CAMP DAVID, Md. — Europe’s debt crisis may be a ticking time bomb, and gasoline prices could squeeze U.S. economic growth before November, but President Obama did his utmost during a weekend G-8 summit to try to control the uncontrollable.

The heads of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, bunking in cabins and dressed informally in a woodland atmosphere, pledged on Saturday to mix growth and belt-tightening policies in the countries of Europe, and jointly pledged to increase oil supplies, including via global reserves, if new Iran sanctions go into effect later this year and decrease petroleum supplies.

Keeping a European recession at bay, and holding down oil prices with what amounts to a European cartel that can manipulate oil supplies through the International Energy Agency, would help the president politically.

“President Obama . . . wants growth to be evoked as a way of restoring confidence among the public and the markets,” newly elected French President Franҫois Hollande told French journalists traveling with him this weekend.

“This G-8 summit was useful and productive,” he added. “It makes it possible to send a dual message: growth and confidence.”

From Camp David, the heads of state traveled to Chicago for a NATO summit Sunday and Monday — a meeting largely focused on Afghanistan.

Sovereign debt problems in pockets of Europe could yet crash over the entire Eurozone, which could potentially derail anemic growth seen now in the United States. And a showdown with Iran this summer could squeeze oil supplies and raise petroleum prices just as Americans weigh whether the president deserves a second term. In both cases, Obama tried to buy a little insurance together with his peers.

The leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Russia joined with Obama Saturday to portray a united front. “We agree that all of our governments need to take actions to boost confidence and nurture recovery including reforms to raise productivity, growth and demand [and] we support sound and sustainable fiscal consolidation policies,” they said in a joint statement that officials said the leaders tweaked, redrafted and edited themselves.

Heading into the summit, Hollande and Obama were said to be of like mind about the need for more stimulative, growth initiatives in Europe — not just belt-tightening that has sparked demonstrations in Europe and upheavals in Greece.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met alone with Obama Saturday evening before flying to Chicago, was described coming into the summit as a stickler for tough reforms — the person Obama would need to cajole. But the two appeared relaxed with each other, and German officials described as “exaggerated” the perception that Merkel and Hollande arrived in the United States to argue opposing views.

“Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs,” the G-8 communique said without being specific about the methods to achieve those results. Obama administration officials, briefing reporters, said each country in the Eurozone will individually decide on appropriate policies, taking into account the capacity of those economies that are growing (such as Germany) and those in crisis (such as Greece and possibly Spain).

The leaders vowed to work together to keep Greece in the Eurozone.

The specific policies each country might embrace to thwart a debt meltdown will likely get hashed out at a European summit next month, and leaders of the Group of 20 developed countries will meet in Mexico in June. White House officials said some ideas were presented by the G-8 members at Camp David, but the officials declined to provide details and said the summit served to build a sense of conviction and urgency about the European debt problems.

Obama moved the G-8 from Chicago to Camp David in an effort to remove the pomp of summitry and to build the familiarity and intimacy among leaders that he thinks is beneficial. White House aides said Camp David accomplished that goal. 

The Rent Epidemic

Jonathon Larson once said, “In these dangerous times, where it seems that the world is ripping apart at the seams, we all can learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and [we] should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium.” These words were found on the computer of Jonathon Larson shortly after his tragic death the night before his musical was set to open. This paper will discuss Jonathon Larson and the effect that his successful musical Rent has had on society. To do this first we will discuss who Jonathon Larson was and where he came from. Second we will discuss where his inspiration for Rent came from. Next we will discuss the process it took for Rent to come to life. We will also discuss the impact that his death had on the musical as well as those involved. Next we will discuss the success that Rent had following the first opening, including the movie. Finally we will discuss Sarah Schulman and her view that Larson stole plotlines from her book as well as her criticism on Rent itself.

