Berlin police have impounded an “ancient” Latvian tour bus they found creaking along the streets of the capital with a whopping 1.8 million kilometres on the odometer, they announced Wednesday.Officers pulled over the double-decker bus at about 3 pm Tuesday in the southwestern district of Wilmersdorf, the police said in a statement. They quickly established it had driven 1.8 million kilometres – enough to circle the earth 45 times or drive to the moon and back - twice.
Even on a cursory examination, they found numerous defects with the old vehicle, including faulty brakes, tyres worn down to the fabric, a cracked windscreen and major rusting to load-bearing parts of the chassis. They also found a spare fuel tank mounted in the luggage compartment.
The driver was the only person in the bus at the time it was pulled over. He was relieved of responsibility of the vehicle, which was immediately impounded.
via Police seize 'ancient' bus after 1.8 million kilometres - The Local.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Police seize 'ancient' bus on the road for more than 1.1 million miles
Woman killed by superstitious husband who believed she was possessed by "a demon"
For the past 29 months, Jan David Clark has sat in an isolation cell in the Ector County Detention Center wondering how things could have gone so awry.
Though he admits to killing his wife during an attempted exorcism in February 2008, he maintains he never intended to harm the woman he “loved and spoiled” for 17 years.
“That was not a willing thing that took place,” Clark, 63, recalled in a jailhouse interview Tuesday. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s still a supernatural thing.”
After more than two years of delays, Clark is scheduled to be tried this fall on murder charges in connection with the death of 59-year-old Susan K. Clark. About two dozen subpoenas were mailed Tuesday to various investigators and law enforcement officials, ordering them to appear for trial Sept. 13 in Judge Stacy Trotter’s 244th District Court.
Clark was unaware of the trial date before the interview but said he is more than ready. “I’ve waited long enough,” he said, adding he has not ruled out testifying in his own defense.
Authorities say Clark killed his wife in their Ferguson Avenue home in West Odessa. According to court filings, Clark told investigators he held his wife’s face to the floor of their bathroom when the exorcized spirit from her body entered his, causing him to kill his wife.
Investigators found Susan Clark wrapped in a bed sheet on her back with a cross and a sword atop her body. Preliminary autopsy results revealed she had been suffocated, court documents show.
Clark said he regrets attempting the exorcism alone, noting a group effort would have been more appropriate.
“My intention was to confront a demon I thought she had,” Clark said. “I had a pretty arrogant attitude about the whole thing.”
Clark acknowledged Tuesday that he did not have “all my oars in the water” at the time of his arrest. But he insisted that murder is the wrong charge because he “did not willingly” kill his wife. ...
via Clark maintains innocence | clark, innocence, maintains - Local News - Odessa American Online.
Revered Chinese Panda Quan Quan Dies From Gas Poisoning
Chinese police have detained a man in connection with the gas poisoning death of Quan Quan, revered as "the heroic mother" zoo panda who had given birth to seven cubs.
The 48-year-old man, identified only by his surname Yang, had hired workers to disinfect a former air raid shelter he had leased to grow mushrooms, the state news agency Xinhua reported today.
The shelter was near the Jinan Zoo's panda house in eastern Shandong Province, and toxic gas used by the workers leaked through an air pipe used to cool the pandas, fatally poisoning Quan Quan.
Quan Quan was 21 years old, the equivalent of more than 70 in human terms, the agency said. Once she became ill after inhaling carbon monoxide and chlorine she was taken to a hospital, but died Thursday after three hours of emergency treatment.
According to a spokeswoman for the local civil air defense office, which owns the shelter, it was not aware that the air pipe existed because it "was not included in the facility's design paper." ...
via Revered Chinese Panda Quan Quan Dies From Gas Poisoning.
Plankton decline across oceans as waters warm
The amount of phytoplankton - tiny marine plants - in the top layers of the oceans has declined markedly over the last century, research suggests.
Writing in the journal Nature, scientists say the decline appears to be linked to rising water temperatures.
They made their finding by looking at records of the transparency of sea water, which is affected by the plants.
The decline - about 1% per year - could be ecologically significant as plankton sit at the base of marine food chains.
This is the first study to attempt a comprehensive global look at plankton changes over such a long time scale.
"What we think is happening is that the oceans are becoming more stratified as the water warms," said research leader Daniel Boyce from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
"The plants need sunlight from above and nutrients from below; and as it becomes more stratified, that limits the availability of nutrients," he told BBC News.
Phytoplankton are typically eaten by zooplankton - tiny marine animals - which themselves are prey for small fish and other animals.
via BBC News - Plankton decline across oceans as waters warm.
Quantum fractals at the border of magnetism
U.S., German and Austrian physicists studying the perplexing class of materials that includes high-temperature superconductors are reporting this week the unexpected discovery of a simple "scaling" behavior in the electronic excitations measured in a related material. The experiments, which were conducted on magnetic heavy-fermion metals, offer direct evidence of the large-scale electronic consequences of "quantum critical" effects.
The experimental and theoretical results are reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science by physicists at Rice University in Houston; the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, both in Dresden, Germany; and the Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
"High-temperature superconductivity has been referred to as the biggest unsolved puzzle in modern physics, and these results provide further support to the idea that correlated electron effects -- including high-temperature superconductivity -- arise out of quantum critical points," said Rice physicist Qimiao Si, the group's lead theorist.
