Co-defendant: Vick financed dogfighting
1 hour, 7 minutes ago
RICHMOND, Va. - One of Michael Vick's co-defendants pleaded guilty Monday to his role in a dogfighting conspiracy he says was financed almost entirely by the Atlanta Falcons quarterback.
As part of a plea agreement, Tony Taylor pledged to fully cooperate with the government in its prosecution of Vick and two other men accused of running an interstate dogfighting enterprise known as "Bad Newz Kennels" on Vick's property in rural Surry County.
"The 'Bad Newz Kennels' operation and gambling monies were almost exclusively funded by Vick," a summary of facts supporting the plea agreement and signed by Taylor states.
The plea deal requires Taylor to testify against Vick and his two remaining co-defendants if called upon to do so. Taylor cannot get a stiffer sentence or face any new charges based on any new information he provides, according to terms of the agreement.
Additional charges are possible, however, against Vick and the other two. Federal prosecutors have said a superseding indictment will be issued in August.
Vick's lead attorney, Billy Martin, did not immediately return a phone message.
Taylor, 34, of Hampton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities, and conspiring to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.
Vick pleaded not guilty to the same charges last week and said in a written statement that he looked forward to "clearing my good name." He also pleaded with the public to resist a rush to judgment.
The gruesome details outlined in the July 17 indictment have fueled public protests against Vick and prompted the suspension of some of his lucrative endorsement deals. Also, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has barred Vick from the Falcons' training camp.
The summary of facts signed by Taylor supports the indictment's claims that the dogfighting ring executed underperforming dogs by drowning, hanging and other brutal means. Taylor admitted shooting one dog and electrocuting another when they did not perform well in test fights in the summer of 2002.
Vick, 27, attended several dogfights in Virginia and other states with his partners, according to the statement. Prosecutors claim the fights offered purses as high as $26,000.
Taylor, who will be sentenced Dec. 14, said he was not promised any specific sentence in return for his cooperation with the government.
He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, although federal sentencing guidelines likely will call for less. The range will be determined by the court's probation office, but the judge can depart from that range if he finds aggravating or mitigating circumstances.
Taylor and his attorney, Stephen A. Hudgins of Newport News, declined to answer reporters' questions as they left the federal courthouse. Prosecutors also would not comment.
During the hearing, Taylor spoke only in response to routine yes-or-no questions from U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. He answered "Yes" when the judge asked if he had agreed to cooperate with the government.
Taylor acknowledged in the summary of facts that he found the property that Vick purchased in 2001 for $30,000 for development into a dogfighting compound. Taylor says he maintained and trained the dogs for about three years, using his share of winnings — which were split among the partners — for living expenses.
He left the operation after a falling out with co-defendant Quanis L. Phillips and others in September 2004, according to the statement of facts.
Vick and Purnell A. Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach, and Phillips, 28, of Atlanta, are scheduled for trial Nov. 26. They remain free without bond.
Vick said he looked forward to clearing his good name. Yeah, we'll see what happens in court. Then we'll decide if your name is still good or if you're nothing but a worthless liar, or if you're just worthless like your punk-ass younger brother.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
mush! mush! mush! fly! fly! fly! we'll enjoy it while it lasts
"Simpsons Movie" rules foreign box office
Reuters
Sun Jul 29, 11:29 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Duplicating its No. 1 debut in North America, "The Simpsons Movie" opened on top internationally over the weekend, grossing an estimated $96 million from 71 territories.
The Fox TV franchise, which has run 18 seasons and some 400 episodes, proved to be a No. 1 attraction as a feature film in just about every market it played, according to Paul Hanneman, co-president of 20th Century Fox International. Its worldwide box office total stands at $167.9 million.
Opening weekend tallies of "Simpsons" in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay set film industry records. In Finland, it registered the biggest opening weekend ever for an animation title, as well as setting opening-weekend records for Fox in Bolivia, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
The film's biggest single market was the U.K., where Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie hauled away an estimated $27.8 million. "The Simpsons" stands as Fox's second-biggest U.K. opening ever, after 2005's "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith."
In Germany, "Simpsons" drew an estimated $14.2 million, the third-biggest market opening for an animation title. In Australia, the tally was $10.7 million, which Hanneman believed was the biggest market opening ever for an animation title.
The debut in France provided an estimated $9.3 million. The Spain bow, also Fox's second-biggest on record after "Sith," came in at $9.7 million.
Hanneman noted that "Simpsons" opened in eight of the top 15 international markets on the weekend, with playdates in the remaining top markets spread out over August and September.
After two weekends at No. 1, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" slipped to No. 2 with $50 million from 59 markets; its total stands at $450 million. Britain leads the way with $76.4 million, followd by Germany with $45.7 million.
Finishing third was "Transformers," which took in $42 million from 48 markets. Its overseas total stands at $246.5 million. By far, the biggest of the five new markets for "Transformers" was the U.K., where it bowed to an estimated $16.6 million.
In fourth place was "Ratatouille," which charmed $10 million from 18 territories, led by Japan with $4.2 million and South Korea with $2 million. Openings in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are scheduled through the coming week.
No. 5 was "Die Hard 4," with $8.5 million from 51 markets. Released domestically as "Live Free or Die Hard," the film has earned $175 million internationally, with a slew of key overseas markets to play in August through October.
Other foreign totals: "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," $644.5 million; "Shrek the Third," $397.5 million; "Mr. Bean's Holiday" (which bows domestically on August 24), $186 million; "Ocean's Thirteen," $159.3 million; and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," $110 million.
bwaaa-hahahahaha!
Homer Rakes in the D'oh; Lindsay Doesn't
Sun Jul 29, 11:11 AM ET
Los Angeles (E! Online) - The latest season of The Simpsons was solid. The opening weekend of The Simpsons Movie was huge.
Lindsay Lohan's new movie wasn't. Solid, huge or much of anything.
That Lohan's new vehicle sputtered was no surprise. That Homer and Marge's new set of wheels got off to such a fast start wasn't, either.
The much-marketed, well-reviewed Simpsons Movie socked away $71.9 million, dominating the weekend box-office competition, per Exhibitor Relations Co. estimates Sunday.
The performance marked the third-biggest opening for an animated movie, behind Shrek the Third and Shrek 2, and, for those who love minutia within minutia, the all-time biggest opening for a traditional, 2D-animated movie. (The Shreks of the world are considered works of new-fangled 3D animation.)
An even-more offbeat, but perhaps more telling factoid: If every current viewer of the ultra-long-running Fox comedy (it averaged 8.9 million devotees last season) bought a movie ticket this weekend (at, say, 2006's average price of $6.55), The Simpsons Movie "only" would have grossed $58.3 million.
A Fox executive didn't argue that The Simpsons Movie drew in fans beyond The Simpsons TV show.
"I think there's no question of that," Chris Aronson, Fox senior vice president of distribution, said on Sunday. "...What we found is we had extraordinary family play."
The way Aronson sees it, The Simpsons Movie also tapped into the franchise's large well of lapsed Simpsons fans--people who watched the TV series in 1996, say, but not 2006.
"Eighteen years is a long time to watch a TV series," Aronson said.
Springfield's finest--Homer, Marge and jaundiced charges--have been TV stars on Fox since 1989--or 1987, if you count their early, formative years as fillers on The Tracey Ullman Show. The Simpsons is due to embark on its 19th season this fall.
The success of The Simpsons Movie meant a demotion for last weekend's champ, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (second place, $19.1 million; $71.6 million overall). Still, the Adam Sandler-Kevin James comedy held up better than most in these short-attention-span days, with business down only 44 percent this weekend from last.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (third place, $17.1 million; $241.8 million overall), Hairspray (fourth place, $15.6 million; $59.3 million overall) and Transformers (sixth place, $11.5 million; $284.6 million overall) each added to its respective take with another eight-digit weekend.
No Reservations, the Catherine Zeta-Jones-Aaron Eckhart romantic kitchen comedy, did better than its lousy reviews might have portended. This is not to say the movie did well, but with an $11.8 million opening (fifth place), it did about as much (or little) as romantic comedies of any setting are doing this year. Its debut was smaller than Music and Lyrics's and Because I Said So's; it was bigger than License to Wed's.
