The Daily Roundup for 07.03.2013

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-T2lZrrFkGA/

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Scientists help explain visual system's remarkable ability to recognize complex objects

July 2, 2013 ? How is it possible for a human eye to figure out letters that are twisted and looped in crazy directions, like those in the little security test internet users are often given on websites?

It seems easy to us -- the human brain just does it. But the apparent simplicity of this task is an illusion. The task is actually so complex, no one has been able to write computer code that translates these distorted letters the same way that neural networks can. That's why this test, called a CAPTCHA, is used to distinguish a human response from computer bots that try to steal sensitive information.

Now, a team of neuroscientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has taken on the challenge of exploring how the brain accomplishes this remarkable task. Two studies published within days of each other demonstrate how complex a visual task decoding a CAPTCHA, or any image made of simple and intricate elements, actually is to the brain.

The findings of the two studies, published June 19 in Neuron and June 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), take two important steps forward in understanding vision, and rewrite what was believed to be established science. The results show that what neuroscientists thought they knew about one piece of the puzzle was too simple to be true.

Their deep and detailed research -- -involving recordings from hundreds of neurons -- -may also have future clinical and practical implications, says the study's senior co-authors, Salk neuroscientists Tatyana Sharpee and John Reynolds.

"Understanding how the brain creates a visual image can help humans whose brains are malfunctioning in various different ways -- -such as people who have lost the ability to see," says Sharpee, an associate professor in the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory. "One way of solving that problem is to figure out how the brain -- -not the eye, but the cortex -- -- processes information about the world. If you have that code then you can directly stimulate neurons in the cortex and allow people to see."

Reynolds, a professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory, says an indirect benefit of understanding the way the brain works is the possibility of building computer systems that can act like humans.

"The reason that machines are limited in their capacity to recognize things in the world around us is that we don't really understand how the brain does it as well as it does," he says.

The scientists emphasize that these are long-term goals that they are striving to reach, a step at a time.

Integrating parts into wholes

In these studies, Salk neurobiologists sought to figure out how a part of the visual cortex known as area V4 is able to distinguish between different visual stimuli even as the stimuli move around in space. V4 is responsible for an intermediate step in neural processing of images.

"Neurons in the visual system are sensitive to regions of space -- -- they are like little windows into the world," says Reynolds. "In the earliest stages of processing, these windows -- -known as receptive fields -- -are small. They only have access to information within a restricted region of space. Each of these neurons sends brain signals that encode the contents of a little region of space -- -they respond to tiny, simple elements of an object such as edge oriented in space, or a little patch of color."

Neurons in V4 have a larger receptive field that can also compute more complex shapes such as contours. They accomplishes this by integrating inputs from earlier visual areas in the cortex -- -that is, areas nearer the retina, which provides the input to the visual system, which have small receptive fields, and sends on that information for higher level processing that allow us to see complex images, such as faces, he says.

Both new studies investigated the issue of translation invariance -- -- the ability of a neuron to recognize the same stimulus within its receptive field no matter where it is in space, where it happens to fall within the receptive field.

The Neuron paper looked at translation invariance by analyzing the response of 93 individual neurons in V4 to images of lines and shapes like curves, while the PNAS study looked at responses of V4 neurons to natural scenes full of complex contours.

Dogma in the field is that V4 neurons all exhibit translation invariance.

"The accepted understanding is that individuals neurons are tuned to recognize the same stimulus no matter where it was in their receptive field," says Sharpee.

For example, a neuron might respond to a bit of the curve in the number 5 in a CAPTCHA image, no matter how the 5 is situated within its receptive field. Researchers believed that neuronal translation invariance -- -the ability to recognize any stimulus, no matter where it is in space -- -increases as an image moves up through the visual processing hierarchy.

"But what both studies show is that there is more to the story," she says. "There is a trade off between the complexity of the stimulus and the degree to which the cell can recognize it as it moves from place to place."

A deeper mystery to be solved

The Salk researchers found that neurons that respond to more complicated shapes -- -like the curve in 5 or in a rock -- -- demonstrated decreased translation invariance. "They need that complicated curve to be in a more restricted range for them to detect it and understand its meaning," Reynolds says. "Cells that prefer that complex shape don't yet have the capacity to recognize that shape everywhere."

On the other hand, neurons in V4 tuned to recognize simpler shapes, like a straight line in the number 5, have increased translation invariance. "They don't care where the stimuli they are tuned to is, as long as it is within their receptive field," Sharpee says.

