WTF^^ Its the Plague
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WTF^^ Its the Plague
Yeah, here in Europe we have the bird flu, and in Australia it's bird ebola.
Heart of downtown Austin closed for testing after dozens of birds found dead overnight
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AUSTIN, Texas -- Police shut down 10 blocks in downtown Austin for several hours Monday after 63 birds were found dead in the street, but officials said preliminary tests found no threat to people.
Workers in yellow hazardous-materials suits tested for contaminants in a cordoned-off section near the state Capitol and the governor's mansion before authorities finally gave the all-clear in the afternoon.
Although officials could not immediately determine whether poison or something else killed the birds, "there's no threat to humans at this point," said Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald.
The dead grackles, sparrows and pigeons will be tested.
Some experts said the most likely cause of the die-off was a deliberate poisoning. "It happens quite frequently," said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation at the National Audubon Society in Washington.
Grackles are a crowlike bird regarded as a major pest in Texas, with Austin sidewalks sometimes covered in their droppings.
The dead birds were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare. Police closed the route through downtown and two side streets, and a staging area was set up near the Capitol, with dozens of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances.
The Capitol opened on schedule, however. And the governor was not asked to leave the mansion.
Dr. Adolfo Valadez, medical director for the Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services Division, said the birds will be tested for signs of poison or viral infections. But officials do not believe bird flu is involved.
It could be days or weeks before a cause is determined, he said.
The Austin street closures were not the only public health concern in Texas on Monday. In the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, authorities asked people to stay indoors with windows closed after a chemical release at an industrial plant. Ethylenediamine was released into the air while a tanker truck was unloading at a division of Nalco Co.
The warning was lifted a little more than an hour later after emergency crews contained the leak of the colorless liquid, which has an amomonia-like odor and can cause skin and nasal irritation, and possible damage to the kidneys and liver.
Three employees were sent to a hospital and about a dozen others were treated on the scene.
UFO crashes in SA
Pretoria - A UFO was sighted at Lephalale, where it was described as a strange object "on an orange cloud, singing like a million turbines" - hitting the earth with a bang at 04:33 on Saturday.
That's according to Leonie Ras, the administrative manager of Lephalale (Ellisras) who witnessed the spectacle at her daughter's farm just east of the town on Saturday morning.
"I was lying on my bed reading SMS-messages when I heard a noise like an Airbus aircraft firing up its motors."
"It was raining but there was no thunder or lightning. The noise grew louder and eventually it sounded like a million turbines screaming in unison," Ras said.
She walked to the bedroom window and saw the clouds taking on a bright orange-red colour.
"Suddenly, a bright object plunged from the clouds to the earth, at a terrible speed, and hit the ground with an almighty bang."
"It looked like Haley's comet, round in the front and with an orange-red tail following behind."
When the UFO hit the ground the low-lying clouds went orange.
"It was so exceptional that I started crying. I wished my children and grandchildren could have seen it. I had not been drinking and I was in full control of my faculties," she said.
She calculated that the object must have hit the ground near Beauty, between the Tambotie and Palele rivers.
Cobus Nel, her son-in-law, who was also in the house, woke up from the commotion.
"I woke up to a terrible rumbling, followed by a sound like an explosion. I woke my wife up, so that she could also listen, because the rumbling lasted more than a minute, becoming louder, then we heard the bang," Nel said.
Lephlale's fire service, police and disaster control centres seemed to have slept through the commotion. "I want someone to go and have a look. The farms here are big, and it could have fallen somewhere, where the farmer doesn't even know about it," Ras said.
UFO Crash in Central Iran
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Unidentified Flying Object crashed in Barez Mounts in the central province of Kerman Wednesday morning.
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Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told FNA that the crash which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke has caused no casualties or damage to properties.
He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircrafts have been reported as sound and safe.
The official further stated that investigations are underway by police and other relevant authorities in this regard.
While other reports spoke of meteors, Nasrollahi said there were no conclusive witnesses in this regard but he did not dismiss the possibility that the crash has been caused by a meteor.
Eye-witnesses assure that the explosion has been caused as a result of the crash of a radiant unidentified flying object onto the ground.
Meantime, an informed source told FNA that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn't have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke.
The source also said that the crash has been witnessed by people in several cities, and mentioned that the rendezvous point is located 100 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Kerman.
He said that people in the city of Rafsanjan also reported to have witnessed a similar incident several days ago.
Similar crash incidents have been witnessed frequently during the last year all across Iran, and officials believe that the objects could be spy planes or a hi-tech espionage device.
Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...roslin_203.jpg GM chickens could be a route to faster, cheaper drugs
UK scientists have developed genetically modified chickens capable of laying eggs containing proteins needed to make cancer-fighting drugs.
The breakthrough has been announced by the same research centre that created the cloned sheep, Dolly.
The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, says it has produced five generations of birds that can produce useful levels of life-saving proteins in egg whites.
The work could lead to a range of drugs that are cheaper and easier to make.
Professor Harry Griffin, director of the institute, told the BBC: "One of the characteristics of lots of medical treatments these days is that they're very expensive.
"The idea of producing the proteins involved in treatments in flocks of laying hens means they can produce in bulk, they can produce cheaply and indeed the raw material for this production system is quite literally chicken feed."
Roslin has bred some 500 modified birds. Their existence is the result of more than 15 years' work by the lead scientist on the project, Dr Helen Sang.
But it could be another five years before patient trials get the go-ahead and 10 years until a medicine is fully developed, the Roslin Institute cautioned.
Anti-viral approach
Therapeutic proteins such as insulin have long been produced in bacteria; but there are some complex proteins that can only be made in the more sophisticated cells of larger organisms.
Scientists have successfully made a range of these molecules in the milk of genetically modified sheep, goats, cows and rabbits.
The work at Roslin shows it is now possible to use chickens as "biofactories", too.