Speaking of License to Wed, there's not much to say. In its fourth weekend, the Robin Williams experience fell out of the Top 10 ($1.3 million), having huffed and puffed all the way to a $41.7 million cumulative haul.
Also falling out of the Top 10: 1408 ($1.2 million, per Box Office Mojo), which leaves after a respectable, six-week, $70 million-grossing run; Knocked Up ($1.2 million), which leaves after an admirable, nine-week, $145.1 million-grossing run; and, Evan Almighty ($1.1 million; $96.3 million overall), which leaves before anyone can make anymore snide remarks at its expensive expense.
In a couple of days or so, I Know Who Killed Me will like, Evan Almighty, have slipped from sight. But for now, the Lohan thriller is fair game.
Opening three days after its star was busted for DUI and cocaine possession a grand sum of 11 days after checking out rehab, the movie "grossed" $3.4 million (ninth place), the weakest debut of Lohan's nearly 10-year film career, save for 2006's Bobby, which opened at only two theaters, according to Box Office Mojo stats.
Lohan's bad box-office run began last year with the, as it turned out, the inaptly titled comedy Just My Luck, and coincided with bad press concerning her off-screen bouts of dehydration and other maladies.
If it'll make Lohan feel any better, I Know Who Killed Me did manage to fend off the new comedy Who's Your Caddy? (10th place, $2.9 million), which all things considered did very well for a movie that somebody decided, after careful consideration, to name Who's Your Caddy?
On the art-house scene, the new Queen Latifah-narrated documentary Artic Tale ($20,555 at four theaters) was no March of the Penguins, which scooted off with $137,492 also at just four theaters in 2005, per Box Office Mojo.
A much bigger draw was the Iraq War doc No End in Sight ($31,500 at two theaters), which sold more tickets, per site, than any movie other than The Simpsons Movie.
For one weekend, at least, Homer couldn't lose.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
• The Simpsons Movie, $71.9 million • I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, $19.1 million • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $17.1 million • Hairspray, $15.6 million • No Reservations, $11.8 million • Transformers, $11.5 million • Ratatouille, $7.2 million • Live Free or Die Hard, $5.4 million • I Know Who Killed Me, $3.4 million • Who's Your Caddy?, $2.9 million
Sun Jul 29, 11:11 AM ET
Los Angeles (E! Online) - The latest season of The Simpsons was solid. The opening weekend of The Simpsons Movie was huge.
Lindsay Lohan's new movie wasn't. Solid, huge or much of anything.
That Lohan's new vehicle sputtered was no surprise. That Homer and Marge's new set of wheels got off to such a fast start wasn't, either.
The much-marketed, well-reviewed Simpsons Movie socked away $71.9 million, dominating the weekend box-office competition, per Exhibitor Relations Co. estimates Sunday.
The performance marked the third-biggest opening for an animated movie, behind Shrek the Third and Shrek 2, and, for those who love minutia within minutia, the all-time biggest opening for a traditional, 2D-animated movie. (The Shreks of the world are considered works of new-fangled 3D animation.)
An even-more offbeat, but perhaps more telling factoid: If every current viewer of the ultra-long-running Fox comedy (it averaged 8.9 million devotees last season) bought a movie ticket this weekend (at, say, 2006's average price of $6.55), The Simpsons Movie "only" would have grossed $58.3 million.
A Fox executive didn't argue that The Simpsons Movie drew in fans beyond The Simpsons TV show.
"I think there's no question of that," Chris Aronson, Fox senior vice president of distribution, said on Sunday. "...What we found is we had extraordinary family play."
The way Aronson sees it, The Simpsons Movie also tapped into the franchise's large well of lapsed Simpsons fans--people who watched the TV series in 1996, say, but not 2006.
"Eighteen years is a long time to watch a TV series," Aronson said.
Springfield's finest--Homer, Marge and jaundiced charges--have been TV stars on Fox since 1989--or 1987, if you count their early, formative years as fillers on The Tracey Ullman Show. The Simpsons is due to embark on its 19th season this fall.
The success of The Simpsons Movie meant a demotion for last weekend's champ, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (second place, $19.1 million; $71.6 million overall). Still, the Adam Sandler-Kevin James comedy held up better than most in these short-attention-span days, with business down only 44 percent this weekend from last.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (third place, $17.1 million; $241.8 million overall), Hairspray (fourth place, $15.6 million; $59.3 million overall) and Transformers (sixth place, $11.5 million; $284.6 million overall) each added to its respective take with another eight-digit weekend.
No Reservations, the Catherine Zeta-Jones-Aaron Eckhart romantic kitchen comedy, did better than its lousy reviews might have portended. This is not to say the movie did well, but with an $11.8 million opening (fifth place), it did about as much (or little) as romantic comedies of any setting are doing this year. Its debut was smaller than Music and Lyrics's and Because I Said So's; it was bigger than License to Wed's.
Speaking of License to Wed, there's not much to say. In its fourth weekend, the Robin Williams experience fell out of the Top 10 ($1.3 million), having huffed and puffed all the way to a $41.7 million cumulative haul.
Also falling out of the Top 10: 1408 ($1.2 million, per Box Office Mojo), which leaves after a respectable, six-week, $70 million-grossing run; Knocked Up ($1.2 million), which leaves after an admirable, nine-week, $145.1 million-grossing run; and, Evan Almighty ($1.1 million; $96.3 million overall), which leaves before anyone can make anymore snide remarks at its expensive expense.
In a couple of days or so, I Know Who Killed Me will like, Evan Almighty, have slipped from sight. But for now, the Lohan thriller is fair game.
Opening three days after its star was busted for DUI and cocaine possession a grand sum of 11 days after checking out rehab, the movie "grossed" $3.4 million (ninth place), the weakest debut of Lohan's nearly 10-year film career, save for 2006's Bobby, which opened at only two theaters, according to Box Office Mojo stats.
Lohan's bad box-office run began last year with the, as it turned out, the inaptly titled comedy Just My Luck, and coincided with bad press concerning her off-screen bouts of dehydration and other maladies.
If it'll make Lohan feel any better, I Know Who Killed Me did manage to fend off the new comedy Who's Your Caddy? (10th place, $2.9 million), which all things considered did very well for a movie that somebody decided, after careful consideration, to name Who's Your Caddy?
On the art-house scene, the new Queen Latifah-narrated documentary Artic Tale ($20,555 at four theaters) was no March of the Penguins, which scooted off with $137,492 also at just four theaters in 2005, per Box Office Mojo.
A much bigger draw was the Iraq War doc No End in Sight ($31,500 at two theaters), which sold more tickets, per site, than any movie other than The Simpsons Movie.
For one weekend, at least, Homer couldn't lose.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
• The Simpsons Movie, $71.9 million • I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, $19.1 million • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $17.1 million • Hairspray, $15.6 million • No Reservations, $11.8 million • Transformers, $11.5 million • Ratatouille, $7.2 million • Live Free or Die Hard, $5.4 million • I Know Who Killed Me, $3.4 million • Who's Your Caddy?, $2.9 million
listings
1. "The Simpsons Movie," $71.9 million. (This will probably fall out of the top 5 next week. Hopefully it won't kill the series.)
2. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," $19.1 million.
3. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $17.1 million. (It's gotta hurt that something as weak as Chuck & Larry beat this out. Fans must be in an uproar at Comic-Con- haha!!!)
4. "Hairspray," $15.6 million.
5. "No Reservations," $11.8 million. (Are you serious? What a joke. I guess she needed to get away from her father/husband?)
6. "Transformers," $11.5 million.
7. "Ratatouille," $7.2 million.
8. "Live Free or Die Hard," $5.4 million.
9. "I Know Who Killed Me," $3.4 million. (Really? Someone thought this was a good idea? Lohan's new movie one of the worst of the year )
10. "Who's Your Caddy," $2.9 million. (Why was this movie even made? I would guess it was made just as a filler movie? "We have to spend this money or else we won't get our budget for next year. I know, let's make some crap!" And there you have it. The birth of crap. "Who's Your Caddy?" hits one in the rough)
2. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," $19.1 million.
3. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $17.1 million. (It's gotta hurt that something as weak as Chuck & Larry beat this out. Fans must be in an uproar at Comic-Con- haha!!!)
