http://www.linktv.org/about/blog/post/470/the-story-of-chocolate-winner-robin-blotnick-in-the-huffington-post

Robin Blotnick has worked as a freelance editor, and as a developer at Walden Media. His current project, "Gods and Kings," is a feature documentary about media, magic and popular culture in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala. If it is anything like his award-winning entry for our ViewChange Online Film Contest — Chocolate Country — then we want to see it! Chocolate Country is a catchy story about a group of guitar-plucking cacao farmers in the Dominican Republic. In the Huffington Post, Blotnick describes the idea behind his work:

“The story I set out to tell was the story of chocolate itself. I wanted to show city people what a mazorca of cacao looks like when it's cut open to reveal its syrupy white seeds. And I wanted to reveal the faces of the men and women who grow and harvest the ingredients for our chocolate bars.”

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/11/habitat-proposal-for-endangered-jaguar-put-off/

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put off for a year proposing a critical habitat area in the Southwest for endangered jaguars.

The proposal was supposed to be made this month, but the agency lacks sufficient data on the animal's habits and needs, it said Monday in a news release.

http://www.jasna.org/agms/fortworth/index.html

The conference will take place October 14-16 and focus on the novel Sense and Sensibility, celebrating the 200th anniversary of its publication.

...The conference is limited to 600 JASNA members and 100 companions. As recent AGMs have sold out quickly, the 2011 AGM steering committee urges you to register as early as possible.

http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?Id=C5fdtd728XQ=

Peruvian Culture Minister Juan Ossio Acuña has announced plans to build the "Great Museum of Tahuantinsuyo" to permanently house and display the artifacts discovered at Machu Picchu by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III.

The museum would be built on a 21,000 square meter land owned by the National University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco.

Minister Ossio told RPP radio that Cusco needs a great archaeological museum and the Cusco-based university has the appropriate place to house not only these artifacts, but also others from the Inca culture.

The minister also welcomed the government’s decision to name 2011 the “Year of Machu Picchu’s Centennial to the World” as this will further promote the Unesco heritage site across the world.

January 13-16
Texas Ornithological Society Winter Meeting, Fort Worth
http://www.texasbirds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=35&Itemid=53

January 15
Grand Prairie Library Book Sale, Grand Prairie
http://www.booksalefinder.com/TX.html

January 15-16
Lewisville Public Library Book Sale, Lewisville
http://www.booksalefinder.com/TX.html

January 15-16
Dallas Area Train Show, Plano
http://www.dfwtrainshows.com/

January 16
JMV Toy Collectors Show, Dallas
http://www.jmventertainment.com/toy.html

January 22
107th Burns Night Dinner and Dance, Richardson
http://www.scotsindallas.org/ssod_burnsnight.html

January 27-28
Southwestern Rail Conference, Dallas
http://texasrailadvocates.org/pg_conference.asp

January 28-29
Zest Fest, Irving
http://www.zestfest2011.com/

January 29
North Texas FIRST® LEGO® League Championship Tournament at the Hockaday School
http://www.natureandscience.org/calendar/calendar.asp

January 29-30
Sci-Fi Expo, Plano
http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/sfx.html

January 29-30
Cowtown Coin Show, Fort Worth
http://www.coinshows.com/ftworth_ga3.html

( Read more )

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-nasa-silly-sci-fi-flawed.html

At a conference held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, NASA experts have voted 2012 the most scientifically flawed and absurd science fiction film ever made.

The 2009 disaster film named 2012 was directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Emmerich and Harald Kloser and grossed almost $800 million. The story is set on the date the Mayan calendar supposedly ends (21 December 2012), which is believed by some to be the day the world will end. The story revolves around a marital reconciliation, which takes place as the world begins to collapse as strange neutrino particles cause global devastation.

NASA’s Donald Yeomans, who headed the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, called the film an "exceptional and extraordinary" example of bad science in Hollywood movies. He pointed out that neutrino particles cannot interact with physical substances, and there is no possible way neutrinos carried to Earth by solar flares as depicted could cook the planet’s core and cause hurricanes or earthquakes or produce tsunamis big enough to overwhelm Mount Everest as shown in the film.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/journey-deep-inside-the-mysteries-of-the-mayans-in-expedicion-maya-week-113005679.html

Buried beneath the dense jungles of Mesoamerica are relics of a sophisticated civilization that existed thousands of years ago. Although the ancient empire of the Maya had collapsed by A.D. 900, its impact on modern society – from agriculture, architecture and medicine to science, mathematics and language – is undeniably profound.

But the Mayans also left behind many unanswered questions. How did they build their great stone cities and thriving farms in the rainforest? What is the secret to their uncanny grasp of the universe and ability to predict future events? Why did they vanish?

History en Espanol will probe these mysteries and more with EXPEDICION MAYA WEEK, a specially-themed programming block airing at 8-10 pm ET from Monday, January 24 through Thursday, January 27.

Anchoring EXPEDICION MAYA WEEK is Exploracion Maya, the top-rated HISTORY series in Mexico in 2009. In this four-part series, archaeologist Danilo Drakic travels through the areas where Mayan civilization developed and, with help from experts and local inhabitants, investigates possible scenarios that may have brought about its downfall.

Rounding out the week are Lost Worlds: Palenque, a reconstruction of the extraordinary Mayan world in cutting-edge CGI; The Ancient Maya: Power Centers, exploring how the Maya built a world-class metropolis in the jungle; Deep Sea Detectives: Secret Underground Caves, a look at what undersea wrecks can tell us about the lives and fates of the Maya; and Decoding the Past: Mayan Doomsday Prophesy, revealing how the Maya calculated December 21, 2012 as the exact date the world will come to an end.

http://www.allianceairshow.com/

October 22-23

January 11
Fannie Flagg, star of "Match Game", signing copies of I Still Dream About You
http://www.celebritybooksigningsandevents.com/events

January 15-16
Dallas Area Train Show, Plano
http://www.dfwtrainshows.com/

January 16
JMV Toy Collectors Show, Dallas
http://www.jmventertainment.com/toy.html

January 22
107th Burns Night Dinner and Dance, Richardson
http://www.scotsindallas.org/ssod_burnsnight.html

January 27-28
Southwestern Rail Conference, Dallas
http://texasrailadvocates.org/pg_conference.asp

January 28-29
Zest Fest, Irving
http://www.zestfest2011.com/

January 29
North Texas FIRST® LEGO® League Championship Tournament at the Hockaday School
http://www.natureandscience.org/calendar/calendar.asp

January 29-30
Sci-Fi Expo, Plano
http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/sfx.html

January 29-30
Cowtown Coin Show, Fort Worth
http://www.coinshows.com/ftworth_ga3.html

Let me know if I missed any

This September
http://www.dallaspenshow.com


"At a pen show you may be able to find a fountain pen just like the one you saw your grandfather or grandmother write with, or like the one you received as a gift for graduation, or like the ones you see in period movies. At most pen shows there is a high likelihood that a pen like these will be around, and perhaps for sale."