NEWS
By Gadi Dechter and Gadi Dechter,Sun Reporter | May 26, 2008
Robinson Kendall Nottingham, the former executive vice president of global insurance giant American International Group Inc. and a trustee of the Johns Hopkins University, died May 20 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, several days after suffering a stroke. He was 70. Mr. Nottingham's 38-year career at AIG was hardly the stuff of gray-suited stereotype, offering him adventures in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era and close calls in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. He climbed the corporate ladder in New York but remained faithful to the Baltimore institutions that nurtured his intellectual development and became was a major donor to Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.
NEWS
By David Kohn and David Kohn,Sun reporter | April 17, 2008
New flu strains originate in East and Southeast Asia, then make their way around the world before they go extinct in South America, according to two studies released yesterday. This conclusion will enable public health agencies to focus their surveillance on Asia and will increase researchers' ability to quickly develop effective influenza vaccines. "Asia is the place we should be watching. We didn't know that," said Edward Holmes, a biologist at Penn State University and the author of one of the studies.
TRAVEL
By San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News | January 13, 2008
We're flying to Miami, then taking a cruise on Celebrity out of Fort Lauderdale. Will the cruise line transfer our luggage from the airport to the ship while we sightsee? Cruise lines don't offer a luggage-only service, primarily because of security-clearance issues. However, Celebrity offers a transfer service that will transport you with your luggage from Miami International Airport to the ship. If you purchased your airline ticket through the cruise line, it's already included. If not, you can purchase a round-trip transfer between the airport and cruise port from Celebrity for $56. At the end of your cruise, you can take advantage of Celebrity's "Luggage Valet" program, which allows guests to check their luggage and receive airline boarding passes and baggage claim checks while still on board.
NEWS
By Eric Hand and Eric Hand,McClatchy-Tribune | January 26, 2007
The world's largest flower, a voluptuous beauty as red as lipstick and as big as a child, makes its physical home in the steamy jungle floors of southeast Asia. Now, analysis of the flower's DNA has placed it in a strange taxonomical home - in a family of plants with tiny flowers. Rafflesia, as it's called, is a freak of nature. But it seems the flower is also a freak of evolution. How did such big flowers, some a yard wide, evolve from flowers less than an inch across? "It's a mind blower," said Daniel Nickrent, a Southern Illinois University at Carbondale plant biologist and one of the authors of the study, which was published in the journal Science.
NEWS
By Mark Silva and Mark Silva,CHICAGO TRIBUNE | November 16, 2006
SINGAPORE -- Wary Asian leaders will be parsing President Bush's words and body language for his administration's post-election intentions this week as he begins a seven-day regional tour to court the business of booming Asian economies and confront security challenges from Southeast Asia to North Korea. As part of a trip centered around an economic summit of Pacific Rim nations in Vietnam this weekend, the president's address today at the National University of Singapore will mark Bush's first appearance on a world stage since elections denied his party control of Congress for the remaining two years of his presidency, with his own popularity near an all-time low. World leaders will be watching for any shift in the president's approach to foreign affairs in the wake of the election defeat, analysts say. While Bush has promoted the spread of democracy, with a goal of eliminating tyranny worldwide that he voiced in his re-election inaugural ceremony nearly three years ago, critics of American policy in Iraq and the Middle East have interpreted U.S. motives as a policy of unrestrained intervention in other nations' affairs.
NEWS
By Madeleine Mysko | November 8, 2006
Walking early this morning, I make my usual loop through the Baltimore County Courthouse grounds. I pass the fountain with its wrought-iron fence, and arrive at the old green cannon with its perfect pyramid of cannonballs. I know that old cannon well. Once, when I was a child, my father surprised me by hoisting me up onto the barrel. Over the years, I have brought my children to the courthouse to watch the parades on the Fourth. They, too, have clambered around the cannon and smacked their hands against the cool surface of those 14 cannonballs.