Fine Asian Art and Antiques Sale At Kaminski Features Impressive Pieces

Fine Asian Art and Antiques Sale At Kaminski Features Impressive Pieces - High quality Chinese items shone at Kaminski Auction’s recent Fine Asian Art and Antiques sale, held on Saturday, January 26.

High quality Chinese items shone at Kaminski Auction’s recent Fine Asian Art and Antiques sale, held on Saturday, January 26. Over four hundred lots reached the auctioneers podium over the course of the six-hour sale for a day of competitive in person, online, and over the phone bidding. From ceramic s, to jade and ivory, the auction offered a variety of valuable items from Asia. The top lot of the day, however, belonged to none of those familiar categories. The striking top lot, an antique zitan wooden throne, sparked a frenzy of bidding that drove the price far and away above the original estimate of $6,000.00 to $8,000.00. Ultimately sold for $29,000.00, the stunning throne featured elaborate carved designs. A carved dragon encircled with a fire and cloud pattern highlighted the back panel. Dragons decorating the armrests continued the intricate motif.

The other top lots of the sale, although smaller in size, made a similarly large impression upon the bidding audience. A green jadeite bangle from the nineteenth century also sold well above estimate. The elegant, gold embellished piece carried an estimate of $600.00 to $900.00, but initiated quick and competitive online bidding that finally brought the price to $5,500.00.

Many ceramic pieces also sold above estimate. Particularly noteworthy were the few fine examples of famille rose and famille vert ceramics among the top lots of the sale. One such lot was Lot 7087, a famille vert vase in the gu form with four dragons and a floral scrolling pattern. This eye-catching piece captured significant interest and reached $4,750.00, far more than its estimated $800.00 to $1,200.00 value.

A famille rose figure of a reclining happy Buddha also commanded the interest of the audience. The exceptional sculpted and painted detail of this Buddha drove the price above the original high estimate. The popular piece sold for $2,100.00. A famille rose candleholder that carried a Jia Qing mark on the base, scrolling flower designs and auspicious marks, sold for $3,250.00.

An exceptional set of three export rose mandarin Chinese platters from the early nineteenth century, was also among the top selling lots of the auction. The platter set was finely decorated with a wide figural borders running around central cartouches of butterflies and vegetables. It sold for $3,250.00.

Two more unusual lots piqued special interest with the auction’s in-person and online audience. An atypical ivory box from eighteenth century Mughal Empire of India attracted many bidders. The intriguing box was labeled “Spink and Son #11” and was affixed with silver handles that emphasized intricate carvings covering the box. The box sold at its high estimate of $4,000.00.

A remarkable set of ten collectable Chinese one Jiao bank notes rounded out the top ten lots of the sale. The 1960 bank notes were marked with the serial number IV IX 9412164-9412171, and sold for a high $3,250.00.

Other items of interest included a brown agate Dzai bead, which sold for above the $800.00 high estimate for $1,100.00.

The Fine Asian Art and Antiques sale wrapped up a busy month of auction for Kaminski. The successful auction saw the sale of many valuable Asian objects to a substantial phone and in person audience, as well as over 321 Internet bidders, with a total of $165,000.00 in online sales. Please email asian(at)kaminskiauctions(dot)com or contact Bob Yang at 508-873-9595.

KAMINSKI
Kaminski Auctions, located on the North Shore of Boston, has been serving the New England antiques market for over 25 years as a full service auction house and appraisal service for fine art, antiques and estates.

With two locations in Beverly, Massachusetts, including a new state of the art auction gallery located at 117 Elliott Street, and a historic 1850’s barn and office facility at 564 Cabot Street, Kaminski Auctions hosts 25 auctions a year.

In today’s highly competitive market of fine art and antiques, Kaminski Auctions provides its customers with bicoastal services and marketing with west coast offices in Beverly Hills and San Diego, California.

