In scientific coup, Russians reach Antarctic lake

In this Monday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo provided by Arctic and Antarctic Research Insitute of St. Petersburg, Russian researchers at the Vostok station in Antarctica pose for a picture after reaching subglacial lake Vostok. Scientists hold the sign reading "05.02.12, Vostok station, boreshaft 5gr, lake at depth 3769.3 metres." The Russian team reached the lake hidden under miles of Antarctic ice on Sunday, a major scientific discovery that could provide clues for search for life on other planets. (AP Photo/Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Press Service, )

In this Monday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo provided by Arctic and Antarctic Research Insitute of St. Petersburg, Russian researchers at the Vostok station in Antarctica pose for a picture after reaching subglacial lake Vostok. Scientists hold the sign reading "05.02.12, Vostok station, boreshaft 5gr, lake at depth 3769.3 metres." The Russian team reached the lake hidden under miles of Antarctic ice on Sunday, a major scientific discovery that could provide clues for search for life on other planets. (AP Photo/Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Press Service, )

This Jan. 9, 2007 photo provided by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of St. Petersburg shows the Russian drilling machine 5-G in Antarctica. The research institute said Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, it has reached Lake Vostok, Antarctica's largest icebound freshwater lake, which has been sealed off for millions of years, after more than two decades of drilling. The breakthrough has been eagerly anticipated by scientists who hope to find virgin clues about the progenitors of life on earth and other planets. (AP Photo/Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Press Service, Pavel Teterev)

MOSCOW (AP) ? After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have reached a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years ? a pristine body of water that may hold life from the distant past and clues to the search for life on other planets.

Finally touching the surface of Lake Vostok, the largest of nearly 400 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, is a major discovery avidly anticipated by scientists around the world.

Valery Lukin, the head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) who oversaw the mission and announced its success, likened the endeavor to the epic race to the moon won by American scientists over the Soviets in 1969.

"I think it's fair to compare this project to flying to the moon," he said Wednesday.

The Russian team hit the lake Sunday at the depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 meters) about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) southeast of the South Pole in the central part of the continent.

Scientists hope the lake may allow a glimpse into microbial life forms that existed before the Ice Age and are not visible to the naked eye. Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake despite its high pressure and constant cold ? conditions similar to those expected to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

"In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life," NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalati told The Associated Press in a email.

American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but Columbia University glaciologist Robin Bell said those lakes are smaller and younger than Vostok, which is the big scientific prize.

"It's like exploring another planet, except this one is ours," she said.

Lake Vostok is 160 miles (250 kilometers) long and 30 miles (50 km) across at its widest point, similar in area to Lake Ontario. It's kept from freezing into a solid block by the mammoth crust of ice across it that acts like a blanket, keeping in heat generated by geothermal energy underneath.

The technological challenges of drilling through the ice crust in the world's coldest environment have made the project unique.

Temperatures on the Vostok Station on the surface above have registered the coldest ever recorded on Earth, reaching minus 89 degrees Celsius (minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit), and conditions were made even tougher by its high elevation, more than 11,000 feet (3,300 meters) above sea level, resulting in thin oxygen.

The effort, however, has drawn strong fears that 60 metric tons (66 tons) of lubricants and antifreeze used in the drilling may contaminate the pristine lake. Bell said the Russian team was doing its best "to try really hard to do it right" and avoid contamination, but some others were nervous.

University of Colorado geological sciences professor James White was among those who urged caution about drilling into subglacial lakes.

"Lake Vostok is the crown jewel of lakes there," White said by telephone. "These are the last frontiers on the planet we are exploring, we really ought to be very careful."

Lukin said Russia had waited for several years for international approval of its drilling technology before proceeding to reach the lake. He said about 1.5 cubic meters (50 cubic feet) of kerosene and freon poured up to the surface tanks from the boreshaft, proof that the lake water streamed up from underneath, froze and then blocked the hole, sealing off the chance that any toxic chemicals could contaminate.

Russian scientists will later remove the frozen sample for analysis in December when the next Antarctic summer season comes. They reached the lake just before they had to leave at the end of the Antarctic summer, as plunging temperatures halted air links.

Some scientists hope that studies of Lake Vostok and other subglacial lakes will advance knowledge of Earth's own climate and help predict its changes.

