Endeavour leaves Houston for new home in Calif.

HOUSTON (AP) -- Space shuttle Endeavour has departed Houston on its trek west to retirement in a Los Angeles museum.Endeavour, atop a modified jumbo jet, left Thursday morning after a one-day stop at the home of NASA's Mission Control.The retired shuttle took off Wednesday from its old home in Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It continues its journey to Los Angeles International Airport, where it's scheduled to land Friday. In mid-October, Endeavour will be transported down city streets to the California Science Center.This is the last flight for a space shuttle.The plane transporting the Endeavor will do a flyover of Tucson, Ariz., along the way to honor former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.Houston's bid for one of the retired shuttles was rejected, and it has instead received a replica.

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI 20 Sep, 2012

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05.22 | 0 komentar | Read More

AP Exclusive: Unique tombs found in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Archeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said Thursday.National Museum official Eusebio Dizon said the village on Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, could be at least 1,000 years old based on U.S. carbon dating tests done on a human tooth found in one of 15 limestone graves he and other archeologists have dug out since last year.The discovery of the rectangular tombs, which were carved into limestone outcrops jutting from the forest ground, is important because it is the first indication that Filipinos at that time practiced a more advanced burial ritual than previously thought and that they used metal tools to carve the coffins.Past archaeological discoveries have shown Filipinos of that era used wooden coffins in the country's mountainous north and earthen coffins and jars elsewhere, according to Dizon, who has done extensive archaeological work in the Philippines and several other countries over the past 35 years.Aside from the tombs, archeologists have found thousands of shards of earthen jars, metal objects and bone fragments of humans, monkeys, wild pigs and other animals in the tombs. The limestone outcrops had round holes where wooden posts of houses or sheds may have once stood, Dizon told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.The tombs were similar to ancient sarcophagus, which have become popular tourist attractions in Egypt and Europe, although the ones found in Mulanay were simple box-like limestone coffins without mythological or elaborate human images on the tops and sides.Archeologists have only worked on a small portion of a five-hectare (12-acre) forest area, where Mulanay officials said more artifacts and limestone coffins could be buried.A preliminary National Museum report said its top archeologists found "a complex archaeological site with both habitation and burial remains from the period of approximately 10th to the 14th century ... the first of its kind in the Philippines having carved limestone tombs."The discovery has been welcomed with excitement in Mulanay, a sleepy coastal town of 50,000 people in an impoverished mountainous region that until recently was best known as a major battleground between army troops and Marxist rebels."Before, if you mention this region, people will say `Oh, that's NPA country,'" Mulanay Mayor Joselito Ojeda said, referring to the New People's Army rebels. "But that era is past and now we can erase that image and this archaeological site will be a big help."Mulanay tourism officer Sanny Cortez said that after archeologists have finished their work in a few years, his town plans to turn Mount Kamhantik's peak into an archaeological and eco-tourism park. A museum would also be built nearby.The archaeological site is part of 280 hectares (692 acres) of forest land that was declared a government-protected area in 1998 to keep away treasure hunters and slash-and-burn farmers. Treasure hunters looking for gold exposed some of the limestone tombs years ago, but it was only last year that Manila-based archeologists were notified and started to unearth more graves and artifacts and began to understand the significance of the find.

By JIM GOMEZ 20 Sep, 2012

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03.22 | 0 komentar | Read More

UK lawmakers seek moratorium on Arctic drilling

LONDON (AP) -- International governments should seek a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic amid concern an oil spill in the region could cause catastrophic environmental damage, British lawmakers said Thursday.The Environmental Audit Committee of Britain's House of Commons urged action to halt oil and gas drilling in the Arctic until new safeguards - including vastly increased financial guarantees and universal standards on disaster response - are put in place.Legislators on the panel also called for an internationally recognized nature sanctuary to be created to protect at least part of the Arctic from energy exploration.Caroline Lucas, a member of the committee and the only Green Party lawmaker at Britain's Parliament, said the panel's findings came as "the race to carve up the Arctic is accelerating faster than our regulatory or technical capacity to manage it.""The Arctic oil rush is bringing unprecedented risks to the area, and it's now clear that the consequences of any potential oil spill would be catastrophic," she said.Recommendations by the panel are not binding on Britain's government, and in response the country's foreign ministry said only that it would consider the proposals.Experts warned the panel that any blowout in the Arctic at the end of the summer drilling season could be disastrous, as the returning winter ice would likely severely hamper the response."We heard compelling evidence that if a blow-out occurred just before the dark Arctic winter returned it may not be possible to cap it until the following summer - potentially leaving oil spewing out under the ice for six months or more with devastating consequences for wildlife," said lawmaker Joan Walley, chairwoman of the committee.In a report, legislators said that the fact Arctic drilling locations are remote means resources to manage accidents are likely to be difficult to access or unavailable. Because shorelines are sparsely populated, it would also be more difficult to detect evidence of a spill."The infrastructure to mount a big clean-up operation is simply not in place and conventional oil spill response techniques have not been proven to work in such severe conditions," Walley said.Legislators called on Britain to lobby the Arctic Council - an intergovernmental forum of the eight Arctic nations, including the United States and Canada - to craft a universal standard on disaster response.The panel also suggested a "much higher, preferably unlimited, financial liability regime for oil and gas operations."Britain's energy and climate change ministry said that, given the U.K.'s lack of "expertise or experience of Arctic issues," nations in the region should take the lead.Charles Emmerson, an energy expert at the London-based Chatham House think tank, said it was "extremely unlikely" that nations competing over Arctic resources would agree to a single regulatory framework.Richard Steiner, an Alaska-based marine conservation consultant who gave evidence to the committee via video link, urged the eight Arctic coastal nations and the U.N. to adopt the report's recommendations."It represents the first time a governmental body has really and honestly suggested what needs to happen to manage the Arctic responsibly," he said. "The U.K. Parliamentary body has proposed a realistic road-map for Arctic stewardship."Environmental groups strongly oppose Arctic offshore drilling, claiming oil companies have not demonstrated the ability to clean up spilled crude in ice. Operating in one of the world's most hostile marine environments is a risk to its polar bears, walrus and endangered whales, the groups claim.Shell has limited Arctic drilling off Alaska to preparation work this year after a safety system was damaged during testing.However, Marvin Odum, head of Shell Oil Co., Royal Dutch Shell's U.S. subsidiary, insists it is optimistic about tapping into an estimated 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet (3.68 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas in U.S. Arctic waters.In evidence to the British committee, Robert Blaauw, a senior Shell adviser on the Arctic, said energy demand over the coming decades made it necessary for companies to look to "unconventional resources" such as those in the Arctic.The company said that it welcomed dialogue on Arctic energy exploration.