4. "Hairspray," $15.6 million.
5. "No Reservations," $11.8 million. (Are you serious? What a joke. I guess she needed to get away from her father/husband?)
6. "Transformers," $11.5 million.
7. "Ratatouille," $7.2 million.
8. "Live Free or Die Hard," $5.4 million.
9. "I Know Who Killed Me," $3.4 million. (Really? Someone thought this was a good idea? Lohan's new movie one of the worst of the year )
10. "Who's Your Caddy," $2.9 million. (Why was this movie even made? I would guess it was made just as a filler movie? "We have to spend this money or else we won't get our budget for next year. I know, let's make some crap!" And there you have it. The birth of crap. "Who's Your Caddy?" hits one in the rough)
it will drop far down the list next weekend
'The Simpsons Movie' earns big D'oh!
Sun Jul 29, 10:53 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Woo Hoo! "The Simpsons Movie" turned doughnuts into dollars over the weekend, raking in $71.9 million to debut as the top movie this week.
The big screen tale of the lovable, if dysfunctional, family rolled over the competition, sending last week's top movie, Universal Studio's "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," into second place with $19 million, a 44 percent drop.
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," from Warner Bros., fell to third place with $17.1 million, a 48 percent drop from last week. The film has grossed $242 million domestically after three weeks in theaters.
"Homer's odyssey paid off," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
The film, which featured the antics of yellow-hued Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and a host of motley characters, grossed an average of $18,320 on 3,922 screens across the country and also opened strongly in 70 foreign markets.
"We are ecstatic," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president for distribution at 20th Century Fox. "It far exceeded even the most optimistic of expectations."
The hand-drawn movie had the fifth best opening weekend of the year, beating such notable contenders as "Transformers," from Paramount, "Ghost Rider," from Sony Pictures and the computer-animated "Ratatouille," from The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios.
"It's unprecedented to have the longest-running sitcom of all time still on the air and have it also be the number one movie in theaters," Dergarabedian said.
Dergarabedian praised the film's marketing campaign, which included dressing a number of 7-Eleven stores around the country as Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores selling such Simpsons' favorites as Buzz Cola and Squishees.
The debut was good news for Fox, which also has done well this year with top-grossing films "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."
The long-awaited film version of the Fox Television show played well across the country and with all age brackets, Fox said Sunday, giving the distributor hope that it will hold its own against next week's big opener, "The Bourne Ultimatum," from Universal.
The stellar debut of "The Simpsons Movie" helped propel the summer box office take. This week's top-12 films grossed $168.6 million, up a whopping 45 percent from the top 12 last year, which included "Miami Vice" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
The weekend's other debuts made the top 10, but lagged far behind "The Simpsons Movie."
"No Reservations," the Warner Bros. romantic comedy starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as a gourmet chef, earned $11.8 million.
"I Know Who Killed Me," a Sony Pictures/Tri-Star thriller starring Lindsay Lohan, debuted in 9th place with a paltry $3.4 million.
"Who's Your Caddy," from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, grossed $2.9 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
Sun Jul 29, 10:53 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Woo Hoo! "The Simpsons Movie" turned doughnuts into dollars over the weekend, raking in $71.9 million to debut as the top movie this week.
The big screen tale of the lovable, if dysfunctional, family rolled over the competition, sending last week's top movie, Universal Studio's "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," into second place with $19 million, a 44 percent drop.
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," from Warner Bros., fell to third place with $17.1 million, a 48 percent drop from last week. The film has grossed $242 million domestically after three weeks in theaters.
"Homer's odyssey paid off," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
The film, which featured the antics of yellow-hued Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and a host of motley characters, grossed an average of $18,320 on 3,922 screens across the country and also opened strongly in 70 foreign markets.
"We are ecstatic," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president for distribution at 20th Century Fox. "It far exceeded even the most optimistic of expectations."
The hand-drawn movie had the fifth best opening weekend of the year, beating such notable contenders as "Transformers," from Paramount, "Ghost Rider," from Sony Pictures and the computer-animated "Ratatouille," from The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios.
"It's unprecedented to have the longest-running sitcom of all time still on the air and have it also be the number one movie in theaters," Dergarabedian said.
Dergarabedian praised the film's marketing campaign, which included dressing a number of 7-Eleven stores around the country as Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores selling such Simpsons' favorites as Buzz Cola and Squishees.
The debut was good news for Fox, which also has done well this year with top-grossing films "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."
The long-awaited film version of the Fox Television show played well across the country and with all age brackets, Fox said Sunday, giving the distributor hope that it will hold its own against next week's big opener, "The Bourne Ultimatum," from Universal.
The stellar debut of "The Simpsons Movie" helped propel the summer box office take. This week's top-12 films grossed $168.6 million, up a whopping 45 percent from the top 12 last year, which included "Miami Vice" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
The weekend's other debuts made the top 10, but lagged far behind "The Simpsons Movie."
"No Reservations," the Warner Bros. romantic comedy starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as a gourmet chef, earned $11.8 million.
"I Know Who Killed Me," a Sony Pictures/Tri-Star thriller starring Lindsay Lohan, debuted in 9th place with a paltry $3.4 million.
"Who's Your Caddy," from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, grossed $2.9 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
two months ago and we are just now hearing about it?
Scientists excited by Indonesian-caught coelacanth
Sat Jul 28, 11:06 PM ET
MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) - Two months ago Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama caught a fish so exceptional that an international team of scientists rushed here to investigate.
French experts equipped with sonar and GPS asked Lahama to reconstruct, in his dugout canoe, exactly what it was he did that enabled him to catch a rare coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world's oldest.
Last May 19, Lahama and his son Delvy manoevred their frail canoe into the Malalayang river, on the outskirts of Manado, on northern Sulawesi island. Like any other morning, they rowed out to sea and fished within 200 metres (yards) of the beach.
"I very quickly unrolled the usual trawl line with three hooks, about 110 metres (yards) long, and at the end of three minutes, I felt a large catch," Lahama recounts.
The pull was strong: "I had painful arms -- I felt such a resistance, I thought that I was pulling up a piece of coral."
After 30 minutes of effort under the searing tropical sun, he finally saw a fish swishing at a depth of about 20 metres (65 feet).
"The sea was very calm this day. There was no wind, no clouds, no current. The water was very clear. The fish let itself be drawn in from there," he says.
He thought he was dreaming, he said, when he saw the creature at the end of his line.
"It was an enormous fish. It had phosphorescent green eyes and legs. If I had pulled it up during the night, I would have been afraid and I would have thrown it back in," he exclaims.
Coelacanths, closely related to lungfish, usually live at depths of 200-1,000 metres (656-3,200 feet). They can grow up to two metres (6.5 feet) in length and weigh as much as 91 kilogrammes (200 pounds).
Lahama, 48, has fished since he was 10 years old, like his father and his grandfather before him. But he was unlikely to have ever run into this "living fossil" species, as scientists have dubbed the enigmatic fish.
Lahama's catch, 1.3 metres long and weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds) was only the second ever captured alive in Asia. The first was caught in 1998, also off Manado.
That catch astonished ichtyologists, who until then had been convinced that the last coelacanths were found only off eastern Africa, mainly in the Commoros archipelago. They had been thought to have died out around the time dinosaurs became extinct, until one was found there in 1938.
Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest that the fish has changed little over that period.
Lahama, who had never even heard of the fish, initially thought of selling his white-spotted catch.
"Considering his weight, I said to myself, this will fetch a good price."
Returning to port, he showed it off to the most senior fisherman, who became alarmed.
"It is a fish which has legs -- it should be given back to the water. It will bring us misfortune," he told him. But the unsuperstitious Lahama decided to keep it.
After spending 30 minutes out of water, the fish, still alive, was placed in a netted pool in front of a restaurant at the edge of the sea. It survived for 17 hours.
The local fisheries authorities filmed the fish swimming in the metre-deep pool, capturing invaluable images as the species had only previously been recorded in caves at great depths.
Once dead, the fish was frozen.
After the fisherman was interviewed, French, Japanese and Indonesian scientists working with the French Institute for Development and Research carried out an autopsy on the coelacanth. Genetic analysis is to follow.
