DGA: Another big night for Affleck's 'Argo'?

Ben Affleck accepts the award for outstanding cast in a motion picture for ?Argo? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Ben Affleck accepts the award for outstanding cast in a motion picture for ?Argo? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 file photo, actor Ben Affleck poses backstage with the award for best cast in a motion picture for "Argo" at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. A best-picture win at the upcoming Oscars could be viewed as righting a wrong after Affleck inexplicably missed out on a best-director nomination. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - This undated publicity film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Bryan Cranston, left, as Jack O'Donnell and Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in "Argo," a rescue thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. A best-picture win at the upcoming Oscars could be viewed as righting a wrong after Affleck inexplicably missed out on a best-director nomination. (AP Photo/Warner Bros., Claire Folger, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hollywood's strange awards season continues with another ceremony that could firm up a big Oscar win for Ben Affleck's "Argo."

The Directors Guild of America hands out prizes Saturday night in Los Angeles in what typically is a final blessing for the film that goes on to win best-picture and director at the Academy Awards.

Affleck can go only one-for-two at the Oscars, though. He's up for the film honor at the guild awards, and "Argo" is looking like the best-picture favorite at the Oscars on Feb. 24. But the director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooked him and several other key filmmakers for an Oscar directing slot.

The guild and Oscar directing lineups usually match up closely, but they have little in common this season, with only Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln" and Ang Lee for "Life of Pi" nominated at both shows.

Along with them and Affleck, the guild nominated Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables." At the Oscars, Spielberg and Lee are joined in the directing category by Michael Haneke for "Amour," David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

With 12 Oscar nominations, Spielberg's Civil War saga initially looked like the Oscar favorite over such other potential favorites as "Argo," ''Les Miserables" and "Zero Dark Thirty," since films generally have little chance of winning best picture if they are not nominated for best director. Only three films have done it in 84 years, most recently 1989's best-picture champ "Driving Miss Daisy," which failed to earn a directing nomination for Bruce Beresford.

But Affleck's "Argo," in which he also stars as a CIA operative who hatches a bold plan to rescue six Americans during the hostage crisis in Iran, has been sweeping up all the major awards since the Oscar nominations. "Argo" won best drama and director at the Golden Globes and top film honors from the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America.

Many of the same film professionals who vote in guild awards also cast ballots for the Oscars. If Affleck wins at the Directors Guild awards, it will be a strong sign that "Argo" has the inside track for the best-picture Oscar.

Saturday's honors aren't all about "Argo," though. Milos Forman ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," ''Amadeus") will receive the guild's lifetime-achievement award, and the director's union also will hand out prizes for television, documentary and commercials. Kelsey Grammer returns as host for the second-straight year.

Affleck may have a bit of newcomer's edge at the guild, where he's the only first-time nominee. Spielberg has won the guild prize a record three times, for "The Color Purple," ''Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan." Lee has won twice, for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain," while Bigelow won three years ago for "The Hurt Locker" and Hooper won two years ago for "The King's Speech."

A win for Affleck would nick the guild's record as a strong forecast for the eventual directing recipient at the Oscars. Only six times in the 64-year history of the guild awards has the winner there failed to follow up with an Oscar. It would be No. 7 if Affleck wins Saturday, since he's not up for best director at the Oscars.

Peer loyalty might play in Affleck's favor at the Oscars. The acting branch in particular, the largest block of the academy's 5,900 members, might really throw its weight behind "Argo" because of Affleck's directing snub. Actors love it when one of their own moves into a successful directing career, and Affleck ? who's rarely earned raves for his dramatic chops ? also delivers one of his best performances in "Argo."

Affleck has had no traction in acting honors this season, and he's joked that no one considered it a snub when he wasn't nominated for best actor. So a best-picture vote for "Argo" might be viewed as making right his omission from the directing lineup and acknowledging what a double-threat talent he's become in front of and behind the camera.

A best-picture prize also would send Affleck home with an Oscar. The award would go to the producers of "Argo": George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Affleck.

