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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Cry me a river of possibility: Scientists design new adaptive material inspired by tears

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Imagine a tent that blocks light on a dry and sunny day, and becomes transparent and water-repellent on a dim, rainy day. Or highly precise, self-adjusting contact lenses that also clean themselves. Or pipelines that can optimize the rate of flow depending on the volume of fluid coming through them and the environmental conditions outside.

A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) just moved these enticing notions much closer to reality by designing a new kind of adaptive material with tunable transparency and wettability features, as reported yesterday in the online version of Nature Materials.

"The beauty of this system is that it's adaptive and multifunctional," said senior author Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at SEAS.

The new material was inspired by dynamic, self-restoring systems in Nature, such as the liquid film that coats your eyes. Individual tears join up to form a dynamic liquid film with an obviously significant optical function that maintains clarity, while keeping the eye moist, protecting it against dust and bacteria, and helping to transport away any wastes -- doing all of this and more in literally the blink of an eye.

The bioinspired material is a continuous liquid film that coats, and is infused in, an elastic porous substrate -- which is what makes it so versatile. It is based on a core concept: any deformation of the substrate -- such as stretching, poking, or swelling -- changes the size of the pores, which causes the liquid surface to change its shape.

With this design architecture in place, the team has thus far demonstrated the ability to dynamically control -- with great precision -- two key functions: transparency and wettability, said Xi Yao, Ph.D, Wyss Institute and SEAS postdoctoral fellow, and lead author of the study.

Sitting at rest, the material is smooth, clear and flat; droplets of water or oil on its surface flow freely off of the material. Stretching the material makes the fluid surface rougher, Yao explained. The rough surface makes it opaque for one thing, and enables one to do something never possible before: It offers the ability to make every droplet of oil or water that is placed on it reversibly start and stop in their tracks. This capability is far superior to the "switchable wettability" of other adaptive materials that exist today, Yao said, which simply switch between two states -- from hydrophobic (water-hating) to hydrophilic (water-loving).

"In addition to transparency and wettability, we can fine-tune basically anything that would respond to a change in surface topography, such as adhesive or anti-fouling behavior," Yao said. They can also design the porous elastic solid such that it responds dynamically to temperature, light, magnetic or electric fields, chemical signals, pressure, or other environmental conditions, he said.

The material is a next generation of a materials platform that Aizenberg pioneered a few years ago called SLIPS. SLIPS stands for Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces, and is a coating that repels just about anything with which it comes into contact -- from oil to water and blood.

But whereas SLIPS is a liquid-infused rigid porous surface, "the new material is a liquid-infused elastic porous surface, which is what allows for the fine control over so many adaptive responses above and beyond its ability to repel a wide range of substances. A whole range of surface properties can now be tuned, or switched on and off on demand, through stimulus-induced deformation of the elastic material," Aizenberg said.

"This sophisticated new class of adaptive materials being designed by the Institute's Adaptive Materials Technologies platform led by Joanna Aizenberg have the potential to be game-changers in everything from oil and gas pipelines, to microfluidic and optical systems, building design and construction, textiles, and more," said Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Xi Yao, Yuhang Hu, Alison Grinthal, Tak-Sing Wong, L. Mahadevan, Joanna Aizenberg. Adaptive fluid-infused porous films with tunable transparency and wettability. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3598

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/A0jhz_88ZzI/130408085127.htm

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Chilean poet Neruda's body exhumed in murder probe

By Rodrigo Garrido

ISLA NEGRA, Chile (Reuters) - The body of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, dead nearly four decades, was exhumed on Monday after his former driver said the poet was poisoned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Neruda, famed for his passionate love poems and staunch communist views, is presumed to have died from prostate cancer on September 23, 1973.

But Manuel Araya, who was Neruda's chauffer during the ailing writer's last few months, says agents of the dictatorship took advantage of his illness to inject poison into his stomach while he was bedridden at the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago.

"We're hoping for a positive result because Neruda was assassinated. Pinochet made an error when he ordered Neruda be killed," said Araya. Results are expected in coming months.