The site of capture, so close to the beach and from a depth of 105 metres, had intrigued the scientists. Does the Indonesian coelacanth live in shallower waters than its cousin in the Commoros?
Lahama's fish is to be preserved and will be displayed in a museum in Manado.
Sat Jul 28, 11:06 PM ET
MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) - Two months ago Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama caught a fish so exceptional that an international team of scientists rushed here to investigate.
French experts equipped with sonar and GPS asked Lahama to reconstruct, in his dugout canoe, exactly what it was he did that enabled him to catch a rare coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world's oldest.
Last May 19, Lahama and his son Delvy manoevred their frail canoe into the Malalayang river, on the outskirts of Manado, on northern Sulawesi island. Like any other morning, they rowed out to sea and fished within 200 metres (yards) of the beach.
"I very quickly unrolled the usual trawl line with three hooks, about 110 metres (yards) long, and at the end of three minutes, I felt a large catch," Lahama recounts.
The pull was strong: "I had painful arms -- I felt such a resistance, I thought that I was pulling up a piece of coral."
After 30 minutes of effort under the searing tropical sun, he finally saw a fish swishing at a depth of about 20 metres (65 feet).
"The sea was very calm this day. There was no wind, no clouds, no current. The water was very clear. The fish let itself be drawn in from there," he says.
He thought he was dreaming, he said, when he saw the creature at the end of his line.
"It was an enormous fish. It had phosphorescent green eyes and legs. If I had pulled it up during the night, I would have been afraid and I would have thrown it back in," he exclaims.
Coelacanths, closely related to lungfish, usually live at depths of 200-1,000 metres (656-3,200 feet). They can grow up to two metres (6.5 feet) in length and weigh as much as 91 kilogrammes (200 pounds).
Lahama, 48, has fished since he was 10 years old, like his father and his grandfather before him. But he was unlikely to have ever run into this "living fossil" species, as scientists have dubbed the enigmatic fish.
Lahama's catch, 1.3 metres long and weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds) was only the second ever captured alive in Asia. The first was caught in 1998, also off Manado.
That catch astonished ichtyologists, who until then had been convinced that the last coelacanths were found only off eastern Africa, mainly in the Commoros archipelago. They had been thought to have died out around the time dinosaurs became extinct, until one was found there in 1938.
Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest that the fish has changed little over that period.
Lahama, who had never even heard of the fish, initially thought of selling his white-spotted catch.
"Considering his weight, I said to myself, this will fetch a good price."
Returning to port, he showed it off to the most senior fisherman, who became alarmed.
"It is a fish which has legs -- it should be given back to the water. It will bring us misfortune," he told him. But the unsuperstitious Lahama decided to keep it.
After spending 30 minutes out of water, the fish, still alive, was placed in a netted pool in front of a restaurant at the edge of the sea. It survived for 17 hours.
The local fisheries authorities filmed the fish swimming in the metre-deep pool, capturing invaluable images as the species had only previously been recorded in caves at great depths.
Once dead, the fish was frozen.
After the fisherman was interviewed, French, Japanese and Indonesian scientists working with the French Institute for Development and Research carried out an autopsy on the coelacanth. Genetic analysis is to follow.
The site of capture, so close to the beach and from a depth of 105 metres, had intrigued the scientists. Does the Indonesian coelacanth live in shallower waters than its cousin in the Commoros?
Lahama's fish is to be preserved and will be displayed in a museum in Manado.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
it was released june 25, 1982
Dangerous Days Trailer: The Final Cut
Own the Essential Collection, soon, on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc
Own the Essential Collection, soon, on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc
Thursday, July 26, 2007
how... romantic???
Quadruple Sunsets Possible
Wed Jul 25, 11:00 AM ET
Astronomers have spotted a dusty disk in a four-star solar system that could be home to a planet in the making.
Using the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers spotted the swirling disk around a pair of stars in the quadruple-star system HD 98800, located 150 light-years away in the constellation TW Hydrae.
If a planet did form in the disk, its sky would be bathed in the light of four suns. One pair of suns would blaze brightly, while the other pair, gravitationally bound to the first pair, would appear as little more than faint pinpoints of light.
The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
So-called "circumstellar" disks like the one that rings HD 98800 can be the birthplace of planets. Most disks are smooth and continuous, but Spitzer detected a gap in the HD 98800 disk that could be evidence of one or more immature "protoplanets" carving out lanes in the dust.
"Planets are like cosmic vacuums,' said study team member Elise Furlan of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They clear up all the dirt that is in their path around the central stars."
Quadruple sunsets
The researchers spied two separate belts of material in the circumstellar disk. One belt sits at 1.5 to 2 astronomical units (AU) from the binary stars and likely consists of fine dust grains. The other is located about 5.9 AU away from and is probably made up of asteroids or comets. (One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the sun.) A swath of near-empty space separates the two belts, inside of which a budding planet might roam.
Alternatively, the researchers think the gap could be caused by a gravitational tug-of-war between the system's four stars. The other two stars are also doubled up, and the two binary pairs are separated by about 50 AU-slightly more than the distance between our sun and Pluto.
"Typically, when astronomers see gaps like this in a debris disk, they suspect that a planet has cleared a path," Furlan said. "However, given the presence of the diskless pair of stars sitting 50 AU away, the inward-migrating dust particles are likely subject to complex, time-varying forces, so at this point the existence of a planet is just speculation."
Not uncommon
The stars that make up each stellar doublet orbit around each other, and the two pairs circle one another as well.
Worlds with multiple sunsets are not uncommon. Astronomers used to think that strong gravitational forces from multiple stars might interfere with planet formation, but recent surveys have revealed that the dusty debris disks that function like nurseries for new planets are as common around double star systems as they are around single ones. A few triple-star systems are even known.
"Since many young stars form in multiple systems, we have to realize that the evolution of disks around them and the possible formation of planetary systems can be way more complicated and perturbed than in a simple case like our solar system," Furlan said.
Wed Jul 25, 11:00 AM ET
Astronomers have spotted a dusty disk in a four-star solar system that could be home to a planet in the making.
Using the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers spotted the swirling disk around a pair of stars in the quadruple-star system HD 98800, located 150 light-years away in the constellation TW Hydrae.
If a planet did form in the disk, its sky would be bathed in the light of four suns. One pair of suns would blaze brightly, while the other pair, gravitationally bound to the first pair, would appear as little more than faint pinpoints of light.
The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
So-called "circumstellar" disks like the one that rings HD 98800 can be the birthplace of planets. Most disks are smooth and continuous, but Spitzer detected a gap in the HD 98800 disk that could be evidence of one or more immature "protoplanets" carving out lanes in the dust.
"Planets are like cosmic vacuums,' said study team member Elise Furlan of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They clear up all the dirt that is in their path around the central stars."
Quadruple sunsets
The researchers spied two separate belts of material in the circumstellar disk. One belt sits at 1.5 to 2 astronomical units (AU) from the binary stars and likely consists of fine dust grains. The other is located about 5.9 AU away from and is probably made up of asteroids or comets. (One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the sun.) A swath of near-empty space separates the two belts, inside of which a budding planet might roam.
Alternatively, the researchers think the gap could be caused by a gravitational tug-of-war between the system's four stars. The other two stars are also doubled up, and the two binary pairs are separated by about 50 AU-slightly more than the distance between our sun and Pluto.
"Typically, when astronomers see gaps like this in a debris disk, they suspect that a planet has cleared a path," Furlan said. "However, given the presence of the diskless pair of stars sitting 50 AU away, the inward-migrating dust particles are likely subject to complex, time-varying forces, so at this point the existence of a planet is just speculation."
Not uncommon
The stars that make up each stellar doublet orbit around each other, and the two pairs circle one another as well.
Worlds with multiple sunsets are not uncommon. Astronomers used to think that strong gravitational forces from multiple stars might interfere with planet formation, but recent surveys have revealed that the dusty debris disks that function like nurseries for new planets are as common around double star systems as they are around single ones. A few triple-star systems are even known.
"Since many young stars form in multiple systems, we have to realize that the evolution of disks around them and the possible formation of planetary systems can be way more complicated and perturbed than in a simple case like our solar system," Furlan said.
only 3-million years?
