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Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Today in History
1450
Jack Cade's Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1541 Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1559 An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
1794 The United States Post Office is established.
1846 The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
1862 General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
1864 Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
1886 Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1904 U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
1919 The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
1933 Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1940 German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
1945 The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
1952 Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
1958 President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1967 Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1984 The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles. 1995 Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
1541 Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1559 An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
1794 The United States Post Office is established.
1846 The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
1862 General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
1864 Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
1886 Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1904 U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
1919 The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
1933 Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1940 German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
1945 The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
1952 Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
1958 President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1967 Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1984 The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles. 1995 Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
Do Fairies live at the bottom of your garden?
Maybe not anymore but a recent discovery would suggest that they
probably did. What appear to be the mummified remains of a fairy have
been discovered in the Derbyshire countryside. The 8inch remains
complete with wings; skin, teeth and flowing red hair have been examined
by anthropologists and forensic experts who can confirm
that the body is genuine. X-rays of the ‘fairy’ reveal an anatomically
identical skeleton to that of a child. The bones however, are hollow
like those of a bird making them particularly light. The puzzling
presence of a navel even suggests that the beings reproduce the same as
humans despite the absence of reproductive organs.
The remains were discovered by a local man, who wishes to remain anonymous, while walking his dog along an old roman road situated between the Derbyshire villages of Duffield and Belper. The area has long been shrouded in mystery with tales of ghostly highwaymen and strange ‘dancing’ lights on warm summer evenings.
“I was walking along the lane at a point which passes an old Iron Age barrow (burial mound) when my dog began to bark and act rather strangely. He was barking in the direction of the barrow and would not go anywhere near it which was strange as we walk past it almost every day. I was curious and approached the mound to see what could be disturbing him and it then I noticed something odd…..in the side of the barrow, a fissure as if a section of ground had subsided or opened up. The crack measured about 2ft long and 1ft wide and looked to have been formed recently as I had never seen it before. I knelt down and looked inside the dark hole. The hill seemed to be hollow like a cave as I could feel a cool draught against my skin. I used the small led torch on my car keys to see if I could see anything in the darkness. It was at this point I saw something that startled me, 2 or 3 feet in front of me I could see a human like form only this was much smaller. My initial instinct was to call the police as I thought it may be the body of a small child but as I looked closer I could see that this was not the case. It was too small and more importantly, it had what appeared to be wings! Not want to touch it I used a stick to carefully drag it out and picked it up in one of the dog’s poo bags (empty of course).”
He immediately called his wife stating he had found something ‘unbelievable’ and asked her to bring a camera and a box immediately.“When I first arrived I could hear the dog barking from some distance, I had no idea what he had found. As I approached the barrow I could see my husband crouched down looking a something on the floor. “What have you found?” I shouted, “See for yourself” he said. I looked down and saw a tiny but perfect mummified human body with hair, dark brown skin and more disturbingly, wings. “I know what it looks like”, he said “but how can it be? And there’s not just one, I’ve had another look inside that hole in the ground and there are more!”
The body was taken home in a biscuit tin and kept in a garage overnight. The following day the local police were informed and the remains were taken away for analysis. As a local expert on the paranormal I was approached by the police for my advice although this was kept rather quiet to avoid ridicule and press attention. I was taken to the location by the man who originally discovered this amazing find. On closer inspection the barrow appears to contain more that 20 fairy bodies all in varying states of mummification.
The dry cave like interior has preserved the remains to such a degree that some bodies even have tiny finger nails and eye brows. I have returned since then to document the find as much as possible. On one particular occasion I was shocked to discover that some attempt had been made to reseal the barrow but by whom?
The site appears to be a burial ground for fairy folk and the exact location of the find has not been revealed and no further remains have been removed from the mound. It has not been substantiated how long the remains have been there although the state of mummification would suggest more than 400 years. The countryside could be strewn with hidden burial mounds which have lain undiscovered for centuries. How could such creatures exist without detection for so many years? Cryptozoologists who have examined the remains suspect they have evolved to suit their surrounding so well they would be virtually invisible to the naked eye. Their wings and skin pigment would camouflage them extremely well and they would most probably live in the tree tops and rarely venture down to ground level. In winter they would probably retreat underground into cave networks.Whether they still exist is another question but the remains found in Derbyshire have laid thousands of years of folklore to rest.”
