NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – Niagara Falls will not be among the "New 7 Wonders of Nature."
It's not even a finalist in the global polling under way to choose them.
Tourism officials on the U.S. side of the Falls said they passed on the opportunity because of worries their cash-strapped community might be on the hook for costly promotional activities.
Swiss organizers of the contest announced the 28 finalists Tuesday. Among them are the Grand Canyon, Amazon rain forest, Dead Sea and Ecuador's Galapagos Islands. People can vote for the final seven by Internet or phone and the winners will be announced in 2011.
Canadian tourism officials had formed the required supporting committee to make Niagara Falls eligible for the poll by the nonprofit New 7 Wonders organization, but without American support the bi-national attraction was taken out of the running.
"There was a great deal of concern that the resources that were being asked, and not in a very direct manner, would be more than our challenged economy could bear," said Kate Scaglione, spokeswoman for the Niagara Tourism and Convention Center.
"It's not made quite clear, if you're selected, what you're going to be required to do," said Scaglione, who said the decision not to participate was made in consultation with Mayor Paul Dyster's office. The top seven winners are required to participate in a documentary, world tour and other events, she said.
Reached Tuesday in Zurich, a spokeswoman for New 7 Wonders said the financial concerns were unfounded. The only upfront cost is an administrative fee of $199, Tia Viering said, and sponsors pay any other expenses.
"If we are going to do a world tour, which is in the plan, and visit each of the 28 finalists, yes we would expect part of the cost to be covered, and that is easily done usually with sponsors," Viering said. "We get lots of calls, companies interested in a place to support their local nominee. This is kind of a no-brainer. Every single site out there is marketing itself anyway."
She said New 7 Wonders' research has found that participating in one of its campaigns, like one that determined the seven manmade wonders in 2007, can generate about $5 billion in tourism revenue for the sites themselves.
The idea, according to the organization, is to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments and natural sites.
"Global awareness rises so much that it's almost unquantifiable," Viering said, adding the program is "trying to reach people who may be not aware of whether it's Niagara Falls or Halong Bay (Vietnam) or the Masurian Lake District in Poland. We're trying to expand people's horizons."
John Percy, who leads the Niagara Falls tourism bureau, said Niagara Falls doesn't need a poll to get attention as a natural wonder.
"We have a brand that stands out on its own," he said.
Victor Ferraiuolo, interim administrator of Niagara Falls Tourism in Ontario, said he was fine with the U.S. decision to pass on the polling. Although Canada took steps to participate, there was no pressure to get the U.S. to do the same, he said.
"We've had decades of visitors come to the area and spread (by) word-of-mouth the kind of experience they've had here," he said.
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On the Net:

Full list of the finalists on: http://www.new7wonders.com/

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Gunmen opened fire Wednesday on buses carrying employees of U.S. mining company Freeport in Indonesia's impoverished Papua province, killing two people in the latest attack on the world's largest gold mine, witnesses and the state news agency said.
The state news agency Antara reported two dead, but it did not identify the victims or say if they were shot.
An Associated Press reporter was told by a policeman who witnessed the shooting that a police vehicle escorting the convoy flipped. He declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Several injured officers were taken to a local clinic, the AP reporter said, one of them in critical condition. Two body bags were later seen being removed. The police officer did not think any Freeport employees had been hurt.
Since July 11, at least a dozen people have been killed or wounded in ambushes along a road leading to the mine, prompting a massive security operation in the militarized zone that is off limits to foreign journalists.
Freeport declined comment, referring inquiries to police who did not return phone calls.
Arizona-based Freeport has been targeted with arson, roadside bombs and blockades since production began in the 1970s during the U.S.-backed Suharto dictatorship.
Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said Tuesday that 15 arrests had been made in connection with the shootings in which a Freeport guard, an Australian mining expert and a policeman died. He said six people had been charged, including a man who apparently acknowledged being a sniper.
"We have been assured from the highest levels of government in Indonesia they are committed to provide safety for our people and for our operations," Adkerson said in a conference call detailing their latest earnings.
Freeport staff were ordered to stop traveling the road last week, and hundreds have been unable to return to work. The buses were turned back when the firing began, Antara reported.
A PT Freeport spokesman in Indonesia, Mindo Pangaribuan, said early Wednesday morning that "secure transportations have been arranged to transport personnel and deliver supplies."
Papua is home to a four-decade-old, low-level insurgency against the government, and members of the Free Papua Movement — who see Freeport as a symbol of outside rule — were initially blamed by authorities for the latest violence.
Some analysts, however, believe the shootings resulted from a rivalry between the police and military over multimillion dollar illegal gold mining or protection businesses at the mine. Others blame criminal gangs.
The shootings were the worst violence at Freeport since the killing of three schoolteachers, including two Americans, in August 2002 that sparked widespread protests by locals who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua's natural resources.
Freeport employs about 20,000 people in Papua, where it has extracted billions of dollars worth of gold and copper and still has some of the largest reserves in the world. Freeport is one of the top taxpayers to the Indonesian government, which is also a minority stake holder.
Papua, a desperately poor mountain province, lies on the western half of New Guinea island, some 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) east of the capital, Jakarta.

