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Fox Subspecies Thought Regionally Extinct Found

Sep 10

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Christine Dell’Amore
for National Geographic News

Long seen as regionally extinct, the Sierra Nevada red fox has been rediscovered in the mountains of central California, thanks to a remote camera, a bag of chicken, and saliva analysis.

The discovery gives conservationists hope that the fox—listed as threatened by California—may just outfox extinction overall, scientists say.

The Sierra Nevada red fox subspecies hadn’t been seen in central California since the 1990s and was considered gone from the area. Only one other population of Sierra Nevada foxes are known, farther north in the Lassen Peak region.
nationalgeographic.com

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U.S. highway deaths at lowest level in 60 years

Sep 10

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By Ashley Halsey III
Washington Post Staff Writer

Deaths on America’s highways have plunged to their lowest level in 60 years, as smarter designs make streets and vehicles safer and aggressive campaigns are waged against drunk and distracted drivers.

The number of people killed dropped to 33,808 in 2009, a total 3,615 below the previous year. It was the lowest total since 1950 and marked the fourth consecutive year highway fatalities have declined since 2005, when 39,252 people died. Motorcycle deaths were down by 16 percent, the first decline in 11 years.
washingtonpost.com

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Herb Quells Cows’ Methane-Laden Belches

Sep 9

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By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor

For scientists concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, cow farts are nowhere near as problematic as their methane-laden belches. Now a new oregano supplement could stem the burps and reduce the potent methane emissions.

Worldwide, cows are responsible for 37 percent of the human-produced methane, according to study researcher Alexander Hristov, an associate professor of dairy nutrition at Penn State University. Most of that methane comes not from the backsides of cows, but from the gas they belch after digesting their food, according to Hristov and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [Read "Marshes Pass Too Much Gas"]

“The cow ‘farts’ very little methane,” Hristov told LiveScience. “The vast majority of methane is produced in the rumen and is belched out.”
livescience.com

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‘Granny Pods’ Keep Elderly Close, At Safe D

Sep 8

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Of all the elderly people he’s visited, the Rev. Kenneth Dupin remembers a woman named Katie in particular.

Katie had a houseful of treasured memorabilia, and she loved to regale him with stories of Washington high society in the 1950s. But after she was moved to a nursing home, “she started crying,” Dupin says. “I went over to her, and she pulled me down to where I could hear her, and she said, ‘Please take me home.’”

She never did go back home, but after she died, her memory stayed with Dupin. He tells NPR’s Audie Cornish that it got him wondering if there was a way to keep people like Katie out of nursing homes and closer to their families. His idea might seem strange, but “granny pods” are catching on.
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Stan’s Story

Sep 6

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Traffic waits 20 minutes for caterpillar convoy to cross

Sep 4

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This is the moment a group of tiny caterpillars formed an incredible 17ft long convoy to cross a road.

Some 136 caterpillars made the single line and wriggled top-to-toe across the road, linked by a thin silk thread which set their path.

And their safety-in-numbers approach had the desired effect as the slow-moving convoy was easily seen by motorists, who were held up for 20 minutes as it made its way across.

The spectacle was captured on camera by British tourist Jamie Rooney, who was visiting the famous Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Jamie, from High Wycombe, Bucks, was in a Jeep full of tourists when their driver slammed the brakes just inches from the crawling caterpillars.
dailymail.co.uk

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Fastest Time To Say First 100 Digits Of Pi While Twisting A Rubik’s Cube And Balancing 15 Books On Head

Sep 4

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Sidewalk Pavers That Can Clean Polluted Air

Sep 2

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New Air Clean paving slabs use special technology to clean the air in polluted cities.

ScienceDaily

The concentrations of toxic nitrogen oxide that are present in German cities regularly exceed the maximum permitted levels. That’s now about to change, as innovative paving slabs that will help protect the environment are being introduced. Coated in titanium dioxide nanoparticles, they reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air.

In Germany, ambient air quality is not always as good as it might be — data from the federal environment ministry makes this all too clear. In 2009, the amounts of toxic nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere exceeded the maximum permitted levels at no fewer than 55 percent of air monitoring stations in urban areas. The ministry reports that road traffic is one of the primary sources of these emissions. In light of this fact, the Baroque city of Fulda is currently embarking on new ways to combat air pollution.
sciencedaily.com

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Russia and China agree to protect Siberian tigers

Sep 2

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China and Russia have agreed to set up the first cross-border protection zone for rare Siberian tigers.

Only about 500 of the big cats are thought to be left in the wild.

The zone will straddle the border along China’s Jilin province and Russia’s Primorsky Krai area, where both sides will enforce anti-poaching measures.

Hunting for skins and body parts, to be used in Chinese traditional medicines, is partly responsible for the decline in tiger numbers.

Illegal logging has also shrunk the tigers’ natural habitat.

Both countries will also adopt a joint monitoring system to track tiger numbers, and conduct joint ecological surveys.
bbc.co.uk

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Retiree gives out euro coins to celebrate retirement

Sep 1

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(AFP)

BERLIN — A German man celebrated his first day of retirement by handing out one-euro coins to passers-by in the quiet town of Aschaffenburg, near Frankfurt, police said Wednesday.

Dressed in a suit, the man wore a sign around his neck that read: “I am not unemployed, nor homeless. I am married. I am doing fine. That’s why I wish to offer you an euro.”
hostednews/afp

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