The remains were discovered by a local man, who wishes to remain anonymous, while walking his dog along an old roman road situated between the Derbyshire villages of Duffield and Belper. The area has long been shrouded in mystery with tales of ghostly highwaymen and strange ‘dancing’ lights on warm summer evenings.
“I was walking along the lane at a point which passes an old Iron Age barrow (burial mound) when my dog began to bark and act rather strangely. He was barking in the direction of the barrow and would not go anywhere near it which was strange as we walk past it almost every day. I was curious and approached the mound to see what could be disturbing him and it then I noticed something odd…..in the side of the barrow, a fissure as if a section of ground had subsided or opened up. The crack measured about 2ft long and 1ft wide and looked to have been formed recently as I had never seen it before. I knelt down and looked inside the dark hole. The hill seemed to be hollow like a cave as I could feel a cool draught against my skin. I used the small led torch on my car keys to see if I could see anything in the darkness. It was at this point I saw something that startled me, 2 or 3 feet in front of me I could see a human like form only this was much smaller. My initial instinct was to call the police as I thought it may be the body of a small child but as I looked closer I could see that this was not the case. It was too small and more importantly, it had what appeared to be wings! Not want to touch it I used a stick to carefully drag it out and picked it up in one of the dog’s poo bags (empty of course).”
He immediately called his wife stating he had found something ‘unbelievable’ and asked her to bring a camera and a box immediately.“When I first arrived I could hear the dog barking from some distance, I had no idea what he had found. As I approached the barrow I could see my husband crouched down looking a something on the floor. “What have you found?” I shouted, “See for yourself” he said. I looked down and saw a tiny but perfect mummified human body with hair, dark brown skin and more disturbingly, wings. “I know what it looks like”, he said “but how can it be? And there’s not just one, I’ve had another look inside that hole in the ground and there are more!”
The body was taken home in a biscuit tin and kept in a garage overnight. The following day the local police were informed and the remains were taken away for analysis. As a local expert on the paranormal I was approached by the police for my advice although this was kept rather quiet to avoid ridicule and press attention. I was taken to the location by the man who originally discovered this amazing find. On closer inspection the barrow appears to contain more that 20 fairy bodies all in varying states of mummification.
The dry cave like interior has preserved the remains to such a degree that some bodies even have tiny finger nails and eye brows. I have returned since then to document the find as much as possible. On one particular occasion I was shocked to discover that some attempt had been made to reseal the barrow but by whom?
The site appears to be a burial ground for fairy folk and the exact location of the find has not been revealed and no further remains have been removed from the mound. It has not been substantiated how long the remains have been there although the state of mummification would suggest more than 400 years. The countryside could be strewn with hidden burial mounds which have lain undiscovered for centuries. How could such creatures exist without detection for so many years? Cryptozoologists who have examined the remains suspect they have evolved to suit their surrounding so well they would be virtually invisible to the naked eye. Their wings and skin pigment would camouflage them extremely well and they would most probably live in the tree tops and rarely venture down to ground level. In winter they would probably retreat underground into cave networks.Whether they still exist is another question but the remains found in Derbyshire have laid thousands of years of folklore to rest.”
Hot Dog Vendor in a Kayak
McCovey Cove in San Francisco Bay lies just beyond the right field wall of a baseball stadium. Boating baseball fans often hang out there during games in the hope of catching stray balls. To give them the full ballpark experience, ESPN and its ad agency hired a kayaker to sell them hot dogs:
Enter London Van Der Kamp, a professional kayaker who briefly stepped away from his day job at an outdoor sporting goods company and into a specially made kayak that was used during Sunday's game between the Giants and Dodgers.
Van Der Kamp, recruited by ESPN and its advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy, was targeted to be a floating hot dog vendor for the night. His job? To serve other Cove kayakers hot dogs, free of charge, from a custom-built contraption that contains a warming compartment and bottles of mustard and ketchup.
Why Hair Turns Grey
Grey
hair may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists have found the cause
of greying hair and a clue on how it can be reversed:Scientists found people who are going grey build up hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes hair to bleach itself from the inside out.More
However this could be reversed by "an antioxidant" cocktail that allows "re-pigmentation" of the hair.
