Adams was a California based photographer who transformed images of mountains, churches, lakes, and trees into sweeping black and whites that overwhelm with power.

His vast collection of work will now be supplemented by the discovery of 65 glass plates believed to have been taken between 1919 and 1930. Purchased for $45 a decade ago at a garage sale by Rick Norsigian, these 65 photographs are being considered the “missing link” in Adams’ career and were once thought lost in a fire.

Art appraiser David W. Streets said he conservatively estimated the negatives’ value at $200 million, based on current sales of Adams’ prints and the potential for selling reproductions.

The glass negatives were assessed by a team of experts, over 6-month examination. They were believed to have been destroyed in a fire in 1937, at his Yosemite National Park studio.

Norsigian, a construction worker and painter said he purchased the negatives 10 years ago, from a man who said he had purchased them from a salvage warehouse in Los Angeles. Norsigian said he tried to contact the man, after learning of the true value, but to no avail.

In the beginning he never suspected they were Adams’ work. Finally he placed the 8½-by-6½-inch negatives in a bank vault and three years ago and sought to have them verified.

Adams died in 1986, at 82, leaving behind a rich heritage of black and white photographs, after developing the legendary Zone System, which determined proper exposure and adjustment of the contrast in the final print. His photographs were recognized for their clarity and exceptional depth.

A review from the Washington Post said, “His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods.”

Ansel Adams' Photographs

His timeless and visually stunning photos, from a 60 year long career, have been reproduced on calendars, posters and in numerous books.

His lasting legacy is that he helped elevate photography to an art, comparable with painting and music, equally capable of expressing emotion and beauty.

Perelman had solved the one-hundred-year-old Poincaré conjecture, one of the most complicated mathematical problems in the world. The problem is so complex, that after Perelman posted his proofs in 2002, it took several years for other experts to confirm he was correct.

This is the second prestigious prize that Perelman has refused to accept. His refusal has led some to examine his unorthodox life and dub him as a ‘Mathsputin’. Others speculate that Perelman may be suffering from asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, though this is very difficult to prove.

The 44-year-old Perelman currently lives with his mother and sister in his hometown of St. Petersburg, in extremely humble conditions. One neighbor told a Moscow newspaper “He always wears the same tatty coat and trousers. He never cuts his nails or beard.”

When pressed to accept the Fields Medal in 2006 Perelman replied, “I’m not interested in money or fame. I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. I’m not a hero of mathematics. I’m not even that successful; that is why I don’t want to have everybody looking at me.”

He had previously turned down the prestigious prize from the European Mathematical Society, because he felt the prize committee was unqualified to assess his work, even positively.

Perelman gave up mathematics, saying he was dismayed at the intellectual and moral failings of his peers in the field of mathematics. He says “It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens. It is people like me who are isolated.”

According to reports, he prefers to play table tennis against a wall in his apartment. Perelman is also a gifted violinist.

A number of appeals have been made to Perelman to accept the prize and give the money to charity. “Each suffering child and each mother entangled in circumstances of her life could receive help,” wrote the chairwoman of one of Russia’s children charities.

Perelman is not the first person to refuse a prestigious prize. Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize Award in Literature in 1964. In 1973 Le Duc Tho refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Colin is an honours student with a 3.9 grade point average and a sophomore of the University of Connecticut. He says the university has discriminated against him, because he is under age. This is one time when too-high grades are an proving to be an impediment.

Colin is seeking a double major in ecology and evolutionary biology, as well as environmental studies. He is an expert in the behavior of the common snapping turtle.

However, he has been knocked out by the university’s rejection of his request to take a class, which includes summer field work in South Africa, telling him he is too young for an overseas course.

Colin has filed an age discrimination claim with the university’s Office of Diversity and Equity and  the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

“If you don’t feel comfortable taking a 13-year-old, then it’s the same thing as if you don’t feel comfortable having a black student, or a woman on your trip,” Carlson told the Courant.

“I’m losing time in my four-year plan for college,” Colin said. “They’re upsetting the framework of one of my majors. It’s important to have a world-wide view.”

Michael Kirk, a spokesman for UConn, would not comment on Colin’s case, but said “Generally speaking, student safety is our No. 1 concern, when it comes to trips abroad.”

“I could get eaten by a lion, but am at just the same risk as any other student,” Colin said.