When Jonathon Larson was born on February 4, 1960 it was probably not even a thought of the impact that he would one day have. He grew up in a middle class family that were able to provide him with drama club and many music lessons. In an article on PBS it states that “he played tuba in high school and attended Adelphi University” where he was encouraged by Sondheim to focus on composing music. He would later move into the same poor neighborhood where he would spend a decade working on his masterpiece. It was there that he lived in poverty, waiting on tables to support himself. He submersed himself in the very environment that Rent is set in.

According to, Rebels with Applause, the original idea for Rent came from a young playwright by the name of Billy Aronson who had been looking to update Giacomo Puccini’s Italian opera La Boheme. Billy Aronson had been looking for a composer and others had introduced him to Jonathon Larson. Miller states, “Though they stuck to the basic plot of La Boheme, they exchanged tuberculosis for AIDS, and Paris for New York’s East Village” (Miller). Past that there is barely any resemblance between that of Puccini’s La Boheme and Jonathan Larson’s Rent. On the off-Broadway site for Rent, it states that in 1991 Jonathon Larson placed a phone call to Billy Aronson asking for his permission to continue on his own and Aronson agreed. It was after this that Larson would further stray from the idea of only creating an up to date version of Rent. Miller states, “Rent is not an updated La Boheme or an adaptation; it’s a response to it. The characters are similar but that’s where the comparisons end.” Past the similarities that exist between La Boheme and Rent, the ideas that Larson uses come from his own life experiences as well as from a book that was written by Henri Murger entitled Scenes de la vie de Boheme.

Miller gives a few examples of how the musical reflects Larson’s own life. The first example being how in the apartment that Jonathon Larson had been living in he had been forced to throw his keys down to the street to let people into his apartment. This parallels the musical Rent, when Collins is first introduced he calls up to Roger and Mark from the payphone on the corner. To let Collins in, Mark throws the keys to the apartment out of the window for Collins to be able to let himself in. Another parallel between the musical and Larson’s life that Miller points out is that “He once lost a girlfriend to another women” (miller 188). This parallels the musical in which Mark loses his girlfriend Maureen to Joanne. The deepest example of how Larson included his own life in his musical, is that he lost many friends to AIDS. Miller points out his usage of three friends he lost to the disease in the support group scene.

Jonathon Larson did not only draw inspiration from his personal life to create the musical Rent. He also drew inspiration from Henri Murger’s Scenes de la vie de Boheme. This book, according to Miller, is completely unlike that of Puccini’s La Boheme as it has a “raunchy sense of humor” (Miller 188) much like the sense of humor that appears in Rent. One of the songs in Rent entitled La Vie Boheme deals with extremely raunchy topics such as sexuality, drugs, and pornography. Miller points out that many minor details as well come from Murger’s book. In his book he states, “Lots of details in Rent come from the book: the importance of Collin’s coat, their regular restaurant where they often order nothing and don’t always pay the bill, the constant burning of manuscripts and letters for heat, Marcel/Mark’s decision to sell out his art, and the structural significance of Christmas Eve” (Miller 189).

The very first reading was performed at the New York Theatre Workshop in the spring of 1993. According to the off-Broadway website for Rent it was after this that Jeffrey Seller had decided that it was the right time to produce a musical. He kept in close contact with Jonathon, because even though he believed that the show needed more of a narrative he believed that Jonathon Larson was going to create a brilliant musical.[1] In his search for a more compelling narrative, Jonathon Larson contacted his mentor Stephen Sondheim who suggested that he apply for the Richard Rodgers foundation grant where he would win nearly fifty thousand dollars to support a workshop for the production of Rent.

The artistic director of the time at New York Theatre Workshop suggested that a young New York Director Michael Greif be brought onto the team. Michael Greif would later become the artistic director of the San Diego theatre La Jolla Playhouse. Greif recalls, “What impressed me was its youth and enthusiasm, and that it was a musical about contemporary life. Jon was writing about some people I felt I knew, that I sort of loved, or had loved in my life.” The pair was able to work off of one another and was able to successfully bring the script up to the same level as the music that Jonathon Larson had created. They were able to work off of each other’s personalities that kept the optimism and reality level with each other. Anthony Rapp, the original cast member who played Mark Cohen, recalled of the two, “what Jon gave Michael was some of his hope and heart and generosity of spirit. And what I think Michael gave Jon was some edge and realism and complexity, and making sure things didn’t all resolve and prettily. It was a good marriage.”