"Previous studies of object recognition have assumed that neuronal responses at later stages in visual processing remain the same regardless of basic visual transformations to the object's image. Our study highlights where this assumption breaks down, and suggests simple mechanisms that could give rise to object selectivity," says Jude Mitchell, a Salk research scientist who was the senior author on the Neuron paper.

"It is important that results from the two studies are quite compatible with one another, that what we find studying just lines and curves in one first experiment matches what we see when the brain experiences the real world," says Sharpee, who is well known for developing a computational method to extract neural responses from natural images.

"What this tells us is that there is a deeper mystery here to be solved," Reynolds says. "We have not figured out how translation invariance is achieved. What we have done is unpacked part of the machinery for achieving integration of parts into wholes."

Minjoon Kouh, a former postdoctoral fellow at Salk, participated in the PNAS study. Salk postdoctoral researcher Anirvan Nandy and senior staff scientist Jude Mitchell, of the Salk Systems Neurobiology Laboratory, were co-authors of the Neuron paper.

Both studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01EY019493), the McKnight Scholarship and the Ray Thomas Edwards and W. M. Keck Foundations. In addition, the PNAS study received a grant from the Searle Funds. The Neuron study was additionally funded by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (EY0113802), the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Schwartz Foundation, and a Pioneer Fund postdoctoral fellowship.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/2LE5bjYHJGc/130702100008.htm

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Romney Voted Against Running in Family Poll (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316628509?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Paint Made From People: The Fascinating History Behind Extinct Colors

You?d think a paint named ?mummy brown? would be the product of good marketing. In fact, it dates back to the 16th century, when actual mummies were ground up and sold as paint. On Hyperallergic today, Allison Meier takes a look at the surprisingly riveting history of extinct pigments.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lhszyPmDxOg/paint-made-from-people-the-fascinating-history-behind-650844628

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Ruben Studdard to compete on 'Biggest Loser'

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Anna Chan TODAY

16 hours ago

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images file

Ruben Studdard is competing in "The Biggest Loser" this fall.

Ruben Studdard is getting back into the reality TV game! The season two champ of ?American Idol? is joining the 15th season of ?The Biggest Loser? as one of its contestants when the weight-loss competition returns this fall.

This isn?t the Velvet Teddy Bear?s first attempt at shedding weight. According to People.com, the singer packed on an extra 100 pounds onto his already big frame after winning ?Idol.? He later teamed up with ?Extra? and a trainer to get in shape, but that lasted just two weeks. In 2006, he participated in a weight-loss program at Duke University in North Carolina and lost his post-?Idol? pounds.

?On both sides of my family, I have a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure and things of that nature,? a slimmer Studdard told TODAY host Meredith Vieira in an October 2006 interview about his inspiration for getting healthy. ?I just wanted to basically combat those issues at an early age. They?ve never been an issue for me, but I wanted to do it while I was still young, and felt like working out and looking great.?

The singer told Vieira that exercising was never an issue, especially since he went to college on a football scholarship. Instead, it was food that was the root of his weight issues.

?We?re from Alabama, we love to eat!? he said. ?So I basically had to change my thinking and as it pertains to the foods I wanted to eat. (Duke) put me on a 1,200 to 1,500 calorie diet a day. It ended up being pretty easy.?

He said that after leaving the Duke program, he even switched to a vegetarian diet to clean out his system.

But eventually, the weight came back.

He explained on ?The Wendy Williams Show? last June while promoting his fifth album that between the demise of his three-year marriage and the stress of owing hundreds of thousands in back taxes, he turned to food for comfort.

?I just started going out and kickin? it,? he told the talk-show host.

Now, Studdard?s ready to get back in shape with help from ?The Biggest Loser.?

?The Biggest Loser? kicks off season 15 on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/american-idol-winner-ruben-studdard-compete-biggest-loser-6C10488682

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Genomes of cholera bacteria from Haiti confirm epidemic originated from single source

Public release date: 2-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology

The strain of cholera that has sickened thousands in Haiti came from a single source and was not repeatedly introduced to the island over the past three years as some have thought, according to a new study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The results of this latest study are consistent with earlier findings that indicate Vibrio cholerae bacteria were introduced to Haiti by United nations soldiers between July and October 2010, when Nepalese soldiers arrived to assist recovery efforts after the January 2010 earthquake in that country. The genome sequences of V. cholerae strains from Haiti reveal they have not gained any new genetic material since their introduction and that they have a limited ability to acquire genes from other organisms through a process called transformation.