By JIM GOMEZ 20 Sep, 2012

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Endeavour stops in Houston en route to California

HOUSTON (AP) -- The space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to leave Houston early Thursday after giving locals a brief glimpse of what might have been.Hundreds lined the streets and crowded the airport Wednesday to see the retired shuttle land before it was to head to California where it will be permanently displayed, a fact that doesn't sit well with many Houston residents who feel Space City was cheated out of an artifact that should have been theirs to keep."I think that it's the worst thing that they can do, rotten all the way," said 84-year-old Mary Weiss, clinging to her walker just before Endeavour landed after flying low over Gulf Coast towns, New Orleans and then downtown Houston and its airports.Space City, partly made famous by Tom Hanks when he uttered the line "Houston, we have a problem" in the movie "Apollo 13," has long tied its fortune to a mix of oil and NASA. Astronauts train in the humid, mosquito-ridden city, and many call it home years after they retire. The Johnson Space Center and an adjacent museum hug Galveston Bay.Houston's bid for a shuttle was rejected after the White House retired the fleet last summer to spend more time and money on reaching destinations, such as Mars and asteroids. Instead, Houston got a replica that used to be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center."The one we're getting is a toy. An important toy, but a toy nonetheless," said Scott Rush, 54, of Crystal Beach, Texas.Still, people came out in droves Wednesday, waving American flags and toting space shuttle toys, cameras and cellphones.Back-to-back delays in the ferry flight resulted in one day being cut from the Houston visit. After landing, the Endeavour rolled slowly in front of the cheering crowd. It circled and preened like a runway model, giving awed spectators an opportunity to take pictures from a variety of angles."I want to go on it," said 3-year-old Joshua Lee as he headed to the landing area with his mother and grandmother.Joshua's mother, Jacqueline Lee of Houston, viewed the landing as an educational opportunity."I don't know if he'll get to see this again," Lee said.Around sunrise Thursday, the shuttle was scheduled to leave Houston, riding piggyback on a jumbo jet. It's booked to stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, before heading to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif. After spending a night there, the shuttle will head to Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.In mid-October, Endeavour will be transported down city streets to the California Science Center, its permanent home.NASA still plays a large role in Houston, and astronaut Clayton Anderson, who lived on the International Space Station from June to November 2007, encouraged people to focus on a new era of space exploration."The shuttles are a wonderful legacy, a huge part of Houston, but now it's time to look to the future," said Anderson, who lives in the Houston suburb of League City.This is the last flight for a space shuttle. Atlantis will remain at Kennedy for display, and Discovery is already at the Smithsonian Institution, parked at a hangar in Virginia since April.Endeavour - the replacement for the destroyed Challenger shuttle - made its debut in 1992 and flew 25 times before it was retired. It logged 123 million miles in space and circled Earth nearly 4,700 times.---Ramit Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP

By DAN ELLIOTT 20 Sep, 2012

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Neil Armstrong, 1st to walk on moon, buried at sea

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first man to walk on the moon has been buried at sea.NASA says Neil Armstrong's cremated remains were buried in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday during a ceremony aboard the USS Philippine Sea.Armstrong was a Navy fighter pilot before joining the space program. He died last month in Ohio at age 82. His burial follows a memorial service in Washington on Thursday.NASA photographs show Armstrong's widow, Carol Armstrong, accepting a folded American flag during the ceremony, which NASA said included a bugler and a rifle salute.The space agency didn't give the location of the ceremony. The ship's homeport is Mayport, Fla.

By DAN ELLIOTT 15 Sep, 2012

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Orangutan's cancer treatment similar to humans

MIAMI (AP) -- Peanut is an 8-year-old orangutan and a star attraction at Miami's Jungle Island. These days she's also got a team of cancer doctors huddling around her, watching as the chemo drip flows into her veins.Peanut, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is not the first great ape to be treated for cancer like a human. An orangutan with advanced stage cancer at the National Zoo in Washington had surgery to remove a cancerous intestinal tumor in 2000. In 2009, two female gorillas at the North Carolina Zoo underwent radiation therapy. All three cases involved much older apes, in their 30s or 40s, and all had to be euthanized.But while other animals are treated with chemotherapy, it's not common among orangutans.Dr. Ryan DeVoe, senior veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo where the two female gorillas lived, said he has found no record of other great apes being treated with chemo. But he also noted that many cases involving great apes with cancer are not reported or documented.DeVoe said another unique aspect of Peanut's case is that, unlike the older apes, she has age on her side for either being cured or at least experiencing remission and living normally and comfortably for a long period of time.The orangutan has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat the aggressive lymphoma since August.Peanut's diagnosis came by chance when her veterinary team found she had an intestinal obstruction and further testing revealed the cancer. The private zoo had no board certified veterinary oncologist on staff and turned to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A team there, along with UM's Division of Comparative Pathology, which specializes in wildlife, confirmed the diagnosis and is now providing guidance for Peanut's treatment."I've never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before," said Dr. Joseph Rosenblatt, one of the doctors treating Peanut. "We don't know what to expect and yet we're intensely curious and potentially hopeful that we can help the animal."Working on an orangutan is a first for Rosenblatt, who has never worked on an animal larger than a mouse."When the animal looks at you in the eye, it's both a sympathetic as well as a look that radiates intelligence," he said.Peanut has a fraternal twin named Pumpkin, a rarity in the animal kingdom. They are the youngest of six orangutans at Jungle Island and a hit with park visitors. Both are highly intelligent and have been taught to use sign language and an iPad to communicate with their trainers, but they have distinct personalities. Peanut is welcoming and demanding, offering her doctor a twig in return for his water bottle. Pumpkin is quiet and her hair hangs low over her forehead. Pumpkin has not been diagnosed with the disease.Rosenblatt said doctors chose a plan for treatment that has been most effective in humans, adding that they are treating Peanut's lymphoma with slightly reduced doses in an effort not to overshoot. The process that might take four to five hours in a human takes about three hours in Peanut, who will get six doses - 21 days apart - unless her body can't handle it.Peanut's doctors caution against raising expectations about her future and how effective the treatments will be."They work very well in human beings, but we don't know if they will work as well in this setting," Rosenblatt said.Unlike humans, Peanut must be sedated for her treatments at an animal clinic in Miami. And although doctors know anesthesia causes nausea in animals, it is not clear if that or the chemo caused Peanut to vomit after her first treatment. She stays indoors out of sight of park visitors soon after the treatments and comes outside into an enclosure only when she feels up to it.Her caretakers say explaining cancer to a human is difficult, but explaining it to a highly intelligent animal such as Peanut who communicates with her trainers and park visitors is nearly impossible."That is one part of cancer we do not have to deal with," said veterinarian Jason Chatfield, Jungle Island's general curator. "We made it a point not to even talk about the cancer in front of her because she may not comprehend cancer, disease, lymphoma and all these fancy words. She absolutely knows something is wrong, something is different with her." He said the team wants to keep a positive attitude around her.Born in captivity, Peanut and Pumpkin came to the zoo when they were 6 months old."I have been with her since she was born," said Linda Jacobs, Peanut's trainer, holding back tears. "So I really am very sensitive to her needs and her moods."Jacobs said Peanut is fatigued but hasn't lost much of her reddish-orange hair "and she still has that twinkle in her eye."Despite possible complications and an uncertain outcome, Rosenblatt said Peanut is still a model patient "and God willing, she will be a cancer survivor."