"It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they've been working on this for years," said Professor Martin Siegert, a leading scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, which is trying to reach another Antarctic subglacial lake, Lake Ellsworth.

"The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the U.S. and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments," he said in an email.

Americans scientists are drilling at Lake Whillans, west of the South Pole.

In the future, Russian researchers plan to explore the lake using an underwater robot equipped with video cameras that would collect water samples and sediments from the bottom of the lake, a project still awaiting the approval of the Antarctic Treaty organization.

The prospect of lakes hidden under Antarctic ice was first put forward by Russian scientist and anarchist revolutionary, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin, at the end of the 19th century. Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa noted the likely location of the lake and named it following Soviet Antarctic missions in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasn't until 1994 that its existence was proven by Russian and British scientists.

The drilling in the area began in 1989 and dragged on slowly due to funding shortages, equipment breakdowns, environmental concerns and severe cold.

The lake's pristine water may make entrepreneurs sweat just thinking of its commercial potential, but Lukin shot that idea right down.

He said his team had no intention of selling any Vostok water samples but would eventually share the results of their work with scientists from other nations.

____

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-02-08-EU-Russia-Antarctic-Lake/id-501b4cbabc2a4cb69fa255116a41c4ae

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Man who warned of Challenger disaster dies at 73 (AP)

NEPHI, Utah ? Roger Boisjoly, a NASA contractor who repeatedly voiced concerns about the space shuttle Challenger before it exploded, has died. He was 73.

Boisjoly died of cancer on Jan. 6 in Nephi, about 40 miles south of Provo, his wife Roberta Boisjoly said.

The 1986 Challenger tragedy shocked the nation. Seven astronauts, including a schoolteacher, were killed when the shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Boisjoly, an engineer at rocket-builder Morton Thiokol Inc., warned in 1985 that seals on the booster rocket joints could fail in freezing temperatures.

"The result would be a catastrophe of the highest order ? loss of human life," he wrote in a memo.

On the eve of the ill-fated flight, Boisjoly and several colleagues reiterated their concerns and argued against launching because of predicted cold weather at the Kennedy Space Center. They were overruled by Morton Thiokol managers, who gave NASA the green light.

Slow-motion video of the launch showed a tongue of flame sprouting from one of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, licking the main fuel tank.

After the accident, Boisjoly testified to a presidential commission investigating the Challenger accident. The group determined that hot gases leaked through a joint in one of the booster rockets shortly after blastoff that ended with the explosion of the shuttle's hydrogen fuel.

Boisjoly said he was shunned by colleagues and neighbors after emerging as a whistleblower. He took an extended leave of absence while Morton Thiokol worked on a redesign of the rocket joint.

"When I realized what was happening, it absolutely destroyed me," Boisjoly told The Associated Press in a 1988 telephone interview. "It destroyed my career, my life, everything else. I'm just now getting back to the point where I think I'll be able to work as an engineer again."

Boisjoly toured the country and spoke about his experience. He received awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for trying to halt the Challenger launch.

Roberta Boisjoly said her husband continued to receive emails from students and others about his role.

"I'm very proud of what he did. It took a lot of courage," she said. "That's who he was. He would do it again."

Roger Boisjoly was born on April 25, 1938, in Lowell, Mass. He received a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Lowell and was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints.

After 27 years as an aerospace engineer, Boisjoly launched his own business in forensic engineering and lectured at universities.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, two daughters and eight grandchildren.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120207/ap_on_sc/us_obit_boisjoly

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On the 2012 US election campaign logos | Logo Design Love

Steven Heller, Debbie Millman, and Alice Twemlow gave their thoughts on the 2012 US election campaign logos. Here?s a snippet from the post on SVA?s Visual Arts Briefs.

?What?s right with this logo, other than his political stance??
? STEVEN HELLER

?For a corporation, it would feel established and a bit stuffy. Seems as if there should be an image of the Bible on this page? If you?re going to make a site that looks like Tumblr, why not just create a Tumblr account??
? DEBBIE MILLMAN

Nb/ Rick Santorum?s website.

