John Glenn: Keep U.S. space shuttle flying

By Marcia Dunn, associated PressCAPE CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, USA — Mercury astronaut John Glenn, now 88, wants to NASA space shuttle to keep flying until their replacement is ready.Glenn joined the debate Monday on the future of America national in area and became the latest ex-astronaut to speak on this matter. He released a statement by the nine parties, in which he questioned the decision to retire the shuttle fleet and to be able to rely on Russia to take astronauts to the international space station. "We have a vehicle, why throw away? This works well, "the first American to orbit the Earth, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press," said he. Glenn is against paying the Russians 55.8 million USD for a person to fly U.S. astronauts to the space station and back. This is the price of a ticket starting in 2013; Right now, is for the valuation of US $ 26.3 million NASA and will jump to $ 51 million next year.Glenn does not believe the public realizes what happens to the forward area. "Turning to Russia and, as a result, under the control of Russia to our space program just doesn't sit right with me, and I don't think there are also people, American or not, either, "said Glenn, a former senator who ran a shuttle in orbit in 1998 at the age of 77. It included 89 next month.Glenn said, little, if any, money will be saved by cancelling the program Transfer from the airport, taking into account all the millions of dollars going to Russia to rocket races. Shuttle at least two flights a year to keep the station going and force work employed until something new comes along, he said.Astronaut wonders what happens if there is an accident and Soyuz rockets are grounded. He supposes space station — an investment of 100 billion dollars--would have to be abandoned. He also bezstresowej scientific research at the station will take a hit if the experiments must be run from Russia and have no way of getting back to Earth in bulk.President George w. Bush made the decision to retire, shuttle services and retarget the Moon six years ago in the wake of the Columbia tragedy. President Barack Obama keeps closing the transfer from the airport, you kill effort the Moon only two shuttle missions remain on the composition of the Official; the second almost certainly will be delayed until early next year. NASA is hoping the White House will add an additional ticket next summer before the end of the 30-year shuttle program.Glenn Democratic support Obama's plan, announced earlier this year on the space station by going to the year 2020 and give up on the basis of the moon now. But the original Mercury 7 astronauts, "said the nation needs a rocketship capable of lifting heavy loads — whether it is part of NASA'S Constellation program or something else — if astronauts ever to achieve asteroids and Mars. Private companies, in the meantime, interested in the performance of astronauts back to the space station and the need to first prove their ability and niezawodnoscGlenn noted. "I'm very often this momentum to the placing on the market," he said.Glenn said he waited it public, because he thought, "people would see the wisdom of" preserve the continuity of a shuttle. "If we're going to do anything, it must be done fairly quickly," he said.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Not only oil: methane can cause a "dead zone" in Gulf

Click here to see how the CAP and the exemption also work to stop the flow of oil.

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Design of new details on nationwide borrows earthquake

