Heather Heyer, was protesting a rally by white supremacists and members of the KKK and neo-Nazi groups when she was killed by a man who plowed his car into people protesting the hate groups.

 Trump said Tuesday that there were "very fine people on both sides."

 McConnell, who has been the target of scathing criticism from the president in the wake of the Senate's recent failure to repeal Obamacare, said "we can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred."

 "There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms," McConnell said. "We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head."

 McConnell also spoke out Saturday against the "hate and bigotry" in Charlottesville. White supremacist leaders have said they are considering coming to Lexington, Ky. to protest the proposed removal of two Confederate statues from a public park there.

 Fact check: President Trump's press conference, in context

 Analysis: Combative Trump returns to form with defense of alt-right

 Reaction: Lawmakers slam Trump's latest defense of Charlottesville response

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2x4hAYI |||||

– "There are no good neo-Nazis," Sen. Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred," the Hill quotes the Senate majority leader as saying. "Those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms." McConnell went on to say that all Americans "have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head" and made it clear that the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and KKK members behind the violence in Charlottesville are not welcome in his state of Kentucky or America. The groups behind the Unite the Right rally last weekend in Virginia had been planning an event in Lexington. USA Today notes McConnell failed to mention President Trump by name in his apparent condemnation of the president's comments on Charlottesville. It's possible McConnell—whose wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, was standing next to Trump during the president's Tuesday press conference—was attempting to avoid antagonizing Trump supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times. But a source close to McConnell tells CNN the senator—while privately upset about Trump's comments—didn't want to directly criticize the president because it might look like payback for Trump blasting him last week on the failure of health care. McConnell also still needs to work with Trump next month on a deal to fund the government.


Summarize this article:

A music fan inspired by the recent glut of crowdfunding campaigns from Foo Fighters fans has launched his own effort to keep Nickelback from London.The Canadian band, fronted by Chad Kroeger, do not currently have any scheduled dates in the capital and Craig Mandell is hoping to keep it that way. He is hoping to raise $1000 (£626) in order to keep the band out of London for the foreseeable future.On the Tilt page – headed 'Don't Let Nickel Back' – Mandell, who is a friend of Andrew Goldin who successfully used the same method to bring Foo Fighters to Richmond, Virginia in September, explains his game plan. "With your help, we can ensure that the band do not schedule any gigs here, do not attempt to come here – nor even phone here," he writes."Just imagine, thousands – perhaps tens of thousands of music lovers – all not witnessing an exclusive concert by Nickelback in London. It will be glorious."Those who contribute to the scheme will have an email sent on their behalf to Nickelback's management. The severity of the message in the email depends on how much money is contributed. Mandell has given himself until November 3 to raise the funds. At the time of writing he has received no funding.Meanwhile, the crowdfunding campaign to bring Foo Fighters to Cornwall has reached its target of £150,000 in just two days . However, the organisers must now convince the band to agree to play a show in the English county. ||||| Correction appended, October 7, 2014

 Nickelback doesn't have any shows scheduled in London right now, and if one man gets his way, the much-maligned band will never have any shows in London again.

 Inspired by a recent Tilt campaign, that brought the Foo Fighters to Charlottesville, VA for a previously unscheduled gig, Craig Mandell has created a Tilt crowd-funding campaign to prevent Nickelback from returning to his city.

 The campaign, titled “Don’t Let Nickel Back,” hopes to discourage the Canadian band from playing in London through a barrage of emails. For every $1 donated to the cause, Mandell will send one email to Nickelback. A $5 donation gets you a “slightly more forceful email” while a $50 contribution “will result in an email to Nickleback with an attached mp3 of Nickelback’s music. This way, the band will hear their own music, and likely retire immediately, thereby ensuring the success of our campaign.”

 “Just imagine, thousands – perhaps tens of thousands of music lovers – all not witnessing an exclusive concert by Nickelback in London,” wrote Mandell. “It will be glorious.”

 Mandell states on the page that the campaign is not for his own profit. "All proceeds will go to charity," the site says. "Or perhaps therapy for those who've been affected by the band."

 (h/t NME )

 The original version of this story misidentified the crowd-funding platform. It was Tilt. |||||

– It seems almost everyone dislikes Nickelback, but one London man apparently hates them more than most: Craig Mandell launched a crowdfunding campaign with the sole aim of keeping the Canadian band out of his city, Time reports. "Don't Let Nickel Back," which is being funded on the Kickstarter-like platform Tilt, has a goal of $1,000. For every $1 received, Mandell will email Nickelback's management on the donor's behalf "kindly requesting that they do not play in London, England, for the foreseeable future." For $5, you get a "slightly more forceful email" sent on your behalf; for $10, an email "full of explicit phrases and lots of capital letters and maybe even a rude emoticon or two." But the pièce de résistance: For a $50 contribution, Mandell will send an email to Nickelback ... with an mp3 of the band's own music attached. "This way, the band will hear their own music, and likely retire immediately," he writes. Mandell was inspired by a recent crowdfunding campaign that convinced the Foo Fighters to play a previously nonexistent show—something he does not want to see happen with Nickelback. Mandell is actually friends with the organizer of that campaign, NME reports. As for the money he raises (he's currently only at $189), Mandell says he's not in the market for "personal profit" and will donate it to charity—"or perhaps therapy for those who've been affected by the band." (Could U2 be heading for Nickelback's fate?)