?The further right you get, the less care seems to have been taken with the visual presentation of a candidate?s image. Like a graphic equivalent of his lamely monogrammed sweater vest, this logo looks as if it were created from an interchangeable selection of hackneyed devices that signal American values (eagle, red and blue, stars) in a DIY business card machine.?
? ALICE TWEMLOW

Other 2012 campaign logos

Read what the trio had to say about the all the candidate logos.

Via Gayle Snible at SVA.

?

Related: Obama logo ideas that weren?t chosen.

Get your free subscription, or follow Logo Design Love on Twitter

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Source: http://www.logodesignlove.com/2012-us-election-campaign-logos

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Super Bowl Spectacle: A Perfect Spot to Promote Video Marketing ...

BASED on a latest research conducted by eMarketer, almost 81percent of spending for advertising will be allotted for ads and banners, Internet search, video marketing and business-to-business (B2B) reports. Online video and non-video budget spending is seen to hit the $40-billion mark before the end of the year.

According to market experts, these figures will be relatively consistent in the next 4 years, with video advertising predicted to move towards a 15-percent rise during that timeframe.

Marketing Pilgrim reported that one of the methods that enabled marketers to reach out and connect to individuals and businesses was through Online Super Bowl advertising.

Individual and corporate firms shelled out huge amounts of cash: more than $3 million for a thirty-second commercial spot just to have their products and services seen during the National Football League?s Super Bowl XLVI.

For the first time in history, the global sports spectacle was beamed online and created a bigger chance for businesses to make a viral promotion that coincided with the annual Super Bowl event.

Some online as well as non-Internet based firms took advantage of search engine optimization strategies for commercial sneak peeks on popular sites such as YouTube to craft a solid video marketing campaign and brand awareness.

Meanwhile, one of the more effective and popular ways to reach out to a potential client through Internet-based advertising is with engaging and informative messages before and during a video presentation.

Many people have been accustomed in dealing with this kind of inconvenience just to be able to watch their videos or shows in high-definition, but online video marketers must exercise caution so as not to stretch the limits of so-called viewing length acceptability and norms.

A recent study made by Poll Position showed that people has discovered online video advertising to be sensible and acceptable if these do not last over 15 seconds of total run-time.

To be specific, 55 percent of the respondents believe that 15 seconds is just the right amount of time to view or wait for a video to complete. Only 13 percent thought 30 seconds was fair enough, while far fewer ? 5 and 4 percent, respectively ? thought that 45 or 60 seconds of run-time was agreeable.

The most important thing for video marketing companies to remember: keep those messages short and sweet and create engaging videos or see your visitors go and never come back again.

Source: http://www.videomarketingtactics.com/super-bowl-spectacle-a-perfect-spot-to-promote-video-marketing.html

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Science Shows How Exercise Might Help in Prostate Cancer (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Vigorous exercise causes changes in some 180 prostate genes among men with early stage prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

Included are genes known to suppress tumor growth and repair DNA, which might mean that exercise could prevent or delay progression of the disease, the researchers said.

"There are many reasons to exercise," June Chan, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, and urology at the University of California, San Francisco, said during a Tuesday press conference. "Here's yet another great reason to exercise and it may offer a prostate cancer-specific benefit."

For the study, Chan's team compared prostate genes from 70 men with low-risk prostate cancer to normal prostate genes from 70 men.

The cancer patients in the study were undergoing "active surveillance" -- also known as "watchful waiting" -- rather than active treatment.

The men answered questions about how much and what type of exercise they did.

Chan's group found 184 genes that were differently expressed in men who did activities such as jogging, tennis or swimming for at least three hours a week, compared with genes in men who did less exercise.

Genes more highly expressed in men who did vigorous exercise included well-known tumor-suppressor genes associated with breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, the researchers found.

In addition, these men also had increased expression of genes involved in DNA repair, they noted.

The researchers hope to confirm their findings in a larger group of men who are undergoing active surveillance, and also among men who have experienced a recurrence of their cancer.

There are limitations to this study, Chan said. Most important, the study was small and so the results could be by chance, she said.

"If confirmed, the results suggest that vigorous physical activity might offer protection against prostate cancer progression," Chan said.

Exercise has also been found to have benefits for breast and colon cancer, the researchers noted.

The results of the new study are slated for presentation Friday at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco.