As far as the study of earthquakes, Professor of geology, Oregon State University Bob Lillie has a simple Theory: the more that is known, better persons can prepare and protect themselves.More knowledge about vulnerabilities in certain parts of the nation could lead to stricter building regulations in these places, so probably less overthrow structures, "he says."If we know about the risks, then we can bet on less risk, "Lillie says.Lillie is part of a group of scientists dealing with USArray, nationwide research project, which allows researchers to study earthquakes in unprecedented ways.The project, which includes a travelling with 400 sejsmografy high-quality, portable placed in temporary facilities, to reach the mark in the middle of this summer in its objective to measure the upheavals of the Earth's surface below from California to Maine, "says Project Director Bob Woodward. In the summer, the device will be installed in several countries, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, he said. Number density and systematic position of equipment give researchers a much more detailed picture of seismic activity in the UNITED STATES, "he says. Scientists are intrigued by tremors detected in North-Western Pacific and installed additional equipment in order to learn more about them, "he says.The project, which is formed on the West Coast in 2004, is in the East so scientists can have a systematic way of studying the whole nation, Woodward says. Instruments, at a distance of approximately 40 miles from each other, stay on the site for two years, before they moved, Woodward says. USArray project is scheduled to reach the East coast by 2013, says.USArray's of the annual budget is around 13 million dollars annually from the National Science Foundation, "he says. As part of a wider project known as the EarthScope, also funded by the Foundation. EarthScope's objective is to examine the structure and evolution of North America and learn more about what causes earthquakes and volcanoes.Before the instruments have been installed, "he was kind of like taking pictures from a camera with only a few pixels," says Woodward. "400 Stations where recalls much higher camera resolution. Now you can directly see the seismic Waves rolling across the country. "The project was included in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, he says. Emily Brodsky, seismologist, which researches earthquake at the University of California-Santa Cruz, he says, "By the whole view, you can start to see these in a way never seen before."2011, sejsmografy will be in place near the site of some of the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history — an area known as the new Madrid fault between St. Louis and Memphis, Woodward says.Almost 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes centered in the nearby small town of New Madrid, Missouri was so strong that witnesses said the nearby Mississippi River began to flow back, "says Chuck Langston, Director of the Center for the study of earthquake and information at the University of Memphis."The earthquake was felt in Boston, "Langston says. "There is a transfer, which the River dammed up, and its part toward the back. Spectacular, must have been it. Big waves and water moving every which way. "Although California is commonly associated with earthquakes, says Woodward, vulnerabilities exist throughout the nation, stretching on the East coast of the UNITED STATES.More than 500 billion dollars of losses could result from strong earthquake in the area of Los Angeles, according to Jan 14 Congressional Research service report for Congress. "Estimation of even higher — around $ 900 billion — includes injury to heavily populated areas of the central corridor, New Jersey-Philadelphia if earthquake 6.5-magnitude occurred along the fault lying between New York and Philadelphia, "States the report.Can be changed to the earthquake occurred in the region, "says Michel Bruneau, engineering professor at the University of Buffalo, which has Done an earthquake in extensive research. Bruneau is a study in 2008, which finds the size-5 earthquake damaged buildings in New York in 1737; and quake magnitude-5.5 hit the region in 1884, according to research reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Researchers wrote that there are stronger earthquakes in the area.Martin reports in Argus leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. guidance: sharing in the community of USA TODAY such please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Radar reveals the extent of the ancient Egyptian city buried

In CAIRO, EGYPT (AP) — an Austrian archeological team used radar imaging to determine the scope of the ruins of the once 3.500 year-old foreign capital, said the Department concluded Egypt Antiquities Sunday with 1664. Egypt-1569 B.C. demolished by the Hyksos, Warrior people from Asia, possibly Semitic in originin the summer capital, which was in the area of the Northern Delta. Irene Mueller, the head of the Austrian team, said the main objective of the project is to determine how far extends Metro City.Imaging radar showed the outlines of streets, houses and temples behind the green box and the modern city of Tel holding al-Dabaa. Archaeology Chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement that such noninvasive techniques are the best way to determine the scope of the site. Delta Egypt is densely populated and heavily farmed, which makes it difficult, unlike in southern Egypt with his more Famous tombs and temples, extensive excavations desert.An Austrian team of archaeologists working in the site since 1975. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