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A number of GM animals are now being used as drug factories
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Go-ahead for 'pharmed' goat
Some of the birds have been engineered to lay eggs that contain miR24, a type of antibody with potential for treating malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Others produce human interferon b-1a, which can be used to stop viruses replicating in cells.
The proteins are secreted into the whites of the eggs. It is a fairly straightforward process then to extract and purify them.
Dr Sang said the team was highly encouraged by the level of the birds' productivity, but further improvements were required.
"We're probably getting a high enough productivity if you want to make a very active protein like interferon, but not enough yet if you want to make an antibody because people need large doses of these over long periods; so one of our next challenges is to try to increase the yield in egg white," she told BBC News.
Wider role
Chickens had some advantages over other animals for "pharming" because their lifecycles were shorter, said Dr Sang.
"Once you've made the transgenic birds, then it's very easy; once you've got the gene in, then you can breed up hundreds of birds from one cockerel - because they can be bred with hundreds of hens and you can collect an egg a day and have hundreds of chicks in no time," she explained.
The Roslin research is part of the Avian Transgenic Project, a joint venture with biotechnology firms Viragen and Oxford BioMedica.
Details of the latest work are to be published this week in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The Roslin team also expects its engineered chickens to provide new insights into aspects of reproductive biology.
It says the ability to modify birds' embryos will allow researchers to study fundamental processes that control the very early development of vertebrates. It is just over 10 years since the Finn Dorset lamb called Dolly was born at the institute. She was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell - making her a genetic replica of a six-year-old ewe. She was put down in 2003 after contracting a common lung disease.
Air Force colonel reports lights 'not of this world'
Snaps images above Arkansas: 'I have no idea what they were'
Posted: January 17, 2007
6:37 p.m. Eastern
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images2/orangelight1.jpg
Zoomed image of mysterious orange light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields, USAF, ret.)
In the wake of reports of unidentified objects flying over Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a retired Air Force pilot has his own mystery with a rash of bright, colorful lights he photographed hovering in skies over western Arkansas last week.
"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told WND. "I have no idea what they were."
Fields, 61, was cooking chicken at his Van Buren, Ark., home Jan. 9 when just before 7 p.m., he observed two intensely bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.
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Zoomed image of mysterious yellow light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."
Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.
"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields, who also ruled out the possibility of flares, saying they didn't descend like flares typically do. "It's not anything I ever had any experience with . ... They were some kind of energy or something."
Fields grabbed his Canon digital camera with 6 megapixel resolution to document what he and his wife were seeing, and snapped numerous images of the mysterious lights, which appeared white, yellow and orange.
He says the phenomenon lasted an hour and 15 minutes, and agencies have not published or broadcast any reports of what the couple witnessed. WND surveyed local police and sheriffs agencies, as well as Fort Chaffee, a decommissioned Army base in the region, and no one reported anything out of the ordinary.
"I just can't imagine other people didn't see it," Fields said, noting they appeared at times like a yo-yo at 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon.
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Mysterious yellow lights in triangular formation seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights at right are from a local radio tower (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reported workers for United Air Lines said they saw a flying saucerlike object hovering "low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies."
That Nov. 7 sighting took place just before sunset about 4:30 p.m.
According to Tribune columnist Jon Hilkevitch, "All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights.
"Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds."
When interviewed on National Public Radio about the story, Hilkevitch indicated the event was anything but a hoax.
"That's what impressed me about this. All aviation professionals, very credible sources and they are very serious," Hilkevitch said. "They are not saying what they saw was a, you know, a spaceship from another planet, but it was unidentified, it was in restricted airspace, and they were concerned from a safety standpoint. That if this was something man-made, they needed to get it out of there because they were having busy flight operations in the early evening hours."
Back in Arkansas, Col. Fields, who says he's a Christian who has not been a believer in alien life forms from other planets, speculated what he saw could possibly be related to ancient texts from the Bible.
One of them is Luke 21:11, where Jesus discusses signs of the End Times, stating, "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."
Another is even more ancient, going back to the time of Noah's flood.
"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ... There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:2-4)
These Old Testament verses have been enigmatic for centuries, but many Christians believe they refer to a time in antiquity when spirit beings, perhaps angels in rebellion against God, visited Earth and had sexual relations with human women, producing "giants," which is translated from the Hebrew word "Nephilim," which some scholars say is better translated as "fallen ones."
"I believe it's prophetic, something do with what's happening in the Middle East today," said Fields. "If this is some kind of event with visitation, it's entirely possible. When the anti-Christ comes into power, it's not going to be something we expect. The deception that is going to be attached to it is going to be so powerful, you're gonna have to go against your reason to reject it."
While Fields cannot be certain of what it was he saw, he wants to tell people not to be deceived. "Be awake, be mindful you can be deceived," he said. "There are things that can shake our world."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americ...rss_topstories
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remember what he said about guys that own a pigfarm?
It's a two-faced, four-eyed pig
Thursday, January 18, 2007
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The recent barrage of two-faced (or otherwise unusually shaped) animals just won't stop coming.
Hot on the heels of the two-faced cow and the six-legged cow comes a new entrant in the odd animal hall of fame.
But unlike the previous examples, which have been hailed by Metro (if, admittedly, not by anybody else) as a sign of the imminent apocalypse, the birth of this two-headed pig in China is being hailed as a miraculous conception by the farmers.
RELATED ITEMS
The pig is widely seen as a symbol of fertility in China. And, what with 2007 being the Chinese Year Of The Pig, the unique porker is considered to be a blessing. Although, of course, it won't actually be the year of the pig until February 18.
The two-faced porker weighs in at 1.5 kilograms, comes with 2 mouths and 4 eyes, and was born in the small village of Quanzhou in East China's Fujian province on January 15.
Update for people who are having difficulty interpreting the picture: there's two snouts. In the middle, you can see two eyes very close together. On the each other side of the two faces, out of view, there's another eye. Hence the description 'two-faced, four-eyed pig'.