"Our experiments clearly show that variables from classical physics cannot explain all of the observed macroscopic properties of materials at quantum critical points," said lead experimentalist Frank Steglich, director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.
The experiments by Steglich's group were conducted on a heavy-fermion metal containing ytterbium, rhodium and silicon that is known as YbRh2Si2 (YRS). YRS is one of the best-characterized and most-studied quantum critical materials.
Quantum criticality refers to a phase transition, or tipping point, that marks an abrupt change in the physical properties of a material. The most common example of an everyday phase change would be the melting of ice, which marks the change of water from a solid to a liquid phase. The term "quantum critical matter" refers to any material that undergoes a phase transition due solely to the jittering of subatomic particles as described by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Heavy-fermion metals like YRS are one such material class, and considerable evidence exists that high-temperature superconductors are another.
Scientists are keen to better understand high-temperature superconductivity because the technology could revolutionize electric generators, MRI scanners, high-speed trains and other devices. ...
via Rice University | News & Media.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
CSS hack for "monochrome" theme... what changes will make this theme wider?
/*
Theme Name:monochrome
Theme URI:
Description:This theme supports widget, threaded-comments, theme-options,and translation is ready. Also including page-navigation and multi level dropdown menu.
Author:mono-lab
Author URI:http://www.mono-lab.net
Version:2.6-wpcom
Tags: black, white, three-columns, fixed-width, theme-options, threaded-comments, translation-ready, rtl-language-support, sticky-post
*/
/* ----- basic --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
body { margin:0; padding:0; background:#f2f2f2;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; color:#666; }
a img { border:none; }
a, a:visited { color:#7f8e91; text-decoration:none; outline:none; }
a:hover { color:#33a8e5; text-decoration:underline; }
p { margin:0 0 1em 0; padding:0; line-height:200%; }
ul { list-style-type:none; margin:0 0 1em 0; padding:0; line-height:0%; }
ul li { margin:0; padding:0; line-height:normal; zoom:1; }
ol { margin:0 0 1em 23px; padding:0; }
* html ol { margin:0 0 1em 23px; padding:0; }
ol li { padding:0 0 5px 0; }
form,table,input,textarea { margin:0; padding:0; }
dt { font-weight:bold; }
dd { margin-bottom:1em; }
table { border-collapse:collapse; width:100%; border:0; }
blockquote { margin:0 0 1em 0; padding:35px 20px 0 20px; border:1px solid #ccc; background:#fafafa url(img/quote1.gif) no-repeat 10px 10px; }
blockquote p { margin:0 0 5px 0; }
.quote_bottom { height:30px; background:#fafafa url(img/quote2.gif) no-repeat right ; margin-right:-10px; }
pre { border:1px solid #ccc; background:#fafafa; padding:10px 20px; margin:0 0 1em 0; overflow:auto; }
object { display:block; margin:0 auto; }
.wp-caption-text { text-align:center; }
.alignright { float:right; }
.alignleft { float:left; }
.aligncenter { display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; }
.centered { display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; }
.clear { clear:both; }
embed { display:block; margin:0 auto 1em auto; }
big { font-size:140%; }
hr { background:#ccc; margin:0 0 2em 0; border:none; height:1px; }
fieldset { border:1px solid #ccc; }
/* ----- layout -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#wrapper { width:930px; margin:0 auto; }
#header { background:url(img/header.gif) no-repeat bottom; }
#contents { background:url(img/side.gif) repeat-y; }
#left_col { float:left; display:inline; width:690px; margin:0 0 0 2px; }
#right_col { float:right; display:inline; width:236px; margin:51px 2px 30px 0; }
#footer { background:url(img/footer.gif) no-repeat top; height:90px; }
/* ----- header -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#logo { float:left; display:inline; margin:26px 0 0 5px; }
/*blogtitle*/
#logo a, #logo a:visited { color:#333; font-size:24px; }
#logo a:hover { text-decoration:none; color:#33a8e5; }
/*description*/
#logo h1 { font-weight:normal; line-height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; color:#aaa; font-size:11px; }
/*header menu is at the bottom of this page*/
/* ----- left_col ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */
.post { background:url(img/post_line.gif) no-repeat left bottom; }
#single_post { background:none; }
.post_even { background:url(img/meta_stripe.gif) repeat-y left; }
.post_content_wrapper { float:right; width:510px; padding:50px 15px; overflow:hidden; }
.post_meta { float:left; display:inline; width:120px; padding:0 15px 35px; margin:35px 0 0 0; }
.content_noside { float:right; width:510px; padding:15px; }
/* post contents */
