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(Credit:
University of Kentucky; W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert, Vanderbilt University; G.J. Ferland, National Autonomous University of Mexico; David Thompson, NASA; ESA; C.R. Robert O’Dell, University of Arizona)

Hubble has been doing some interesting work with nebulae recently, it seems. About a month ago, we saw new images of the Horsehead Nebula in the infrared spectrum, revealing new details of the famous gas formation.

The newest nebula to get the fine-detail treatment is the equally famous Ring Nebula. Combining visible-light images from Hubble with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona has revealed that the structure of the nebula is more complex than was previously believed.

Image of the Ring Nebula captured in 1998.

(Credit:
NASA/Hubble Heritage Team)

“The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it’s like a jelly doughnut, because it’s filled with material in the middle,” said C. Robert O’Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who leads the research team that obtained the images. “With Hubble’s detail, we see a completely different shape than what’s been thought about historically for this classic nebula. The new Hubble observations show the nebula in much clearer detail, and we see things are not as simple as we previously thought.”

Previous observations had revealed the gas inside the ring, enveloping a dying star. The new image shows dark, irregular knots of gas embedded in the inner rim, pushing outward like tentacles. These formed when fast-moving expanding hot gas ejected by the star pushed into slow-moving cooler gas previously ejected. These knots have now been matched up to spikes of light around the main ring.

The gas, which is expanding at a rate of about 42,875 miles per hour from a nebula that is already 1 light year in diameter, was originally ejected around 4,000 years ago, as the original star began to collapse from red giant to white dwarf. This behavior gives NASA’s scientists some insight into what will happen to our own sun when it, too, eventually begins to die in about 6 million years — although, since the Ring Nebula’s star at its prime was several times larger than the sun, the latter’s dying throes probably won’t be nearly so gorgeous.

Horsehead Nebula dazzles astrophotographers (pictures)

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(Source: Crave Australia)

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/pRza/~3/yJBIC2zdMzM/

(Credit:
Video screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

In high school science classes, students are encouraged to memorize the first 20 elements of the periodic table. There are other methods employed at the university level for all 118 — many students swear by mnemonics.

When it comes to tremendously catchy fun, though, a new song by AsapScience has them all beat. Called simply “The New Periodic Table Song (In Order),” it’s a chemical adventure that romps along to a section of “Infernal Galop” (otherwise known as the Can-Can music) from Jacques Offenbach’s opera “Orpheus in the Underworld.”

It goes, appropriately, at a fast gallop, but listen a few times, and you’ll soon find yourself confidently singing along.

Best periodic table song ever.

(Source: Crave Australia)

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/pRza/~3/HZG87vQMYYQ/

Beijing (CNN) — Demonstrators braved a heavy police presence and the threat of arrest by massing Thursday in the streets of Kunming, China, to protest the planned construction of a chemical plant, they said.

“It was mostly a peaceful protest,” said an activist who asked to be identified only by his family name, Young. “We were singing the national anthem, shouting ‘Get out, refinery!’ together.”

He added, “We were scattered by the heavy police force in the area. I saw locals scuffling with police, people getting arrested and pulled away.”

Read more: Can social media clear air over China?

The plant is a hot topic in the city, which is the capital of Yunnan province in southwestern China.

“Every Kunming person cares about this issue,” said another Kunming native, a 50-year-old man who said rows of police thwarted his efforts to reach the heart of the protest. “The police kept blocking off the protest, block by block.”

Local government officials did not respond to CNN phone calls for comment.

Photos posted on Chinese social media sites showed uniformed and riot police surrounding groups of demonstrators.

The five activists who spoke to CNN asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from Chinese authorities.

The oil refinery and chemical plant would be built in Anning city, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Kunming, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency.

Pollution an economic concern in China

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Report: China lax in treating, policing lead poisoning

Opponents fear the chemical plant would produce tons of paraxylene, a carcinogenic chemical identified by the acronym PX.

Several days after a May 4 protest, the Kunming mayor joined executives from the state China National Petroleum Corp. and the Yuntianhua Group for a joint news conference.

“The government will call off the project if most of our citizens say no to it,” said Mayor Li Wenrong, according to Xinhua.

The provincial general manager of China National Petroleum Corp. has said the refinery will not use the chemical.

“The project has no PX facilities, nor will it produce PX products,” Hu Jingke said, according to Xinhua.

Kunming residents expressed deep distrust of government officials and the state-owned enterprises behind the refinery project.

Several said authorities took draconian measures in the days running up to Thursday’s protest in an attempt to prevent demonstrators from taking to the streets.

Opinion: Why booming China needs to act fast

A 25-year-old Kunming native who asked to be identified as Claire told CNN that police detained and interrogated her for more than nine hours after she was caught distributing anti-refinery fliers on a city street Tuesday.

“I understand we need oil refineries,” Claire said in a phone interview. She said she opposed this one because “it’s just so close to the city and the fact that the whole process was not transparent and we’re not allowed to ask questions.”

Claire said police accused her of staging an “illegal gathering.”

As part of the interrogation, she said, police took her to the print shop where she had made copies of her fliers. Then they escorted her to her parents’ home, where they demanded that she erase files about the refinery from her computer. Finally, she said, they threatened her and banned her from attending Thursday’s protest.

CNN Blog: Why China’s leaders should worry about climate change

“Basically, they’re saying if I have this on my record, I won’t get any government job or state-owned enterprise job,” Claire said.

Several other Kunming residents said students and employees of state-owned companies had been warned not to attend the demonstration.

“Kunming is a beautiful city, where we have cleaner air than any other cities in this country,” Young said.

“We fear the refinery will destroy the city’s natural environment, and we demanded to see the environmental impact assessment report of this project. But we were rejected by the government who told us it’s a ‘state secret.’ “

An executive from Yuntianhua, which also has a major stake in the chemical plant, told journalists that an environmental impact assessment for the project had not been completed, Xinhua said.

In March, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that health safeguards would be improved and efforts would be made to control air pollution and make water supplies safer.

China air pollution: ‘Slightly polluted’ or ‘hazardous’?

“We should adopt effective measures to prevent and control pollution and change the way we work and live,” Wen said.

The emphasis on environmental and health issues comes as China’s leaders confront growing anger about choking pollution, contaminated food, and water that is unsafe to drink.

The statistics are staggering. China now burns 3.8 billion tons of coal each year, nearly as much as the rest of the world combined. In January, the smog over Beijing was so thick, it could be seen from space.