U.S.-Russian crew blasts to space station

By Peter Leonard, PressBAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — two Us Astronauts and a Russian Wigura issue, successfully Wednesday with the mission to the international space station, which will see the last ever swing visits with the orbiting Mir space laboratory.Astronauts U.S. Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin drawn in the Russian Soyuz rocket, its Pobudzacze incendiary Starry sky over Central Asia making steppe. Their Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to reach stations Friday The trio will be on board the space station to see the final Shuttle — Endeavour — to depart from its last planned mission to the laboratory in November before the fleet is finally withdrew.Wheelock said he was saddened to see shuttle Go, but described his mission as an exciting new beginning. "Of course, is the change in our program ... but not always bad, is to change the "Wheelock, who takes over as Commander of the 25 Expedition as only the current crew returns to Earth in approximately three months, said the draft Conference news.From the airport szczekowych Venerable Soyuz will take over as the only means through which astronauts will be able to travel to the space station, which has raised some concerns about over-reliance on craft designed Soviet. Crowd astronauts relatives, space officials and others gasped in awe as they watched the rocket slowly dissapearing on distanceleaving ghostly white cloud. Broke into applause at the announcement of successful entry into orbit craft nine minutes after launch. "This was probably one of the more beautiful runs ever seen, "said NASA Spokesman Josh Byerly. shortly after the people at home Saw glittering dot space station quickly moving overhead in a rare coincidence.On Wednesday the rocket marked a landmark landmark, is the hundredth flight in the station.Wheelock said their mission will be the first to take full advantage of the capacity of the station as the orbiting Mir space lab. He said he was especially enthralled by your contribution to the engineering of new materials and its role in ensuring that the achievements in the field of medicine. "We are finally getting to the point when we use the international space station for its original purpose and that is that science and research, "Byerly said after the run.Wheelock, Colonel United States Army, returns to the space station for the first time since his club two weeks on the discovery at the end of 2007, when he and his colleagues, earned accolades for their work repairing facility energy generation.Walker is making her first trip to the space station, and thus the in the footsteps of her husband, Andrew Thomas, one of a handful of U.S. astronauts to live on board the Russian Mir station, the old in the 1990s.Like the other starts from the Baikonur Cosmodrome leased Russian in southern Kazakhstan, their mission had verified the routine.After installation of Poland for their pressure suits just passed to the North, the crew received the final message of encouragement from officials, including the head of the Russian space agency.In the final salute before mounting the bus to the console is to launching a group of well-wishers were welcomed by Walker with the letters spelling out "Go Shannon!"Before the bus engines, Yurchikhin by young daughter, Yelena, were held aloft and kissed her father through the glass.In the console the astronauts satellite, closely linked to their seats in the rocket some two hours before the start, when their families and colleagues waited anxiously on the platform to display a little more than one kilometre from the hotel.Against the background of the steppe, starkly dim light on the gantry up rocket Soyuz shimmered on the «known as Gagarin's Pad. Is the site from which the SOVIET UNION sent Yuri Gagarin in 1961, in addition to become the first man in space.Within one hour prior to the launch of regular updates on the final preparations crackled with speakers platform view.When it came time, rocket roared to life and not touching the ground before gradually lifted off to heaven wywracania, dramatically moving shadow sky white phosphorous.Three person crew include the Russian commander Alexander Skvortskov, a NASA flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian Mikhail Kornienko, who on the orbiting Mir space laboratory since April. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Jimmy Buffett Gulf rescue mission: rescuing marine life

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and two friends are hoping their new rescue boats may save birds and marine life under threat from the worst of the nation. Boats specially designed to navigate shallow marshlands, coming from a wide range of wildlife, coast of the Gulf ".In principle, we can set something on a cocktail napkin and provided the idea, "says Mark Castlow, a boat builder in Vero Beach, Fla. That was the second day of the disaster, he says, as he watched television images of the spill and saw the need for a boat that could achieve the shallow waters of the Gulf Coast estuaries.Castlow shared the idea with his friend Buffett, who agreed to operate the boat cost $ 43,000, "he says. "Called and Jimmy and says:" Let's go for it. Let's do it, "" Castlow says. "It is so like all of us. He's got in suicide. "Shortage of equipment to help contain oil — and rescuing wildlife — have been a recurring problem since the April 20 deepwater Horizon on oil rigs, the outbreak of the Carys Mitchelmore, says he is a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "If you can get in these areas, shallow and rescue everything can be oiled, this is great," says Mitchelmore, who has testified before Congress on oil spill pollution. "If anyone can help, I think it is an excellent idea, especially if you do not want to be costing anything."Buffett, who graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1969, met with school President Martha Saunders this month brainstorming ways it can help, "says Beth Taylor, University news and Media Relations Manager.Miss decided to grant the first boat at the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, the composer then. He was expected to arrive late this week or next week, and Castlow says there are plans to build three other boats of the same type of boat is needed, "says Taylor, because boats lab will not be able to navigate in shallow waters, such as the 10 cm depth, such as new, donated. "Our boats are larger, and they cannot be find around in the shallow water, "he says. "This will be used by our scientists and our graduate schools to go out in the estuaries and wetlands."Castlow and Jimbo Meador, friend and colleague at Castlow's Dragonfly Boatworks, designed for boats s.w.a.t. — an acronym for shallow water account terminal — running misting to cool the injured wildlife, after he is taken on board in the Gulf of summer heat. "Crown wraps around the boat, and that there is a great case, because now you can work in the shade and misting," says Castlow that "sounds like a great idea, because you might want to do meaningful right there," says Ed Verge, an instructor, a boat building lead Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina, N.C.Madilyn Fletcher, Director of the school of the University of South Carolina for the reduction of stress on the injured party srodowiskamówi nature is the key to the animals recover and idea is sensible. "Everything you can do to save these bird damaged is all the better, and the more you can do to reduce the load on them when you are trying to do this is all for the better, as well as" Fletcher says.Monday 724 birds apparently array had been rescued off the coast of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, in accordance with the consolidated fish and report collection of wild animals, which tracks the number of reported by government agencies and rescue Centers to the Unified area command in the zone of the spill. 247 other birds of the five Member States have been found dead. "When you see something is thinning what to do for life — what you love — it simply tore everyone, "says Castlow."Simply we thought, "we have the opportunity to make a difference here." "Sharing in the Community Guidelines: USA TODAY so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Obama Plan to land on the asteroid may be unrealistic to 2025