Neruda was a supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled in a military coup on September 11, 1973, nearly two weeks before the poet's death at age 69. Around 3,000 people are thought to have been killed by the brutal 17-year-long dictatorship that ensued.

Neruda was buried in his coastal home of Isla Negra beside his third wife, Matilde Urrutia.

His remains will be brought to Santiago for analysis. Some samples could be sent to laboratories abroad.

Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto, better known by his pen name Pablo Neruda, was a larger-than-life fixture in Chile's literary and political scene.

While best known for his collection "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," published in 1924, Neruda was also an important political activist during a turbulent time in Chile.

He organized a ship to bring about 2,000 Spanish refugees fleeing the civil war there to Chile in 1939, campaigned for Allende and was ambassador to France during the socialist's presidency.

The Andean country's intelligentsia frequently congregated in Isla Negra, as well as in his Santiago home "La Chascona" - so named for his then-mistress Urrutia's messy red hair - and La Sebastiana, his ship-themed home in the port town of Valparaiso.

Democratically elected Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace as it was under attack by the military, experts confirmed last year, amid accusations he had been murdered during the coup.

Chilean courts are also investigating the death of ex-President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who is presumed to have died in 1982 of an infection after a hernia operation. Some say he was poisoned by Pinochet's agents.

(Reporting By Rodrigo Garrido; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chilean-poet-nerudas-body-exhumed-murder-probe-141159039.html

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Monday, April 8, 2013

Dad says diplomat had passion for foreign affairs

This image made from AP video shows Afghan National Army soldier rushing to the scene moments after a car bomb exploded in front the PRT, Provincial Reconstruction Team, in Qalat, Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, April 6, 2013. Six American troops and civilians and an Afghan doctor were killed in attacks on Saturday in southern and eastern Afghanistan as the U.S. military's top officer began a weekend visit to the country, officials said. (AP Photo via AP video)

CHICAGO (AP) ? The father of a young U.S. diplomat killed in southern Afghanistan says his daughter always had a passion for foreign affairs and was preparing to learn Arabic for an assignment in Algeria.

Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer from suburban Chicago, died Saturday when the group she was traveling with was struck by an explosion. They were en route to donate textbooks to students.

She is the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya.

Her father, Tom Smedinghoff, told The Associated Press he takes consolation in knowing she died doing what she loved and was making a difference.

She was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and joined the foreign service right out of school.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-07-Afghanistan-Diplomat%20Killed/id-773e2b1b225f4c09a9381615dc9dfe8b

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Despite threats, risks temper Korea war tensions

TOKYO (AP) ? As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people.

A war would be suicidal for North Korea, which cannot expect to defeat the United States and successfully overrun South Korea. War would be horrific for the other side as well. South Korea could suffer staggering casualties. The U.S. would face a destabilized major ally, possible but unlikely nuclear or chemical weapons attacks on its forward-positioned bases, and dramatically increased tensions with North Korea's neighbor and Korean War ally, China.

Here's a look at the precarious balance of power that has kept the Korean Peninsula so close to conflict since the three-year war ended in 1953, and some of the strategic calculus behind why, despite the shrill rhetoric and seemingly reckless saber-rattling, leaders on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone have carefully avoided going back over the brink.

___

THE SEA OF FIRE

Even without nuclear weapons, North Korea has an ace in the hole. Most experts believe its claims to have enough conventional firepower from its artillery units to devastate the greater Seoul area, South Korea's bustling capital of 24 million. Such an attack would cause severe casualties ? often estimated in the hundreds of thousands ? in a very short period of time.

Many of these artillery batteries are already in place, dug in and very effectively camouflaged, which means that U.S. and South Korean forces cannot count on being able to take them out before they strike. Experts believe about 60 percent of North Korea's military assets are positioned relatively close to the Demilitarized Zone separating the countries.

North Korea's most threatening weapons are its 170 mm Koksan artillery guns, which are 14 meters long and can shoot conventional mortar ammunition 40 kilometers (25 miles). That's not quite enough to reach Seoul, which is 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the DMZ. But if they use rocket-assisted projectiles, the range increases to about 60 kilometers (37 miles). Chemical weapons fired from these guns could cause even greater mayhem.