By DAN ELLIOTT 18 Sep, 2012

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Eclipse season on Mars, so Curiosity took photos

WASHINGTON (AP) -- On Mars, a partial eclipse of the sun isn't quite as rare as on Earth. So NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is snapping hundreds of pictures of the spectacle for the folks back home to ooh and aah over.Two moons zip around the red planet and they're closer and faster than our lumbering moon, so eclipses are more common. Scientists say there's even somewhat of an eclipse season on Mars, and it's that time of year when those Martian moons take turns taking bites of the sun.Curiosity turned its cameras skyward to watch the action in three different eclipses, starting last week and continuing Wednesday, when a moon partially slipped between Mars and the sun.The rover has been beaming back a stream of photos of the Martian landscape since landing near the equator last month.Texas A&M University scientist Mark Lemmon said the eclipse pictures will help scientists track the fate of the larger Martian moon, Phobos, which is slowing down in its orbit around Mars. In 10 to 15 million years, Phobos will get so close to Mars it will break up and crash into the planet.These moons aren't mere curiosity factors. They get so close to Mars that "they change Mars' shape ever so slightly" with their pull, Lemmon said.Past rovers have taken pictures of solar eclipses from Mars, but not with such good cameras that take high resolution photos and so many shots that it produces a movie of sorts, Lemmon said.And now that Curiosity has gazed skyward, it's time for the Mini Cooper-sized spacecraft to focus on the ground. On Friday, Curiosity will test its first rock with a laser and other chemical testing kits on the end of its robotic arm.Its first target is a pyramid-shaped dark rock, about 10 inches tall and 16 inches wide at the base. Two of the arm's chemical-sniffing devices will snuggle up against the rock - named for Jake Matijevic, a Mars rover engineer who died recently - so scientists can figure out what it is made of."It's just a cool looking rock sitting out there on the plains," said Mars Science Laboratory scientist John Grotzinger. But it's not that unusual and seems similar to rocks past rovers have tested before. That makes it a good start for the rover's testing equipment.It's the type of rock that is scattered all over Mars probably blown out of a crater when it was hit by an asteroid or something, Grotzinger said.---Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

By DAN ELLIOTT 20 Sep, 2012

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Doubts over Harvard claim of 'Jesus' Wife' papyrus

ROME (AP) -- Is a scrap of papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife authentic?Scholars on Wednesday questioned the much-publicized discovery by a Harvard scholar that a 4th century fragment of papyrus provided the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus was married.And experts in the illicit antiquities trade also wondered about the motive of the fragment's anonymous owner, noting that the document's value has likely increased amid the publicity of the still-unproven find.Karen King, a professor of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the finding Tuesday at an international congress on Coptic studies in Rome. The text, written in Coptic and probably translated from a 2nd century Greek text, contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to "my wife," whom he identifies as Mary.King's paper, and the front-page attention it received in some U.S. newspapers that got advance word about it, was a hot topic of conversation Wednesday at the conference.Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was unmarried, although there is no reliable historical evidence to support that, King said. Any evidence pointing to whether Jesus was married or had a female disciple could have ripple effects in current debates over the role of women in the church.Stephen Emmel, a professor of Coptology at the University of Muenster who was on the international advisory panel that reviewed the 2006 discovery of the Gospel of Judas, said the text accurately quotes Jesus as saying "my wife." But he questioned whether the document was authentic."There's something about this fragment in its appearance and also in the grammar of the Coptic that strikes me as being not completely convincing somehow," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.Another participant at the congress, Alin Suciu, a papyrologist at the University of Hamburg, was more blunt."I would say it's a forgery. The script doesn't look authentic" when compared to other samples of Coptic papyrus script dated to the 4th century, he said.King acknowledged Wednesday that questions remain about the fragment, and she welcomed the feedback from her colleagues. She said she planned to subject the document to ink tests to determine if the chemical components match those used in antiquity."We still have some work to do, testing the ink and so on and so forth, but what is exciting about this fragment is that it's the first case we have of Christians claiming that Jesus had a wife," she said.She stressed that the text, assuming it's authentic, doesn't provide any historical evidence that Jesus was actually married, only that some two centuries after he died, some early Christians believed he had a wife.Wolf-Peter Funk, a noted Coptic linguist, said there was no way to evaluate the significance of the fragment because it has no context. It's a partial text and tiny, measuring 4 centimeters by 8 centimeters (1.5 inches by 3 inches), about the size of a small cellphone."There are thousands of scraps of papyrus where you find crazy things," said Funk, co-director of a project editing the Nag Hammadi Coptic library at Laval University in Quebec. "It can be anything."He, too, doubted the authenticity, saying the form of the fragment was "suspicious."Ancient papyrus fragments have been frequently cut up by unscrupulous antiquities dealers seeking to make more money.An anonymous collector brought King the fragment in December 2011, seeking her help in translating and understanding it. In March, she brought it to two papyrologists who determined it was very likely authentic.On Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School announced the finding to great fanfare and said King's paper would be published in January's Harvard Theological Review. Harvard said the fragment most likely came from Egypt, and that its earliest documentation is from the early 1980s indicating that a now-deceased professor in Germany thought it evidence of a possible marriage of Jesus.Some archaeologists were quick to question Harvard's ethics, noting that the fragment has no known provenance, or history of where it's been, and that its current owner may have a financial interest in the publicity being generated about it.King has said the owner wants to sell his collection to Harvard."There are all sorts of really dodgy things about this," said David Gill, professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk and author of the Looting Matters blog, which closely follows the illicit trade in antiquities. "This looks to me as if any sensible, responsible academic would keep their distance from it."He cited the ongoing debate in academia over publishing articles about possibly dubiously obtained antiquities, thus potentially fueling the illicit market.The Archaeological Institute of America, for example, won't publish articles in its journal announcing the discovery of antiquities without a proven provenance that were acquired after a UNESCO convention fighting the illicit trade went into effect in 1973.Similarly, many American museums have adopted policies to no longer acquire antiquities without a provenance, after being slapped with successful efforts by countries like Italy to reclaim looted treasures.Archaeologists also complain that the looting of antiquities removes them from their historical context, depriving scholars of a wealth of information.However, AnneMarie Luijendijk, the Princeton University expert whom King consulted to authenticate the papyrus, said the fragment fit all the rules and criteria established by the International Association of Papyrologists. She noted that papyrus fragments frequently don't have a provenance, simply because so many were removed from Egypt before such issues were of concern.She acknowledged the dilemma about buying such antiquities but said refraining from publishing articles about them is another matter."You wouldn't let an important new text go to waste," she said.Hany Sadak, the director general of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, said the fragment's existence was unknown to Egypt's antiquities authorities until news articles this week."I personally think, as a researcher, that the paper is not authentic because it was, if it had been in Egypt before, we would have known of it and we would have heard of it before it left Egypt," he said.---Maggie Fick in Cairo contributed.---Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

By DAN ELLIOTT 20 Sep, 2012

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Debate on bringing wolves to Colo goes to US court

