Scary ancient spiders revealed in 3-D models, thanks to new imaging technique w/ Video

Halloween is only a few months away. Here is an early scare:  primordial spiders in 3D! (See the videos of two different ancient spiders.)

Early relatives of spiders that lived around 300 million years ago are revealed in new three-dimensional models, in research published today in the journal Biology Letters.

Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossilised specimens of ancient creatures called Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, closely related to modern-day spiders. The study reveals some of the physical traits that helped them to hunt for prey and evade predators.

The researchers created their images by using a CT scanning device, which enabled them to take 3,000 x-rays of each fossil. These x-rays were then compiled into precise 3D models, using custom-designed software.

...Cryptomartus hindi had ball-like growths at the base of its limbs, called coxal endites. The scientists believe the coxal endites could be an evolutionary hang-over from their last common ancestor, who probably used the growths at the base of their limbs to help them grind their food. These coxal endite-type growths can still be seen today in species such as horseshoe crabs, which use them to grind up their prey before pushing it into their backward-facing mouths.

The computer models also revealed that Cryptomartus hindi's mouth appendages, called pedipalps, had tiny 'tarsal' claws attached at the end to help the creature to manipulate its prey. These claws are seen in rare modern-day arachnids such as the Ricinulei. The researchers say that the existence of this common physical feature, shared by the Cryptomartus hindi and the Ricinulei, lends further weight to the theory that they are closely related.

The models also reveal new information about Eophrynus prestivicii. Previous studies of fossilised remains of this creature suggested that it could have hunted on the open forest floor. It had long legs that enabled it to run through leaf litter to chase, catch and kill its prey.The new models reveal, for the first time, that Eophrynus prestivicii had defensive spikes on its back. The researchers say that the spikes may have been a defensive adaption by Eophrynus prestivicii, to make them a less tempting meal for the amphibians that would have recently emerged from the oceans onto land.

via  Physorg

Trip Picture: The Sun and the moon

Of all the amazing natural formations I've seen and have photographed over the last few days in Utah, this is my favorite. Just luck. The full moon on the left, the sun in the mirror. If I had a partially see through mirror and the right hill, I might have been able to superimpose them.

Wordpress Technical Difficulties. Wordpress seems to be having some problems. My  image above shows up for me when I am editing this post, but not when I am viewing it.

James Randi's Million Dollar Paranormal Prize to Continue after all.

I just came from Las Vegas where I saw Criss Angel's magic show. Lot's of disappearing acts plus  dance and surreal costumes by the Cirque Du Soleil people. Odd but interesting. Fun show.

Speaking of magic, Greg over at the Daily Grail has this:

Last year the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) announced that the famous 'Million Dollar Prize' challenge for claims of the paranormal would come to an end in 2010. If you had been honing your skills in preparation for a dash at the money, rest easy: the JREF has now announced that they have reversed their decision, and the Challenge will continue:

Last year, we announced that the MDC would end in March 2010 due to the strains on time and effort of the JREF staff. However, after much discussion, we have decided not to terminate the Challenge. Instead, we are in the process of examining how it can be improved, streamlined, and made more efficient so that we can continue to use it to test claims of the paranormal.

However, we haven't made any final decisions about it yet; we're taking our time and making sure we do this right. When next March comes around we will roll out the new and improved Million Dollar Challenge. So never fear! We will continue to test the claims and examine the evidence, and we will always strive to ensure that reality - as it usually tends to do - wins out.

Hopefully the "streamlining" of the MDC takes into consideration some of the criticisms I raised in my article "The Myth of the Million Dollar Challenge". But if not, at least skeptics can now continue to look on in wonder, completely surprised at the fact that in a population of 5 billion and counting, there are actually some odd /delusional people in the world.

"I Touched A Crop-Circle-Making UFO," Says Investigator

Today's UFO mystery comes to you from Barbury Castle, UK, where two crop circle investigators earlier this summer got kicked out of a cornfield. But then they touched a mysterious craft near the circles. And got it on film!

Over at Earthfiles, Linda Moulton reports that investigators Paul Jones and Andrew Pyrka were checking out a bird-shaped crop circle in June. When an angry farmer kicked them out of his fields, they started to drive away. But then they saw this shiny, orb-like thing floating in a nearby field. Could it have been the author of the crop circle they'd just been investigating? Jones wanted to find out, so he started filming it.

