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Young Female Chimpanzees Make and Play with "Dolls"

chimp
© Robert WeinkoveChimpanzee eating figs in Kibale National Park
Richard Wrangham of Harvard University and Sonya Kahlenberg of Bates College in Maine published research in the December 21, 2010, issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication that demonstrates the first evidence that chimpanzee youngsters in the wild may tend to play differently depending on their sex.

The research was reviewed at EurekaAlert and a draft of the research paper can be downloaded from this site.

The basic findings are:
  • Female chimpanzees play with sticks in a manner resembling a mother chimpanzee caring for an infant.
  • A biological (evolutionary) predisposition to play with dolls in a manner imitating mothers caring for infants is proposed as superlative to sex-stereotyped socialization roles in female humans.
  • The same type of behavior has been observed in the captivity in the wild with chimps but this is the first observation of this type of behavior involving "toys" created by the chimpanzees themselves.
  • Young female chimpanzees were observed playing with and carrying sticks more often. This play included taking the sticks into their day nests and demonstrated behavior similar to mothers caring for young chimps.
The researchers argue that this may be a single chimpanzee group learned behavior because this is the first known observation of that behavior but argue that it may be indicative of an evolutionary trait and a behavior that has been carried over from apes to humans.

Bizarro Earth

US: Major Winter Storm Barrels Up East Coast

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© Margaret Hester/The Asheville Citizen-TimesAn overturned SUV lies in a snowy ditch along I-40 East in North Carolina at mile marker 48 on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. Much of North Carolina was under a winter storm warning.
A winter storm that brought a rare white Christmas to parts of the South was barreling up the East Coast early Sunday, with forecasters predicting 6 to 10 inches of snow for Washington and blizzard conditions for New York City and New England.

Airlines canceled hundreds of Sunday flights in the Northeast corridor, with more likely to come as the storm intensifies.

Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergency early Sunday or Saturday night. As North Carolina road crews tried to clear snowy and icy highways, Mid-Atlantic officials spent Christmas Day preparing for up to a foot of snow, plunging temperatures and high winds.

"Our concern is tomorrow it's going to get significantly colder," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told The Weather Channel on Saturday evening. "Winds with gusts up to 45 miles per hour will cause blowing snow and that's going to cause the worst of it ... and we're urging extreme caution in travel. Try to get home early and if you don't have to travel don't go."

Continental Airlines canceled 250 Sunday departures from Newark Liberty International Airport outside New York City. United Airlines announced late Saturday that it had canceled dozens of Sunday departures from Newark, Philadelphia, New York's LaGuardia and JFK, Boston and other airports. AirTran also canceled flights, as did Southwest Airlines, mostly in or out of Washington Dulles, Baltimore and Newark.

Arrow Down

Russia: Over 6,000 Travelers Stranded at Moscow Airport as Power Cut Delays Flights

More than 6,000 passengers were left stranded at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday after a heavy overnight snowfall caused cancellations, Russia's Aviation Committee (Rosaviatsia) said.

Some 70 flights were cancelled at Domodedovo airport, Russia's busiest, after two electricity substations were knocked out.

The power cut affected about 100,000 people in the region, the Moscow United Electric Grid Company said.

A spokesman for Rosaviatsia said power has not been fully restored yet but that the airport is "partially operational."

There is no rail service between central Moscow and the airport.

Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu - Earthquake Magnitude 6.2

Vanuatu Quake_261210
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 02:13:37 UTC

Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 01:13:37 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
19.633°S, 168.321°E

Depth:
9.2 km (5.7 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
100 km (60 miles) W of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

210 km (130 miles) S of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

215 km (135 miles) NNE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

1785 km (1110 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Attention

Vanuatu: 7.3 Magnitude Quake Triggers Pacific Tsunami on Disaster Anniversary

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© Agence France-Presse/Nicolas AsfouriA powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the western Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Sunday, triggering a small tsunami exactly six years after giant waves killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the western Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Sunday, triggering a small tsunami exactly six years after giant waves killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the shallow quake generated a tsunami, but it cancelled a regional warning after the wave measured only 15 centimetres (six inches) higher than normal in Vanuatu.

