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Today in History

537 
The Goths lay siege to Rome.
1649
The peace of Rueil is signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.
1665
A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.
1702
The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper is published.
1810
The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise.
1811
Ned Ludd leads a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization.
1824
The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker becomes the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
1845
Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burn the small town of Kororareka in protest at the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, in breach with the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
1861
A Confederate Convention is held in Montgomery, Ala., where the new constitution is adopted.
1863
Union troops under General Ulysess S. Grant give up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.
1865
Union General William Sherman and his forces occupy Fayetteville, N.C.
1888
A disastrous blizzard hits the northeastern United States. Some 400 people die, mainly from exposure.
1900
British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects the peace overtures offered from Boer leader Paul Kruger.
1905
The Parisian subway is officially inaugurated.
1907
President Teddy Roosevelt induces California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1930
President Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
1935
The German Air Force becomes an official organ of the Reich.
1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the Lend-Lease Act which authorizes the act of giving war supplies to the Allies.
1942
General Douglas MacArthur leaves Bataan for Australia.
1965
The American navy begins inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling to the South.
1966
Three men are convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.
1969 
Levi-Strauss starts to sell bell-bottomed jeans.
1973
An FBI agent is shot at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
1985
Mikhail Gorbachev is named the new Soviet leader.
1990 
Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Girl in Wheelchair Wants to Score a Hockey Goal - Hockey Player Makes It Happen

Duncan Keith plays for the Chicago Blackhawks, a hockey team. His biggest fan is Cammy Babiarz, who is 5 years old. She can't walk or speak because she was born with Rhett syndrome.
The Blackhawks have a social media campaign called #WhatsYourGoal. It encourages people to share their personal goals in all dimensions of life. Cammy had one: she wanted to score a hockey goal. Her favorite player helped her do just that.

(Video Link)

Cammy's parents placed ice skates on her, then strapped her to Keith's body. Keith took her out on the ice and helped her slap a shot into a goal.

Random Celebrity Photos

Marilyn Monroe

Gun collector killed after accidentally shooting himself with a cannon

A man from Northland, New Zealand, who accidentally shot himself with a cannon was a trained firearms instructor who had been around weapons all his life. Derek Allan Kelly, 74, a gun collector from near Dargaville, was killed on Sunday afternoon by what police described as a small, single-shot cannon.

Police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said Kelly was killed when he attempted to move the cannon from the back of his pick-up and it accidentally discharged. Kelly died at the scene in front of his wife who was "very distressed". Kennett said the barrel of the cannon was about 40mm in diameter. Police were still investigating the circumstances and couldn't reveal more because the matter was with the coroner, she said.
Barry Shine, a friend of Kelly's for 20 years, described him as an "upstanding citizen". "You'd go a long way to find as nice a guy as Derek," he said. "It's an absolute tragedy, and my thoughts are with his wife and family." Kelly was a trained firearms instructor, who was heavily involved with the local community, Shine said. "He's been around firearms all his life."
Kelly was a member of the New Zealand Antique & Historical Arms Association, and proficient with pistols and bolt-action rifles. Shine could not recall Kelly using or having any cannon-type weapons. Another friend, Neil Black, described Kelly as "a great guy". "He had a big collection of firearms - all sorts of things." Black was not familiar with the cannon involved in Kelly's death, but said: "There are groups that build these sorts of things, they're perfectly legal."

Woman cut into 9-month-old baby’s throat with power saw to stop her crying

The Chicago Tribune reported that police found the child at a home on Chicago’s West Side at around 9:40 a.m. on Monday.

More

Man arrested for assaulting his brother with Jesus license plate

State police in Pennsylvania say a metal vanity license plate reading "Jesus" was used as a weapon in a fight between two brothers in Springhill Township.