LAGOS (AFP) –
Nigerian militants have freed six foreign crew members of a chemical tanker seized more than two weeks ago in the restive Niger Delta, the rebels and the ship's owners said Wednesday.

"All the six hostages comprising of three Russians, two Filipinos and one Indian were released at the same time last night to agents of their employers," the main armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said in an email.

The Oslo-based operators of the Singapore-flagged "Sichem Peace", the vessel from which the crew were taken hostage in early July, said in a statement that the men were safe.

"The seafarers ... will proceed to Lagos where they will receive full medical checks before flying back to their respective countries and homes," EMS Ship Management said.

BOSTON (Reuters) –
Authorities in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Tuesday dropped disorderly conduct charges against a preeminent black scholar stemming from an incident that drew fresh attention to police treatment of minorities in the United States.

Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his home in the Boston suburb of Cambridge last Thursday by a white police officer after a woman called police to report that a man was trying to force his way into the house.

Gates, 58, had merely experienced difficulty opening his own front door after returning from a trip to China, according to his lawyer. But police said Gates exhibited "loud and tumultuous behavior," including accusing police of racism.

A statement on the Cambridge police department's Web site said, "The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate."

"This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department," the statement said, adding that the charges were dropped.

Gates is the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Research and is one of the most prominent black scholars in the United States.

The incident renewed a debate over "racial profiling" and whether police in the United States treat blacks and other minorities differently than whites -- even after the election of the first black U.S. president in Barack Obama.

"I'm outraged that this could happen to me in my own home but I'm outraged that it could happen to any individual," Gates said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Gates, who is seeking an apology, called the incident "deeply painful and traumatic," and told the newspaper he would use it as the basis for a documentary on "racial profiling."

A statement from his lawyer, Charles Ogletree, released on Monday said Gates had been unable to enter his damaged front door after returning home from a trip to China. Ogletree, also a Harvard professor, said Gates managed to enter the house through the rear door, and his driver carried in his luggage.

After police arrived at the house, Ogletree said, Gates showed his Harvard identification and driver's license, and asked the policeman for his name and badge number. The police officer walked away, and when Gates followed him to the porch, he was arrested, Ogletree's statement said.

A police report said Gates initially refused to provide identification and after the officer explained he was investigating a reported break-in, shouted "this is what happens to black men in America."

The report said Gates made threats against the policeman, then followed the officer outside and yelled at him. He was then arrested.

(Reporting by Jason Szep and JoAnne Allen; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Will Dunham)

PARIS (AFP) –
Another clue has been found in the Case of the Shrinking Sheep, an animal mystery in which climate change features as the principal culprit.

The tale of scientific sleuthing is unfolding on two Scottish islands, Soay and Hirta, in the remote Outer Hebrides.

Their sole inhabitants are wild sheep which probably arrived there with the first human settlers some 4,000 years ago.

The sheep's isolation and lack of predators make them terrific candidates for studying the impact of weather, food and genetics on a wild animal population. The flock, suffering occasional surges and crashes in numbers, has been closely scrutinised since the 1950s.

Two years ago, researchers came across a strange thing: The average size of the Soay sheep was progressively falling.