Three-million-year old mammal remains found in Greece
Tue Jul 24, 10:32 AM ET
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AFP) - A group of paleontologists have discovered the tusks and petrified remains of a mastodon, or large mammoth-like mammal, that lived some three million years ago, the head of the team told AFP Monday.
The Greek paleontologists from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, along with Dutch specialists from the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, discovered the remains in the northern Milia region near Grevena.
The tusks weighed a tonne each and measured five metres (16 feet), the longest found to date.
"This is a rare and unique find in Greece, and is useful for studies of a period dating back three million years," geology professor Evangelia Tsoukala told AFP.
The researchers also dug up petrified remains of a humerus -- the long bone of the arm or forelimb extending from the shoulder to the elbow -- thigh bones and teeth.
The animal appears to have stood 3.5 metres tall and weighed more than six tonnes, Tsoukala said.
Her team, which began excavating sites in the area in 1996, discovered another pair of 4.38-metre mastodon tusks in 1998, and in 2002 they dug up parts of a petrified rhinoceros skull dating from the same period.
Tue Jul 24, 10:32 AM ET
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AFP) - A group of paleontologists have discovered the tusks and petrified remains of a mastodon, or large mammoth-like mammal, that lived some three million years ago, the head of the team told AFP Monday.
The Greek paleontologists from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, along with Dutch specialists from the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, discovered the remains in the northern Milia region near Grevena.
The tusks weighed a tonne each and measured five metres (16 feet), the longest found to date.
"This is a rare and unique find in Greece, and is useful for studies of a period dating back three million years," geology professor Evangelia Tsoukala told AFP.
The researchers also dug up petrified remains of a humerus -- the long bone of the arm or forelimb extending from the shoulder to the elbow -- thigh bones and teeth.
The animal appears to have stood 3.5 metres tall and weighed more than six tonnes, Tsoukala said.
Her team, which began excavating sites in the area in 1996, discovered another pair of 4.38-metre mastodon tusks in 1998, and in 2002 they dug up parts of a petrified rhinoceros skull dating from the same period.
where's my elephant?!?!
Giant prehistoric tusks found in Greece
ATHENS, Greece - Researchers in northern Greece have uncovered two massive tusks of a prehistoric mastodon that roamed Europe more than 2 million years ago — tusks that could be the largest of their kind ever found.
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The remains of the mastodon, which was similar to the woolly mammoth but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits, were found in an area about 250 miles north of Athens where excavations have uncovered several prehistoric animals over the past decade.
One of the tusks measured 16-feet-4-inches long and the other was more than 15 feet long, the research team said. They were found with the animal's upper and lower jaws — still bearing teeth — and leg bones, said Evangelia Tsoukala, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Thessaloniki, who led the team that excavated the site.
"To find a tusk 5 meters (more than 16 feet) long, that was a big surprise," Tsoukala told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site late Wednesday.
"It's a very significant find because with these sections of the skeleton we can draw conclusions about this animal and its development," she added. "We are also looking for clues about its extinction."
Mastodons, an ancestor of the elephant, roamed Europe, Asia and North America, but how they became extinct remains a mystery. They are thought to have disappeared in Europe and Asia some 2 million years ago, but survived in North America until 10,000 years ago.
Tsoukala said the male animal discovered in Greece lived about 2.5 million years ago.
"This animal was in its prime. It was 25 to 30 years old; they lived until about 55. It was about 3.5 meters (11 1/2 feet) tall at the shoulder, and weighed around six tons," Tsoukala said.
Dutch researcher Dick Mol, who assisted with the excavation, said plant material found near the tusks would be analyzed to try to determine the environment the animal lived in.
He said the skeleton could also provide information.
"It's really a gold mine," said Mol, a research associate at the Museum of Natural History in Rotterdam. "These are the best preserved skeletons in the world of this species."
Dave Martill, a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, said scientists can analyze the growth rings in the tusks to learn more about the world's climate at the time the mastodon lived.
"These animals, in their bones, hold a whole load of information about the environment at the time — not just the animal," said Martill, an independent expert not connected with the excavation.
The bones will also be scoured for the remote chance of finding DNA material.
Researchers from Germany and the United States recently analyzed genetic material from an American mastodon recovered from fossils up to 130,000 years old found in Alaska, providing clearer insight into the evolution of elephants.
If DNA is recovered from the animal found in Greece — which Mol acknowledges is "very doubtful" — it could allow researchers to compare it to other European and American mastodon fossils at an unprecedented level of detail.
The tusks were discovered in October by an excavation machine operator working at a sand quarry, but it took months for the scientific investigation to be organized.
Tsoukala, who has been conducting excavations in the region since 1990, found a mastodon tusk measuring more than 14 feet long in the same area 10 years ago. She said the latest discovery is more significant because the skeletal remains are more complete.
ATHENS, Greece - Researchers in northern Greece have uncovered two massive tusks of a prehistoric mastodon that roamed Europe more than 2 million years ago — tusks that could be the largest of their kind ever found.
ADVERTISEMENT
The remains of the mastodon, which was similar to the woolly mammoth but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits, were found in an area about 250 miles north of Athens where excavations have uncovered several prehistoric animals over the past decade.
One of the tusks measured 16-feet-4-inches long and the other was more than 15 feet long, the research team said. They were found with the animal's upper and lower jaws — still bearing teeth — and leg bones, said Evangelia Tsoukala, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Thessaloniki, who led the team that excavated the site.
"To find a tusk 5 meters (more than 16 feet) long, that was a big surprise," Tsoukala told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site late Wednesday.
"It's a very significant find because with these sections of the skeleton we can draw conclusions about this animal and its development," she added. "We are also looking for clues about its extinction."
Mastodons, an ancestor of the elephant, roamed Europe, Asia and North America, but how they became extinct remains a mystery. They are thought to have disappeared in Europe and Asia some 2 million years ago, but survived in North America until 10,000 years ago.
Tsoukala said the male animal discovered in Greece lived about 2.5 million years ago.
"This animal was in its prime. It was 25 to 30 years old; they lived until about 55. It was about 3.5 meters (11 1/2 feet) tall at the shoulder, and weighed around six tons," Tsoukala said.
Dutch researcher Dick Mol, who assisted with the excavation, said plant material found near the tusks would be analyzed to try to determine the environment the animal lived in.
He said the skeleton could also provide information.
"It's really a gold mine," said Mol, a research associate at the Museum of Natural History in Rotterdam. "These are the best preserved skeletons in the world of this species."
Dave Martill, a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, said scientists can analyze the growth rings in the tusks to learn more about the world's climate at the time the mastodon lived.
"These animals, in their bones, hold a whole load of information about the environment at the time — not just the animal," said Martill, an independent expert not connected with the excavation.
The bones will also be scoured for the remote chance of finding DNA material.
Researchers from Germany and the United States recently analyzed genetic material from an American mastodon recovered from fossils up to 130,000 years old found in Alaska, providing clearer insight into the evolution of elephants.
If DNA is recovered from the animal found in Greece — which Mol acknowledges is "very doubtful" — it could allow researchers to compare it to other European and American mastodon fossils at an unprecedented level of detail.
The tusks were discovered in October by an excavation machine operator working at a sand quarry, but it took months for the scientific investigation to be organized.
Tsoukala, who has been conducting excavations in the region since 1990, found a mastodon tusk measuring more than 14 feet long in the same area 10 years ago. She said the latest discovery is more significant because the skeletal remains are more complete.
what's the zip code for this address?
Evidence of city beneath Alexandria
Thu Jul 26, 2:37 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - Alexander the Great founded Alexandria to immortalize his name amid his quest to conquer the world — but his was apparently not the first city on the famed site on Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
A Smithsonian team has uncovered underwater evidence pointing to an urban settlement at the site dating back seven centuries before Alexander showed up in 331 B.C.
The city he founded, Alexandria, has long been a source of intrigue and wonder, renowned for its library, once the world's largest, and the 396-foot lighthouse on the island of Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
But little was known about the site in pre-Alexander times other than a fishing village called Rhakotis was located there.
Coastal geoarchaeologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History said his team's work suggested a much larger community at Rhakotis than had previously been believed.