The discovery of what makes hair grey, published in the FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) journal, was actually made whilst investigating the skin disease vitiligo. [...]
The team, which included experts from Bradford University's School of Life Sciences, blamed "massive epidermal oxidative stress" that leads to the build up of hydrogen peroxide.
Why Older Minds Make Better Decisions
One
of those things that I heard somewhere that has stuck with me is,
"Wisdom is the ability to tell the difference between what is important
and what is not." That seems to be the basis of research that shows that
older people, even with declining memories, make better decisions
overall than younger people. As we age, we become more selective about what we remember, says Dr. Alan Castel of UCLA, one of the study’s lead researchers. In an earlier study, his team tested older and younger adults’ ability to recall a list of words. The initial findings, as one would expect, showed that younger subjects remembered more of the words. However, when the two groups were provided the same list, but with some words assigned a higher number value than others, older participants were better than younger subjects at remembering the words assigned high scores and ignoring those with low scores.Makes plenty of sense to me. As I've gotten older, my head is still filled with useless trivia, but I no longer make an effort to memorize phone numbers or song lyrics. Of course, you know the corollary to the earlier adage: "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement." More
It appears that as we age, we may become better able to differentiate between important and less important information. “While memory tends to decline as we get older, it seems that older adults selectively remember more important information,” Castel says.
The Government Already has Quantum Internet For 2 Years
While
the rest of us were busy talking about the potential of quantum networks,
which would allow for perfectly secure communication based on the laws
of quantum mechanics, the gub'ment has been running one for at least two
years:Today, Richard Hughes and pals at Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico reveal an alternative quantum internet, which they say they’ve been running for two and half years. Their approach is to create a quantum network based around a hub and spoke-type network. All messages get routed from any point in the network to another via this central hub. [...]
Hughes and co say they’ve solved this with their unique approach which equips each node in the network with quantum transmitters–ie lasers–but not with photon detectors which are expensive and bulky. Only the hub is capable of receiving a quantum message (although all nodes can send and receiving conventional messages in the normal way).
The Ghost of Sandra Fluke Is Haunting Lush Dimbulb's Mega-Deal
In an August earnings call, Dickey said the boycott had contributed to $5.5 million in losses at the top three of Cumulus's 40 major radio stations nationwide, Byers reports. In a March earnings call, Dickey said Cumulus's radio business had suffered "due to some of the issues that happened a year ago." Dimbulb's allies think that's not fair. "It's a very serious discussion, because Dickey keeps blaming Rush for his own revenue problems," a Limbaugh show source told Byers, saying Dickey's talk stations underperform compared to comparable talk stations.
There is periodic outrage over the things Dimbulb says on his show, and Dimbulb himself references it all the time. "This is gonna get me in trouble," is one of his favorite ways to introduce his political analysis. But while outrage over Dimbulb's politics hasn't hurt him, outrage over his creepiness has. In February 2012, Sandra Fluke argued at a Democratic congressional hearing that it was necessary for insurance policies to cover birth control. Dimbulb, who apparently did not know how the birth control pill works, said she wanted taxpayers to finance her sex life. Fluke "testifies she's having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them," Dimbulb said. He explained:
"What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We’re the pimps."Some argued that the resulting liberal outrage would only strengthen Limbaugh. "Attempts to advance a left-wing media agenda by destroying Rush Limbaugh’s radio show will surely fail," Michael Medved argued last year. "Amid threats of a boycott, more than 98 companies have suspended their sponsorship of the Dimbulb show, but Lush and his associates insist that many other firms have eagerly jumped in to fill the gap." Dimbulb even rejected longtime advertiser Sleep Train when it wanted to comeback after suspending advertising during the controversy. Today, whether Dimbulb's bosses are looking for "someone to blame" or not, it's clear Cumulus would like some of those people back.
Failing School Imports Smarter Students to Raise Test Scores
Merrydale
Elementary School in Baton Rouge, Louisana, has a problem: its test scores
were abysmal. That in and of itself isn't a unique problem - many schools
have low tests scores - but Merrydale's solution on how to raise its test
scores is.See, most failing schools try to improve its teaching staff to raise test scores, but the enterprising Louisiana school decided to do something else: import smarter students!