Photo Gallery: Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive
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Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface.
Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool.
"We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official told the Reuters news service. But the truth may never be known, since the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.
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This serpentine specimen may look like a large eel, but its six slitlike gills help mark it as a cousin of the great white, the hammerhead, and other sharks. But this isn't your average fish.
Believed to have changed little since prehistoric times, the frilled shark is linked to long-extinct species by its slinky shape and by an upper jaw that is part of its skull. Most living sharks have hinged top jaws.
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With a mouthful of three-pointed teeth, the frilled shark may be a fearsome hunter, but it's considered harmless to humans. Those needle-like choppers are better suited to fleshier forms found in the deep sea, such as squid and other sharks.
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Right now it's known as a "living fossil." But the frilled shark may be on its way to joining its ancestors.
Often accidentally caught and killed in trawlers' nets in Japanese waters, frilled sharks are known to turn up in fertilizer or animal food and occasionally on dinner plates. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened, meaning it "is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future."
AROUND THE CORNER? Yesterday,something on the far side of the sun exploded, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space:
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Note: Algedi and Dahbi are stars in the constellation Capricornus.
This is the second day in a row that a CME has rocketed into view from behind the sun's eastern limb (movies: Jan. 24, Jan. 25). An active sunspot must be lurking just around the corner. It should appear in a few days when the sun's rotation carries that part of the sun into view. Stay tuned for solar activity.
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COMET MCNAUGHT: The Great Comet of 2007 is receding from Earth and fading fast--but it is still a naked-eye comet, materializing in the western sky after sunset in the Southern Hemisphere. "These cows and sheep seem to be enjoying the show," says photographer Tim Thorpe on the Mount Lofty Ranges of Australia:
Photo details: Nikon D70, ISO 1000, ~20-sec exposure
Lights 'not of this world' mystery finally 'solved'
UFOAir Force reveals weapons tests that sparked global UFO frenzy frenzy
Posted: January 24, 2007
9:22 p.m. Eastern
http://wnd.com/images2/orangelight1.jpg
Zoomed image of mysterious orange light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields, USAF, ret.)
Mysterious lights in the sky witnessed and photographed by an Air Force colonel who described them as "not of this world" apparently have an explanation of this Earth after all according to the U.S. Air Force, WND can reveal.
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LUU-2 flare deploys parachute to float slowly to Earth
Officials say the colorful illuminations seen Jan. 9 over western Arkansas came from special military flares that slowly parachuted to the ground as part of an Air Force training mission involving A-10 aircraft pilots at nearby Fort Chaffee, a base used for testing weaponry.
"We were flying A-10s in that area and they were using flares," Jessica D'Aurizio, chief of public affairs at the 917th Wing of the Air Force Reserve at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, told WND.
She says the flares, which stay lit for about five minutes, produce nearly 2 million candlepower.
"It brightens up the target area," D'Aurizio said. "They go down in parachutes, so they're very bright. That had to be what it was, I'm sure."
(Story continues below)
As WND exclusively reported last week, F-16 fighter pilot Col. Brian Fields, now retired at 61, was at his Van Buren, Ark., home Jan. 9 when just before 7 p.m., he observed two intensely bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.
http://wnd.com/images2/yellowlight1.jpg
Zoomed image of mysterious yellow light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."
http://wnd.com/images2/lightstriangle1.jpg
Mysterious yellow lights in triangular formation seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights at right are from a local broadcasting tower (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
He added, "I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward."
Lt. Col. Pete Gauger, executive staff officer at the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard, confirmed A-10s were on the Fort Chaffee bombing range dropping suspended flares at the time Fields documented the lights some five to ten degrees above the horizon.
"They would drop multiple flares," he said. "That probably solves your mystery. It's beyond coincidence."
http://wnd.com/images2/A-10.jpg
A-10 aircraft similar to this were used in a pilot-training mission Jan. 9 in western Arkansas
Gauger said WND's initial report caused a lot of interest among media outlets, especially after being featured on the Drudge Report.
"It was widely read," he said. "I read it, and I didn't immediately tie it in [to the training]."
Fort Chaffee, which is run by the Arkansas Army National Guard, is situated on approximately 61,000 acres not far from Fields' residence in Van Buren.
"Just a small portion of it is for the Air National Guard to fire and test weapons," said Kim Kimmey, chief warrant officer at Fort Chaffee.
According to the Federation of American Scientists Military Analysis Network, A-10 aircraft "have excellent maneuverability at low air speeds and altitude, and are highly accurate weapons-delivery platforms. They can loiter near battle areas for extended periods of time and operate under 1,000-foot ceilings with 1.5-mile visibility. Their wide combat radius and short takeoff and landing capability permit operations in and out of locations near front lines. Using night vision goggles, A-10/ OA-10 pilots can conduct their missions during darkness."
D'Aurizio at Barksdale AFB told WND there were four A-10 planes as part of the training mission the night of Jan. 9, and they used LUU-2 flares.
http://wnd.com/images2/LUU-2flare.jpg
Schematic illustration of an LUU-2 flare
According to GlobalSecurity.org, "The mechanism has a timer on it that deploys the parachute and ignites the flare candle. The flare candle burns magnesium which burns at high temperature emitting an intense bright white light. The consumption of the aluminum cylinder that contains the flare 'candle' may add some orange to the light."
"I did not know that such 'parachute flares' existed and never considered the possibility," Col. Fields told WND upon learning the reason behind the mysterious lights. "I am grateful, however, that the truth has been determined and those that may have been disturbed by this event will be able to rest."
Fields, a Christian who originally speculated his sighting might have had something to do with End Time prophecies from the Bible, still wants people to remain vigilant.
"Because this event was explained does not change the fact that we live in perilous times – and we must still be awake, alert, and know that a great deception is still coming."
WND's original story sparked a flurry of interest in unexplained phenomena and UFO activity, with many readers saying they had seen or experienced lights similar to those witnessed by Fields.