Kaminski Auctions offers specialty departments in Asian Art and Antiques, Silver, Glass and Lamps, Couture and Vintage Clothing, Photography and Modern Design . We have highly trained and knowledgable appraisers on staff that will help you determine the true value of your antiques, or entire collections. Free Appraisal days are offered every Tuesday from 10:00am-4:30pm at our 564 Cabot Street location in Beverly, Massachusetts & our 5171 Santa Fe Street location in San Diego, California. We welcome emailed photos of your items! ( prweb )

READ MORE - Fine Asian Art and Antiques Sale At Kaminski Features Impressive Pieces

Rare Chinese bowl, $3 at tag sale, sells for $2.2M

Rare Chinese bowl, $3 at tag sale, sells for $2.2M — A rare Chinese bowl bought at a tag sale for $3 has sold at a New York auction for more than $2.22 million.

The 1,000-year-old bowl was part of the opening session of Sotheby's fine Chinese ceramics and works of art auction Tuesday.

 

 

Associated Press/Sotheby’s Auction House - This undated photo provided by Sotheby’s Auction House in New York shows a 1,000-year-old Chinese “Ding” bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty. The bowl, purchased from a tag sale for no more than three dollars, was sold by Sotheby’s for more than $2.22 million during the opening session of Sotheby's fine Chinese ceramics and works of art auction Tuesday, March 19, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Sotheby’s Auction House)

 

Sotheby's says it was sold to a London dealer for $2.225 million, far above the presale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

The person who put the bowl up for auction bought it at a tag sale in 2007 and had it displayed in the living room for several years before becoming curious about its origins and having it examined.

The bowl is 5 inches in diameter, white in color and from the Northern Song Dynasty.  ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Rare Chinese bowl, $3 at tag sale, sells for $2.2M

Couple born on same maternity ward tie knot 22 years later

Couple born on same maternity ward tie knot 22 years later - A couple have proved are destined to be together from the cradle to the grave after tying the knot - 22 years since they were separated at birth.

Both Richard and Kayleigh Brookes mothers were in hospital at the same time in 1989 giving birth to them on the same maternity ward.

Years later, the two were put in the same class at secondary school and became first loves at the tender age of fifteen.

Richard and Kayleigh Brookes tied the knot last Saturday in Halesowen, seven years after getting together

And it seems Cupid’s arrow was always going to bring the pair together, as they have now completed their fairy-tale with a white wedding last Saturday at St John the Baptist Church in Halesowen, West Midlands.

'We couldn’t believe it when we realised our mothers were in the hospital at the same time,' said Richard.

'I was born on April 22 and Kayleigh on April 25 but my mother had to stay on the ward for a week so they were there at the same time.

The couple were literally separated at birth after they were born three days apart at the same hospital in 1989

'I was always in trouble at school and once I got beaten up and only Kayleigh texted to see how I was. After that we started going out and we’ve never spent a day apart since.

'Everyone said it wouldn’t work, including the teachers, but we have proved everyone wrong and I could not be more happy.'

Delivery driver Richard, 22, proposed to Kayleigh at her 21st birthday party surrounded by her family as it was also her father's birthday.

Richard and Kayleigh completed their fairy tale with a dream wedding and honeymoon in Las Vegas

He got down on one knee to her favourite song - Boyzone’s ‘Every Day I Love You’ - before popping the question.

Richard proposed to Kayleigh at her 21st birthday party

'Our families both really get on especially because what happened with our mothers so the wedding was like one big happy family,' added. Richard.

'The wedding was perfect, even if we had won the lottery beforehand we would have not changed a thing.'

The couple, who now live together in Oldbury, West Midlands, have since jetted off to Las Vegas for their honeymoon.

They first met at school when they were 11-years-old but didn’t become close until Kayleigh sent Richard that text after he was beaten up.

But lovestruck Kayleigh admitted she always had a soft spot for Richard and would flirt with him.

They got together soon after but picture-perfect story was so close to failing at the first hurdle.

'Everyone at school said I shouldn’t go out with him as he was always getting trouble and it wouldn’t last five minutes but we have proved everyone wrong,' said the accounts assistant.

'People at school were horrible. Everyone warned me off him and told my mum and dad he was trouble but they are still waiting to see any signs of trouble.

Kayleigh and Richard we were in the same class at secondary school but didn't get together until they were 15

'My feelings were strong enough and I followed my own mind.

'We are like Romeo and Juliet but both our families get on together so the wedding day was perfect.

'It was lovely when we found out we were in the same ward together as babies as it means we will be together from the start to finish of our lives and we’ve never met anyone else who can say that.

'We are hoping we will be as lucky in Las Vegas as we have been in love.'