By Traci Watson, Special for USA TODAYMillions of miles from Earth, two astronauts hover weightlessly next to a giant space rock, selecting pebbles for scientific research. The spaceship where they'll sleep floats just overhead. Beyond it, barely visible in the sky, is a glittering speck. It's Earth.It sounds like a science-fiction movie, but this surreal scene could, if President Obama has his way, become a reality. However, unlike Hollywood depictions in such movies as Armageddon, it's going to be a lot harder to pull off.

Almost 50 years after President Kennedy proposed sending a man to the moon "before this decade is out," Obama has set an equally improbable goal. He has proposed a 2025 date for NASA to land humans on an asteroid, a ball of rock hurtling around the sun.

The moon is 240,000 miles away. A trip to an asteroid would be 5 million miles — at a minimum.

Why go?

If the mission ever gets launched, it would mark a milestone just as significant as Neil Armstrong's "small step" on the moon, experts say. To go to an asteroid, humans would have to venture for the first time into "deep space," where the sun, not the Earth, is the main player.

An asteroid trip "would really be our first step as a species outside the Earth-moon system," says planetary scientist Andy Rivkin of the Applied Physics Laboratory. "This would be taking off the training wheels."

Asteroids have always been passed over as a destination for human explorers. Then-president George H.W. Bush wanted NASA to go to Mars, while his son, George W. Bush, chose the moon. During the past six years, NASA spent $9 billion building a spaceship, rocket and other gear to help reach the second Bush's goal of returning humans to the lunar surface by 2020.

In February, Obama took steps toward killing Bush's moon program, which was beset by technical troubles and money woes. Two months later, in a speech at Cape Canaveral, Obama announced that the astronauts' next stop is an asteroid.

So far, the Obama administration has been quiet on the need for a major sum of money to accomplish his goal. And unlike Kennedy, who used Sputnik to promote the moon mission, Obama doesn't have a geopolitical imperative to justify the goal. Congress is resisting Obama's change of direction, which could delay investment in the program.

If Obama wants to bolster his cause, there's a rationale he could cite: An asteroid could wipe out as many human lives as a nuclear bomb. The dominant scientific theory posits that dinosaurs went extinct because of a direct hit from an asteroid as wide as San Francisco. A space rock big enough to kill thousands slams into Earth every 30,000 years, according to a January report from the National Research Council.

That scenario provided the rationale for asteroid missions in various Hollywood movies, including Armageddon. The 1998 film, which starred Bruce Willis, grossed more than $200 million at box office in the U.S. and more than $500 million worldwide. It went on to be a staple on cable television.

But if Americans think they have an understanding of the challenge of going to an asteroid, they're wrong. "I loved the movie," says Laurie Leshin, a top NASA official who is involved in the early planning stages of an asteroid mission, although "it was completely inaccurate."