D'Aurizio said when the flares are deployed, "It's not unusual to have people think there's something strange going on."
Not everyone is quick to accept the Air Force's explanation.
"Are you trying to tell us that a retired Air Force colonel doesn't know the difference between flares and lights from a UFO? But the Air Force trusted him enough to fly F-16s, multi-million dollar jets?" asks Jim Chadbourne of Waterford, Conn. "When are the media going to stop listening to the government's crap and report the truth?"
Other feedback to WND became comical at times.
Jeff Anno of Cincinnati, Ohio, supplied his own image, explaining, "I looked closely at the orange picture and something looked fishy. It looked like the [Volkswagen] logo."
http://wnd.com/images2/orangelightVW.jpg
Mega-marsupials once roamed Australia
POSTED: 11:40 a.m. EST, January 25, 2007
Story Highlights
• Giant lions, kangaroos and wombats once roamed Australia's outback
• They died out around 50,000 years ago after the arrival of human settlers
• Fossilized remains uncovered almost intact in three deep caves
• Scientists have identified the remains of 69 species
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by arriving humans, scientists said on Thursday.
The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves.
Fossilized remains were uncovered almost intact in a series of three deep caves in the center of the Nullarbor desert -- east of the west coast city of Perth -- in October 2002.
"Three subsequent expeditions produced hundreds of fossils so well-preserved that they constitute a veritable "Rosetta Stone for Ice-Age Australia", expedition leader Gavin Prideaux said of the find, detailed in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
The team discovered 69 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including eight new species of kangaroo, some standing up to 9 feet tall.
Protected from wind and rain, and undisturbed due to their remote location, the remains of the mega-beasts are in near-perfect condition, including the first-ever complete skeleton of a marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex.
"Unwary animals bounding around in the case of kangaroos, or running around in the case of marsupial lions and wombats, fell down these holes, as presumably most were nocturnal. It's very difficult to see a small opening on a flat surface at night," Prideaux said.
Research into the fossils challenges recent claims that Australia's megafauna were killed off by climate change, pointing the finger instead at fires, probably lit by the first human settlers who transformed the fragile landscape.
The lands inhabited by the megafauna once supported flowers, tall trees and shrubs. But isotopes extracted from skeletal enamels show the climate was hot and arid, similar to today.
The plants, the scientists said, were highly sensitive to so-called fire-stick farming, where lands were deliberately cleared by fires to encourage re-growth.
"Australian megafauna could take all that nature could throw at them for half-a-million years, without succumbing," said Richard Roberts, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong.
"It was only when people arrived that they vanished."
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/TECH/sci...angaroo.gi.jpg
Australia is known for its marsupials -- here a kangaroo hops through the outback near Marree, Australia.
Siti Suhana's bizzare condition baffles even doctors
24 Jan 2007
MALACCA, WED:
EVEN doctors are baffled over Siti Suhana Saadon's extraordinary toe which produces colourful stones.
The 23-year-old girl from Alor Gajah had become an overnight sensation when TV3 aired the bizarre story of crystal-like stones popping out from beneath her toe nail.
Her rubber-tapper mother Kamariah Komeng, 52, said Siti's toe nail would just open up to release a stone and closes on its own. Some people had offered to purchase the stones from Siti for research purposes.
A medical specialist has expressed interest in checking Siti’s condition, describing that it was unusual.
“The stones looked like gems,” said the doctor who is attached to the UKM Faculty of Medicine.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/n...437/stoned.JPG
COLOURFUL: The stones (at left) produced by Siti's toe. NST PIX BY Nashairi Mohd Nawi.
theres something gross about that
Aight how bout this one...
Iranians report 'radiant UFO'
Iranian news agency reports 'a radiant unidentified flying object in Western Iran'
A UFO omitting a "yellow ray" has been seen across Western Iran, the Fars News Agency claimed in a report recently.
"Witnesses told FNA (Fars News Agency) that the object has been observed for more than an hour," the report said, adding: "In a similar incident last Monday, an Unidentified Flying Object was witnessed in the same area and at the same time."
According to eye witnesses, "the UFO has been as big as a ball, with a yellow ray and a bright reddish color in the center. They also stated that the object has been flying at a very low altitude."
The FNA said Iranian officials declined to comment.
The Iranian news outlet also reported a UFO "crashing" last Wednesday, "in Barrez Mounts in the central province of Kerman."
"Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told FNA that the crash, which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke, has caused no casualties or damage to properties," the report said, adding: "He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircrafts have been reported as sound and safe."
Iranian authorities were investigating the crash, described by witnesses as an explosion "caused as a result of the crash of a radiant unidentified flying object onto the ground. ''
"Meantime, an informed source told FNA that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn't have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke," the article said.
It added: "The source also said that the crash has been witnessed by people in several cities, and mentioned that the rendezvous point was located 100 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Kerman . He said that people in the city of Rafsanjan also reported to have witnessed a similar incident
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I Wouldn't Mind Having That Foot On A Key Chain After Its Owner Has Finished With It. All I get is intergalactic planetary toejam. A bit like Jay Kay.
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Mysterious source jams satellite communications
Paris-based satellite company Eutelsat is investigating "unidentified interference" with its satellite broadcast services that temporarily knocked out several television and radio stations. The company declined to say whether it thought the interference was accidental or deliberate.
The problem began Tuesday afternoon, blocking several European, Middle East and northeast African radio and television stations, as well as Agence France-Presse's news service. All transferred their satellite transmissions to another frequency to resume operations.
Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense Information think-tank in Washington DC, US, says there have been cases of deliberate satellite jamming in the past, but it is hard to see what motivation there would be in this instance.
"It's really puzzling to me," she told New Scientist. "If it was accidental, why would they be so secretive about saying what the source was and if it's deliberate, you've got to wonder why – it just seems to me to be an odd target, unless someone's ticked off at the French," she says.
