Friday, February 20, 2009
New Butterfly Discovered with Mustache Disguise
- The Splendeuptychia ackeryi butterfly, or Magdalena valley ringlet, whose distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts.
- Credit: copyright Natural History Museum, London
- Close-up of hairy of the Splendeuptychia ackeryi butterfly.
- Credit: copyright Natural History Museum, London
A mustache on a butterfly has tipped off curators at the Natural History Museum in London that a specimen in their collection for 90 years actually belongs to a new species.
A curator found the disguised insect, initially collected from the dry Magdalena valleys of Colombia, among the 3 million butterfly specimens at the museum where it had lain undiscovered.
Blanca Huertas compared the mustachioed specimen with a recently found wild specimen, allowing her to identify the older specimen as Splendeuptychia ackeryi, or Magdalena valley ringlet, whose distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts. (The name ackeryi is dedicated to Phil Ackery, the former collection manager of the butterfly collections at the museum.)
"We have almost 9 million butterflies and moths in our collections, a comprehensive example of the Earth's diversity," Huertas said. "But there are many new species still waiting to be discovered, both in museum collections and in the field."
Huertas discovered the new species in the wild when she travelled, with two colleagues, on an expedition to a remote mountain in Colombia in 2005. The entomologists did not realize, however, that the butterfly they had seen in Colombia had not been named and described until they returned to the England and studied the specimens in the Museum's collections, dating from 1920.
Butterflies are a diverse group of insects with almost 20,000 known species, 40 percent of which are in South America, Huertas said.
The description of the new butterfly is published in the latest issue of the journal Zootaxa. The expedition to Colombia was supported by the BP Conservation Programme, BirdLife International, Conservation International, Flora & Fauna International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Rio Tinto plc, Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Geographical Society, Fundación ProAves and many other Colombian institutions.
Nowhere Man
Judge overturns 2006 video poker ban
The company was previously a vendor of video poker machines. Owners were not available for comment but Lonnie Player, their attorney, said the suit was about equal treatment.
"This lawsuit simply asked the court to construe state law which we think is clear that there is no carve-out necessarily for one specific group versus the others," he said.
That specific group Player mentioned is the Cherokee Indians. The 2006 ruling prohibited establishments from having video poker machines, but made an exception for casinos operated by the Cherokee Indian Tribe.
"And under state and federal law, that cannot happen," Player said.
Judge Manning agreed, but also issued a stay of the order to give the state time to file an appeal.
Eddie Caldwell, Jr. of the North Carolina Sheriff's Association said law enforcement fears the ruling could bring back a host of problems they said the machines once caused.
“Sheriffs across the state have numerous examples of situations where citizens had called them where their spouse had lost all their paycheck at a video poker machine,” he said. “They didn't have money to buy groceries, to buy milk for their children."
Player said the lawsuit was not designed to take gaming rights away from the Cherokees, but to make it legal to have legitimate gaming in all of North Carolina.
He said it's possible that gaming could return to the state within a year if Manning's ruling stands.
Romanian premier living in rented apartment
Romania has no official residence for the prime minister or president. And the government says former public officials aren't moving out of the few high-quality state-owned homes and apartments in downtown Bucharest, the capital. They are required to leave two months after their terms end.
State Secretary Daniela Andreescu said Friday that she hopes to avoid taking legal action to remove a former dignitary from the state-owned home where Premier Emil Boc wants to live. She did not identify the official.
Meanwhile Boc, a former mayor in Transylvania, is living in a rented apartment not far from the government offices.
Man renovating old house finds hidden room
A friend of Carl Thoms was working recently on plumbing in the 1890 home's basement when he noticed that he could see around those pipes into a hidden room covered in tiles.
He also spotted a staircase - a discovery that led Thoms to a bedroom off of the home's kitchen, where he pried up some floorboards and accessed those stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, Thoms found himself in a walled-off 10-foot-square room covered in tiles that at first made him think the room might have once been a tiled sauna.
But he also wonders whether it might have been a bootlegging room during Prohibition - or any number of possibilities.
"You never know what it could have been," Thoms said. "It's really cool to find something like that."
He said the room appears to have been intentionally walled off from the rest of the basement but that it's difficult to date the blocks used to wall it up because they appear old. The stairs may have once been accessed through the bedroom via a trap door that no longer exists.
Thoms began renovating the 886-square-foot house near the city's downtown for him, his wife and their four children after buying it in 2007.