The university would not let Colin enroll, even after his mother, Jessica Offir, offered to release UConn from any liability and she would accompany her son, as a chaperone, at her own expense.

At around the age of 2 or 3 years Colin began reading on his own and was up to “Harry Potter” by the time he was 4. As an only child, he had problems because of his ability. His kindergarten teacher would not allow him to take books with him at nap time and he was ridiculed by other children, who fired math questions at him to entertain themselves.

“You have no idea what kids like this experience,” Offir said.

Colin skipped two grades in public school and began taking psychology, history and other courses at UConn when he was 9. He graduated from Stanford University Online High School at age 11 and soon after enrolled full-time at Uni Connecticut.

Buy an entry in Win a Resort to win a tropical island holiday for two, airfares paid out of the main centres of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. You could also win a free trip to the live volcano on Tanna island – an absolutely unforgettable experience! You can’t get this close anywhere else, to a live volcano.

After a year’s hard work there is no nicer way to R&R than on a tropical island in the South Pacific. Balmy breezes, warm blue ocean to soak in, coral reefs to explore, or just relax by the pool and soak up the sun, enjoying doing nothing at all.

You might even be giving away the winning ticket for a $1.8m, absolute water front property. (Wouldn’t that be something). At least you’d have free accommodation for ever. The property is to be drawn in Dec 2010. Just in time for your next year’s holidays. (You don’t want to keep it – sell if for a one-time-fat cheque and walk away with over $1m  CASH).

Vanuatu is just three hours East of Sydney, Australia and very easy to access. Yet it’s a world away as far as cultural differences go. Vanuatu has a very diverse culture of Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian people, with a blend of French and English. Nothing like it anywhere else.

It has some of the most amazing places you could ever wish to visit. A live volcano, the largest fresh water lake in the South Pacific, giant grave stones (shades of Stonehinge). Then you have people who still live the same way their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. A visit to a truly cultural village is something you will never forget.

Of course, it takes more than just a quick week’s holiday to access the Outer Islands, but if you have the time, it’s a truly amazing experience. Like stepping back in time.

We forgot to mention, when you visit Vanuatu, you throw your watch away until you are ready to leave again. Time is strictly island time. Fantastic as a cure for that high pressure stress, most of you live under.

As for the people – you won’t find anyone more friendly than the Ni-Vanuatu people. They truly steal your heart away and the only thing you say as you step onto the homeward bound plane, is “I’ll be back again.”

For just $Au49 you could be giving a seven day holiday to your best friend, or just give yourself a gift.

We are extending the current draw to Dec 15^th, just before Christmas. Get in now for a special bonus offer.

See you in the winner’s circle.

We forgot to mention, you will be helping some really great kids get an education as well!

“It was a matter of organization, from Melanesian Tours busing in the students from school, to Guy Deroin having drawn 35 marvellous cartoons to illustrate the story, to student teachers from Malapoa Training College assisting the students. On the day it needed to flow like a factory assembly line, with a sentence being completed and written down every 39 seconds.”

YouMe Support  Foundation staged a successful Guinness World challenge on 19^th November, in Port Vila, on the tropical island of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.

When asked if there were any hitches Stenberg-Tendys said “We started at 7.30 in the morning and by 10.00 o’clock it looked as if the challenge was going to fail. We were already 100 students down on our schedule. This was when everyone began pulling together.”

People were literally coerced off the street to add a sentence to the continuous scroll. Everyone was determined not to be beaten after three months of hard work.

The attempt was successfully completed at 5.30 p.m. just 10 hours after starting. The only Asian Pacific Guinness World Record adjudicator, Chris Sheedy, had expected to go the full 24 hours to see the completion of the attempt. In his declaration of  success, he complemented the organizers, YouMe Support Foundation on their efficiency in preparation.

In his opinion, the Challenge had embraced and enhanced the rich and strongly diversified Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian cultures, which have been strongly flavoured with both French and English culture. This is what makes Vanuatu so unique.

The achievement was even more remarkable in that many of the students were not only writing in their second or third language, but they live in a culture that is very strong in its oral traditions.

The story of two kids and a giant tortoise was brilliantly illustrated by Guy Deroin, a local Ni-Vanuatu artist. Deroin, though French speaking, has spent all his life in Vanuatu, apart from the time he travelled to Noumea for education. His father was French, his mother from the Vanuatu island of Ambae. He is planning a tourist attraction based around his cartoon characters. It is hoped the three characters of the Guinness World Record will find a place in the Cultural Museum, to mark this red letter day.