Hitchens points out that there have been cases of deliberate jamming, including one in the 1990s when Indonesia and Tonga had a dispute over which country had the rights to a particular satellite orbital slot. Tonga had leased the slot to a satellite firm based in Hong Kong, but Indonesia had its own satellite in the same slot and proceeded to jam the Hong Kong satellite.
In a more recent incident, the US claimed in 2003 that Cuba was jamming its satellite broadcasts into Iran.
Listen and repeat
There are a variety of ways to interfere with a satellite's communications. One is to broadcast a stronger signal, either from the ground or from another satellite, that drowns what the satellite is sending to the ground, preventing people from receiving its signal. Another is to blast a signal at the satellite itself so that it cannot hear what the ground is trying to tell it.
Communications satellites act like conduits, listening to the ground and re-broadcasting what they hear. If someone drowns out the uplink signal with noise, then the satellite will re-broadcast the noise instead of the intended television or radio program.
Military satellites use methods like encryption and frequency hopping to prevent jamming, but many commercial communications satellites lack such safeguards, Hitchens says. "Given the fact that militaries increasingly rely on commercial satellites for communication, this has generated a lot of discussion," she says.
A 2004 report of the satellite task force of the US President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee highlighted potential jamming of satellites as a key concern.
Nothing nefarious
Richard DalBello, vice-president of government affairs for satellite operator Intelsat General says accidental interference occurs all the time. Intelsat deals with thousands of such events each year, he says. The equipment at ground stations used to communicate with satellites can malfunction, interfering with other people's efforts to communicate with the same satellite, he says.
Given this, the fact that Eutelsat does not know the source of the interference yet is "really not indicative of anything nefarious", he says. "Obviously if something persists or as you move traffic [to other satellites] it follows you, there are some things that give you pretty clear clues," he adds.
Deliberate interference may be more common than is widely recognised, however. The website of the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group, whose members include Intelsat and other industry players, lists 11 incidents of deliberate interference with satellite communication since January 2005, although this comprises only 0.7% of the total transmissions.
ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/..._teapot_nr.jpg British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.
A senior official tells ABC News the "hot" teapot remained in use at the hotel for several weeks after Litvinenko's death before being tested in the second week of December. The official said investigators were embarrassed at the oversight.
The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a "state-sponsored" assassination orchestrated by Russian security services.
Officials say Russian FSB intelligence considered the murder to have been badly bungled because it took more than one attempt to administer the poison. The Russian officials did not expect the source of the poisoning to be discovered, according to intelligence reports.
Russian officials continue to deny any involvement in the murder and have said they would deny any extradition requests for suspects in the case.
Sources say police intend to seek charges against a former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day officials believe the lethal dose was administered in the Millennium Hotel teapot.
Lugovoi steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder at a Moscow news conference and at a session with Scotland Yard detectives. Russian security police were present when the British questioned Lugovoi, and British officials do not think they received honest answers from him.
British health officials say some 128 people were discovered to have had "probable contact" with Polonium-210, including at least eight hotel staff members and one guest.
None of these individuals has yet displayed symptoms of radiation poisoning, and only 13 individuals of the 128 tested at a level for which there is any known long-term health concern, officials said.
The Millennium Hotel has closed the Pine Bar and other areas where Litvinenko and Lugovoi met on Nov. 1, although the hotel says the remaining public areas "have been officially declared safe" and are open to the public.
Survival of the biggest - hobbits wiped out by man
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/..._300x530,0.jpg Homo floresiensis … eruption wipeout theory disputed.
MODERN humans wiped out the hobbit-sized people who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores, research suggests.
Remains of at least 13 members of the little species, Homo floresiensis, who were about a metre tall, were unearthed in Liang Bua between 2001 and 2004. The hobbits lived there from 95,000 to 12,000 years ago when a layer of volcanic ash filled the cave.
It had been thought the eruption devastated life on Flores and led to the demise of the little people, as well as the pygmy elephants they feasted on.
Studies of the volcanic ash by two team members, Chris Turney and Douglas Hobbs, however, showed it was from an eruption about 600 kilometres to the west, near Bali, and so was unlikely to have resulted in island-wide extinctions.
Mike Morwood, co-leader of the Australian and Indonesian discovery team, said he now believed modern humans, who arrived on the "lost world" of Flores soon afterwards, hunted the stegadon to extinction and were responsible for the disappearance of the hobbits.
In a separate development, excavations are set to restart for the first time in almost three years in the cave where the remains of the tiny new species were found.
Indonesian officials had blocked further research there following a heated public dispute over the precious bones.
Professor Morwood, of the University of Wollongong, said more fossils were likely to be unearthed at Liang Bua when the team returned in the middle of the year. "Anywhere we dig in the cave we expect to find evidence of the little hominids." Professor Morwood, who has written a new book with Penny van Oosterzee, The Discovery of the Hobbit, on the famous find, said he was most excited by the prospect of making new discoveries during planned field work in Sulawesi, which will begin in March.
This island was the most likely source of the hobbits' ancestors. "My guess is that hominids arrived on Sulawesi a long time before a small group were somehow washed out to sea, to be deposited on Flores," he said. "It is now the place with real potential to surprise."
The tool-making Homo floresiensis which had a brain only the size of a chimpanzee, is thought to have evolved from a small, primitive human ancestor similar to australopithecines such as "Lucy", who lived 3 million years ago in Africa.
The dispute over the remains broke out when they were seized in 2004 by an Indonesian scientist who said the hobbits were just brain-deformed modern humans.
The bones were irreparably damaged when in his care.
Venezuelan lawmakers give Chavez sweeping powers
POSTED: 12:52 p.m. EST, January 31, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez approved a law Wednesday granting him authority to enact sweeping measures by decree.
Meeting at a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously approved all four articles of the law by a show of hands.
"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the law approved. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"
Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red -- the color of Venezuela's ruling party -- gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy" as lawmakers read out passages of the law giving Chavez special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and defense.