Kayleigh, right, admitted she has always had a soft spot for Richard, left, even before they started dating ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Couple born on same maternity ward tie knot 22 years later

'I've spent 11 years saving child brides'

'I've spent 11 years saving child brides' - At 13, Vijaylaxmi Sharma defied tradition and refused to marry an older man despite her parents' demands. Helen Roberts finds out how this courageous young woman has made it her mission to save other young girls - including a ten-month-old baby - from becoming child brides

A line of young innocent girls stand on her doorstep, begging and pleading for help. The youngest is just ten, the oldest barely 14 and they have no one to turn to but Vijaylaxmi Sharma. The girls will soon be married off to much older men by their parents, but these girls are desperate to escape their fate.

Vijaylaxmi, 24, knows only too well the tears they've shed. She too was in their position when her parents wanted her to quit school and marry at 13. But she rebelled against her family and tradition - and won.

She ushers the girls inside, determined to stop them from becoming child brides. "I wanted to help every single one of the young girls in my village and beyond," says Vijaylaxmi. "They were all being ill-treated and were led to believe in the tradition of underage marriage. But I made it my job to teach every girl and her parents in my area that change is possible and we don't have to follow tradition any longer. There doesn't need to be child marriages in the modern day."

Vijaylaxmi, now a teacher, from Paghi village in Rajasthan, India, had the same dreams and hopes as any other girl when she was 13. She wanted to learn, play with her friends and get good grades in school so she could get a good job. But her mother Kamala Devi, 39, a housewife, and father Sharvan Lai, 52, a farmer, tried to force her to quit school, learn to run a household and marry a man who is 15 years older than her.

According to Unicef, 47 per cent of women in India in 2009 - the latest available figures - were married before the legal age of 18. In some rural Indian communities, that figure reached 56 per cent.

Unicef has found that 40 per cent of child marriages around the world occur in India. Families in rural areas are poor and often believe that having a daughter is a disadvantage, as girls have little hope of finding a job and becoming financially independent. Desperate to alleviate the burden on their family, handing over their little girl in exchange for payment from a groom or his family is their only option.

"My parents were following tradition," Vijaylaxmi says. "Like so many other families, they had no idea of the consequences of what they were doing or if it was wrong. They were uneducated and couldn't think on their own. They just believed that marrying me to a man at 13 was good for my future and respectful in our community. They knew nothing else."

But Vijaylaxmi had other ideas. She had no intentions of marrying and starting a family so young. She had dreams of finishing school and building a career as a teacher.

"I don't know where I got my strength from to refuse to marry," she says. "There was just something inside me that didn't want the life my friends had. I watched one of my school friends marry at 13, get pregnant at 14 and die while giving birth. It was a tradition that was a nightmare and I didn't want it for me."

A period of struggle

"It was so hard to make my parents see my way," she adds. "I had a tough fight on my hands to change their minds. At first they punished me for being rebellious and they locked me up in a room for two days with no food or water. They hoped I'd come out at the end and do as they said. But that just made me even more determined."

Months passed and the family fights continued, but Vijaylaxmi stuck to her beliefs. While other girls in her village married and became pregnant, Vijaylaxmi and her family were ridiculed. It was against local custom not to marry at a young age, and the family fell victim to spiteful gossip. "At times I wondered if what I was doing was right. I was putting my family through so much," she admits.

"I had a daily argument with myself, between my own beliefs and my love for my family. But I couldn't betray myself and my life. I knew I was worth much more," she says.

"People would mock my father for having an unmarried daughter. They'd write awful things about me on walls near my house and no one would talk to me. But I begged my parents to see my view. ‘I won't let you down,' I told them. ‘I will marry one day, just not yet, let me live a little,'" she says.

Then one day, a neighbour came knocking on Vijaylaxmi's door. Her daughter had died during childbirth. She was just 14 years old.

"Don't force your daughter to marry," she begged Vijaylaxmi's mother, Kamala. "I've lost my daughter, I wish I could turn back the clock and do things differently."

Another mother told them how her daughter had just become a widow at 14 and local tradition meant she could never marry again. Her life was over before it had even begun. Slowly Kamala began to change her mind.

