http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:44:45 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196343-Picking-up-mates-at-the-white-shark-caf- Great whites aren't all alike. Even though the sharks travel all over the Pacific Ocean to hunt, they tend to mate with others from the same area, forming genetically distinct groups. That's what local great whites revealed to Barbara Block of Stanford University in California and her colleagues. The team headed out into the Pacific to find the sharks, which they lured to the surface using a silhouette of a seal. They then used a pole to attach two different tags to the sharks and took a sneaky biopsy at the same time. See the biologists tagging white sharks here. GPS tags were used to track the long-distance movements of the creatures, allowing the team to follow their migration during the colder months from coastal areas to the deep ocean. The other tags gave off sonic "pings" that were picked up by sensors moored in coastal areas, providing more precise location fixes than the satellite measurements, so that the team could tell if the sharks returned to the same areas. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196343-Picking-up-mates-at-the-white-shark-caf- Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:42:43 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196342-Quakes-from-the-1800s-still-shaking-planet Some earthquakes can leave a legacy of aftershocks that last for centuries. Low-level seismic rumbles appear to foreshadow many quakes. Yet not always: the 2008 Sichuan quake in China came out of the blue. These rumbles may not be precursors but aftershocks - readjustments at a fault following a larger event, in some cases centuries earlier. Seth Stein of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and colleagues analysed the rate of fault slip in various tectonic settings. At plate boundaries, motion rapidly "reloads" a fault with new stress and changes conditions there, so tremors that can be clearly identified as aftershocks typically end within a decade, they found. Far away from plate boundaries, however, fault reloading is much slower, and aftershocks can continue for hundreds of years. The New Madrid fault in Missouri, for instance, may be experiencing aftershocks from a quake in the early 1800s (Nature, DOI: link). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196342-Quakes-from-the-1800s-still-shaking-planet Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:15:42 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196334-Instead-of-the-cross-the-Albatross-About-my-neck-was-hung-Message-from-the-Gyre These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196334-Instead-of-the-cross-the-Albatross-About-my-neck-was-hung-Message-from-the-Gyre Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:10:10 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196312-Two-Earthquakes-Strike-Taiwan-Island Two earthquakes measuring 5.9 and 5.4 on the Richter Scale struck the central part of Taiwan island. They were felt across Taiwan. The cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen in the Chinese mainland's Fujian Province and Hong Kong also felt the tremors. The earthquakes are the worst to hit Taiwan in ten years. The epicenter was in Nantou County, about 200 kilometers south of Taipei, with a depth of 7 and 6 kilometers respectively. The tremors reminded Nantou residents of the September 21st quake in 1999. A local resident of Nantou County said, "I was scared. I was the victim of the September 21st earthquake. That earthquake damaged our houses. So I ran out of the house immediately after I felt it shake. I was sitting there, and ran out immediately." Many residents tried to make phone calls to their family and friends but communications had been cut off. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196312-Two-Earthquakes-Strike-Taiwan-Island Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:49:52 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196305-China-909-000-Hit-by-Drought A drought since September had affected 909,000 people in east China's Jiangxi Province, a spokesman for the provincial flood control and drought relief office said yesterday. The drought had cut off normal water supplies in some rural areas. "Villagers in Fengxin, Jing'an and Leping counties have to carry drinking water by trucks," said Sun Xiaoshan, deputy director of the office. "The water levels of four of the province's five main rivers hit record lows and are still dropping. "The self-cleaning ability of rivers has decreased significantly due to the drastic fall of volume, posing a threat to public health." The provincial government had stepped up monitoring and supervision over enterprises that may cause pollution, Sun added. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196305-China-909-000-Hit-by-Drought Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:49 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196289-Snow-Cap-Disappearing-from-Mount-Kilimanjaro The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain's white peak - made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway - is rapidly melting, researchers report. Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007. If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said. The Kilimanjaro glaciers are both shrinking, as the ice at their edges melts, and thinning, the researchers found. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196289-Snow-Cap-Disappearing-from-Mount-Kilimanjaro Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:30:24 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196229-Fluorescence-Found-to-Aid-Healing-in-Corals Injured corals develop colorful glowing "scabs" to help themselves heal, a new study has found. When a coral is broken or wounded, it releases highly reactive atoms of oxygen known as free radicals to close up the gashes. But these powerful molecules can also inadvertently kill off some of the coral's healthy cells. Hydrogen peroxide, for instance, is a common free radical in corals, and it can damage every part of the cell, from DNA to proteins. Hurt corals have also been known to take on brightly colored glows, noted study leader and coral immunologist Caroline Palmer. Wounds on Acropora millepora corals appear blue, for example, while injured tissues on Porites species - like the raised and swollen patches seen above - are an "intense" bubble-gum pink. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196229-Fluorescence-Found-to-Aid-Healing-in-Corals Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:15 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196226-Man-Eating-Lions-Consumed-35-People-in-1898 The nightly attacks by two man-eating lions terrified railway workers and brought construction to a halt in one of east Africa's most notorious onslaughts more than a hundred years ago. But the death toll, scientists now say, wasn't as high as previously thought. Over nine months the two voracious hunters claimed 35 lives - no small figure, but much less than some accounts of as many as 135 victims. It was 1898, when laborers from India and local natives building the Uganda Railroad across Kenya became the prey for the pair, a case that has been the subject of numerous accounts and at least three movies. The death toll had been estimated at 28 railway workers and "scores of unfortunate African natives," with the total ranging as high as 135. Delay of the railroad was even subject to debate in Britain's House of Commons. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196226-Man-Eating-Lions-Consumed-35-People-in-1898 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:34 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196203-Taking-the-Earth-s-temperature The public is finally catching on to the fact that the global-warming scare is driven far more by ideology than science, and a recent Gallup poll revealed that the percentage of Americans who think the threat of global warming is exaggerated is at its highest level ever. Pat Michaels (Ph.D. in climatology), a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and retired research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, relates how the spokesperson for an organization with some of the oldest temperature-sensor data in existence refused to share it with other scientists, saying, "Why should we make the data available when their aim is to try and find something wrong with it?" Whoa, there, Nellie! Did you grasp the outrageousness of that statement? If not, take a moment to reread it for its breathtakingly anti-scientific thrust. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196203-Taking-the-Earth-s-temperature Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:48:29 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196170-Sea-Lion-Brain-Mapped-to-Study-Toxins-Effects The first detailed anatomical atlas of a living wildlife species has been constructed by researchers. Mapping the California sea lion's (Zalophus californianus) brain with a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and volumetric measuring, scientists want to better understand how toxins in the water are causing neurological damage among marine mammal populations. Eric Montie, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida, spearheaded the study, which was published in The Anatomical Record in October. The brain atlas is a first step toward determining whether exposure to manmade chemicals, such as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), increase California sea lions' susceptibility to life-threatening brain damage from domoic acid, a neurotoxin naturally produced by certain types of algae. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196170-Sea-Lion-Brain-Mapped-to-Study-Toxins-Effects Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:59:30 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196166-Green-is-Cool-But-United-States-Land-Changes-Generally-Are-Not Most land-use changes occurring in the continental United States reduce vegetative cover and raise regional surface temperatures, says a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland, Purdue University, and the University of Colorado in Boulder. The study, which will appear in the Royal Meteorological Society's International Journal of Climatology, found that almost any change that makes land cover less "green" contributes to warming. However, a less intuitive finding is that conversion of any land to agricultural use results in cooling, even land that was previously forested. Derived using a University of Maryland developed analytical approach known as OMR, the findings build on previous research and add significant weight to a growing recognition among climate scientists for the need to more fully incorporate land use change into computer models that are designed to forecast future changes in climate conditions. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196166-Green-is-Cool-But-United-States-Land-Changes-Generally-Are-Not Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:49:10 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196146-Over-17-000-Species-Threatened-by-Extinction A rare Panamanian tree frog, a rodent from Madagascar and two lizards found only in the Philippines are among over 17,000 species threatened with extinction, a leading environmental group said Tuesday. The Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog, only discovered four years ago, is one of 1,895 amphibian species that could soon disappear from the wild because of deforestation and infection, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said. The Switzerland-based group surveyed 47,677 animals and plants for this year's "Red List" of endangered species, determining that 17,291 of them are at risk of extinction. More than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat, according to the survey, which featured over 2,800 new species compared with 2008. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196146-Over-17-000-Species-Threatened-by-Extinction Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:59:23 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196145-Strong-5-9-quake-jolts-Ionian-Sea-Greek-Islands An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter Scale jolted the Ionian Sea on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There have been no reports of injuries or damage on the Peloponnese Peninsula, a popular tourist destination on the Gulf of Corinth. According to the Athens Institute of Geodynamics, the magnitude of the quake was 5.5. The quake's epicenter was located 110 kilometers (65 miles) from the city of Patra at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the Ionian Sea. Patra is located 265 kilometers west of Athens. The quake struck at 07:25 am local time (05:25 GMT). According to Greek television, the earthquake was also felt on the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196145-Strong-5-9-quake-jolts-Ionian-Sea-Greek-Islands Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:37:14 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196114-Giant-Crack-in-Africa-Will-Create-a-New-Ocean A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm. The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied. A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region's future. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196114-Giant-Crack-in-Africa-Will-Create-a-New-Ocean Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:35:46 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196105-Wolves-Moose-And-Biodiversity-An-Unexpected-Connection Moose eat plants; wolves kill moose. What difference does this classic predator-prey interaction make to biodiversity? A large and unexpected one, say wildlife biologists from Michigan Technological University. Joseph Bump, Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich report in the November 2009 issue of the journal Ecology that the carcasses of moose killed by wolves at Isle Royale National Park enrich the soil in "hot spots" of forest fertility around the kills, causing rapid microbial and fungal growth that provide increased nutrients for plants in the area. "This study demonstrates an unforeseen link between the hunting behavior of a top predator -- the wolf -- and biochemical hot spots on the landscape," said Bump, an assistant professor in Michigan Tech's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science and first author of the research paper. "It's important because it illuminates another contribution large predators make to the ecosystem they live in and illustrates what can be protected or lost when predators are preserved or exterminated." Bump and his colleagues studied a 50-year record of more than 3,600 moose carcasses at Isle Royale. They measured the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium levels in the soil at paired sites of wolf-killed moose carcasses and controls. They also analyzed the microbes and fungi in the soil and the leaf tissue of large-leaf aster, a common native plant eaten by moose in eastern and central North America. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196105-Wolves-Moose-And-Biodiversity-An-Unexpected-Connection Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:19:04 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196074-Japanese-Fishing-Trawler-Sunk-by-Giant-Jellyfish The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba'as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish. Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months. The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196074-Japanese-Fishing-Trawler-Sunk-by-Giant-Jellyfish Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:23:14 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196037-Major-storm-slams-Vietnam-thousands-evacuate Tropical Storm Mirinae slammed into Vietnam's central coast Monday, unleashing heavy rains and winds and forcing more than 80,000 people to evacuate before losing steam as it moved inland. The storm was packing winds of 63 miles per hour (102 kilometers per hour) as it made landfall in Phu Yen province Monday afternoon, toppling trees and utility poles and causing blackouts, said Nguyen Ba Loc, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee. The storm lost force and was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved deeper inland later Monday, according to the national weather forecast center. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196037-Major-storm-slams-Vietnam-thousands-evacuate Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:45:57 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196015-From-Barren-Central-Asian-Steppes-a-Devastated-Sea-is-Reborn-and-Along-with-It-Hope Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned with the day's catch. Until recently, this spot where the fish merchant was standing, in a man-made desert at the edge of nowhere, represented one of the world's worst environmental calamities. Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle - the return of the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest body of fresh water, covering an area the size of Ireland. But then the nations around it became part of the Soviet Union. With their passion for planned economics and giant, nature-reversing projects, the communists diverted the rivers that fed the inland sea and used them to irrigate vast cotton fields. The result: The Aral shrank by 90 percent to a string of isolated stretches of water. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196015-From-Barren-Central-Asian-Steppes-a-Devastated-Sea-is-Reborn-and-Along-with-It-Hope Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:15:40 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196008-Air-Pressure-Changes-Trigger-Landslides A river of rock and soil nearly 2.5 miles long and 1,000 feet wide, the Slumgullion landslide winds like an earthy freight train down the hills of southwestern Colorado. But this incredible force of nature is swayed by the tiniest push. According to a new study, the daily ups and downs in air pressure -- equivalent to the weight of about half a glass of water -- are enough to get the behemoth rolling. Just like the ocean, the atmosphere has tides of air that swish over the planet, controlled by the sun's heat. Around the hottest part of the day, air pressure is diminished -- 'low tide' -- and it gradually goes up as things cool off. William Schulz of the United Stated Geological Survey in Denver compared detailed records of the Slumgullion landslide's movement against pressure readings taken in the area. They fit hand-in-glove: each time pressure lowered during the warmest part of the day, the Earth slid a little bit faster. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196008-Air-Pressure-Changes-Trigger-Landslides Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:48:15 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196003-Venomous-Shrew-and-Lizard-Harmless-Digestive-Enzyme-Evolved-Twice-into-Dangerous-Toxin-in-Two-Unrelated-Species Biologists have shown that independent but similar molecular changes turned a harmless digestive enzyme into a toxin in two unrelated species - a shrew and a lizard - giving each a venomous bite. The work, described this week in the journal Current Biology by researchers at Harvard University, suggests that protein adaptation may be a highly predictable process, one that could eventually help discover other toxins across a wide array of species. "Similar changes have occurred independently in a shrew and a lizard, causing both to be toxic," says senior author Hopi E. Hoekstra, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences in Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. "It's remarkable that the same types of changes have independently promoted the same toxic end product." Lead author Yael T. Aminetzach, a postdoctoral researcher in the same department, suggests that the work has important implications for our understanding of how novel protein function evolves by studying the relationship between an ancestral and harmless protein and its new toxic activity. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196003-Venomous-Shrew-and-Lizard-Harmless-Digestive-Enzyme-Evolved-Twice-into-Dangerous-Toxin-in-Two-Unrelated-Species Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:28:43 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195916-Enjoy-the-warmth-while-it-lasts Thank your lucky stars to be alive on Earth at this time. Our planet is usually in a deep freeze. The last million years have cycled through Ice Ages that last about 100,000 years each, with warmer slivers of about 10,000 years in between. We are in-betweeners, and just barely - we live in (gasp!) year 10,000 or so after the end of the last ice age. But for our good fortune, we might have been born in the next Ice Age. Our luck is even better than that. Those 10,000-year warm spells aren't all cosy-warm. They include brutal Little Ice Ages such as the 500-year-long Little Ice Age that started about 600 years ago. Fortunately, we weren't around during its fiercest periods when Finland lost one-third of its population, Iceland half, and most of Canada became uninhabitable - even the Inuit fled. While the cold spells within the 10,000 year warm spells aren't as brutal as a Little Ice Age, they can nevertheless make us huddle in gloom, such as the period in history from about 400 AD to 900 AD, which we know as the Dark Ages. We've lucked out twice, escaping the cold spells within the warm spells, making us inbetweeners within the inbetween periods. How good is that? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195916-Enjoy-the-warmth-while-it-lasts Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:51:51 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195841-Largest-Bat-in-Europe-Inhabited-Northeastern-Spain-more-than-10-000-Years-Ago Spanish researchers have confirmed that the largest bat in Europe, Nyctalus lasiopterus, was present in north-eastern Spain during the Late Pleistocene (between 120,000 and 10,000 years ago). The Greater Noctule fossils found in the excavation site at Abríc Romaní (Barcelona) prove that this bat had a greater geographical presence more than 10,000 years ago than it does today, having declined due to the reduction in vegetation cover. Although this research study, published in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol, is the second to demonstrate the bat's presence in the Iberian Peninsula, it offers the first description in the fossil record of the teeth of Nyctalus lasiopterus from a fragment of the left jaw. "It is an important finding because this species is not common in the fossil record. In fact, the discovery of Nyctalus lasiopterus at the Abríc Romaní site (Capellades, Barcelona) is one of the few cases of fossils existing on the species in the European Pleistocene," says Juan Manuel López-García, principal author of the work and researcher at the Institute of Social Evolution and Human Palaeoecology at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195841-Largest-Bat-in-Europe-Inhabited-Northeastern-Spain-more-than-10-000-Years-Ago Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:22:05 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195813-India-Earthquake-Magnitude-5-2-Bhutan Date-Time: Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 17:00:38 UTC Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 11:00:38 PM at epicenter Location: 27.256°N, 91.380°E Depth: 26.5 km (16.5 miles) Distances: 125 km (75 miles) NNW of Gauhati, Assam, India 180 km (110 miles) E of THIMPHU, Bhutan 600 km (375 miles) NNE of Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India 1395 km (870 miles) E of NEW DELHI, Delhi, India http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195813-India-Earthquake-Magnitude-5-2-Bhutan Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:31:38 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195812-Strong-6-0-earthquake-strikes-Afghanistan-or-did-it- A strong earthquake struck the Hindu Kush region of eastern Afghanistan Thursday, but the U.S. Geological Survey said it had no reports of damage or injuries. The preliminary magnitude was 6.0, the USGS said. The epicenter of the quake -- which struck about 10:15 p.m. (1:45 p.m. ET) -- was 255 kilometers (160 miles) north-northeast of the capital, Kabul. The depth of the quake was 202 kilometers (126 miles), said USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso. It was felt as far away as Islamabad, Pakistan. Because of the depth, Caruso said, it is not unusual for a quake to be felt quite a distance away. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195812-Strong-6-0-earthquake-strikes-Afghanistan-or-did-it- Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:19:39 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195777-US-Autumn-Snowstorm-Wallops-Rockies-Plains A slow-moving autumn storm showed no signs of letting up in Colorado and the western Plains on Thursday, blanketing areas already buried with as much as 3 feet, closing schools and businesses and delaying flights. Roads across Colorado and Wyoming were snow-packed and icy from the first big winter storm of the season in the West, and the snow's not likely to let up anytime soon. The storm spread a blanket of white from northern Utah's Wasatch Front to western Nebraska's northern border with South Dakota. "There's definitely some adverse driving conditions right now, and it's expected to continue throughout a good portion of the day," said Bob Wilson, a Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman. Wilson said although some cars are sliding off roads, not many accidents had been reported. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195777-US-Autumn-Snowstorm-Wallops-Rockies-Plains Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:13:29 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195763-Bad-weather-system-causes-Cyprus-flooding Torrential rain has caused extensive flooding in areas south of Nicosia, as a severe weather front arrived over Cyprus. Worst affected was the Alambra district, near the Limassol highway, 20 kilometres from Nicosia. Several houses were flooded and the Fire Brigade rescued people who were in imminent danger of drowning. Most of them were trapped in cars which were washed away by torrents. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195763-Bad-weather-system-causes-Cyprus-flooding Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:20:41 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195749-Ancient-Monster-Insect-Unicorn-Fly-Never-Before-Observed Just in time for Halloween, researchers have announced the discovery of a new, real-world "monster" -- what they are calling a "unicorn" fly that lived about 100 million years ago and is being described as a new family, genus and species of fly never before observed. A single, incredibly well-preserved specimen of the tiny but scary-looking fly was preserved for eternity in Burmese amber, and it had a small horn emerging from the top of its head, topped by three eyes that would have given it the ability to see predators coming. But despite that clever defense mechanism, it was apparently an evolutionary dead end that later disappeared. "No other insect ever discovered has a horn like that, and there's no animal at all with a horn that has eyes on top," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor of zoology at Oregon State University who just announced the new species in Cretaceous Research, a professional journal. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195749-Ancient-Monster-Insect-Unicorn-Fly-Never-Before-Observed Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:55:43 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195695-Wolves-Lose-Their-Predatory-Edge-In-Mid-life Although most wolves in Yellowstone National Park live to be nearly six years old, their ability to kill prey peaks when they are two to three, according to a study led by Dan MacNulty and recently published online by Ecology Letters. The study will appear in the journal's December print issue. The finding challenges a long-held belief that wolves are successful predators for their entire adult lives. It now appears that like human athletes, they are only at the top of their game for about 25 percent of that time. It also shows that physiology can limit predation. "Wolves are not perfect predators," says MacNulty, a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Biological Sciences' Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "They lack physical characteristics to kill prey swiftly, so they rely on athletic ability and endurance, which diminishes with age. They're like 100-meter sprinters. They need to be in top condition to perform." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195695-Wolves-Lose-Their-Predatory-Edge-In-Mid-life Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:55:04 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195676-Tsunami-Waves-Reasonably-Likely-To-Strike-Israel "There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says. Dr. Goodman, an expert geo-archaeologist, exposed geological evidence of this by chance. Her original intentions in Caesarea were to assist in research at the ancient port and at offshore shipwrecks. "We expected to find the remains of ships, but were surprised to reveal unusual geological layers the likes of which we had never seen in the region before. We began underwater drilling assuming that these are simply local layers related to the construction of the port. However, we discovered that they are spread along the entire area and realized that we had found something major," she explains. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195676-Tsunami-Waves-Reasonably-Likely-To-Strike-Israel Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:21:06 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195675-Volcanoes-Played-Pivotal-Role-In-Ancient-Ice-Age-Mass-Extinction Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago. Perhaps ironically, these volcanoes first caused global warming - by releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When they stopped erupting, Earth's climate was thrown off balance, and the ice age began. The discovery underscores the importance of carbon in Earth's climate today, said Matthew Saltzman, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University. The results will appear in the journal Geology, in a paper now available online. Previously, Saltzman and his team linked this same ice age to the rise of the Appalachian Mountains. As the exposed rock weathered, chemical reactions pulled carbon from Earth's atmosphere, causing a global cooling which ultimately killed two-thirds of all species on the planet. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195675-Volcanoes-Played-Pivotal-Role-In-Ancient-Ice-Age-Mass-Extinction Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:15:57 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195674-Algae-foam-killing-thousands-of-sea-birds Foam from an unusual algae bloom has killed thousands of birds along the Oregon and Washington coasts in recent weeks, marine biologists said. Akashiwo sanguinea, a single-cell algae or phytoplankton, strips the birds of their natural waterproofing, said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University. "It's the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of," Parrish told The (Portland) Oregonian in a story published Friday. "We're getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water," she said. "Think about that. That's pretty dense." Storms have whipped the algae into a substance similar to a sticky soap, which washes off the birds' protective waterproofing oils and causes them to die of hypothermia, said Greg Schirato, a manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195674-Algae-foam-killing-thousands-of-sea-birds Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:11:05 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195671-Do-Bears-Stimulate-their-Vagus-Nerves-The-Man-Who-Walks-with-Bears-Discovers-their-Hum- Black bears are often considered among the most dangerous animals in North America, depicted down the years as ferocious predators threatening to man. But, says one man, that perception could not be further from the truth. For 43 years, has studied wild bears, walking and playing with them, gaining amazing insights into their behaviour. His studies reveal the bears as peaceful, playful creatures, which even hum when they are content. The new understanding of wild black bear (Ursus americanus) behaviour unveiled by Prof Roger's research is depicted by the BBC natural history programme Natural World: Bearwalker of the Northwoods. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195671-Do-Bears-Stimulate-their-Vagus-Nerves-The-Man-Who-Walks-with-Bears-Discovers-their-Hum- Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:57:42 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195667-GMO-Seeds-Multinational-Corporations-Gaining-Total-Control-Over-Farming- Food security campaigners are now more concerned than ever that farmers are turning dependent on large multinational corporations (MNCs) for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs while also becoming more vulnerable to pressures to produce genetically engineered crops. Gathered here over the weekend, for the Pesticide Action Network (PAN)'s 25th anniversary, many expressed concern over the predatory nature of corporate agriculture and its attempts to corner the entire chain of food production from seeds to sales of food products. PAN is a network of over 600 participating non-governmental organisations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195667-GMO-Seeds-Multinational-Corporations-Gaining-Total-Control-Over-Farming- Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:56:50 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195662-ANI-Detecting-clear-trend-in-water-vapor-would-take-50-years-say-scientists A new study by scientists has determined that it would take about 50 years of observations to detect a clear trend in upper tropospheric water vapor. Water vapor in the upper troposphere contributes to the greenhouse effect, and scientists predict that humidity will increase in the future along with rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, there is currently no observing program that could detect the predicted trends. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195662-ANI-Detecting-clear-trend-in-water-vapor-would-take-50-years-say-scientists Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:02:14 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195654-Fossilised-skull-of-sea-monster-pliosaur-found-on-Dorset-coast Ferocious prehistoric predator's skull is 2.4 metres and could belong to creature measuring up to 16 metres in length The fossilised skull of a "sea monster", which may be the largest of its type ever found, has been unearthed on the Dorset coast. The skull from the ferocious prehistoric predator the pliosaur is 2.4 metres long and could belong to a creature measuring up to 16 metres in length from tip to tail and weighing up to 12 tonnes. Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that terrorised the ocean 150m years ago, around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth. They had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195654-Fossilised-skull-of-sea-monster-pliosaur-found-on-Dorset-coast Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:49:30 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195593-Rainforest-treaty-fatally-flawed- Climate summit loophole lets palm oil producers cull vital wilderness A vital safeguard to protect the world's rainforests from being cut down has been dropped from a global deforestation treaty due to be signed at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December. Under proposals due to be ratified at the summit, countries which cut down rainforests and convert them to plantations of trees such as oil palms would still be able to classify the result as forest and could receive millions of dollars meant for preserving them. An earlier version of the text ruled out such a conversion but has been deleted, and the EU delegation - headed by Britain - has blocked its reinsertion. Environmentalists say plantations are in no way a substitute for the lost natural forest in terms of wildlife, water production or, crucially, as a store of the carbon dioxide which is emitted into the atmosphere when forests are destroyed and intensifies climate change. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195593-Rainforest-treaty-fatally-flawed- Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:14:58 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195582-Pennsylvania-3-More-Earthquakes-Rock-York-County Three more earthquakes were reported in the Dillsburg, York County, area over the weekend. Earthquake experts said that they all happened within a six-minute period at about 7:20 a.m. Sunday. The first tremor was a magnitude 2.8, the second was a 1.8 and the third was a 2.6. Some residents said that the quakes shook pictures on their walls. "This time they are precipitated by a lot of rumbling and rolling we are hearing. So, we knew another was coming and in fact it did," said resident Candace LaGaza. There have been more than 600 earthquakes in the area in the past year. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195582-Pennsylvania-3-More-Earthquakes-Rock-York-County Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:07:58 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195534-US-Out-of-control-blaze-in-Santa-Cruz-Mountains A fire driven by strong winds burned through 600 acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains this morning, burning two buildings, threatening 85 others and forcing evacuations. Roughly 80 to 100 people were told to leave their homes in the area of Maymens Flat Road, Highland Way and Ormsby Cutoff. No injuries had been reported by mid-day, but two outbuildings and one trailer had been destroyed. First reported around 3 a.m., the so-called Loma Fire started near Maymens Flat Road, close to the area that burned in the Summit Fire of 2008. By late this morning, 937 firefighters were attacking the blaze, using 100 fire engines, eight air tankers and five helicopters, among other resources. But the fire remained completely uncontained. The Summit Fire, which started in May 2008, burned more than 4,000 acres, injured 12 people and destroyed 132 homes and outbuildings, state fire officials said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195534-US-Out-of-control-blaze-in-Santa-Cruz-Mountains Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:45:36 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195473-Indonesia-Earthquake-Magnitude-7-0-Banda-Sea Date-Time: Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 