"The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," said congresswoman Iris Varela, addressing the crowd.
Lawmakers discussed the law by each of its four articles, approving one after the other by a show of hands. At the end, they stood and cheered.
Chavez, a former paratroop commander who easily won re-election in December, has said he will use the law to decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.
The law also allows Chavez to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model."
Chavez plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils. With these, Venezuelans will have a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on neighborhood projects from public housing to road repaving.
Chavez's opponents, however, argue the law dangerously concentrates power in the hands of single man.
"If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy."
Chavez supporters said the law will help align the country's government and economy for a swift move toward a more egalitarian society.
"That law is going to allow the president to accelerate the process so that government becomes more efficient," said Ruperta Garcia, a 52-year-old university professor in the crowd.
Vice President Jorge Rodriguez ridiculed the idea that the law is an abuse of power and argued democracy is flourishing. He thanked the National Assembly for providing "gasoline" to start up the "engine" of societal changes.
"What kind of a dictatorship is this?" Rodriguez asked the crowd, saying the law "only serves to sow democracy and peace."
"Dictatorship is what there used to be," Rodriguez said. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy."
Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history.
Chavez has requested special powers twice before, but for more modest legislative changes.
In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he was only able to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, by invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws, including controversial agrarian overhaul measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela.
This time, the law will give Chavez a free hand to bring under state control some oil and natural gas projects that are still run by private companies -- the latest in a series of nationalist energy policies in Venezuela, a top oil supplier to the United States and home to South America's largest gas reserves.
Chavez has said oil companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin -- British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA -- must submit to state-controlled joint ventures, as companies already have done elsewhere in the country.
The law gives Chavez the authority to intervene and "regulate" the transition to joint ventures if companies do not adapt to the new framework within an unspecified "peremptory period."
^^yep Yep Wow....
Military Builds Robotic Insects
http://www.wired.com/c/s.gif
If you feel something crawling on your neck, it might be a wasp or a bee. Or it might be something much more dangerous.
Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that.
British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is operated with a Gameboy-style controller and is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers. One newspaper dubbed it "The Talibanator."
Fred Davis, technical director of the Assessment and Demonstrations Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, confirmed that the United States has ambitious plans for future micro-munitions, which he says will be pocket-sized with mission-specific payloads.
"You're not going to be knocking down walls," says Davis. "What we're looking at is functional defeat."
This means preventing the target from carrying out its mission, rather than destroying it, Davis says. A truck, for example, can be put out of action by destroying its tires; a MAV can do this by squirting them with few milliliters of a catalytic de-polymerization agent, causing them to disintegrate rapidly.
Davis sees future MAVs landing and hopping or crawling on the ground like insects, enabling them to get inside buildings. Once inside, an entire command center can be disabled by targeting the power supply.
"You could short out the circuit box," says Davis.
The MAV could do this by physically crawling inside like a wayward squirrel, or it might release a cloud of metal-coated fibers -- similar to the "soft bombs" the Air Force used to shut down power stations in Kosovo with a cloud of conductive whiskers. Such fibers could effectively destroy PCs and other electronic gear as well as interrupting power to a building.
But what about attacking people? The smallest munitions ever used by the Air Force were "gravel mines" or "button bombs" dropped by the millions in the Vietnam war, some weighing just a quarter of an ounce. A crawling MAV could deliver this type of bomb to the victim's most vulnerable spot.
Or, as Davis suggests, the tiny vehicle itself might be the warhead.
"You can make the structure of the craft out of reactive (explosive) material," he says. Any unused fuel can add to the blast, a technique already used in some surface-to-air missiles, and the explosion would convert the rest of the MAV into lethal shrapnel.
Others have suggested "fire-ant warfare" with tiny robots that can only do limited damage individually, but have enough cumulative effect to overwhelm an opponent.
Poison needles or stings have also been proposed (.pdf). Treaty obligations would prevent the military from using this approach, but the CIA developed lethal needles using shellfish toxin in the 1950s, and the technology is on the shelf.
Of course, the bad guys can use Micro Air Vehicles too.
"After some development time, many countries would produce them," warns Juergen Altmann, a physicist at Dortmund University, working in assessment of new military technologies. Indiscriminate use would cause many civilian casualties -- and they could end up in the hands of terrorists.
"Big dangers can ensue from terrorists," Altmann says. "For instance, using MAVs with small explosive charges to assassinate high-level politicians or to transport biological/chemical agents into protected infrastructure."
To prevent this danger, Altmann advocates an international ban on armed MAVs, similar to the ban on landmines. Until then, development will proceed apace.
Goggles control the Dragon Eye MAV.
http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/news/i...nitions1_f.jpg
A soldier launches the Raven UAV, which is in service in Iraq.
http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/news/i...nitions2_f.jpg
A technician assembles the Dragon Eye, a four-pound UAV.
http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/news/i...nitions3_f.jpg
Lt. Faminu holds a MAV.
http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/news/i...nitions4_f.jpg
Crew members hande the WASP, one of the smallest operational UAVs.
http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/news/i...nitions5_f.jpg
welcome to 1984 big brother is watching everywhere
Newsflash!
I want to fuck Sarah Silverman
http://img.buzznet.com/assets/users9...24364924-2.jpg
she looks youthful..hmmmmmmmm
i alwayz knew she good lol
The real deal?
Against the grain: Some scientists deny global warming exists
Lawrence Solomon, National Post
Published: Friday, February 02, 2007
Astrophysicist Nir Shariv, one of Israel's top young scientists, describes the logic that led him -- and most everyone else -- to conclude that SUVs, coal plants and other things man-made cause global warming.
Step One Scientists for decades have postulated that increases in carbon dioxide and other gases could lead to a greenhouse effect.
Step Two As if on cue, the temperature rose over the course of the 20th century while greenhouse gases proliferated due to human activities.
http://media.canada.com/597ad362-5cf...ice.jpg?size=l View Larger Image
ice
Step Three No other mechanism explains the warming. Without another candidate, greenhouses gases necessarily became the cause.
