Males aren't needed by the females, blasphemy!
According to this article, scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.
In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.
The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
A SHARK VIRGIN - TOO MUCH TEETH?
CAN I BUY SOME TOILET PAPER PLEASE?
Good comments on this one.
American Airlines recently announced that beginning in 2009, it would imitate the a la carte pricing plan of Air Canada by offering a basic fare and allowing travelers to select additional services for extra fees.
But when we asked msnbc.com readers what they thought of the "unbundling" of airline services, many were displeased. "This is absolutely ridiculous! Next they will charge us for oxygen on the airplane," wrote dcarey.
Some worry this is only the beginning of additional fees. "I will not be surprised if airlines begin selling magazines, or charging $20 for carry-on baggage, $5 to use the overhead bin, or $2 per restroom visit, and a few bucks for post-flight trash disposal and interior cleaning fee — regardless of whether you fly coach, business, or first class," said km-452746.
Read more.
SOUTHWEST IS THE MOST RELIABLE AIRLINE
Southwest Airlines, the no-frills discount carrier, handily beat the competition in most of the categories we judged. JetBlue, also considered a discount airline despite its plush leather seats and individual television sets, ranked third just behind Continental Airlines. Fourth place went to AirTran, another budget carrier.
Alaska Airlines, Northwest Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines were solidly average performers. United Airlines and US Airways landed at the bottom of the list.
CHIVALRY IN THE DOG WORLD
A new study has found that young male dogs playing with female pups will often let the females win, even if the males have a physical advantage.
Male dogs sometimes place themselves in potentially disadvantageous positions that could make them more vulnerable to attack, and researchers suspect the opportunity to play may be more important to them than winning.
Such self-handicapping has been documented before in red-necked wallabies, squirrel monkeys, hamadryas baboons and even humans, all of which frequently take on defensive positions when playing with youngsters, in particular.
OKLAHOMA TAKES ON ABORTION, BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY
Is this right? Is it another way of making an abortion illegal or at least decrease the number of them? Thoughts?
The law effective as of Nov. 1 would make Oklahoma the fourth state in the country that requires that an ultrasound be performed prior to an abortion so that the woman can have a chance of viewing the fetus. The other states are Alabama Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Oklahoma law is reportedly unique among the four states in that it requires that the ultrasound screen be turned toward the woman during the abortion and that the doctor explain what's on the screen including the fetus. But the law does not require the woman to look at the screen.
The supporters of the law hope that the requirements would cause emotional disturbance in women who intend to seek an abortion that could in turn curtail their attempts to undergo such a procedure.
SAN FRAN TAKES THE FUN AWAY
Golden Gate Bridge directors voted decisively Friday to try to stop people from jumping to their deaths from the landmark bridge by hanging nets along the sides of the span.
The Board of Directors voted 14-to-1 to install the stainless-steel net system, which would be placed 20 feet below the deck, and would collapse around anyone who jumped into it, making it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to leap to their death. The lone "no" vote came from Director James Eddie of Mendocino County, who said his constituents did not consider a barrier necessary.
An audience of about 50 people, including psychiatrists, suicide prevention experts and family members of people who had jumped to their deaths from the bridge, applauded the decision. Some had fought for decades for a suicide barrier.
"This is a red-letter day," said Dr. Mel Blaustein, director of psychiatry at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco. "There's been a real change in attitude on this board, and I'm thrilled. It's just marvelous."
The net, which is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million, has the lowest projected annual maintenance and operation cost of five proposed suicide barriers and is considered the safest for bridge workers. The other four designs were 10-to-12-foot vertical or horizontal barriers that would sit atop the existing 4-foot railings.
SEATTLE ARBORETUM: COLOR
Jason, Tom, and myself went for a nice little walk through the Arboretum and it was just a beautiful, crisp, October day.
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE - ALAMO TOUR
Another formative movie of my childhood, I've seen this a hundred times! "Can you say adobe?" This scene is of Pee-Wee on his search to find his stolen bike, and being told by a sham fortune teller than his bike would be found in the "basement of the Alamo".