The 32-year-old said he plans to do some library research his old home's history.
Even More Critter News
Two lucky spearers have defied the odds and caught rare white sturgeon on the same day. Department of Natural Resources biologist Ron Bruch said about one in 10,000 lake sturgeon are white and until Tuesday none had been caught in more than 10 years.
Bruch said he can't recall two being harvested on the same day before. Only 13 percent of spearers catch any sturgeon at all.
Tuesday's catches came on Lake Winnebago's eastern shore.
Joseph Gerbyshak, 24, caught one white sturgeon, and 54-year-old Sue Muetzelburg of Fond du Lac nabbed the other.
Muetzelburg said her first thought was that the pale fish was sick. She plans to mount the head and fillet and smoke the rest.
More Critter News
Court employees and lawyers say the rodents scuttle down corridors, munch legal papers and scratch behind the walls. Last week, one mouse ran around a courtroom floor for an hour during a burglary trial.
The courthouse facilities manager says he's put out a few dozen traps to capture the rodents. He says he's not sure there has been an uptick in mice lately but says they're getting more press than they deserve.
Critter News
Bookworms are always welcome at a central Pennsylvania library, but a different kind of critter has kept patrons away from the building for more than a week.
The Allensville branch of the Mifflin County library has been closed since February 10th because of the putrid smell from a skunk that may still be prowling among the stacks.
Library employees can't find the skunk or get rid of the odor. Menno Township has enlisted a professional trapper to find it.
Supervisor Harold Johnson Jr. doubts the skunk is in the building. Johnson believes it was outside near a ventilation unit, which would explain why the smell is evident both inside and outside the library.
Woman tries to pay old fine, but gets arrested
Christina Dugan Lloyd was sorting old papers when she found a $2,000 citation from 1996 she said she forgot about. The offense: speeding through Utah with an expired driver's license and possession of a controlled substance.
Now 38, married and with three kids, Lloyd called the sheriff in Utah on Monday to pay the fine. She was told someone would have to call her back.
The Providence Journal reported that instead, Narragansett police came to her house and arrested her. She was booked, held overnight and released the next day after paying the fine by credit card.
Lloyd said not paying the fine earlier was "so stupid" and that police and court personnel were nice.
There She Goes
(the original later copied by the better known band Sixpence None the Richer)
Inmate sues over satanism interference
The lawsuit filed by Jason P. Indreland claims county jail staff took from him a religious medallion, denied him access to a "Satanic Bible or Book of Satanic Rituals" and ridiculed and punished him for his religious beliefs.
The suit alleges that Yellowstone County jail staff placed "Christian themed greeting cards under (his) cell door," that said "Jesus was ready to save and accept him."
Indreland is serving a three-year sentence at the Montana State Prison for felony drug possession. He was convicted after police found him with 15 grams of methamphetamine in March 2007.
Man sunk by gun in bag of coins
If only he had remembered to take the pistol out of a sack of nickels he brought to a bank, he may have remained free and not become a suspect in a recent burglary. An 18-year-old man entered the BancorpSouth branch Wednesday to change $88 worth of nickels to paper money, Camden police said. After spotting the gun, the teller told a supervisor, who called police.
After police questioned him, they had cause to obtain a search warrant for his home, where they found $16,000 worth of allegedly stolen property, including eight firearms. Camden police Capt. Scott Rosson said many of the nickels were from a stolen coin collection.
The Ouachita County Jail said Friday that the man was charged with resisting arrest and possession of a firearm. Police were investigating the burglary aspect of the case. The jail didn't have information on his bond.
Rosson said the man had no intention of robbing the bank. The .44-caliber handgun was not loaded but ammunition for the gun was also in the bag. Police said the man planned to sell the gun at a pawn shop.
When is a free credit report not a free credit report?
I clicked on the large bright orange button that said "Get your Free Credit Report & Score!" and was presented with a form. I filled it out. I hesitated for a second when the site asked for my credit card number, which it stated was "required to establish your account," but the site assured me that my "credit card will not be charged during the free trial period." Having done this before (or so I thought), I went ahead and entered the information. A shopping cart receipt indicated that the total was $0.00.I got my credit report, looked it over, and forgot about it. A week later I was looking at my checking account register online and I noticed a $14.95 charge from a company called CIC*Triple Advantage. I didn't recall buying anything from a company with that name, so I entered "CIC*Triple Advantage" into Google. The search results made my eyes bug out of my head. This was the name of the billing entity for freecreditreport.com. The thousands of search results were full of words like "deceptive practices," "scam," "ripoff," "unauthorized billing!" and "beware!" In fact, all the top results were either from people complaining that they'd been conned into signing up for a $14.95 monthly credit monitoring service without their permission, or they were about how to cancel the service.