This new information may help public health authorities understand future cholera outbreaks in Haiti and elsewhere, according to the authors. "The use of high resolution sequence data that is amenable to evolutionary analysis will greatly enhance our ability to discern transmission pathways of virulent clones such as the one implicated in this epidemic," write the authors.

The earthquake in January 2010 killed tens of thousands of Haitians, and it was followed several months later by an outbreak of cholera, a disease that had never before been documented in Haiti. Studies of the outbreak indicate that poor sanitation at a United Nations camp resulted in sewage contamination of local water supplies, and phylogenetic analysis of the Haiti V. cholerae strains and strains from around the globe indicate the strain was most likely accidentally brought to the camp by U.N. troops from Nepal.

Earlier "fingerprinting" of Haiti's V. cholerae isolates using pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has shown the bacterium has changed somewhat since the epidemic began in October 2010, but because of the nature of PFGE, the significance of those changes was not known. Were the changes meaningful? Were the bacteria gaining or losing genes that could impact the course of disease? Did they gain genes from other bacteria in the environment? Are their genomes rearranged? The answers could make a difference in the severity of future outbreaks.

The authors of the study in mBio set out to study in greater detail how V. cholerae may have evolved since its introduction to the island nation, and whether it has acquired genes that bestow new abilities. They sequenced the genomes of 23 different V. cholerae isolates from Haiti that represent multiple PFGE "fingerprint" patterns and were taken from a variety of locations and at various time points during the epidemic.

When compared with the genome sequences of V. cholerae strains from around the world, the Haiti isolates and three Nepal isolates are tightly related, forming a monophyletic group to which no other genome sequences belong.

This result indicates that "Nepalese isolates are the closest relatives to the Haiti strain identified to date, even when placed into a phylogeny with a larger collection of isolates representing recent cholera epidemics," write the authors. This means that the outbreak originated from a single introduction of bacteria, and PFGE variants arose from gradual evolution of the organisms, not from any secondary introduction.

The Haiti strains also have a limited ability to acquire new genes through the process of transformation, by which genetic material is picked up from other bacteria or from the environment. There is some evidence that transformation is an important mechanism for bacteria to acquire the necessary abilities to adapt to a particular environment, so the fact that the Haiti strains are deficient in this respect raises the question of whether they will be able to adapt to life in Haiti or if they might go extinct once the epidemic has ended.

The Haiti isolates belong to a type of V. cholerae called "Atypical El Tor" strains, a group that, in locations in Asia and Africa, has managed to acquire multidrug resistance and enhanced virulence traits that result in higher infection rates and harsher symptoms. The authors argue that to avert larger and more difficult to treat outbreaks of cholera, it is necessary to track the ongoing and unpredictable evolution of the organism in Haiti and elsewhere with surveillance of V. cholerae via tools like whole genome sequencing.

###

mBio is an open access online journal published by the American Society for Microbiology to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of the journal is on rapid publication of cutting-edge research spanning the entire spectrum of microbiology and related fields. It can be found online at http://mbio.asm.org.

The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 2-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology

The strain of cholera that has sickened thousands in Haiti came from a single source and was not repeatedly introduced to the island over the past three years as some have thought, according to a new study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The results of this latest study are consistent with earlier findings that indicate Vibrio cholerae bacteria were introduced to Haiti by United nations soldiers between July and October 2010, when Nepalese soldiers arrived to assist recovery efforts after the January 2010 earthquake in that country. The genome sequences of V. cholerae strains from Haiti reveal they have not gained any new genetic material since their introduction and that they have a limited ability to acquire genes from other organisms through a process called transformation.

This new information may help public health authorities understand future cholera outbreaks in Haiti and elsewhere, according to the authors. "The use of high resolution sequence data that is amenable to evolutionary analysis will greatly enhance our ability to discern transmission pathways of virulent clones such as the one implicated in this epidemic," write the authors.

The earthquake in January 2010 killed tens of thousands of Haitians, and it was followed several months later by an outbreak of cholera, a disease that had never before been documented in Haiti. Studies of the outbreak indicate that poor sanitation at a United Nations camp resulted in sewage contamination of local water supplies, and phylogenetic analysis of the Haiti V. cholerae strains and strains from around the globe indicate the strain was most likely accidentally brought to the camp by U.N. troops from Nepal.