SERIAL MOM - THE BEST SCENES!
Serial Mom is one of my favorite movies! Above is a clip of Kathleen Turner's character prank calling a "friend" who once stole her parking spot at the grocery store. Classic!
Below is my second favorite scene of the movie. This is where the very same two characters are in court. This inspires my humor no doubt.
FLIGHT OF THE PENGUINS - THANK YOU RESCUERS
Flying penguins are unusual. Especially when they fly on a C-130 Hercules military plane.
Almost 400 lost Magellanic penguins march back to the sea after being rescued by animal-welfare groups.
In Brazil, 373 young Magellanic penguins were rescued, rehabilitated and released last weekend after their search for food left them stranded, hundreds of miles from their usual feeding grounds.
Animal-welfare activists loaded the birds onto a Brazilian air force cargo plane and flew them 1,550 miles to the country's southern coast, where a crowd of onlookers celebrated as the penguins marched back into the sea.
"We are overjoyed to see these penguins waddle back to the ocean and have a second chance at life," said veterinarian Dr. Valeria Ruoppolo of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the group that oversaw the rescue. See photo gallery of rescued penguins »
Magellanic penguins are warm-weather birds that breed in large colonies in southern Argentina and Chile. The young animals then migrate north between March and September, following their favorite fish, the anchovy. The birds are named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who first saw them in 1519.
But changes in currents and water temperature apparently confused the juvenile birds, who strayed too far north to the warm beaches of Salvador, Brazil, 870 miles north of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Starting in mid-July, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahía, "It was just about raining penguins," Ruoppolo said. "There was not much of a food supply. The birds were stranded and emaciated. They had lost all their muscles and body condition."
While occasionally a few birds show up so far north, the unusual sight of hundreds of wayward penguins posed a challenge for animal conservation groups.
"We had to learn how to work with them," said Carlos Garcia, a spokesman for IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Resources. "Fewer than 20 penguins usually wash ashore, but with such a large number, we had to really understand their biology and learn how to treat them."
The Instituto Mamíferos Aquáticos (Institute for Aquatic Mammals) also fed and cared for the hungry and disoriented birds.
Ruoppolo, who is also the emergency relief officer for IFAW, has a lot of experience saving penguins and other animals injured in oil spills. Last week she worked with conservation groups and volunteers to save as many of the birds as possible.
"We showed them how to stabilize the animals, to feed them and give them proper care," she said. Healthy Magellanic penguins grow to about 27 inches tall and weigh about 9 pounds.
Ruoppolo said IBAMA -- the government's environmental authority -- and the Brazilian military were supportive throughout the unusual relocation mission.
On Friday, the penguins were loaded into special crates and put onto the plane for the journey to Pelotas, in southern Brazil. After their first-ever flight, the birds went on a truck ride to the Center for Recovery of Marine Animals, where they rested for 24 hours.
The birds released at Cassino Beach the next day had to meet very specific health criteria, said Ruoppolo.
"Their feathers had to be waterproof, their overall body condition had to be good, their lungs healthy, and they had to be able to catch food," she said.
The youngsters had some adult supervision for their return to the wild. They were released with a small group of adult penguins that had been nursed back to health after surviving an oil spill. Scientists expect the older birds will help guide the little ones to nearby feeding grounds.
Some penguins are still being cared for, both in the north and south of Brazil. The newly released birds have bands on their flippers so scientists can follow their progress and learn more about their migratory habits.
Of more than 1,600 penguins that washed ashore in northern Brazil, about half are still alive. That is a fairly good outcome, given the fragile status of young birds on their first migration, said Ruoppolo.
"For all species you have animals that die within the first year," she said.
And without quick human intervention, the consequences would have been much worse. At this point there is no way to know exactly why the animals became stranded.
While the Magellanic penguin population is not in jeopardy because of this one event, Ruoppolo said there are other threats, primarily from overfishing.
(Source)
FRIDAY NIGHT PICTURES
I'm trying out a new iPhone application called HiCon so that's where the B&Ws are coming from.