The proposal to move 100 gifted and talented students this fall from Glen Oaks Park Elementary, a C-rated school, to nearby Merrydale Elementary, an F-rated school, generated some heat Thursday. [...]Charles Lussier of The Advocate has the scoop: Here.
The higher-scoring gifted students would likely increase the school performance score of Merrydale from 71.2 to an estimated 77.5 under the shift, high enough to avert a state takeover.
Bangladesh Building Death Toll Passes 650
Indian woman gave birth to twins on moving train for the second time
A woman from Uttar
Pradesh gave birth to twins on a moving train - the second time in four years
that she has delivered twins on a train. The bizarre coincidence took
place on Sunday on board the Kushinagar Express. Zubin Nisha, along with her
husband, was traveling from Mumbai to Gonda for delivery when she went
into labor in the general compartment between Unnao and Lucknow.
As the train chugged ahead, alarmed fellow passengers cleared the area around berth 63 and made room for other women passengers to attend to the woman. Some passengers called railway staff and alerted a medical team stationed at Lucknow of the "developments on the train". The medical team was kept on standby mode. Before the train could reach Lucknow, however, the woman gave birth to twin boys.
Both the babies were handed over to the waiting medical team, safe and healthy. The mother and the twins were immediately wheeled away to the Queen Mary Hospital in Lucknow. Habibullah, the proud father of the twins, said they were going to their village Kundera in Gonda when his wife went into labour in Kanpur. But before he could decide on de-boarding the train, the train moved, and he was left with no option but to wait till the train reached Lucknow.
"I am very thankful to Allah and my fellow passengers who helped me a lot," Habibullah said, adding that he and Zuben have four-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, who also arrived on a moving train. Habibullah said he was feeling on "top of the world" and shared the amusement of his co-passengers that his wife had delivered twins twice in a moving train. "Well, indeed this is some sort of a record, but what can I say," he said, sounding a bit surprised himself. "I can call this a rare blessing of God almighty that my kids come into this world in such a manner," he said.
As the train chugged ahead, alarmed fellow passengers cleared the area around berth 63 and made room for other women passengers to attend to the woman. Some passengers called railway staff and alerted a medical team stationed at Lucknow of the "developments on the train". The medical team was kept on standby mode. Before the train could reach Lucknow, however, the woman gave birth to twin boys.
Both the babies were handed over to the waiting medical team, safe and healthy. The mother and the twins were immediately wheeled away to the Queen Mary Hospital in Lucknow. Habibullah, the proud father of the twins, said they were going to their village Kundera in Gonda when his wife went into labour in Kanpur. But before he could decide on de-boarding the train, the train moved, and he was left with no option but to wait till the train reached Lucknow.
"I am very thankful to Allah and my fellow passengers who helped me a lot," Habibullah said, adding that he and Zuben have four-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, who also arrived on a moving train. Habibullah said he was feeling on "top of the world" and shared the amusement of his co-passengers that his wife had delivered twins twice in a moving train. "Well, indeed this is some sort of a record, but what can I say," he said, sounding a bit surprised himself. "I can call this a rare blessing of God almighty that my kids come into this world in such a manner," he said.
Suck on Your Baby's Pacifier to Make 'em Healthier
The researchers found that the 65 babies whose mother or father sucked on their pacifiers to cleanse them were significantly less likely to get eczema and asthma, two conditions caused by allergic reactions, than babies whose parents did not use the cleaning technique. [...]Rob Stein of NPR's Shots has the story: Here.
To investigate the role of pacifier cleaning, Bill Hesselmar of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and his colleagues analyzed data they had collected for a broader study about babies' allergies. Among the questions the parents had answered was what they did when their child's pacifier fell out of his or her mouth.
"We asked them how they cleaned the pacifier — if they rinsed them in water — and of course most of them did," Hesselmar says. But a lot of the parents did something else.
"They put it in their mouth, sucked on it and then gave it back to the children," Hesselmar says. "It's a quite common way to clean pacifier."
Well, It's better than eating boogers to boost your immune system!
Red-faced chicken shop robber foiled by bucket of chili sauce
An Australian man doused with a bucket of chilli sauce during an
attempted robbery should have had chilli squirted in his eyes and hot
fat poured on him, his father says. Tyrone Holmwood, 24, appeared in
court with puffy red eyes after the incident at a Sydney chicken shop in
which an employee threw a bucket of chilli sauce at his face.
