Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video from the USA says about itself:

In 2005, fossilized mastodon remains were discovered in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in Wayne. During the course of a habitat-improvement project, a contractor for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County made an initial discovery – teeth from a mastodon. With help from the Illinois State Museum, a science team visited the site to search for more fossils. This search unearthed a partial rib and pieces of bone and tusk. Watch the video to learn about the initial discovery.

From Discover Magazine:

Spores in Mastodon Dung Suggest Humans Didn’t Kill Off Ancient Mammals

A fungus found within ancient mammoth dung

Dear Discover Magazine, was it mastodon dung or mammoth dung? Though both are related to elephants, they are not the same species or genus. The BBC is also confused about this.

is providing scientists with clues about how the large ancient mammals collectively known as megafauna went extinct. The fungus, Sporormiella, produces spores in the dung of large herbivores. These are then preserved in the layers of mud and can provide an index of the number of these animals, or megafauna, that roamed the environment at a particular time [BBC News]. For a new study, researcher Jacquelyn Gill collected and analyzed spores in sediment samples from an Indiana lake and several sites in New York.

From Gill’s analysis, published in the journal Science, she concluded that North American megafauna began a slow decline around 15,000 years ago and vanished about 1,000 years later. The data suggests megafauna started going extinct much earlier than previously though, which basically wipes out two theories of their extinction.

There are several theories surrounding the extinction of North American megafuana, but there are a lot more questions than answers. Much of the uncertainty surrounding the extinction of the North American megafauna, which includes mastadons, saber-tooth tigers and giant ground sloths, is due to a scarcity of evidence and difficulty pinning down the timing of events. Several major events occurred around the same time the animals disappeared: Major environmental upheaval associated with the end of the Ice Age; an asteroid explosion over North America; and the arrival of man [Wired.com]. But the new data points to an extinction culprit other than an asteroid or comet impact, because the impact is believed to have occurred long after the megafauna began their decline.

If humans were responsible for the extinction, it would have to be settlers that came along before the Clovis people, which is another debate in itself. The Clovis culture is thought to have been the first civilization to take hold in North America around 13,300 years ago–after the bulk of the megafauna extinctions, according to the new analysis. But some researchers believe that earlier settlers walked the land before the Clovis people, and could have hunted the mastodons and mammoths. The new study adds crucial info to the fossil record, but it is likely to kindle, rather than quench, the debate over megafauna extinction.

From the BBC:

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

DNA clue to save rare Darwin bird

Sub-populations of the mockingbirds remain on two small islands

A rare mockingbird could be reintroduced to the Galapagos Islands - with the help of some specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

A team of geneticists extracted DNA from two birds that the famous naturalist collected in 1835.

By comparing this to DNA from living sub-populations on two other islands, the scientists revealed genetic clues about how best to conserve the birds.

They report their findings in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The researchers used two specimens that Darwin and Robert Fitzroy - the captain of HMS Beagle - collected from Floreana Island during their trip to the Galapagos more than 170 years ago.

The Floreana mockingbird (Mimus trifasciatus) became extinct on the island soon after this famous expedition, mainly because of the human impact on its delicate habitat.

Today only two small sub-populations survive on two tiny satellite islets - Champion and Gardner-by-Floreana.

Survival of species

Karen James, a Natural History Museum of London researcher who was involved in this study, said the Floreana mockingbird was one of the rarest birds in the world.

“It was also important for Darwin’s realisation that organisms might evolve independently on islands,” she told BBC News.

The Charles Darwin Foundation, which carries out conservation research in the Galapagos, plans eventually to reintroduce the birds to Floreana.

But for this reintroduction to be effective, Dr James said, a population would have to be restored that was “as close as possible to what existed before”.

To find out what this population would look like, the scientists needed to study the Floreana birds.

“There are very few of these specimens,” Dr James explained. “But the Natural History Museum has two of them and they just so happened to have been collected by Darwin and Fitzroy.”

Dr James and her colleagues were given the opportunity to take tiny samples from the toe pads of each historic specimen, from which to extract DNA.

The team found “genetic signals” in each of the two surviving species that were also present in Darwin’s samples.