North Korea experts Victor Cha and David Kang posted on the website of Foreign Policy magazine late last month that the North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict.

Even so, not everyone believes North Korea could make good on its "sea of fire" threats. Security expert Roger Cavazos, a former U.S. Army officer, wrote in a report for the Nautilus Institute last year that, among other things, North Korea's big guns have a high rate of firing duds, pose more of a threat to Seoul's less populated outer suburbs, and would be vulnerable to counterattack as soon as they start firing and reveal their location.

"North Korea occasionally threatens to "turn Seoul into a Sea of Fire," he wrote. "But can North Korea really do this? ... The short answer is they can't; but they can kill many tens of thousands of people, start a larger war and cause a tremendous amount of damage before ultimately losing their regime."

___

FIRST STRIKES, PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES

This is what both sides say concerns them the most.

North Korea says it is developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles as a deterrent to keep the United States or South Korea from attacking it first. The reasoning is that Washington will not launch a pre-emptive strike if North Korea has a good chance of getting off an immediate ? and devastating ? response of its own.

Along with its artillery aimed at Seoul and other targets in South Korea, North Korea is developing the capacity to deploy missiles that are mobile, thus easier to move or hide. North Korea already has Rodong missiles that have ? on paper at least ? a range of about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles), enough to reach several U.S. military bases in Japan. Along with 28,000 troops in South Korea, the U.S. has 50,000 troops based in Japan.

North Korea is not believed to be capable of making a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the United States. But physicist David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, believes it may be capable of mounting nuclear warheads on Rodongs. In any case, Pyongyang is continuing to pursue advancements, apparently out of the belief that it needs nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. to have a credible deterrent.

The United States rejects the North's claim that such a deterrent is necessary, saying it does not intend to launch pre-emptive strikes against North Korea. At the same time, Washington has made it clear that it could.

During ongoing Foal Eagle military maneuvers in South Korea, two U.S. B-2 strategic stealth bombers, flying from their base in Missouri, conducted a mock bombing run on a South Korean range. The B-2 is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, precision bombs that could take out specific targets such as North Korean government buildings, and massive conventional bombs designed to penetrate deep into the ground to destroy North Korean tunnels and dug-in military positions. One big problem, however, is determining where the targets are.

Amid heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 1994, President Bill Clinton reportedly considered a pre-emptive strike, but decided the risks were too high.

___

CHINA'S DILEMMA

Without China, North Korea wouldn't exist. The Chinese fought alongside the North Koreans in the Korean War and have propped up Pyongyang with economic aid ever since.

Beijing has grown frustrated with Pyongyang, especially over its nuclear program. China and the U.S. worked together in drafting a U.N. resolution punishing the North for its Feb. 12 nuclear test.

But China still has valid reasons not to want the regime to suddenly collapse.

War in Korea would likely spark a massive exodus of North Korean civilians along its porous 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border, which in turn could lead to a humanitarian crisis or unrest that the Chinese government would have to deal with. The fall of North Korea could pave the way for the United States to establish military bases closer to Chinese territory, or the creation of a unified Korea over which Beijing might have less influence.

China, the world's second-largest economy, also has significant trade with South Korea and the United States. Turmoil on the Korean Peninsula would harm the economies of all three countries.

Patrick Cronin, an Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security and a senior State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, said Beijing is helping set up back-channel negotiations with North Korea to ease the tensions. But he warned that the U.S. isn't likely to win China over as a reliable partner against North Korea beyond the current flare-up.

"There are limits to how far China and the U.S. have coincidental interests with regard to North Korea," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/despite-threats-risks-temper-korea-war-tensions-050653379.html

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Kerry mourns 1st diplomat killed since Benghazi

ISTANBUL (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry is mourning the first death of an American diplomat on the job since last year's Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya.

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of six Americans killed in an attack Saturday in Afghanistan.

Smedinghoff, an Illinois resident, was on her second tour in Afghanistan after returning last summer. She aided Kerry on his visit there last month.

Visiting Istanbul, a clearly emotional Kerry told consulate workers on Sunday that Smedinghoff stood for everything America stands for.

