Why Plane Windows Don't Open

Air becomes so thin at 10,000 feet that airplane cabins must be pressurized above that altitude. Read more

Supersonic Skydive Attempt Delayed to Tuesday

Weather concerns have pushed back an Austrian daredevil's attempt to break the world record for highest-ever skydive by one day, to Tuesday (Oct. 9). Read more

BBC Science News

Atlantic cause for rainy summers

Recent warming in the Atlantic Ocean is the main cause of wet summers in northern Europe, according to a new study.

• Summer is 'wettest in 100 years'
• Why, oh why, does it keep raining?

Giant Eye in Space Seen by Telescopes

A pair of NASA space telescopes have captured a glowing celestial vision that resembles a giant cosmic eye. Read more

Awesome Pictures

For elephants, deciding to leave watering hole demands conversation

In the wilds of Africa, when it’s time for a family of elephants gathered at a watering hole to leave ...

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Mosquitoes Turn Midnight Snack into Breakfast

In places where malaria is rampant, a common defense is to sleep under a insecticide-laden mosquito net. The nocturnal mosquito of the genus Anopheles can't penetrate the netting, and will die from the insecticide if they try. But malaria rates did not plummet as expected. Did the bed nets fail? No, the mosquitoes changed -they stopped being strictly nocturnal and started feeding at dawn, after their human buffets got out of bed!

First, we don’t know yet if this was an evolutionary (i.e., genetic) change or a purely behavioral change. It is possible that there was quite a lot of genetic variation in timing of activity in the population a few years ago and that the bed nets provided a selective regimen that skewed the population to consist mainly of late night and dawn-active individuals. It is also possible that there is sufficient behavioral plasticity in the mosquito allowing it to learn the new best time of day to go out foraging. I’d love to see the mosquitoes placed in isolation chambers to monitor purely genetic patterns of circadian rhythms of activity.

If the change is genetic, meaning the circadian rhythm is inborn and the adaptive behavior is passed to future generations, malarial mosquitoes may be much harder to defend against. If this is a learned behavior, well, we have a ready-made horror movie plot. How scary are mosquitoes that can learn? More

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Right On!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Worclaw, Poland

Sampaloc, Philippines

Bangkok, Thailand

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Sidoarjo, Indonesia

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Cape Town, South Africa

Amman, Jordan

Kabul, Afghanistan

Ankara, Turkey

Hanoi, Vietnam

Makati, Philippines

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Pasig, Philippines

Jawa, Indonesia

Segamat, Malaysia

Manila, Philippines

Jakarta, Indonesia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Klang, Malaysia

San Juan, Philippines

Bogor, Indonesia

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Zamboanga, Philippines

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Warsaw, Poland

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Today in History

1571		In the last great clash of galleys, the Ottoman navy is defeated at Lepanto, Greece, by a Christian naval coalition under the overall command of Spain's Don Juan de Austria.
1765		Delegates from nine of the American colonies meet in New York to discuss the Stamp Act Crisis and colonial response to it.
1849		Edgar Allan Poe, aged 40, dies a tragic death in Baltimore. Never able to overcome his drinking habits, he was found in a delirious condition outside a saloon that was used as a voting place.
1870		French Minister of the Interior Leon Gambetta escapes besieged Paris by balloon, reaching the French provisional government in Tours.
1913		In attempting to find ways to lower the cost of the automobile and make it more affordable to ordinary Americans, Henry Ford took note of the work of efficiency experts like Frederick Taylor, the "father of scientific management." The result was the assembly line that reduced the time it took to manufacture a car, from 12 hours to 93 minutes.
1949		Iva Toguri D'Aquino, better known as Tokyo Rose, is sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason.
1957		A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spreads radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk. At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident.
1985		Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) hijackers seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel.

Non Sequitur

North Carolina: A political mix of old and new

 
North Carolina's population has nearly doubled since 1970, fueled by an economic expansion that brought an influx of Midwesterners, Northeasterners and nonwhites and turning the state from a repugican presidential stronghold into a battleground.