It was because of how well these two worked that the workshop for Rent had become such a successful hit. It would be because of this workshop that New York Theatre Works would stage a full production of the musical the following year giving it the biggest budget they had ever provided a show. The process for getting Rent to be the musical that we know and love today was a long hard road. Jonathon Larson would spend nearly a decade of his life molding the plot as well as those lovable characters into what we all know it to be. Jonathon Larson could not have created the successful show he had if it had not been for many of the amazing people he had worked with.

The Original production of Rent consisted of Anthony Rapp as Mark Cohen, Adam Pascal as Roger Davis, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi Marquez, Jesse L. Martin as Tom Collins, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel Dumott Schunard, Fredi Walker as Joanne Jefferson, Idina Menzel as Maureen Johnson, and Taye Diggs as Benjamin Coffin III. Jonathan Larson’s Rent was able to give many amazingly talented actresses/actors the jumpstart they would need to have amazing careers. It would be the reason that these actors/actresses would return to the project so often no matter where they were in their careers. The opening night of the rock musical had been set, but unbeknownst to anyone involved they had unexpectedly set it for the same day as the one hundredth anniversary of Puccini’s La Boheme. But even more unexpected would be the death of the creator.

The day had been like any other for the cast and crew of Rent. It was the night of their final dress rehearsal and they were all getting prepared for the following day. Not one of them would expect the call that they would receive the following morning with the horrific news. The morning of the opening for Rent, the call went out that Jonathon Larson had died during the night of an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm. His life coming to a tragic and sudden end was a shock to all. No one knew how to handle the opening night after hearing the news. In an interview that Forward Forum had with “Rent” star Anthony Rapp he recalled the death of Jonathon Larson. He stated in the interview, “We didn’t go ahead with the normal performance. We decided under the circumstances it was a little too difficult to do that kind of a performance. We canceled the preview and wound up doing a performance for his invited friends and family.” Instead of giving Jonathon Larson a moment of silence, they decided that it was more memorable to perform his work of art for his loved ones. He went on to say, “What we have to do is the performance. Sing it and not worry about the technical things. Just get it out. Get the music and lyrics out that he had worked so hard on.” They made that night a tribute to him and it was something that they did for every performance. They performed each show in memory of him.[2] According to the Off-Broadway website for Rent, “Throughout the first act, the cast was able to hold their seats. But very slowly, they began to rise. They acted, they danced.” Anthony Rapp recalled, “It was like we had to do it. We were all sobbing and crying.” They may not have been sure how to handle the first performance of Rent without Jonathon Larson, but they knew that they had to do it for him. It was what he would have wanted. He would have wanted his creation to come to life and the cast made sure that was exactly what happened. With a room full of Jonathon Larson’s loved ones, friends and colleagues the cast performed Rent from their heart and it would be only the beginning of a phenomenon that would spark.

Since the opening of the phenomenon known as Rent, there has been much debate regarding whether it would have had the same success if it had not been for the unexpected death of its creator Jonathon Larson. In an article that Judith Sebesta wrote she states, “Some critics dismissed the phenomenal popularity of the musical as mere sentimental reaction to the poignancy of Larson’s premature death at thirty-five. For them, the birth of Rent as a musical hit would never have happened had it not been for the death of its creator” (Sebesta 419). This is something that we will never know. Because of Jonathan Larson’s untimely we can only measure the success that the show has had. We will never know what potential he could have had with the rest of his career if he had not died. For all we know Rent could have been the biggest success that he had in him.