Obama's plans for NASA have drawn many opponents, including Armstrong, but their criticism centers on the administration's reliance on private space companies to ferry astronauts to orbit. The goal of an asteroid hasn't been questioned as much.

That doesn't mean it would be easy. Although experts agree it could be done, here are four asteroid-size reasons why life won't imitate art.

•Astronauts can't hop on a space shuttle to get there.

In Armageddon, Willis' character and his crew blast off in two modified space shuttles to reach the killer asteroid. But NASA has long planned to retire the shuttles within the next year. And even if they weren't all headed to museums, they're useless as asteroid transporters.

The shuttles were built only to circle Earth, says Dan Adamo, a former mission control engineer who has studied human missions to asteroids. They don't carry the fuel to jump into deep space, and their heat shields aren't designed to withstand the extra-high temperatures of returning from a destination other than the Earth's orbit.

What's needed instead is a giant rocket on the scale of the monstrous Saturn V — taller than Big Ben — that propelled man to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. Such a project is "a difficult challenge" that will cost in the multiple billions of dollars, says Ray Colladay, a member of NASA's advisory council.

NASA spent more than $52 billion in 2010 dollars to develop and build the Saturn V. Building a 21st-century version can be done but will require a sharp increase in the NASA budget later this decade, some space experts say.

"That's the issue everybody wants to duck right now, because it's uncomfortable to face that," Colladay says.

NASA would also need to build a spaceship where the astronauts can live and store all the oxygen, food and water needed for a long voyage. One option is to launch a small space pod carrying the crew, then, once safely in space, unleash an inflatable habitat, Leshin says.

NASA has little practice with such a blow-up spacecraft.

•The trip takes a long, long time.

Willis and company arrive at their target asteroid in a few days, if not a few hours. Admittedly, it's streaking toward Earth at the time. NASA would prefer to go to one before it gets to that stage.

Studies by Adamo, former astronaut Thomas Jones and others show that a round trip to a target asteroid would typically take five to six months. That assumes NASA shoots for one of the 40 or so asteroids that come closest to the Earth's path in the 2020s and 2030s and relies on spacecraft similar to those NASA had designed for Bush's moon mission.

Another problem during the journey — the crew would spend months "cooking" in space radiation, says NASA's Dave Korsmeyer, who has compiled a list of the most accessible asteroids. Shuttle passengers are somewhat screened from such radiation by Earth's magnetic field. Astronauts who leave Earth's orbit have no such protection.

Space radiation raises the risk of cancer and in extreme cases causes nausea and vomiting, says Walter Schimmerling, former program scientist of NASA's space radiation program. The astronauts might need to take drugs to prevent the ill effects of radiation.

Then there's the "prolonged isolation and confinement" that the crew will have to endure, says Jason Kring of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "This crew will be more on their own than any other crew in history."

If there's an emergency halfway into the trip, the astronauts would not be able to get home in a few days, as the Apollo 13 crew did. Instead it would take weeks, if not months.

•Humans can't walk or drive on an asteroid.

Once they land on the asteroid "the size of Texas," the heroes of Armageddon run over the spiky terrain, except when they're steering two tank-like vehicles. In reality, even the biggest asteroids have practically no gravity. So anything in contact with the surface could easily drift away.

"You don't land on an asteroid," says former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, a longtime advocate of asteroid studies. "You pull up to one and dock with it. ... And getting away from it, all you have to do is sneeze and you're gone." He envisions a spaceship hovering next to the asteroid and occasionally firing its thrusters to stay in place.

Astronauts wouldn't walk on an asteroid. They would drift next to it, moving themselves along with their gloved hands.

To keep from floating into space, crewmembers could anchor a network of safety ropes to the asteroid's surface, but "that has its own risks, because we don't understand how strong the surfaces of asteroids are and whether (they) would hold an astronaut in place," says Daniel Scheeres, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado.

The minimal gravity also means that any dust the astronauts stir up will hang in a suspended cloud for a long time. Because there's no weather on an asteroid, there's no erosion to smooth the dust particles.