Among the new residents: Carol Fentiman, 66, a Chicago native who retired with her husband to the western Carolina mountains seven years ago from California and is a Democratic Party volunteer. And Piper Phillips, 18, a college student who moved here a year ago from Ohio and who will cast her first presidential ballot this year for Barack Obama.

To explain their upcoming votes, both cited women's health care and abortion rights, civil rights for gay Americans and equal pay for women.

"I'd like to be considered an equal citizen in this country," Fentiman said.

On the strength of young voters, African-Americans and urban voters — many of them born elsewhere — Obama won North Carolina in 2008 by 14,177 votes out of 4.3 million. He was the first Democrat to prevail here since Georgia's Jimmy Carter managed a Southern sweep in 1976. Democrats chose Charlotte for their 2012 nominating convention, and polls suggest another thin margin between the president and repugican challenger Mitt Romney.

Obama's win surprised many of the state's political players.
Advantages from a younger, less native, less white, more urban electorate weren't expected to level the field for Democrats so soon, but Obama employed an extensive ground game that, four years later, still operates more than 50 field offices. Those outposts use volunteers like Fentiman to register tens of thousands of new voters like Phillips.

"Obama sped up the clock," said Ferrel Guillory, a University of North Carolina expert on Southern politics. Guillory said the winning threshold for Democrats had been 40 percent of the white vote statewide. "Obama proved you could win with 36 or 37 percent," he said.

North Carolina's growth is due to economic diversification that distinguished the state from its Southern neighbors. An agrarian and manufacturing economy dominated by tobacco, furniture and textiles gave way to banking centers in Charlotte, myriad health care enterprises and the biomedical and technology firms in the Research Triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Much of it is connected to a network of well-regarded public and private universities.

Not all the newcomers are Democrats. Eastern coastal areas that attract some retirees have been reliably repugican in recent federal elections. Mid-career professionals span the spectrum. Independents compose the largest crop of new registrants.

Many native white North Carolinians like Greenville's Lebern Rouse Jr., meanwhile, have abandoned their old Democratic loyalties as a vestige of the once "Solid South." Rouse, 65, recalled that his father "always heard that Democrats were for the small, working man and repugicans were for richer people." But, he added: "As time went by I rejected that, and so did he."
What has emerged is a genuine swing state, even if one where long-standing inconsistencies and quirks are still at play.
For decades, as repugicans won the presidential vote, North Carolinians left Democrats in charge at the Statehouse. A state that chose notable progressive governors Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt sent the firebrand cwingnut Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate for 30 years.

"I guess we are just a bit schizophrenic," said Richard Vinroot, a repugican and former Charlotte mayor who lost a close governor's race to Democrat Mike Easley in 2000.

Now, as Obama brings Democratic advantages to a head at the top of the ticket, repugicans are engineering a down-ballot takeover. In 2010, the repugican cabal captured legislative majorities in both chambers for the first time since Reconstruction. Social neanderthals won a victory in May when voters easily approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Vinroot's successor in Charlotte, repugican Pat McCrory, is favored to win an open governor's seat in November. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue opted not to seek a second term. The party also is set to pick up as many as four congressional seats in Democratic districts that repugican legislators redrew to repugican advantage.

Gary Pearce, a Democrat who worked for Hunt, argued that North Carolina's fundamentals haven't necessarily changed. "There have always been what I call the two tribes," he said, referring to the "progressive tradition" anchored by the universities and cities and "the more lunatic, more racist strain" in the rural counties that propelled Helms. The difference, Pearce said, is that divisions have hardened.

Vinroot, the Charlotte repugican, agreed and said that reduces the pool of potential ticket splitters, voters that Vinroot described as resenting an active federal government but who "still wanted state government to do all those things."

Rufus Edmisten, a former Democratic attorney general and secretary of state, called it the "nationalization of North Carolina politics. There's just a clear distinction about which party is which, now. It's hard to find a self-described conservative who is a Democrat anymore."

Guillory, the UNC expert, said that means North Carolina elections, including Obama vs. Romney "will turn even more on the ground game, on getting your loyalists to the polls."

Did you know ...

About these 10 ideas for taking America back from the 1%

Here's 14 things the repugicans have blocked (with sources)

~

And here's Van Gogh's Starry Night made with pictures of real galaxies taken be the Hubble telescope. neat!