.post h2, #single_post h2, .page h2 { font-size:16px; margin:0 0 11px 0; font-weight:normal; line-height:120%; background:url(img/stripe1.gif) repeat-x bottom; padding:0 0 13px 0; }
.post h2 a, .post h2 a:visited, #single_post h2 span, .page h2 span { color:#666; line-height:120%; display:inline-block; padding:0 0 13px 0; }
.post h2 a:hover { text-decoration:none; color:#2089cc; }
.post_content {line-height:160%; }
.post_content p { margin:0 0 1em 0; }
.post_content a,.post_content a:visited { color:#2089cc; text-decoration:underline; }
.post_content a:hover { color:#e2415b; }
.post_content a.more-link, .post_content a.more-link:visited
{ display:block; clear:both; color:#666; margin:15px 0 0 0; height:20px; padding:0 0 4px 45px; background:url(img/read_more.gif) no-repeat left top; text-decoration:none; }
.post_content a.more-link:hover { color:#2089cc; background:url(img/read_more.gif) no-repeat left bottom; text-decoration:none; }
.post img, .post a img { border:1px solid #ccc; padding:5px; margin-bottom: 10px; background:#f2f2f2; max-width:98%; }
.post a:hover img { border:1px solid #38a1e5; background:#9cd1e1; }
.post img.centered,div.centered { display:block; margin:0 auto; }
.post img.alignright,div.alignright { margin:4px 0 15px 15px; display:inline; }
.post img.alignleft,div.alignleft { margin:4px 15px 15px 0; display:inline; }
.post img.wp-smiley { border:0px; padding:0px; margin:0px; background:none; }
.post table { margin:0 0 2em 0; }
.post td, .post th { border:1px solid #ccc; padding:15px; }
.post th { background:#eee; font-weight:normal; }
.post_content ul li { margin:0 0 1em 0; line-height:160%; background:url(img/bullet1.gif) no-repeat 3px 7px; padding:0 0 0 18px; }
.post_content ol li { margin:0 0 1em 0; }
.post_content input { margin:5px 0; }
/* post meta */
.post_meta { font-size:11px; text-align:right; line-height:160%; margin:34px 0 0 0; }
.post_meta dd { margin-left:0; }
.post_meta dt { color:#999; margin:20px 0 0 0; padding-top:20px; background:url(img/dot1.gif) repeat-x top; }
.post_meta dt.meta_date { padding:16px 0 5px 0; margin:0; background:none; }
.post_meta a, .post_meta a:visited { color:#666; }
.post_meta a:hover { color:#33a8e5; }
.post_date { font-size:32px; padding:5px 0 0 0; }
.post_date span { color:#666; }
/* odd post color */
.meta_comment a, .meta_comment a:visited, .post_date, .post_meta dt.meta_comment { color:#33a8e5; }
/* even post color */
.post_even .meta_comment a, .post_even .meta_comment a:visited, .post_even .post_date, .post_even .post_meta dt.meta_comment, .post_even .post_meta a:hover
{ color:#75e730; }
/* sticky posts */
.sticky .post_content { background:#FAFAFA; border:1px solid #D9D9D9; padding:2em 2em 1em 2em; }
/* page links */
.page-link { margin:0 0 1em 0; word-spacing:0.5em; }
.page-link a:link, .page-link a:visited { border: 1px solid #999; border-radius: 4px; -moz-border-radius:4px;
-webkit-border-radius: 4px;
color: #999;
padding:0.5em 0.75em;
text-decoration:none;
}
.page-link a:active,
.page-link a:hover {
border-color: #89A9C5;
background: #E6F3F7;
border-color: #B5DDE9;
color:#2089CC;
}
.navigation .alignright {
margin-right: 0;
}
.navigation img {
margin: 0 !important;
}
.post_content img {
height: auto !important;
}
/* ----- right_col ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
.side_box { color:#666; margin:0 15px 25px; font-size:11px; background:url(img/dot1.gif) repeat-x top; clear:both; padding:30px 0 0; }
.first_side_box { background:none; padding:0; }
#right_col h3 { font-size:11px; color:#999; font-weight:normal; text-transform:uppercase; line-height:100%; margin:0 0 1em 0; padding:0; }
#right_col a, #right_col a:visited { color:#7d7d7d; }
#right_col a:hover { color:#f3dc19; }
.side_box ul { margin:0; }
.side_box li { margin:0 0 1em 0; line-height:140%; }
.side_box li li { padding:0 0 0 1em; margin:3px 0; }
#information_area { padding:0 0 0 0; margin:0 0 20px 0; }
#information { color:#7d7d7d; background:url(img/stripe4.gif) left top; padding:10px; border:1px solid #454545; margin:0 15px; line-height:160%; }
#entries_rss { font-size:11px; background:url(img/entries_rss.gif) no-repeat left top; padding:2px 0 0 18px; margin:8px 15px 0 0; float:right; display:inline; }
#entries_rss a:hover { text-decoration:none; }
/* search area */
#search_area { width:206px; height:27px; background:url(img/search.gif) no-repeat left top; margin:0 0 7px 0; }
#search_input { float:left; margin:7px 0 0 10px; border:0px; height:15px; display:inline; width:150px; font-size:12px; color:#999; background:transparent; }
#search_button { float:right; }
#tag_list { margin:0 0 -25px 0; }
.search_tag { float:right; display:block; margin:0 0 5px 0; padding:2px 0 2px 24px; font-size:11px; background:url(img/tag1.gif) no-repeat left top; }
.search_tag:hover { text-decoration:none; }
.active_search_tag { background:url(img/tag2.gif) no-repeat left top; }
#tag_list .wp-tag-cloud { clear:both; margin:0 0 10px 0; border:1px solid #f3dc19; background:#333; padding:6px; display:none; }