This revealed that the two sub-populations split from each other very recently. This split, the researchers said, was likely caused by the Floreana mockingbird becoming extinct.

Its extinction would have severed a “bridge” between the two populations - meaning that it was no longer possible for them to interbreed.

Even though they have evolved independently and become inbred, this study showed that the tiny sub-populations have retained much of the important “genetic variation” once found in the mockingbirds on Floreana.

This is good news for the survival of the species.

It has led the researchers to conclude that future conservation plans should focus on protecting “the two satellite populations in situ and establishing a single third population on Floreana”.

This reintroduction could use birds from both islands, the researchers said, “to maximize genetic diversity”.

Dr James said the project highlighted the importance of historic specimens.

“Though Darwin knew nothing of DNA, the specimens he and Fitzroy collected have, after 170 years of safe-keeping in collections, yielded genetic clues to suggest a path for conservation of this critically endangered and historically important species,” she said.

See also here. And here. And here.

Darwin’s Handwritten Manuscripts and Notes Digitized: here.

This video from CNN in the USA is called Rep. Wasserman Schultz on Situation Room about new breast cancer screening guidelines.

By Joanne Laurier in the USA:

US government mammogram recommendations

Denial of breast cancer screenings will have deadly consequences

18 November 2009

A US government panel’s recommendation that women under the age of 50 not undergo annual mammogram screenings has provoked outrage from oncologists and other health care professionals, as well as breast cancer patients and survivors.

Compelling evidence suggests that following the advice of the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) will lead to thousands of new breast cancer deaths and a rise in the incidence of the disease. One in eight women in the US (13 percent) will be afflicted by the disease at some point in their lives. An estimated 182,000 American women were newly diagnosed in 2008 with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 women died from the illness.

After decades of promoting mammograms as the best tool for early detection of breast cancer, the USPSTF is recommending against yearly screenings for women between the ages of 40 and 49, claiming the risks outweigh the benefits.

The recommendations announced Monday have been denounced by a wide range of specialists in the field and people who deal on a daily basis with the devastation that breast cancer inflicts upon hundreds of thousands of women and their families every year. Both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute condemned the change.

The American College of Radiology / American Roentgen Ray Society says:

USPSTF mammography recommendations will result in countless unnecessary breast cancer deaths each year

See also here.

Monday’s recommendation by a US government panel that women under the age of 50 not undergo annual mammogram screenings should serve as a warning on the future of health care in America: here.

Only days after a government panel recommended cutting back screenings for breast cancer, another body has advised that women undergo less frequent screenings for cervical cancer, and begin them at a later age: here.

From mongabay.com:

Extinct goat was “similar to crocodiles”

Jeremy Hance

November 16, 2009

It sounds like something out of Greek mythology: a half-goat, half-reptilian creature. But researchers have discovered that an extinct species of goat, the Balearic Island cave goat or Myotragus balearicus, survived in nutrient-poor Mediterranean islands by evolving reptilian-specific characteristics. The goat, much like crocodiles, was able to grow at flexible rates, stopping growth entirely when food was scant.

This adaptation—never before seen in a mammal—allowed the species to survive for five million years before being driven to extinction only 3,000 years ago, likely by human hunters.

Islands, especially nutrient-poor islands, are usually home to reptiles. Mammals are endotherms, meaning that they have steady and high growth rates, and therefore require rich environments to sustain them. However reptiles, ectotherms, grow slowly and are able to change their growth rates when resources fluctuate, making them perfectly adaptable to resource-poor islands, like the Balearic islands of Spain. So, given the environmental conditions of these islands, how did a species of goat thrive there for millions of years?

This question led researchers Meike Kohler and Salvador Moya-Sola from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to analyze the fossil bones of the Balearic Island cave goat. What they found was nothing short of shocking.

“The bone microstructure indicates that Myotragus grew unlike any other mammal but similar to crocodiles at slow and flexible rates, ceased growth periodically, and attained [physical] maturity extremely late by 12 years,” Kohler and Moya-Sola write in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

While the Balearic Island cave goat is the world’s first mammal known to have adapted reptilian growth strategies, Kohler and Moya-Sola believe there were probably others. The Balearic Island cave goat was a dwarf species: standing only 50 centimeters (19.5 inches) at the shoulder, smaller than a medium-size dog. Only a few thousands years ago, Mediterranean islands were also home to a variety of dwarf mammals, including elephants, hippos, and deer. Kohler and Moya-Sola hypothesize that these other dwarf mammals must have evolved traits similar to the Balearic Island cave goat—and reptiles—in order to survive in low nutrient environments.