"It's all going to stay pretty razor-sharp. ... It's not the most friendly stuff in the universe," Korsmeyer says. Keeping humans safe as they explore an asteroid "is going to be really tricky."

•Humanity doesn't hang in the balance.

In Armageddon, NASA must send a crew to an asteroid or life on Earth will be wiped out. "Even the bacteria," says the NASA chief, played by Billy Bob Thornton.

In the real world, that irrefutable motivation is absent. By 2025, Obama's target date, there will have been four presidential elections. Any could result in the mission's cancellation, just as Obama canceled Bush's moon plan. "The politics of this is far more challenging than the engineering," Colladay says.

The Obama administration has promised to increase NASA's budget by $6 billion over the next five years, but priorities may change. The Bush administration, for example, in 2007 cut long-term funding for its own moon program by $1.2 billion.

As the deficit looms larger, "especially as the November elections come along ... I would just not be surprised if enthusiasm for some big human spaceflight mission ends," says Marcia Smith, founder of spacepolicyonline.com.

As it is, the extra $6 billion Obama has promised NASA is inadequate for all the tasks the agency is supposed to tackle, Jones says. "The declaration that we're going to deep space is not matched by budget reality," he says.

Leshin, the NASA official, responds that the agency is embarking on a research program that will lead to new, less costly technologies. The agency will build new spacecraft over a period of many years, so the costs don't pile up all at once, she says.

"If we're making progress toward goals that are exciting and important to the American people, then it should be a sustainable program," Leshin says.

She is optimistic that relatively soon, NASA astronauts will speed toward a rendezvous with an asteroid, and that it will be better than in the movies.

"The first time we send humans beyond the cradle of the Earth-moon system, it's going to be extraordinary," Leshin says. "We will have gone further with humans in space than ever before. It will be an incredible first."

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The Group seeks to list endangered for Franklin's Bumblebee

Jeff Barnard, associated PressGRANTS PASS, Oregon — protection lodged a petition Wednesday add Bumblebee from Southern Oregon and Northern California to the list of threatened species.Society for invertebrate conservation and Robbin Thorp, entomologist at the University of California at Davis, formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the insect — called Bombus Franklin — under the endangered species Act. Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces society in Portland, Oregonsaid petition is part of efforts to reverse this decline in bumblebees and other native bees in the world due to Habitat loss, pesticides and diseases of the transition from commercial greenhouses.The group is preparing a petition to protect other species of Bumblebee. Bee Franklin was elected to This petition because the documentation of its decline is more detailed than for other species. THORP found 94 Franklin bumblebees in 1994, but he has not found any since 2006. Farmers often hire Honeybee pollinate crops, farmers, but uli was decimated by the killer of mysterious Honeybee known as colony collapse disorder.Some farmers are turning to bumblebees to pollinate, particularly for hothouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries and crops such as berries, cranberries, raspberries, squash or melon. Bumblebees pollinate approximately 15% of all crops grown in the nation, it is worth 3 billion dollars. "Decrease in Franklin's Bumblebee should serve as an alarm clock that we can begin to lose important pollinators, "Black said. "We hope that will remind us to Franklin's Bumblebee pollinators in the u.s. towards extinction."While many native pollinators have seen decreases related to loss of Habitat, and pesticides, Franklin's Bumblebee and some related species have suffered deep and sudden that Thorp has theorized the theory may be associated with fungi, which has been accidentally transported from bumblebees imported from Europe for commercial use.The work of researchers at the University of Illinois to See if mushrooms known as nosema bombus due to decrease in a number of related bumblebees, Bombus Western once common, Bumblebee and banded patch rusty yellow Bumblebee in the Northeast. Earlier this year, the Xerces society and other conservation groups urged Federal authorities and scientists begin governing shipments of agricultural commercially domesticated bumblebees to protect wild bumblebees from disease threatening their survival.Report of the National Academy of Sciences 2007 blamed the decline of pollinators around the world on a combination of Habitat loss, pesticides, pollution and diseases passing from greenhouses using commercial bumblebees.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Nations cannot agree on curbing Japan whale hunt