#tag_list .wp-tag-cloud li { display:inline; margin:0 5px 0 0; line-height:170%; }
#search_area_top { background:none; padding:0; margin:0 15px 25px; }
/* calendar */
#wp-calendar { margin:0 auto; width:100%; color:#777; }
#wp-calendar th, #wp-calendar td { border:1px solid #444; padding:0; width:14%; line-height:220%; text-align:center; }
#wp-calendar th { line-height:100%; padding:4px 0 2px 0; font-weight:normal; }
#wp-calendar td a, #wp-calendar td a:visited { display:block; text-decoration:none; color:#f3dc19; background:#111; }
#wp-calendar td a:hover { text-decoration:none; background:#444; }
#wp-calendar caption { padding:8px 0; }
#wp-calendar th { background:#111; }
#wp-calendar tfoot td { border:none; padding:5px 0; }
#wp-calendar #prev a, #wp-calendar #prev a:visited, #wp-calendar #next a, #wp-calendar #next a:visited
{ text-decoration:none; background:none; }
#wp-calendar #prev a:hover, #wp-calendar #next a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }
#wp-calendar td#today { background:#111; color:#f3dc19; text-decoration:underline; }
/* recent post date (for non widget user) */
.side_box li.side_date { margin:0; padding:0; }
/* ----- footer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#site-info { float:left; display:inline; margin:55px 0 0 13px; color:#777; }
#site-info a, #site-info a:visited { text-decoration:underline; }
#return_top a { position:absolute; position:fixed; right:15px; bottom:15px; width:18px; height:99px;
display:block; background:url(img/return_top.png) no-repeat left top; }
#return_top a:hover { background:url(img/return_top.png) no-repeat right top; }
/* ----- page ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#page_noside_contents { background:url(img/side_noside.gif) repeat-y; padding:30px 122px 10px; }
#page_noside_header { background:url(img/header_noside.gif) no-repeat top; height:32px; margin:-32px 0 0 0; }
#page_noside_post { padding:0 15px 20px; background:none; }
#footer_noside { background:url(img/footer_noside.gif) no-repeat top; height:90px; }
#page_date { margin:-9px 0 0 0; font-size:11px; }
/* ----- archive/category/tag/search/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#headline { background:url(img/headline_bottom.gif) no-repeat left bottom; width:510px; margin:0 0 20px 0; }
#headline p { background:url(img/headline_top.gif) no-repeat left top; padding:26px 15px 22px; font-weight:bold; font-size:14px; margin:0; line-height:100%; text-align:center; }
.archive_contents { margin:0 0 20px 0; padding:0 15px 20px; background:url(img/dot1.gif) repeat-x bottom; }
.archive_contents h2 { font-size:14px; margin:0 0 5px 0; padding:0; }
.archive_meta { margin:0 0 5px 0; color:#999; }
.archive_meta a, .archive_meta a:visited { color:#999; }
.archive_meta li { display:inline; font-size:11px; margin:0 10px 0 0; }
.archive_contents p { font-size:11px; margin:0; }
.archive_contents p a, .archive_contents p a:visited { color:#777; }
.archive_contents p a:hover { color:#33a8e5; }
/* ----- page navi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
.page_navi { margin:0 0 10px 0; padding:20px 0 0 0; }
.page_navi li { line-height:0%; display:inline; padding:0; margin:0; font-size:11px; }
.page_navi a, .page_navi a:visited, .page_navi a:hover, .page_navi span.current,
.page_navi span.pages, .page_navi span.extend, .page_navi span.current, .page_navi span.dots
{ color:#999; width:30px; padding:0; margin:0 3px 0 0; display:block; float:left; text-align:center; line-height:30px; background:url(img/pager1.gif) no-repeat left top; }
.page_navi a:hover { color:#999; background:url(img/pager1.gif) no-repeat left bottom; text-decoration:none; }
.page_navi span.current { background:url(img/pager2.gif) no-repeat left top; color:#fff; }
/* ----- header-menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#header_menu { float:right; display:inline; margin:20px 0 55px 0; background: url(img/header_menu_right.gif) no-repeat right top; }
#menu { float:left; background: url(img/header_menu_left.gif) no-repeat left top; font-size:11px; margin:0; }
#menu, #menu ul { line-height:1; margin:0; padding:0; }
#menu li { position:relative; float:left; border-left:1px solid #444; height:48px; margin:2px 0 0 0; z-index:10; }
#menu ul li { height:auto; border-left:none; padding:0; left:auto; margin:0; }
#menu a:link, #menu a:visited { color:#999; display:block; padding:19px 30px 14px; position:relative; }
#menu a:hover { color:#f3193d; text-decoration:none; background:#333; }
#menu ul { position:absolute; top:48px; left:0; display:none; opacity:0; width:200px; }
#menu ul ul { margin:0px 0 0 189px; top:0; left: 0px; }
#menu ul a:link, #menu ul a:visited,
#menu .current_page_item ul a:link, #menu .current_page_item ul a:visited,
#menu ul .current_page_item a:link, #menu ul .current_page_item a:visited,
#menu ul .current_page_item ul a:link, #menu ul .current_page_item ul a:visited,
#menu .current-cat ul a:link, #menu .current-cat ul a:visited,
