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Avalanches Kill Seven in Italian Alps


Press TV
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:21 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
View of a snowy peak in the Alps.
In separate incidents, seven people, including a German teenager, have been killed by avalanches in northern Italy.

In one incident on Saturday, two Italian tourists were trapped in an avalanche while mountain climbing in the Trentino Alto Adige region.

Another avalanche killed four rescue workers of the seven-person team sent out to find the two trapped tourists.

A separate rescue expedition discovered that the two missing tourists had died and located their bodies.

And a 14-year-old German boy died on the spot in another avalanche in nearby Alto Adige as he was skiing off-piste with his brother and a friend.
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Roses

Flowering Powers Genetic Understanding


ScienceDaily
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
New research from the John Innes Centre on how plants adapt their flowering to climate is also helping to unravel some of the mysteries of how genes are controlled.

Until relatively recently genome sequencing projects, and studies of gene expression have mostly focussed on the messenger RNA transcripts produced from genes that contain the code needed to make proteins. But as well as this coding RNA, it is now becoming apparent that there are extensive amounts of non-coding RNA that has important roles in regulating gene expression.

Despite being widespread amongst many different organisms, our understanding of this non-coding RNA is still very limited. It is thought to play major roles in the differentiation of stem cells, and it has been implicated in cancer development, but we are still a long way from knowing what all of this non-coding RNA is for. Recent studies by Professor Caroline Dean of the John Innes Centre on how plants control flowering in different climates have given indications of how non-coding RNA is processed and how it can affect gene expression, demonstrating the potential use of a plant based model system in unravelling fundamental questions about how genes work.
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Bizarro Earth

'Clogged' Philippine Volcano Could Burst, Expert Says


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:57 UTC
Image
© AFP
Lava cascades on the slopes of Mayon volcano as seen in Santo Domingo town, Albay province, southeast of Manila.
Rumbling Mayon volcano in the Philippines is showing signs of becoming clogged with lava and could erupt explosively, a government volcanologist said Saturday.

The volcano, which has been oozing lava for weeks, is also emitting gas and ash, all signs of a powerful eruption any day now, said Ed Laguerta, head of the government's volcanology team monitoring Mayon.

"Mayon volcano is still in a high state of unrest and in the coming days it could still have an explosive eruption," he warned in a radio interview.

"The number of (volcanic) quakes have lessened but now the quakes are of a different variety. What is becoming clear is that it (the volcano) is getting clogged. That is when the lava is rising but cannot get out," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

Half of Stranded Air Comet Passengers Rescued


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Image
© AFP
Passengers of Spanish airlines Air Comet wait in Barajas airport in Madrid
Special charter flights have rescued nearly half of the 7,000 passengers left stranded by the collapse of Air Comet, according to information released Saturday by Spain's airport authority.

Spain suspended Air Comet's operating license on Tuesday after the airline filed for protection from creditors and laid off all of its 666 employees.

Thousands of travelers were left stuck at airports in Spain and Latin America, and the Spanish government said Wednesday it had chartered four planes to take them to their destinations.

A 400-seat charter flight took off from Madrid's Barajas airport for Lima on Saturday, according to a spokesman for Aena, Spain's publicly-owned airport management company.
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Binoculars

Barmy Brits Brave Winter Chill for Christmas Dip


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Image
© AFP
Members of the Bournemouth Spartans swimming club taking to the Channel for their Christmas Day swim in Boscombe near Bournemouth, Dorset.
The traditional British Christmas: a cosy fire, turkey, mince pies and sherry. Or, for some brave souls, stripping off in the bitter winter chill and charging headlong into the sea.

In Brighton, and at Porthcawl on the south Wales shore, hundreds of people, some in fancy dress, joined in the annual festive dips, to the bemusement of onlookers.

In the capital, swimmers in more traditional bathing costumes and caps made do by plunging into The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park.

The Brighton Swimming Club's traditional dip -- bracing might best describe it -- was first recorded in 1885.