Police said James Edward Wiles, 45, of Point Marion was charged with simple assault and harassment.
Wiles allegedly threw the state license plate at his 47-year-old brother, name not provided, during a domestic dispute at a residence on Fallen Timbers Road.
Wiles' brother sustained a severe laceration and bleeding, so he needed treatment by Point Marion EMS at the scene, police said. Wiles was arraigned by Magisterial District Court Judge Randy Abraham, who set bond at $25,000.

Athletic club hopes to reunite prosthetic eye with its owner

A customer was walking out of the Memorial Athletic Club in Houston, Texas, recently when something on the ground caught his eye. The man who found it turned it in to lost and found at Memorial Athletic Club, thinking someone was missing a ring or necklace. "Didn't even look to see what it was.

Controlling mothers ...

Controlling mothers add to anxiety risk for young children

Researchers have found a strong link between maternal intrusiveness and child anxiety in young children from low-income families. A team of psychologists found first graders from low-income families are susceptible […]

Reverse Heart Failure

Antidepressant could reverse heart failure

Paxil, a commonly prescribed antidepressant, restored heart function in mice with heart failure. That finding by a team led by researchers at the Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) could […]

Cognitive Skills

The rise and fall of cognitive skills

Scientists have long known that our ability to think quickly and recall information, also known as fluid intelligence, peaks around age 20 and then begins a slow decline. However, more […]

Random Photos

Cary Grant from Alice in Wonderland, 1933.

Spelunkers Unearth More Rare Objects in Israeli Cave

A month after the discovery of the largest cache of ancient coins ever hauled from the Mediterranean, spelunkers have unearthed another treasure trove of rare coins, silver and bronze objects in a cave in northern Israel.

Three members of the Israeli Caving Club, Reuven Zakai, Chen Zakai and a Lior Haloney recently lowered themselves into a well-hidden stalactite cave, wriggled through a narrow passageway and happened upon the shiny objects.

A handful of coins, rings, bracelets and earrings were all discovered together inside a cloth pouch dating back some 2,300 years ago.

Archaeologists say the coins were likely minted during the reign of Alexander the Great, and the artifacts first date to the Chalcolithic period about 6,000 years ago; from the Early Bronze Age roughly 5,000 years ago, the Biblical period 3,000 years ago and the Hellenistic period approximately 2,300 years ago.

“The valuables might have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled there during the period of governmental unrest stemming from the death of Alexander, a time when the Wars of the Diadochi broke out in Israel between Alexander’s heirs following his death,” according to archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority. "Presumably the cache was hidden in the hope of better days, but today we know that whoever buried the treasure never returned to collect it."

Working off this discovery, archaeologists and geologists will be able to accurately date both the archaeological finds and the process of stalactite development, according to the Authority’s statement.

Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery in the Israel Antiquities Authority, thanked the cavers for their “exemplary civic behavior," praising the "citizens' awareness." Following last month’s discovery by civilian scuba divers, Ganor welcomes this "important trend."

Descendants

Millions of modern men found to be descendants of 11 Asian dynastic leaders, including Genghis Khan

Geneticists from the University of Leicester have discovered that millions of modern Asian men are descended from 11 powerful dynastic leaders who lived up to 4,000 years ago – including […]

Ancient Stone Tool Brings New Ideas About Early Americans

by Jacqueline Howard

An ancient stone tool recently discovered in the high desert of southeast Oregon has archaeologists raising their eyebrows.
The tool, a hand-held scraper chipped from a piece of agate, was unearthed from beneath a layer of volcanic ash near the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter outside Riley, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced on Thursday. Archaeologists have linked the ash to a major eruption from Mount St. Helens that occurred about 15,800 years ago.
“When we had the volcanic ash identified, we were stunned because that would make this stone tool one of the oldest artifacts in North America," Dr. Patrick O’Grady, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon and the leader of the excavation, said in a written statement. "Given those circumstances and the laws of stratigraphy, this object should be older than the ash.”