China’s CO2 emissions rose by 720 million tons in 2011 — a 9.3% increase. Pollution and dust generated in China have been found as far away as California.

Maintaining blockbuster growth has sometimes come at the expense of environmental protections.

The government has made explicit its intention to weigh environmental regulation against the cost to the economy. But analysts say the public outcry over pollution has tipped the scales.

China has already tried to boost the use of alternative sources of power, setting standards for solar energy installation and switching from coal to gas in some cities.

CNNMoney’s Charles Riley contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/16/world/asia/china-protests/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/pdGuUAE4fDw/crack-down-on-plant-protests

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Are you from the area affected, or London in general? What is your reaction to the incident? Send us your images, video and experiences.

London (CNN) — Why did Lee Rigby have to die?

That’s what people around Britain — its officials, its authorities, its citizens — asked themselves Thursday, a day after the soldier was hit with a car, then hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight.

There’s been no indication that the 25-year-old machine gunner, drummer and father of a 2-year-old boy knew the men who attacked him with meat cleavers. One of them who approached a man filming the gory scene in southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood suggested Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops like him.

Soldier slain in London was a machine gunner, Royal Palaces drummer, father

That man and another who suffered gunshot wounds in a confrontation with police minutes after Rigby’s killing spent Thursday in stable condition at separate South London hospitals.

Cameron: Strong indication of terrorism

London attack suspect caught on video

Deadly attack near London barracks

Even with those two suspected attackers under guard, authorities pressed for answers — and to determine if others might have been somehow involved and, if so, why.

Six residences have been searched, and two people — a man and a woman, both of them age 29 — were arrested Thursday on “suspicion of conspiracy to murder,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” added police.

The attack, which Prime Minister David Cameron and others called an act of terror, stirred anxiety and alerts in Britain not seen since the summer of 2005, when coordinated bomb attacks struck London’s public transport network.

An additional 1,200 police are now on London’s streets to reassure the public, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Crime and Operations Mark Rowley said, with extra patrols at key locations such as religious institutions and transport hubs. Steps were also taken to further protect military installations and personnel, he added.

Abu Barra blamed Wednesday’s attack not on his friend Michael Adebolajo — who he says is the bloody, cleaver-wielding man shown talking in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN — but on the British government and predicted there may be more attacks.

“As long as (British) foreign policy is engaging in violence, they’re only inviting violence in retaliation,” Barra told CNN.

By sharp contrast, Cameron said “the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack,” adding that “nothing in Islam … justifies this truly dreadful act.”

“This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.”

London attack: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again?

Suspect knew British Muslim radical leader

It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the 28-year-old Adebolajo as the suspect seen on the ITN video. The identities of the other man, 22, and the two people arrested Thursday aren’t known.

A British national of Nigerian descent, Adebolajo converted to Islam and became passionate about his faith, said Barra.

British Muslim radical leader Anjem Choudary told CNN on Thursday that he knew Adebolajo, noting that the suspect attended demonstrations and a few lectures organized by Choudary’s group Al-Muhajiroun.

In fact, an ITN video from April 2007 shows Adebolajo standing behind Choudary at a rally protesting the arrest of men who allegedly made inflammatory speeches inside a mosque.

Barra described his friend as a “very caring” man who “just wanted to help everybody.” He was also “very vocal” about his feelings that Muslims were being oppressed, injustices he pinned, in part, on the British government.

London attack: Eyewitness heard gunshots

Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Cell phone video of London attack scene

“I wasn’t surprised that it happened,” Barra said of Wednesday’s attack. “… Britain is only responsible, the government. And I believe all of us, as a public, we are responsible. We should condemn ourselves, why we did not do enough to stop these wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Woolwich bloodshed spurred concerns not only about violence by Islamic extremists but also about attacks targeting Muslims by people angry about Rigby’s killing.

“People can only take so much. And people will break,” said Victor Easdown, a construction worker who heard shots ring out in Woolwich as police took on Rigby’s attackers.

London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

In Kent, police arrested a man on suspicion of “racially aggravated criminal damage” at a religious building. And Wednesday night in Essex, a man with two knives was arrested after throwing a smoke grenade at the Al Falah Braintree Islamic Center and demanding someone come outside to answer to the Woolwich slaying, the mosque’s secretary Sikander Sleemy said.

Members of the far-right English Defence League clashed with police late Wednesday, with a tweet from its official account touting that “it’s fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!”

“Don’t listen to the Government cover ups, The lies about Islam being peaceful,” read another EDL tweet Thursday.

Political and social commentator Mohammed Ansar appealed for “a sense of calm (and) perspective” after what he called “a really, really heinous act of, I would say, criminality, … not terrorism.”

“What we don’t need are knee-jerk reactions … to really ratchet up tensions and really stoke and inflame anxieties within communities,” he told CNN.

Watch: Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Paper: Woman says she talked to attacker

The attack may have wide-ranging repercussions in Britain, including possibly enflaming sectarian tensions and leading to more violence.

But it’s already have an impact on people who live and work in Woolwich — the working-class, multicultural neighborhood where the mutilation took place — and witnessed the carnage firsthand.

A man who identified himself as James told London’s LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim, who was on the ground.

At first, James thought they were trying to help the man. But then he saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have.

Could London killing inspire other attacks?

“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” he told the radio station. “These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals.”

Witness: Attackers ‘were just animals’

Amid the horror, an individual story of courage emerged Thursday in the person of a Cub Scout leader named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.

Loyau-Kennett told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that she had jumped off a bus to try to revive a man — later determined to be Rigby — she thought had been hurt accidentally.

She swiftly realized the man was dead, and it was no accident.

“When I went up, there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife. He had what looked like butcher’s tools, and he had a little ax, to cut the bones, and two large knives, and he said, ‘Move off the body,’ ” she told the newspaper.

“So I thought, ‘OK, I don’t know what is going on here,’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else.”

Unarmed police — like most in Britain — arrived at 2:29 p.m. Wednesday, nine minutes after the first call came in police. Armed officers were on site five minutes later. Witnesses recounted the suspects then ran at the police, who responded with gunshots.

Recalling the incident later on ITV, Loyau-Kennett said she wasn’t scared when she talked to one of those suspects — who then had a revolver, knife and cleaver in his bloody hands — minutes before those shots rang out.