But it's not as though Affleck has never gotten his due at Hollywood awards before. He and Matt Damon jump-started their careers with 1997's "Good Will Hunting," for which they shared a screenplay Oscar.

___

Online:

http://www.dga.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-02-Directors%20Awards/id-f9bebfa4a7e64abfb53b7e731528471f

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Filmmakers track Polynesian football dreams | The Salt Lake Tribune

(Paul Fraughton | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tony Vainuku who is making a documentary film, "In Football We Trust", following the lives of four Polynesian high school football players who are pursuing college and professional careers, has picked up backing for the film from a major broadcaster. Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sports ? Independent documentary focuses on Pacific Islander prep players in Utah.

Filmmaker Tony Vainuku grew up on football dreams.

The 34-year-old Salt Lake City native began playing at age 6 and took to the field for Highland High School in the mid-1990s. His aspirations for athletic glory got derailed for family reasons, but the Westminster College marketing major has devoted the past five years to documenting experiences of young Polynesians in Utah pursuing football careers.

His independent film, "In Football We Trust,?? tracks the lives of four Utah high school players of Pacific Island descent, two at Hunter High and one each at Bingham and Highland.

The movie, slated for release as early as 2014, takes a deep look at unique aspects of Polynesian culture, family pressures, poverty and gang violence affecting the athletes? lives, Vainuku said. It also includes interviews with professional players with Utah roots, Baltimore Ravens defensive end Haloti Ngata and retired NFL star Vai Sikahema, the first Tongan ever to play in the league.

"I want to show more of the reality and of how hard it is to be successful in the NFL,?? said Vainuku, who is also of Tongan descent. He said his cousin and childhood football idol, Joe Katoa, inspired the film. A one-time 5A first-team all-state linebacker at Highland High, Katoa?s life later veered into crime and prison.

Film co-director and producer Erika Cohn described ``In Football We Trust?? as an immigrant story focused on youths who are taught almost from infancy that they are going to be NFL players.

"Their lives totally revolve around football from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed,?? Cohn said. "But throughout their journey, there are injuries, competitive pressures and physical demands that are just incredible. At many points, it becomes too much.??

Cohn said the film is now in post production, thanks to financial backing from a major broadcaster as well as Chevron, Zions Bank, the Utah Humanities Council and Pacific Islanders in Communication, a consortium of financiers.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/tribpreps/55734226-190/football-utah-film-players.html.csp

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Physical activity and modernization: Heart disease indicators almost non-existent among Tsimane, indigenous population

Jan. 31, 2013 ? Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, and a sedentary lifestyle is often cited as a major contributing factor. Among the Tsimane, an indigenous population in the lowlands of Bolivia's Amazon basin, however, indicators of heart disease are practically non-existent -- cholesterol is low, obesity is rare, and smoking is uncommon.

That's according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of New Mexico, who have been studying hunter-gatherers and forager-horticulturists to understand how their physical activity levels are affected by modernization; whether that, in turn, has increased the incidence of obesity, hypertension, and other conditions related to heart disease; and how their findings might apply to adults in the U.S. Their research is highlighted in an article published February 1 in the journal PLoS ONE.

The simple answer, according to Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology at UCSB and lead author of the study, is that physical activity alone -- or lack thereof -- does not relate to obesity or body fat among the Tsimane, and despite a subsistence lifestyle, activity alone is unlikely to account for their relative absence of chronic disease. As Gurven noted, the research demonstrates that, although a high level of physical activity may be important in staving off heart disease and diabetes, it's unlikely to be the "magic bullet" that explains why a group like the Tsimane maintains a healthy chronic disease profile.

"Indigenous populations like the Tsimane are very physically active," said Gurven, who is also director of UCSB's Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit and the Broom Demography Center's Biodemography and Evolution Unit. "There are people who think physical activity alone is enough to have a healthy heart. They assumed the Tsimane activity level was equal to running a marathon every day. But we did the analysis, and they aren't."