DENVER (AP) -- An argument over whether wolves should be returned to Rocky Mountain National Park to reduce an overabundance of elk is moving to a federal appeals court.The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado will hear the case Thursday.The park often has so many elk that they overgraze on trees, shrubs and grass, leaving other animals without enough food and habitat. Few natural predators are left there, and hunting is prohibited in all national parks, so little remains to keep the elk population in check.The park uses National Park Service personnel and trained volunteers to periodically shoot and kill a specified number of elk. Officials rejected the idea of reintroducing wolves to prey on the elk and control their numbers, saying it was infeasible.They cited a lack of support from other agencies, safety concerns of people who live nearby, expected conflicts between wolves and humans and the amount of attention that a wolf population would require of park officials.The wildlife advocacy group WildEarth Guardians sued the Park Service in 2008, asking a Denver federal court judge to overturn the policy. The group said the Park Service didn't fully consider reintroducing wolves, and that using volunteers to kill elk amounts to hunting in the park, which would violate federal law.The judge disagreed, upholding the policy in 2011, and WildEarth Guardians appealed to the 10th Circuit.Rocky Mountain National Park launched a 20-year program in 2008 to thin the elk herd by shooting a number that varies from year to year, depending on the size of the park's overall herd. The program also includes fencing elk out of some areas to protect vegetation and redistributing some of the animals.Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said 131 elk have been killed in the culling program during the winters starting in 2008, 2009 and 2010.The current size of the elk herd in the park's lower elevations is 600 to 800, which is within the target range set by the program, so no elk were killed last year. The park website says weather, hunting outside the park and changes in elk movement patterns have helped keep the numbers low.No decision has been made on whether or how many elk will be killed in the upcoming winter.Wolves disappeared from many parts of the West after decades of hunting and government-backed extermination. They were re-introduced in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in 1995, and some advocates have argued for bringing them back elsewhere.Wolves ignite heated and emotional debates in the West, with some people saying the predators are a threat to human safety and ranchers' livelihoods, and others arguing they are a vital part of natural ecosystems and inspiring to see in the wild.By contrast, the arguments in the lawsuit before the 10th Circuit are largely about dry-sounding procedural questions, chiefly whether the Park Service followed the letter of the law in rejecting wolf reintroduction and whether using trained volunteers to shoot excess elk is "culling" or "hunting."The 10th Circuit normally meets in Denver but will hear oral arguments in this case at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder as part of an outreach program.---On the Web:Rocky Mountain National Park Elk and Vegetation Management Fact Sheet: http://www.nps.gov/romo/parkmgmt/elkveg-fact-sheet.htmWildEarth Guardians "Wolf Den": http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/PageServer?pagenamepriorities-wildlife-wolves&AddInterest1228---Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP

By DAN ELLIOTT 20 Sep, 2012

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Arctic ice shrinks to all-time low; half 1980 size

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, obliterating old records.The ice cap at the North Pole measured 1.32 million square miles on Sunday. That's 18 percent smaller than the previous record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking."On top of that, we're smashing a record that smashed a record," said data center scientist Walt Meier. Sea ice shrank in 2007 to levels 22 percent below the previous record of 2005.Ice in the Arctic melts in summer and grows in winter, and it started growing again on Monday. In the 1980s, Meier said, summer sea ice would cover an area slightly smaller than the Lower 48 states. Now it is about half that.Man-made global warming has melted more sea ice and made it thinner over the last couple decades with it getting much more extreme this year, surprisingly so, said snow and ice data center director Mark Serreze."Recently the loss of summer ice has accelerated and the six lowest September ice extents have all been in the past six years," Serreze said. "I think that's quite remarkable."Serreze said except for one strong storm that contributed to the ice loss, this summer melt was more from the steady effects of day-to-day global warming. But he and others say the polar regions are where the globe first sees the signs of climate change."Arctic sea ice is one of the most sensitive of nature's thermometers," said Jason Box, an Ohio State University polar researcher.What happens in the Arctic changes climate all over the rest of the world, scientists have reported in studies.The ice in the Arctic "essentially acts like an air conditioner by keeping things cooler," Meier said. And when sea ice melts more, it's like the air conditioner isn't running efficiently, he said.Sea ice reflects more than 90 percent of the sun's heat off the Earth, but when it is replaced by the darker open ocean, more than half of the heat is absorbed into the water, Meier said.Scientists at the snow and ice data center said their computer models show an Arctic that would be essentially free of ice in the summer by 2050, but they add that current trends show ice melting faster than the computers are predicting.---Online:The National Snow and Ice Data Center: http://nsidc.org/---Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

By DAN ELLIOTT 20 Sep, 2012

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Chile's Pacific paradise endangered by goats, cats

ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND, Chile (AP) -- It's still a natural paradise far out in the Pacific, with thick jungles and stunningly steep and verdant slopes climbing out of the sea. But much of the splendor in the tiny Chilean islands that likely inspired Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" castaway novel is being eaten away.Nearly four centuries of human contact have left many slopes denuded, their trees and plants lost to logging and fires, or devoured by imported goats and rabbits. Jungles remain, but invasive species are crowding out the unique native plants and birds that evolved during more than a million years of splendid isolation."It's a textbook example of how to degrade an ecosystem," said Cristian Estades of the University of Chile, an expert on the islands' birds.A handful of biologists, environmentalists, teachers and Chilean government officials are working with islanders on projects to save endangered species by eliminating non-native plants and animals. In a world full of daunting environmental challenges, they say this one can be solved with enough time, effort and money, in part because the three islands are so remote - 416 miles (670 kilometers) west of the Chilean mainland.Chile has a $12 million plan to keep more outside species from reaching the Juan Fernandez archipelago and control what's already here. Island Conservation and other nonprofit groups say $20 million is needed just to start, by baiting the jungles with poison and flying hunters in on helicopters to eliminate animals that don't belong. Millions more would then be needed to keep invaders out and restore the natives.Neither plan is fully funded, however, and at this point the scientists involved can do little more than document what's disappearing.The islands were declared a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations in 1977. For their size, a total of just 38 square miles (100 square kilometers), they are 61 times richer in plant diversity and 13 times richer in bird life than the Galapagos, according to Island Conservation.They still have 137 plants and a handful of bird species found nowhere else in the world, including a brilliant red hummingbird and the Dendroseris gigantea, a species so rare that until a few years ago, there was only a single tree left alive.Forty-nine of the islands' plant species and seven kinds of birds are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. At least eight others have already become extinct.Their main enemies are the plants and animals imported by humans: Not only goats and rabbits, but cats, rats, mice and the carnivorous coati, a type of raccoon native to the American tropics. The cats are particularly adept at hunting the hummingbirds, whose numbers have dropped to as low as 1,000, in part because they didn't evolve in ways that made them fear feline predators.Chilean settlers have cut down native trees and planted other types that foster wildfires and transform birds' habitats. Fast-growing blackberry brambles native to Europe and North Africa and maqui fruit trees native to mainland Chile have done the most damage, along with imported eucalyptus trees that grow as high as 230 feet (70 meters), sucking up groundwater and acidifying the soil."I don't want to think that this kind of cancer can't be solved," said Juan Carlos Ordenes, who teaches history and geography in the islands' only school, and regularly leads his students on root-pulling expeditions.Skeptics wonder if it's worth spending millions of dollars to preserve a few birds and plants on islands so small that they don't appear on many maps. But Hugo Arnal, the South America director for Island Conservation, says "the cost of inaction is much more expensive."Without the dense jungles and unique trees and hummingbirds, tourists won't come, topsoil will blow away and fresh water for the 700 islanders will dry up. Supplying their town with food and essentials would become much more expensive for Chile's navy, which currently sails to the island once a month."The economic development of Juan Fernandez will depend on maintaining a healthy biodiversity: controlled and sustainable shrimp fishing, and ecotourism based on its unique species," he said.Key to any solution are the islanders who live in the neat little town of San Juan Bautista on Robinson Crusoe, the only island inhabited year-round. Domesticated cats ruled theirgardens during a recent visit by The Associated Press, and while most townspeople have agreed to sterilize their pets, many more cats are loose in the jungle.U.S. ornithologist Erin Hagen, who has spent 10 years studying the hummingbirds, said few islanders are willing to abandon their pet cats or give up goat and rabbit meat for their dinners."There are people who are making the decision to live without these invasive animals, and others who are very attached to their pets, and others who like to go out hunting," Hagen said.Chile has protected 96 percent of the territory as a national park since 1935, but the budget "is insufficient, without a doubt," said Ivan Leiva, who runs the park for the state-owned forestry corporation. "The problem is growing and defeating us."Leiva, whose office is surrounded by small gardens and makeshift greenhouses, has made each of his eight park guards personally responsible for two species of particularly threatened plants. The guards monitor their charges, note when they flower and seed, and confront challenges that might arise.Such tactics worked with the Dendroseris gigantea, a member of the asteraceae family whose broad, long-stemmed leaves were munched to the nubs by wildly propagating goats.Leiva marshaled an international group of biologists to prevent its extinction. They kept vigil throughout the year, measuring weather and soil conditions and managing to collect enough seeds to produce 50 more trees. Most now grow in the park's gardens, while 15 have been planted around the "mother" tree.An earlier six-year, $2.5 million effort eliminated goats and rabbits from Santa Clara, an islet not far from town. Islanders were paid for each pelt and even provided with replacement bullets.Goats were introduced by the Spanish in the 1600s to provide food for passing sailors, and their meat helped save the life of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned Scottish sailor whose four-year ordeal on the main island is widely believed to have helped inspire Defoe's 1719 castaway novel.. On the island Chile later named Robinson Crusoe, goats have been contained to a manageable area, but rabbits and rats run wild.Meanwhile, on Alejandro Selkirk, the most remote of the islands, thousands of wild goats are destroying the habitat of the Rayadito de Masafuera, a small ovenbird whose numbers have dwindled to about 550.Hunting down these animals on that island's steep slopes would be impossible by foot, but Chile can follow the lead of Ecuador in the Galapagos, where helicopters were used to eliminate wild goats and pigs from a much larger area, said Arnal."Using helicopters for eradication and restoration is to island conservation what the introduction of penicillin was to medicine," Arnal said. "These goats aren't going to die off naturally until they've eliminated all of the plants and the island is turned into a desert where there's nothing left to eat."---Eva Vergara is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/evergaraap