Yet, as Kohler and Moya-Sola write it was likely these same traits that led to the species’ downfall.

“The reptile-like physiological and life history traits found in Myotragus were certainly crucial to their survival on a small island for the amazing period of 5.2 million years, more than twice the average persistence of continental species. […] However, precisely because of these traits (very tiny and immature neonates, low growth rate, decreased aerobic capacities, and reduced behavioral traits), Myotragus did not survive the arrival of a major predator, Homo sapiens, some 3,000 years ago,” they write.

From 16 Deaths Per Day in the USA:

Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers. Under existing laws, these employers get a slap on the wrist, or walk away scot-free. Meanwhile, workers who blow the whistle face threats and retaliation at the workplace.

You can sign a petition against this here.

The number of workplace accidents and illnesses in the US is vastly underreported, according to a survey by the Government Accountability Office: here.

This video from the USA says about itself:

Headzup: Sarah Palin And Dinosaurs

Sarah Palin is asked about her belief that the earth is only 6000 years old and that man and dinosaurs co-existed.

Read more about it here.

From the Raw Story in the USA:

Palin says she doesn’t believe in evolution

By John Byrne

Monday, November 16th, 2009 — 8:50 am

First, a conspiracy about dollar coins. Now a conspiracy about monkeys and fish.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate, signals in her new book Going Rogue that she doesn’t believe in evolution, panning it as theory that human beings “originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea.”

According to a review published Sunday in The New York Times, Palin knocks evolution in her new book.

“Elsewhere in this volume, she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.””

Palin’s stance may itself an be “evolution” from a previous position. In 2006, ThinkProgress notes, Palin advocated that both creationism (the belief that humankind originated from a supreme being) and evolution should be taught side-by-side in public schools.

See also here.

Steve Schmidt now joins a host of former McCain staffers who have challenged the veracity of Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, even before it hits the streets on Tuesday: here.

Jokes About Sarah Palin’s Book: here.

Sarah Palin’s Top 10 Biggest Lies: here.

Sarah Palin Rules the GOP — And She Will Destroy It: here.

This video is called Giant Deer and Mammoth Naturalis Leiden Holland.

From the BBC:

Monday, 16 November 2009

Starvation ‘wiped out’ giant deer

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

The giant deer, also known as the giant Irish deer or Irish elk, is one of the largest deer species that ever lived.

Yet why this giant animal, which had massive antlers spanning 3.6m, suddenly went extinct some 10,600 years ago has remained a mystery.

Now a study of its teeth is producing tantalising answers, suggesting the deer couldn’t cope with climate change.

As conditions became colder and drier in Ireland at the time, fewer plants grew, gradually starving the deer.

The discovery is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

The giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) has become famous over the past few centuries.

In the early 1800s, discoveries of its remains opened up the debate about whether animal species had previously become extinct, and whether new life-forms could be discovered in the fossil record.

Around this time, conflicting ideas as to why the animal went extinct began to emerge.

Initial ideas ranged from the Biblical flood described by Genesis, to the idea that humans had wiped them out.

However, the archaeological record suggests that people did not arrive in Ireland until after the last Ice Age, after most giant deer had disappeared.

There is also little evidence that the deer had any predators in Ireland. …

Stressed out

The ratios of isotopes revealed that the ecosystem in which the deer lived became stressed by drought.

As a result it changed from being covered in forest to being more open and tundra-like.

“There’s an overall trend of general vegetation decline,” says Ms Chritz.

The deer also appeared to be born in spring or early summer. But at the time of their extinction, temperatures dropped.

“Giant deer would probably have had a hard time coping with cooler mean annual temperature and a shortened growing season,” says Ms Chritz.

That would be particularly bad news for young deer. Most young animals are born in spring precisely because temperatures are warmer and there is more food available.