#menu ul .current-cat a:link, #menu ul .current-cat a:visited,
#menu ul .current-cat ul a:link, #menu ul .current-cat ul a:visited
{ color:#999; background:#282828; line-height:140%; padding:9px 28px 7px; border:1px solid #444; width: 132px; margin:-1px 0 0 0; }
#menu ul a:hover, #menu .current_page_item ul a:hover, #menu .current-cat ul a:hover,
#menu .first_menu ul a:hover, #menu .last_menu ul a:hover
{ color:#f3193d; background:#333; }
#menu .current_page_item, #menu .current-cat { background:url(img/stripe2.gif) left top; z-index:9;}
#menu .current_page_item a:link, #menu .current_page_item a:visited,
#menu .current-cat a:link, #menu .current-cat a:visited
{ color:#f3193d; padding-bottom:21px; background:url(img/header_menu_arrow.gif) no-repeat center bottom; }
#menu ul .current_page_item a:link, #menu ul .current_page_item a:visited,
#menu ul .current-cat a:link, #menu ul .current-cat a:visited
{ color:#f3193d; background:#282828 url(img/stripe2.gif) left top; }
#menu ul .current_page_item ul a:link, #menu ul .current_page_item ul a:visited,
#menu ul .current-cat ul a:link, #menu ul .current-cat ul a:visited
{ color:#999; background:#282828; }
#menu ul .current_page_item ul a:hover, #menu ul .current-cat ul a:hover { color:#f3193d; background:#333; z-index: 100; }
#menu .first_menu { border:none; background:none; }
#menu .first_menu_active { background:url(img/header_menu_first_active.gif) no-repeat left top; }
#menu .first_menu a:hover { background:url(img/header_menu_first_hover.gif) no-repeat left top; }
#menu .last_menu { background:none; }
#menu .last_menu_active { background:url(img/header_menu_last_active.gif) no-repeat right top; }
#menu .last_menu a:hover { background:url(img/header_menu_last_hover.gif) no-repeat right top; }
#menu ul .parent_menu > a:link, #menu ul .parent_menu > a:visited { background:#282828 url(img/arrow4.gif) no-repeat right 14px; }
#menu ul .parent_menu > a:hover { background:#333 url(img/arrow4.gif) no-repeat right 14px; }
/* ---------- clearfix hack ---------- */
.clearfix:after { content: "."; display: block; clear: both; height: 0; visibility: hidden; }
.clearfix { display: inline-block; }
/* exlude MacIE5 \*/
* html .clearfix { height: 1% }
.clearfix {display:block;}
/* end MacIE5 */
#comments_wrapper { float:right; width:540px; padding:0 0 15px 0; }
#comment_area, #trackback_area { margin:15px 0 20px 0; padding:0 0 5px 0; border-bottom:1px solid #ccc; }
#trackback_area { display:none; }
/* ------ comment_header ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
#comment_header { border-bottom:1px solid #ccc; font-size:11px; position:relative; }
#comment_header li { display:inline; float:left; padding:5px 10px; }
#comment_header_left { float:left; display:inline; margin:0 0 0 5px; }
#add_comment a { background:url(img/write_comment.gif) no-repeat left center; padding:0 0 0 20px; }
#comment_feed a { background:url(img/comment_rss.gif) no-repeat left center; padding:0 0 0 20px; }
#comment_header_right { clear:left; position:absolute; top:-1px; right:15px; background:#fff; }
#comment_header_right li, #comment_header_right #trackback_closed { border-top:1px solid #fff; border-bottom:1px solid #ccc; }
#comment_header_right li.comment_switch_active,#comment_header_right #comment_closed { border:1px solid #ccc; border-bottom:1px solid #fff; }
.comment_switch_active a { color:#33a8e5; }
/* ------ comment ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */
.commentlist { list-style-type:none; margin:0; padding:0; }
.comment { border:1px solid #ccc; color:#777; margin:0 15px 15px; padding:15px 0 3px; background:#eee; }
.even_comment, .odd_comment_children { background:#eee; }
.odd_comment, .even_comment_children { background:#fdfdfd; }
.admin-comment { }
/* ----- comment-meta ----- */
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Meet the Zedonk, a Zebra Donkey hybrid
In all his years running the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, C.W. Wathen has never seen it happen. But five days ago, a zedonk was born.
“The animals have been running (in the fields) together for more than 40 years, but this is the first time that this has happened here,” said Wathen, the preserve’s founder and general manager. “We never suspected that they (had mated), so it was quite a surprise when the zedonk was born.”
The animal is a mix between a zebra and donkey. With black stripes prominently displayed on her legs and face, her zebra heritage is readily apparent, but her slender face and spindly legs are more donkeylike.
“White tigers are more of our calling card, but this is one of the most unique animals that has ever been born here,” Wathen said.
While she was born to a donkey mother, the baby zedonk’s instincts are all zebra.
“Usually, a foal will lay over on its side, sunning itself,” Wathen said. “But the zedonk sits up at all time — like she’s on alert looking out for predators. She’s still got some of her wild instincts.”
