Clipmarks | Avian Clips

FIRST EVER FOSSIL OF SLEEPING DINOSAUR FOUND IN CHINA

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:42:41 GMT

clipped by: bambino101

The fossil dinosaur, a juvenile that is nearly an adult, sits on long, folded hindlimbs. Its forelimbs are folded bird-like next to its body and its neck curves to the left so that its relatively small head lies between the left elbow and body, a posture that is identical to the "tuck-in" posture of many living birds. Living four-legged creatures rest and sleep in various postures, but only birds and a subset of mammals rest on folded limbs. And only birds, with their long, flexible necks, tuck their heads behind a forelimb or wing to rest. By doing so, birds ball up and conserve heat. "This specific heat-conserving pose that Mei long was found in provides support for the hypothesis that at least some non-avian dinosaurs, including this animal and its troodontid relatives, were warm-blooded as are today's birds,"

The fossil was discovered in layers of volcanic and former riverbed sediments in northeastern China's Liaoning Province

Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,

Tags: chinasaur

Wind Power Continues To Kill Birds And Bats

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:16:44 GMT

clipped by: yojoe
clipper's remarks: Scientists have known since 2004 that wind farms kill bats, just as they kill birds, even though the flying mammals should be able to avoid them.

Clip Source: dreadnaught.wordpress.com

There is no free lunch, even if you are trying to save the environment. From Scientific American,

Scientists have known since 2004 that wind farms kill bats, just as they kill birds, even though the flying mammals should be able to avoid them. Many biologists thought that the bats, like their avian counterparts, might be falling victim to the fast-spinning turbine blades. But an examination of 188 hoary and silver-haired bats killed at a wind farm in southwestern Alberta in Canada between July and September in 2007 showed that nearly half showed no external injuries–as would be expected if the giant blades had smashed the flying mammals to the ground.

Tags: environment, wind-farms, dead-birds, global-warming

Magpies, humans share a recognizable trait

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:23:49 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "Study uses mirrors to show the birds join humans, chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants on a short list of beings that can identify themselves."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Recognizing ourselves in a mirror is one of the traits that make humans, well, human.

Now it appears that self-recognition also makes magpies magpies. Best known for stealing shiny objects, the black-and-white magpie is the first bird to join a short list of mammals shown to share this trait: humans, chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants.

Researchers marked the throats of five magpies -- where they couldn't see -- with either brightly colored or black adhesive dots.

Harvey and Lilly ignored the mirrors; like some of us, they apparently didn't care how they looked.

But Gerti, Goldie and Schatzi, when confronted by their refections, attempted to peck and scratch at their brightly colored dots.

The birds largely ignored the black dot, which blended into their black feathers, showing that they weren't merely responding to how the dots felt or smelled.

Prior said he would not be surprised if other members of that avian family could also pass the mark test.

Tags: nature

Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (EPR)

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:25:00 GMT

clipped by: zalisan
clipper's remarks: What you should know. The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network focuses technical and operational resources from scientific institutions in Member States, medical and surveillance initiatives, regional technical networks, networks of laboratories, United Nations organizations (e.g. UNICEF, UNHCR), the Red Cross (International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and national societies) and international humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (e.g. Médecins sans Frontières, International Rescue Committee, Merlin and Epicentre). Participation is open to technical institutions, networks and organizations that have the capacity to contribute to international outbreak alert and response.

Clip Source: www.who.int

Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (EPR)

1. Pandemic influenza is different from avian influenza.

2. Influenza pandemics are recurring events.

3. The world may be on the brink of another pandemic.

4. All countries will be affected.

5. Widespread illness will occur.

6. Medical supplies will be inadequate.

7. Large numbers of deaths will occur.

8. Economic and social disruption will be great.

9. Every country must be prepared.

10. WHO will alert the world when the pandemic threat increases.

Clip Source: www.who.int

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) is a technical collaboration of existing institutions and networks who pool human and technical resources for the rapid identification, confirmation and response to outbreaks of international importance. The Network provides an operational framework to link this expertise and skill to keep the international community constantly alert to the threat of outbreaks and ready to respond.

Clip Source: www.who.int

United States of America

Tags: pandemic, flu, health, vaccines, illness, who, cdc, red cross, hospitals

Big-brained Animals Evolve Faster

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:35:22 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that animals with larger brains, relative to their body size, have more developed skills for changing their behavior through learning and innovation, facilitating the invasion of novel environments and the use of novel resources. Despite the progress, the role of the brain in the adaptive diversification of animals has remained controversial, mostly due to the difficulties to demonstrate that big-brained animals evolve faster.