"My mother is a good person and eventually, because she trusted me, she believed in what I was saying," she says. "Thankfully she saw my way of thinking in the end. Meanwhile I was getting top grades at school, and my head teacher paid my parents a visit telling them of my achievements. It was a huge help. They could see how serious I was about my education and getting a career."

Soon, word spread. Other girls in Vijaylaxmi's school and village heard about her courage to stand up against tradition.

"I had spent months and years watching girls my age marry, then all of a sudden things began to change," she explains. "There were young girls who also believed in waiting to marry and they were knocking on my door asking me to speak to their parents. I'd been through so much and eventually persuaded my family I'd made the right decision. So I agreed to try. I don't know where my confidence came from."

The girls' parents listened, and more young girls started turning up on Vijaylaxmi's doorstep, looking for help. With each passing month Vijaylaxmi heard about another marriage being planned, and with her two brothers Mahesh and Vijay Kumar for protection, she'd visit the family and speak to the parents in private and dissuade them from forcing their daughter into becoming a child bride. "It was hard at first because I was wondering what exactly I was doing," she says. "Who was I to tell these people to change? But then I remembered how I felt when I thought my parents were going to force me to marry. I was doing it for the girls who hadn't found their voice yet."

Vijaylaxmi described her own situation to every parent she could and explained how she persuaded her parents to change their thinking. She convinced many parents in her village to let their daughters get an education, build life experiences and marry later.

"I came across a lot of stubborn parents," she says, "but eventually they'd listen. I explained that there are other options, made them understand the possibilities. Most families are illiterate so they don't know any other life. All they need is some guidance and inspiration.''

The more marriages she stopped and the more girls she saved from marriage, the more friends she made. Over time, a group of courageous girls joined Vijaylaxmi to help change their community. With her neighbours, Priyank, 16; Seema, 16; Sunita, 14, and 12 other teenagers who wanted to help, Vijaylaxmi created an informal group. If any of the girls heard about a marriage being organised they'd tell Vijaylaxmi and it became a team effort to try and convince the parents to let the girl wait.

"Soon, we were meeting once a month," Vijaylaxmi says. "The girls would tell me what they'd heard and then we'd go knocking on doors." With a lot of persistence, the girls managed to stop all the child marriages that they heard about. "I was so proud that I'd helped these young girls in my community have a chance at life and following their dreams rather than becoming child brides," she says.

Realising a brighter future

Vijaylaxmi finished school with top marks and landed a job as a teacher. She now works in a secondary school and advises all her students that they have more to offer than just marrying young. "I want to educate all my students and help the girls realise they too have a future and can marry happily once they turn 21," she says.

"Recently I persuaded a 25-year-old mother, Channa, to stop the wedding of her ten-month-old daughter, Kiran. She would have been paid a small fortune for marrying her daughter off, but I managed to make her see sense," Vijaylaxmi says. "They're so uneducated that they don't know any other life. They think they're doing their daughter a good service. But I make them see that they're not."

Now Vijaylaxmi plans to travel across India, educating families about child marriages.

"My mother was 13 when she married. She thought I'd marry at that age too. She knew nothing else. But now it's different. I've shown people it can be different, they just need to see there's another way."

Her mother, Kamala, still regrets her attempts to force Vijaylaxmi to marry. "I look back on what I put her through and it brings tears to my eyes," she admits. "I was also 13 when I married and I've had a happy life, I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong. But I thank my daughter for changing me, for giving me knowledge. I am so proud of her, I wish I had three of her. She is my everything."

Vijaylaxmi is now ready to marry and is looking for a potential husband. But she is thankful that at 24 she can marry when she chooses and not when tradition dictates. ( gulfnews.com )

READ MORE - 'I've spent 11 years saving child brides'

US ranks 17 as clean tech producer, China is No. 2

US ranks 17 as clean tech producer, China is No. 2 – Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies, the United States is rapidly expanding its clean-tech sector, but no country can match China's pace of growth, according to a new report obtained by The Associated Press.

China's production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77 per cent a year, according to the report, which was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and which will be unveiled on Monday at an industry conference in Amsterdam.

"The Chinese have made, on the political level, a conscious decision to capture this market and to develop this market aggressively," said Donald Pols, an economist with the WWF.

Denmark, a longtime leader in wind energy, derives 3.1 percent of its gross domestic product from renewable energy technology and energy efficiency, or about euro6.5 billion ($9.4 billion), the report said.