It was not long after Rent had first premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop that it was translated to Broadway. In Jack Kroll’s “Love Among The Ruins” he points out that many major Broadway players lost out to the Nederlanders in a frenzied attempt to pick up the hot new musical. Kroll writes in his article, “Rocco Landesman, Jujamcyn’s president, says he’s “crushed” at not getting “Rent.” Jack Kroll writes about how Rocco Landesman predicted that the musical would be a success as it crossed over to the Broadway stage as it would attract a very diverse audience, especially those individuals who would not normally be considered theatregoers. The actors however were not the only ones new to the ways of Broadway. The producers were as well.

Miller states, “Because the producers were as new to Broadway as the cast was, they did things very diffeRently. They set aside the first two rows at each performance as twenty-dollar seats so that the people the show was about could afford to see it” (Miller 186). According to Miller, fans came out as early as the previous day to line up to get tickets to see the hot musical. Some of these fans would end up seeing the show numerous times in this way. These were the fans that the cast performed for. These fans would later become known as “Rent Heads”. These Rent Heads, according to Miller, “would bring tents, food, and CD players to pass the time” (Miller 186) waiting for cheaper tickets. Rent opened on April 29^th, 1996 at the Nederlander Theatre and closed on September 7, 2008 after had the ninth longest run with five thousand one hundred and twenty four performances.

Nine years after Rents original opening in 1996, Rent Heads anxiously awaited the film adaptation. Six of the eight original cast members would retake their roles in the film. These cast members would include Anthony Rapp as Mark Cohen, Adam Pascal as Roger Davis, Jesse L. Martin as Tom Collins, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel Dumott Schunard, Idina Menzel as Maureen, and Taye Diggs as Benjamin Coffin III. To join the original six cast members would be Rosario Dawson as Mimi Marquez replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega and Tracie Thoms as Joanne Jefferson replacing Fredi Walker. However, the film would not happen without the director Chris Columbus taking many creative liberties with the show. In an article written Jessica Sternfeld states,

“Almost all of the linking material, underscoring, and recitative-like sung dialogue either became spoken dialogue (over silence) or was removed. A show that was mostly sung through became a movie with a stop-and-sing format, leading to some old-fashioned and awkward song cues and the loss of some of composer/lyricist Jonathon Larson’s most unpredictable material” (Sternfeld 334).

Chris Columbus took a huge chance taking these creative liberties when he made drastic changes to the musical Rent. However, it paid off for him. In the opening weekend alone, he was able to pull in over ten million dollars and altogether bringing in just under thirty-two million dollars for its short run in the movie theatres.[3]

Jonathon Larson’s success, however, does not come without bumps in the road. One of those bumps in the road was Sarah Schulman who believed that Jonathon Larson lifted many of the ideas he inserted in his musical from her own book entitled People In Trouble. In Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America Schulman describes People In Trouble as a book “about a triangle composed of a married artist couple and the woman’s younger lesbian lover” (Schulman 7). Schulman further goes into detail about the book being about “an East Village performance artist who is at the end of a relationship with a male artist and who, despite her own homophobia, falls in love with a lesbian. She creates a performance piece that targets a greedy landlord who is evicting people with AIDS. There is a subplot about an interracial gay male couple – one a queen, one an activist – in which one dies of Aids” (Schulman 7). It was when she was sent to review the opening of Rent at the Nederland theatre that she realized the existing similarities between her own work and the musical. In her book she writes a point by point comparison of her own work compared to Larson’s Rent.

The first similarity that she points out is that both works are set in the East Village during an epidemic of “AIDS, homelessness, homosexuality, and artists” (Schulman 15). However, this point is shaky best as it can be argued that during the time that Larson wrote Rent he was living in the very neighborhood he set Rent in. Many of his friends were in fact infected with AIDS, were homeless, or were homosexuals. Larson lost many loved ones to the AIDS decease.