He says she died trying to make a difference by providing young Afghans with education.

Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-07-Kerry-Afghanistan/id-867023bc1b2e4eb7885dffe4e004b855

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The ?NEED? For Immigration Reform | Right Wing News

Written By : Derek Hunter
April 8, 2013

Last week I wrote about the?battle for words and need to reclaim the language. We have to make sure words have meaning, no matter who how offensive a tiny slice of people find some of them.

No sooner had the ink dried on that piece than the Associated Press stepped up and declared the term ?illegal immigrant?dead. ?The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term ?illegal immigrant? or the use of ?illegal? to describe a person. Instead, it tells users it assumes another option will ?evolve.? Can?t you just imagine hundreds of ?senior fellows? at various George Soros-funded Flying Monkey Brigade ?think tanks? typing endlessly in the hope of creating a new, misleading term (before they write Shakespeare, naturally) to foist upon the public, through the media, to make what ?is? what it is not?

The AP opted against (for now) the current preferred phrasing of progressives ? ?undocumented immigrant? ? as imprecise because ?A person may have plenty of documents, just not the ones required for legal residence.? In many cases, these illegal aliens have documents that are stolen from actual citizens and legal immigrants, which is part of the problem.

This move, cheered by those wishing to rid the United States of its horrible, horrible sovereignty and borders, begs a few questions for the AP and proponents of ?comprehensive immigration reform.?

First, if ?illegal immigrant? is an unusable, imprecise term, what do we call ?legal immigrants?? Presumably ?documented immigrant? would be acceptable since they both have the proper documents to show they?ve followed the law?and?the documents are in their name. But that seems unlikely because the converse of that would be the ?imprecise? term the AP has rejected.

Maryland Gov. Martin O?Malley, a Democrat, has dubbed illegal aliens ?new Americans? and pushed for driver?s licenses and in-state college tuition for them, which begs the second question: Why would anyone bother to come here legally when you can get such benefits without the wait times and paperwork hassle?

Of course O?Malley, whom I ?affectionately? call ?Tommy Carcetti? from HBO?s The Wire (mutual acquaintances assure me it?s an accurate portrayal), is less interested in enforcing the law than he is in the 2016 Democratic Party nomination. But most Americans are interested in enforcing the law and, sadly, they have no champion or voice in the current debate happening in Washington.

The ?Gang of Eight? senators working to craft an immigration bill are doing so in private. A spokesman for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,?said, ?We haven?t negotiated immigration reform in the press thus far and don?t plan to start now.?

So what?s in the bill? We don?t really know. But some big-money special interest groups do. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO have?signed on to the deal?in concept and were involved in crafting it. My third question is, who elected the Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO to anything, and why do they get a say in immigration reform when the rest of us aren?t even told what is being discussed and what deals are being cut?

These are all rhetorical questions only because no one in any position of authority is willing to address them in any serious way. There will be a secret deal, cut in private, cheered by the media (which means no public exploration of the bill?s content or consequences) that will be rushed through the Senate on the basis of it being ?needed reform.?

That term, ?needed reform,? will become a mantra in the coming weeks. But why is it needed? The argument seems to fall mostly to the belief that our current system is a mess. Well, it is a mess. Wait times for legal immigration are too long, and the arbitrary limit on high-skilled H1B visas is obscene. But our country isn?t wanting for unskilled labor; our schools pump them out at an alarming rate. It?s not exactly Ph.D.s crossing the border or overstaying visas.

Still, the argument we?need?a comprehensive bill that allows people who freely chose to live here ?out of the shadows? seems to boil down to a couple of things.

One: Since there are millions upon millions of illegal aliens here already, we have to make them legal. First, the vast majority of them aren?t clamoring for citizenship. They?re here to work and send money back home to support their families. Citizenship is something being foisted upon them by ?caring? activists with pockets full of voter registration forms.

Two: Since the border, therefore current law, is being broken so freely, it must be changed. But the logic behind this is so flawed that were it applied anywhere else it would lead to anarchy. Any number of things are illegal and routinely done every day, yet no one is calling for their legalization. People are murdered, banks are robbed, yet no one is seeking to change laws to ?normalize? people who commit those crimes. That a law is regularly broken doesn?t mean it?s inherently ineffective, or those who break it should be given a pass. It just means there are people willing to break it.