It looks sort of like a mini-helicopter, but matched reports they'd heard from locals about "orbs" that seemed to hang around areas where circles had been laid down. When the shiny thing continued to float in the field, Jones sent Pyrka out to pursue it. But when Pyrka got to the orb he couldn't see it anymore. Was it just a trick of the light. Staying in cell phone contact with Pyrka, Jones was able to guide him until he was standing precisely under the glowy thing Jones was filming.

Moulton writes:

Andrew Pyrka was very confused. He was looking all around him, but could not see anything in the sky in any direction! So, Paul began trying to guide Andrew by phone closer and closer to the silver craft above him. At one point, Paul yells in the phone, "Andrew, you're so close, put your arm up and see if you can feel anything."

Andrew Pyrka lifted his left arm straight up toward the sky. "Instantly, when I put my arm up, there was a huge jolt of electrical current that went down my raised arm. I don't think I touched anything solid," he told me, "but I definitely interacted with some kind of strong field the UFO must have been giving off. But why couldn't I see it where I was, while Paul could not only see it, he videotaped it for another fifteen minutes?"

Why indeed? And why was Pyrka able to withstand a "huge jolt of electrical current"? It's just another one of those UFO mysteries.

via "I Touched A Crop-Circle-Making UFO," Says Investigator.

Laos' Plain of Jars: It's a mystery, plain and simple

Steve McKenna studies a bizarre and ancient site that also bears the scars of a more recent 'secret'.

The Plain of Jars has all the ingredients to stir the imagination. Shrouded in mystery and myth, and laced with intrigue and tragedy, this is a bizarre collection of ancient cylinders scattered in their hundreds across the war-scarred countryside of northern Laos's Xieng Khuang province.

They're believed to have been created by travelling Indian tribes more than 2000 years ago and, as I look at them for the first time, I can't help but think they're an Asian version of Stonehenge – only smaller and with far fewer tourists.

Whereas Stonehenge's ruins tower above visitors, I'm able to peer into most of the lichen-encrusted jars. I'm hoping to perhaps glimpse a few gilded treasures but I spot little more than spiderwebs, birds' feathers and rainwater coated in algae. ...

The jars' origins and purposes still puzzle.

Local legend claims they were made of congealed water-buffalo skin so they could store rice and lao-lao (Laos's rice whisky) for a giant who lived nearby.

French archaeologist Madeleine Colani, visiting in the 1930s, established that most were crafted from sandstone (after all, they weigh up to a tonne each) and were probably used for ancient funeral ceremonies.

Colani found a human-shaped bronzed figure carved into one urn and, nearby, a scattering of tiny stone beads, but the lack of organic materials inside the jars, notably bones, has compounded their enigma.

via Laos' Plain of Jars: It's a mystery, plain and simple.

Experts puzzled by spot on Venus

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft.

Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.

The bright spot has since started to expand, being spread by winds in Venus's thick atmosphere.

Scientists are unsure as to what caused the bright spot tens of kilometres up. However, a volcanic eruption is a possibility.

Much of the planet is thought to have been resurfaced by volcanism. Though no firm evidence for present-day volcanism has been discovered, scientists suspect it could still be happening on Venus.

But an eruption would have needed to be extremely powerful to penetrate this far through the planet's dense, mainly carbon dioxide, atmosphere.

Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus's atmosphere.

Alternatively, atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area.

This is not the first time bright areas have been spotted on Venus. But this feature is unusual because it is confined to a relatively small region.

via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Experts puzzled by spot on Venus.

Comets 'not cause of extinctions'

Comet strikes are an unlikely cause of past mass extinctions on Earth, according to computer simulations.

Scientists used the simulations to model the paths of long-period comets, to determine the likelihood of these "dirty snowballs" striking our planet.

The University of Washington, Seattle, research appears in Science journal.

How many mass extinctions in Earth's history were caused by these icy bodies crashing into our planet has been a subject of considerable debate.

Many scientists agree that an asteroid strike 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs. But there is uncertainty about how many other such events were triggered by asteroid or comet colliding with Earth.

Comets are composed of dust, rock, water ice and frozen gases. When their orbits bring them into close proximity with the Sun, parts of them warm up, causing material to sublimate (turn directly from a solid to a gas state) and form a "fuzzy" envelope around the comet nucleus.

Asteroids are distinguished from comets precisely because they lack this envelope, or "coma".

via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Comets 'not cause of extinctions'.