The scraper was found at an ancient rock shelter in the high desert of eastern Oregon. It could turn out to be older than any known site of human occupation in western North America.

The new finding may rewrite the story of early human migrations, as it was once previously thought that the first humans in the western hemisphere arrived about 13,500 years ago.
“For years, many in the archaeological field assumed that the first humans in the western hemisphere were the Clovis people – dating to around 13,000 years ago. While a handful of archaeological sites older than Clovis cultures have been discovered in the past few decades, there is still considerable scrutiny of any finding that appears older,” Stan McDonald, the bureau's Oregon/Washington lead archaeologist, said in the statement.
If humans arrived more than 15,800 years ago, as the stone tool suggests, it would place humans in America's West around the end of the Pleistocene era, when mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses, and bison roamed the region, the Associated Press reported. But some scientists remain skeptical.
"No one is going to believe this until it is shown there was no break in that ash layer, that the artifact could not have worked its way down from higher up, and until it is published in a convincing way," Donald K. Grayson, professor of archaeology at the University of Washington, who was not involved in the excavation, said. "Until then, extreme skepticism is all they are going to get."
Archaeologists plan to continue excavations at the Oregon site this summer, O'Grady said in the statement, adding "that’s the next step."

Extinct human species had diverse body structures

1.9 million-year-old pelvis and femur bone fossils of an early human.

Recently released research on human evolution has revealed that species of early human ancestors had significant differences in facial features. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found that these early human species also differed throughout other parts of their skeletons and had distinct body forms.

The research team found 1.9 million-year-old pelvis and femur fossils of an early human ancestor in Kenya, revealing greater diversity in the human family tree than scientists previously thought.
Experimenting with physical traits
“What these new fossils are telling us is that the early species of our genus, Homo, were more distinctive than we thought. They differed not only in their faces and jaws, but in the rest of their bodies too,” said Carol Ward, a professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the MU School of Medicine. “The old depiction of linear evolution from ape to human with single steps in between is proving to be inaccurate. We are finding that evolution seemed to be experimenting with different human physical traits in different species before ending up with Homo sapiens.”

Three early species belonging to the genus Homo have been identified prior to modern humans, or Homo sapiens. Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis were the earliest versions, followed by Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens. Because the oldest erectus fossils that have been found are only 1.8 million years old, and have different bone structure than the new fossil, Ward and her research team conclude that the fossils they have discovered are either rudolfensis or habilis. Ward says these fossils show a diversity in the physical structures of human ancestors that has not been seen before.
Coexisted for about a million years
“This new specimen has a hip joint like all other Homo species, but it also has a thinner pelvis and thighbone compared to Homo erectus,” Ward said. “This doesn’t necessarily mean that these early human ancestors moved or lived differently, but it does suggest that they were a distinct species that could have been identified not just from looking at their faces and jaws, but by seeing their body shapes as well. Our new fossils, along with the other new specimens reported over the past few weeks, tell us that the evolution of our genus goes back much earlier than we thought, and that many species and types of early humans coexisted for about a million years before our ancestors became the only Homo species left.”
A small piece of the fossil femur was first discovered in 1980 at the Koobi Fora site in Kenya. Project co-investigator Meave Leakey returned to the site with her team in 2009 and uncovered the rest of the same femur and matching pelvis, proving that both fossils belonged to the same individual 1.9 million years ago.
This study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Conservation Paradise

Half of Suriname Now a Conservation Paradise: Photos

The indigenous people of Suriname have taken unprecedented action to conserve the forests, headwaters and animals of the small South American country.

Big Digs

A $50 Billion Canal and 6 Other Big Digs: Photos

The controversy over construction of Nicaragua's Interoceanic Grand Canal makes it a good time to look at the some of the biggest man-made waterways on the planet.

Earth Shots

Earth Shots: Must-See Planet Pics

A massive mitten is spotted in the Arctic, a winter storm covers much of the United States and a stunning ice cave in Alaska is captured just before it disappeared.