That finding ran counter to Darwinian intuition. Evolutionary theory said that, given the cold, rough winter on the islands, bigger sheep had the better chance of survival, so their genes should progressively dominate the flock.

The solution to this enigma, suggested Imperial College London scientists earlier this month, lies in global warming.

Milder winters in recent decades have enabled smaller lambs, which otherwise would have died after birth, to survive into adulthood and then reproduce, they said.

The climate whodunnit has now been backed by a trio of Australian experts, who have matched weather and population records with the colour of the sheep's coats.

The smaller sheep that now dominate the flock are also lighter-haired ones, a link that has been proven by gene analysis. Bigger sheep tend to be darker.

Why would coat colour make a difference?

The answer, suggests the team led by University of Western Australia's Shane Maloney, is that, in colder times, sheep with darker coats have an advantage.

Mammals with darker coats absorb more solar radiation and thus need to expend less food energy to keep warm than do their lighter counterparts.

But, as the climate has warmed in the North Atlantic, this advantage has diminished, which gives more of a chance for lighter-haired (and smaller) rivals in the struggle to survive.

"If environmental effects are the cause of the decline, then we can expect the proportion of dark-coloured Soay sheep to decrease further," the fleece police add soberly.

The study appears on Wednesday in Biology Letters, published by the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.

WASHINGTON – That was fast. The hope and optimism that washed over the country in the opening months of Barack Obama's presidency are giving way to harsh realities.
An Associated Press-GfK Poll shows that a majority of Americans are back to thinking that the country is headed in the wrong direction after a fleeting period in which more thought it was on the right track.
Obama still has a solid 55 percent approval rating — better than Bill Clinton and about even with George W. Bush six months into their presidencies — but there are growing doubts about whether he can succeed at some of the biggest items on his to-do list. And there is a growing sense that he is trying to tackle too much too soon.
The number of people who think Obama can improve the economy is down a sobering 19 percentage points from the euphoric days just before his inauguration. Ditto for expectations about creating jobs. Also down significantly: the share of people who think he can reduce the deficit, remove troops from Iraq and improve respect for the U.S. around the world, all slipping 15 points.
On overhauling health care, a signature issue for Obama, hopes for success are down a lesser 6 points.
Add it all up, and does it mean Obama has lost his mojo? Has yes-we-can morphed into maybe?
"I think it's just reality," said Sandy Smith, a 48-year-old public relations worker from Los Angeles. "He's not Superman, right?"
Indeed, it's not unusual for approval ratings to slide once presidents actually get to work. They're pulled down by things going on in the real world, by people who don't agree with the ways they're addressing problems, by criticism from political opponents.
In Obama's case, the problems he's confronting domestically and internationally are legion, and his ability to blame them on his predecessor is fading. Challenges still abound in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unemployment, at 7.6 percent in January, hit 9.5 percent in June and is expected to keep rising well into next year. Almost 4 percent of homeowners with mortgages are in foreclosure, and an additional 8 percent are at least a month behind on payments — the highest levels since the Great Depression.
The president is deep into the debate over how to overhaul the nation's health care system, and people are nervous about how their own insurance could be affected. Obama's critics are accusing him of conducting a risky "grand experiment" that will hurt the economy and could force millions to drop their current coverage.
It's all taking a toll on expectations. The number of people who think it's realistic to expect at least some noticeable improvement in the economy during Obama's first year in office dropped from 27 percent in January to 16 percent in the latest survey.
There's been slippage, as well, in how people view the president personally, although he's still well regarded. About two-thirds now think he understands the problems of ordinary Americans, down from 81 percent in January. Sixty-nine percent think he's a strong leader, off from 78 percent before the inauguration.
"He doesn't know enough about any of this," says Michelle Kelsey, a 37-year-old student in Breckenridge, Mo., who gives Obama a three for leadership on a 10-point scale. But then again, Kelsey says, "Nobody could have done better."
"I just feel like people haven't given him enough time. It's going to take longer for the economy to come around."
In an interview aired Tuesday on "The CBS Evening News," Obama linked high poll numbers to inaction.
"The easiest way to keep your poll numbers up, and to garner good press, is to do not that much here in this town, and not to cause a lot of controversy. And there's some people who would probably advise that that's the approach you should take. But that's not why the American people sent me here. They sent me here to solve problems," he said.
It's not just Obama who's feeling the drag. Approval of Congress — already low — has gotten lower, slipping 6 percentage points to 32 percent.
Overall, the number of people who think the country is going in the wrong direction hit 54 percent in the latest AP-GfK poll, up from 46 percent in June.