“Better me than a child,” she said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark reported and wrote from London, and CNN’s Greg Botelho did the same from Atlanta. CNN’s Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald, Carol Jordan, Atika Shubert, Erin McLaughlin, Richard Allen Greene, Ed Payne and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/london-attack/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/AvTvLoDZsMI/hacking-death

(CNN) — Thirteen-year-old Rose Matrie lives in a cracked house.

The light that streams through the narrow slit in the concrete wall is an ever-present reminder of the earthquake that struck her home in Haiti in 2010 and devastated the already impoverished country. Still, Rose Matrie has big dreams for her future.

“I want to go to a big school in order to develop my talents,” she says.

Her mother fastened a large chalkboard on the outside of their home to cover up the crack, and every day Rose Matrie does her homework there. Her teacher says she is very bright and excels in literature.

“When I let my imagination go, I think of extraordinary things,” Rose Matrie says.

Her father lost his job after the earthquake, and though her mother works as a seamstress, there is little demand for her skills. Like many families in Haiti, her parents are struggling to pay the school fees to keep her and her five siblings enrolled.

In Haiti, public schools only meet about 20% of the demand for basic education in rural areas, and education costs, particularly for private schools, remain very high in relation to family income, according to the nonprofit Plan International USA.

Plan is working with local governments and schools to provide more children in Haiti with access to a quality education. The organization is building classrooms and school facilities, training educators and providing school supplies, textbooks and uniforms for children in need.

“[This is] so those costs aren’t passed on to families as a barrier to attendance,” explains Ann Wang, a plan communications specialist.

When the relatively high cost of school is decreased or eliminated, more children like Rose Matrie can get an education and develop their talents.

Watch the video for a glimpse into Rose Matrie’s world. You can help her and other girls growing up in Haiti.

Give

Support the campaign behind the film “Girl Rising” and give to the 10×10 Fund for Girls’ Education. Donations will be distributed evenly among the 10×10 nonprofit partners and help fund girls’ education projects around the world.

You can also help advance Plan’s work by donating to its “Because I am a Girl” campaign, which supports projects that help girls and women in the developing world. Through the “Gifts of Hope” program, you can symbolically donate things like school uniforms, vaccinations, school supplies or even girl-friendly latrines.

Share

Plan international USA created resources for students and teachers. These online booklets are designed to help people of all ages understand the challenges that many girls and women face around the world.

Impact

For even more ways to make an impact for girls education around the world, check out CNN’s Impact Your World resources or take action with 10×10.

More about CNN Films’ “Girl Rising” project

More from CNN’s Impact Your World

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/iyw-rose-matrie-from-haiti/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/eqkWUWAxPJM/haiti-hope

(CNN) — Thirteen-year-old Rose Matrie lives in a cracked house.

The light that streams through the narrow slit in the concrete wall is an ever-present reminder of the earthquake that struck her home in Haiti in 2010 and devastated the already impoverished country. Still, Rose Matrie has big dreams for her future.

“I want to go to a big school in order to develop my talents,” she says.

Her mother fastened a large chalkboard on the outside of their home to cover up the crack, and every day Rose Matrie does her homework there. Her teacher says she is very bright and excels in literature.

“When I let my imagination go, I think of extraordinary things,” Rose Matrie says.

Her father lost his job after the earthquake, and though her mother works as a seamstress, there is little demand for her skills. Like many families in Haiti, her parents are struggling to pay the school fees to keep her and her five siblings enrolled.

In Haiti, public schools only meet about 20% of the demand for basic education in rural areas, and education costs, particularly for private schools, remain very high in relation to family income, according to the nonprofit Plan International USA.

Plan is working with local governments and schools to provide more children in Haiti with access to a quality education. The organization is building classrooms and school facilities, training educators and providing school supplies, textbooks and uniforms for children in need.

“[This is] so those costs aren’t passed on to families as a barrier to attendance,” explains Ann Wang, a plan communications specialist.

When the relatively high cost of school is decreased or eliminated, more children like Rose Matrie can get an education and develop their talents.

Watch the video for a glimpse into Rose Matrie’s world. You can help her and other girls growing up in Haiti.

Give

Support the campaign behind the film “Girl Rising” and give to the 10×10 Fund for Girls’ Education. Donations will be distributed evenly among the 10×10 nonprofit partners and help fund girls’ education projects around the world.

You can also help advance Plan’s work by donating to its “Because I am a Girl” campaign, which supports projects that help girls and women in the developing world. Through the “Gifts of Hope” program, you can symbolically donate things like school uniforms, vaccinations, school supplies or even girl-friendly latrines.

Share

Plan international USA created resources for students and teachers. These online booklets are designed to help people of all ages understand the challenges that many girls and women face around the world.

Impact

For even more ways to make an impact for girls education around the world, check out CNN’s Impact Your World resources or take action with 10×10.

More about CNN Films’ “Girl Rising” project

More from CNN’s Impact Your World

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/iyw-rose-matrie-from-haiti/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/_q-ptscbe-k/i-want-a-big-school-to-develop-my-talent

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An aerial view of the destruction caused by the massive tornado that struck areas south of Oklahoma City on Monday, May 20, shows the magnitude of damage left in its path. The storm’s winds topped 200 mph as it carved a 17-mile path of destruction through Oklahoma City suburbs. On Tuesday, May 21, CNN sent photographer David McNeese to capture the story from above:

The storm, which touched down near Newcastle, Oklahoma, spanned 1.3 miles. Some areas along the path were completely flattened.

Officials from the National Weather Service gave the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20 a preliminary EF5 rating — the highest score on the scale that measures tornado intensities.

The tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburbs, hitting the town of Moore the hardest. It packed winds that topped 200 mph.

A search-and-rescue effort to find survivors shifted Tuesday to one of recovery, officials said.

The devastation in Moore was so complete that the mayor said city officials were racing to print new street signs to help guide rescuers and residents through a suddenly twisted and unfamiliar landscape.

A group of homes was reduced to rubble.

Debris from homes and structures was strewn for miles around.

In some areas, the homes of an entire street were destroyed.

Rescuers and first responders immediately began searching through the rubble of structures on May 20.

Large trees were uprooted and flattened.

Given its breadth and power, the tornado ranks among some of the strongest storms ever to strike the United States, CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

Homes in some areas were relatively undamaged while others very nearby were destroyed.

Police, firefighters, volunteers and nearly 180 National Guard troops joined forces Tuesday in searching the rubble and securing areas hit by the storm.

In 1999 and then again in 2003, Moore took direct hits from tornadoes that took eerily similar paths to 2013′s twister. The 1999 storm packed the strongest wind speeds in history, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb said.