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born: Galactic ‘Rain’ Could be Key to Star Formation

Some of the galaxies in our universe are veritable star nurseries. For example, our own Milky Way produces, on average, at least one new star every year. Others went barren […]

Good Question ...

Sex and Insecurity

Male beetles that have more sex are more insecure

Males that mate more often are more insecure about their social status than those mating less, according to new research on the behaviour of burying beetles. The study, published in […]

Endangered Species Watch

Endangered Species Watch: Giant Pandas

With just 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild, the iconic creature needs all the help it can get from conservation efforts.

Jaws of life used to free dog that got itself stuck between two heavy metal storage containers

A dog that got wedged between two large storage containers while playing with children on an elementary school playground in Oceanside, California, was rescued by firefighters on Sunday who used the "jaws of life" to move the heavy steel boxes.

Someone called emergency crews around noon to report that the 12-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Spike had wedged himself between the containers at South Oceanside Elementary School, said Oceanside Fire Battalion Chief Pete Lawrence.
At first, crews from the Carlsbad Fire Department went to the school but they were unable to move the heavy containers so they summoned a ladder truck from Oceanside Fire Department.
Firefighters were able to move the containers about six inches, providing enough room for the dog to free himself, Lawrence said. After turning off their equipment, Spike's owners were able to coax the dog to safety.

Giant P.E.I. great white shark just a ‘teenager’

New research suggests that legendary white shark–at 17-plus feet one of the largest ever measured–was only 20 years old and 'still had a lot of growing to do'

Famous P.E.I. Great white shark after its capture in 1983; photo via Canadian Shark Research Lab

A great white shark caught off Canada’s Prince Edward Island in 1983 was listed as one of the world’s five most legendary sharks last summer by the Discovery Channel. At 17-plus feet it was and remains one of the largest white sharks ever measured.
“It was a pretty huge monster to see, and a great collection of teeth,” Doug Fraser, a fisherman who was present during the catch, told CBC. “The girth of it was probably over six feet.”

Now new research suggests that the famous P.E.I shark, a female that was hauled up dead in a net by David McKendrick, was not even an adult, but a “teenager” with plenty of growing years ahead.
The revelation comes after the discovery of new methods used to determine the age and maturity of sharks: radiocarbon analysis, or looking for radioactivity exposure caused by nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s.

The new research suggests that white sharks grow more slowly than previously thought, and do not mature until about the age of 30.
A skeletal study of the P.E.I shark, one of a very small number of large great whites ever caught or spotted off Canada’s Maritime Province, determined its age to be about 20 years old.
“It’s a teenager in shark years,” Steven Campana, who runs the Canadian Shark Research Lab in Nova Scotia, told CBC. “If it would have lived longer, it would have gotten a lot bigger…. It was a big shark, but it still had a lot of growing to do.”

P.E.I. great white shark being hauled away in a dump truck; photo via Canadian Shark Research Lab

The P.E.I shark was buried in a gravel pit, but later recovered so its skeleton could be collected for science.

Two white sharks whites might have been larger. A great white caught off Cuba in 1945 was said to measure 21 feet and weigh 7,000 pounds, and a great white caught off Malta in 1987 was said to measure 23 feet. (Most adult white sharks measure to about 16 feet.)
Both of those measurements, however, have fallen under scrutiny and might have been exaggerated

Sheep, Brains and Water

Sheep Use Their Brains to Save Water

Sheep can reduce water loss by using a heat exchange system in their brain to cool down their blood.

Dogs and Thyroid Cancer

Dog Sniffs Out Thyroid Cancer in Human Urine

A trained scent dog accurately identified whether patients' urine samples had thyroid cancer or were benign 88.2 percent of the time.

Bred in Captivity

New Poison Dart Frog Bred in Captivity for First Time

The newly described amphibian from Panama makes the leap from petri dish to full-fledged frog.

Animal Pictures