That's not necessarily surprising. In years past, the public has tended to be more pessimistic than optimistic about the country's future. Recent exceptions have been short-lived, at the start of the Iraq war, after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, after the capture of Saddam Hussein and late in the Clinton administration.

Perhaps most troubling for Obama may be where he is losing ground. His approval rating was down 9 points among Americans overall but 20 percent among independents. Similarly, the increase in those who think the country is headed in the wrong direction came mostly from independents and Democrats.

Dissatisfaction among independents grew disproportionately on Obama's handling of a range of issues, including the economy, taxes, unemployment, the environment and more.

Independents are "the ones to watch," according to Professor Robert Shapiro, a Columbia University expert on public opinion. "The Republicans were more pessimistic from the outset. The Democrats are going to be more resistant to negative information."

Overall, Obama still can feel good about a 55 percent approval rating, Shapiro said, but "the fact that it is on the downswing is something to be concerned about. That's going to affect how members of Congress, and in particular people in his own party, may respond to him."

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted July 16-20 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. It involved interviews on landlines and cell phones with 1,006 adults nationwide. The survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

___

Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http:/ /www.ap-gfkpoll.com.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana's area includes more than one-hundred and twenty millon square meters of land, of which twenty-five million will be developed in its first phase. It also includes 8 kilometers of beach and coasts, 5 of which are considered to be among the most spectacular in the Caribbean, locally considered to be neck-in-neck to the beaches of Bahia de Las Aguilas (literally, Bay of the Eagles) located in the southwestern municipality of Perdernales- often referred by past visitors as some of the most beautiful in the world.

Cap Cana Villa

Computer software is often regarded as anything but hardware, meaning that the "hard" are the parts that are tangible while the "soft" part is the intangible objects inside the computer. Software encompasses an extremely wide array of products and technologies developed using different techniques like programming languages, scripting languages or even microcode or a FPGA state. The types of software include web pages developed by technologies like HTML, PHP, Perl, JSP, ASP.NET, XML, and desktop applications like OpenOffice, Microsoft Word developed by technologies like C, C++, Java, C#, etc. Software usually runs on an underlying software operating systems such as the Linux or Microsoft Windows. Software also includes video games and the logic systems of modern consumer devices such as automobiles, televisions, toasters, etc.

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

Membership Management Software

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday hailed "historic" progress on healthcare legislation and pledged to continue momentum to deliver on President Barack Obama's vow of reform.

"Congress has made historic progress on health insurance reform that will put patients and doctors back in charge," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a news conference after two House committees passed legislation aimed at overhauling the country's healthcare system.

Other Democratic leaders said the House legislation, along with another version being developed in the Senate, would likely undergo changes before anything is sent to Obama for his signature but added that "failure is not an option."

"These pivotal months will finally be our chance to deliver, and we will," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

DETROIT – Stuffed animals, flowers, letters and other mementos placed outside Detroit's Motown Historical Museum in memory of Michael Jackson have been buried at a high-profile cemetery.
Two hearses carried the items Friday morning from the museum to the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit where they were buried. A vault, granite headstone and two plots were donated for the Jackson memorial.
A brief remembrance and prayer service also was held at the cemetery Friday.
Jackson died June 25 in California. He signed to Motown Records in the late 1960s with his brothers as the Jackson 5.
Woodlawn is the final resting place for several musicians and public figures, including members of the Four Tops, Temptations and Rosa Parks.

LED Rope Light

Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide.

Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

WASHINGTON – Sonia Sotomayor's success at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing has some Republicans in a tight spot, with conservative senators forced to weigh the political calculus of voting on the court's first Latina nominee, who also is the first liberal nominee in 15 years.
With Democrats solidly behind the 55-year-old Sotomayor, three days of grueling questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee gave Republicans no new or damaging ammunition to use against President Barack Obama's first high-court nominee.
By the end of the week, the GOP's leader at the confirmation hearings, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., showed no interest in stopping or even delaying her confirmation vote as the country's 111th Supreme Court justice.
"I look forward to you getting that vote before we recess in August," said Sessions, despite calls from some conservatives to delay the vote until after the Senate returns in September from its summer break.
Sotomayor has overwhelming if not unanimous support among the Senate's 58 Democrats and two independents — and is likely to win a number of votes among the 40 Republicans as well. "Each senator will make up their own mind," Sessions said.
Democrats, sensing a big win, immediately scheduled a committee vote Tuesday, starting the clock on a schedule for a final confirmation vote before the Senate leaves Aug. 7 for a four-week summer break as well as before the next Supreme Court argument on Sept. 9.
That quick committee vote Tuesday is unlikely to happen — "I don't think we'll have an approval to go forward," Sessions said — but a party-line GOP vote against her also seems unlikely, given the praise Sotomayor got from a couple of GOP senators. A committee vote the following week would still keep Sotomayor's confirmation on the schedule Obama set when he nominated her May 26.
"Your judicial record strikes me as pretty much in the mainstream of judicial decision-making," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Added Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: "You have, as a judge, been generally in the mainstream."
The underlying politics are dicey for Republicans. They must be careful to keep faith with constituents like National Rifle Association members who oppose her, yet avoid offending the Hispanic voters who represent the fastest-growing segment of the electorate.
If confirmed, Sotomayor would become the first justice appointed by a Democratic president in 15 years, and the hearings were as much a prelude for future Supreme Court fights as a battle over the judge herself.
Sotomayor didn't give the GOP anything to use to get them out of that quandary. She parried all their questions on hot-button issues like guns and abortion rights and defended her speeches that have been faulted as showing bias.
She was unequivocal, however, in her statements on what kind of justice she would be. "I do not permit my sympathies, personal views or prejudices to influence the outcome of my cases," she told senators.
That doesn't mean she'll get all of the Republicans' votes. GOP Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky announced that he would vote against Sotomayor within minutes of her leaving the witness stand.
Republicans repeatedly criticized Obama's past assertion that he wanted a justice with "the quality of empathy," and Sotomayor disavowed a statement Obama made when he was a senator that some decisions would be determined by "what is in a judge's heart."
They also pressed Sotomayor repeatedly on her 2001 statement that she hoped a "wise Latina" would usually rule better than a white male, drawing expressions of regret from the nominee, who said her words were poorly chosen.
Republicans, expressing concern that she would bring bias to the court, gave a speaking role at the hearing to Frank Ricci, a white New Haven, Conn., firefighter whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sotomayor and two other appeals court judges. He complained that the ruling showed a belief "that citizens should be reduced to racial statistics" but declined when given the chance to say Sotomayor's nomination should be rejected.
Her panel's ruling was overturned last month by the Supreme Court she hopes to join.
Democrats devoted some of their question time to allowing Sotomayor to make her closing arguments to the panel that will cast the first votes on her confirmation.

Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., what historians would make of her, Sotomayor said, "I can't live my life to write history's story." Then she added, "I hope it will say I'm a fair judge, I was a caring person and that I lived my life serving my country."

And Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., gave her a challenge to take to the Supreme Court's conservative wing. "Battle out the ideas that you believe in, because I have a strong hunch that they are closer to the ones that I would like to see adopted by the court," said Specter, a Republican turned Democrat.

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On the Net:

Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov

Live food is commonly used as feed for a variety of species of exotic pets and zoo animals, ranging from alligators to various snakes, frogs and lizards, but also including other, non-reptile, non-amphibian carnivores and omnivores (for instance, skunks, which are omnivorous mammals, can be technically be fed a limited amount of live food, though this is not known to be a common practice). Common live food ranges from crickets (used as an inexpensive form of feed for carnivorous and omnivorous reptiles such as bearded dragons and commonly available in pet stores for this reason), waxworms, mealworms and to a lesser extent cockroaches and locusts, to small birds and mammals such as mice or chickens.