Earlier "fingerprinting" of Haiti's V. cholerae isolates using pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has shown the bacterium has changed somewhat since the epidemic began in October 2010, but because of the nature of PFGE, the significance of those changes was not known. Were the changes meaningful? Were the bacteria gaining or losing genes that could impact the course of disease? Did they gain genes from other bacteria in the environment? Are their genomes rearranged? The answers could make a difference in the severity of future outbreaks.

The authors of the study in mBio set out to study in greater detail how V. cholerae may have evolved since its introduction to the island nation, and whether it has acquired genes that bestow new abilities. They sequenced the genomes of 23 different V. cholerae isolates from Haiti that represent multiple PFGE "fingerprint" patterns and were taken from a variety of locations and at various time points during the epidemic.

When compared with the genome sequences of V. cholerae strains from around the world, the Haiti isolates and three Nepal isolates are tightly related, forming a monophyletic group to which no other genome sequences belong.

This result indicates that "Nepalese isolates are the closest relatives to the Haiti strain identified to date, even when placed into a phylogeny with a larger collection of isolates representing recent cholera epidemics," write the authors. This means that the outbreak originated from a single introduction of bacteria, and PFGE variants arose from gradual evolution of the organisms, not from any secondary introduction.

The Haiti strains also have a limited ability to acquire new genes through the process of transformation, by which genetic material is picked up from other bacteria or from the environment. There is some evidence that transformation is an important mechanism for bacteria to acquire the necessary abilities to adapt to a particular environment, so the fact that the Haiti strains are deficient in this respect raises the question of whether they will be able to adapt to life in Haiti or if they might go extinct once the epidemic has ended.

The Haiti isolates belong to a type of V. cholerae called "Atypical El Tor" strains, a group that, in locations in Asia and Africa, has managed to acquire multidrug resistance and enhanced virulence traits that result in higher infection rates and harsher symptoms. The authors argue that to avert larger and more difficult to treat outbreaks of cholera, it is necessary to track the ongoing and unpredictable evolution of the organism in Haiti and elsewhere with surveillance of V. cholerae via tools like whole genome sequencing.

###

mBio is an open access online journal published by the American Society for Microbiology to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of the journal is on rapid publication of cutting-edge research spanning the entire spectrum of microbiology and related fields. It can be found online at http://mbio.asm.org.

The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/asfm-goc062813.php

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Portable shelters couldn't save 19 firefighters

Prescott and other area department firefighters embrace during a memorial service, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz., The service was held for the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew firefighters who were killed Sunday, when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Prescott and other area department firefighters embrace during a memorial service, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz., The service was held for the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew firefighters who were killed Sunday, when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Mayer fire department chaplain Rev. Bob Ossler, reacts during a memorial service for 19 wildland firefighters, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. Nineteen Hotshot firefighters were killed on Sunday when when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group near Yarnell, Ariz. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Mourners bow their heads in prayer during a memorial service, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. The service was held for the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew firefighters who were killed Sunday, when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A woman reacts as the national anthem is sung at the start of a memorial service, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. The service was held for the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew firefighters who were killed Sunday, when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A woman hugs a firefighter before the start of a memorial service, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. The service was held for the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew firefighters who were killed Sunday, when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) ? In a heartbreaking sight, a long line of vans from a coroner's office carried the bodies of 19 elite firefighters out of the tiny mountain town of Yarnell on Monday, as the wind-driven wildfire that claimed the men's lives burned out of control.

About 200 more firefighters arrived to the scorching mountains, doubling the number of firefighters battling the blaze, ignited by lightning.

Many of them were wildfire specialists like the 19 fatally trapped Sunday ? a group of firefighters known as Hotshots called to face the nation's fiercest wildfires.

With no way out, the Prescott-based crew did what they were trained to do: They unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves. But that last, desperate line of defense couldn't save them.

The deaths of the Granite Mountain Hotshots marked the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. Only one member of the 20-person crew survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time.

Arizona's governor called it "as dark a day as I can remember" and ordered flags flown at half-staff.

"I know that it is unbearable for many of you, but it also is unbearable for me. I know the pain that everyone is trying to overcome and deal with today," said Gov. Jan Brewer, her voice catching several times as she addressed reporters and residents at Prescott High School in the town of 40,000.

President Barack Obama called Brewer on Monday from Africa and reinforced his commitment to providing necessary federal support to battle the fire that spread to 13 square miles after destroying 50 homes. More than 200 homes were threatened in the town of 700 people.