The discoveries, reported in the August issue of GSA Today, the journal of the Geological Society of America, came by accident when his team drilled underwater in Alexandria's harbor, Stanley said.
"This often happens in science. We were not searching for an ancient city," said Stanley, who has been working in the Nile Delta for 20 years.
Their project, part of a 2007 Smithsonian-funded study of the subsiding Nile Delta, also involved Egypt's antiquities department and a French offshore group. Scientists extracted three-inch-wide sticks of core sediment 18 feet long under the seabed to try to understand what happened to cause later structures from the Greek and Roman eras to become submerged.
"One of the ways you do this is by taking sediment cores and examining core structures," he told The Associated Press, speaking by phone from Washington.
When his team opened the cores they saw ceramic fragments that reflected human activity but there was no immediate cause for excitement.
Then, more and more rock fragments, ceramic shards from Middle and Upper Egypt, a lot of organic matter plant matter and heavy minerals were found. Radiocarbon dating showed all the items to be from around 1000 B.C.
The scientists then analyzed the concentration of lead isotopes in the cores and saw that they, too, came from around 3,000 years ago.
"This was proof that there was significant metallurgy and human activity going on back 1,000 years B.C.," Stanley said. "Alexandria did not just grow out from a barren desert, but was built atop an active town.
"We had five well defined components that fit — and we had the story. And the story was that Alexander the Great did not come first to set up Alexandria, there was already something there."
Stanley could not say exactly how big the community was, only that it appeared more developed than a small fishing village.
Mohamed Abdel-Maqsud, an Alexandria expert from Egypt's Council of Antiquities, was cautious, saying the work on uncovering Rhakotis was only just beginning.
"There are signs of a flourishing settlement going back to Pharaonic times, but it's too early to say anything about it," Abdel-Maqsud said. "We are still working."
Stanley hopes a study of Rhakotis may one day prove as inspiring as other recent offshore discoveries — such as finds by marine archaeologists of the 2,500-year-old ruins of Herakleion, Canopus and Menouthis, Pharaonic cities built on the coast near present-day Alexandria.
"There is an awful lot more of history to know," Stanley said, adding that geologists need to drill more intensely on land, around the shores, and in Alexandria itself to shed more light on the ancient world.
"I'm sure they will find artifacts of Rhakotis someday," he said. "And we will know more about the people who lived there."
Thu Jul 26, 2:37 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - Alexander the Great founded Alexandria to immortalize his name amid his quest to conquer the world — but his was apparently not the first city on the famed site on Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
A Smithsonian team has uncovered underwater evidence pointing to an urban settlement at the site dating back seven centuries before Alexander showed up in 331 B.C.
The city he founded, Alexandria, has long been a source of intrigue and wonder, renowned for its library, once the world's largest, and the 396-foot lighthouse on the island of Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
But little was known about the site in pre-Alexander times other than a fishing village called Rhakotis was located there.
Coastal geoarchaeologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History said his team's work suggested a much larger community at Rhakotis than had previously been believed.
The discoveries, reported in the August issue of GSA Today, the journal of the Geological Society of America, came by accident when his team drilled underwater in Alexandria's harbor, Stanley said.
"This often happens in science. We were not searching for an ancient city," said Stanley, who has been working in the Nile Delta for 20 years.
Their project, part of a 2007 Smithsonian-funded study of the subsiding Nile Delta, also involved Egypt's antiquities department and a French offshore group. Scientists extracted three-inch-wide sticks of core sediment 18 feet long under the seabed to try to understand what happened to cause later structures from the Greek and Roman eras to become submerged.
"One of the ways you do this is by taking sediment cores and examining core structures," he told The Associated Press, speaking by phone from Washington.
When his team opened the cores they saw ceramic fragments that reflected human activity but there was no immediate cause for excitement.
Then, more and more rock fragments, ceramic shards from Middle and Upper Egypt, a lot of organic matter plant matter and heavy minerals were found. Radiocarbon dating showed all the items to be from around 1000 B.C.
The scientists then analyzed the concentration of lead isotopes in the cores and saw that they, too, came from around 3,000 years ago.
"This was proof that there was significant metallurgy and human activity going on back 1,000 years B.C.," Stanley said. "Alexandria did not just grow out from a barren desert, but was built atop an active town.
"We had five well defined components that fit — and we had the story. And the story was that Alexander the Great did not come first to set up Alexandria, there was already something there."
Stanley could not say exactly how big the community was, only that it appeared more developed than a small fishing village.
Mohamed Abdel-Maqsud, an Alexandria expert from Egypt's Council of Antiquities, was cautious, saying the work on uncovering Rhakotis was only just beginning.
"There are signs of a flourishing settlement going back to Pharaonic times, but it's too early to say anything about it," Abdel-Maqsud said. "We are still working."
Stanley hopes a study of Rhakotis may one day prove as inspiring as other recent offshore discoveries — such as finds by marine archaeologists of the 2,500-year-old ruins of Herakleion, Canopus and Menouthis, Pharaonic cities built on the coast near present-day Alexandria.
"There is an awful lot more of history to know," Stanley said, adding that geologists need to drill more intensely on land, around the shores, and in Alexandria itself to shed more light on the ancient world.
"I'm sure they will find artifacts of Rhakotis someday," he said. "And we will know more about the people who lived there."
Thursday, July 12, 2007
if only she can be cloned
Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough
Wed Jul 11, 10:04 AM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.
"It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the mammoth since it was uncovered in May.
"This specimen may provide unique material allowing us to ultimately decipher the genetic makeup of the mammoth," he told Reuters by telephone.
The mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named "Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.
She had been lying in the frozen ground for up to 40,000 years, said Tikhonov.
The hunter initially thought the mammoth was a dead reindeer when he spotted parts of her body sticking out of damp snow.
When he realized it was a mammoth, scientists were called in and transported the body to regional capital Salekhard, where she is now being kept in a special refrigerator.
TREASURE TROVE FOR SCIENTISTS
Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba is roughly the same size as a large dog.
Tikhonov said the fact the mammoth was so remarkably well-preserved -- its shaggy coat was gone but otherwise it looked as though it had only recently died -- meant it was a potential treasure trove for scientists.
"Such a unique skin condition protects all the internal organs from modern microbes and micro-organisms ... In terms of its future genetic, molecular and microbiological studies, this is just an unprecedented specimen."
But Tikhonov dismissed suggestions the mammoth could be cloned and used to breed a live mammoth. Cloning can only be done if whole cells are intact, but the freezing conditions will have caused the cells to burst, he Tikhonov.
Tikhonov said the next stop on Lyuba's odyssey would be the Zoological Museum in Russia's second city of St Petersburg.
There, Lyuba will join a male baby mammoth called Dima who was unearthed in Magadan in Russia's Far East in 1977 and until now was Russia's best-known example of the species.
"They will make a nice couple, both roughly aged 40,000 years," Tikhonov said.
From St Petersburg, Lyuba will go to Jikei University in Japan to undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display in Salekhard.
Wed Jul 11, 10:04 AM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.
"It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the mammoth since it was uncovered in May.
"This specimen may provide unique material allowing us to ultimately decipher the genetic makeup of the mammoth," he told Reuters by telephone.
The mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named "Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.
She had been lying in the frozen ground for up to 40,000 years, said Tikhonov.
The hunter initially thought the mammoth was a dead reindeer when he spotted parts of her body sticking out of damp snow.
When he realized it was a mammoth, scientists were called in and transported the body to regional capital Salekhard, where she is now being kept in a special refrigerator.
TREASURE TROVE FOR SCIENTISTS
Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba is roughly the same size as a large dog.
Tikhonov said the fact the mammoth was so remarkably well-preserved -- its shaggy coat was gone but otherwise it looked as though it had only recently died -- meant it was a potential treasure trove for scientists.
"Such a unique skin condition protects all the internal organs from modern microbes and micro-organisms ... In terms of its future genetic, molecular and microbiological studies, this is just an unprecedented specimen."
But Tikhonov dismissed suggestions the mammoth could be cloned and used to breed a live mammoth. Cloning can only be done if whole cells are intact, but the freezing conditions will have caused the cells to burst, he Tikhonov.