The second similarity that Schulman points out is that “both are about a love triangle between a straight artist couple and the women’s lesbian lover” (Schulman 15). Again, this point is shaky at best as well, because it can be said the love triangle between Mark, Maureen, and Joanne resembles Larson’s own life as well as the similar plotline Schulman wrote. It cannot be definitely pin pointed as coming from Schulman’s work. Miller stated about Larson, “He once lost a girlfriend to another woman” (Miller 188). Judith Sebesta’s “Of Fire, Death, and Desire: Transgression and Carnival in Jonathon Larson’s Rent points out that “in early versions of the show, Maureen returns to Mark, paralleling the plot of La Boheme, but ‘that comes across as wishful thinking on a straight man’s part” (Sebesta 431). It can also be argued that while it may have been changed to take away Maureen going back to Mark in the end, it was because realistically this was not something that would have happened. The similarities could continue furthering her argument that Jonathon Larson stole from her book. However, this would not be her only criticism of the play.

In the review that she included in her book Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America she attacked the fact that she felt Jonathon Larson put the straight characters above the gay ones. However, this is not true. In her review she states that the central relationship is between two roommates, Roger and Mark, who share their lives together. Then she states, “The main subplot is Roger falling in love with Mimi, an active junkie, but their love conquers all. The gay people get the sub-subplots: a black man and a Puerto Rican drag queen fall in love, and the queen dies.” While it might seem that this is a sub-subplot, for most this is the center of the movie. Angel and Collins had the relationship that most of the couples in the show wished they could have. They had an everlasting love that could not have even ended with death. This can be proven in the song “Goodbye Love” Mimi Marquez and Joanne when they sang the lyrics “I’d be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had. Someone to live for-unafraid to say I love you.”

In Schulman’s review of Rent she also states, “AIDS is so sad, but straight love is real love, what a relief.” Her criticism creates confusion over whether she actually viewed the musical that Jonathon Larson wrote. If she had, as previously stated she would realize that the greatest love of the musical was between Angel and Collins, not a straight couple. As Schulman would say the “straight couple” which is comprised of Roger and Mimi Marquez is clearly the most dysfunctional relationship aside from Maureen and Joanne. To understand what Schulman means when she says that the “straight couple” is real love, it would be easier if the two relationships were examined side by side.

When Angel first meets Collins it is in the alleyway after Collins was beat and robbed. Their relationship begins with Angel caring for the injured Collins. Roger and Mimi’s first meeting occurs when Mimi goes to the apartment looking for matches to light her candle after having lost power and finds Roger who tries to help her. However, she keeps blowing out her candle to get back into the apartment to continue her interactions with him. However, because she has too close of a resemblance to April that Roger pushes her away. It is not until the next night when they are celebrating the success of Maureen’s protest that they finally bond on the fact that they both have aids and they enter into a shaky relationship. It does not last long as it gets torn apart again when Roger learns of Mimi’s past relationship with Benjamin Coffin III. Without even examining the rest of Roger and Mimi’s relationship it can be said that Angel and Collin’s relationship far surpasses this. They are the only couple that lasts through the entirety of the movie without having any breaks or fights. The only thing that tears apart this couple is the inevitable but impactful death of Angel as he succumbs to the AIDS disease.

Bibliography

Kroll, Jack. “Love Among The Ruins. (Cover Story).” Newsweek 127.20 (1996): 54. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Sebesta, Judith. “Of Fire, Death, And Desire: Transgression And Carnival In Jonathon Larson’s Rent.” Contemporary Theatre Review 16.4(2006): 419-438. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

Miller, Scott. Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001. Print.

Schulman, Sarah. Stagestruck: Theater, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. Print.

Sternfeld, Jessica. “Revisiting Classic Musicals: Revivals, Films, Television and Recordings.” The Cambridge Companion to the Musical (2008): 325-39. Print.

Forum, Forward. “Anthony Rapp Interview: Love, Loss and the Musical Rent 1.” YouTube. YouTube, 22 May 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .

“Jonathon Larson.” PBS. PBS. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .

“RENT Now Playing at New World Stages in New York City – Buy Tickets NOW!” RENT Now Playing at New World Stages in New York City. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .

In her article, Judith Sebesta makes a very simple point about the reason that Schulman was so critical on Rent and its characters. She states in her article that, “a large part of her difficulties with the show lie in its creation by a heterosexual man and the straight prospective from which he approaches the material, portraying heterosexual love as true love, and, conversely, homosexual love as ‘either doomed or shallow or both” (Sebesta 421). Schulman even admitted in her own book Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America that she assumed Jonathon Larson was himself gay and had died of aids. It was only after that she had learned he was a heterosexual male that had died not of aids but of a undiagnosed aortic aneurism did she start putting together the pieces between her own work and his. In an essence if Jonathon Larson had been the homosexual male that she thought him to be, it never would have even entered her mind that it was not his experiences that he was reflecting in Rent, but her own.

Jonathon Larson once said, “The opposite of war is not peace, it’s creation.” And create he did. While Jonathon Larson was not able to live to see the success that his musical would have, success it did indeed have. It cannot be denied that Larson created a powerfully moving rock musical with Rent.

[1] http://www.siteforrent.com/

[2] Forward Forum interview with Anthony Rapp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB72F16mpNg

[3] http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rent.htm

I have an HP p6677c Computer. Below are specifications to the motherboard:

Manufacturer: Foxconn
Motherboard Name: H-ALVORIX_HF-RS880-uATX
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Alvorix-GL8E
FN-Alvorix-RS880-uATX (Alvorix)
Foxconn Model 2AB1 (1.00)
Belarc Advisor: Motherboard – AMD 785G(RS880/SB710), Alvorix Board: FOXCONN 2AB1 1.00 Bus Clock: 200 megahertz BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 6.04 09/07/2010
One CPU fan connector
One system fan connector
Four SATA connectors
One front audio header
One Mini-PCIE LED header
Two Dual-USB 2.0 headers
Four Single-USB 2.0 headers
One front panel header
One S/PDIF out header
One Power Supply connector
One ATX connector

I have upgraded the memory to 16 GB, and I purchased a Kingston HyperX memory module cooling fan. I do not wish to distort the motherboard’s RPM signals from the system or CPU fan used to monitor heat, fan speed, etc.

How can I get the correct electrical source on my computer for this new fan?

By TRACIE CONE

The Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. — Just in time for spring snowmelt: a webcam pointed at one of Yosemite National Park’s main attractions, the soaring 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls.

The HD camera went live on North America’s tallest fall Monday, allowing anyone with computer access to watch in stunning detail as shadows race across the towering granite monolith over which Yosemite Creek crashes in a series of plunges and cascades. It’s updated every 30 seconds through a high-speed DSL connection.

To those for whom the park’s breathtaking scenery revives the soul, getting a fix of spiritual uplift just got a little easier. For people who’ve never been to Yosemite, perhaps seeing one of the park’s main attractions in real time will prove too enticing to resist.

“In a lot of ways I equate it to all of the beautiful picture books that we’ve had on our coffee tables, or the art from the 1870s that made Yosemite exciting to people around the world when they saw it for the first time,” said Michael Tollefson, president of the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, which placed the camera there. “This is a great way to communicate in today’s media what the park is and to get people excited immediately, for better or worse.”

It’s the fourth webcam the nonprofit has set up — the other three are pointed toward the park icons Half Dome and El Capitan. It joins a smattering of others across the nation, including one at Yellowstone’s renown geyser Old Faithful, as technology, in varying degrees of clarity, increasingly connects America’s natural wonders with fans around the world.

Unlike the new 24/7 camera at Yosemite Falls, most of the webcams that exist in national parks are there for purposes other than entertaining and enticing. Some pull double duty monitoring air quality, others are there for weather updates or road conditions. Most are low resolution and so remotely located that they are updated infrequently through dial-up connections.

Often they are attached to research projects. When they break down, it can take days or weeks to get them fixed.

At Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a webcam shows traffic on the boat launch ramp at Bullfrog, Utah (http://1.usa.gov/J4P8L5). One webcam at Sequoia Kings Canyon national park provides a view of a single oak tree so students can monitor its life cycle (http://1.usa.gov/KmOPLH). At Little Big Horn National Monument, a camera offers a distant, grainy view of the military cemetery (http://1.usa.gov/JBGXnd).

