Clipmarks | tabsey's clips

Great tits enjoying the warmer weather – so far

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:10:03 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Had to clip this one for the headline.

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

As springs have got warmer, great tits near Oxford, UK, have shifted their breeding times to maximise the chances of their chicks' survival (Image: T.A. Wilkins)Enlarge

As climate change forces animals to shift their breeding schedules, one group of British birds has been able to quickly adapt to the warmer weather without having to rely on slower evolution.

There are limits to their flexibility however, and when those limits are reached, global warming could hit the population hard, researchers say.

Since 1961, ecologists have been tracking the population of great tits that breed in Wytham Woods, near Oxford, UK. "It's only in the past 30 to 35 years that you see this increase in temperature in early spring to which the birds have responded," says study leader Ben Sheldon of the University of Oxford.

The birds now lay their eggs 2 weeks earlier than they did in the 1970s, tracking a 2-week shift in the emergence of their favoured food – the caterpillars of the winter moth.

Tags: nature

Why hip fat is good, but pot bellies are bad

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:59:05 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: We all know this, but some of us like to be reminded that we need a bit there for illness.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Not all body fat is bad. Your body may store "good" fat and "bad" fat, similar to good and bad cholesterol. The finding could explain why liposuction has few health benefits.

Researchers know that not all body fat is equal. The worst kind is excess fat on the internal organs, which causes a pot belly and is known as visceral fat. People with this are more likely to suffer from heart disease and insulin resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes, than those who put on fat under their skin on their hips and thighs. But it was assumed that such subcutaneous fat was merely the lesser of two evils.

Tags: medical

Fly through the ionosphere in "4-D"

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:47:27 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Want to fly round the world? Here is your chance and you don't have to have the shots.

Clip Source: www.astronomy.com

A "4-D" live model lets you fly through the ionosphere of Earth without leaving home. NASA /JPL / Northwestern University [View Larger Image]

At the Space Weather Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, NASA-funded researchers have released to the general public a "4-D" live model of Earth's ionosphere. Without leaving home, anyone can fly through the dynamic layer of ionized gases that encircles Earth at the edge of space. All that's required is a connection to the Internet. Airline flight controllers can use this tool to plan long-distance business flights over the poles, saving money and time for travelers.

"This is an exciting development," says solar physicist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "The ionosphere is important to pilots, ham radio operators, earth scientists and even soldiers. Using this new 4-D tool, they can monitor and study the ionosphere as if they're actually inside it."

Tags: science

Ancient Seaweed Tells of Earliest Americans

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:43:18 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: All of our history is flushed down the toilets. Maybe they will mistake take away food as feces.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

May 8, 2008 -- Remains of meals that included seaweed are helping confirm the date of a settlement in southern Chile that may offer the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.

Researchers date the seaweed found at Monte Verde to more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than the well-studied Clovis culture.

And the report comes just a month after other scientists announced they had found coprolites â€“ fossilized human feces -- dating to about 14,000 years ago in a cave in Oregon.

Taken together, the finds move back evidence of people in the Americas by a millennium or more, with settlements in northern and southern coastal areas.

The prevailing theory has been that people followed herds of migrating animals across an ancient land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, and then moved southward along the West coast. Proof has been hard to come by, however. The sea was about 200 feet lower at the time and as it rose it would have inundated the remains of coastal settlements.

Tags: diet, sets, dates

Flesh-Eating Insect Gnawed on Dino Bones

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:24:31 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Things don't change much. Beetles biting dinosaurs, ankle biters annoying us.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Beetles Chomped Here

May 8, 2008 -- New findings explain why most dinosaur skeletons exhibit pits, grooves, furrows and even entire gnawed-off sections: Flesh- and bone-eating insects were the culprits.

The evidence comes from dinosaur bones that were buried under soft mud 148 million years ago after a nearby river overflowed. Utah's Western Paleontological Laboratories recovered the bones and turned them over to Brigham Young University scientists, who recently pieced together what happened.

Precise recreations of dinosaur-era events are rare, but the scientists now know the following: A Camptosaurus adolescent dinosaur died in what is now Wyoming, lying down for its final rest. Flying low over a floodplain a few days later, dermestid beetles used their antennae to detect the odor of the decaying carcass, where they laid their larvae that consumed the dinosaur's bones.

Tags: nature, pre-history

Olmert faces new corruption probe

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:54:32 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: And so the Iraqis know that they are not the only ones living with corruption. (This goes well with the earlier clip about McCain and his corruption.)

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ehud Olmert (left) says Mr Talansky (right) helped with election funds

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is suspected of illicitly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars before becoming PM, Israeli media report.

Police suspect him of unlawfully taking campaign money from a foreign businessman while mayor of Jerusalem.

The PM has admitted receiving help with fundraising from a US businessman, but denied ever taking bribes. He said he would resign if charges were pressed.

He faces a number of investigations into corruption allegations.

The investigation into his affairs was subject to a gagging order but this was partially loosened on Thursday, police confirmed in a statement.

Mr Olmert was questioned for an hour last Friday over the allegations, which he denied, they said.

'Not a penny'

Jewish US businessman Morris "Moshe" Talansky is said to have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Mr Olmert at a series of meetings.

Tags: pollitics, corruption

McCain Advisor Accuses Obama of Underhanded Reference to McCain's Age

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:58:37 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: This is better than Obama and Clintin pussy footing around each other. (Bet the nightly diary entries contain a bit of " I wish I'd said it." followed by invectives aimed at each other. In our society, people of that age are generally enjoying grand kids and dodging great grand kids. He is too old and his policies don't seem aimed at improving life for average Americans.

Clip Source: www.michaelmoore.com

ABC News' Ron Claiborne Reports: The McCain campaign lashed out at Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, for what it called an insulting dig at Sen. John McCain's age.

In an interview on CNN, Obama accused McCain of trying to "smear" him by saying that the Palestinian militant group Hamas favored his candidacy.

"And so for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination," Obama said.

The McCain campaign said the "losing his bearings" comment was an underhanded reference to the fact that McCain is 71 years old.

Mark Salter, one of the advisers, said, "Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning."

Tags: politics, have-a-go ya mug

McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:46:41 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: A bit of a preview of what it will be like if he gets in. How arrogant is that?

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

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Source: washington post

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

this can't be good.

Tags: politics, corruption

Dems Rip EPA for Axing Official Who Urged Cleanup by Dow

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:43:41 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Not very "free country" behaviour. Corporation bosses in this case should be charged with attempted murder or manslaughter as people will have their lives shortened as a result.

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Washington - Democratic senators lambasted the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for ousting its top administrator in the Midwest after she pressured Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil in Michigan.

During a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the episode raised warning signs about the credibility of the EPA and the agency's commitment to "protect the environment and our health."

According to a report in Friday's Chicago Tribune, the EPA administrator for the Midwest region, Mary Gade, said she was told to quit or be fired by June 1. She resigned.

Gade had been pressuring Dow for almost a year to get the chemical company to clean up chemical contamination in Michigan.

Dioxin, produced as a byproduct of some chemical manufacturing or formed from burning wood, coal and oil, has been linked to cancer and other health problems.

Tags: politics, pollution