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI 20 Sep, 2012

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Arctic ice shrinks to all-time low; half 1980 size

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists say the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, smashing old records for the critical climate indicator.The ice cap at the North Pole measured 1.32 million square miles on Sunday. The previous low was 1.61 million square miles in 2007. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking.Ice in the Arctic melts in summer and grows in winter, and it started growing again on Monday. National Snow and Ice Data Center scientist Walt Meier (MY'ur) says man-made global warming has melted more sea ice and made it thinner.Meier says in the 1980s, summer ice would cover an area slightly smaller than the Lower 48 states. Now it is about half that size.

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI 20 Sep, 2012

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Harvard claim of Jesus' Wife papyrus scrutinized

ROME (AP) -- Is a scrap of papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife authentic?Scholars on Wednesday questioned the much-publicized discovery by a Harvard scholar that a 4th century fragment of papyrus provided the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus was married.And experts in the illicit antiquities trade also wondered about the motive of the fragment's anonymous owner, noting that the document's value has likely increased amid the publicity of the still-unproven find.Karen King, a professor of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the finding Tuesday at an international congress on Coptic studies in Rome. The text, written in Coptic and probably translated from a 2nd century Greek text, contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to "my wife," whom he identifies as Mary.King's paper, and the front-page attention it received in some U.S. newspapers that got advance word about it, was a hot topic of conversation Wednesday during coffee breaks at the conference.Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was unmarried, although there is no reliable historical evidence to support that. Any evidence pointing to whether Jesus was married or had a female disciple could have ripple effects in current debates over the role of women in the church.Stephen Emmel, a professor of Coptology at the University of Muenster who was on the international advisory panel that reviewed the 2006 discovery of the Gospel of Judas, said the text accurately quotes Jesus as saying "my wife." But he questioned whether the document was authentic."There's something about this fragment in its appearance and also in the grammar of the Coptic that strikes me as being not completely convincing somehow," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.Another participant at the congress, Alin Suciu, a papyrologist at the University of Hamburg, was more blunt."I would say it's a forgery. The script doesn't look authentic" when compared to other samples of Coptic papyrus script dated to the 4th century, he said.King acknowledged Wednesday that questions remain about the fragment, and she welcomed the feedback from her colleagues. She said she planned to subject the fragment to ink tests to determine if the chemical components match those used in antiquity."We still have some work to do, testing the ink and so on and so forth, but what is exciting about this fragment is that it's the first case we have of Christians claiming that Jesus had a wife," she said.She stressed that the text doesn't provide any historical evidence that Jesus was actually married, only that some two centuries after he died, some early Christians believed he had a wife.Wolf-Peter Funk, a noted Coptic linguist, said there was no way to evaluate the significance of the fragment because it has no context. It's a partial text and tiny, measuring 4 centimeters by 8 centimeters (1.5 inches by 3 inches), about the size of a small cellphone."There are thousands of scraps of papyrus where you find crazy things," said Funk, co-director of a project editing the Nag Hammadi Coptic library at Laval University in Quebec. "It can be anything."He, too, doubted the authenticity, saying the form of the fragment was "suspicious."Ancient papyrus fragments have been frequently cut up by unscrupulous dealers seeking to make more money.An anonymous collector brought King the fragment in December 2011, seeking her help in translating and understanding it. In March, she brought it to two papyrologists who determined it was very likely authentic.On Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School announced the finding to great fanfare and said King's paper would be published in January's Harvard Theological Review. Harvard said the fragment most likely came from Egypt, and that its earliest documentation is from the early 1980s indicating that a now-deceased professor in Germany thought it evidence of a possible marriage of Jesus.Some archaeologists were quick to question Harvard's ethics, noting that the fragment has no known provenance, or history of where it's been, and that its owner may have a financial interest in the publicity being generated about it.King has said the owner wants to sell his collection to Harvard."There are all sorts of really dodgy things about this," said David Gill, professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk and author of the Looting Matters blog, which closely follows the illicit trade in antiquities. "This looks to me as if any sensible, responsible academic would keep their distance from it."He cited the ongoing debate in academia over publishing articles about possibly dubiously obtained antiquities, thus potentially fueling the illicit market. He questioned, for example, whether the letter from the German Egyptologist was authentic, and whether Harvard should have contacted Egyptian authorities about the find.---Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

By MARCIA DUNN 19 Sep, 2012

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Goldman Sachs' Schwartz to replace Viniar as CFO

NEW YORK (AP) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s chief financial officer is retiring, and his replacement is a longtime executive at the investment bank.David Viniar, 57, is stepping down after 32 years with Goldman, the last 12 as CFO. Harvey M. Schwartz, 48, will replace him at the end of January, the bank said TuesdayAfter Viniar leaves the post, he will join Goldman's board as a non-independent director.Schwartz served most recently as the global co-head of Goldman's securities division. He joined the firm as a vice president in 1997, became a managing director in 1999, and was named partner in 2002.In his new role, Schwartz will have oversight of operations, technology and finance at the bank. He will also serve as co-head of the Firmwide Risk Committee.Schwartz "has deep experience in credit, liquidity, market and operational risk," Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein said. "Harvey's risk management judgment and broad understanding of our business and our clients have defined his career, and will be the basis of his strengths as an effective CFO."Viniar made "extraordinary contributions" to Goldman Sachs and "represents the very best of Goldman Sachs and its culture," Blankfein said.The announcement was made after shares of Goldman slipped 2 cents to close at $119.88. The stock lost another 19 cents, to $119.69, in after-hours trading.Goldman, which is based in New York, said Viniar is the longest-serving chief financial officer of a major Wall Street financial institution.He joined Goldman in 1980 in the Investment Banking Division. He assumed responsibility for the firm's financing activities in the Treasury Department in 1992 and for the Controllers Department in 1994. From 1998 until 1999, Viniar was deputy CFO.Before becoming global co-head of Goldman's securities division, Schwartz was global head of the division's sales operations. Before that, he was co-head of the Americas Financing Group within Goldman's investment banking business, which centralizes financing-related advice, origination and execution for clients.With Viniar set to join the company's board as a non-independent member, Goldman said it expects to appoint additional independent directors "in the near term."