– Luis Lopez Gallegos says he is now a widower with four children to raise—just because someone didn't like the way he drove. In what police are probing as a road-rage attack, 30-year-old Perla Avina was shot dead Sunday afternoon as the couple was driving to their East Oakland, Calif., home from a supermarket, reports the Oakland Tribune. Gallegos, a mechanic, says that after an altercation, a "young guy with a gun who doesn't care about life" pulled up alongside his car and sprayed it with bullets, killing his wife as she sat in the front passenger seat. "I wish God would have took me before they took her. I wish I would have gotten shot," says Gallegos. The couple's four children are three girls ages 1, 4, and 8, and a 14-year-old boy. The younger children "don't know what's going on," the boy tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "But my older sister, she's just trying to hold it down, like me." A reward of up to $30,000 is being offered for information leading to the shooter. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan tells KTVU that police have been told to make the murder a priority and will be "putting investigators on overtime and really focusing on this."

Expand this summary.

OAKLAND -- Every other Sunday morning, Luis Lopez Gallegos and his wife Perla Avina would shop for ingredients to prepare her popular posole for the family to enjoy during the Raiders game.

 The tradition ended tragically this past weekend as the couple was returning home from Supermercado Mi Tierra on International Boulevard, about a mile from their East Oakland home. Police say an angry motorist sprayed gunfire into their black 1998 Toyota Camry, hitting 30-year-old Avina in the head as she sat in the front passenger seat.

 Panicked, Gallegos drove the few short blocks to their Brookfield Village home to call for help, but Avina died in their driveway. A medical receptionist, Avina was the mother of four children ages 1 to 14.

 Share condolences Guest book in memory of Perla Avina

 "He was a coward with a gun," 33-year-old Gallegos said with heavy eyes on Monday as he stared at the bullet-riddled Camry in their driveway. "A young guy with a gun who doesn't care about life."

 As of Monday, police continued to hunt for the shooter and were trying to gather a description of the suspect and the suspect's car.

 The shooting happened about 12:30 p.m. as the couple drove in the southbound lanes of 98th Avenue, somewhere between the 400 to 600 blocks, police said.

 Gallegos said details about what led up to the shooting were foggy, but he recalled another motorist not liking the way he drove and subsequent shots fired as the couple's car was moving. When he realized his wife had been shot, he drove the short distance to their house, where authorities later responded and pronounced her dead, police said.

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 "I came to my home because I needed someone to call officers," Gallegos said. A neighbor, Dwayne Jackson, 54, was standing outside across the street from the family's home when Gallegos' Camry sped by him.

 "He pulled up really abrupt, halfway in the driveway and called to me," Jackson said. "He said, 'D, call 911. My wife's been shot.' We pulled her out of the car and I started giving her CPR, but I pretty much knew she was gone."

 Family are mourning the loss of Perla Avina, a wife and mother of four, with candles surrounding her photo in her home in East Oakland, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 after she was shot and killed in an apparent case of road rage while driving to the store with her husband on Sunday afternoon. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) ( Laura A. Oda )

 Jackson, who lives across the street, added "For this to take place at noon, when most people are coming home from church, is awful."

 Gallegos, an auto mechanic, stood in his driveway Monday surrounded by friends, co-workers and family who came to grieve. At one point the couple's 4-year-old daughter ran out of the front door of their family's well-kept home, threw her arms around her father's leg, squeezed her eyes shut and said, "I love you, Daddy."

 "She doesn't understand," Gallegos said as he embraced his daughter. "She keeps asking when Mommy is coming home. It still hasn't processed. We had plans to watch the game and (Avina) said 'I'm going to cook you posole.' So we went to the store like we always did."

 Family are mourning the loss of Perla Avina, a wife and mother of four, outside her home in East Oakland, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 after she was shot and killed in an apparent case of road rage while driving to the store with her husband on Sunday afternoon. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) ( Laura A. Oda )

 The couple were high-school sweethearts; they met when Avina attended Fremont Senior High School and Gallegos attended Oakland Technical High School, he said.

 Avina, a medical clerk at a pain rehabilitation center in Emeryville, is survived by her husband and her three daughters ages 1, 4 and 8 and her son, 14.

 Police and CrimeStoppers of Oakland are offering up to $30,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Call Oakland police at 510-238-3821 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.