Because this research is being presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Dr. Anthony D'Amico, chief of radiation oncology, and a prostate cancer expert from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said that "this is an interesting, hypothesis-generating study that will require further testing and perhaps opens doors to exercise as part of future prostate cancer treatment, but it's too soon to tell."

In two studies last year, Chan's group found links between vigorous activity, such as brisk walking, and a lowered risk of prostate cancer progression and death.

In one study, which appeared in the February 2011 Journal of Clinical Oncology, men with prostate cancer who participated in three or more hours a week of vigorous activity had about a 50 percent lower risk of death from all illnesses, and a 60 percent lower risk of death from prostate cancer, compared to men who participated in less than one hour per week of vigorous physical activity, Chan said.

In the other study, published in the May 2011 issue of Cancer Research, men who walked three miles per hour or faster had about half the risk of prostate cancer progression of men who walked at two miles per hour or less, she said.

"These studies suggested that some form of cardiopulmonary exercise might offer specific benefits for prostate cancer," Chan said. "However, the molecular mechanisms by which physical activity exerts this effect on prostate cancer remains unknown."

More information

To learn about prostate cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120201/hl_hsn/scienceshowshowexercisemighthelpinprostatecancer

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Madonna plans 10 schools in Malawi with new partner (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Madonna on Monday announced plans to build 10 new schools in Malawi with a new partner after mismanagement forced the pop star to scrap her first project there last year.

The singer, who has adopted two children from the impoverished southern African nation, said she hoped the 10 new schools would educate at least 1,000 children a year, half of them girls.

That is double the number of children she hoped to help with her previously planned academy for girls, which was scrapped in March 2011 because of mismanagement and cost overruns.

Madonna said her Raising Malawi charity was teaming up this time with the non-profit group buildOn, which has constructed 54 primary schools in Malawi in the last 19 years.

"I am excited that with the help of buildOn, we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently. We now will be able to serve twice as many children as we would have served with our old approach," Madonna said in a statement.

"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel confident that we can reach our goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more practical way. Constructing smaller schools in partnership with buildOn has restored my faith that we can accomplish what we promised we would," she added.

Madonna's earlier plan to build a state of the art girls school for about 400 girls just outside the Malawi capital Lilongwe collapsed last year, and the board of her Raising Malawi charity was fired. The New York Times said at the time that $3.8 million had been spent on the school with little to show for it.

The singer has lent $11 million to the organization which she co-founded in 2006.

Malawi has more than half a million children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and is ranked by the United Nations as one of the world's 20 least developed countries.

Madonna's plans for new schools came at the start of a busy week for the singer, actress and director. Her new movie "W.E", which she wrote and directed, opens in U.S. movie theaters on Friday, she is performing at Sunday's halftime show at the 2012 Super Bowl, and will release the first single from her upcoming new album on Feb 3.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/en_nm/us_madonna_malawi

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Romney supporters???in sequins and leopard print???plot their next meetings; sparse Newt crowd soothes sadness with cash bar: Scenes from the 2012 Flo (The Ticket)

TAMPA, Fla?The celebration began well before Mitt Romney took the stage here to deliver his victory speech. Outside the ballroom in the Tampa Convention Center, where the Republican front-runner held his victory rally, more than 100 top fundraisers for Romney's campaign mixed and mingled, laughing and toasting Romney's expected victory at a makeshift bar.

Their nametags indicated that they came from all over the country?among other places, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, California, Texas and New York. They wore sequined jackets and leopard-print coats and sharkskin suits and tiny metal "ROMNEY" pins on their lapels.

Many clutched tiny American flags, while some held newly purchased T-shirts from "The Official 2012 Store" Romney's campaign had set up in the lobby. One shirt simply featured a map of the United States with the word "BELIEVE" written across the front.

"Feeling good! Feeling good!" said Spencer Zwick, Romney's national finance chairman, as he weaved through the crowd.

The donors made their way into an adjacent ballroom where Romney and his wife, Ann, addressed the group before the candidate officially claimed victory in Florida. Mrs. Romney read the names of many volunteers off a Teleprompter?freeing up her husband from having to deliver numerous thank you's. As the candidate's wife spoke about all the friends they had made on the campaign trail in Florida, one of the fundraisers shouted, "I'm from La Jolla!"

