Fans of Nuremberg Zoo's polar bear cub have been knitting bibs for her and have sent in 15,000 suggestions for her name. In the meantime her keepers are calling her "Flocke," which translates as snowflake. She is putting on weight fast and is expected to open her eyes for the first time this week. The five-week-old polar bear cub female now being hand-reared in Nuremberg Zoo is fast turning into a celebrity rivalling Knut. Wellwishers from around the world have been sending in letters and gifts such as hand-knitted bibs, and more than 15,000 possible names have been e-mailed to the zoo since it started calling for suggestions last Friday. PHOTO GALLERY: 'SNOWFLAKE' THE NUREMBERG POLAR BEAR CUB Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (11 Photos) Proposals range from Käthe, Paula, Franka and Lina to Snow-White, Aicha and Yuki Chan. In the meantime, her keepers have been calling her Flocke, the German word for "snowflake." Her weight has increased to 2.4 kilos from 1.7 kilos last week when the zoo decided to take her away from her restless mother Vera after another polar bear in the zoo had eaten her own two cubs. "We're very, very pleased," the zoo's director Dag Encke (more...) told reporters. "Every day we're becoming more hopeful that we will be able to rear her successfully."
Fans of Nuremberg Zoo's polar bear cub have been knitting bibs for her and have sent in 15,000 suggestions for her name. In the meantime her keepers are calling her "Flocke," which translates as snowflake. She is putting on weight fast and is expected to open her eyes for the first time this week.
The five-week-old polar bear cub female now being hand-reared in Nuremberg Zoo is fast turning into a celebrity rivalling Knut. Wellwishers from around the world have been sending in letters and gifts such as hand-knitted bibs, and more than 15,000 possible names have been e-mailed to the zoo since it started calling for suggestions last Friday.
PHOTO GALLERY: 'SNOWFLAKE' THE NUREMBERG POLAR BEAR CUB
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (11 Photos) Proposals range from Käthe, Paula, Franka and Lina to Snow-White, Aicha and Yuki Chan. In the meantime, her keepers have been calling her Flocke, the German word for "snowflake."
Her weight has increased to 2.4 kilos from 1.7 kilos last week when the zoo decided to take her away from her restless mother Vera after another polar bear in the zoo had eaten her own two cubs. "We're very, very pleased," the zoo's director Dag Encke (more...) told reporters. "Every day we're becoming more hopeful that we will be able to rear her successfully."
Islam watchers blogged all weekend about news that a secret archive of ancient Islamic texts had surfaced after 60 years of suppression. Andrew Higgins' Wall Street Journal report that the photographic record of Koranic manuscripts, supposedly destroyed during World War II but occulted by a scholar of alleged Nazi sympathies, reads like a conflation of the Da Vinci Code with Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. The Da Vinci Code offered a silly fantasy in which Opus Dei, homicidal monks and twisted billionaires chased after proof that Christianity is a hoax. But the story of the photographic archive of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, now ensconced in a Berlin vault, is a case of life imitating truly dreadful art. It even has Nazis. "I hate those guys!" as Indiana Jones said. No one is going to produce proof that Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave three days after the Crucifixion, of course. Humankind will choose to believe or not that God revealed Himself in this fashion. But Islam stands at risk of a Da Vinci Code effect, for in Islam, God's self-revelation took the form not of the Exodus, nor the revelation at Mount Sinai, nor the Resurrection, but rather a book, namely the Koran. The Encyclopaedia of Islam (1982) observes, "The closest analogue in Christian belief to the role of the Koran in Muslim belief is not the Bible, but Christ." The Koran alone is the revelatory event in Islam.
the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, now ensconced in a Berlin vault, is a case of life imitating truly dreadful art. It even has Nazis. "I hate those guys!" as Indiana Jones said. No one is going to produce proof that Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave three days after the Crucifixion, of course. Humankind will choose to believe or not that God revealed Himself in this fashion. But Islam stands at risk of a Da Vinci Code effect, for in Islam, God's self-revelation took the form not of the Exodus, nor the revelation at Mount Sinai, nor the Resurrection, but rather a book, namely the Koran. The Encyclopaedia of Islam (1982) observes, "The closest analogue in Christian belief to the role of the Koran in Muslim belief is not the Bible, but Christ." The Koran alone is the revelatory event in Islam.
http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2008/1/14/12022/1986#105
Wine, we know, gets better with age - but now it appears it tastes better the more it costs. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that a person's enjoyment of wine can be heightened if they are simply told that it is an expensive one. Twenty-one volunteers were asked to sample different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate the ones they preferred. The only information they were given was the price of the wine - but in a number of cases, they were not told the real price. In one case, the volunteers were given two identical red wines to drink and were told that one cost much less than the other. Most described the "higher priced" wine as much more enjoyable. Researchers also managed to pass off a $90 (£46) bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45.