China is the largest producer in money terms, earning more than euro44 billion ($64 billion), or 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product.

The U.S. ranks 17 in the production of clean technologies with 0.3 percent of GDP, or euro31.5 billion ($45 billion), but those industries have been expanding at a rate of 28 percent per year since 2008.

"The U.S. is growing substantially, so it seems the policy of (President Barack) Obama is working," Pols said. But the U.S. cannot compare with China, he said.

"When you speak to the Chinese, climate change is not an ideological issue. It's just a fact of life. While we debate climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, the debate is passed in China," Pols said. "For them it's implementation. It's a growth sector, and they want to capture this sector."

The report was prepared by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, a global firm based in Germany. It gathered data on 38 countries from energy associations, bank and brokerage reports, investor presentations, the International Energy Agency and a score of other sources. It measured the earnings from producing renewables like biofuels, wind turbines and thermal equipment, and energy efficiency technology such as low-energy lighting and insulation.

"Clean technologies are really growing fast, but China is responsible for the majority of that growth," said Ward van den Berg, who compiled and analyzed the data for the consultancy firm.

Until recently, Chinese massive production of solar cells was aimed at the export market, but they are now making solar systems for the home market, as they have been doing for several years in wind energy, Van den Berg said.

Following Denmark and China, other countries in the top five clean-tech producers, in terms of percentage of GDP, are Germany, Brazil and Lithuania, the report said. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - US ranks 17 as clean tech producer, China is No. 2

FIFA Intervenes in Indonesia FA Crisis

FIFA Intervenes in Indonesia FA Crisis - FIFA intervened directly in Indonesia’s football crisis on Monday, announcing it was appointing a committee to take over from the local federation on an interim basis.

FIFA said in a statement that the so-called normalisation committee would organise elections for the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) leadership by the end of next month, stop a rebel league and run the association on a day-to-day basis.

Indonesian soccer fans shouts slogans and show a poster of Football Association (PSSI) chief Nurdin Halid as a wanted person, during a rally in front of PSSI headquarter in Jakarta on February 23, 2011. Hundreds of soccer fans protested against corruption in the national league and demanded the resignation of the disgraced PSSI chief.

The decision followed chaotic scenes 10 days ago when an assembly to organise the first PSSI elections in four years was called off after opponents of chairman Nurdin Halid stormed in claiming they had been stripped of voting rights. Halid was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but continued to run the PSSI from his cell.

“The FIFA emergency committee came...to the conclusion that the PSSI leadership had lost all credibility within Indonesia and was not in a position any more to lead the process to solve the current crisis,” said FIFA in a statement.

FIFA added that the PSSI’s lack of control was “proven by the failure to gain control of the breakaway league, set up without the involvement of PSSI, or by the fact it could not organise a congress whose sole goals were to adopt an electoral code and elect an electoral commission.

The normalisation committee would consist of Indonesian football personalities who would not be able to run in the PSSI positions and would act as an electoral commission, said FIFA.

“The mission of the normalisation committee is to organise elections based on the FIFA electoral code and PSSI statutes before May 21, to bring the run-away league under PSSI control.....(and) to run the day-to-day activities of PSSI in a spirit of reconciliation for the good of the Indonesian football,” it said.

Halid is in his second term as PSSI president but has faced growing criticism at the poor performances of Indonesian teams, especially the senior national side which is 129th in the world rankings. The three-month old breakaway league has attracted teams from the PSSI-supported Indonesia Super League (ISL), a host of southeast Asian players and former England international Lee Hendrie.

Despite a huge soccer-mad population, Indonesia’s only World Cup appearance was in pre-independence days in 1938 as the Dutch East Indies and is not recognised by the PSSI. Indonesia have only played four times at the Asian Cup, going out at the first hurdle every time, and its clubs have never reached an Asian Champions League final. ( reuters )

READ MORE - FIFA Intervenes in Indonesia FA Crisis

'Super' salmon resist climate change better

'Super' salmon resist climate change better – Toughened by a punishing annual migration in western Canada, a special breed of sockeye salmon has proved better able to survive environmental change than other members of the species, a study said Thursday.