By PETER LEONARD 19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOLDMAN_SACHS_CHIEF_FINANCIAL_OFFICER?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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After a surprise panda birth in DC, anxiety awaits

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The birth of a panda cub this weekend at Washington's zoo was cause for a party, but behind the excitement there's also some nail-biting.Panda cubs are born hairless and helpless, about the size of a stick of butter. The tiny cubs are at risk for infections and so small that it's not unheard of for panda moms to accidentally crush their young. For the National Zoo, which has only had one panda cub survive, the memories of past tragedies are real."This first week we are at 100 percent attention, watching to make sure she's taking care of her cub," said giant panda curator Brandie Smith of panda mom Mei Xiang. "Every week that passes we become a little more confident the cub is going to survive."The zoo's first panda couple, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, who arrived from China in 1972, had five cubs during the 1980s, but none lived more than a few days. One of the cubs was stillborn, two others died of pneumonia within a day, another died from lack of oxygen after birth, and the final cub died of an infection after four days.Another danger comes down to size. Panda mothers are about 1,000 times heavier than their cubs, which are particularly vulnerable at birth. The hairless cubs weigh between three and five ounces, and they are born with their eyes closed. The delicate cubs have died in the past when accidentally crushed by mom. That happened in two different zoos in China in 2009 and 2010 when mothers killed their young while attempting to nurse.There are more routine concerns, too. Panda moms have to ensure their cubs stay warm and are getting enough to eat."It's kind of a nerve-wracking period for the folks that are monitoring mom and cub," said Rebecca Snyder, the curator of mammals at Atlanta's zoo, one of only two other American zoos to have had cubs.Atlanta has had three cubs, and the San Diego zoo has had six, including a cub born this year. A panda couple in Memphis has yet to have a cub, despite several tries. No other U.S. zoos have pandas.Still, keepers and officials at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington are hopeful. Officials said Monday that the cub's cries, which sound like high-pitched squeals and grunts, are strong. And panda mom Mei Xiang is also now an experienced mother.Mei Xiang gave birth to her first cub, Tai Shan, in 2005. Laurie Thompson, one of the zoo's half a dozen panda keepers, says that in 2005 it took the new mother a few minutes to pick up the cub. This time, it was more immediate. The new cub also seems to be a little quieter than its older brother, an indication perhaps that Mei Xiang is meeting the cub's needs more quickly.At this point, though, zookeepers have yet to examine the cub. Instead, they are trusting Mei Xiang's mothering and watching the pair on video cameras, the same way the rest of Washington is watching through an online "pandacam." Zoo officials won't have a chance to examine the cub for several weeks, when Mei Xiang starts venturing out from the nest she has built.While they're waiting to meet the zoo's newest addition, zoo researchers are going to be studying the pregnancy closely. Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated each year beginning in 2007 but failed to conceive five times. Scientists at the zoo worried she had become infertile and believed there was a less than a 10 percent chance she would become pregnant. Now they'll be looking to find key indicators of pregnancy. Those might be tied to eating, hormone levels or behavior.Zoo officials will also be working on a name for the cub and waiting to find out its gender. Following Chinese tradition, the cub will be named after 100 days, on Dec. 24. At the time it will be about the size of a loaf of bread and weigh around 10 pounds.---Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

By PETER LEONARD 19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NATIONAL_ZOO_PANDA_WORRIES?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Mexico finds some escapees in border prison break

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) -- Officials said Tuesday they have found three inmates thought to have escaped through a tunnel at a northern Mexico border prison, lowering the number of escaped prisoners to 129.Three female inmates were found hiding in a prison visiting area, Jorge Luis Moran, the public safety secretary of the northern border state of Coahuila, told the television network Televisa.Federal police units and Mexican troops, including 70 members of an elite military special forces unit, are searching for inmates who fled the prison in Piedras Negras, a city across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. They escaped through a tunnel 21 feet long and 4 feet in diameter on Monday and then cut their way through a chain link barrier and escaped onto a neighboring property.The director and two other employees of the state prison have been detained for an investigation, and President Felipe Calderon called the jailbreak "deplorable" in a statement posted on his Twitter account Tuesday.Calderon appeared to re-ignite the long-running dispute between federal and state authorities, writing that "the vulnerability of state law enforcement institutions must be corrected."Collusion between guards and drug gangs has played a role in past escapes, and federal authorities have been pushing to have all state and municipal police and law enforcement officials submit to background and anti-drug checks, as well as vetting for possible links to organized crime.But state authorities have been dragging their feet. On Monday, federal Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said that only 180,000 of the country's 430,000 city and state police have been vetted and checked, and that about 65,000 of those tested had failed the tests.That failure rate - about one-third of officers - has been a constant problem in the testing program, which is supposed to conclude with all officers vetted by early 2013. That goal now appears unreachable, and the question remains of what will be done with the officers who failed. All are supposed to be fired, but Mexican labor laws and a shortage of recruits to replace them makes it an arduous process.For example, federal police have vetted all of their officers, and many have gone through background checks more than once, but many of those who fail are still on the 36,000-member force.Since the current administration took office in December 2006, about 2,045 federal officers have failed periodic vetting and anti-drug tests, and 302 of them have been fired. About 600 others are involved in the lengthy internal-affairs procedure that could lead to people losing their jobs.Moran complained that Coahuila's attempts to comply with the vetting process may have been responsible for the low number of guards on duty at the Piedras Negras prison when the jailbreak occurred.Only 12 guards were on duty to watch 734 inmates, Moran said, after some guards and officials were dismissed after failing background checks."People on the administrative and guard staff who did not pass the background checks and who shouldn't be in the prisons have been dismissed, and that resulted in the fact that there weren't more people on duty," Moran said.In February, nine guards at a prison near the northern city of Monterrey confessed to helping 30 Zetas drug gangsters escape. But not only did the Zetas flee; during the jailbreak, other Zetas slaughtered 44 inmates who belonged to the rival Gulf cartel.In December 2010, 153 inmates escaped from a prison in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo, right across Laredo, Texas. Authorities charged 41 guards with aiding the inmates in that escape.State authorities counter that their relatively low-security prisons are forced to hold dangerous inmates being held on federal charges like drug trafficking and organized crime.They have called on federal officials to take federal inmates out of their prisons, and some of the most dangerous federal inmates had been transferred out of the Piedras Negras prison in recent months.Coahuila Attorney General Homero Ramos said 86 of the escaped inmates were serving sentences or awaiting verdicts for federal crimes, such as drug trafficking, and the rest faced state charges.The tunnel "was not made today. It had been there for months," Ramos told the Milenio TV station. Authorities say they also found ropes and electric cables they believe were used in the break.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was aware of the prison break and placed officers in the Eagle Pass area on alert, but has not received any reports of escapees attempting to cross the border, according to an e-mailed statement.Coahuila, where Monday's prison break took place, has seen a wave of violence tied to the Zetas' battles with the Sinaloa cartel, allies of the now weakened Gulf Cartel.Authorities in Coahuila did not say which gang was believed to be behind the escape.In Piedras Negras, family members had gathered outside the prison to hear word of their loved ones.