A section of a bridge outside of Oklahoma City was blown off its foundation.

The path of the tornado is clearly visible with dirt and debris painting a wide path across the Oklahoma landscape.

The scene — block after block of flattened homes and businesses, the gutted remains of a hospital and hits on two elementary schools — left even seasoned veterans of Oklahoma’s infamous tornadoes reeling.

View more galleries: Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area and The devastating Oklahoma tornado of 1999.

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For local coverage of Monday’s devastating storms in Oklahoma, go to these CNN affiliates: KFOR, KOCO and KOKH.

(CNN) — With everyone missing now accounted for from this week’s deadly tornado, the long and difficult work of recovery can begin.

“We are beginning the recovery operations,” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin told CNN’s Piers Morgan late Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of debris removal going on throughout the public areas of the street,” she said.

“You see a lot of utility crews that are out here. There’s a lot of construction trucks. You’re seeing people walking down the street pulling some wagons, going back into their homes to get their prized possessions.”

A woman searches for belongings at a home in Moore, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, May 22, two days after it was destroyed by a tornado that ripped through the area. View more photos of the aftermath in the region and another gallery of aerial shots of the damage.

Michael Pritz swings a golf club while taking a break from helping his friend to salvage belongings on May 22.

Debris litters what remains of a classroom at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22. Seven children died at the school in Monday’s tornado.

A makeshift shelter stands next to a home destroyed by the tornado on May 22.

Casey Angle walks on the bunk bed she shared with her sister Sydney, who was among the students killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School during the tornado.

Tara McDonald shows some items salvaged from her home on May 22.

A swing set sits warped at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22.

Plaza Towers Elementary School students Monica Boyd and Lavontey Rodriguez sit at the parking lot of their tornado devastated school.

Travis French and his wife, Amy, of Capitol Hill Baptist Church hand out fresh fruit, water and hygiene packs to Thomas and Kelcy Trowbridge.

Teachers from Fairview Elementary School help clean up former school counselor Kay Taylor’s home in south Oklahoma City on May 22, two days after an extremely powerful tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma.

Jake English, 12, cleans up retired school counselor Kay Taylor’s home on May 22 in south Oklahoma City, just west of Moore. The storm was part of a tornado outbreak that began in the Midwest and Plains on Sunday, May 19.

A man talks on his cell phone in front of a destroyed house on May 22.

A man looks through a pile of clothing at a roadside relief camp on May 22 in Moore.

Volunteers form a chain to retrieve clothing and other household items on May 22.

Jon Booth moves a piece of debris from his mother’s destroyed home across the street from Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22.

Matt Johnson salvages items from his grandparents’ home on Tuesday, May 21.

Two men fold an American flag found in the debris of a house on May 21 in Moore.

A young girl stands among the rubble outside Briarwood Elementary School on May 21.

A doll covered in dirt is among the rubble scattered throughout a neighborhood in Moore on May 21.

Bonnie Lolofie, left, and Ashley Do carry belongings from their apartment, which has no power, on May 21.

Residents salvage belongings from their demolished homes in Moore on May 21.

Kelli Kannady weeps after finding a box of photographs of her late husband in the rubble near where her home once stood in Moore on May 21.

Tufts of pink insulation hang from the rafters of a store in Moore on May 21 that was destroyed in the storm.

Natalie Johnson searches through her mother’s destroyed car outside Briarwood Elementary School in Moore on May 21.

Rescuers dig out a house in Moore on May 21.

June Simson embraces her cat Sammi after she found him standing among the rubble of her destroyed home in Moore on May 21.

A man stands on the roof of a destroyed home in Moore on May 21.

A man helps move a resident’s belongings from a destroyed home on May 21 in Moore.

Air Force Airman First Class Justin Acord sifts through the rubble of his father-in-law’s home in Moore on May 21.

People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore.

People sort through a leveled home in Moore on May 21.

Debris lies among headstones in the Moore Cemetery on May 21.

Workers clean up the Warren movie theater in Moore on May 21.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett surveys damage in Moore on May 21.

Piles of debris lie around the north side of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore on May 21.

As dawn breaks, storm clouds roll in over a devastated neighborhood in Moore on May 21.

Members of the Oklahoma National Guard look for survivors in rubble in Moore on May 21.

A National Guardsman assists in the search for victims on May 21.

A rescue worker leads a horse from the wreckage of a day care center and barns on Monday, May 20, in Moore.

Men tie an American flag on debris in a neighborhood off Telephone Road in Moore on May 20.

Children wait for their parents to arrive at Briarwood Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on May 20.

Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20.

Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. Read more about the photo.

A fire official drives through the rubble of Moore Medical Center on May 20.

Abby Madi, left, and Peterson Zatterlee comfort Zatterlee’s dog, Rippy, on Monday, May 20, in Moore.

A woman is treated for her injuries on May 20 at a triage area set up for the wounded.

Two girls stand in rubble in Moore.

Rescue workers help free one of more than a dozen people who were trapped at a medical center in Moore on May 20.

Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp on May 20 as he sits in his rocking chair where his home once stood.

A nurse helps an older man who suffered a head injury on May 20 in Moore.

Cars marked with an orange X, meaning they have been checked for occupants, are piled up in front of the entrance to the damaged Moore Medical Center on May 20.

Jim Routon hugs his neighbor, 7-year-old Hezekiah, after the tornado strikes on May 20. An earlier version of this caption incorrectly stated that Routon was Hezekiah’s teacher. See an interview with the pair.

People look through the wreckage of their neighborhood after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20.

Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her destroyed house in Moore on May 20.

Residents look through the debris in Moore on May 20.

A man looks through the remains of a home after the massive tornado struck Moore on May 20.

A woman is transported on a stretcher after she was rescued from the damaged medical center in Moore on May 20.

A woman walks through debris in Moore on May 20.

A man is taken away from the IMAX Theater in Moore that was used as a triage center on May 20.

A girl wraps herself in a blanket near the Moore Hospital on May 20.

A nurse walks by the destruction at a Moore hospital on May 20.

Destroyed cars scatter the landscape in Moore, Oklahoma, where hundreds of homes and buildings were put to ruin on May 20.

A woman with an arm injury is helped on May 20 in Moore.

Extensive damage from the tornado destroyed cars and demolished structures in Moore on May 20.

Onlookers stop to view a portion of the destruction left behind on May 20 in Moore.

Overturned cars are among the rubble from the tornado that hit Moore on May 20.