But he wasn't getting any sympathy from his father. If the allegations were true, his son got what he deserved, he told reporters outside the court. "Good on her," the father said of the actions of employee Joanna Petry-Tartnoski. "She should have squirted it in his eyes. I would have poured hot fat over his head."
Holmwood, 24, had his bail application denied in Waverley Local Court on Monday after being charged with assault with intent to rob the O'le Chargrill in Rosebery at about 6.15pm on Sunday. He was thwarted when Ms Petry-Tartnoski threw the chilli at him. Holmwood was found lying on the shop floor when police arrived and was treated for minor burns after the alleged incident. He was barefoot and puffy-eyed when court officers marched him into the dock wearing a police forensics jumpsuit.
"Tyrone, who is now sober, is shocked by the allegations," his solicitor Anthony Brookman told the court. "Alcohol is his problem." Police allege he ordered food before arguing with two staff members about the payment. He allegedly walked behind the counter and smashed a cash register onto the floor, forcing it open. Holmwood struck Ms Petry-Tartnoski across the chest when she tried to stop him, and she then threw the chilli at him, police say. The matter will come before Central Local Court on May 14.
But he wasn't getting any sympathy from his father. If the allegations were true, his son got what he deserved, he told reporters outside the court. "Good on her," the father said of the actions of employee Joanna Petry-Tartnoski. "She should have squirted it in his eyes. I would have poured hot fat over his head."
Holmwood, 24, had his bail application denied in Waverley Local Court on Monday after being charged with assault with intent to rob the O'le Chargrill in Rosebery at about 6.15pm on Sunday. He was thwarted when Ms Petry-Tartnoski threw the chilli at him. Holmwood was found lying on the shop floor when police arrived and was treated for minor burns after the alleged incident. He was barefoot and puffy-eyed when court officers marched him into the dock wearing a police forensics jumpsuit.
"Tyrone, who is now sober, is shocked by the allegations," his solicitor Anthony Brookman told the court. "Alcohol is his problem." Police allege he ordered food before arguing with two staff members about the payment. He allegedly walked behind the counter and smashed a cash register onto the floor, forcing it open. Holmwood struck Ms Petry-Tartnoski across the chest when she tried to stop him, and she then threw the chilli at him, police say. The matter will come before Central Local Court on May 14.
Dad called to retrieve mouse found in pocket of suspected beer thief
A man attempting to steal beer is accused of throwing a 12-pack in a
worker's face and then hiding under some bushes with his pet mouse in
his pocket. It all started at around 5:45am last Thursday in the Cedar
Hills area of Washington County.
Deputies said John Jacobson, 20, of Portland, took a box of beer that was stacked outside the store as part of a delivery. The distributor saw Jacobson grab the beer and run behind the store. The worker confronted the suspect, who threw the beer in his face and took off.
The worker was not hurt. He ran onto the Nike campus near Beaverton. Additional deputies, along with a K-9 team, found him hiding in some bushes on Nike's property.
He was taken into custody and deputies said they found a live mouse in his pocket. Jacobson's father was then contacted to claim possession of the mouse before his son was taken to jail. Jacobson was then booked into the Washington County Jail on charges of robbery and theft, with bail set at $20,000.
Deputies said John Jacobson, 20, of Portland, took a box of beer that was stacked outside the store as part of a delivery. The distributor saw Jacobson grab the beer and run behind the store. The worker confronted the suspect, who threw the beer in his face and took off.
The worker was not hurt. He ran onto the Nike campus near Beaverton. Additional deputies, along with a K-9 team, found him hiding in some bushes on Nike's property.
He was taken into custody and deputies said they found a live mouse in his pocket. Jacobson's father was then contacted to claim possession of the mouse before his son was taken to jail. Jacobson was then booked into the Washington County Jail on charges of robbery and theft, with bail set at $20,000.
Man arrested after getting car stuck on rail tracks
A man was arrested after police found his red Volkswagen Bug stuck on
some railroad tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Police say Cabrone Deron
Brewer, 32, had been drinking and had an outstanding warrant for
transporting an open container.
A police officer found the car stuck on the tracks at about 11pm on Friday. The car had Texas plates, and the man behind the wheel had a New York driver's license.