By PETER LEONARD 19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_PRISON_BREAK?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Researchers tag great white sharks off Cape Cod

CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) -- The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long."I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area."We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes."I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say."These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it is also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.They measured the fish - 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds - and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups."That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."Genie has pinged several times in the waters off Nantucket. So far, she's the crew's only catch.---Online:http://sharks-ocearch.verite.com

By PETER LEONARD 18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TAGGING_GREAT_WHITES?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Space shuttle Endeavour stuck at home in Florida

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Space shuttle Endeavour apparently doesn't want to leave home.NASA's youngest shuttle was supposed to depart Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Monday for its permanent museum home in Los Angeles. But stormy weather along the Gulf of Mexico nixed the travel plans.NASA aimed for a Tuesday bon voyage. But that ended up getting scrapped as well. Endeavour's departure is now set for Wednesday morning. It's bolted to the top of a modified jumbo jet.Endeavour was supposed to stop off in Houston, home to Mission Control, and fly low over NASA facilities en route. Now all that is in jeopardy. Los Angeles International Airport is expecting the shuttle on Thursday.Endeavour, which retired last year, will go on display at the California Science Center.---Online:NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/shuttle/main/index.html

By PETER LEONARD 18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_SPACE_SHUTTLE_LAST_STOP?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Orangutan's cancer treatment similar to humans

MIAMI (AP) -- Peanut is an 8-year-old orangutan and a star attraction at Miami's Jungle Island. These days she's also got a team of cancer doctors huddling around her, watching as the chemo drip flows into her veins.Peanut, who was diagnosed with non-Hogkin lymphoma, is not the first great ape to be treated for cancer like a human. An orangutan with advanced stage cancer at the National Zoo in Washington had surgery to remove a cancerous intestinal tumor in 2000. In 2009, two female gorillas at the North Carolina Zoo underwent radiation therapy. All three cases involved much older apes, in their 30s or 40s, and all had to be euthanized.But while other animals are treated with chemotherapy, it's not common among orangutans.Dr. Ryan DeVoe, senior veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo where the two female gorillas lived, said he has found no record of other great apes being treated with chemo. But he also noted that many cases involving great apes with cancer are not reported or documented.DeVoe said another unique aspect of Peanut's case is that, unlike the older apes, she has age on her side for either being cured or at least experiencing remission and living normally and comfortably for a long period of time.The orangutan has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat the aggressive lymphoma since August.Peanut's diagnosis came by chance when her veterinary team found she had an intestinal obstruction and further testing revealed the cancer. The private zoo had no board certified veterinary oncologist on staff and turned to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A team there, along with UM's Division of Comparative Pathology, which specializes in wildlife, confirmed the diagnosis and is now providing guidance for Peanut's treatment."I've never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before," said Dr. Joseph Rosenblatt, one of the doctors treating Peanut. "We don't know what to expect and yet we're intensely curious and potentially hopeful that we can help the animal."Working on an orangutan is a first for Rosenblatt, who has never worked on an animal larger than a mouse."When the animal looks at you in the eye, it's both a sympathetic as well as a look that radiates intelligence," he said.Peanut has a fraternal twin named Pumpkin, a rarity in the animal kingdom. They are the youngest of six orangutans at Jungle Island and a hit with park visitors. Both are highly intelligent and have been taught to use sign language and an iPad to communicate with their trainers, but they have distinct personalities. Peanut is welcoming and demanding, offering her doctor a twig in return for his water bottle. Pumpkin is quiet and her hair hangs low over her forehead. Pumpkin has not been diagnosed with the disease.Rosenblatt said doctors chose a plan for treatment that has been most effective in humans, adding that they are treating Peanut's lymphoma with slightly reduced doses in an effort not to overshoot. The process that might take 4 to 5 hours in a human takes about 3 hours in Peanut, who will get six doses - 21 days apart - unless her body can't handle it.Peanut's doctors caution against raising expectations about her future and how effective the treatments will be."They work very well in human beings, but we don't know if they will work as well in this setting," Rosenblatt said.Unlike humans, Peanut must be sedated for her treatments at an animal clinic in Miami. And although doctors know anesthesia causes nausea in animals, it is not clear if that or the chemo caused Peanut to vomit after her first treatment. She stays indoors out of sight of park visitors soon after the treatments and comes outside into an enclosure only when she feels up to it.Her caretakers say explaining cancer to a human is difficult, but explaining it to a highly intelligent animal such as Peanut who communicates with her trainers and park visitors is nearly impossible."That is one part of cancer we do not have to deal with," said veterinarian Jason Chatfield, Jungle Island's general curator. "We made it a point not to even talk about the cancer in front of her because she may not comprehend cancer, disease, lymphoma and all these fancy words. She absolutely knows something is wrong, something is different with her." He said the team wants to keep a positive attitude around her.Born in captivity, Peanut and Pumpkin came to the zoo when they were 6 months old."I have been with her since she was born," said Linda Jacobs, Peanut's trainer, holding back tears. "So I really am very sensitive to her needs and her moods."Jacobs said Peanut is fatigued but hasn't lost much of her reddish-orange hair "and she still has that twinkle in her eye."Despite possible complications and an uncertain outcome, Rosenblatt said Peanut is still a model patient "and God willing, she will be a cancer survivor."

By PETER LEONARD 17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ORANGUTAN_CANCER_TREATMENT?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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02.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