Judge clears way for creationist dinosaur park to be seized

A federal judge has cleared the way for the government's seizure of a creationism theme park in Pensacola owned by a couple convicted of tax fraud.

A ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers states that the nine properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land as well as two bank accounts associated with the park will be used to satisfy $430,400 owed to the federal government.

Kent Hovind, who founded the park and a ministry, Creation Science Evangelism, is serving 10 years in federal prison for failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $470,000 in employee taxes.

He was found guilty in November 2006 on 58 counts, including failure to pay employee taxes and making threats against investigators.

The conviction culminated 17 years of Hovind sparring with the IRS. Saying he was employed by God and his ministers were not subject to payroll taxes, he claimed no income or property.Hovind is incarcerated at the Edgefield Federal Correction Institution in South Carolina.

via Judge clears way for dinosaur park to be seized | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal.

Survival of the fittest prevails.

'UFO' photographed 'tracking' RAF Hercules

John Powell, 56, claims an unusual silver orb was following the military craft as it came in to land at the base.

The retired school teacher was gardening at his home in nearby Westbury when he noticed the sun glinting off the circular surface.

"I don't believe in things from outer space but that thing was definitely tracking the plane," he said.

"My neighbour was in the garden at the time and I wanted to shout to them, but I didn't want to say 'there's a flying saucer in the sky' so I didn't say anything in the end."

Mr Powell, who taught computer sciences in Belfast for 30 years, added: "I thought at the time this is too good to miss but I didn't think the picture would come out as good as this.

via 'UFO' photographed 'tracking' RAF Hercules - Telegraph.

Hidden Gobi Desert relics found

Rare Buddhist treasures, not seen for more than 70 years, have been unearthed in the Gobi Desert.

The historic artefacts were buried in the 1930s during Mongolia's Communist purge, when hundreds of monasteries were looted and destroyed.

The relics include statues, art work, manuscripts and personal belongings of a famous 19th Century Buddhist master.

The leader of the search team, Michael Eisenriegler, described it as an "adventure of a lifetime".

A total of 64 crates of treasures were buried in the desert by a monk named Tudev, in an attempt to save them from the ransacking of the Mongolian and Soviet armies.

They belonged to Buddhist master Danzan Ravjaa and only Tudev knew where they were hidden. He passed on the secret to his grandson who dug up some of the boxes in the 1990s and opened a museum.

... The latest finds will be put on show at the Danzan Ravjaa Museum in Sainshand, 400km (250 miles) south of the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator.

About 20 boxes remain hidden in the desert.

via BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Hidden Gobi Desert relics found.

Study: High cholesterol in midlife raises risk of late-life dementia

Elevated cholesterol levels in midlife – even levels considered only borderline elevated – significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia later in life, according to a new study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland. The study appears in the journal Dementia & Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

The four-decade study of 9,844 men and women found that having high cholesterol in midlife (240 or higher milligrams per deciliter of blood) increases, by 66 percent, the risk for Alzheimer's disease later in life. Even borderline cholesterol levels (200 – 239 mg/dL) in midlife raised risk for late-life vascular dementia by nearly the same amount: 52 percent. Vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, is a group of dementia syndromes caused by conditions affecting the blood supply to the brain. Scientists are still trying to pinpoint the genetic factors and lifestyle causes for Alzheimer's disease.

By measuring cholesterol levels in 1964 to 1973 based on the 2002 Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines (the current practice standard) when the Kaiser Permanente Northern California members were 40 to 45 years old, then following the participants for 40 years, this study is the largest long-term study with the most diverse population to examine the midlife cholesterol levels and late-life dementia. It is also the first study to look at borderline high cholesterol levels and vascular dementia, rather than just Alzheimer's disease.

"Our study shows that even moderately high cholesterol levels in your 40s puts people at greater risk for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia decades later," said the study's senior author. Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D., a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. "Considering that nearly 100 million Americans have either high or borderline cholesterol levels, this is a disturbing finding. The good news here is that what is good for the heart is also good for the mind, and this is an early risk factor for dementia that can be modified and managed by lowering cholesterol through healthy lifestyle changes."

via High cholesterol in midlife raises risk of late-life dementia, Kaiser Permanente study finds.