The truth be told

Data shows Big Bird was most rewatched moment of debate

Hollywood Reporter reports that Mitt Rommney’s promise to kill Big Bird was the most rewatched moment of the entire  debate, according to TiVo viewers.

Via Salon.com

The repugican candidate’s promise to cut off taxpayer money to PBS was rewound and rewatched more than any other in Wednesday’s telecast.

When repugican candidate Mitt Romney said he would yank taxpayer money from PBS, even though he loves Big Bird, more TiVo users rewound and rewatched that moment than any other in the debate.

Why does this matter? Because the “zinger” Romney was hoping all of America would remember from the presidential debates was not that he was planning on murdering your children’s best friend.
By being dumb enough to bring up funding for public broadcasting, let alone naming Big Bird by name, Mitt Romney risks a reversal of whatever gains he got by “winning” the debate.
I’m not even entirely sure if you can call Romney’s win a win anymore.
Ask anyone who saw the debate to name a moment from it – they’re all going to say Big Bird.  I’d honestly have to think hard to remember a second moment.  Okay, Obama’s anniversary.  But Big Bird is going to be the first thing that pop’s into anyone’s head, even those who didn’t see the debate.
Now ask people to name something memorable that Obama said.  Again, other than the anniversary, I’m not sure I can come up with anything off the top of my head.
So your Romney memory is negative, and your Obama memory is neutral.
What effect is all of this going to have on the polls?  At the very least you’d expect it to color people’s takeaway from the debate.  To the extent that Romney was expecting a debate-bump in the polls, he might get less of it now that the death of Big Bird is the defining moment of the debate, and it’s what people are going to think of when asked about the debate in the future.
It’s looking more and more like President Obama’s comatose performance may not have been such a bad strategy after all.

Santorum: Maybe Romney wants to eat Big Bird

With friends like these.

Rick Santorum says maybe Romney wanted to eat Big Bird

“I’ve voted to kill Big Bird in the past,” [Santorum] said when asked about his position on the issue. “So, I have a record there that I have to disclose. That doesn’t mean I don’t like Big Bird. I mean, you can kill things and still like them, maybe to eat them, I don’t know.”Santorum, who fell short in his presidential primary bid against Republican nominee Mitt Romney earlier this year, appeared to recognize that his choice of words could ruffle some feathers. After asking, “Can we go back on that one?” he quipped, “That’s a bad youtube moment right there.”

Too late.
Keep in mind that Mitt Romney said he liked Big Bird but would kill him anyway.  That’s what Santorum was responding to, that’s why he gave an example of how someone could like Big Bird but kill him anyway.  To eat him.

Some 68,000 Texans no longer have to prove they're not dead in order to vote

68,000 Texans will no longer have to prove that they aren't dead in order to vote in the next election. The state of Texas has settled a suit brought on behalf of 68,000 "potentially deceased" Texas voters who shared a birthdate and a partial Social Security match with a person appearing on a federal death register. These people will now be able to vote, unless Texas can prove they're dead. Another 12,000 voters will still have to prove that they're not dead before casting a ballot. More from Lowering the Bar:

Under the previous rules, voters were identified as "potentially deceased" if there was at least a "weak match" (such as a birth date plus a partial Social Security number) between their information and the federal death records the state was consulting. The weakly matched dead made up 68,000 of the 80,000 people who received a letter from voting officials telling them they would be removed from the rolls if they didn't speak up. Under the settlement, the burden shifts to officials to prove those people are really dead; the remainder ("strong matches"), who are much more likely to be dead, will still have to prove otherwise if they can.
"Today's order [approving the settlement] is another step toward improving the integrity of the election system," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who had unsuccessfully tried to defend the state's original plan. I think it's actually the same step, but 85% smaller.

Texas Settles With Previously Dead Voters

Random Celebrity Photo

Do Card-Carrying Communists Really Carry Cards?

Yeah, that's pretty much a question you known the answer to: no, and not many of them ever did. But the cliche came from somewhere, and Slate explains.