A woman is comforted after the May 20 tornado in Moore.

A shredded tree stands amid debris in the aftermath of the storm in Moore on May 20.

A shopping center parking lot is covered with debris and damaged cars on May 20.

Law enforcement officers block a roadway in Moore where there was extensive damage from the tornado.

A massive tornado approaches Moore on May 20. The storm first touched down to the west of the city near Newcastle, Oklahoma. Visit CNN.com/impact for ways to help the victims.

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Photos: Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma

Rescue dogs help find storm survivors

Storm Chaser pulls 15 people from rubble

Doctors protected patients during twister

At least 24 people, including 10 children, were killed in Monday’s monster tornado. Another 353 people were injured.

The twister ripped through 17 miles of central Oklahoma and pummeled 2,400 homes. The hardest-hit city was Moore.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis told CNN’s Jake Tapper, also Wednesday, that six people previously unaccounted for have been located.

Five were found alive. The sixth is dead, and the body was located at the medical examiner’s office. The mayor was not sure whether that death was included in the official count of 24.

He also told CNN that he would push for a law requiring storm shelters or safe rooms in new homes.

“What we will do is get the stakeholders here in the city … and we’ll discuss what we think we need to have,” he said.

“Anybody that lives in any tornado area should have (a storm shelter), but it’s just the matter of cost.”

Young lives remembered

One of the most heartbreaking scenes in Moore is a pile of wreckage where Plaza Towers Elementary School once stood.

Seven of the 10 children killed in the storm were inside the school when it collapsed.

Heroes or just doing their jobs? Teachers save lives during tornado

Terrified children, teachers’ heroics, no shelter: Inside a tornado-ravaged school

The children were in a classroom, Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird told CNN on Wednesday. He also said their deaths “had nothing to do with flooding, from what I understand.” On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb told CNN the youngsters had drowned in a school basement.

Local resident Adam Baker said he rushed to the school to help in the aftermath. He found some children who had died in a shallow space.

“The ones that were deceased had bumps, scrapes, and they probably would have made it if they weren’t pinned. It looked like most of them just drowned — all blue and stuff.” Pieces of pipe, metal, desks, 2-by-4s, and other debris were on them, he said.

Officials have not yet released official causes of death.

Opinion: We love and fear the Oklahoma skies

Kyle Davis, 8, was among the victims.

His family said he loved going with his grandpa to see Monster Trucks and playing soccer.

“I am angry to an extent. I know the schools did what they thought they could do but with us living in Oklahoma, tornado shelters should be in every school,” Kyle’s mother, Mikki Dixon Davis, told CNN.

Her daughter, who was also at Plaza Towers when the storm struck, survived.

“There should be a place that if this ever happened again during school that kids can get to a safe place,” she said. “That we don’t have to sit there and go through rubble … and may not ever find what we’re looking for.”

Read more: The photo that shows the best of us

Heroes or just doing their jobs? Teachers save lives during Okla. tornado

Woman reveals grandparents missing

Teacher impaled while protecting class

Reality sets after deadly tornado

Photographer on tornado: It’s shocking

‘We’re going to help them recover‘

Damage assessments showed the tornado had winds over 200 mph at times, making it an EF5 — the strongest category of tornadoes measured, the National Weather Service said.

Mayor Lewis said the devastation was so catastrophic that city officials rushed to print new street signs to help guide rescuers and residents through the newly mangled and unfamiliar landscape.

President Obama will travel to the area Sunday to witness the damage.

He spoke about the people of Oklahoma, briefly, during a presentation at the White House on Wednesday.

“While the road ahead will be long, their country will be with them every single step of the way. That’s who we are, and that’s how we treat our family and friends and our neighbors wherever they are in the country,” he said.

“We’re going to help them recover.”

Insurance claims related to Monday’s tornado and storm in metropolitan Oklahoma City are likely to top $2 billion, said Kelly Collins, a representative of the Oklahoma Insurance Department.

Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, told CNN the agency is in “good shape” to support the recovery in Oklahoma and in other disaster zones, such as rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York.

“We got full allocation last year with the Sandy supplemental funds. We are looking to continue the response here as well as the previous disasters.”

But “if we have another hurricane, we may need more money,” he said Wednesday.

Severe weather moves east

For her part, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano traveled to Moore to thank first responders and show her support.

“Our commitment is to be here for the duration — to work with our federal, state, tribal, local and community partners in the coming days, weeks and months to help you recover and rebuild from this terrible tragedy and emerge even stronger,” she said.

Those helping in Moore include police and firefighters from Joplin, Missouri — a city all too familiar with grief and devastation.

Wednesday marks the second anniversary of a tornado that pulverized Joplin, killing at least 158 people. It was the deadliest single U.S. tornado since federal record-keeping began in 1950.

“We remember the amount of assistance that we received following the tornado two years ago, and we want to help others as they helped us,” said Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr.

“We know too well what their community is facing, and we feel an obligation to serve them as they have served us.”

Opinion: We love and fear the Oklahoma skies

‘We just didn’t get there fast enough’

Help came from seemingly everywhere the day the tornado struck.

Dustin Ellison ran to the rubble of a convenience store to help get at people trapped in a freezer, which had collapsed.

“It was one big pile of rubble. We knew people had went in the freezer, and we knew that there was no way they had come out,” he told CNN’s Tapper.

“We just didn’t get there fast enough.”

One of the victims Ellison and the others found there was 29-year-old Megan Futrell. Another was her infant son, Case.

“She was protecting him,” he said.

“Your instinct, when you see that is, for me, I ran towards it. There’s probably a lot of people that didn’t, or that wouldn’t, but not around here.”

Basements scarce in tornado-prone area — here’s why

Moore in bull’s-eye twice, science may know why

CNN’s Chelsea J. Carter, Kyung Lah, Sara Weisfeldt, Nick Valenica, Brian Todd, Mayra Cuevas, Anderson Cooper, Gary Tuchman, Ed Lavandera, Pamela Brown and George Howell contributed to this report.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Review

Manufacturer: Nvidia
UK Price (as reviewed): MSRP £550 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): MSRP $649 (ex. Tax)

We must admit to being a little surprised by the GTX 780 3GB, not least due to its arrival just three months (almost to the day) after the GTX Titan 6GB. Titan was pitched as a range-topping single GPU card in the mould of the 8800 Ultra, albeit at an even higher price tag of around £900, so for the GTX 780 3GB to arrive so soon afterwards, and looking remarkably similar, is rather unexpected.