Dr. Shariv, a prolific researcher who has made a name for himself assessing the movements of two-billion-year-old meteorites, no longer accepts this logic, or subscribes to these views. He has recanted: "Like many others, I was personally sure that CO2 is the bad culprit in the story of global warming. But after carefully digging into the evidence, I realized that things are far more complicated than the story sold to us by many climate scientists or the stories regurgitated by the media.
"In fact, there is much more than meets the eye."
Dr. Shariv's digging led him to the surprising discovery that there is no concrete evidence -- only speculation -- that man-made greenhouse gases cause global warming. Even research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-- the United Nations agency that heads the worldwide effort to combat global warming -- is bereft of anything here inspiring confidence. In fact, according to the IPCC's own findings, man's role is so uncertain that there is a strong possibility that we have been cooling, not warming, the Earth. Unfortunately, our tools are too crude to reveal what man's effect has been in the past, let alone predict how much warming or cooling we might cause in the future.
All we have on which to pin the blame on greenhouse gases, says Dr. Shaviv, is "incriminating circumstantial evidence," which explains why climate scientists speak in terms of finding "evidence of fingerprints." Circumstantial evidence might be a fine basis on which to justify reducing greenhouse gases, he adds, "without other 'suspects.' " However, Dr. Shaviv not only believes there are credible "other suspects," he believes that at least one provides a superior explanation for the 20th century's warming.
"Solar activity can explain a large part of the 20th-century global warming," he states, particularly because of the evidence that has been accumulating over the past decade of the strong relationship that cosmic- ray flux has on our atmosphere. So much evidence has by now been amassed, in fact, that "it is unlikely that [the solar climate link] does not exist."
The sun's strong role indicates that greenhouse gases can't have much of an influence on the climate -- that C02 et al. don't dominate through some kind of leveraging effect that makes them especially potent drivers of climate change. The upshot of the Earth not being unduly sensitive to greenhouse gases is that neither increases nor cutbacks in future C02 emissions will matter much in terms of the climate.
Even doubling the amount of CO2 by 2100, for example, "will not dramatically increase the global temperature," Dr. Shaviv states. Put another way: "Even if we halved the CO2 output, and the CO2 increase by 2100 would be, say, a 50% increase relative to today instead of a doubled amount, the expected reduction in the rise of global temperature would be less than 0.5C. This is not significant."
The evidence from astrophysicists and cosmologists in laboratories around the world, on the other hand, could well be significant. In his study of meteorites, published in the prestigious journal, Physical Review Letters, Dr. Shaviv found that the meteorites that Earth collected during its passage through the arms of the Milky Way sustained up to 10% more cosmic ray damage than others. That kind of cosmic ray variation, Dr. Shaviv believes, could alter global temperatures by as much as 15% --sufficient to turn the ice ages on or off and evidence of the extent to which cosmic forces influence Earth's climate.
In another study, directly relevant to today's climate controversy, Dr. Shaviv reconstructed the temperature on Earth over the past 550 million years to find that cosmic ray flux variations explain more than two-thirds of Earth's temperature variance, making it the most dominant climate driver over geological time scales. The study also found that an upper limit can be placed on the relative role of CO2 as a climate driver, meaning that a large fraction of the global warming witnessed over the past century could not be due to CO2 -- instead it is attributable to the increased solar activity.
CO2 does play a role in climate, Dr. Shaviv believes, but a secondary role, one too small to preoccupy policymakers. Yet Dr. Shaviv also believes fossil fuels should be controlled, not because of their adverse affects on climate but to curb pollution.
"I am therefore in favour of developing cheap alternatives such as solar power, wind, and of course fusion reactors (converting Deuterium into Helium), which we should have in a few decades, but this is an altogether different issue." His conclusion: "I am quite sure Kyoto is not the right way to go."
Bright lights reported over Midwest skies
From southeastern Wisconsin to as far as Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, people reported seeing balls of fire, possibly meteors, streaking across the sky Sunday night.
Associated Press
Last update: February 05, 2007 – 8:19 AM
MILWAUKEE — From southeastern Wisconsin to as far as Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, people reported seeing balls of fire, possibly meteors, streaking across the sky last night.
No major meteor showers were expected in the northern hemisphere on Sunday night, said Jim Lattis, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomy department's Space Place. But he said it was possible that a minor shower may have been what prompted calls to authorities.
The National Weather Service's Sullivan office said reports were called in from Iowa, northern Illinois and on up to Green Bay.
Dozens of people throughout the St. Louis region and Illinois reported small objects that looked like bright lights or something burning, with flaming tails behind some of them, said Ken Tretter, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in St. Louis.
In Wisconsin, a Waukesha County dispatch supervisor said two callers reported a sighting around 8:15 p.m.
The Winnebago County Sheriff's Department said it received calls from Oshkosh, Ripon, Appleton, Neenah, and Pulaski, among others.
A preliminary report Sunday indicated that the lights were from a meteor, said Maj. April Cunningham, a spokeswoman for North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which watches for airborne threats to the United States and Canada. "We had a pilot reporting seeing a meteor and that's really all the information we have tonight," Cunningham said.
Photo in the News: Over 100 Dinosaur Eggs Found in India
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...saur-photo.jpg
February 5, 2007—Three Indian explorers are giving amateurs a good name.
The fossil enthusiasts recently set out on an 18-hour hunt near the central city of Indore and ended up with more than a hundred dinosaur eggs (some of which are pictured above, apparently arranged for photographers), the Hindustan Times reported today (India map).
"They are the typical, spherical eggs that researchers interpret as having been laid by sauropod dinosaurs," paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues told National Geographic News via email after viewing photos of the find. Sues is an associate director for research and collections at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and a former member of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration.
Distinguished by their long necks and tails, plant-eating sauropods are among the largest creatures known to have roamed the Earth (sauropod picture).