Before Communists, the first “card-carrying” groups tended to be members of labor unions, and often members used the cards openly to claim union jobs. Perhaps the earliest  mention of “card-carrying” union members came in a 1912 Daily People article, which described how “ ‘Union-card’ carrying members” of certain labor unions were occasionally able to get elected to Congress. A 1918 New York Tribune article described members of the Industrial Workers of the World as “red-card-carrying ‘wobblies,’ ” referring to the members by their popular nickname and red membership cards. In 1927, all “card-carrying members” of the secret organization United Farmers reportedly received discounts from local merchants.

Read the rest of the article to learn how the phrase became linked to Communists of the Red Scare. More

Abu Hamza extradited to US after UK ruling

 

Radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and four other terror suspects who fought for years to avoid facing charges in the United States lost their grounds for appeal and were flown to the U.S. from Britain late Friday, officials said.

The U.S. Embassy said it was pleased with the ruling earlier Friday by Britain's High Court, and Scotland Yard said the five departed from an air force base in eastern England just before midnight on two jets bound for the U.S.

Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ouseley rejected last-ditch applications by al-Masri, Khaled al-Fawwaz, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdul Bary and Syed Talha Ahsan, who had been battling extradition for between eight and 14 years.

Thomas said there were no grounds for any further delay, noting that it was "in the interest of justice that those accused of very serious crimes, as each of these claimants is in these proceedings, are tried as quickly as possible as is consistent with the interests of justice."
"It follows that their extradition to the United States of America may proceed immediately," the judge said.
The five have sought to avoid extradition by raising concerns about human rights and the conditions they would face in a U.S. prison. Both British and European courts have ruled that they can be sent to the U.S. to face charges, but they sought last-minute injunctions from the High Court.
The suspects face a variety of charges stretching back several years.
The best known of the defendants is al-Masri, an Egyptian-born former nightclub bouncer who turned London's Finsbury Park Mosque into a training ground for radical Islamists during the 1990s. The mosque was once attended by Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.

Al-Masri is wanted in the U.S. on charges that include conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.

Ahmad and Ahsan faces charges in Connecticut relating to websites that allegedly sought to raise cash, recruit fighters and seek equipment for terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Bary and al-Fawwaz were indicted with others, including Osama bin Laden, for their alleged roles in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998. Al-Fawwaz faces more than 269 counts of murder.
Al-Masri has been in a British jail since 2004 on separate charges of inciting racial hatred and encouraging followers to kill non-Muslims.
Lawyers for the 54-year-old preacher, who has one eye and hooks in place of hands he claims to have lost fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, argued in court that his deteriorating physical and mental health meant it would be "oppressive" to send him to a U.S. prison. They said he suffers from depression, chronic sleep deprivation, diabetes and other ailments.
The judges said his conditions could be treated in the U.S., and concluded that "there is nothing to suggest that extradition in this case would be unjust or oppressive."
Before Friday's ruling, a small group of Islamist protesters gathered outside the court to denounce the planned extraditions. A few scuffled briefly with police and one seized a placard reading "Sling His Hook" from a demonstrator expressing the opposite view.
While al-Masri has been portrayed in the British media as one of the most dangerous men in the country, the case of Babar Ahmad has raised concerns among legal experts and human rights advocates.
Ahmad, a London computer expert, is accused in the U.S. of running terrorist-funding websites. He and Ahsan both face charges including using a website to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.
Ahmad and Ahsan could be in court in Connecticut, where an Internet service provider was allegedly used to host one of the websites, on Saturday if they are extradited as planned from Britain.
A hearing was scheduled for Ahmad and Ahsan in U.S. District Court in New Haven on Saturday morning, U.S. Marshal Joseph Faughnan said Friday.
Some lawyers and lawmakers have expressed concerns about the case, because Britain agreed to extradite him even though his alleged crimes were committed in Britain and British courts declined to prosecute him for lack of evidence.
In prison since 2004, Ahmad has been held without charge for the longest period of any British citizen detained since the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a statement read on his behalf outside court, Ahmad said his case had exposed flaws in U.S.-U.K. extradition arrangements. "I leave with my head held high, having won the moral victory," he said.

His father, Ashfaq Ahmad, said he would continue to fight for his son.