Now, ecologist Daniel Sol of CREAF-Autonomous University of Barcelona and evolutionary biologist Trevor Price of the University of Chicago, provide evidence for such a role in birds in an article in The American Naturalist. Analyzing body size measures of 7,209 species (representing 75% of all avian species), they found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others.

A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiation of a clade.

This and other examples have led some to think that the progenitors of the major evolutionary radiations are those that happened to be in the right place and at the right time to take advantage of ecological opportunities.

However, is it possible that biological diversification not only depends on the properties of the environment an ancestral species finds itself in, but also on the features of the species itself?

Now a study supports this possibility, suggesting that possessing a large brain might have facilitated the evolutionary diversification of some avian lineages.

Tags: animal life, evolution, diversity, brain

An Intoduction to Avian Flight Photography

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:10:07 GMT

clipped by: housebg

Clip Source: www.naturephotographers.net

Avian flight photography doesn’t have to be an unreachable goal for you. As difficult as it may seem, making consistently good flight images is possible if you practice and keep a few principles in mind.

There are two elements to consider for successful avian flight photography: motor skills and technical skills.

Motor skills refer to quick reflexes, the ability to track the bird and pressing the shutter at the right moment. To practice your motor skills, it would be ideal to find a colony of Gulls where flight is frequent and use a medium telephoto lens to practice tracking them. Super-telephotos will be an additional challenge because of the extremely narrow field of view. If you are using a zoon lens, it’s better to acquire the bird in the wider setting and then zoom in to fill the frame once you have it in focus.

Weaponized Flu?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:37:44 GMT

clipped by: witness4yah
clipper's remarks: Wake up sheep! The end is nearing!

Clip Source: www.healthfreedomusa.org

Weaponized Avian Flu Intelligence Report, Video & Updates

Are YOU Ready to Die for the Establishment?

[Video]

Special Video Message: Five Steps You Can Take in Case of an Avian Flu Pandemic

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.”
- H L Mencken

“No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“The only safe vaccine is the one that is never used.”
- James Shannon
Former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director

“I haven’t got a flu shot and I don’t intend to.”
- George W. Bush
2004 Presidential Candidate

Avian Flu Has Already Been Weaponized

I urge you to share this information with everyone you know.

Pigeons - Sustainable Food?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:13:48 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

When you look at a pigeon, you might see a dirty, rat-like bird that fouls anything it touches with feathers or feces, but I see a waste-scavenging, protein-generating biomachine.

You see, city pigeons are the feral descendants of birds that were domesticated by humans thousands of years ago so that we could eat them and use their guano as fertilizer, we read in Der Spiegel. They're still doing their part, i.e. eating and breeding, but we humans have stopped doing ours, i.e. eating them.

Of course, the obvious objection is that pigeons carry disease, but some evidence suggests that they aren't particularly susceptible to avian flu. As for the meat itself, I called up the FDA's food safety line to ask how pigeon compared, safety-wise, to your average factory-farmed pig or chicken, but after one-and-a-half hours on hold, the office closed down and I gave up.

So, go buy sustainablesquab.com and encourage your urban friends to make omnivorism local. Just remind them: Pigeons are fowl.

Newly described 'dragon' protein could be key to bird flu cure

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:28:56 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This unexpected relationship between the two subunits could inspire a number of different therapies or vaccines for H5N1 that rely on muzzling the "dragon's" jaws with another molecule or chemical compound that would block the PB1 subunit's access to the PA site, according to Joachimiak. "If we can put a bit in the dragon's mouth, we can slow or even potentially someday stop the spread of avian flu," he said. "Since we are talking about a relatively small protein surface area, finding a way to inhibit RNA replication in H5N1 seems very feasible."

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Scientists and researchers have taken a big step closer to a cure for the most common strain of avian influenza, or "bird flu," the potential pandemic

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in conjunction with scientists from China and Singapore, have crystallized and characterized the structure of one of the most important protein complexes of the H5N1 virus, the most common strain of bird flu.

All viruses, including H5N1, contain only a small number of proteins that govern all of the viruses' functions. In H5N1, perhaps the most important of these proteins is RNA polymerase, which contains the instructions that allows the virus to copy itself along with all of its genetic material.

During RNA replication – the phase during which the virus "reproduces" – all three of the subunits of the protein assemble themselves in a particular configuration.

Tags: molecular biology, virology, avian flu

Avian Flu Vaccine Needs New Update

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:42:29 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.cidrap.umn.edu

Expert warns Hong Kong's avian flu vaccine is waning

Yuen Kwok-yung, who heads the microbiology department at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post newspaper that the virus is shifting away from the Fujian strain that it was developed for, according to a Jul 8 Deutsche Presse-Argentur (DPA) report.