Although it’s uncommon for donkeys and zebras to mate, it isn’t unheard of. In 2005, a zebra gave birth to a zedonk in Barbados, according to the news website, Science Daily. And in the 1970s, three zedonks were born at a European zoo to a donkey mother, according to the Colchester Zoo’s website.
In about two weeks, the 5-day-old zedonk will begin roaming the property with the rest of the animals — including a camel, a donkey sibling, her zebra father and a 40-year-old miniature donkey.
Once the zedonk gets a little older, Wathen said she’ll be able to go out for off-site visits like some of the other animals on the preserve.
“The kids (visiting the preserve) have been going crazy about the zedonk,” he said. ...
via gainesvilletimes.com. Local news, sports and lifestyles from Northeast Georgia.
Santa Claus, an Ordained Anglican Bishop, Rips Catholic Church
Talk about piling on -- now even Santa Claus is taking shots at the Catholic Church.
An explanation, of course, is in order. It's not the jolly old elf who lives at the North Pole with toy-crafting elves and flying reindeer. No, Virginia, this is a decidedly more politicized Claus, an ordained bishop from Nevada with the likeness and legal name of his famous doppelganger.
And this Santa Claus is angry. Last week, in a scathing, widely distributed press release, Claus called out the church for its failure to institute sufficient reform in the wake of clergy sex abuse scandals. He also suggested that he may sue the church to force change."Bishop Santa intends 'to explore and utilize a variety of legal means,'" the statement read in part, "'to hold the Roman Catholic Church, especially the pope and Vatican, accountable for the suffering of many thousands of vulnerable children at the hands of clergy, straight and gay, young and old, celibate or not.'"
But sue the Catholic Church? Who is this Santa Claus?
According to Washoe County, Nev., he's 63-year-old Thomas O'Connor, a Lake Tahoe man who legally changed his name to Santa Claus (no middle initial) in 2005. A look at his website -- yes, Virginia, Claus has a website -- reveals that he was recently elevated to the title of missionary bishop in the Apostles' Anglican Church, an ecumenical Christian denomination based in Ohio and Michigan.
AOL News spoke with the presiding bishop of the Apostles' Anglican Church, Bishop Lawrence Cameron, and confirmed that Claus is, indeed, a bishop. As a missionary bishop, Claus does not preside over a geographical territory or diocese.
AOL News also contacted representatives for two of the nation's largest governing bodies of Anglicanism -- the Anglican Church in North America and the Episcopal Church -- and neither had heard of Claus' organization.
In an interview with AOL News, Claus explained why a man of his name and position would target the Catholic Church. "No one's stepped up to the plate. Of all people, why not Santa Claus?" ...
via Santa Claus, an Ordained Anglican Bishop, Rips Catholic Church.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul the Octopus, the sea creature that correctly predicted the outcome of World Cup games, is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world.
He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among "his enemies".
Paul, who lives at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, in Germany, won the hearts of the Spanish by predicting their World Cup victory.
He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.
However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.
"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said.
via Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul - Telegraph.
I suspect something is getting lost in translation.
Popular people live longer
Healthy 'social connections' - with relatives, friends, neighbours or workmates - can improve our odds of survival by 50 per cent, the study found.
But being a hermit can be as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, being an alcoholic, doing no exercise - and can even be twice as bad for us as being obese.
Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, from the Department of Psychology at Brigham Young University, said: "The idea that a lack of social relationships is a risk factor for death is still not widely recognized by health organisations and the public.
"When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks."
The researchers looked at data from 148 previous studies that measured human interaction and tracked health outcomes for a period of seven and a half years on average.
Because information on relationship quality was unavailable, the 50 per cent increased odds of survival may underestimate the benefit of healthy relationships.
Professor Holt-Lunstad said: "The data simply show whether they were integrated in a social network.
"That means the effects of negative relationships are lumped in there with the positive ones. They are all averaged together."
Study co-author Professor Timothy Smith, who works alongside Professor Holt-Lunstad, said the results did not just stem from elderly people living longer - with men and women of all ages benefitting from close relationships.
The Professor also said that modern conveniences and technology have lead some to think that good friendships aren't necessary - but that this was not the case.
He said: "This effect is not isolated to older adults. Relationships provide a level of protection across all ages.
"We take relationships for granted as humans we're like fish that don't notice the water.
"That constant interaction is not only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health."
via Popular people live longer - Telegraph.
After 10,000 years, ice-age skeleton gets back human form
Scientists claim to have reconstructed the image of Las Palmas Woman, one of the oldest sets of human remains in the Americas, discovered in a flooded cave in southeastern Mexico.
A joint team from Mexico and France reconstructed the face and appearance of the woman, who was in her late 40s, 152 centimetres tall and weighed around 60 kgs, Spanish news agency the EFE quoted a communique of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History as saying.
The institute said that the reconstructed features of the woman, found in a cave in Quintana Roo state, "are similar to those of populations in Southeast Asia which indicates that the migrations that populated Americas did not come only from northern Asia but also from the central and southern regions".
The Las Palmas Woman lived during the ice age some 10,000 years ago in what is today the Yucatan Peninsula, and was discovered in 2002. The skeleton "was found nearly complete and in a good state of preservation, so that the most advanced studies of forensic anthropology could be performed on it," according to the institute.