The Fraser River in British Columbia has more than 100 distinct populations of sockeye salmon, many of them so fine-tuned to their environment that even slight changes in water temperature, river flow or elevation change could spell disaster.

Sockeye salmon - This undated photo courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service shows sockeye salmon. According to new research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River are facing such critically warm water in the summer that populations will either have to adapt or die as climate change pushes temperatures even higher

"As climate change alters the conditions of the Fraser River watershed, our concern is that some populations may not be able to adapt to these changes quickly enough to survive," said Erika Eliason, the study's lead author.

But the Chilko salmon, named after a region of the river where they spawn, are proving more resilient than others, and Eliason and her colleagues at University of British Columbia believe it could be due to their harsher migration conditions.

"I like to call the Chilko population of sockeye 'Superfish,'" said Eliason, who explained they are conditioned by a migratory route that is extraordinarily difficult.

Eliason and colleagues studied eight sockeye populations for the study, which was published in the journal Science.

"This is the first large study examining how different populations of fish of the same species adapt to different environmental conditions during their annual migration," she said.

Scientists say the Fraser River, which runs some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles), has already warmed by almost two degrees Celsius since the 1950s, with the last 20 years among the warmest on record.

Millions of sockeye migrate up the Fraser to spawn each year, but the species has been in decline since the 1990s. There have been mass mortalities during migrations, when between 40 and 95 percent of some populations have died, according to UBC.

The sockeye populations follow exact migration routes that vary by distance, elevation, temperature and current strength. Some have it easy, but not the Chilko.

The Chilko must swim more than 650 kilometers (400 miles) upstream, gain a kilometer (0.6 miles) in elevation, and pass through an area known as Hell's Gate, where the river shoots through a passage just 35 meters (115 feet) wide.

They do all this at the height of summer in a heroic effort to reach a glacial lake, where they spawn.

To assess the salmon's abilities to cope with changing environmental conditions, the UBC team had fish from the eight population groups swim through a large tube designed to simulate Fraser river currents and water temperatures.

The scientists measured the heart rates and metabolism of the adult salmon as they did so.

They found that when water temperatures rose above an optimal level, the salmon's ability swim declined, probably as a result of a weakening of their cardiovascular systems.

But they also observed that the Chilko sockeye seemed physiologically less sensitive to the difference in temperature and other environmental change. The most sensitive was the Weaver sockeye.

Eliason said the Chilko were able to "swim at higher and a broader range of temperatures" compared to other sockeye in the river.

"We believe it has to do with how they've adapted to cope with their difficult migration." ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - 'Super' salmon resist climate change better

Bat deaths could cost US economy billions

Bat deaths could cost US economy billions – Call them creepy little creatures if you like, but insect-munching bats are so valuable to US agriculture that their deaths could cost the economy billions of dollars per year, experts said Thursday.

A fungal disease known as white nose syndrome, combined with the rise in wind turbines which can ensnare the dark fliers, have killed off more than a million of the bug predators in North America since 2006.

Little brown bat hanging at Greely Mine - This undated photo courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service shows the little brown bat hanging at Greely Mine in Stockbridge, Vermont affected by white-nose syndrome. Call them creepy little creatures if you like, but insect-munching bats are so valuable to US agriculture that their deaths could cost the economy billions of dollars per year, experts said Thursday

Their deaths mean the elimination of an important natural pesticide which is worth at least 3.7 billion dollars per year to farmers, said the study by US and South African researchers in the journal Science.

"Without bats, crop yields are affected. Pesticide applications go up," said Gary McCracken, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

"Even if our estimates were quartered, they clearly show how bats have enormous potential to influence the economics of agriculture and forestry."

The analysis was based on "published estimates of the value of pest suppression services provided by bats," the study said.

The cost ranges "from about $12 to $173/acre (with a most likely scenario of $74/acre) in a cotton-dominated agricultural landscape in south-central Texas."

Extending those estimates across the United States as a whole, they found "the value of bats may be as low as $3.7 billion/year and as high as $53 billion/year."

McCracken's co-authors were Justin Boyles of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, Paul Cryan of the US Geological Survey and Thomas Kunz of Boston University.

The study says that more than a million bats in North America have died due to fungal diseases in the past five years, and that some projections show that "by 2020, wind turbines will have killed 33,000 to 111,000 annually in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands alone."