Wine, we know, gets better with age - but now it appears it tastes better the more it costs.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that a person's enjoyment of wine can be heightened if they are simply told that it is an expensive one.
Twenty-one volunteers were asked to sample different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate the ones they preferred.
The only information they were given was the price of the wine - but in a number of cases, they were not told the real price. In one case, the volunteers were given two identical red wines to drink and were told that one cost much less than the other.
Most described the "higher priced" wine as much more enjoyable.
Researchers also managed to pass off a $90 (£46) bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45.
A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the "flesh-eating" MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday. In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces. The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat. <...> The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco. <...> The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities. <...> "This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin," Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview. Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, "this strain is resistant to two of those three," he added. "In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers."
In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.
The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat. <...>
The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco. <...>
The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities. <...>
"This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin," Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview.
Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, "this strain is resistant to two of those three," he added. "In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers."
LOS ANGELES - Maila Nurmi, whose "Vampira" TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner's officials said. She was 85. Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said. The cause of death has not been determined, Corral said. Nurmi created her Vampira character -- reminiscent of Charles Addams' spooky New Yorker cartoons -- to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954. With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as "Revenge of the Zombies" and "Devil Bat's Daughter." "The Vampira Show" was canceled after about a year, but Nurmi remained a cult figure among B-movie buffs and is thought to have inspired the vampish Morticia Addams on "The Addams Family," which premiered about 10 years later. But Nurmi's cultural resonance did not translate into long-term wealth. In 1989, she lost a $10 million lawsuit that contended Cassandra Peterson's late-night horror hostess Elvira pirated her character.
Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said. The cause of death has not been determined, Corral said.
Nurmi created her Vampira character -- reminiscent of Charles Addams' spooky New Yorker cartoons -- to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954.
With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as "Revenge of the Zombies" and "Devil Bat's Daughter."
"The Vampira Show" was canceled after about a year, but Nurmi remained a cult figure among B-movie buffs and is thought to have inspired the vampish Morticia Addams on "The Addams Family," which premiered about 10 years later.
But Nurmi's cultural resonance did not translate into long-term wealth. In 1989, she lost a $10 million lawsuit that contended Cassandra Peterson's late-night horror hostess Elvira pirated her character.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) -- The last fish you ate probably came from the Bering Sea. But during this century, the sea's rich food web--stretching from Alaska to Russia--could fray as algae adapt to greenhouse conditions. [...] At present, the Bering Sea provides roughly half the fish caught in U.S. waters each year and nearly a third caught worldwide. "The experiments we did up there definitely suggest that the changing ecosystem may support less of what we're harvesting--things like pollock and hake," Hutchins said. While the study must be interpreted cautiously, its implications are harrowing, Hutchins said, especially since the Bering Sea is already warming. "It's kind of a canary in a coal mine because it appears to be showing climate change effects before the rest of the ocean," he noted. "It's warmer, marine mammals and birds are having massive die-offs, there are invasive species--in general, it's changing to a more temperate ecosystem that's not going to be as productive."
But during this century, the sea's rich food web--stretching from Alaska to Russia--could fray as algae adapt to greenhouse conditions.
[...]
At present, the Bering Sea provides roughly half the fish caught in U.S. waters each year and nearly a third caught worldwide.
"The experiments we did up there definitely suggest that the changing ecosystem may support less of what we're harvesting--things like pollock and hake," Hutchins said.
While the study must be interpreted cautiously, its implications are harrowing, Hutchins said, especially since the Bering Sea is already warming.
"It's kind of a canary in a coal mine because it appears to be showing climate change effects before the rest of the ocean," he noted.
"It's warmer, marine mammals and birds are having massive die-offs, there are invasive species--in general, it's changing to a more temperate ecosystem that's not going to be as productive."