He told city officials that they must ban all live chickens from markets before the vaccine becomes completely ineffective, the DPA report said. Tests on birds in 2005 suggested that the vaccine generated only a quarter of the antibody response it did in 2001.

Tags: avian flu, pandemic

See Spot Live Longer - Better health for your cat or dog

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:21:51 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen
clipper's remarks: Natural foods are also good for your pet.

Clip Source: articles.mercola.com

All of our animal companions -- reptile, avian, rodent, equine, canine or feline -- benefit from eating diets natural to their species, whether raw or home-cooked.

Our pet food company received hundreds of letters each year from veterinarians using fresh food diets, breeders reporting multi-generational improvement and very happy customers whose experience confirmed our own. They saw thinner, fitter animals with cleaner teeth, less aches and pains, reduction or elimination of “allergic” symptoms, reduced flea problems and happier dispositions after switching to fresh food.

We know of dozens of animals, close to death when we met them, living far past predicted survival times with excellent quality of life on fresh food diets.

Thriving on Raw Meat Based Diets

Pets Are Made to Eat Food in its Natural State

Safety of Commercial Raw Diets

Safety of Commercial Dry Food Diets

Choosing Commercial Fresh Food Diets

Making Your Own

Is Fresh Food Best? We Think So!

Bird Flu Researchers Brutally Murdered

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:11:49 GMT

clipped by: digitalsistere
clipper's remarks: “I have never seen injuries inflicted to bodies like this before,” Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie

Clip Source: www.infowars.com

One of the two French research students found dead in a burnt-out London flat had been stabbed 196 times, the detective leading the murder investigation said today. His friend had 47 separate injuries.

The horrific nature of the attack against them shocked even experienced detectives. “I have never seen injuries inflicted to bodies like this before,” Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie

Bound up by their attacker or attackers, they received multiple stab wounds in the head, neck, back and torso.

Mr Bonomo was stabbed 196 times, Mr Duthie said. Almost 100 of those wounds were inflicted to his back after his death. Mr Ferez was stabbed 47 times.

The two were talented and committed students on a three-month research placement at Imperial College, London, who had impressed colleagues with their maturity. They were enrolled on the university’s research opportunities programme, which allows students who have not yet graduated from their Masters degrees to take part in research.

Tags: avian flu, bird flu, bioweapon, murder, death, france

construir

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:57:44 GMT

clipped by: Lorenc

Clip Source: www.heideggeriana.com.ar

El lugar deja entrar la simplicidad de tierra y cielo, de divinos y de mortales a una plaza, instalando la plaza en espacios.

Las cosas del tipo de estos lugares dan casa a la residencia del hombre.

El producir de tales cosas es el construir. Su esencia descansa en que esto corresponde al tipo de estas cosas. Son lugares que otorgan espacios.

Este construir erige lugares que avían una plaza a la Cuaternidad.

battling bacteria with a viral protein

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:09:27 GMT

clipped by: sarin
clipper's remarks: maybe some time later I would like to apply to the position in their labs in rockefeller univerisity.
laboratory of bacteria pathogenesis and immunology

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

McCullers and Vincent Fischetti, co-heads of the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at the Rockefeller University, provide evidence that the enzyme lysin can be tailored to kill specific secondary pathogens before they pounce on compromised immune systems. Fischetti notes that this technology could potentially be used to prevent pandemics during an avian or other flu outbreak by destroying secondary germs that might attack when the immune system is compromised. "If we can go in and, during a pandemic, treat individuals that are either susceptible to flu—the elderly or young children—or basically everybody during that period of time and decolonize them," he says, "we have a better chance of saving a lot of lives."

Battling Bacteria with a Viral Protein

«Pressures Produced When Penguins Poo -- Calculations on Avian Defecation»

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:45:41 GMT

clipped by: xpersianx

Clip Source: www.oddee.com

"They get up, move to the edge of the nest, turn around, bend over... and shoot"

Ever wondered how far a penguin can fire waste from its anus? Wonder no more. Victor Breno Meyer-Rochow of International University, Bremen, and Jozsef Gal of Lorand Eotvos University, Hungary, used the basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin. Dr. Meyer-Rochow explained that the research began in 1993, when he led the first, and so far only, Jamaican expedition to the Antarctic. Later, while showing students pictures of faeces-lined penguin nests, he was asked how the elaborate displays were created. "They get up, move to the edge of the nest, turn around, bend over - and shoot," he said. That's when he got the idea to calculate the pressure produced by penguin poo.