Despite the new 7-series moniker, GTX 780, and indeed any subsequent 7-series cards, do not take advantage of a new GPU architecture or even updates to the silicon in the way that GTX 580 differed from GTX 480 with the addition of low-leakage transistors. Instead, the 7-series is a continuation of the 28nm Kepler architecture we’ve already seen in the 6-series, with Nvidia’s next major architectural update, Maxwell, not due until next year.

Titan-Lite

However, the GTX 780 still raises the stakes in the endless GPU arms-race, with the switch from the GK104 GPU of the GTX 680 2GB to the same GK110 GPU as GTX Titan, albeit a little scaled down. While this doesn’t change the basic SM (streaming multi-processor) design in comparison to GTX 680, there are three SMs per GPC (graphics processor cluster) in GK110, in comparison to two per GPC in GK104/106.

The GK 110 GPU can also boast up to five GPCs in comparison to GK104’s four, although it’s here that those slightly scaled down specs come into effect. While GTX Titan sports 5 GPCs and 14 SMs (one GPC with 1 SM disabled), GTX 780 has that last GPC entirely disabled, instead boasting four GPCs with a full complement of SMs for a total of 12 SMs. This reduces the stream processor count from 2,688 of Titan to 2,304 for GTX 780; still a large improvement over that of the 1,536 of GTX 680. The loss of the two SMs also reduces the tessellation unit count by two (one per SM), and the texture unit count by 32 (16 per SM). It’s also worth noting that GTX 780’s SMs do NOT boast the double-precision units of GTX Titan, so for compute tasks the Titan remains the only current Nvidia card to offer double precision functionality.

Pleasingly, other than the loss of the two SMs, the GTX 780’s GK110 GPU is otherwise intact. This means it retains the 384-bit memory interface and the 48 ROPs of Nvidia’s super-card, although the amount of GDDR5 has been halved from the double-stacked 6GB of Titan to single-stacked 3GB of GDDR5. Running at 1.5GHz (6GHz effective), this means the GTX 780 boasts 288GB/sec of memory bandwidth, matching that of AMD’s Radeon 7970 3GB.

To compensate for the reduced amount of memory and drop in stream processor count, the GTX 780’s GPU actually runs a tad faster than Titan. As we’ve come to expect from Nvidia, it uses GPU Boost 2.0 to increase the GPU clock should thermal and power levels allow. A base clock of 8,36MHz matches Titan, but a guaranteed boost clock of 900MHz is actually a touch quicker. During our testing, we found the stock card would happily boost to 993MHz though, the same speed as the GTX Titan was happy to boost to.

Looking at the card itself, it’s clear Nvidia hasn’t deemed it necessary to change of the design in comparison to the GTX Titan; in fact, the GTX 780 basically shares the same 267mm PCB and attractive aluminium stock cooler as Titan, albeit with the branding adjusted to suit. That’s no bad thing as Titan was hailed for its sleek looks and high-quality engineering. The two-part cooler comprises a vapour chamber mounted on top of the GPU, which dissipates heat through an array of cooling fins, and an aluminium shroud which directly cools the power delivery circuitry and memory modules. A radial fan provides the airflow, pulling air in from the end of the card and exhausting it out the rear I/O, while a green-LED lit GeForce GTX logo on the cards top reminds anyone with a case window what make their GPU is.

It’s comfortably the most covetable stock GPU design we can recall, but seems likely to irk some of Nvidia’s GPU partners; we highly doubt we’ll see the same array of third-party coolers as usual and other than the radial fan’s motor there’s little-to-no space to put branding stickers. With the huge variability in after-market coolers though, we’re pretty happy Nvidia has started to invest in its stock models to such a degree, a trend that looks set to continue into the rest of the 7-series. All that said, though, as we found in our recent look at after-market graphics card coolers, there is often head room for reducing operating temperatures and noise levels, so we’ll be interested to see if any partners do attempt some more exotic solutions.

With a similar GK110 GPU and the same PCB and cooler as GTX Titan, it’s not surprising to find that GTX 780 matches it with power requirements. A TDP of 250W is 55W higher than that of GTX 680, but with the significantly uprated cooling it’s unlikely to cause problems.

So, GTX 780 is in truth, a slightly neutered GTX Titan, but considering Titan’s monster performance, this still makes GTX 780 a formidable card on paper. So formidable in fact that, rather than price it the same as the out-going GTX 680 (which launched at £429), Nvidia is going up another pricing rung, with the GTX 780 set to go on sale for £550. This, presumably, will result in the whole GeForce range shifting up a notch for 7-series, which, considering the reducing relevance of it’s low-end in the face of improving processor graphics, does make some sense. Nonetheless, we’re still not fans of dropping more than half a grand on a top-end single-GPU card, although there’s certainly precedent; the 8800 Ultra launched at a similar price back in 2007.

GTX 780 Specs

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A model, wearing a Campbell’s Soup dress in a nod to Andy Warhol’s iconic pop art, stands at the “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” exhibition currently showing in Shanghai.

American pop artist Andy Warhol poses in a Mao suit — the common attire of men in China during the second half of the 20th century, including Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The photo was taken in a New York studio after his return from China.

During his first and only trip in China, Warhol is pictured in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, with its iconic portrait of Chairman Mao in November 1982.

After signing as a model with Ford Agency, Warhol began considering how to pose for the camera. Warhol experimented with poses in front of his friend and personal photographer, Christopher Makos. Here, he imitates the expression of one of the guardian lions in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

In his hotel room in Beijing, Warhol tried poses inspired by the many people he observed practicing tai chi outdoors.

Warhol stands by Chinese citizens on the Great Wall of China.

Warhol also spent a morning at the Great Wall of China. “It doesn’t look like a wall, it looks like a rollercoaster without the roller,” Makos recalls him remarking.

Christopher Makos (L) and Andy Warhol (R) had their picture taken in front of Tiananmen Square by one of the photographers hanging around the area. Back in the U.S., they received the hand-colored photo in the mail a few months later.

Several of Warhol’s “Chairman Mao” portraits from the collection of Gunter Sachs are pictured at the auction preview at Sotheby’s London in May 2012.

A visitor takes photos at the exhibition “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” showing at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art from April 28- May 31. The show excluded his iconic portraits of Chairman Mao.

A Christie’s art expert walks by a Mao portrait by Andy Warhol at a press preview in Hong Kong in October 2006. The piece was auctioned to Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau for US$ 17.4 million the following month in New York, setting a world auction record for the artists.