Obama also offered his administration's help to state officials investigating the tragedy, and predicted it will force government leaders to answer broader questions about how they handle increasingly destructive and deadly wildfires.

Brewer said the blaze "exploded into a firestorm" that overran the crew.

The blaze grew from 200 acres to about 2,000 in a matter of hours.

Southwest incident team leader Clay Templin said the crew and its commanders were following safety protocols, and it appears the fire's erratic nature simply overwhelmed them.

The Hotshot team had spent recent weeks fighting fires in New Mexico and Prescott before being called to Yarnell, entering the smoky wilderness over the weekend with backpacks, chainsaws and other heavy gear to remove brush and trees as a heat wave across the Southwest sent temperatures into the triple digits.

Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said he feared the worst when he received a call Sunday afternoon from someone assigned to the fire.

"All he said was, 'We might have bad news. The entire Hotshot crew deployed their shelters,'" Fraijo said. "When we talk about deploying the shelters, that's an automatic fear, absolutely. That's a last-ditch effort to save yourself when you deploy your shelter."

Arizona Forestry Division spokesman Mike Reichling said all 19 victims had deployed their emergency shelters as they were trained to do.

As a last resort, firefighters are supposed to step into the shelters, lie face down on the ground and pull the fire-resistant fabric completely over themselves. The shelter is designed to reflect heat and trap cool, breathable air inside for a few minutes while a wildfire burns over a person.

But its success depends on firefighters being in a cleared area away from fuels and not in the direct path of a raging inferno of heat and hot gases.

The glue holding the layers of the shelter together begins to come apart at about 500 degrees, well above the 300 degrees that would almost immediately kill a person.

"It'll protect you, but only for a short amount of time. If the fire quickly burns over you, you'll probably survive that," said Prescott Fire Capt. Jeff Knotek. But "if it burns intensely for any amount of time while you're in that thing, there's nothing that's going to save you from that."

Fire officials gave no further details about the shelters being deployed. The bodies were taken to Phoenix for autopsies to determine exactly how the firefighters died.

The U.S. has 110 Hotshot crews, according to the U.S. Forest Service website. They typically have about 20 members each and go through specialized training.

Many of those killed were graduates of Prescott High, including 28-year-old Clayton Whitted, who as a firefighter would work out on the same campus where he played football for the Prescott Badgers from 2000 to 2004.

The school's football coach, Lou Beneitone, said Whitted was the type of athlete who "worked his fanny off."

"He wasn't a big kid, and many times in the game, he was overpowered by big men, and he still got after it. He knew, 'This man in front of me is a lot bigger and stronger than me,' but he'd try it and he'd smile trying it," Beneitone said.

He and Whitted had talked a few months ago about how this year's fire season could be a "rough one."

"I shook his hand, gave him a hug, and said, 'Be safe out there,'" Beneitone recalled. "He said, 'I will, Coach.'"

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Yarnell area. In addition to the flames, downed power lines and exploding propane tanks continued to threaten what was left of the town, said fire information officer Steve Skurja. A light rain fell over the area but did little to slow the fire.

"It's a very hazardous situation right now," Skurja said.

Arizona is in the midst of a historic drought that has left large parts of the state highly flammable.

"Until we get a significant showing of the monsoons, it's showtime, and it's dangerous, really dangerous," incident commander Roy Hall said.

The National Fire Protection Association website lists the last wildfire to kill more firefighters as the 1933 Griffith Park blaze in Los Angeles, which killed 29. The biggest loss of firefighters in U.S. history was 343, killed in the 9/11 attack on New York.

In 1994, the Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by an explosion of flames.

A makeshift memorial of flower bouquets and American flags formed at the Prescott fire station where the crew was based.

More than 1,000 people turned out Monday to a gym at the Prescott campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to honor those killed.

At the end of the ceremony, dozens of wildfire fighters sporting Hotshot shirts and uniforms from other jurisdictions marched down the bleachers to the front of the auditorium, their heavy work boots drumming a march on the wooden steps.

They bowed their heads for a moment of silence in memory of their fallen comrades as slides bearing each man's name and age were projected behind them.

___

Associated Press writers Bob Christie in Phoenix, Brian Skoloff in Yarnell, Tami Abdollah in Prescott, and Martin Di Caro in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-02-Firefighters%20Killed/id-773a4759fc9c4351a4dbbd61fb8c67d7

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