Clipmarks | arifsali's clips

Dino-Era Feathers Found Encased in Amber

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:44:32 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Seven dino-era feathers found perfectly preserved in amber in western France highlight a crucial stage in feather evolution, scientists report.

The hundred-million-year-old plumage has features of both feather-like fibers found with some two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods and of modern bird feathers, the researchers said.

This means the fossils could fill a key gap in the puzzle of how dinosaurs gave rise to birds, according to a team led by Vincent Perrichot of the University of Kansas's Paleontological Institute.

The find provides a clear example "of the passage between primitive filamentous down and a modern feather," said team member Didier Néraudeau of the University of Rennes in France.

Tags: dinosaurs, discovery

Mystery behind the strongest creature in the world

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:41:06 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iop.org

The strongest creature in the world, the Hercules Beetle, has a colour-changing trick that scientists have long sought to understand. Research published today, Tuesday, 11 March, in the New Journal of Physics, details an investigation into the structure of the specie’s peculiar protective shell which could aid design of ‘intelligent materials’.

The Hercules Beetle is remarkable, not only for its strength, able to carry up to 850 times its own weight, the protective outgrowth of the insects’ exoskeleton, aka its shell, also changes from green to black as its surrounding atmosphere gets more humid.

Researchers from the University of Namur in Belgium have used the latest imaging techniques to study the shell of the beetle - a scanning electronic microscope to determine the structure responsible for the colour and a spectrophotometer to analyze how the light interacts with this structure.

Tags: research, physics

Woman forgotten in cell over weekend

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:25:00 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A woman being held as an illegal immigrant spent four days forgotten in an isolated holding cell at a courthouse with no food, water, or toilet, authorities and the woman said.

Adriana Torres-Flores, 38, appeared in court Thursday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of selling pirated CDs, but a judge ordered her held because she is in the country illegally, Sheriff Tim Helder said.

Bailiff Jarrod Hankins put her in the cell to await transport to jail, and she was forgotten. Because of heavy snow, few staff members were in the courthouse to hear her cries and pounding later Thursday or on Friday and through the weekend.

Torres-Flores wasn't found until Monday morning when Hankins opened the door. She was treated at a hospital and allowed to go home.

The sheriff said Hankins, a bailiff for two months, simply forgot about Torres-Flores.

"He's a broken man right now," Helder said.

Hankins was placed on administrative leave

Tags: united states, law

Bush invokes faith to defend war policy

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:16:36 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Here you go.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

President George W. Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom is a God-given right and "every human being bears the image of their master."

With the fifth anniversary of his invasion of Iraq coming next week, and a decision on troop cuts in Iraq on his plate, Bush used a 30-minute speech before an enthusiastic audience - the National Religious Broadcasters association - to make the case that liberty is on the march, so long as the United States does not lose its nerve.

"The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency," he said, to rousing applause and a standing ovation. "It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision."

Tags: religion, politics, bush

Snakes invade Brazilian city as forest disappears

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:11:00 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Snakes -- including one 10-foot anaconda -- are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon's largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government's environmental protection agency said Tuesday.

The agency, known as Ibama, has been called out to capture 21 snakes this year in Belem, Brazil, a sprawling metropolis of 1.5 million people at the mouth of the Amazon River, Ibama press officer Luciana Almeida said by telephone.

In normal years, Ibama gets no more than one or two calls a month, she said.

No poisonous snakes were reported, she said. But the captured snakes included a 10-foot anaconda, usually a jungle recluse.

"People are scared," she said. "Imagine finding a 3-meter [10 foot] snake in your plumbing."

Almeida said Ibama believes the increase in snakes is a result of rising deforestation by loggers, ranchers and developers in the Amazon jungle surrounding the Belem urban area.

Tags: brazil

US drops China from list of top human rights abusers

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:09:42 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Happy Olympics

Clip Source: www.dawn.com

WASHINGTON, March 11, (AFP) - The US dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, but added Syria, Uzbekistan and Sudan to the alleged offenders in an annual report released Tuesday. The State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report showed China, which has raised hopes it will improve human rights by hosting the 2008 Olympics, had parted company with countries like North Korea, Myanmar and Iran. No reason was given for removing China -- which has been a key partner in talks with Washington to denuclearize North Korea -- from the list but the new report said China's “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. (Posted @ 23:10 PST)

Tags: china, united states