As Romney left the stage and worked his way along the rope line, the Florida donors, unlike other crowds the ex-governor has addressed, didn't push their way forward in hopes of catching a better glimpse of the candidate because so many already had their pictures taken with Romney. Instead, they socialized with each other?and talked about which campaign event might next bring them together.

"Nevada?" one donor asked.

"No," the other replied.

"Arizona?" the donor said.

"Uh, no. Maybe Super Tuesday," the other replied. "But Arizona is nice this time of year."

? Holly Bailey, 10:06 p.m. ET

A workman mounts a sign to the podium before Newt Gingrich's rally in Orlando, Fla. (Matt Rourke/AP)ORLANDO, Fla.--After his second place finish, Newt Gingrich's primary rally here was considerably quieter than his raucous victory party last week in Columbia, South Carolina.

The crowd, sparse for an election night rally, and populated partially by people who wandered in from unrelated conventions at the hotel, stood in the conference room soothing the agony of defeat with an assortment of rationalizations. (And liquor from the cash bar.)

Sure, he got creamed, they said, but we all saw this coming. The polls had him down for weeks.

No big deal. It's a long slog.

Those Romney attacks were vicious. Newt couldn't hold up against all the money thrown at him.

He'll have to if he wants to compete.

I suppose I could support Romney against Obama in 2012...

A slide on the jumbo screen read "46 STATES TO GO," a move to downplay Florida's importance and a gentle reminder that the primary process has (supposedly) a long way to go. A group of supporters stood on risers behind the podium, holding signs saying the same thing. "I want you all to know, it's not over," former Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty told the crowd, hammering the point home.

Before Gingrich arrived, Mitt Romney delivered his victory speech in Tampa, and the DJ in Orlando played the Black Eyed Peas to drown out Romney's comments. Gingrich's supporters continued their conversations (and drinking), undeterred.

? Chris Moody, 10:11 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Is it November already? While the Republican presidential candidates were making their last-ditch pitches to Florida voters, Democratic National Committee representatives spent much of Tuesday bashing Mitt Romney, accusing him of pandering to seniors on the issues of Medicare and Medicaid.

He's a "political shape-shifter," Ed Coyle, the executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, told reporters on a conference call organized by the DNC. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democratic representative from Florida and the chairwoman of the DNC, said that Romney has been pandering on the issues of immigration, funding for NASA and entitlement programs ahead of the Florida primary.

He wants to "end Medicare as we know it," Wasserman Schultz said. "Now, he has the audacity to lie about it and tell seniors he has their back."

Throughout the Republican presidential race, the DNC has issued press releases, attack ads and held press events such as Tuesday's primary-day call to criticize Romney? who holds a strong lead over Newt Gingrich in Florida, according to the most recent polling.

Today's DNC call followed up on a morning event Wasserman Schultz held at a Hollywood, Fla., senior center, where she issued similar criticisms of the perceived Republican frontrunner.

? Rachel Rose Hartman, 4:06 p.m. ET

The buffet at Fred's Country Kitchen (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

PLANT CITY, Fla.--Newt Gingrich made a midday stop at Fred's Country Kitchen, famous for good, old-fashioned, fried Americana.

Gingrich and his wife, Callista, shook hands with diners before hitting the buffet, which was loaded with fried chicken, orange sweet potatoes, a lake of gravy, corn bread, okra, hush puppies and biscuits.

Once Gingrich sat down to eat, a local aide tried to keep reporters away by demanding they leave the restaurant or be escorted out. No one listened.

One reporter from the Wall Street Journal, on the hunt for dessert, was confronted near the salad bar and told to exit immediately. She resisted.

"I'm just looking for the ice cream," she said. The aide grumbled something and walked away.

After enough reporters ignored him, he gave up. And so did the Wall Street Journal reporter. She never found the ice cream.

--Chris Moody, 1:50 p.m. ET

TAMPA, Fla.?Mitt Romney had been set to hold a morning rally here to mark the arrival of Election Day, but his campaign canceled the event Monday night without much explanation.