"It's not just one Babar Ahmad. Tomorrow there will be another Babar Ahmad and another one," he said.

Congressman calls evolution lie from 'pit of hell'

 

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in videotaped remarks that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell" meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.

The repugican lawmaker made those comments during a speech Sept. 27 at a sportsman's banquet at Liberty Baptist Cult in Hartwell. Broun, a medical doctor, is running for re-election in November unopposed by Democrats.

"God's word is true," Broun said, according to a video posted on the church's website. "I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

Broun also said that he believes the Earth is about 9,000 years old and that it was made in six days. Those beliefs are held by fundamentalist christians who believe the creation accounts in the bible to be literally true.

Broun spokeswoman Meredith Griffanti told the Athens Banner-Herald that Broun was recorded speaking off-the-record to a cult group about his religious beliefs. He sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

It seems unlikely that Broun's remarks were supposed to be kept private. The banquet was advertised, Broun spoke before an audience and the video of his remarks was posted on the cult's website.

***

What an idiot!

Einstein's Letter Questioning God Goes Up for Auction

The private letter expressing his views on god and religion will go up for auction Monday on eBay. Read more

Shoe

Cell Phones Toxic to Humans and Earth

Most cell phones contain at least one of the toxic elements: lead, bromine, chlorine, mercury or cadmium. Read more

The Classics

1934 Packard Pheaton

Vitamins C and D (Still) Don't Prevent Colds

Skip the vitamins, suggests research -- just drink your juice.  
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Obese Can Be Metabolically Healthy and In Good Shape

A person can be obese and metabolically healthy at the same time, which means that this person will have the ...

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Body uses electricity in biological clock

Biologists from New York University have uncovered new ways our biological clock’s neurons use electrical activity to help keep behavioral ...

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Random Photo

The Original Recipe for Jack Daniel's Whiskey Found in Old Welsh Book of Home Remedies

The origins of the whiskey from Lynchburg, Tennessee are a mystery. But a Briton named Mark Evans thinks that he may have found the original recipe for it in an old book passed down in his family:

It was written in 1853 by his great-great grandmother who was called Daniels and was a local herbalist in Llanelli, South Wales.

Her brother-in-law left the Welsh town at about the same time to move to Lynchburg Tennessee where the Jack Daniel's distillery was opened three years later.

And the Jack Daniel's website states the founder of the distillery was from Wales. [...]
The history of Jack Daniel's is a mystery because the distillery's early records were destroyed in a courthouse fire
A spokesman for the company said: "We know our founder was from Wales - we would love to see the book and the recipe."

More

Tomb of Mayan Queen Found

The tomb found in a Guatemalan rainforest appears to belong to the seventh-century warrior queen Lady K'abel. Read more

Human Carbon Pollution Traced to Roman Times

By burning wood, humans have been significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions as far back as the Roman Empire. Read more

Bubbling Up: Ancient Carbon Resurfacing in Lakes

A new study reveals that a significant amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from lakes and rivers in Southern ...

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Worlds Within Worlds

Incredible Nano Images Invisible to the Naked Eye

View the Gallery

Everyday objects, plants and insects take on bizarre and beautiful shapes when viewed up close. Check out this amazing collection of nanoscale images. More

Seven Legendary Monsters Of South America

It should be no surprise that a continent with extremely high mountains, extensive waterways, and dense rainforests filled with undiscovered species would have many legends of monsters. These legends are often known in more than one nation, with different names for the monsters. Here's a brief overview of some of South America's monsters.

Extraordinary Wooly Mammoth Discovered by 11-Year-Old Was Likely Killed by Humans

The 30,000-year-old body of a wooly mammoth recently uncovered by Jenya, an 11-year-old Russian boy, is the most well-preserved remains of the species discovered in at least 100 years.

The mammoth had died at the tender young age of 16 after growing to be a sturdy six-and-a-half feet tall. The poor guy was missing a tusk, too, which scientists say probably contributed to his down fall. (The lack of tusk meant that it would’ve been hard for the young mammoth to defend itself against predators.) Some splits on the remaining tusk are indicative of human contact, leading the researchers to believe that it was indeed an Ice Age man who killed the mammoth some 20,000-30,000 years ago.