The sculpture of the entire body, done in France, can be seen in the exposition in the city of Guanajuato. To date the oldest human remains in the Americas are those belonging to the so-called Naharon Woman, who lived some 11,600 years ago, which were found in Quintana Roo.Alejandro Terrazas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said the reconstruction of the Las Palmas Woman was done according to criteria of forensic anthropology.
via After 10,000 years, ice-age skeleton gets back human form.
Bloody Protesters Wrap Themselves in Plastic for PETA Demonstration
Animal rights activists say meat is murder -- bloody, bloody murder.
Demonstrators from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently stripped down in New York City's Times Square, wrapped themselves up in cellophane and doused themselves with fake blood so they looked like meat on sale at a supermarket.
They say they put on the July 27 stunt to help meat eaters realize that buying a steak from a grocery store is no different from buying a corpse.
"We are challenging people to really think about what 'meat' is," said PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne in a statement. "When you eat flesh, you're eating the corpse of an abused animal who did not want to die. We're encouraging kind consumers to try going vegan."
via Bloody Protesters Wrap Themselves in Plastic for PETA Demonstration.
Trekkers offered cave tours in Klingon
The Jenolan Caves near the Blue Mountains west of Sydney is about to become possibly the first tourist attraction in the world to launch tours in the fictional Star Trek language of Klingon.
The link between the world's oldest dated limestone cave system and the fictional Star Trek language is through a spaceship, the USS Jenolan, which featured in an episode of the Next Generation series.
Earlier this month two Klingon scholars from the United States flew to Australia to tour the caves and finalise the translation of a self-guided tour.
They have recorded it at a Sydney studio and the commentary will be available late next month on a digital audio device.
Jenolan Caves tours will also be available in 10 other more commonly-spoken languages.
via Trekkers offered cave tours in Klingon - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation
In 1950, the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi raised the question that now bears his name. If there are intelligent civilisations elsewhere in the Universe with technologies that far surpass our own, why do we see no sign of them?
Since then, the so-called Fermi Paradox has puzzled astronomers and science fiction writers alike. And although there are no shortage of ways to approach the problem (this blog has covered them here and here for example), nobody has come up with a convincing explanation. .
Now there is another take on the problem thanks to a new approach by Igor Bezsudnov and Andrey Snarskii at the National Technical University of Ukraine.
Their approach is to imagine that civilisations form at a certain rate, grow to fill a certain volume of space and then collapse and die. They even go as far as to suggest that civilisations have a characteristic life time, which limits how big they can become.
In certain circumstances, however, when civilisations are close enough together in time and space, they can come into contact and when this happens the cross-fertilisation of ideas and cultures allows them both to flourish in a way that increases their combined lifespan.
Bezsudnov and Snarskii point out that this process of spreading into space can be easily modelled using a cellular automaton. And they've gone ahead and created their own universe using a 10,000 x 10,000 cell automaton running over 320,000 steps.
The parameters that govern the evolution of this universe are simple: the probability of a civilisation forming, the usual lifespan of such a civilisation and the extra bonus time civilisations get when they meet.
The result gives a new insight into the Fermi Paradox. Bezsudnov and Snarskii say that for certain values of these parameters, the universe undergoes a phase change from one in which civilisations tend not to meet and spread into one in which the entire universe tends to become civilised as different groups meet and spread. ...
via Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation.
Assyrian Tomb discovered in Iraq
German and Iraqi archaeologists have completed the excavations of an Assyrian tomb which dates back to the 7th century BC. The grave chamber was discovered last year in Arbil, in the country’s Kurdistan region.According to the German Archaeological Institute, the vaulted tomb was built by baked bricks and contained at least three sarcophagoi with up to five individuals. In accordance with the ancient burial rites, there was a number of grave goods, such as glazed and un-glazed pottery vessels, lamps and a bronze bowl.Architectural layout and the furnishing of the grave chamber are well known from other Assyrian capitals with Neo-Assyrian occupation, such as Ashur and Nimrud. Next to this tomb, an archaeological sounding was made, aimed at investigating the context of the tomb. A number of graves have been found, belonging to a cemetery, most probably occupied after the end of the Assyrian empire for several centuries. Below this cemetery, there are remains of mud-brick architecture with the same orientation as of the grave chamber. These walls belong to a building either connected directly to the grave chamber or to a subsequent building with the same orientation.More tests were done in the area around the grave chamber using ground penetrating radar, in order to detect archaeological sub-surface structures by a non-destructive method. As a result, remains of substantial ancient architecture have been identified. Its orientation and depth are similar to the grave chamber and, therefore, indicate a possible Neo- or Post-Assyrian date. Thus, the hypothesis on the area to be interpreted as an ancient mound with remains of occupation could be confirmed. Although this mound was subject to modern building activities, it is still visible today. Therefore, the area investigated shows a substantial potential for further archaeological research.
via Assyrian Tomb discovered in Iraq.
Ancient skull suggests head reshaping practice
image: Unusual Paracas skull supposedly deformed by binding the growing head of an infant. The resulting domed head was considered beautiful. Photographed in the Museo Regional de Ica. - world-mysteries
ELEVEN thousand years ago a tall and solidly built Aboriginal man lived a hard life. His bones reveal he had multiple breaks in both forearms, a fractured ankle so severe his shin bones fused together and arthritis in his jaw.