The cost analysis focused on the expense of pesticides but did not include the effects of pesticides on the environment or human and animal health.

"Not acting is not an option because the life histories of these flying, nocturnal mammals -- characterized by long generation times and low reproductive rates -- mean that population recovery is unlikely for decades or even centuries, if at all," said McCracken. ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - Bat deaths could cost US economy billions

Baltic Sea letter in a bottle found 24 years later

Baltic Sea letter in a bottle found 24 years later – Nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed a message in a bottle off a ship in the Baltic Sea, he's received an answer.

A 13-year-old Russian, Daniil Korotkikh, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering lying in the sand.

80 km northwest of Kaliningrad, Russia - In this Friday, March 11, 2011 photo Daniil Korotkikh shows a letter he found in a bottle on a beach at the village of Morskoye on the Curonian Spit, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Kaliningrad, Russia. The 13-year-old Russian was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering lying in the sand. It was a bottle with a letter sent by German boy 24 years ago in the Baltic Sea. The letter said: 'My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you.'

80 km northwest of Kaliningrad, Russia - In this Friday, March 11, 2011 photo Daniil Korotkikh holds a bottle with a letter he found on a beach at the village of Morskoye on the Curonian Spit, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Kaliningrad, Russia. The 13-year-old Russian, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering lying in the sand. It was a bottle with a letter sent by German boy 24 years ago in the Baltic Sea

"I saw that bottle and it looked interesting," Korotkikh told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It looked like a German beer bottle with a ceramic plug, and there was a message inside."

His father, who knows schoolboy German, translated the letter, carefully wrapped in cellophane and sealed by a medical bandage.

It said: "My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you."

The letter, dated 1987, included an address in the town of Coesfeld.

The boy in the letter, Frank Uesbeck, is now 29. His parents still live at the letter's address.

"At first I didn't believe it," Uesbeck told the AP about getting the response from Korotkikh. In fact, he barely remembered the trip at all; his father actually wrote the letter.

The Russian boy and the German man met each other earlier this month via an Internet video link.

Korotkikh showed Uesbeck the bottle where he found the message and the letter that he put in a frame.

The Russian boy said he does not believe that the bottle actually spent 24 years in the sea: "It would not have survived in the water all that time," he said.

He believes it had been hidden under the sand where he found it — on the Curonian Spit, a 100-kilometer (60-mile) stretch of sand in Lithuania and Russia.

In the web chat earlier this month, Uesbek gave Korotkikh his new address to write to and promised to write back when he receives his letter.

"He'll definitely get another letter from me," the 29-year-old said.

Uesbeck was especially thrilled that he was able to have a positive impact on a life of a young person far away from Germany.

"It's really a wonderful story," he said. "And who knows? Perhaps one day we will actually be able to arrange a meeting in person." ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Baltic Sea letter in a bottle found 24 years later

Indonesian Kitchen: Some delights to enrich your vegetarian menu

Indonesian Kitchen: Some delights to enrich your vegetarian menu - In many regions across the country, people eat as vegetarians since early youth not because they intend to practice that lifestyle but rather because their daily income is insufficient to be able to purchase meat, fowl or fish for daily food intake.

Therefore, meatless dishes are many here.

The succulent flavor of meat or fowl has been replaced by the rich taste of fresh and crunchy vegetables or hearty beans.

Many variations of sayur are typical dishes of East, Central and West Java and even they became very famous dishes. The Sayur Lodeh, a soupy dish originated in Central Java with coconut milk and vegetables like young jackfruit, longbeans, melinjo leaves and fruit, became one of the most known dishes, here and abroad.

Eaten with fried tempeh, or tofu, sambal goreng telur (a hot egg dish), vegetable crackers or emping, it forms a very delicious and healthy fare, indeed.

Although a Sumatran menu is fast unthinkable, dishes originating from Sumatran cooking have gained recognition elsewhere. Anyang made of papaya flowers and grated young coconut dressing is enjoyed very much as an appetizer.

Meanwhile, pacri nanas or chilied pineapple is a refreshing sweet-sour accompaniment to heavily spiced dishes.

Sumatra also has various types of vegetables to offer. Take for instance the terung Medan, an eggplant variety. Small and crunchy, it can be stir-fried easily.