The attempt was successful with 838 participants taking part, mainly school students from around Port Vila. The record was previously held by Novum Verlag Gmbh in Neckenmarktt, Austria, with 797 participants, in 2007.

Student Writing Into The History Books

The students were bused in from their schools, by Melanesian Tours and registered. The teachers from Malapoa Teachers Training College then assisted the participants, in groups of 24, to form a sentence. There was a further registration before the sentence was added to the continuous scroll. Often the students waited patiently for up to 1 hour, as only one person was permitted to write at a time, according to the rules laid out by the Guinness World Record organization.

Chris Sheedy, the only Asia-Pacific Guinness World Record adjudicator said, “It was the first time I have been invited to a Pacific island to adjudicate an event.” In his speech declaring the attempt successful, he complemented YouMe Support Foundation on such a well organized event and the fact that it embraced and enhanced the local culture.

The 35 chapters of ‘Vanuatu Treasure’, was brilliantly illustrated by a local Ni-Vanuatu, cartoonist, Guy Deroin. The plot involved two children and a giant tortoise searching across the entire tropical island archipelago of Vanuatu, for clues to a hidden treasure chest. On their way they uncovered all the exciting and interesting things that can be actually found in Vanuatu, from the giant kauri forest in the south, to the largest South Pacific fresh water lake on top of a volcano, to water music in the far north. The story will be published as a book, that the public will be able to purchase.

Prime Minister Edward Natapei was present to see the event announced as a success, just 10 hours after it had commenced. He believed that a Guinness World Record is the ideal promotion for Vanuatu abroad, as many people are not sure just where one of the best holiday destinations in the South Pacific, is located.

The Prime Minister agreed that the three life size characters and the scroll should take their place in history, in a display at the Cultural Museum in Port Vila.

This is the second Guinness World Record for Vanuatu. The only other one is held by the underwater post office at Hideaway Resort.

The Guinness World Record attempt was part of the ongoing promotion of raising funds for high school education grants. Just as Marter Homes and Boy’s Town raise funds in Australia, by raffling expensive homes, so YouMe Support Foundation is raising funds by raffling a prime piece of real estate on the Internet, on winaresort.com.

In order to raise awareness of the special education needs of the children of Vanuatu, the Tendys will bring together 820 senior high school children to challenge ‘How Many People to Write A Story in 24 Hours’.

Each student can only write one sentence each in a continuous story that will tell how two children, riding on a magic giant tortoise, will fly the length of Vanuatu, on a hunt for pieces of a treasure map. The story will be illustrated by Guy Deroin, (a local Ni-Vanuatu artist) and student teachers from VITE Teachers Training College will assist. The story will be published as a hard copy book.

On November 19^th, all the Tendys’ years of teaching experience will be put to the test, as the challenge is made more difficult by the fact that for the vast majority of the students will be writing in their third language (English). Vanuatu has approximately 156 separate languages, second only to the number in Papua New Guinea.

The Tendys retired’ to Vanuatu in 2004, after teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong. Instead of retiring the Tendys renovated a property and opened a boutique 6 roomed holiday accommodation, Seachange Lodge. Finding themselves quickly involved in a local community, they formed YouMe Support Foundation, to assist the local children gain a high school education.

Putting their ‘money where their mouth is’ they set about raffling Seachange Lodge on the Internet. For just $Au49 some lucky person will own the prime piece of water front real estate, Seachange Lodge, in December 2010.

As part of their ongoing programme, they came up with the idea of creating a Guinness World Challenge that would highlight the need of the local children. In Vanuatu there is no free or compulsory education. With no ‘social security system in place, many islanders are out of work and have no way of raising funds for educating their children. As Nelson Mandela said, ”The only way to make lasting change is through education.”

The Guinness World Record staff are happy to see a small South Pacific country make a world name for itself and are hoping the challenge will succeed. A Guinness World Record adjudicator will be present on the day, to present a framed certificate, if the record is broken. The current record was created in 2007, by an Austrian group, with 797 people participating.

The previous record was set in October 2008 in Bangladesh, with 1,213 participants. The hand washing had to take place at exactly the same moment.

The event was arranged in order to promote daily hand hygiene, which Protex (the organizer of the challenge) believes is commonly overlooked. The makers of Protex firmly believe millions of lives could be saved if only this simple task was given its rightful place, in a daily routine.