Union des Banques Suisses
And the US has responded by suing for the information about some 52,000 more account-holders. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says that the lawsuit "sends a strong signal to taxpayers hiding their money offshore."
About time don't you think
Liars and Fools
Washington Post runs George Will's newest column without issuing a correction for his last one
Did we expect them to?
Mal-kin poses for photo with Swastika Guy
Nazis flocking!
National Review has eighteen words to say about New York Post's Obama/monkey cartoon
Surprised they used that many!
Handjob distorts and falsifies Border Agent case to suit his agenda
Again, did we expect anything different?
Politico's mission statement: serve as "key outlet" for DC spinners
Too, bad they're 'key-less'.
Faux News goes into all "socialist" mode as Obama signs stimulus bill
As if, this is news?!
Disney's Savage says "There's only ... one thing left for a woman after her prime of sexual excess and that's radical left-wing politics"
Clueless as ever ...
CNN's Dobbs lies about Employee Free Choice Act
And this is new to anybody, how?
Faux News special pushes numerous myths and falsehoods about Obama and the economic recovery bill
'Staying the course,' I see. The wrong one, but staying it anyway.
Handjob runs ads for fraudster fugitive's company
Status Quo continues.
Washington Times and CNN advance 61-detainee falsehood
Everyone else in the world knows this is a joke.
CBS falsely portrays Stanford swindle as Democratic scandal
FYI - Standford is a repugican.
Faux's Brick lies and claims average UAW worker makes $154 per hour
In who's dreams!
repugicans take credit for the stimulus plan after voting against it
Typical, just typical
Faux Business Network infested by false tale of stimulus bill's salt marsh mouse
Fairy tales and fantasy are all they know.
Items in the News
General Motors corp.'s Swedish-based subsidiary Saab went into bankruptcy protection today so the unit can be spun off or sold by its struggling u.s. parent, officials said.
The move comes after Sweden turned down GM's request for government help for Saab.
More here
General Motors wants another $30-billion from the federal government, and in return GM promises to cut 47,000 jobs. Yes, it's a lose-lose situation, but GM is too big to fail -- everyone says it because it's true -- and $30-billion is petty cash compared to what the government has given to the criminal entities on Wall Street.
More here
The high-finance industry has sold and re-sold mortgagees at such a fast and furious rate, simply asking to see your mortgage can significantly slow or even halt foreclosure.
More here
The Dollhouse Exists Right Now
1. We can erase people’s memories.
2. We can regulate people’s moods with microchips.
3. We can use brain implants to steer animals left and right.
4. Infrared brain scans can predict what people want.
5. Human-computer interfaces link human brains directly to computers.
Irish cops finally "catch" Prawo Jazdy
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.
"Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.
"It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
The officer added that the "mistake" needed to be rectified immediately and asked that a memo be circulated throughout the force.
Cave house for sale in Festus
It's got three freshwater springs and there are fourteen waterfalls on the property.
On May 19th, 2008, the City of Festus approved our occupancy inspection for the cave. Officially, this completed our project. There are still projects that can be started, completed and developed. Plenty of room in our 17,000 square foot home.This is now where we live, work, raise our family and celebrate life! Here are a few of the details about the place: Historic, regionally famous cave: 15,000 square feet, divided into three main chambers.
The front chamber houses the main part of the 3-bedroom finished house.
The middle chamber holds the laundry room, storage, and a spare bath. The middle chamber made a great party room. 80 feet by 80 feet.
The back chamber still has the stage where Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Ike and Tina Turner, the MC5 and many other bands performed.
Property: 2.8 scenic, partially wooded acres provide excellent privacy and the feel of the country right in the middle of town, just several blocks from shopping, dining, and other conveniences.
Energy efficiency: Geothermal and passive solar keep the home comfortable year-round without a furnace or air conditioning. In spite of the vast size of the home, our energy costs here run about the same as they did in our 800 square-foot starter home. The home naturally stays a little cooler than the average above-ground home, but we found that we acclimated quickly and easily.
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Daily Horoscope
You will impress others with your honesty and conviction.
Nice,