Tikhonov said the next stop on Lyuba's odyssey would be the Zoological Museum in Russia's second city of St Petersburg.
There, Lyuba will join a male baby mammoth called Dima who was unearthed in Magadan in Russia's Far East in 1977 and until now was Russia's best-known example of the species.
"They will make a nice couple, both roughly aged 40,000 years," Tikhonov said.
From St Petersburg, Lyuba will go to Jikei University in Japan to undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display in Salekhard.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
if only i could go there
Astronomers spot most distant galaxies ever seen
Tue Jul 10, 7:04 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers using a giant telescope say they have found glimpses of the most distant -- and oldest -- galaxies ever seen, a finding that will help provide clues to the origins of the universe.
The light the researchers viewed originated when the universe was only 500 million years old and has been traveling through distant space for billions of years, said Richard Ellis, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology.
This means the team found galaxies further back in time than anyone has ever seen as scientists try to better understand how the universe was born some 13.5 billion years ago, he said in a telephone interview.
"These objects we have found are the earliest we believe that have ever been detected," said Ellis was due to present his findings of work he did with graduate student Dan Stark at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society later on Wednesday.
"The implication is these are the early generation of stars switched on when the universe was in its infancy."
The team used the giant Keck telescope in Hawaii, which boasts a light-gathering mirror measuring 10 meters in diameter and allows astronomers to look deep into space.
But Ellis and his team were able to look even farther by pointing the telescope though a natural magnifying glass in space made up of much closer clusters of galaxies which deflected light and made it easier to see more distant bodies.
This effect of light from distant bodies bending as it passes through the gravitational field of closer objects is known as "gravitational lensing" and is based on one of Einstein's early theories.
"We found areas of space which act as powerful magnifying glasses," he said. "Some of these places magnify the sky as much as 20 times."
The findings offer important clues into the origins of the universe, which scientists believe was created with an explosion of energetic radiation -- the Big Bang.
Ellis explained that during its first 300,000 years the universe was extremely hot before entering a dark period when stars had not yet formed.
The objects the researchers identified could provide a better understanding of the following period when stars started to shine after hydrogen clumped together and collapsed, he said.
"We are really witnessing our origins," he said. "It is exciting we can use this technique to get a glimpse of the universe when it was so young."
Tue Jul 10, 7:04 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers using a giant telescope say they have found glimpses of the most distant -- and oldest -- galaxies ever seen, a finding that will help provide clues to the origins of the universe.
The light the researchers viewed originated when the universe was only 500 million years old and has been traveling through distant space for billions of years, said Richard Ellis, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology.
This means the team found galaxies further back in time than anyone has ever seen as scientists try to better understand how the universe was born some 13.5 billion years ago, he said in a telephone interview.
"These objects we have found are the earliest we believe that have ever been detected," said Ellis was due to present his findings of work he did with graduate student Dan Stark at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society later on Wednesday.
"The implication is these are the early generation of stars switched on when the universe was in its infancy."
The team used the giant Keck telescope in Hawaii, which boasts a light-gathering mirror measuring 10 meters in diameter and allows astronomers to look deep into space.
But Ellis and his team were able to look even farther by pointing the telescope though a natural magnifying glass in space made up of much closer clusters of galaxies which deflected light and made it easier to see more distant bodies.
This effect of light from distant bodies bending as it passes through the gravitational field of closer objects is known as "gravitational lensing" and is based on one of Einstein's early theories.
"We found areas of space which act as powerful magnifying glasses," he said. "Some of these places magnify the sky as much as 20 times."
The findings offer important clues into the origins of the universe, which scientists believe was created with an explosion of energetic radiation -- the Big Bang.
Ellis explained that during its first 300,000 years the universe was extremely hot before entering a dark period when stars had not yet formed.
The objects the researchers identified could provide a better understanding of the following period when stars started to shine after hydrogen clumped together and collapsed, he said.
"We are really witnessing our origins," he said. "It is exciting we can use this technique to get a glimpse of the universe when it was so young."
another found
Ethiopia unveils new find of ancient fossils
Tue Jul 10, 12:14 PM ET
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3.5 million and 3.8 million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution.
Ethiopian archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton and were unearthed in the Afar desert at Woranso-Mille, near where the famous fossil skeleton known as Lucy was found in 1974.
"This is a major finding that could fill a gap in human evolution," he told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
"The fossil hominids from the Woranso-Mille area sample a time period that is poorly known in human evolutionary study."
Researchers say the area, about 140 miles northeast of Addis, boasts the most continuous record of human evolution.
Last year, an international team of scientists unveiled the discovery of 4.1 million-year-old fossils in the region.
Lucy, the most famous find, lived between 3.3 million and 3.6 million years ago. But Yohannes said Afar had yielded early hominid fossil remains spanning the last 6 million years.
"This has placed Ethiopia in the forefront of paleoanthropology," he told reporters.
"Ethiopia is known to the world as the cradle of humankind."
tell us something we don't know
This is ridiculous. What a waste of money. I seriously cannot believe this required a scientific study when the entire world knows that women prefer men with muscles.
just a cool pic
I will ad this to my other pics along the side, but for now please enjoy this where it is.
Springfield
Vt. town named `Simpsons' official home
Tue Jul 10, 5:32 PM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - Maybe it was the pink doughnut. Maybe it was the clever homemade video, or small-town charm. Maybe Homer just figured it was time to go green.
Whatever the reason, this much is true: Tiny Springfield, Vt., beat out 13 other like-named cities Tuesday for the right to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie," winning an online poll it wasn't even invited to participate in.
On July 21, the town's 100-seat movie theater will play host to the movie, which opens July 27.
"Vermont wins," read the purple lettering beside the doughnut-chomping patriarch of America's favorite dysfunctional family on "The Simpsons Movie Springfield Challenge" Web site.
"Ninety-three hundred people, and we won," said an exultant Town Manager Bob Forguites. "I think it's pretty neat, myself."
Springfields in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee also made bids, submitting videos meant to playfully connect their cities to the fictional Springfield in "The Simpsons."
Competition was fierce: Massachusetts got U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy — the inspiration behind the voice of Mayor Quimby on "The Simpsons," to appear in its entry.
"Just think," Kennedy said. "You'll even be able to enjoy some real chowdah."
Vermont's Springfield — which has a bowling alley, a pub, a prison and a nuclear power plant just down the road — wasn't initially part of the contest, but a local Chamber of Commerce executive appealed to movie producer 20th Century Fox and the race was on.
The town submitted a video shot by a 17-year-old volunteer cameraman showing buildings with "Springfield" in them and featuring Homer — played by a Burlington talk-show host — running through town chasing a big, pink, rolling doughnut.
Eventually, a mob chases him into a movie theater.
The video was posted on the contest Web site along with the other entries. By midnight Monday, the deadline, 109,582 votes were cast.
Vermont got 15,367, edging out Springfield, Ill., which drew 14,634.
Florida's Springfield got the lowest vote total, 1,386.
"We're so excited," says Patricia Chaffee, vice president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. "We came in at the last minute, and for us to win, we feel like the underdogs, which makes this so big and so great for us."
Gov. Jim Douglas congratulated the town.
"This is an exciting, exhilarating moment for Vermonters," he said. "Perhaps more importantly, it proves there's really nothing a giant doughnut can't do. To all the other Springfields, I say 'Don't have a cow, man.'"
The mayor of Springfield, Illinois, the state's capital city, took the loss like a man, not a cow.
"We knew all along that it would be a tough battle against the other cities who claim a relationship with the television program," said Timothy Davlin. "We in Springfield, Illinois, have enjoyed the notoriety from this exercise and hope that it translates into more people visiting Springfield looking for the Abraham Lincoln sites and the Simpsons."
Springfield, Ore., hoped it had an in because "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening is from Portland, the state's largest city, and many of the show's landmarks are named after streets in Portland. It noted in its video that "the only Springfield Groening passed through on his way to Hollywood was in Oregon."
According to USA Today, which ran the vote on its Web site, the 13 other Springfields that participated will be given small screenings of their own the night before the movie opens nationwide July 27.
Tue Jul 10, 5:32 PM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - Maybe it was the pink doughnut. Maybe it was the clever homemade video, or small-town charm. Maybe Homer just figured it was time to go green.