By measuring the physical activity level (PAL) of individual Tsimane men and women over 24-hour periods using a combination of spot observations and accelerometers, combined with heart rate monitors, Gurven and his team found is that while the Tsimane are, indeed, physically active -- more so than average Americans -- their PAL is not so great that it separates them from that of developed populations. "We found that while the Tsimane are more active than we are, there's a decent amount of overlap," he said. "Tsimane are not more vigorously active than athletic Americans with a high activity level. In fact, Tsimane do not spend much time in 'vigorous' activity, but instead spend a lot of time in light to moderate activity. Rather than characterizing the Tsimane as vigorously active, I'd more safely say they are not sedentary."

The researchers also examined issues related to obesity and body mass index (BMI). "One idea is that we're less active than we used to be, so we get heavier," Gurven explained. "But that's actually kind of controversial. The heavier you get, the more weight you have to move around. So even though you may be less active, you could be expending more energy. There's plenty of data that even when people are experimentally manipulated to increase their activity levels, after a three month period, their weight doesn't shift all that much. Or it shifts and goes back again."

That might be due to increased appetite and subsequent excess food intake, Gurven suggested. "Depending on your hunger levels, you might be eating more than the increase in your activity can accommodate, so you end up gaining weight. When we looked at people's BMI and levels of physical activity, we found no relationship. People with higher BMI's weren't less active than people with low BMI's."

That finding, he said, is consistent with the idea that it's not physical activity, but excess food intake that is more responsible for the "obesity epidemic" of the last several decades.

Another important finding is that physical activity does not appear to correlate with modernization, as measured by village distance to town, Spanish fluency, and formal schooling. This pattern contradicts robust findings in other areas of the world, where even short periods of socioeconomic change can radically alter activity patterns and diet, and, therefore, subsequent risk of chronic disease. "And that's not particularly surprising," he said. "Even Tsimane in the most acculturated villages, who speak Spanish and have wage labor jobs, continue to work fields, and they still fish. In addition, most jobs themselves are labor-intensive -- logging, working as ranch hands, or transporting resources from one place to another. "It's all physically active work," he said. "Modernization hasn't changed that."

However, women do not typically participate in these labor intensive jobs, and so while modernization didn't affect their activity levels, modern Tsimane women were more likely to be overweight. "Tsimane men are more physically active than women at all ages, and less likely to be overweight; and so the few cases of hypertension and other ailments characteristic of cardiovascular disease are observed more among Tsimane women than men -- a striking contrast with what is commonly observed in the U.S.," Gurven concluded.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Michael Gurven, Adrian V. Jaeggi, Hillard Kaplan, Daniel Cummings. Physical Activity and Modernization among Bolivian Amerindians. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55679 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055679

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/H8vYwxqTfVk/130201100253.htm

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VIB applies for second poplar field trial

Public release date: 1-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kris Van der Beken
kris.vanderbeken@vib.be
32-473-783-435
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Ghent, 1 February 2013. VIB has asked the federal government for a license to perform a second field trial with genetically modified poplars. The wood from these trees has a slightly different composition, meaning that it can be converted to sugars in a more efficient and more environmentally friendly manner. One of the aims of the field trial is to evaluate how the trees perform under realistic outdoor conditions. Another aim will be to expose the wood from the poplars to empirical conversion trials at a pilot factory scale. The field trial will take place at the ILVO Wetteren field trial site and falls under the "Ghent Bio-Economy" focal point of the University of Ghent.

The study framework

The field trial forms part of the research into options for using trees with an altered wood composition as a raw material for sustainable, bio-based products and bio-energy. Bio-plastics and biodegradable materials are currently made primarily using starch from crops such as corn. Alternatives are being sought to make the process more energy-efficient and to reserve fertile soil and food crops for food production. Trees may form an alternative, as their wood forms a possible raw material. Poplars have a number of interesting characteristics for this purpose: They grow quickly and they also grow well in boggy soil that is less suitable for food production.

Which genetic modification?