Research shows temptation more powerful than individuals realize

Whether it's highlighted in major news headlines about Argentinean affairs and Ponzi schemes, or in personal battles with obesity and drug addiction, individuals regularly succumb to greed, lust and self-destructive behaviors. New research from the Kellogg School of Management examines why this is the case, and demonstrates that individuals believe they have more restraint than they actually possess--ultimately leading to poor decision-making.

The study, led by Loran Nordgren, senior lecturer of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, examined how an individual's belief in his/her ability to control impulses such as greed, drug craving and sexual arousal influenced responses to temptation. The research found the sample, on average, displayed a "restraint bias," causing individuals to miscalculate the amount of temptation they could truly handle, in turn leading to a greater likelihood of indulging impulsive or addictive behavior.

"People are not good at anticipating the power of their urges, and those who are the most confident about their self-control are the most likely to give into temptation," said Nordgren. "The key is simply to avoid any situations where vices and other weaknesses thrive and, most importantly, for individuals to keep a humble view of their willpower."

In developing their case, the study's authors cited previous research demonstrating that people often have difficulty appreciating the power of impulsive states. People in a "cold state" (not experiencing hunger, anger, sexual arousal, etc.) tend to underestimate how a "hot," impulsive state will influence their behavior.

via Research shows temptation more powerful than individuals realize.

New microchip technology performs 1,000 chemical reactions at once

Flasks, beakers and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results -- literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail.

Toward that end, UCLA researchers have developed technology to perform more than a thousand chemical reactions at once on a stamp-size, PC-controlled microchip, which could accelerate the identification of potential drug candidates for treating diseases like cancer.

Their study appears in the Aug. 21 edition of the journal Lab on a Chip and is currently available online.

A team of UCLA chemists, biologists and engineers collaborated on the technology, which is based on microfluidics — the utilization of miniaturized devices to automatically handle and channel tiny amounts of liquids and chemicals invisible to the eye. The chemical reactions were performed using in situ click chemistry, a technique often used to identify potential drug molecules that bind tightly to protein enzymes to either activate or inhibit an effect in a cell, and were analyzed using mass spectrometry.

via New microchip technology performs 1,000 chemical reactions at once.

Brain difference in psychopaths identified

Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The results of their study are outlined in the paper 'Altered connections on the road to psychopathy', published in Molecular Psychiatry.

The research investigated the brain biology of psychopaths with convictions that included attempted murder, manslaughter, multiple rape with strangulation and false imprisonment. Using a powerful imaging technique (DT-MRI) the researchers have highlighted biological differences in the brain which may underpin these types of behaviour and provide a more comprehensive understanding of criminal psychopathy. ...

Earlier studies had suggested that dysfunction of specific brain regions might underpin psychopathy. Such areas of the brain were identified as the amygdale, ie the area associated with emotions, fear and aggression, and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the region which deals with decision making. There is a white matter tract that connects the amygdala and OFC, which is called the uncinate fasciculus (UF). However, nobody had ever studied the UF in psychopaths. The team from King's used an imaging method called in vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) tractography to analyse the UF in psychopaths.

They found a significant reduction in the integrity of the small particles that make up the structure of the UF of psychopaths, compared to control groups of people with the same age and IQ. Also, the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy. These results suggest that psychopaths have biological differences in the brain which may help to explain their offending behaviours.

via Brain difference in psychopaths identified.

Swedish crackdown on piracy leads to fall in illegal filesharing

Supporters of the Pirate Bay website, one of the world's top illegal file sharing websites, demonstrating in Stockholm in April. Swedish internet users have slowed down illegal downloads after the adoption on April 1 of a stricter law, which has been hailed by the music, film and video industry.

Sweden's tough new anti-piracy law has led to a sharp drop in illegal downloading but critics say the effects will be short-lived and argue it is an excessive breach of personal privacy.

Sweden's legislation, based on the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, is credited with a 30 percent fall in the country's total web traffic the day after it came into effect.

Experts say that the drop in Swedish web usage is explained by the fact that illegal downloading represents between 50 and 75 percent of Internet traffic worldwide.

The new law, effective as of April 1, gives copyright holders the right to force Internet service providers to reveal details of users sharing files, opening the way for legal action that could see downloaders pay damages and fines.

Data from Internet service provider Netnod show usage is still free-falling, four months after the law was passed.

In France, lawmakers have kept a close eye on Sweden's approach to illegal downloads as they look set to pass their own anti-piracy bill later this year.