“It would be very difficult for young deer to cope with all these changes brought on by the Ice Age, as well as support the energetic demands of their growing bodies,” concludes Ms Chritz, who is now studying for her PhD in palaeoecology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US.

Data from the cementum, which grows each year much like tree rings, indicates that the deer lived from 6.5 to 14 years old, and they possessed mature antlers by autumn, similar to other living deer species.

Last refuge

Though often called the Irish elk, Megaloceros giganteus is actually a deer species.

Though most abundant in Ireland, it was not confined to the island, with populations living across Europe and Western Asia from 400,000 to 10,600 years ago.

The last Ice Age stretched from 100,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago, containing periods of greater and lesser glaciation.

The deer rapidly disappeared across most of the range at the end of the last glacial transition, though giant deer remains have been uncovered in Siberia that date to around 7,000 years before present.

“That means that mainland giant deer had some sort of refugia from the Ice Age before they met their ultimate extinction; they were able to move to a better environment and survive later,” says Ms Chritz.

But those giant deer in Ireland “had the misfortune to be trapped on an island with nowhere to go.”

Vieques Island Activists on Bomb Range Impact: Ismael Guadalupe’s Witness from Wes Rehberg on Vimeo.

Residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques celebrated at the weekend after a US agency dropped claims that no health hazards had been caused by decades of US military exercises on and around the island: here.

This is a video about the environment in Kenya.

From the Sunday Nation in Kenya:

Kenya: Poverty Rises As Malindi Salt Mines Expand

Mazera Ndurya

14 November 2009

Nairobi — The lords of Malindi salt mines have been riding roughshod over area residents with impunity. Beneath the veneer of the successful mining firms are tales of hopelessness as many local residents are living under the fear of eviction, environmental-induced illnesses, human rights violations and general exploitation.

Residents who talked to the Sunday Nation said they were worse off today than when the mining companies began operations in the 1980s. Areas that some years ago were covered by mangrove, cashew, and mango trees and coconut palms have been reduced to bare ground as more land is cleared to mine salt.

From a distance, heaps of silvery unrefined salt dominate the extensive and well tended pans that can be seen from the Malindi-Garissa road.

Blocking routes

High perimeter walls are under construction a few metres from the road, blocking some of the routes used by residents of Magarini to get to their fields and the sea for their fishing expeditions.

When Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited Kanagoni in Magarini on November 12, he ordered salt firms in the district to demolish all dykes holding water from flowing into the sea and to open access routes to the beach for residents.

The Prime Minister, who inspected a Sh50 million bridge under construction in the area, said the dykes contributed to road disasters. “These dykes prevent flood water from reaching the sea causing a resurge upstream. I order that from tomorrow (Friday), all dykes are removed, and I instruct the provincial administration to make sure this is done,” he said.

The area MP and minister for East African Cooperation, Amason Kingi, said of the nine salt companies operating in the area, only Krystaline and Malindi Salt had responded to a plea to assist 4,000 victims of floods in the area. Several years after a human rights report on the impact of salt mining and recommendations to better the lives of local people in Magarini, nothing has been done.

Constant fear

On the small parcels of land that used to provide vegetables for the budding tourist town of Malindi and the outlying areas, people scrape out a living under constant fear of being evicted by companies that want to extend their land to extract more salt.

The residents are partly blaming their predicament on the lack of title deeds to their land which has made it easier for investors to collude with unscrupulous government officials to force them off the land they have called home for many years.

During a public inquiry by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2005, land was one of the main topics of discussion. In the commission’s findings was that post-colonial administration perpetuated injustices against the community by leasing land to salt manufacturers.

Even as they did this, the community was left without recourse to alternative and equally arable land. The inquiry found that the legal basis which allowed the state not to compensate the people for land leased to farms was an unjust law because the community had the de facto ownership and use of the land for many generations.

In its recommendations, the KNCHR urged the government to make an accurate inventory of communities or descendants and start the process of adjudication to enable the community to stake a claim on the land under the Land Titles Act. “Areas deemed to be government land be re-designated as trust land and be subjected to adjudication,” the inquiry recommended in its report that was handed to President Kibaki.