Another common form of live food, most commonly used to feed snakes, is small rodents. The most commonly known small rodent used for live food is likely the mouse; many pet stores which carry snakes or cater to snake owners also carry "feeder mice" for this reason (see Fancy mouse).

Mealworms

TURNBERRY, Scotland – When Ben Curtis won the British Open on his first try, he seemed one of the most fluky major champions in golf history. Beyond family and friends, no one had ever heard of the guy.
It's different now.
After a few rocky years trying to live up to his amazing debut at Royal St. George's, Curtis has proved a worthy champion. He made the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He challenged for the PGA Championship. He finished in the top 10 at the last two British Opens, and he's got his eyes on the claret jug again.
Curtis shot a bogey-free, 5-under 65 Thursday that left him one stroke behind leader Miguel Angel Jimenez after the opening round at Turnberry.
While he still has to pinch himself at times when he looks back on his 2003 triumph, the 32-year-old Curtis has no doubts about his ability to contend for a second major title.
"I'd like to think if I was in this position heading into Sunday that I'd be able to handle it well and go out there and play well," he said.
Curtis didn't have that sort of confidence six years ago when he was crowned the Open champion while whacking balls on the practice range, preparing for a possible playoff. Ranked No. 396 at the time, he wound up winning in regulation by one stroke over Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh.
The news was delivered to him by a fill-in caddie: "Ben, you're the Open champion!"
Curtis kept the caddie but struggled trying to live up to being a major champion. He missed the cut the next three times he traveled across the Atlantic, and he wouldn't win on the PGA Tour until 2006.
"You look back on it and you kind of have to pinch yourself every now and then to realize that, hey, I won the biggest tournament in the world on the first try," he said. "That just doesn't happen. It's just weird that it happened to me. I was very fortunate. I just had a great attitude that week. To be honest, I was just happy to be there."
Once he stopped worrying about expectations and let his talent take over, Curtis showed he was capable of being more than a journeyman who happened to put four magical days together at the best possible time.
He probably should have won last year's PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, but ran out of steam while playing 36 holes on the final day. Curtis squandered a three-stroke lead with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch, finishing two shots behind winner Padraig Harrington in a tie for second with Sergio Garcia.
Still, the performance sent Curtis to the Ryder Cup for the first time, and he helped the Americans end a nine-year drought against the Europeans with a runaway win at Valhalla.
Also, Curtis has stepped up his play in the British Open, finishing eighth at Carnoustie in 2007 and seventh at Birkdale a year ago.
"The last couple of years have been good to me," he said. "The big thing, I just love playing links golf, knowing that you have to control your irons pretty well and just keep the ball out of those fairway bunkers and kind of manage your way around the golf course. I like doing that a little bit."
He did it just fine Thursday, taking advantage of the most un-British Open-like conditions along the craggy Scottish coast. The sun was out most of the day. It never rained. And the breeze barely rippled the flags above the grandstand.
Curtis had a couple of wayward shots, taking bogeys at the fourth and 10th holes. But he eagled the par-5 seventh and finished with four birdies in the final six holes.
Even with the pristine weather, Curtis was proud of his showing. He'd been struggling with his tee shots in practice and wasn't sure he'd be able to keep the ball out of the tall, treacherous grass lining the fairways at Turnberry.

"To shoot 65 today, yeah, I was a little surprised, even as easy as it was playing," he said. "I was just hoping to find a fairway."

After posting the same score as 59-year-old Tom Watson, who led most of the day, Curtis was asked what he remembered about the famous "Duel in the Sun" on this very same course.

That day, in the final round of the 1977 British Open, Watson and Jack Nicklaus went head-to-head for the claret jug with no one else in contention. The Golden Bear — from Ohio, like Curtis — rolled in a 60-foot putt at No. 18 to give himself a chance, but Watson tapped in to preserve one of his five British Open titles.

So, Ben, any thoughts on that day?

"I was 2 months old," Curtis cracked. "I remember Jack making that putt. That's about it."