These particular sauropod eggs were found in clusters of six to eight, one of the discoverers told the Hindustan Times. The eggs were laid during the Cretaceous period, roughly 146 to 66 million years ago, by dinosaurs between 40 and 90 feet (12 and 27 meters) long, he added.
Along with the eggs, the fossil hunters uncovered fossilized footprints of the dinosaurs, which used to come from miles around to make their nests in the sandy shores of a long-gone waterway. Dinosaur eggs have been found at hundreds of sites worldwide, Sues said, and "there are thousands of such eggs from the Late Cretaceous in central India." While "it is neither unusual nor unexpected," Sues said, "this is a nice find."
killa
Locked in an eternal embrace
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/200...07_228x304.jpg Their loving embrace has lasted an eternity - well 5000 years to be precise
Most popular stories It is the city where the exiled Romeo dreamed he died and Juliet's kisses breathed life back into his body.
Tragically, the lifeless bodies of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers would soon lie side by side.
Yesterday at Mantua, in an amazing echo of that heartrending story, archaeologists revealed the discovery of a couple locked in a tender embrace, one that has endured for more than 5,000 years.
The find was unearthed by experts digging at a neolithic site at a less than romantic industrial estate. Scientists are to examine the skeletons to try to establish how old they were when they died and how long they have been buried.
One theory being examined is that the man was killed and the woman then sacrificed so that his soul would be accompanied in the after life.
Elena Menotti, who is leading the dig at Valdaro near Mantua in northern Italy, said: 'I am so excited about this discovery.
"We have never found a man and a woman embraced before and this is a unique find.
"We have found plenty of women embracing children but never a couple. Much less a couple hugging -- and they really are hugging. It's possible that the man died first and then the woman was killed in sacrifice to accompany his soul.
"From an initial examination they appear young as their teeth are not worn down but we have sent the remains to a laboratory to establish their age at the time of death.
"They are face to face and their arms and legs are entwined and they are really hugging.
"I am so thrilled at this find. I have been involved in lots of digs all over Italy but nothing has excited me as much as this."
"I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites.
"But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special."
An initial examination of the couple - dubbed the Lovers of Valdaro - revealed that the man (on the left in the picture) has an arrow in his spinal column while the woman has an arrow head in her side.
The area has already given up a spectacular Roman villa.
Five thousand years ago the area around Mantua was marshland and criss-crossed by rivers and the environment has helped preserve the skeletons in their near perfect state.
The tribes of the area thrived through hunting and fishing and travelled along the waterways in boats but even then the simple hunter gatherer lifestyle was being replaced by livestock rearing, weaving and pottery.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is sent to Mantua for killing Tybalt Capulet in a swordfight. Romeo subsequently leaves the city and returns to Verona when he hears his love, Juliet, has died.
Mysterious Lights Spotted Over Phoenix, Again
(CBS4) PHOENIX, AZ Nearly a decade after the highly publicized ‘Phoenix Light Phenomenon’, more strange lights have appeared in the night sky over downtown Phoenix.
Tuesday night, mysterious lights lit up the western skies over Phoenix and soon after, phones began ringing off the hook at radio, television and police stations from witnesses wondering what the lights were.
The Yuma Marine Base claims it has the answer. Base officials said the amber-colored flares came from training flights on the Goldwater Gunnery Range. They went on to explain that the amber flares are used as targets.
Witnesses said it appeared the flares were flying in a formation and base officials explained that the flares float down to Earth attached to parachutes.
Back in March of 1997, a huge object was spotted over parts of Arizona that many witnesses believed to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft that was drifting slowly and silently over the region. The ‘Phoenix Light Phenomenon” became one of the most publicized and well-documented UFO sightings in recent history.
The Air Force said they were flares from an A-10 but many critics said flares couldn’t fly on their own over such a large distance.
The Discovery Channel has done a special on the lights. A movie has even been made about them which recently came out on DVD.
HERES THE LINK TO THE VIDEO...
http://cbs4.com/video/[email protected]
Yeah, it's aliens. I learned all about it playing Deus Ex
..yeah Anna Nicole Just Died...
Russia probes smelly orange snow
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...msk_map203.gif
Russia has flown a team of chemical experts to a Siberian region to find out why smelly, coloured snow has been falling over several towns.
Oily yellow and orange snowflakes fell over an area of more than 1,500sq km (570sq miles) in the Omsk region on Wednesday, Russian officials said.
Chemical tests were under way to determine the cause, they said.
Residents have been advised not to use the snow for household tasks or let animals graze on it.
"So far we cannot explain the snow, which is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell," said Omsk environmental prosecutor Anton German, quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Thursday.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...newsnow203.jpg The origin of the orange effect is still a mystery (pic: Russian TV)
"We are waiting for the results of a thorough test on samples."
But Vladimir Gurzhey, an official with the civil defence ministry in Omsk, told the Russia TV channel that the snow had four times the normal levels of iron in it. The TV also reported that coloured snow had fallen in the neighbouring regions of Tomsk and Tyumen. Omsk, in western Siberia, is a centre of Russia's oil industry. About 27,000 people live in the areas affected by the snow, Russian officials said.
WTF^Keep it up trumpets I appreciate it!!
people focus so much on the games that they are dying
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145432
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm
http://videogames.yahoo.com/newsarticle?eid=420534
these people really wish games were real life, where you can be a successful anything by pushing some buttons for hours on end instead of having to get up off your ass and actually do it in real life
I once saw some hard cinical comment aboput a WoW player dying on a forum and someone commenting did they drop any good stuff.
But this is the reality. It is not su much wishing it was real as it is a addiction. Maybe an escapism from the current world.But what is really real anyway. I think we are on the fornt border of re-analyzing the reality and it's changes.
i emailed my room mate two of the headlines cuz he plays and I give him shit every day about it
Next, he's going to kill you for fucking up his winning streak, haha.