"It's obvious that those who are using file-sharing have been scared and moved somewhere else, like streaming music sites," said Daniel Johansson, a researcher at KTH Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

"Some popular Swedish artists have seen their downloading on websites like The Pirate Bay go down by up to 80 percent," he added.

The Pirate Bay claims to have some 22 million users worldwide.

via Swedish crackdown on piracy leads to fall in illegal filesharing.

Plague death toll rises in China

A third man has died of pneumonic plague in north-western China where a town of more than 10,000 people has been sealed off, officials say.

The 64-year-old man was a neighbour of the first two people to die from the plague in Ziketan in Qinghai Province.

Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan, as medics are disinfecting the area and killing rats and insects.

Pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs, can spread from person to person or from animals to people.

via BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Plague death toll rises in China.

KOA campgrounds have free Internet

Pot

Chemists explain the switchboards in our cells

Our cells are controlled by billions of molecular "switches" and chemists at UC Santa Barbara have developed a theory that explains how these molecules work. Their findings may significantly help efforts to build biologically based sensors for the detection of chemicals ranging from drugs to explosives to disease markers.

Biosensors are artificial molecular switches that mimic the natural ones, which direct chemical responses throughout the cell. "These switching molecules control the behavior of our cells," said Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a postdoctoral scholar who spearheaded the project and is first author of the paper. "By studying these switches, we can better understand how living organisms are able to monitor their environment and use this knowledge to build better sensors to detect, for example, disease markers."

All creatures, from bacteria to humans, must monitor their environments in order to survive, explained the authors. They do so with biomolecular switches, made from RNA or proteins. For example, in our sinuses, there are receptor proteins that can detect different odors. Some of those scents warn us of danger; others tell us that food is nearby.

In addition to deriving the mathematical relationships underlying switching, Vallée-Bélisle spent months performing a hands-on study of an artificial biomolecular switch to demonstrate that the theory holds up quantitatively.

Like a light switch, biomolecular switches often exist in two states –– on or off. When a biomolecule switches from on to off, or vice versa, its shape changes. This change in structure is often triggered by the physical binding of a signaling molecule (for example, the odorant molecule responsible for a given smell) to the switch. However, unlike the single light switch that controls any one light in a house, cells use hundreds to millions of copies of each switch. Because there is more than one copy involved, the switching process is not a binary, "all-or-none" process. Instead, the output signal is determined by the fraction of switches that move from the off state to the on state.

In their PNAS paper, the authors describe a simple mathematical model that will allow biotech researchers to fine-tune the ease with which artificial biomolecular switches can be "flipped." They also shed light on how natural biomolecular switches evolved.

via Chemists explain the switchboards in our cells.

Computers unlock more secrets of the mysterious Indus Valley script

Four-thousand years ago, an urban civilization lived and traded on what is now the border between Pakistan and India. During the past century, thousands of artifacts bearing hieroglyphics left by this prehistoric people have been discovered. Today, a team of Indian and American researchers are using mathematics and computer science to try to piece together information about the still-unknown script.

The team led by a University of Washington researcher has used computers to extract patterns in ancient Indus symbols. The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows distinct patterns in the symbols' placement in sequences and creates a statistical model for the unknown language.

"The statistical model provides insights into the underlying grammatical structure of the Indus script," said lead author Rajesh Rao, a UW associate professor of computer science. "Such a model can be valuable for decipherment, because any meaning ascribed to a symbol must make sense in the context of other symbols that precede or follow it." ...

"The finding that the Indus script may have been versatile enough to represent different subject matter in West Asia is provocative. This finding is hard to reconcile with the claim that the script merely represents religious or political symbols," Rao said.

The researchers used a Markov model, a statistical method that estimates the likelihood of a future event (such as inscribing a particular symbol) based on patterns seen in the past. The method was first developed by Russian mathematician Andrey Markov a century ago and is increasingly used in economics, genetics, speech-recognition and other fields.

"One of the main purposes of our paper is to introduce Markov models, and statistical models in general, as computational tools for investigating ancient scripts," Adhikari said.

One application described in the paper uses the statistical model to fill in missing symbols on damaged archaeological artifacts. Such filled-in texts can increase the pool of data available for deciphering the writings of ancient civilizations, Rao said.

via Computers unlock more secrets of the mysterious Indus Valley script.

On the road...

On the road..., originally uploaded by xeno735.

Vacationing, in national parks