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Hong Kong (CNN) — When American pop artist Andy Warhol visited Beijing in 1982 and was told there wasn’t a McDonald’s, he replied: “Oh, but they will.”

Twenty-six years after his death, Warhol, whose much-lauded prescience extended across visual and consumer culture, has popped up in China once again — and he was right about the fast-food chain.

“Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal,” the first major retrospective of his work in China, recently arrived in Shanghai with the aim of acquainting the Chinese public with the artist who created some of the most famous paintings of the most iconic figure in the country’s history.

Warhol goes to China

While Warhol’s trip to Beijing was his first and only visit to mainland China, his engagement with the country started a decade earlier, inspired by former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s rapprochement with the communist power in 1972.

On China: Contemporary art

On China: Censoring contemporary art

On China: Contemporary art unhindered

Ripping from the headlines, Warhol adopted Chairman Mao as his subject, applying his signature pop aesthetic to China’s paramount leader. His series of portraits went on to become some of his most well-known works.

READ: Can Chinese art be cutting edge?

“Mao was front-page news in America and that was often where Warhol got his biggest inspiration,” said Eric Shiner, director of Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, which organized the exhibition. He described Mao as “classic Warhol subject matter.”

Warhol relied on a copy of Mao’s portrait photograph in the leader’s Little Red Book of ideological quotations to create his paintings. Little did he know that he would eventually pose for a photo in front of the original portrait hanging in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

His trip to Beijing was an unexpected byproduct of a visit to Hong Kong. The industrialist Alfred Siu had invited him to the city to attend the opening of a night club, decorated with portraits of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana that he had commissioned from the artist. Upon Warhol’s arrival, Siu announced he had arranged a VIP tour to Beijing for him and his friends.

Artistic inspiration aside, China also provided Warhol with a respite from the pressures of fame. “It was one of the special places,” said Christopher Makos, the artist’s close friend and personal photographer, who accompanied him to China.

READ: Hong Kong’s art explosion

He recalled that Warhol went virtually unrecognized in China, although the artist stood out for his unusual looks. “As Andy would say, he didn’t have to wear his Andy suit. Notoriety and fame is a double-edged sword….you have no privacy.”

China’s communist uniformity, with its blue sea of unisex Mao suits, appealed to Warhol’s aesthetic obsession with repetition. “He was all about multiples…and at the time, China was the ultimate multiple,” Makos said.

The country also provided a source of inspiration for Warhol’s nascent modeling career. Warhol posed for Makos’ camera with gestures he adopted from the tai chi practitioners he observed outdoors — and even adopted the bared-teeth expression of the guardian lion in the Forbidden City in one photo.

Can Warhol make a name in China?

While Warhol is well-known within art and fashion circles in China (Shiner said 600 of these cultural elite attended the exhibition’s pre-opening), he remains unknown to the average Chinese citizen.

Many Chinese are familiar with certain Warhol works, such as the Marilyn Monroe or the Chairman Mao portraits, reproductions of which dot cafes and tourist markets across Beijing. But they are much less likely to connect the work with the artist — or to even have heard of the artist himself.

“If you don’t know who Andy Warhol is, I won’t blame you. But if you say you’ve never seen his Marilyn Monroe portrait, I would have to jump into the Huangpu river and kill myself!” wrote user @Jianisi_yangyang on Sina Weibo. A search on China’s popular Twitter-like platform revealed many posts by users expressing ignorance of whom Warhol was or why he is famous.

Having recently launched a “massive” advertising campaign and sat for dozens of interviews with mainland media outlets, Shiner is hoping to reach the masses.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to do this show is so the general public can learn about the artist behind these iconic works and realize (Mao and Marilyn Monroe) are just a few of thousands of images he made,” he said.

So far, it appears that this education is welcome — and necessary. “For the first time, I learned the charm of pop art,” Weibo user @Yanmingdu wrote about the exhibition, while user @GracieMankedun posted, “Just saw Andy Warhol’s exhibition and I got a little confused. For example, I didn’t understand the Campbell’s soup cans.”

“The curiosity is greater than the awareness,” said John Good, international director for post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, which is holding its second private sale of Warhol’s work in Hong Kong this week. “We’ve seen a great deal of interest and curiosity (among Chinese) about Western art and international culture. I think Warhol is a perfect artist…to show what Western culture is all about.”

Christie’s first private Warhol sale in Hong Kong last November attracted a mostly Asian demographic and managed to sell nearly half of its lots, Good said.

Censoring Mao in China

However, visitors to the “15 Minutes External” exhibitions in mainland China will not see any Chairman Mao portraits. While Shiner was planning the exhibition with the host venue — the Shanghai Power Station of Art — its staff advised that exhibiting the Mao works wasn’t a “good idea right now.” A staff member told CNN that government authorities would have considered the works “too political.”

“Of course, the primary concern is to get the show there and up and not put anything in a category that would ever question anything,” Shiner said. “Knowing that we would have the censors from the Ministry of Culture, we wanted to make sure… that nothing would put the show in jeopardy.”

An editorial in the state-backed Global Times newspaper suggested that while Warhol may not have had ill intent, the “provocative” blotches of color splattered on Mao’s face suggested that he was wearing make-up — a disrespectful portrayal of the iconic leader.

While Shiner acknowledged the Mao portraits “could be read as a sarcastic or ironic portrayal”, he said Warhol “definitely wasn’t being critical. He always liked to blur the lines on gender, and making colorful men somewhat beautiful was something that he liked to do as an inside joke,” he added.

Once the Chinese public gains a deeper understanding of Warhol’s work, he expects that the Mao works “won’t be as big a deal.”

Influence on Chinese contemporary art

Warhol’s influence on Chinese contemporary art can actually be traced back to 1981, when many contemporary artists, labeled as dissidents, fled the country, Shiner said. While most of them went to Paris and Berlin, two artists “very specifically went to New York because they wanted quite literally to be part of Andy’s universe” — Ai Weiwei and Xu Bing.

Both artists have gone on to become some of the most recognized and celebrated names in Chinese contemporary art, and some would go as far as calling Ai Weiwei “China’s Andy Warhol.”

“Ai Weiwei loves the idea of multiples,” Makos pointed out, noting Ai’s most famous installations, including the 9,000 backpacks representing the schoolchildren killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and the millions of porcelain sunflower seeds he poured into the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern museum.