One of the most popular webcams in a national park, said NPS spokeswoman Kathy Kupper, has been one showing sled dog puppies at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska (http://1.usa.gov/nVhmKQ). While the NPS doesn’t have an exhaustive list of cameras in parks, the ones it knows about are on the park website at nps.gov (http://1.usa.gov/KmVFQb).

The Conservancy’s cameras in Yosemite National Park are positioned for dramatic impact: the movement of the sun on the falls and formation of ice in the winter, the gathering of summer rain clouds atop Half Dome, rock climbers scaling El Capitan. (http://www.yosemiteconservancy.org/webcams)

The new camera and one in the Ahwahnee Meadow pointed at Half Dome are HD optimized for computer viewing at 1280×720 pixels resolution, or 720p. The falls camera is capable of 1280×1024 pixels. Eventually the conservancy would like to place webcams in the old growth redwood forest at Mariposa Grove, and in the sub-alpine Tuloumne Meadows at 8,600 feet.

The Yosemite Falls camera will show its ebb and flow as snowmelt slows to a trickle by late summer. The Conservancy, which funds many projects in the parks, has someone to keep the cameras up and running, even in the dead of winter.

“Part of our mission is to excite people about the park and educate them so they can become committed to protecting and preserving it,” Tollefson said. “One way is to offer the opportunity to keep the parks live for them on their computers.”

While the parks service and the conservancy make every effort to conceal the cameras and place them on structures that already exist, it’s a game for some visitors to find them. One Sacramento TV weather forecaster broadcast from the sightline of a Yosemite webcam and waved at viewers watching simultaneously by computer. At another camera, someone built a snowman in the foreground.

“People figure it out and have fun with it,” Tollefson said.

Recent upgrades in DSL Internet connectivity at the Yosemite Lodge, where the new camera is affixed, made the quick streaming of a high definition camera possible.

The eventual goal, said Tollefson, is to upgrade to live video streaming at all of the Yosemite cameras that already attract 400,000 viewers a year.

___

Online:

http://www.nps.gov/yose/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

___

May 14, 2012 04:51 PM EDT

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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- Joy Pecknold, Passport blog editor

Have you ever had an experience where your dog starts barking and growling at what looks like nothing at all? Have you ever heard of this happening to one of your friends or family members? Have you ever seen other animals, perhaps wild ones, act erratically at certain times of the day or night? While scientific evidence of animals being able to sense supernatural activity is inconclusive, anecdotal evidence would suggest that animals can, in fact, see or sense ghosts.

Sensitivity in Dogs

Most anecdotal evidence will tell you that dogs are more sensitive to supernatural activity than other animals. In her 2009 book, Tails of the Afterlife, Peggy Schmidt details several stories of dogs and their owners who have experienced actions they cannot explain, save for the presence of the paranormal. This collection of stories is not only eerie and enough to get your spine tingling, they are also true. What accounts for dogs’ heightened sense of the strange and ghostly? Some say that, because dogs are able to hear and smell better than most other animals, they are more likely to detect a change in their surroundings. Others believe that, since dogs are social animals and were, at one point, bread to protect their owners, they may be more likely to react to a paranormal entity in order to signal or warn their human counterparts. Whatever the reason, many dog owners report irregular behavior that can be attributed to a haunted house or room.

Sensitivity in Other Animals

While dogs are by far the most sensitive to supernatural activity, or are by far most likely to vocally warn of a change in the atmosphere, cats are also very sensitive to changes in electromagnetic activity – a change in which can signal a ghostly presence – though they may be more likely to hide rather than make noise or otherwise warn their owners. Cats may also sit and watch something move across a room that you cannot see with your human eyes. As far as wild animals go, you may notice that birds start chirping uncontrollably or begin to fly in crazy patterns at certain times of the night. This can signal the presence of ghosts.