US, Russian space trio lands in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) -- An international three-man crew onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down successfully on the cloudless central Kazakhstan steppe Monday morning after 123 days at the International Space Station.A fleet of Russian Mi-8 helicopters deployed from towns near the landing site ahead of the capsule's arrival early Monday morning to ensure swift interception.NASA's Joe Acaba and Russian colleagues Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin undocked from the orbiting laboratory somewhere over Nairobi, Kenya, some 3 1/2 hours before touchdown. The Soyuz craft remains the only means for international astronauts to reach the space station since the decommissioning of the U.S. Shuttle fleet in 2011.The size of the three-person complement currently at the space station will be doubled when they are joined next month by U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin.NASA's Sunita Williams took over command at the station Saturday from Padalka, becoming the second woman in history to do so. Williams, veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide of Japan are due to return to Earth in the middle of November.Padalka, who piloted the Soyuz craft back to Earth, was the first to be pulled out of the capsule, which rolled onto its side after coming down softly in the flat Kazakh countryside some 85 kilometers (50 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk.Upon their return, astronauts are typically lifted onto reclining chairs to ensure comfortable acclimatization after months of living in gravity-free conditions.Looking relaxed and smiling broadly while sipping a mug of tea and basking in the mild sunny conditions, Padalka waved at cameras that descended on the site soon almost immediately after landing."We honestly could not have asked for better weather out here today. The temperature's really good (and) the crew is obviously enjoying this weather," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said in an online link-up from the landing site. "I have never seen the amount of clarity we had today."With this mission complete, Padalka becomes the fourth most seasoned space traveler, having spent 711 days in space over four missions."I feel great," Padalka told attending recovery staff, before thanking colleagues for their assistance in his mission.Acaba, who followed Revin out of the prone Soyuz capsule, gave the thumbs up sign as he was being lifted to his reclining chair and said: "It's good to be home."In an uncustomary gesture, the astronauts signed their names on the capsule, which is due to be displayed at the Tsiolkovsky Museum in the town of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.The precision of the landing enabled a Russian recovery crew in all-terrain vehicles to reach the capsule within seconds of touchdown. Astronauts were given immediate medical attention and then shortly afterward transported by helicopter to a forward base in the Kazakh city of Kostanai, from where they were to begin their trip home.Russia has suffered a series of blows to its space prestige in recent months with a string of failed launches, provoking some anxiety about what some observers believe to be excess U.S. reliance on the Soyuz program.In August, a Russian booster rocket failed to place two communications satellites into target orbits, stranding the Russian Express MD-2 and Indonesia's Telkom-3 satellites in a low orbit where they could not be recovered.A Russian robotic probe designed to study a moon of Mars got stranded in Earth's orbit after its launch in November and eventually came crashing down in January.A few months before, a Soyuz booster rocket similar to those ferrying crews and cargo to the International Space Station failed, prompting officials to consider leaving the space outpost unmanned.

By PETER LEONARD 17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_KAZAKHSTAN_SPACE?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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01.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pagerank Dengan Backlink Berkualitas

Pagerank Dengan Backlink Berkualitas bisa kita lakukan dengan gratis tanpa biaya. Cara Cepat Menaikkan Pagerank ini sudah banyak dilakukan oleh para blogger2 yang sudah ahli. Gak usah susah2 komentar sana sini. Cukup ikuti panduan ini. Oiaa.. Belum tahu apa itu PageRank? baca dulu gih di om wikipedia

Pagerank Dengan Backlink Berkualitas adalah dengan copy paste artikel ini dari atas sampai bawah. Tapi sebelum itu bacalah dulu pesan-pesan dibawah ini.

Silahkan pelajari dengan baik lalu anda terapkan dengan benar…. Ada kata bijak yang mengatakan "Honesty is The Best Policy (Kejujuran adalah politik/strategi terbaik)", mari kita buktikan….apakah konsep kejujuran disini dapat kita gunakan untuk menghasilkan traffic dan popularity yang sangat hebat dari sebuah metode rumit para expert webmaster atau pakar SEO..? Saya percaya kita bisa asal metode ini anda terapkan dengan benar…apabila ini di aplikasikan pada web/blog anda sesuai ketentuan maka:

• Blog anda akan kebanjiran traffic pengunjung secara luar biasa hari demi hari, tanpa anda harus repot-repot memikirkan SEO atau capek-capek melakukan promosi keberbagai tempat di dunia online.
• Blog anda juga akan kebanjiran backlink secara signifikan hari demi hari, tanpa perlu repot-repot berburu link keberbagai tempat di dunia internet.

Hal yang harus anda lakukan adalah ikuti langkah-langkah berikut :

1. Buatlah postingan artikel seperti posting saya ini, atau copy-paste artikel ini. Lalu beri Judul sesuka anda (karena itu merupakan SEO buat web/blog anda sendiri).
2. Anda cukup hanya meletakkan Link-Link di bawah ini pada artikel anda tersebut pada blog/web anda.

1. corner kick
2. Leonardo Araujo
3. Fish nutrition
4. facebook lovers
5. Fat Children
6. Allergy symptom
7. beautiful dream
8. seo lovers
9. sleep
10. Your Problem

PERATURAN :

1. Sebelum anda meletakkan Link-Link tersebut ditas ke dalam postingan web/blog anda, harap hapus Link nomor 1 , Sehingga link no 1 hilang dari daftar link dan setiap link anda naikkan 1 level ke atas. Yang tadinya no 2 naik menjadi no 1, yang tadinya no 3 menjadi no 2, yang tadinya no 4 menjadi no 3 dan begitu seterusnya. Setelah itu masukkan Link anda pada urutan Paling bawah ( no 15 ).
2. Ingat!!! Jangan Merubah Urutan daftar link.. Buktikan kejujuran anda.. Karena ini demi keuntungan bersama, kita sesama blogger 
3. Apabila setiap blogger yang ikut dalam metode ini berhasil di duplikasi ole hblogger lain yang akan bergabung, andaikan 5 blogger yang bergabung maka Backlink yang anda dapat adalah Ketika:

Posisi anda 15, jumlah backlink = 1
Posisi 14, jumlah backlink = 5
Posisi 13, jumlah backlink = 25
Posisi 12, jumlah backlink = 125
Posisi 11, jumlah backlink = 625
Posisi 10, jumlah backlink = 3.125
Posisi 9, jumlah backlink = 15.625
Posisi 8, jumlah backlink = 78.125
Posisi 7, jumlah backlink = 390.625
Posisi 6, jumlah backlink = 1.953.125
Posisi 5, jumlah backlink = 9.765.625
Posisi 4, jumlah backlink = 48.828.125
Posisi 3, jumlah backlink = 244.140.625
Posisi 2, jumlah backlink = 1.220.703.125
Posisi 1, jumlah backlink = 6.103.515.625

Dan semua Dari kata kunci yang anda inginkan, bayangkan jika ini bisa berjalan dengan sempurna maka anda akan memperoleh 6.103.515.625 external link yang berasal dari berbagai blog yang anda tidak akan pernah bayangkan sebelumnya. Belum lagi apabila ada pengunjung blog anda dari Link List tersebut diatas maka otomatis anda akan memperoleh traffic ke web/blog anda juga. Ingat!!! Aturuan mainnya, Anda harus memulai dari urutan paling bawah (no 15) sehingga hasil backlink anda bisa Maksimal. Jangan salahkan saya apabila anda tidak mengikuti metode ini dengan benar dan Link anda tiba-tiba berada pada urutan no 1 dan menghilang pada Link daftar. Jadi mulai lah pada urutan paling bawah(no 15). Bisakah Anda melakukan tindakan tidak fair atau tidak jujur dengan menyabotase metode ini, misalkan saja "menghilangkan semua link asal" lalu di isi dengan link web/blog anda sendiri…? ….Bisa, dan metode ini menjadi tidak maksimal. Kejujuran adalah strategi/politik terbaik…..Tapi saya yakin bahwa kita semua tak ingin menjatuhkan kredibilitas diri sendiri dengan melakukan tindakan murahan seperti itu… —- SELESAI —-

Semoga metode ini bisa berjalan sesuai harapan kita bersama. . . ! ! !

Mendapatkan Pagerank Tanpa Backlink mudah bukan? Beri tahu kepada kawan2 blogger yang lain agar pagerank anda naik, naik, dan terus naik

07.18 | 0 komentar | Read More