Friday, October 10, 2008
BRITNEY SPEARS "WOMANIZER"
"Toxic" part 2 huh? It's hot, and it looks like the old Brit is back. Stylish vid for sure, I'm diggin' it, go Britney.
THANK YOU CONNECTICUT
From CNN: The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay and lesbian couples have the right to get married.
Joanne Mock, left, and Beth Kerrigan were among the plaintiffs in a suit brought by eight same-sex couples.
The ruling makes Connecticut the third state, after Massachusetts and California, to decide its constitution mandates treating citizens equally when applying for marriage licenses, regardless of their sexual orientation.
"Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice," the ruling said.
"To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry."
The decision would only allow gay couples the state benefits of marriage. The Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, denies gay couples federal recognition of state marriages, which provides for federal benefits with regard to Social Security, taxation, immigration and others.
Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey have civil unions.
In 2005, Connecticut began to allow civil unions, intended to be marriage in all but name, without being forced by its courts. Two years later, Connecticut's Legislature tabled a bill allowing marriage.
Eight same-sex couple sued the state, saying that civil unions were not equal to marriage and that Connecticut's Constitution guaranteed them equal treatment.
In the dissent, one justice said he disagreed with the majority's opinion that "sexual orientation is a quasi-suspect class under our state constitutional provisions guaranteeing equal protection of the laws" because that point of view "unduly minimizes the unique and extraordinary political power of gay persons in this state."
A representative of Connecticut's commissioner of public health said he does not know when the state might start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The suit was called Kerrigan and Mock v. the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
LAW TARGETS PUPPY MILLS
From MSNBC: HARRISBURG, Pa. - Sammy, a Shetland sheepdog, wouldn't touch his food, retreating to a corner of the yard and devouring mouthfuls of dirt — behavioral oddities his owner later learned came from a lifetime of abuse as a "stud" in a large puppy mill.
The 10 years of caged confinement Sammy endured would have been illegal under a bill signed late Thursday by Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor, who owns two rescued golden retrievers, and other dog advocates hope the new law will help Pennsylvania shed its reputation as the puppy mill capital of the East.
The Humane Society of the United States has counted Pennsylvania among a handful of states where lucrative, largely unregulated puppy mills are concentrated.
The issue caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey after a suburban Philadelphia rescue organization put up a billboard in Chicago begging her to do a show on dog breeder abuse. The movement took on new momentum when, in August, operators of two eastern Pennsylvania kennels shot 80 dogs after being ordered to let veterinarians examine some of them.
The new law imposes strict standards on commercial kennels, including at least twice-a-year veterinary exams, larger cages and exercise requirements.
"We've catapulted ourselves into having one of the best laws in the country," said Sara Speed, the Humane Society's Pennsylvania state director.
Three other states have cracked down this year
At least three other states have passed crackdown measures this year. New laws in Virginia and Louisiana limit the number of dogs that can be housed in kennels, and Arizona law enforcement officials were given the power to impose a $50 fine against anyone caught selling animals along public roads or in public parks in urban counties.
The new law in Pennsylvania targets about 650 large-scale commercial breeders, or roughly one-quarter of the state's 2,600 licensed kennels, that sell any dogs to dealers and pet shops or traffic in at least 60 dogs per year. Violators would be subject to both criminal and civil penalties.
The law also gives dog wardens the authority to act on alleged violations, a power previously given only to police and humane officers. Also, only veterinarians will be allowed to euthanize dogs in commercial breeding kennels.
The cost of larger cages and exercise areas could drive some kennels out of business, said Mark O'Neill, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.
The new law is also stricter than federal inspection standards to which kennels are subjected, said Ken Brandt, lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Professional Dog Breeders' Association, which represents about 400 breeders.
"Quality breeders got shortchanged by the ones that have not been operating properly," Brandt said.
Sammy's owner, Linda Eroh of Douglassville, said the changes are long overdue. In the meantime, she said Sammy has come a long way from being the miserable, cowering creature she rescued two years ago after answering a classified ad that read: "10 year old sheltie, free to a good home."
"He's very strong, and he has personality plus," Eroh said. "He's making up for lost time."
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