The children lined up around their allocated tables ready for the record attempt to start, but first they had to get their hands dirty before they could wash them. Every table had different coloured paint in tubs, so the students could dip their hands in and then place them onto a blank canvas in the middle of the table. Once all the children had finished making their hand prints, the teachers and stewards removed all the canvases and took them onto the playing field. The then arranged all the childrens’ hand prints into a large African flag. Then it was time for the students to wash their hands and try to break the world record.

Protex soap was used under the nails, over the hands and up the wrists, then rinsed off, before the hands were dried. All this had to take place in just 20 seconds.

On November 19^th, 820 high school children in the tropical island of Vanuatu, will attempt “The Number of People To Write a Story in 24 Hours’, in an effort to highlight the desperate need for funds to put and keep students in high school. In Vanuatu there is no compulsory, nor free education.

The story will reveal the scenic highlights of one of the South Pacific’s most unique holiday destination.

In the latest annual ‘prosperity index’ published by the Legatum Institute, a London-based research firm which inquires into global wealth and wellbeing, the United States ranks as the 9th most prosperous country in the world. That’s five notches lower than last year. Most of the world has endured the recession, but other countries are recovering faster.

China and India have recovered quickly from the recession. Brazil seems to be barreling ahead. Australia is growing faster than expected, prompting worry among government officials, who fear they may have overstimulated the economy. The United States, meanwhile, is muddling through a weak, jobless recovery.

The IMF predicts that the U.S. economy will grow 1.9 percent in 2010. That’s slightly better than the average for all advanced economies, but at least 10 developed nations will grow faster.

In education, American scores 7^th place behind, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece and Australia.

In the latest global competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum, the United States fell to No. 2. The No. 1 country being Switzerland. The Legatum index, however, ranks America first for entrepreneurship and innovation, with the United Kingdom in 2^nd position.

The United States ranks 27th for the health of its citizens. Life expectancy in America is below the average for 30 advanced countries measured by the OECD. The obesity rate in America is the worst among those 30 countries, by far. The top positions in health are held by Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore and Belgium.

In the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which attempts to measure the overall well-being of citizens throughout the world, the United States ranks 13^th This is one notch lower than in the previous set of rankings. Norway, Australia, Iceland and Canada are at the top.

The United States ranks 11th in the OECD’s measure of ‘life satisfaction’, behind Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. The United States is one of only four countries where life satisfaction is going down, not up. The other going-down nations are Portugal, Hungary, Canada and Japan. However, the research behind these rankings predates the recession.

In a GfK Roper survey of how nations rate as global ‘brands,’ America rocketed from No. 7 in 2008 to No. 1 in 2009, largely because the world cheered the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president.

Nearly 6.2 million students in the United States dropped out of high school in 2007. That represents 16% of all Americans in that age range. Most of the persistent dropouts were Latino or black, according to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, Illinois.

“In the current global economy, having at least a high school diploma is a critical step for avoiding poverty, and a college degree is a prerequisite for a well-paying job,” the study says.

The major consequence of the dropout rate is an increase in crime and an increase in prison population. The concern is that more is spent in keeping prisoners in jail, than is being spent on educating children. The typical annual expense for one prisoner is between $20,000 – $50,000. The cost of a pupil is from $7,000 – $20,000 per year, with an average of $9,000.

The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan is trying to promote change through incentives in a $100 billion education stimulus package. Under consideration are ways that technology will help support the efforts of teachers to individualize instruction for students, improve professional development for teachers, make the curriculum more relevant to the world today and ways that can facilitate the teaching of reading.

Kids need 21^st century skills if they are to succeed in the world marketplace. Skills such as collaboration, technology, computer and Internet search skills, to name just a few of the requirements. It is also believed that schools should take advantage of students’ love of social networks, mobile devices and collaborative writing tools, such as blogs, to promote learning.

In the tropical island of Vanuatu, a Lesser Developed Nation of the South Pacific, the problem is the lack of free education. Many children cannot complete their high school education because they do not have the ability to raise the necessary funds.

YouMe Support Foundation is dedicated to picking up as many of these students as possible. On November 19^th they are holding a Guinness World Record challenge, in an attempt to raise public awareness, as well as raise funds to assist top students to remain in school.

You can support these 820 kids in their endeavour to break the Guinness World Record, by making a small donation. Every cent you give will go to help these kids.