From Space.com:
Giant Crater Found: Tied to Worst Mass Extinction Ever
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 01 June 2006
An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica.
Scientists think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago.
The crater, buried beneath a half-mile of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.
The crater’s location, in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia, suggests it might have instigated the breakup of the so-called Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward, the researchers said.
See also
here.
From Cornell University (USA):
Evolution in action?
African fish could be providing rare example of forming two separate species, Cornell scientists speculate
By Sara Ball
Avoiding quicksand along the banks of the Ivindo River in Gabon, Cornell neurobiologists armed with oscilloscopes search for shapes and patterns of electricity created by fish in the water.
They know from their previous research that the various groups of local electric fish have different DNA, different communication patterns and won’t mate with each other.
However, they now have found a case where two types of electric signals come from fish that have the same DNA.
The researchers’ conclusion: The fish appear to be on the verge of forming two separate species.
“We think we are seeing evolution in action,” said Matt Arnegard, a neurobiology postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Carl Hopkins, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior, who has been recording electric fish in Gabon since the 1970s.
The research, published in the June issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology, describes how some of these fish violate an otherwise regular pattern of mating behavior, and so could be living examples of a species of fish diverging into separate species.
The electric fish — known as mormyrids — emit weak electric fields from a batterylike organ in their tails to sense their surroundings and communicate with other fish.
See also
here.
In the United States, George W Bush has declared war on gay people.
See also on this at Daily Kos.
And at Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog; see on her here.
And this Mark Fiore animation.
Many observers say, to deflect attention from the Iraq war.
And maybe, if wars in Iraq and against gays are not enough for Bush, he may start a war in Iran.
Or against …
See also here.
Homosexual animals: here.
There are many comparisons between politicians.
Sometimes, these show differences.
Sometimes, they show similarities.
Practically always, they show both at the same time.
Comparisons between German dictator Adolf Hitler, and present US politicians George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, sometimes lead to emotional reactions.
At least, apart from unilaterally starting wars and violating human rights, these four men have at least one thing in common: they have small beetles named after them.
In 1933, a beetle was found, living in caves in Slovenia.
It was was named after nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Officially, as ‘a tribute’ to Hitler.
Officially, new names for newly found animal species are not supposed to be mocking or controversial.
However, in 1989 in Dutch weekly Nieuwsweek, Dutch biologist Midas Dekkers wrote that the name was really intended to mock Hitler.
Anophthalmus hitleri is brown; like Hitler’s uniforms.
But it is less than half a centimeter in size.
Eyeless, it hides in caves.
Not quite the ‘herrrrr-oic’ image which Hitler wanted for himself.
Tribute or mockery, its noxious scientific name today threatens the survival of innocent Anophthalmus hitleri, as neo-nazis catch it as a souvenir.
In 2005, three species of North American slime-mold beetles were called after George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld.
Also, officially, as ‘tributes’ (tongue in cheek, ‘ unofficial’ comments said).
Maybe, it was insulting to the beetles to name them after these four men?
One of the scientists naming the Bush administration names earlier had named a (Bolivian water) beetle ‘Desmopachria chei’, after anti-US imperialist Che Guevara.
That was a non slime eating beetle species … which might be a clue in this question.
By Kate Randall:
Another US atrocity in Iraq: Eleven civilians massacred in Ishaqi
3 June 2006
The BBC on Thursday aired video footage of yet another atrocity committed by US forces against Iraqi civilians.
The video evidence contradicts the initial US account of the events of March 15, 2006 in the village of Ishaqi, in the Abu Sifa district near Balad, some 60 miles north of Baghdad, which resulted in 11 civilian deaths.
The news follows widespread coverage of the unprovoked killings by Marines of 24 unarmed civilians last November in the town of Haditha in Anbar province.
The military launched a serious investigation into that incident only after Time magazine reporters last January confronted officials with extensive evidence contradicting the official story that the civilians had been killed from the detonation of an improvised explosive device followed by a firefight with insurgents.
The cover-up of the Haditha massacre began to unravel when Time published a detailed account of the killings in March.
More US atrocities in Iraq news:
here.
Killing at Hamandiya: here.
From BirdLife:
Turkey launches fund to halt biodiversity decline
02-06-2006
Doga Dernegi (BirdLife in Turkey) has formed a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry to establish a national fund to halt biodiversity decline.
The Turkish Zero Extinction Fund will carry out priority conservation actions in the 305 Key Biodiversity Areas identified by Doga Dernegi. ….
The projects that will benefit include: threatened orchid species conservation in Southern Turkey; the rediscovery of the Anatolian leopard; the conservation of the Sultansazlığı wetlands; and the preservation of the country’s last remaining Demoiselle Cranes and globally threatened Great Bustards.
USA: first
whooping crane chick born since a long time.
More whooping cranes: here.
And here.
And here.
Whooping crane video: here.