14:40:44 UTC Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:40:44 PM at epicenter Location: 6.161°S, 130.346°E Depth: 138.5 km (86.1 miles) Distances: 230 km (145 miles) NNW of Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia 365 km (225 miles) SE of Ambon, Moluccas, Indonesia 700 km (435 miles) N of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia 2610 km (1620 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195473-Indonesia-Earthquake-Magnitude-7-0-Banda-Sea Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:29:24 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195392-6-2-earthquake-strikes-Afghanistan-and-Pakistan A strong earthquake centered in the towering Hindu Kush mountains shook a wide area of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan early Friday, swaying buildings in the Afghan and Pakistani capitals. There were no initial reports of damage or casualties from the quake, which struck about 12:21 a.m. Afghan time (1951 GMT, 3:51 p.m. EDT Thursday). However, the temblor was centered in a remote mountain area where communications are poor and reports of casualties take time to reach the capital. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and was centered in the mountains about 167 miles (268 kilometers) northeast of Kabul and 140 miles (230 kilometers) west of Mingaora, Pakistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Buildings shook in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and the capital Islamabad, and the quake was felt as far east as Lahore near the Indian border, Pakistani television stations reported. The Afghan Interior Ministry said it had no immediate reports of deaths or damage. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195392-6-2-earthquake-strikes-Afghanistan-and-Pakistan Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:16:35 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195381-Gatorade-for-frogs-could-stymie-fungal-killer The fungus now decimating frog populations around the world does its damage by impairing the animals' ability to absorb electrolytes through their skin. This discovery may eventually lead to treatments that make the disease less lethal. Biologists now generally agree that the fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis is responsible for the worldwide die-off of frogs that has caused a conservation crisis in recent years. However, the fungus affects only the outer layers of the skin, leaving few clues to why it is so lethal. But now Jamie Voyles of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and colleagues have an answer. In diseased frogs, the skin's ability to take up sodium and potassium ions from the water decreases by more than 50 per cent, they found. As a result, the concentration of these two ions in the frogs' blood fell by 20 and 50 per cent, respectively. This ion loss - similar to the hyponatraemia that a human athlete might experience from drinking too much water too fast - eventually leads to cardiac arrest and death. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195381-Gatorade-for-frogs-could-stymie-fungal-killer Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:06:41 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195380-California-s-coastal-waters-a-dump-for-fishing-gear For the first time, scientists have used a submersible to investigate the debris piling up in deep-water canyons off the coast of California. To their surprise, they found that recreational fishing gear accounted for 93 per cent of the underwater trash. "Sometimes we had to change the path of the submersible to avoid becoming entangled with recreational fishing lines and nets," says Diana Watters of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, California. "This is a really surprising result," says Anthony Jensen, who studies fisheries and artificial reefs at the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton, UK, and was not involved in the survey. "Who would have thought that recreational fishers would account for more rubbish in a deep-sea ecosystem than the commercial fishing industry?" Trash density Watters believes that previous attempts to quantify underwater garbage by trawling with nets have underestimated the true scale of the problem because that method doesn't pick up all of what's down there and so cannot provide good information about the density of the debris. Nor can nets be dragged over rocky sea floors as they can snag on pinnacles. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195380-California-s-coastal-waters-a-dump-for-fishing-gear Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:04:21 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195337-Hunting-Banned-in-Parts-of-Austria-After-Hailstones-Kill-90-Percent-of-Wild-Game Hunting has been banned in parts of Austria after freak storms with tennis ball-sized hailstones killed up to 90 per cent of the wild game population. Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said : "Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so." Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings. Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts. In the country's rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195337-Hunting-Banned-in-Parts-of-Austria-After-Hailstones-Kill-90-Percent-of-Wild-Game Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:53:48 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195332-South-of-Panama-Earthquake-Magnitude-6-1 Date-Time: Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 00:51:39 UTC Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 06:51:39 PM at epicenter Location: 6.827°N, 82.576°W Depth: 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program Region: SOUTH OF PANAMA Distances: 180 km (110 miles) S of David, Panama 210 km (130 miles) SSE of Golfito, Costa Rica 225 km (140 miles) SW of Santiago, Panama 410 km (255 miles) SW of PANAMA CITY, Panama http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195332-South-of-Panama-Earthquake-Magnitude-6-1 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:42:29 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195296-Tropical-Storm-Rick-will-hit-Mexico-today Los Cabos - Tropical Storm Rick weakened rapidly as it headed for a soggy collision with Mexico's Pacific coast near Mazatlan on Wednesday after sparing Baja California's glitzy resorts a direct blow. Authorities suspended classes for two days in coastal cities of Sinaloa state and readied shelters for possible evacuations due to flooding. Forecasters said Rick could dump as much as 10 inches on isolated parts of Sinaloa and Durango states, creating the risk of flash floods and mudslides. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195296-Tropical-Storm-Rick-will-hit-Mexico-today Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:51:07 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195292-With-natural-gas-boom-Pennsylvania-faces-an-onslaught-of-wastewater Workers at a steel mill and a power plant were the first to notice something strange about the Monongahela River last summer. The water that U.S. Steel and Allegheny Energy used to power their plants contained so much salty sediment that it was corroding their machinery. Nearby residents saw something odd, too. Dishwashers were malfunctioning, and plates were coming out with spots that couldn't easily be rinsed off. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection soon identified the likely cause and came up with a quick fix. The Monongahela, a drinking water source for 350,000 people, had apparently been contaminated by chemically tainted wastewater from the state's growing natural gas industry. So the DEP reduced the amount of drilling wastewater that was being discharged into the river and unlocked dams upstream to dilute the contamination. But questions raised by the incident on the Monongahela haven't gone away. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195292-With-natural-gas-boom-Pennsylvania-faces-an-onslaught-of-wastewater Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:42:15 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195284-Scientists-discover-largest-orb-weaving-spider Researchers from the United States and Slovenia have discovered a new, giant Nephila species (golden orb weaver spider) from Africa and Madagascar and have published their findings in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal PLoS ONE. Matjaž Kuntner, chair of the Institute of Biology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a Smithsonian research associate, along with Jonathan Coddington, senior scientist and curator of arachnids and myriapods in the Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, also reconstructed size evolution in the family Nephilidae to show that this new species, on average, is the largest orb weaver known. Only the females are giants with a body length of 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) and a leg span of 4 - 5 inches (10 - 12 centimeters); the males are tiny by comparison. More than 41,000 spider species are known to science with about 400 - 500 new species added each year. But for some well-known groups, such as the giant golden orb weavers, the last valid described species dates back to the 19th century. Nephila spiders are renowned for being the largest web-spinning spiders. They make the largest orb webs, which often exceed 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter. They are also model organisms for the study of extreme sexual size dimorphism and sexual biology. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195284-Scientists-discover-largest-orb-weaving-spider Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:08:55 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195283-US-gives-Shell-green-light-for-offshore-oil-drilling-in-the-Arctic Conservationists say the decision by the Obama administration to allow drilling in the Beaufort Sea repeats Bush era mistakes Conservation groups based in Alaska have accused the Obama administration of repeating the mistakes of George Bush after it gave the conditional go-ahead for Shell to begin drilling offshore for oil and natural gas in the environmentally sensitive Beaufort Sea. The Minerals Management Service, part of the federal Interior Department, yesterday gave Shell the green light to begin exploratory wells off the north coast of Alaska in an Arctic area that is home to large numbers of endangered bowhead whales and polar bears, as well as walruses, ice seals and other species. The permission would run from July to October next year, though Shell has promised to suspend operations from its drill ship from late August when local Inuit people embark on subsistence hunting. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195283-US-gives-Shell-green-light-for-offshore-oil-drilling-in-the-Arctic Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:58:29 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195273-Europe-Chaos-in-the-snow-as-winter-bites-early Days of heavy snow have brought chaos, death and an early start to the skiing season to parts of Europe. Skiers are being told they can expect a sensational season after three feet of snow led many Alpine resorts to open two weeks early. But the unseasonably early cold snap also cut power to thousands of homes and caused at least three deaths. Pistes are already open in Austria, and there has also been heavy snow in France, Italy and Switzerland. Similar early falls last year saw the best conditions in Europe for more than 20 years. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195273-Europe-Chaos-in-the-snow-as-winter-bites-early Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:17:41 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195240-Sperm-Whales-Act-as-Carbon-Sink Sperm whales in the Southern Ocean deserve credit for their fine work pumping iron for climate change, researchers say. These whales have been falsely accused of breathing out enough carbon dioxide to contribute to the greenhouse gas build-up causing climate change, says Trish J. Lavery of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Of course the whales breathe, but earlier calculations overlooked the potential for whales to offset their emissions by introducing extra iron into the upper zone of water, Lavery said October 13 at the Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Quebec City, Canada. The extra iron that whales bring up from their deep feeding encourages plankton growth. That growth traps carbon, much as human-run iron-enrichment experiments in the ocean might, Lavery and her colleagues contend. According to the team's calculations, sperm whales in the Southern Ocean should rank as carbon neutral at least. The animals may even be capturing a net 5 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere per year, Lavery says. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195240-Sperm-Whales-Act-as-Carbon-Sink Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:13:27 -0400