''Death might have been something to look forward to for him,'' palaeoanthropologist Peter Brown said.
But since his skeleton, known as Nacurrie, was discovered in 1948, near Swan Hill on the Murray River, it has been the changes to his skull that have been of most interest to Professor Brown. ...
The skeleton of Nacurrie, which has been repatriated, suggests his skull shape was modified by subtle means, probably by massage from his mother's hands. Several other skulls found in the Murray-Darling area also had modified skulls.
''It is clear from the archaeological record that a group of people living on the Murray River used to do this … between 10,000 and 13, 000 years ago.''
Professor Brown said massaging the skull doesn't cause brain damage because the brain is a flexible organ. The practice was probably done for aesthetic reasons, but it wasn't known why it had stopped in Aborigines.
Nacurrie man's skeleton also shows Aborigines living 10,000 years ago were much bigger than those first encountered during European settlement. ''The average height for [Aboriginal] men when Europeans arrived was about 1.6 metres or less whereas 9000 years ago they were closer to 1.8 metres tall.''
Cranium manipulation was common throughout history in different cultures. By some reports, it was the most popular type of body modification after circumcision, said Professor Brown, whose findings are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
In Papua New Guinea some mothers would bind their babies' heads with a tight bandage, which created a cone shape, while in South America babies were sometimes bound to create a flat-shaped head, he said.
''In the Netherlands and Denmark they used to put little caps on babies which used to change the shape of their heads. That was done until fairly recently.'' ...
via Ancient skull suggests head reshaping practice.
Higgs boson still eludes capture – but now we know where it isn't
Scientists are a step closer to discovering an elusive particle that is thought to give mass to the basic building blocks of nature.
Physicists hunting the Higgs boson at the Tevatron particle collider near Chicago said their latest results will help researchers close in on the long-sought prize.
The Tevatron, which is the main rival to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, near Geneva, has ruled out a quarter of the energy range where the Higgs particle is expected to be lurking, scientists told the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris today.
The announcement follows weeks of speculation that physicists had seen glimpses of the Higgs particle at the US collider. The rumours were denied by staff at Fermilab, where the Tevatron is based.
"We've updated and upgraded all of our analyses and right now, we just need the Tevatron to keep running the way it is," said Robert Roser, co-spokesman for a collaboration of 550 physicists who work on the Tevatron's CDF detector.
The Tevatron collides beams of protons with beams of antiprotons (their antimatter counterparts) at close to the speed of light inside a four-mile underground ring. The machine is less powerful than the LHC, but has been running for longer and has a head start in the hunt for the Higgs particle.
Previous experiments suggest the Higgs particle has a mass somewhere between 114 and 185 GeV (gigaelectronvolts), where one GeV is roughly equivalent to the mass of a proton, a subatomic particle found in atomic nuclei.
The latest results from the Tevatron, which combine the efforts to find the Higgs particle from its two detectors, CDF and DZero, rule out the possibility that its mass is between 158 and 175 GeV.
"Our goal first of all is to find the particle if we can, not to exclude where it might be, but we'll take what we can get," said Roser. ...
via Higgs boson still eludes capture – but now we know where it isn't | Science | guardian.co.uk.
Good Connection Really Does Lead to Mind Meld
When two people experience a deep connection, they’re informally described as being on the same wavelength. There may be neurological truth to that.
Brain scans of a speaker and listener showed their neural activity synchronizing during storytelling. The stronger their reported connection, the closer the coupling.
The experiment was the first to use fMRI, which measures blood flow changes in the brain, on two people as they talked. Different brain regions have been linked to both speaking and listening, but “the ongoing interaction between the two systems during everyday communication remains largely unknown,” wrote Princeton University neuroscientists Greg Stephens and Uri Hasson in the July 27 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They found that speaking and listening used common rather than separate neural subsystems inside each brain. Even more striking was an overlap between the brains of speaker and listener. When post-scan interviews found that stories had resonated, scans showed a complex interplay of neural call and response, as if language were a wire between test subjects’ brains.
The findings don’t explain why any two people “click,” as synchronization is a result of that connection, not its cause. And while the brain regions involved are linked to language, their precise functions are not clear. But even if the findings are general, they support what psychologists call the “theory of interactive linguistic alignment” — a fancy way of saying that talking brings people closer by making them share a common conceptual ground. ...
via Good Connection Really Does Lead to Mind Meld | Wired Science | Wired.com.
Garden of Eden found in Africa
A STRIP of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintain.
The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.
Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes.
"Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species," said Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.
"Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa."
The idea that early humans were once reduced to a tiny remnant population arose from research showing that modern humans have far less genetic diversity than most other species.
Some scientists suggested the human population could have fallen to as low as a few hundred individuals during this period...
During his study, Prof Marean discovered that the isolated caves around an area known as Pinnacle Point, South Africa, 386 kilometres east of Cape Town, were rich in ancient human artifacts.
In a soon to be published paper, Prof Marean and his colleagues argued the caves contain archaeological remains going back at least 164,000 years - and possibly even further back. ...
via Last few early humans survived in 'Eden', scientists say | News.com.au.
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