Shiner readily concurred: “He’s really gone on to model his entire art-making process and career on proven Warhol tactics, looking at repetition, multiplication, and critique of consumer culture. When you look at his Coca-Cola works, that’s directly related to Warhol and it’s really amazing how many things he picked up from Andy.” Ai’s similarity to Warhol also lies in his social activism, which aims to change Chinese society through art, he added.

As for Xu Bing, viewers may not immediately see Warhol in his work, Shiner said, but he described the artist as a “huge fan of Warhol” who “loves the idea of repetition — the formal arrangement of Chinese character after Chinese character, an endless array of similar looking imagery.”

Unfortunately, neither artist became acquainted in person with their muse, despite moving to New York for him. Ai once spotted Warhol at a party, but did not approach him, Shiner revealed. “As a young man, he was too shy to actually go and say hello,” he said, recalling that Ai told him his English wasn’t good enough at the time.

Ai and Xu aside, the Warhol aesthetic and vocabulary has deeply influenced Chinese contemporary artists over the past 10-15 years, with its characteristic combinations of social realist imagery with pop culture and iconic brands.

The Shanghai exhibition will run to July 28 and make its way to Beijing later this year. Meanwhile, Makos will also hold an exhibition of his photographs of Warhol next month in Shanghai, including images from their 1982 trip to China.

“His work lives on. Maybe (the Chinese) don’t know him, but they know his work,” Makos said, predicting that Warhol “will get bigger and bigger in China.”

“Andy was the ultimate pop artist. To this day you can still find Campbell soup on the shelf in the grocery store and you can see multiples of them,” Makos said. “As long as that imagery is live and well, Warhol will have this built-in publicity.”

CNN’s Feng Ke contributed to this report.

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The Topaz is a fast-attack craft used by the Seychelles coast guard in the fight against piracy.

It is armed with 30-millimeter guns and 25 sailors, but the country has only four such vessels.

Fishing is big business in the Seychelles, but the country’s industry has come under severe threat in recent years as a result of the Somali pirates.

The problem has forced local authorities to change the way they manage the country’s fishing waters. They’ve introduced a newly defined zone which restricts the movements of local fishermen.

Fishing products account for about 90% of the Seychelles’ merchandise exports by value. The sector supplies international markets with an array of items, including canned tuna.

According to a recent report by the World Bank, piracy costs the global economy an estimated $18 billion a year.

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Marketplace Africa is a weekly show covering business trends and focusing on the continent’s key industries and corporations.

Seychelles (CNN) — The pristine waters of the Seychelles, a glittering necklace of coralline and granitic islands scattered on the Indian Ocean, have long beguiled jet-setters and eco-conscious visitors from around the world, turning the idyllic archipelago into a popular travel destination.

But as well as boosting the tiny nation’s tourism revenues, the high seas off the east coast of Africa have also helped create another strategic industry: fishing.

A major economic pillar, fishing is the second biggest contributor to the Seychelles’ finances after tourism. Over the last two decades, the sector’s products have accounted for more than 90% of the country’s merchandise exports by value, supplying international markets with items such as canned tuna, also known as the Seychelles’ “blue gold.”

But in recent years, the fishing industry has come under severe threat as a result of the ongoing risk posed by Somali pirates roaming the waters off the Horn of Africa.

 Map: The Seychelles. Click to expand

Map: The Seychelles. Click to expand

“It’s a big problem,” explains major Jean Attala, deputy operations officer of the Seychelles coast guard. “Anything that disrupts the tourism or fishing industry or the maritime equilibrium is a very big problem for us,” he adds.

Read this: The global cost of piracy

Protecting ‘blue gold’ from piracy

Tackling piracy in Somalia

Ransom payments creating problems

The cost of piracy

To deal with the threat of piracy, the country’s authorities had to change the way they manage their waters in recent years. As part of this increased security drive, the Seychelles coast guard has intensified its patrolling efforts, with fast-attack armed vessels monitoring a newly defined zone for fishing.

But there are just four such vessels in the Seychelles’ entire fleet. It’s a small nation in terms of landmass, but with its oceans, it is nearly twice the size of France. “This is not adequate to cover such a large area,” says Attala. “We need more assets and build up more our capacity to deal with the issue.”

Local fishermen are restricted from sailing beyond the designated area’s perimeter, several dozen miles outside the main port.

Analysts say that fishing boats are of particular importance to pirates because they can be used as floating bases from which to launch further attacks.

But while the measure seems to be working — there have been no successful attacks in nearly a year — the restrictions on the movement of Seychellois fishermen has created another problem.

“There’s no fish,” explains local fisherman Patrick Pierre. “Every boat is fishing in the same place,” he adds.

Pierre, who’s been casting his nets for 12 years now, says his job was hardest during the worst period of the piracy — in 2007 and 2008. Since then, the Seychelles has been at the forefront of the global fight against piracy but the new rules mean fewer fish and less money.

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Joram Madnack is the general manager of the French-owned Indian Ocean Tuna, one of the world’s largest tuna canneries and the biggest employer in the Seychelles. He says fish intake has fallen nearly 25% in the last five years.

“The impact has been on the price, which for some places has gone up by 70%-80% compared to 2007 prices,” explains Madnack.

According to a recent report by the World Bank, piracy costs the global economy an estimated $18 billion a year. The increased costs come as shippers are forced to change trading routes, sending fuel bills soaring, as well as pay higher insurance premiums and security bills for guards on board.

But the threat of Somali piracy is also damaging the economies of neighboring countries, particularly in the key sectors of tourism and fishing. Since 2006, the year the World Bank report takes as the starting point of piracy, exports of fish products from piracy-hit countries have declined by 23.8%. In Seychelles, the impact has been even greater, with exports collapsing by nearly 30%.

“We now fish where we are allowed to fish,” says Peter Sinon, the country’s minister of natural resources and industry. “It has made the industry more costly in terms of going out there [and] be secure to bring in what usually was our daily supply of protein,” he adds.

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And although many of the pirates have now gone, the fishermen say their industry still hasn’t recovered.

For people like Pierre, the fight against piracy and the introduction of fishing zones has proven to be a double-edged sword.

The protection is still necessary, he says, acknowledging that today he is safer. Yet, he and other local fishermen miss the freedom to sail about and return with a big catch.

“Five years ago, there was a lot of fish,” says Pierre. “We could go anywhere we wanted without the fear of piracy and everything.”

Teo Kermeliotis contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/22/business/seychelles-fishing-industry-pirates/index.html?eref=edition

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