Police say Brewer admitted he was driving the car. "Brewer had the strong odor of alcoholic beverage about his breath and body, red watery eyes, slightly slurred speech and was unsteady on his feet," the arrest report states.
After field sobriety tests, Brewer was arrested for actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence and the outstanding warrant. A wrecker was called in to pull the car off the tracks.
A police officer found the car stuck on the tracks at about 11pm on Friday. The car had Texas plates, and the man behind the wheel had a New York driver's license.
Police say Brewer admitted he was driving the car. "Brewer had the strong odor of alcoholic beverage about his breath and body, red watery eyes, slightly slurred speech and was unsteady on his feet," the arrest report states.
After field sobriety tests, Brewer was arrested for actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence and the outstanding warrant. A wrecker was called in to pull the car off the tracks.
Relief as no cars hit rock in road
A rock appeared on Illinois Road in Fort Wayne, Illinois last Tuesday
morning. At around 12:30am Fort Wayne police were called about the rock
in the eastbound lanes.
Police discovered what appeared to be drag marks for about a hundred yards behind the rock. They did not know if the boulder had been dragged, pushed or dropped.
A worker from the Fort Wayne Street Department arrived to help get the rock to safety and out of the way of drivers. The rock was pushed with the liftgate of the street worker's truck off to the side of the road.
The rock now waits to be claimed. The only signs of its previous life is dirt on the lower half - maybe a clue to a former life in a rock garden, or someone's landscaping decor. Fortunately, no cars appeared to have hit the rock before it was removed. The rock did not cause delays and was removed about twenty minutes after police were first notified.
Police discovered what appeared to be drag marks for about a hundred yards behind the rock. They did not know if the boulder had been dragged, pushed or dropped.
A worker from the Fort Wayne Street Department arrived to help get the rock to safety and out of the way of drivers. The rock was pushed with the liftgate of the street worker's truck off to the side of the road.
The rock now waits to be claimed. The only signs of its previous life is dirt on the lower half - maybe a clue to a former life in a rock garden, or someone's landscaping decor. Fortunately, no cars appeared to have hit the rock before it was removed. The rock did not cause delays and was removed about twenty minutes after police were first notified.
The 12 Longest Bridges In The World
Satellite to monitor Earth's forests
Satellite to monitor Earth's forests
A satellite that can "weigh" the Earth's forests has just been given the go ahead by the European Space Agency.
Volcano’s Heat Lights Up Satellite Sensors
Like a maw into the pits of hell, the Paluwej volcano in
Indonesia has caught even NASA’s attention. As the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia’s Flores Sea April 29,
it captured an [...]
Wikimedia Commons Picture Of The Year 2012
The 2012 winners of the Wikimedia Commons Picture Of The Year 2012
contest have been announced. The picture below, made by French
photographer Pierre Dalous, won first prize. The photo shows a pair of
European bee-eaters in Ariège, France. The female (to the left) awaits
the offering which the male will make.
Smuggled dinosaur bones returned to Mongolia
We're about to be overrun by billions of cicadas
Scientists even have a horror-movie name for the infestation: Brood II. But as ominous as that sounds, the insects are harmless. They won't hurt you or other animals. At worst, they might damage a few saplings or young shrubs. Mostly they will blanket certain pockets of the region, though lots of people won't ever see them.
"It's not like these hordes of cicadas suck blood or zombify people," says May Berenbaum, a University of Illinois entomologist.
They're looking for just one thing: sex. And they've been waiting quite a long time.
Since 1996, this group of 1-inch
bugs, in wingless nymph form, has been a few feet underground, sucking
on tree roots and biding their time. They will emerge only when the ground temperature
reaches precisely 64 degrees. After a few weeks up in the trees, they
will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until
2030.
"It's just an amazing accomplishment," Berenbaum says. "How can anyone not be impressed?"
And they will make a big racket,
too. The noise all the male cicadas make when they sing for sex can
drown out your own thoughts, and maybe even rival a rock concert. In
2004, Gene Kritsky, an entomologist
at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, measured cicadas at
94 decibels, saying it was so loud "you don't hear planes flying
overhead."