For mushroom enthusiasts, Bogor in West Java is really the place. Made into a pepes (spiced, wrapped in banana leaves then steamed), the dish just taste very satisfying when enjoyed with hot steamed rice.

Even as a sandwich topping, it deserves a place in a vegetarian menu. Shiitake, oyster mushrooms, black mushrooms or just normal straw mushrooms are Bogor’s contribution to a varied vegetarian lifestyle. Heaps of fresh mushrooms can be seen at markets or supermarkets.

West Java has its sayur asam a fresh sweet sour soup-like dish, a perfect accompaniment to various fried fermented bean products like tempeh and hot sambal. For those non-vegetarians add fried or grilled fish.

Just observe the vegetable stands at markets or supermarkets and a real creative vegetarian dish will be the result. Even a vegetarian burger is there.

For those yearning for something with a bite, there are vegetable crackers in many variations — there are garlic crackers, shallot spiced ones, mix vegetable crackers and rice crackers too.

And why not using paprika? It was previously not a familiar herb among people. But when international hotel chains set foot in several big cities, the demand for western oriented dishes increased, and vegetables — like asparagus, leek, large sized potatoes, onions and paprika — were cultivated to meet the demands.

Vegetable growing areas in cool mountainous regions like Lembang near Bandung, Sukabumi, Batu in East Java, Brastagi in Sumatra and Bedugul in Bali seemed to be successful in planting those newcomers.

Plump, multicolored paprika is now already common produce at a large vegetable growing plantation up the mountains near tea plantations in Sukabumi and nearly all so-called western vegetables and herbs are growing successfully.

Lemon also ripens to vivid yellow, broccoli to a deep green and all varieties of salad for salad enthusiasts are growing next to neat rows of herbs like oregano, marjoram, mint, dill and basil.

But not only do local farmers grow western oriented vegetables and herbs. Herbs generally used in Japanese culinary arts are also available locally. For instance, the much-used daikon, a large type of radish, is an excellent product from Sukabumi and Lembang.

Are those vegetables also used in Indonesian dishes?

Actually the paprika, coming from the same family as the cabai merah or red chili is already used in some stir-fries or tumis using long beans or eggplants and tomatoes. For those who do not really care about spices, sliced red paprika can be used as an alternative.

As chilies are noted for having therapeutic benefits such as helping to dissolve blood clots or are pain killers, paprika also has a lot to offer in maintaining health. Paprika is super rich in antioxidant vitamin C.

Therefore, it is a great food to fight colds, asthma, bronchitis, respiratory infections, cataracts, angina and cancer. When combined with the chili pepper or cabai, the stir-fries have a very distinct hot taste, caused by the mild flavor of the paprikas especially from the green paprika.

Onions which were very hard to find or were scarcely grown in Indonesia are now sold at wet markets, catering to the need of Indonesian-Chinese restaurants.

In traditional dishes, onion will be diced or finely sliced when used, because according to the common stir-fry procedures onion slices have to be of an even light brown color, which can not be obtained by onions in comparison to finely sliced shallots.

But nevertheless, onion is an addition to our bawang repertoire already in many kitchen shelves. Bawang merah (shallots), bawang putih (garlic) and bawang bombai (onion) are put into one container.

Onions, like shallots and garlic, have many uses. Very old cultivated plants, about 6,000 years, onions are already recognized as a flavor enhancer and at the same time form an important item in guarding one’s health condition.

Another thing, onion is a strong natural antibiotic. For heart patients, onions are an indispensable cooking ingredient. Raw onions are more effective in fighting diseases. For instance, half a raw onion a day (25–35 grams) can boost your good high-density lipoprotein blood cholesterol level by about 30 percent.

Here with the recipe of oseng terung medan: Cut the stems of 300-gram sized eggplants (especially terung Medan), rinse and soak 30 minutes in salted water, drain. Finely chop 200 grams of onion and 10 grams of garlic, roughly chop 100 grams of green paprika and 150 grams of tomato.

Stir-fry onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine until aromatic. Add paprika, tomato and eggplants. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste), ¼ teaspoon of pepper, and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Continue stir-frying over low flame until done. ( thejakartapost.com )

READ MORE - Indonesian Kitchen: Some delights to enrich your vegetarian menu