Whatever the reason, this much is true: Tiny Springfield, Vt., beat out 13 other like-named cities Tuesday for the right to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie," winning an online poll it wasn't even invited to participate in.
On July 21, the town's 100-seat movie theater will play host to the movie, which opens July 27.
"Vermont wins," read the purple lettering beside the doughnut-chomping patriarch of America's favorite dysfunctional family on "The Simpsons Movie Springfield Challenge" Web site.
"Ninety-three hundred people, and we won," said an exultant Town Manager Bob Forguites. "I think it's pretty neat, myself."
Springfields in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee also made bids, submitting videos meant to playfully connect their cities to the fictional Springfield in "The Simpsons."
Competition was fierce: Massachusetts got U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy — the inspiration behind the voice of Mayor Quimby on "The Simpsons," to appear in its entry.
"Just think," Kennedy said. "You'll even be able to enjoy some real chowdah."
Vermont's Springfield — which has a bowling alley, a pub, a prison and a nuclear power plant just down the road — wasn't initially part of the contest, but a local Chamber of Commerce executive appealed to movie producer 20th Century Fox and the race was on.
The town submitted a video shot by a 17-year-old volunteer cameraman showing buildings with "Springfield" in them and featuring Homer — played by a Burlington talk-show host — running through town chasing a big, pink, rolling doughnut.
Eventually, a mob chases him into a movie theater.
The video was posted on the contest Web site along with the other entries. By midnight Monday, the deadline, 109,582 votes were cast.
Vermont got 15,367, edging out Springfield, Ill., which drew 14,634.
Florida's Springfield got the lowest vote total, 1,386.
"We're so excited," says Patricia Chaffee, vice president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. "We came in at the last minute, and for us to win, we feel like the underdogs, which makes this so big and so great for us."
Gov. Jim Douglas congratulated the town.
"This is an exciting, exhilarating moment for Vermonters," he said. "Perhaps more importantly, it proves there's really nothing a giant doughnut can't do. To all the other Springfields, I say 'Don't have a cow, man.'"
The mayor of Springfield, Illinois, the state's capital city, took the loss like a man, not a cow.
"We knew all along that it would be a tough battle against the other cities who claim a relationship with the television program," said Timothy Davlin. "We in Springfield, Illinois, have enjoyed the notoriety from this exercise and hope that it translates into more people visiting Springfield looking for the Abraham Lincoln sites and the Simpsons."
Springfield, Ore., hoped it had an in because "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening is from Portland, the state's largest city, and many of the show's landmarks are named after streets in Portland. It noted in its video that "the only Springfield Groening passed through on his way to Hollywood was in Oregon."
According to USA Today, which ran the vote on its Web site, the 13 other Springfields that participated will be given small screenings of their own the night before the movie opens nationwide July 27.
Monday, July 02, 2007
this always seemed obvious to me
Secret of flight for world's largest bird revealed
1 hour, 15 minutes ago
CHICAGO (AFP) - It cruised the skies above the Argentine pampas about six million years ago, a soaring behemoth of a bird, the size of a modern light aircraft, dragging about 140 pounds in ballast.
But with little in the way of muscle to flap its wings and propel itself through the air, just how did the largest bird to ever take wing stay aloft?
That question has puzzled paleontologists for decades, but in a study released Monday, US researchers suggest that the now extinct Argentavis magnificens was essentially an expert glider, hitching a lift on thermals and updrafts.
"Once it was airborne, there was no problem. It could travel 200 miles in a day," said Sankar Chatterjee, a distinguished professor of geology at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and lead author of the paper.
Chatterjee and a team of researchers analysed the aerodynamics of the ancient bird of prey by plugging information about its flight parameters into flight simulation software.
The analysis showed that the prehistoric aviator, like most large soaring landbirds, was too large to sustain powered flight, but could soar efficiently, reaching speeds of up to 67 mph in the right conditions.
Like modern-day condors, the Argentavis would have relied on updrafts in the foothills of the Andes, or columns or pockets of rising air known as thermals over the grassy pampas where it hunted its prey, for lifting power.
In all likelihood, the bird would have circled upwards on a thermal and glided from thermal to thermal sometimes over long distances between its roost site and feeding areas.
Although it had a 21-foot wingspan, its 100 foot turning radius was short enough that it could keep circling within a thermal as it rose high to search the plains for its prey.
"The hardest part would be taking off from the ground," said Chatterjee. "It would have been impossible to take off from a standing start.
"It probably used some of the techniques used by hang-glider pilots such as running on sloping ground to get thrust or energy, or running with a headwind behind it."
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I am kind of shocked that this is just now being published. To me, it just seemed like common sense that a bird of this size and weight had to get airborne in a manner other than just being able to flap its wings.
1 hour, 15 minutes ago
CHICAGO (AFP) - It cruised the skies above the Argentine pampas about six million years ago, a soaring behemoth of a bird, the size of a modern light aircraft, dragging about 140 pounds in ballast.
But with little in the way of muscle to flap its wings and propel itself through the air, just how did the largest bird to ever take wing stay aloft?
That question has puzzled paleontologists for decades, but in a study released Monday, US researchers suggest that the now extinct Argentavis magnificens was essentially an expert glider, hitching a lift on thermals and updrafts.
"Once it was airborne, there was no problem. It could travel 200 miles in a day," said Sankar Chatterjee, a distinguished professor of geology at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and lead author of the paper.
Chatterjee and a team of researchers analysed the aerodynamics of the ancient bird of prey by plugging information about its flight parameters into flight simulation software.
The analysis showed that the prehistoric aviator, like most large soaring landbirds, was too large to sustain powered flight, but could soar efficiently, reaching speeds of up to 67 mph in the right conditions.
Like modern-day condors, the Argentavis would have relied on updrafts in the foothills of the Andes, or columns or pockets of rising air known as thermals over the grassy pampas where it hunted its prey, for lifting power.
In all likelihood, the bird would have circled upwards on a thermal and glided from thermal to thermal sometimes over long distances between its roost site and feeding areas.
Although it had a 21-foot wingspan, its 100 foot turning radius was short enough that it could keep circling within a thermal as it rose high to search the plains for its prey.
"The hardest part would be taking off from the ground," said Chatterjee. "It would have been impossible to take off from a standing start.
"It probably used some of the techniques used by hang-glider pilots such as running on sloping ground to get thrust or energy, or running with a headwind behind it."
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I am kind of shocked that this is just now being published. To me, it just seemed like common sense that a bird of this size and weight had to get airborne in a manner other than just being able to flap its wings.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
wish i could have been there yet again
China's terracotta tomb site hides mystery building
Sun Jul 1, 1:44 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - The tomb of China's first emperor, guarded for more than 2,000 years by 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses, has yielded up another archaeological secret.
After five years of research, archaeologists have confirmed that a 30-meter-high building is buried in the vast mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang near the former capital, Xian, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
Duan Qingbo, a researcher with Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, said the building might have been constructed for the soul of the emperor to depart.
Archaeologists have been using remote sensing technology since 2002 to study the internal structure of the unexcavated mausoleum.
They concluded that the building, buried above the main tomb, had four surrounding stair-like walls with nine steps each, Xinhua said.
Qinshihuang unified China in 221 BC.
The life-size terracotta army, buried in pits near the mausoleum to guard the emperor in the afterlife, was accidentally unearthed in 1974 by farmers who were digging a well.
Sun Jul 1, 1:44 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - The tomb of China's first emperor, guarded for more than 2,000 years by 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses, has yielded up another archaeological secret.
After five years of research, archaeologists have confirmed that a 30-meter-high building is buried in the vast mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang near the former capital, Xian, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
Duan Qingbo, a researcher with Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, said the building might have been constructed for the soul of the emperor to depart.
Archaeologists have been using remote sensing technology since 2002 to study the internal structure of the unexcavated mausoleum.
They concluded that the building, buried above the main tomb, had four surrounding stair-like walls with nine steps each, Xinhua said.
Qinshihuang unified China in 221 BC.
The life-size terracotta army, buried in pits near the mausoleum to guard the emperor in the afterlife, was accidentally unearthed in 1974 by farmers who were digging a well.
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