As President Obama calls for Congress to?quickly pass?an immigration bill no one outside of big money special-interest groups has seen, and the ?Gang of Eight? senators seems only too happy to do so, it?s important to ask why we need ?comprehensive reform? in the first place.

PS: I?ve been doing occasional radio gigs in DC and Baltimore, but starting tomorrow (Monday, April 8^th) I will be doing my own show on WBAL in Baltimore from noon till 2:00, Monday ? Thursday. If you like, or even hate, what you?ve read from me over the last few years, please consider giving it a listen. It?s essentially a verbal version of these columns and my Twitter feed,?which you can find here. You can listen live at?WBAL.com?or WBAL has an app that streams live you can get for free. I?d really appreciate it. Thank you!

Derek Hunter is Washington, DC based writer, radio host and political strategist.?You can also stalk his thoughts 140 characters at a time on Twitter.

Source: http://www.rightwingnews.com/column-2/the-need-for-immigration-reform-2/

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Utah cabin burglar ends long run in wilderness

A Photo Courtesy of Iron County Sheriff's Office shows Troy James Knapp, in a 2001 parole photo from a California burglary conviction. Authorities say they have arrested Knapp a survivalist suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and evading law enforcement for years. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune,The Sanpete County Sheriff's Office) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; MAGS OUT

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office shows a remote camp littered with supplies and trash, believed to have been left behind by Troy James Knapp, in the southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities say they have arrested Knapp, a survivalist suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and evading law enforcement for years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff, File)

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January 2013, a man identified as Troy James Knapp walks past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities say they have arrested Knapp, a survivalist suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and evading law enforcement for years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff, File)

Sanpete Sheriff's Officers escort Troy James Knapp, 45, to the Sanpete County Jail Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Manti, Utah. Authorities on Tuesday captured Knapp, an elusive survivalist who is suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and leaving some covered with threats and bullet holes ? ending a saga that began six years ago and drew in police and residents around the state. Knapp, dubbed the "Mountain Man" by cabin owners, was taken into custody in the snowy mountains outside of Ferron in central Utah after firing several shots at officers in a helicopter, authorities said. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Troy James Knapp was dodging authorities, again.

The fugitive with a fondness for whiskey and a dislike of living near people had been wanted for a string of break-ins for years at cabins in Utah's mountains. With each near miss, each wanted poster and each threatening note left behind for law enforcement, the legend of him only grew.

Knapp survived by holing up inside the cabins, sleeping in the owners' beds, eating their food and listening to their AM radio for updates on the manhunt. And then, authorities say, he would take off, stealing items such as guns and high-end camping equipment and vanishing into the woods where he lived off dandelions and wild game.

Over Easter weekend, authorities were on his trail, again.

By Tuesday, his life on the lam came to an end, done in by an educated guess by searchers who had grown to know his tendencies, the tracks he left with his snowshoes and the sounds of him chopping wood outside a cabin near a mountain reservoir.

A team of 14 officers approached him on snowshoes ? the only way to quietly sneak up on him ? and called in reinforcements to help corner the bearded and camouflage-clad fugitive, a trim 45-year-old standing 5-foot-8.

Now in police custody, Knapp is telling authorities how he managed to evade them for so long across a mountainous region stretching for 180 miles. "He really has a fascinating story to tell, and right now he's willing to tell it," Sanpete County Sheriff Brian Nielson said.

Knapp, born in Saginaw, Mich., got into trouble with the law early. As a teenager, he was convicted of breaking and entering, passing bad checks and unlawful flight from authorities, according to court records. His most serious offense, an arrest for felony assault in Michigan, was reduced in 1994 to a charge of malicious destruction of property after he agreed to plead guilty.

"He says, 'I don't hate people. I just don't like living with them,'" Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Sheriff Curtis said.