"Spectators-wise, I've never seen so many people here. There must have been around 1,500 to 2,000," said club chairman John Ottaway.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Forecasters Warn of Continued Blizzards in Plains

Dinesh Ramde
My Way News
Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:34 UTC
Residents in the nation's heartland were digging out after a blustery storm as meteorologists warned that blizzard conditions could continue across the northern Plains on Saturday.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.

Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest.
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Fish

North America's biggest fish slips toward extinction

Matthew Brown
The Associated Press
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:24 UTC
White sturgeon
© AP Photo/Monterey Bay Aquarium, Randy Wilde
This undated image provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, shows the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon. As efforts falter to save this largest freshwater fish — a toothless beast left over from the days of dinosaurs — officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water hurtling down a river so the fish can spawn in the wild.
Billings, Montana. - As efforts falter to save North America's largest freshwater fish - a toothless beast left over from the days of dinosaurs - officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water hurtling down a river so the fish can spawn in the wild.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday declared that attempts over the past two years to save the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon had failed.

The prehistoric sturgeon, characterized by its large head and armor-like scales, can reach 19 feet long and top 1,000 pounds.

An isolated population of the species lives along a stretch of the Kootenai that passes through Montana, northern Idaho and southern British Columbia. Fewer than 500 of the bottom-feeding behemoths survive - and it's been 35 years since they successfully spawned.

The problem is Libby Dam, a hydroelectric facility in Montana run by the Army Corps of Engineers that serves power markets in the Pacific Northwest. When the dam went up in 1974, it stopped periodic flooding of Bonners Ferry, Idaho - but also high water flows that triggered the sturgeon to move upriver and spawn.
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Bizarro Earth

6.0 Earthquake Hits Off Banda Sea, Indonesia


Xinhua
Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:47 UTC
An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit off Banda Sea, Indonesia, at 17:04 p.m. ( 0904 GMT) Saturday, according to a bulletin released by the Hong Kong Observatory.

The epicenter was initially determined to be at 5.6 degrees south latitude and 131.1 degrees east longitude, about 390 km east- southeast of Ambon, Indonesia.
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists Say Magma Building Up in Mayon Volcano

Bullit Marquez
PhysOrg
Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Bullit Marquez
Lava flows continuously from the crater of Mayon volcano in a continuing mild eruption as viewed from Sto. Domingo township, Albay province, about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila, Philippines.
Fewer earthquakes have been recorded in the Philippines' lava-spilling Mayon volcano, but magma continues to build up inside and any lull in activity could be followed by a bigger eruption, scientists said Saturday.

A hazardous eruption remains possible within days, and residents who live near the volcano's slopes should not be misled into leaving the evacuation centers that they spend Christmas in and venturing back to their homes, volcanologist Ed Laguerta warned.

"The number of volcanic earthquakes has gone down, but this is just part of the eruptive cycle of Mayon," he said.

The number of quakes decreased from 871 recorded during the 24-hour period ending Friday morning to 406 recorded during the next 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
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Bizarro Earth

Just 16 Ships Expel as Much Pollution as All the Cars in the World

E. Huff
Natural News
Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:59 UTC
Large shipping vessels have become commonplace in today's global marketplace as goods are imported and exported across the world. While the high levels of pollution they create are something that most people don't think too much about, some scientists are beginning to evaluate their environmental effect. One of the most disturbing facts discovered about these giant ships is that a mere 16 of them emit as much sulfur as do all the cars in the world combined.

Fred Pearce, a science writer and environmental consultant for New Scientist, has been studying the shipping industry for quite some time. He has focused particularly on their use of filthy, toxic fuel that is polluting the air at a staggering pace. According to his assessment, thousands of people die every year from the toxic fumes that are emitted from their smokestacks, lingering in the air as a brown haze for many days. If current practices continue, he estimates that upwards of a million people will die in the next decade due to ship pollution.
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