The Haunted on Animal Planet

If you have not experienced this yourself, but want to learn more, The Haunted is a television series on Animal Planet that shows the accounts of real people with pets who have sensed paranormal activity. On the show, you will first see interviews with the family or inhabitants of a house that is believed to be haunted. They will always talk about how their pet had started acting strangely upon moving into the house, and then they will detail other strange things that happened that could only be attributed to a haunting. Then, a team of ghost hunters comes into the house and you see their footage as they look for an explanation.

What to Do if Your Animals Act Erratically

Whether you believe it is due to paranormal activity or not, if your pet starts to act differently than normal, you should definitely consult a veterinarian. They are the only ones that can truly diagnose what is going on. Before you freak yourself out thinking your house has an unwelcome resident, talk to your vet and see if there could be another cause. If you have recently moved, it can take your pet some time to get used to the new noises and surroundings. If the behavior continues and you suspect an otherworldly culprit, though, there are plenty of books and websites to consult.

Hi. Was running Windows 7 64bit, new computer, it worked for a while. My OS was installed on my SSD and I have an HDD in for storage.
I have
FX8150 cpu
16gb DDR3 ram
MSI 990xa-gd55
an SSD and an HDD
raidmax rx730ss psu

I overclocked my ram, it restarted and wouldn’t display so I reset the CMOS and tried removing the RAM and putting it back in, eventually it would boot, but now it gets to the windows startup animation with the colorful spheres and freezes, then restarts.
Windows startup repair fails every time. If I put windows 7 in and boot from that, it shows my SSD on the list with about 30gb taken up already, but I can’t get into it. Might be able to reinstall windows but I don’t want to lose all my stuff if I don’t have to.
Also, if I put both my harddrives in at once, it won’t detect the HDD at all. If I just put in the HDD, it detects it in BIOS, then when I attempt to boot it, I get weird characters such as spanish letters and spades like on playing cards and etc. It won’t go anywhere after that, and won’t let me install 7 on the HDD. If I boot from disk using the HDD it says press any key to continue, and just won’t continue. Also the weird characters with it.

So, any ideas? I did something stupid and switched my voltage from 115 to 230 and then I put it back. I figure if it fried my computer it wouldn’t be booting at all?

According to the Associated Press news wire, the state of Nevada has issued a provisional “driver’s” license to three self-driving Google vehicles. The licenses are provisional because it requires that at least two licensed drivers be in the vehicle while it’s moving at all times. CNET says this is huge step in automotive history while Fox News declares it one giant leap for the self-driving vehicles.

As most know by now, Google has been testing its self-driving cars for several years now; first along California’s ocean-side freeway, then in some of Nevada’s glitzier places, such as Las Vegas, Carson City and Reno. But those were all special cases and fell under some rather oblique driving regulations. With the new licensees, the cars can legally self-drive on any road in the state, paving the way perhaps, to a time when cars will do all the driving, and we humans will be either passengers, or absent as autonomous cars or trucks carry cargo without need of a human behind the wheel.

Thus far, Fox reports, the cars have proven themselves to be just as safe as cars driven by humans, and some might argue that they are actually safer. In all the millions of miles they’ve racked up so far, only one accident has occurred and that that one happened when a human was doing the driving and another vehicle was at fault.

CNET says the cars get honked at a lot because they follow the rules of the road to the letter, meaning they quite often travel slower than the traffic around them, or wait for other traffic to clear before moving at stop lights or signs. But, say Google reps, that’s just the Google cars being safer.

The cars are able to drive themselves because they are equipped with a host of technology that allows them to “see” the road around them, which a computer uses to adjust speed and direction. Thus far, every test has been conducted with a human being behind the wheel who can take over when it is deemed necessary, though it’s assumed at this point, that such minders often fall prey to inattention, though it doesn’t seem to matter as the cars have not been found to exhibit any faults.

To make sure that other drivers on the road understand that the cars are self-driving, the state has mandated that they have special red plates with a special infinity symbol on them. The state has also said that once the vehicles become licensed to non-engineers, they plates will be green, though there is no word yet on how soon others may be able to purchase such vehicles, or how they will be licensed.

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