With no known occupation, Knapp drifted across the country and ended up in prison in California for burglary. He fell off the radar in 2004 when he "went on the run" while on parole, said Bobby Haase, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

By 2007, Utah authorities began investigating a string of cabin burglaries they believed were tied to one person. It wasn't until early 2012 that they identified Knapp as the suspect from cabin surveillance photos and fingerprints lifted from one cabin. In one photo, he was wearing camouflage, a rifle was slung over his shoulder and he had purple-colored aluminum snowshoes on his feet. Knapp appears to have aged considerably from a 2001 California mug shot.

Tracy Glover, chief deputy sheriff in Kane County, said it was fairly easy to identify Knapp's cabin habits. Knapp would drink any coffee and alcohol he could find, authorities say. Unlike typical burglars, he never took large or expensive appliances such as TVs or stereos. He took only what he could carry, mostly camping gear and weapons he stashed in abundance in the woods. He returned to burglarize cabins more than once, even swapping one stolen rifle for another, officials said.

A few years ago, investigators found an abandoned camp they linked to Knapp. It had a doomsday supply of dehydrated foods, radios, batteries, high-end camping gear, 19 guns and a copy of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," a book about a young man who died after wandering into the Alaskan wilderness to live alone off the land.

It was in Kane County, near Zion National Park, where authorities lifted Knapp's fingerprints from items in a cabin. The prints matched sets in criminal databases, giving law enforcement confidence that he was their guy.

Knapp is believed to have left that area in early 2012. He started to make his way north from Kane into Sevier, Sanpete and Emery counties, where he was occasionally spotted by hunters. Knapp has told detectives he was feeling stressed trying to hide from hunters last fall, said Brian Nielson, the sheriff in Sanpete County.

Court records from multiple Utah counties indicate Knapp regularly spent several days in snowbound cabins, exhausting the food and firewood before moving on. Authorities say the signature clue of his presence was an empty bottle of whiskey. In summer, he retreated to makeshift camps deep in the backcountry.

He sometimes tidied up a cabin, but other times left it a mess or riddled with bullets, authorities say. He was known to deface religious icons. He scrawled notes for cabin owners, alternatively thanking them or demanding they "get off my mountain." He also warned sheriffs he was "gonna put you in the ground!"

Even authorities have found something to admire in Knapp's knack for survival and evasion. He stepped on saplings to avoid leaving discernible boot tracks and changed stolen footwear often to confuse searchers. He walked alongside trails instead of on them and kept mostly to backcountry.

He used some of those tactics in his final flight, which started more than a dozen miles away from his capture site. At Joe's Valley in the Manti-LaSal National Forest, deputies found boot prints around two burglarized cabins. The tracks led in no apparent direction, Emery County sheriff's Cpt. Jeff Thomas said.

Deputies copied his silent mode of travel on snowshoes over three days and nights as they tried to track Knapp across rugged terrain, first losing his size-10 shoe prints, then regaining his tracks on snowshoe as he ventured higher on the 10,000-foot Wasatch Plateau.

"They stayed quiet and built no fires ? and they were very cold," Thomas said.

To get this far, deputies had to think like Knapp. He moved often and swiftly across the backcountry, covering 20 miles in a day "and that was nothing for him," Curtis said.

They had to imagine where Knapp might have taken off. They guessed it was a collection of cabins a dozen miles away at a high-altitude reservoir. They believe Knapp had visited there before. Along the way, they picked up his snowshoe tracks.

With 13 cabins at the reservoir, "we didn't know exactly where he was," U.S. Forest Service officer Scott Watson said. "We couldn't just go knocking on doors."

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, 40 officers took positions around the 9,000-foot reservoir. Knapp fired off a handful of shots at a helicopter that flushed him out of a cabin. He tried to escape into the woods, but ran into three armed officers. He laid down his rifle and surrendered.

The last three nights Knapp spent as a fugitive were in a framed log cabin with a commanding view of forest roads leading to Ferron Reservoir. Owner Eugene Bartholomew said "it was kind of messed up" and "stunk like crazy." It wasn't his only discovery. On television news, Bartholomew took his first look at Knapp.

"That son-of-a-bitch has got my coat on," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-06-Recluse%20Cabin%20Burglar/id-4ec7346a66cc4cb1baf2f1d87b6653f3

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