The fatal stabbing of an Egyptian Muslim woman in a German courtroom two weeks ago sparked anger across the Muslim world and fueled demands for a formal apology from Germany. But while the region rages about the story of the "headscarf martyr," holding her up as a symbol of persecution, the plight of China's Muslim population has provoked a more muted response.
On July 5, riots broke out between China's minority Muslim Uighur population and the majority Han Chinese in the far western Xinjiang province. The government responded with a violent police crackdown and, in the end, at least 192 people were left dead. But, says Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst at the government-backed Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo: "There is not a lot of interest or attention paid to these events in the Arab and Muslim world." (See pictures of the unrest in Urumqi.)
Many Arabic news media covered the story only sporadically or failed to pick up on it until days after the riots began, and opinion writers - who were especially prolific in defense of the headscarf martyr - had very little to say about the Muslims in China. An article over the weekend in Saudi Arabia's Arab Times likened the struggle of their Uighur "co-religionists" to that of the Palestinians, and compared the Han Chinese to the Jews; and an editorial in Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper last week urged the international community to pay more attention to the crackdown. But calls for Muslim and Arab leaders to condemn the violence in China remains conspicuously absent from the regional press. (See pictures of the unrest in Urumqi.)
Which isn't necessarily surprising. Most of the region's governments - and what is largely a state-sponsored press - have several reasons to ignore China's ethnically and religiously charged clashes. To some Arab regimes, the bloody images of riot police clashing with Uighur protesters in Xinjiang's capital last week were strikingly familiar, because the same thing happens at home. "They make the same systematic separation of opponents, of Islamic groups, of opposition groups, and they arrest many and they kill many," says Essam el-Erian, a leader of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood, comparing Arab regimes to the Chinese government. "How could they criticize the Chinese? They are in the same boat." (Read "A Brief History of the Uighurs.")
Indeed, the Uighurs and the popular Islamist Muslim Brotherhood have much to commiserate over. The Uighurs complain of religious and cultural persecution and economic marginalization by China's Han-dominated government. Not unlike Egypt's heavy-handed treatment of the Brotherhood - which is banned from participating in politics, and whose members are frequently subject to arrests and interrogations - China also limits the Uighurs' international travel, and maintains a degree of control over the sermons they provide at local mosques.
So far, Turkey has been the only government in the region to offer strong condemnation of China's actions, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan likening the crackdown to "genocide." Turkey shares linguistic and cultural ties with China's Uighurs, and its leaders' criticism of the Chinese government is made easier, says Erian, because "they have a democratic system." (Read "China's War in the West.")
This week, some signs of protest were also evident in Jordan, where, according to U.S.-funded Arabic satellite network Al-Hura, 40 Jordanian lawmakers submitted a letter to the head of parliament calling on the government to formally condemn the events in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the Jordanian Moderate Islamic Party encouraged Arab and Islamic governments to take a stance on the "practices against Muslims in Germany and China." But no formal government statements have followed.
A large factor in the regional silence, according to local analysts, is trade. "There are other political and economic interests and challenges," says Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of Egypt's government-affiliated Al-Ahram Quarterly Democracy Review. China has a significant economic presence in the Middle East, particularly where it fills the gaps left by U.S. sanctions. According to U.S. government statistics, China is both Iran and Sudan's biggest trade partner, and either the main or secondary source of imports for most of the other countries in the region. (Read: "How Iran Might Beat Future Sanctions: The China Card.")
There is also a potential double standard to consider. In the case of Egypt, "China is not involved in or critical about any of the political challenges in Egypt and it doesn't interfere on this level," says Mustafa. "That makes Egypt more reserved towards any clashes that Muslims are involved [with] in China."
Even so, some predict the official reaction will come - in time. "I think in the next days and weeks there will be more attention, because it just started in the Arab media," says political analyst Rashwan, adding that Muslim organizations in the Middle East will also start to publicly voice support for the Uighurs. In the most extreme case yet, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb this week called for attacks on Han Chinese in North Africa in retaliation for Muslim deaths. (See pictures of China after the riot deaths on LIFE.com.)
And while the Iranian government, which waged its own violent crackdown on opposition protesters last month, has remained relatively mute on the issue, several of the country's high-ranking Shi'ite clerics have also spoken out against China's actions. "Defending the oppressed is an Islamic and humanitarian duty," Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said on Wednesday, according to the Tehran Times.
Still, the chances that the region's heads of states will follow suit seem unlikely.
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