Wood consists primarily of three components: cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin. The first two components cellulose and hemi-cellulose are sugar polymers. These are the sugars that form the raw materials for the production of bio-plastics and biodegradable biomaterials. Bio-fuel can also be produced by means of fermentation. The third component lignin gives the wood more sturdiness. It must be degraded in order to release the sugar molecules. The degradation of lignin is technically complicated and an environmentally unfriendly process as a result of the use of energy and chemicals such as caustic soda. The genetically modified poplars for this new field trial have an altered lignin composition, making it easier to degrade. They were created at the INRA in France as part of an EU financed research project to which also VIB participated. The results of the new field trial will be particularly interesting in comparison to the current poplar field trial in Zwijnaarde. In contrast to the new tress, the genetically modified poplars in Zwijnaarde mainly have less lignin. These poplars will undergo their first real harvest at the end of this winter.

Changes in lignin composition also exist in nature

Changes in the lignin composition in wood also occur in nature, but they are very rare. In recent years, a black poplar was discovered in Europe and a pine was discovered in the United States that have acquired similar changes in wood composition as a result of natural mutations. Transferring these mutations to fast-growing, modified trees via classic breeding is an option, but is difficult and time-consuming. The genetic modification of the poplars will produce results much more quickly. Scientific know-how is also acquired about screening of natural populations of trees in future for their potential use in a bio-based economy.

The license procedure

The license application for the new field trial has been declared complete and acceptable. The Federal minister Onkelinx, as well as the state secretary Wathelet, will decide on the dossier with input from the Flemish minister Schauvliege. Advice will be obtained from the Bio-Safety Council in this matter. The general population can view the dossier via the website of the Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment and in the town halls of Melle and Wetteren. This is part of the public enquiry that will open from 5 February to 7 March 2013.

###

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[ | 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: 1-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kris Van der Beken
kris.vanderbeken@vib.be
32-473-783-435
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Ghent, 1 February 2013. VIB has asked the federal government for a license to perform a second field trial with genetically modified poplars. The wood from these trees has a slightly different composition, meaning that it can be converted to sugars in a more efficient and more environmentally friendly manner. One of the aims of the field trial is to evaluate how the trees perform under realistic outdoor conditions. Another aim will be to expose the wood from the poplars to empirical conversion trials at a pilot factory scale. The field trial will take place at the ILVO Wetteren field trial site and falls under the "Ghent Bio-Economy" focal point of the University of Ghent.

The study framework

The field trial forms part of the research into options for using trees with an altered wood composition as a raw material for sustainable, bio-based products and bio-energy. Bio-plastics and biodegradable materials are currently made primarily using starch from crops such as corn. Alternatives are being sought to make the process more energy-efficient and to reserve fertile soil and food crops for food production. Trees may form an alternative, as their wood forms a possible raw material. Poplars have a number of interesting characteristics for this purpose: They grow quickly and they also grow well in boggy soil that is less suitable for food production.

Which genetic modification?

Wood consists primarily of three components: cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin. The first two components cellulose and hemi-cellulose are sugar polymers. These are the sugars that form the raw materials for the production of bio-plastics and biodegradable biomaterials. Bio-fuel can also be produced by means of fermentation. The third component lignin gives the wood more sturdiness. It must be degraded in order to release the sugar molecules. The degradation of lignin is technically complicated and an environmentally unfriendly process as a result of the use of energy and chemicals such as caustic soda. The genetically modified poplars for this new field trial have an altered lignin composition, making it easier to degrade. They were created at the INRA in France as part of an EU financed research project to which also VIB participated. The results of the new field trial will be particularly interesting in comparison to the current poplar field trial in Zwijnaarde. In contrast to the new tress, the genetically modified poplars in Zwijnaarde mainly have less lignin. These poplars will undergo their first real harvest at the end of this winter.

Changes in lignin composition also exist in nature

Changes in the lignin composition in wood also occur in nature, but they are very rare. In recent years, a black poplar was discovered in Europe and a pine was discovered in the United States that have acquired similar changes in wood composition as a result of natural mutations. Transferring these mutations to fast-growing, modified trees via classic breeding is an option, but is difficult and time-consuming. The genetic modification of the poplars will produce results much more quickly. Scientific know-how is also acquired about screening of natural populations of trees in future for their potential use in a bio-based economy.