None of the recommendations has been implemented, and the community feels the exercise was just another public relations gimmick meant to hoodwink the public into believing that their problems were being sorted out.

Francis Tunje Munemo, a farmer who inherited a piece of land from his father, is counting losses as cashew nut, coconut and mango trees are drying up due to what he said were the effects of salt water seeping into the neighbouring farms.

Also affected, he said, are wells that have now become saline, forcing residents to either walk longer distances in search of water or to buy it at very high cost from vendors. “We started seeing changes in food production, but the problem is that there has been no report on the impact of salt mining, even after sending requests to relevant government agencies.

“About half of the land that used to produce enough for the family and excess for sale is not producing enough for domestic consumption, and we suspect it is because of the interference by salt mining,” Mr Tunje said.

According to Kadzo Ngumbao, a former worker on the salt farms and whose land was taken and crops destroyed, residents were supposed to be paid for property lost in the expansion of the salt farms. The ministry of Agriculture, according to her, was to assess the damage to crops so that they could be paid according to the prevailing market rates.

“We were evicted from our homes and had to settle elsewhere, and when the recommendations were made about compensation, we were optimistic, but nobody seems to care any more,” she said.

Another resident, Thomas Angore, said when they were first approached by government officials to let salt firms mine, they were upbeat that they would get employment for their youth and a market for their produce.

“But within a short time, the land that we thought was our own was taken because we did not have title deeds. We were not given alternative plots after being evicted from our ancestral land.

“The working conditions in the salt farms deteriorated with most workers reporting poor health conditions, including premature deliveries and miscarriages among women who were associated with mining,” Mr Angore said.

He said the recommendations of the inquiry were good, and the residents thought their issues would be addressed. But, he said, the situation has gone from bad to worse. Working on the salt farms, according to former workers, is tedious and dangerous, but the pay is so low many are quitting.

Those who continue working because they have nothing else to do for a living gave heart-rending stories of injuries and health complications that they have been forced to contend with in order to put food on the table.

Sidi Mumba, who has quit, said some of the health complications start as minor boils that degenerate into wounds that take a long time to heal. Efforts to obtain get access to the farms were futile as guards manning the gates had instructions from the management not to allow anyone who was not a worker onto the premises.

This video from the USA is called Rethink Afghanistan (Part 3): Cost of War.

From the Raw Story in the USA:

New estimate for Afghan war: $1 million per soldier

By Joe Byrne

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 — 8:54 pm

Senior administration officials reported to the New York Times today that budget projections for the war in Afghanistan will cost U.S. taxpayers at least $1 million per soldier, per year.

The plan to add 40,000 American troops and greatly expand Afghan security forces, supported by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, is estimated to cost between $40 billion to $54 billion annually. “Even if fewer troops are sent, or their mission is modified, the rough formula used by the White House…appears almost constant,” according to the NYT.

The new estimate for the cost of war in Afghanistan will cancel out the $26 billion savings projected for a 2010 troop withdrawal in Iraq. Under this scenario, the overall military budget could rise as high as $734 billion. The highest annual military budget during the Bush era was $667 billion.

A senior administration official speaking anonymously with the NYT said that concerns over politically volatile spending influenced the President during a White House meeting on Wednesday. Obama was insistent that each military plan incorporates the quickest possible exit strategy. “He knows we cannot sustain this indefinitely,” the official said.

In 2006, Congressional researchers estimated that the accumulated costs for each soldier in Afghanistan would be about $390,000. The sharp rise in costs reflects the increase in mine-resistant troop carriers and surveillance equipment, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The unique difficulties of transporting soldiers around the mountainous, isolated terrain in Afghanistan also burdens U.S. taxpayers, military analysts say.

Troop Morale Continues to Drop in Afghanistan: here.

Journalists have been allowed to inspect refurbished facilities at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, the largest US military hub in the region and home to a controversial prison: here.

War in Afghanistan: Not in our name. 71% of Britons back IoS call for withdrawal of forces within a year: here.

Britain: Of the 150,000 personnel who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, a third return wounded, physically or psychologically: here.

The Pakistani Army ran training camps for a Muslim extremist group, at least until recently, with the acceptance of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to France’s foremost anti-terrorist expert: here.