Speculation among the press corps was that Romney wanted to end his Florida primary push with the image of a big rally, and last night, he got it. Romeny attracted one of his biggest crowds of the campaign as several thousand people showed up to hear him speak at The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida.

Standing in front of a gigantic sign that read "Florida is Romney Country," Romney at one point led the crowd in singing "America the Beautiful"?which, as he notes at almost every campaign stop, is his favorite hymn. It was a made-for-television lead-off to what is expected to be a big win here.

So instead of holding a rally that probably wouldn't have been as--to borrow a word Rick Santorum used to describe Newt Gingrich--grandiose, Romney spent his morning schmoozing with volunteers at his headquarters just outside downtown Tampa. So many reporters turned up, his campaign organized an impromptu press availability outside the office building during which Romney defended his campaign against accusations he went too negative, telling reporters that his biggest takeaway from his loss in South Carolina was to attack when attacked, and insisting that Gingrich was the first to go negative.

"In South Carolina, we were vastly outspent with negative ads attacking me and we stood back and spoke about President Obama and suffered the consequence," Romney said, adding that Gingrich also benefited from good debate performances. (Romney and his super PAC actually spent more than double what Gingrich and his super PAC spent in South Carolina, Michael P. Falcone of ABC News reports.)

"I needed to make sure that instead of being outgunned in terms of attacks that I responded aggressively, and I think I have and hopefully that will serve me well here."

--Holly Bailey, 1:15 p.m. ET

(Matt Rouke/AP)

WINDERMERE, Fla.--Next time, Eddie Dillard won't wear flip-flops.

Dillard, a 29-year-old Ron Paul supporter from this suburb near Orlando, arrived to vote at his precinct at Winderemere Baptist Church early Tuesday morning. Pulling into the parking lot, Dillard noticed a man outside the polling place with a Gingrich sign. He decided to run home, slip into his "Ron Paul Rocks America" T-shirt, grab a "Ron Paul 2012" sign from his garage, and return to give his candidate some representation outside the precinct after he cast his vote.

Dillard found a quiet spot along a sidewalk lined with tiny American flags and held up his sign. Little did he know, Newt Gingrich had chosen that very spot to make his first Primary Day campaign stop.

When Gingrich's bus pulled up, Dillard stood silently holding his sign and watched the news-media horde swamp the candidate. Gingrich stepped down from the bus and made a beeline for Dillard. He stopped in front of Dillard and his sign and parked himself for a round of handshaking and pictures with voters. The placement couldn't have been worse. There was Gingrich, standing with his wife Callista at their first event of the day, and a giant Ron Paul sign floated inches from their crowns.

Noticing the awkward optics, Gingrich aides and security personnel swarmed Dillard, trying to intimidate him into moving. One of Gingrich's security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn't budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard's bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette. Shocked, Dillard kept his ground and took a picture of the agent with his phone, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. Dillard slipped off his flip-flop to pick up the phone with his foot, and a Gingrich supporter kicked the sandal away.

"Don't kick me!" Dillard said to the man who knocked away his sandal. More members of Gingrich's security retinue approached, shoving their shoulders and chests in front of him.

"Just block him!" a Gingrich campaign aide said. "Everyone step on his toes!"

Gingrich supporters handed a "Newt 2012" yard sign up to the front to put in front of Dillard's Paul sign. The two signs, zipping back and forth inches from Gingrich's head, circled each other in the air like a fighter jets in a dogfight.

When the candidate finished taking pictures with voters, furious Gingrich aides grilled Dillard.

"If we did this to you, you guys would be furious," said an aide before stomping back toward the bus. "They have no class. No class."

As Gingrich pulled away, Dillard looked down at his foot. With the adrenaline pumping, he hadn't noticed the pain, but now it was starting to sink in. A bruise was forming, and there was a cut mark where the security agent had dug in his heel.

"That was really something," Dillard said afterwards. "My heart's racing. Not what I expected to happen today."

--Chris Moody, 12:01 p.m. ET

Read more coverage of the 2012 Florida primary at Yahoo News.

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Want more of our best political stories? Visit?The Ticket or connect with us?on Facebook, follow us?on Twitter, or add us?on Tumblr.

Handy with a camera? Join our?Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20120131/el_yblog_theticket/scenes-from-the-2012-florida-primary

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