For more about Jenya's discovery and other recently recovered mammoths, check out the rest on Motherboard.

The 11-year-old found the best preserved wooly mammoth in more than a century.  
Read more

Vegetarian Dinosaurs Were Champion Chompers

The plants these dinos fed on were tough and covered with hard grit.  
Read more

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

That's about it ...

Some of our readers today have been in:

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Cape Town, South Africa

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Lima, Peru

Chiriqui, Panama

Kabul, Afghanistan

Johannesburg, South Africa

Makati, Philippines

Islamabad, Pakistan

Ankara, Turkey

Manila, Philippines

Amman, Jordan

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sidoarjo, Indonesia

And the city of Wayzata here in the United States 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1014		The Byzantine Emperor Basil earns the title "Slayer of Bulgers" after he orders the blinding of 15,000 Bulgerian troops.
1536		William Tyndale, the English translator of the New Testament, is strangled and burned at the stake for heresy at Vilvorde, France.
1696		Savoy Germany withdraws from the Grand Alliance.
1788		The Polish Diet decides to hold a four year session.
1801		Napoleon Bonaparte imposes a new constitution on Holland.
1847		Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is published in London.
1866		The Reno brothers–Frank, John, Simeon and William–commit the country's first train robbery near Seymore, Indiana netting $10,000.
1927		The first "talkie," The Jazz Singer, opens with popular entertainer Al Jolson singing and dancing in black-face. By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.
1941		German troops renew their offensive against Moscow.
1965		Patricia Harris takes post as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, becoming the first African American U.S. ambassador.
1966		Hanoi insists the United States must end its bombings before peace talks can begin.
1969		Special Forces Captain John McCarthy is released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal to murder charges.
1973		Israel is taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
1981		Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.

BBC Science News

• Relative of 'killer shrimp' found

Why We Need Insects–Even Pesky Ones

At first blush, many people would probably love to get rid of insects, such as pesky mosquitoes, ants and roaches.

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Upset dog broke out to visit owner in hospital

Zander the husky was so upset when his owner was hospitalized that the dog tracked him down and paid him a visit. John Dolan was taken to hospital last week. His wife says Zander took it hard. She says the dog sulked and even cried.

Then Zander, seemingly decided he had to be by his owner's bedside. Zander broke out of his Bay Shore, New York, home and made his way to the Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center more than 2 miles away. He had to cross a busy four-lane road to get there.

A hospital employee found the dog on the street outside of building where Dolan was being treated. The Dolans got the 7-year-old husky from a shelter and nursed him back from starvation five years ago. Dolan says the dog has been like a son ever since.

YouTube link.

The couple believe Zander traced John's scent to the hospital. A few days later Zander tried a second visit. He was found on his walk there. The Dolans say this proves shelter dogs can be fantastic dogs and care for their owners as well as the owners care for the dogs.

There's an additional news video here.

Can Fido Catch Your Flu?

With the flu season ready to hit its usual peak in November, health experts are growing increasingly concerned about people passing illnesses on to their pets. Read more

M&M-eating bees produce multicolored honey

Beekeepers in north eastern France have been alarmed to find their bees producing honey in unnatural shades of green and blue. The beekeepers believe the source of the problem is a biogas plant close to Ribeauville in Alsace.

It is thought the bees have been eating the sugary waste from M&Ms, small chocolates in brightly-colored shells. The plant operator said it regretted the situation and had put in place a procedure to stop it happening again.

"We discovered the problem at the same time [the beekeepers] did. We quickly put in place a procedure to stop it," Philippe Meinrad, a spokesman from Agrivalor, the company operating the biogas plant said.

YouTube link. Also.

The company, which deals with waste from a Mars chocolate factory , said it would clean out the containers, store all incoming waste in airtight containers and process it promptly. As for the honey, the beekeepers say it is unsellable.

Watch Out Urbanites, Here Come the Carnivores

Predators like coyotes, mountain lions and bears are adapting to urban living.  
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Birds-of-Paradise Evolved in Lost Worlds

All 39 known birds of paradise from Papua New Guinea have been documented in a new book. Explore their brilliance. Read more

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