The license procedure

The license application for the new field trial has been declared complete and acceptable. The Federal minister Onkelinx, as well as the state secretary Wathelet, will decide on the dossier with input from the Flemish minister Schauvliege. Advice will be obtained from the Bio-Safety Council in this matter. The general population can view the dossier via the website of the Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment and in the town halls of Melle and Wetteren. This is part of the public enquiry that will open from 5 February to 7 March 2013.

###

---

[ | 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/2013-02/vfi-vaf020113.php

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How owls can spin their heads around

Owls don't need eyes in the back of their heads to see what's behind them ? they can just swivel their heads all the way around. In fact, many owl species, such as the barred owl, can rotate their heads 270 degrees in each direction, which means they can look to the left by rotating all the way to the right, or vice versa.

But how do they do it without severing their arteries or preventing blood from reaching the brain ? An illustrator and a physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine teamed up to find out.

"Until now, brain imaging specialists like me who deal with human injuries caused by trauma to arteries in the head and neck have always been puzzled as to why rapid, twisting head movements did not leave thousands of owls lying dead on the forest floor from stroke," said study author Dr. Philippe Gailloud, in a statement from the university.

If humans tried to rotate our heads so rapidly or far, we'd tear the lining of our arteries, which would cause clots to form and lead to a stroke (besides also breaking our necks), he added. "The carotid and vertebral arteries in the neck of most animals ? including owls and humans ? are very fragile and highly susceptible to even minor tears of the vessel lining."

Looking inside owls
To get a glimpse of the owl's blood vessels when their necks were turning, the duo injected dye into the blood vessels of a dozen dead owls and used a CT scan to visualize the shimmering fluid spreading throughout the birds' arteries like blood, said Fabian de Kok-Mercado, who performed the work while getting a master's in medical illustration at Johns Hopkins. (He is now an illustrator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md.) The researchers then twisted the dead owls' heads to see what happened. [ Video: Watch the owls' necks twist.]

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After creating the CT scan images, the researchers injected a plasticlike substance into the veins of dead snowy, barred and great horned owls and dissected the animals, drawing the routes and locations of the vessels.

They found a number of previously undiscovered and unique traits, de Kok-Mercado told OurAmazingPlanet. For one, the owls' neck bones, or vertebrae, contain holes that are much larger than those found in other birds or humans. In humans, the hole in the vertebra is about the same size as the artery, but in owls the hole is about 10 times larger than the artery, according to the study, published Thursday in the journal Science. These holes, or canals, likely hold air sacks meant to cushion the twisting motion of the head, de Kok-Mercado said.

"We also noticed right away that these canals were absent in the bottom two vertebra of the neck," de Kok-Mercado said. This gives the cordlike vessels some slack when the bird twists its head.

The large holes and "slack" at the bottom of the neck help explain why the vessels don't break. But they don't explain why the supply of blood isn't cut off when an owl turns its head ? with so much twisting, the vessels are bound to become partially blocked.

Blood to the brain
The team noticed that the vertebral artery enlarges slightly as it approaches the brain, which is unusual and not seen in many other animals (like the trunk of a tree, vessels generally get smaller as they get farther from the heart). The authors think that these enlarged areas may function as reservoirs in which blood can pool, so that the brain has extra blood to work with as the head swivels around, de Kok-Mercado said.

The blood vessels near the brain are also highly connected. A vessel called the patent trigeminal artery connects the front and the back of the owl's brain, which helps supply the organ with as much blood as possible.

Why do owls need to crane their necks to such an extreme degree? It's because their eyes are tubular, built almost like telescopes, giving them amazing vision, de Kok-Mercado said. But unlike humans, who have roughly spherical eyes, owls cannot move them about easily, so they have to rotate their heads.

The finding is just another example of how the birds are perfectly adapted to suit their environment, enabling them to see despite having relatively fixed eyes.

"I hope it gives people more of an appreciation of the life on this planet," de Kok-Mercado said.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50656939/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Pakistan will Participate in the Global Robotics Challenge in India

This year for the first time, Pakistan will be taking part in the Global Robotics Challenge (GRC) competition that will be held from March 14-17 at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. Other countries, including Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE, Egypt, UK and Japan will also be taking part at this international event. The Air University in Rawalpindi will organise a robotics competition between various universities across Pakistan on February 6 in its Islamabad campus.