There are ordinary cicadas that come out every year around the world,
but these are different. They're called magicicadas — as in magic — and
are red-eyed. And these magicicadas are seen only in the eastern half
of the United States, nowhere else in the world.There are 15 U.S. broods that emerge every 13 or 17 years, so that nearly every year, some place is overrun. Last year it was a small area, mostly around the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. Next year, two places get hit: Iowa into Illinois and Missouri; and Louisiana and Mississippi. And it's possible to live in these locations and actually never see them.
This year's invasion, Brood II, is one of the bigger ones. Several experts say that they really don't have a handle on how many cicadas are lurking underground but that 30 billion seems like a good estimate. At the Smithsonian Institution, researcher Gary Hevel thinks it may be more like 1 trillion.
Even if it's merely 30 billion, if they were lined up head to tail, they'd reach the moon and back.
"There will be some places where it's wall-to-wall cicadas," says University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp.
Strength in numbers is the key to cicada survival: There are so many of them that the birds can't possibly eat them all, and those that are left over are free to multiply, Raupp says.
But why only every 13 or 17 years? Some scientists think they come out in these odd cycles so that predators can't match the timing and be waiting for them in huge numbers. Another theory is that the unusual cycles ensure that different broods don't compete with each other much.
And there's the mystery of just how these bugs know it's been 17 years and time to come out, not 15 or 16 years.
"These guys have evolved several mathematically clever tricks," Raupp says. "These guys are geniuses with little tiny brains."
Past cicada invasions have seen as many as 1.5 million bugs per acre. Of course, most places along the East Coast won't be so swamped, and some places, especially in cities, may see zero, says Chris Simon of the University of Connecticut. For example, Staten Island gets this brood of cicadas, but the rest of New York City and Long Island don't, she says. The cicadas also live beneath the metro areas of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
Scientists and ordinary people with a bug fetish travel to see them. Thomas Jefferson once wrote about an invasion of this very brood at Monticello, his home in Virginia.
While they stay underground, the bugs aren't asleep. As some of the world's longest-lived insects, they go through different growth stages and molt four times before ever getting to the surface. They feed on a tree fluid called xylem. Then they go aboveground, where they molt, leaving behind a crusty brown shell, and grow a half-inch bigger.
The timing of when they first come out depends purely on ground temperature. That means early May for southern areas and late May or even June for northern areas.
The males come out first — think of it as getting to the singles bar early, Raupp says. They come out first as nymphs, which are essentially wingless and silent juveniles, climb on to tree branches and molt one last time, becoming adult winged cicadas. They perch on tree branches and sing, individually or in a chorus. Then when a female comes close, the males change their song, they do a dance and mate, he explained.
The males keep mating ("That's what puts the 'cad' in 'cicada,'" Raupp jokes) and eventually the female lays 600 or so eggs on the tip of a branch. The offspring then dive-bomb out of the trees, bounce off the ground and eventually burrow into the earth, he says.
"It's a treacherous, precarious life," Raupp says. "But somehow they make it work."
What It's Like To Ship 3.2 Million Bees Across State Lines
There aren't enough honeybees in the wild to pollinate all the commercial crops these days, so John Kraus steps in as a migratory beekeeper. He sends hives of bees to agricultural areas that need them during each crop's pollination season. That means shipping hives in big trucks, two trucks at a time, for a total load of over three million bees!
It’s different at different times of year. When we ship them to California, we don’t leave home. We just hire somebody to unload them down there and put them on a ranch up towards the gate of Yosemite. Then we go down to California in January and we spend about three weeks there. We go through the hives, check them for queens, for strength, and then put them in the almond groves. And then we’re back home for five or six weeks depending on the season. It takes about a week to go down and gather them all together and ship them back north.Read more about the intricacy of shipping bees across country in an interview with Kraus at Modern Farmer.
After almonds, we go through again and move them into the soft fruit. That’s probably the worst move because we load them ourselves, beat feet and drive all night, and then unload. Load them up on a semi at dusk, drive 300 miles, and then unload them.
Mercury link to Arctic fox decline
Mercury link to Arctic fox decline
A dramatic decline in the number of Arctic foxes on one island is being linked to levels of mercury in their food.
Racehorse's Paintings Compared to Jackson Pollock
Art collectors are quickly snapping up paintings created by a former racing horse.
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