 Harry Harris contributed to this report. Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund. ||||| Son of Oakland road-rage victim: 'She was everything to me’

 gallery_thumbnails_photo|photo-7059629|article-gallery-5851073|1 Photo: Courtesy Oakland Police Dept. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close gallery_thumbnails_show|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_open|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_open_thumbs|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 Image 1 of 1 Perla Avina Photo: Courtesy Oakland Police Dept. Perla Avina Son of Oakland road-rage victim: 'She was everything to me’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery gallery_thumbs_close|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_close|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0

 Luis Lopez Gallegos knows he has to stay strong for his four kids. But, he said, it’s going to take everything he has in the wake of the shooting death of his wife in what police called a road-rage attack in East Oakland.

 Gallegos, 32, and his wife, 30-year-old Perla Avina, were driving south on busy 98th Avenue at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday when someone in a second car apparently grew angry with them and opened fire.

 A bullet smashed through the front windshield of the black 1998 Toyota Camry and struck Avina in the head in the passenger seat, police officials said.

 A horrified Gallegos — who declined Monday to talk in detail about the circumstances of the shooting — drove the car a couple of blocks to the family home on Rossmoor Avenue in the city’s Brookfield Village neighborhood and called police.

 Relatives and officers performed CPR on Avina, but she died at the scene, leaving Gallegos and the couple’s four children — girls ages 1, 5 and 10, and a 14-year-old boy — in shock and confusion.

 The boy, Luis Lopez Avina, said his mother was a “joyful, outgoing, ambitious woman. She was everything to me.”

 He said his little sisters “don't know what’s going on. But my older sister, she’s just trying to hold it down, like me.”

 Gallegos said his wife was “the love of my life. No woman can ever replace her, you know? She gave me four beautiful kids. I wish God would have took me before they took her. I wish I would have gotten shot.”

 Asked if he had anything to say to the gunman, he responded, “No words for him right now.” Gallegos added that “only God knows” what he will do next, but said his children will come first.

 “That's why I’m here,” he said.

 He and his son spoke outside their home, where a makeshift shrine of candles had been placed to honor Avina, whom he had been with for 16 years.

 No suspects have been arrested in the killing, police said.

 Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: henryklee ||||| By Allie Rasmus

 KTVU.com

 The family of a young mother of four who was fatally shot while riding in the passenger seat of her husband's car this weekend desperately asked for the public's help Monday as Oakland police continued the search for suspects.

 Police are calling the homicide a deadly case of road rage. The victim, 30-year-old Perla Avina, was struck by one of the bullets fired at her husband's car Sunday.

 Oakland police have increased the reward for information leading to an arrest to $30,000. Avina's family told KTVU finding her killer is the only thing that will help their family heal.

 Through their inconsolable grief, Avina's parents begged for the public's help.

 "If they know the person who did this, please turn him in. Turn him into the police, please, please, help us," said Herlinda Avina through sobs. She and husband Jose -- Perla's father -- hugged each other on the sofa of the family's living room.

 They know nothing will bring their beloved daughter back, but they are desperate for justice after Perla was killed in the road rage incident.

 Avina and her husband were driving back from the grocery store on Sunday afternoon when the incident occurred.

 Police won't explain exactly what happened on the road, but some sort of confrontation occurred as the couple was driving on 98th Avenue near Edes in Oakland at around noon.

 Someone in another car pulled up alongside the Avinas' black Toyota Camry and fired mulitple rounds into the car. Perla, in the passenger seat, was struck and killed by one of the bullets.

 "This was such a senseless act," said Avina's manager Darlene Cederborg. "This was a beautiful young woman with four young children and there was no reason for it… This never should have happened."

 Cederborg said Avina's work family was in mourning, too.

 Avina started working at a medical clinic in Emeryville eight years ago and worked her way up from front desk receptionist to surgery scheduler.

 "A shining spirit. Always postiive, always had a smile on her face," Cederborg said.

 While she loved her work, Avina's colleagues said her favorite job was being a devoted mom to her four kids. The oldest is 14; the youngest is just 18 months old.

 "One of her sayings was 'The most precious jewels you'll ever have around your neck are your children's arms,'" Cederborg said.

 Oakland police are urging residents and businesses in the 400 to 600 blocks of 98th Avenue to check their surveillance cameras for potential evidence.

 "Your video may have captured the before, during or after, [the incident] which would show the suspect vehicle and the suspects," Oakland Police officer Johnna Watson said.

 Oakland Mayor Jean Quan told KTVU she's instructed police to make the investigation a top priority because of the egregiousness and senselessness of the crime.

 "It means we'll be putting investigators on overtime and really focusing on this murder," Quan said.

 Avina's family has created a Go Fund Me page to help with funeral expenses.

 Oakland police want to remind any potential witnesses to this crime that they can remain anonymous if they come forward. |||||