"Sea level readings confirm that a tsunami was generated," the centre said in its bulletin.

"This tsunami may have been destructive along coastlines of the region near the earthquake epicentre," it said, but cancelled the warning when no destructive wave hit.

The quake struck at 12:16 am on Sunday (1316 GMT Saturday), and the initial tsunami warning covered Vanuatu, Fiji and the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. There were no reports of damage or casualties.

Bizarro Earth

Odd Earthquakes Not Letting Up In Central Arkansas

New Madrid Seismic Zone
© USGSMap of the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
Central Arkansas has been hit with a series of earthquakes recently, more than 500 since September 20.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), most were hardly noticeable but one stood out prominently when it hit the Richter scale at a 4.0 on October 11.

Geologists can't say whether the quakes will end anytime soon.

Dr. Horton of the University of Memphis feels that the ample amount of earthquakes in this state is quite unusual.

"In the New Madrid Seismic Zone there's approximately 200 per year, so if we had that many in Central Arkansas in less than a month, something is going on," Dr. Horton told CNN's Sarah Hoye.

The problem is that part of central Arkansas isn't even part of the New Madrid Fault Zone, so researchers are trying to figure out what's causing all those earthquakes.

Igloo

6 to10 inches of snow forecasted for NYC

At least six inches of snow expected to blanket area by Monday morning



New Yorkers traveling in the area on Christmas Day won't be hampered by wintry weather, but Monday's commute looks like it'll be far more difficult than usual -- and not just because we're coming off a holiday weekend.

The weather service was forecasting possible snow for the tri-state area, starting Sunday and continuing into Sunday night, with overnight temperatures in the 20s and wind gusts up to 30 mph.

The heaviest snow is expected to fall late Sunday through early Monday.

NBCNewYork meteorologist Raphael Miranda says six to 10 inches of snow could blanket the ground by the time commuters wake up for work Monday morning, making for a treacherous, frigid return from the holidays. Up to a foot of snow is possible in some areas -- an unwelcome post-Christmas gift for those who have to dig out.

Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu Region - Earthquake Magnitude 7.3

Vanuatu Quake_251210
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 13:16:37 UTC

Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 12:16:37 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
19.775°S, 167.895°E

Depth:
12.3 km (7.6 miles)

Region:
VANUATU REGION

Distances:
145 km (90 miles) W of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

195 km (120 miles) N of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

230 km (145 miles) S of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

1740 km (1080 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Igloo

Northeast Blizzard to Create Travel Nightmares

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The snowstorm headed to the Northeast created this wintry scene in northeastern Missouri. Photo submitted by AccuWeather.com Facebook fan Lewistown StormWatcher on Dec. 25, 2010.
The storm bringing a rare White Christmas to the South will turn into a monster snowstorm, complete with blizzard conditions, across the mid-Atlantic and New England on Sunday into Monday. A nightmare awaits holiday travelers.

The corridor from Salisbury, Md., to New York City to Boston to Portland will be faced with roughly 18 hours of heavy, wind-whipped snow.

Total snow accumulations within this zone will exceed a half of a foot. Strong winds will significantly blow and drift the snow around.

As the storm reaches its peak intensity, an all-out blizzard should unfold over New England.

Disruptive snow will even expand westward to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Albany.

Snowman

Airport Christmas for Europe's stranded travelers

airport,snow
© Associated Press

Paris - Hundreds of travelers trapped by icy weather spent Christmas Day queuing for flights in Europe on Saturday after sleeping on camp beds overnight in Paris and Brussels airports.

Travel disruptions this month have upset year-end travel for hundreds of thousands of people and raised questions about the air industry's lack of preparation for icy weather.

Flight schedules were returning to normal in Paris, thanks to fresh deliveries of de-icing fluid from Germany and the United States.

But many people were still set to miss Christmas dinners at their destinations. Travel chaos was compounded by disruptions to high-speed trains and clogged roads from England to Sweden in one of Europe's snowiest Decembers.