Through this national robotics competition, the winning team will get the opportunity of representing Pakistan in the grand finale. The event has been arranged by Air University?s assistant professor, Liaquat Ali Khan and will be also leading the team at the final event in India. All Pakistani universities offering degree programmes in engineering and computer science have been invited to participate at the national competition.

It is expected that at least 10 different universities will compete to make it to the final representing Pakistan. There will be two categories in the national robotics competition where competitiveness of the participants will be judged, one is of International Autonomous Robotics Competition and the other is International Robot Talent.

Robotics deals with designing, construction, operation and application of various types of robots that serve different purposes. The computer systems to control them, sensory feedback and information processing makes it all the more difficult and interest for creative enthusiasts. With the advancement in robotics, many places where humans used to work have now been taken over by robots making it cost-effective and quick. However, there are many tasks where a super-human ability like that of a robot is required and that is where it serves the best.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Vsocio/~3/h7Nsbc7fuWc/

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Ala. gunman holed up in bunker with young boy

MIDLAND CITY, Alabama (Reuters) - The gunman suspected of fatally shooting an Alabama school bus driver before holing up in an underground bunker with a young child is a Vietnam veteran with anti-government views, authorities and an organization that tracks hate groups said on Wednesday.

Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies were bivouacked near the bunker in Midland City but offered few details about an overnight standoff with the shooter that stretched into Wednesday evening.

Authorities said driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was killed after the gunman boarded a bus ferrying more than 20 children home from school on Tuesday.

The suspect demanded the driver let a student off the bus, Alabama media reported. When Poland refused, the man boarded the bus and shot the driver before taking a 6-year-old kindergarten student and fleeing the scene.

On Wednesday, the gunman remained holed up with the boy in the underground bunker on his property down a dirt road. Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said the man and child were barricaded in "some kind of a tornado bunker."

The shooting comes as national debate rages over gun violence, especially in schools, after a gunman shot dead 20 students and six staff members at a Connecticut elementary school last month.

Schools in the area of the Alabama shooting were closed on Wednesday and will remain shuttered for the rest of the week.

Dale County Superintendent Donny Bynum lauded Poland as "a hero...who gave his life to protect 21 students who are now home safely with their families."

The superintendent's assistant said the young boy still being held by the gunman appeared to have been chosen at random.

"Emotions are high, and it's a struggle for us all to make sense of something so senseless, but let us keep this young student, his family and Mr. Poland's family in our thoughts and prayers," Bynum said in a statement.

Reuters could not independently verify the gunman's identity. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported on its Hatewatch blog that a chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff's Office identified the gunman as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes.

Investigator Tim Byrd said Dykes' friends and neighbors described him as a "survivalist" who did not trust the government, according to the law center blog.

"He was standoffish, didn't socialize or have any contact with anybody," Byrd told Hatewatch.

Dykes had not been on the law center's radar before the shooting and standoff, and there was nothing to suggest he was a member of any hate group, said senior fellow Mark Potok.

"What it looks like is that he's some kind of anti-government radical and survivalist," Potok told Reuters. "And exactly what that means, we don't know."

Court records show Dykes had been due to appear for a bench trial on Wednesday following his arrest last month on a menacing charge.

James Edward Davis told CNN the arrest stemmed from an altercation he had with Dykes that ended with Dykes allegedly firing two gunshots from a pistol, as Davis sped off in his car.

"He fired the gun twice," said Davis, adding that he had a child inside the vehicle when the shooting occurred.

Neighbors told the Dothan Eagle newspaper they also had seen Dykes walk around his yard late at night with a shotgun and flashlight. Ronda Wilbur, who lives across the street from Dykes, said he once beat her family dog with a lead pipe. The dog later died from his injuries, she said.

(Reporting by Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama; Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-shoots-school-bus-driver-alabama-child-seized-015512702.html

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