By Arthur Max, associated PressAGADIR, Morocco — Japanese officials and environmentalists traded blame Wednesday as Nations failed to reach a deal to control whale hunts by Japan, Norway and Iceland — countries that kill hundreds of whales every year 88 Nations International Whaling Commission was held two days of intense closed-door talks on the basis of a proposal in order to facilitate the 25-year-old ban on commercial whaling Exchange for smaller kills by the three countries which qualify for exemption to a moratorium on hunting for profit.Around 1500 animals are killed each year in Japan, Norway and Iceland. Japan, which kills most of the whales, insists on his hunt for research — but more whale meat and products of the whale's Japanese restaurant than in laboratories.The key sticking point was that the Agency declared the shrine of whaling in 1994 in the Southern Ocean south of Australia, but Japanese ships hunt freely there because the Agency does not have any enforcement powers.Australia began already complaints against Japanese Wielorybnicza in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Supreme Court of the UNITED NATIONS.Acting IWC Chairman Anthony Liverpool, said the meeting opened Wednesday that "the basic position remained far apart." "After nearly three years of discussions, it seems our discussions are at a stalemate," said the Chief delegate of the U.S. Monica Medina. Japanese Wielorybnicza Yasue Funayama Commissioner told her country had offered major concessions to reach a compromise and accused anti-whaling countries which refused to accept the killing of a single animal. "We must rise above politics and engage in a wider perspective, "said Funayama. Anti-Whaling countries seek to end Japan's forays in the Southern Ocean Hunting Wielorybnicza shrine, a ban on international trade in whale meat and set firm quotas for Peoples whaling for next years 10. proposed transaction will let Japan kill 400 whales in the South of the shrine for the next five yearsthat many countries, that was too high and that Japan Saw with as main concessions. Set in Japan 2009 quota for each kill more than 900 whales, but have not reached this figure due to the harassment of the anti-whaling groupsAustralia and groups of countries in Latin America held firm on zero of whaling in the Antarctic ocean, said a delegate from a country of whaling. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in the media.Iceland refused to consider any transaction limit for the international sale of whale products, he added.Be blamed for the breakdown of Japan. "If Japan had agreed to phase out in the Southern Ocean, would be a good opportunity "for the transaction," said Wendy Elliott WWF.Other defenders expressed relief that the 25-year-old ban on whaling has not been lifted. "This has been done here, this contract would be lived in infamy, "said Patrick Ramage, the International Fund for Animal Welfare .it was unclear if the private discussions will continue until the meeting is scheduled to Close on Friday. Many delegations called break of one year in the efforts.The formal talks will Center on issues such as preventing collisions between whales and ships, the effects of climate change and to the discussion on the research of the planned Russian crude oil in seasonal feeding grounds of endangered Gray Whale.Some derive have accused Japan of purchase of the vote, using development aid money and personal przyslugi Jitter small, poorer Nations to its side in the debate of whaling.But a delegate from Saint Kitts and Nevis, Daven Joseph said the media and environmental groups to stop the allegations. "We have been accused of being surrogates. This is not the case, "he said.Liverpool, a diplomat from Antigua and Barbuda and the Ambassador of Japan, is quoted by the British paper as unless Japanese interests paid hotel bills for him and says he does not see anything "odd about that."Whaling Commission was created after World War II, to the conservation and management of whale stocks. Tens of thousands of animals killed each year until 1986, when the IWC adopted a moratorium.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Combating lice may be assisted by a new genome

By Randolph e. Schmid, associated PressWASHINGTON — research sometimes may be lousy job. Literally in 1957 their quest to understand how life works, researchers reported Monday they have Sequenced the genome of the human body Packet.This law, those annoying little root, that live on human blood and place their eggs in the clothes.From a practical point of view of the findings may lead to better ways of eliminating this parasite, which can transmit disease to humans, according to the researchers, who were led by Ewen f. Kirkness j. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md and Barry r. Pittendrigh from University of IllinoisUrbana For its digestionhumans Wesz is based on specific types of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. So find a way to get drugs to the bacteria can kill lice too. For more information about lice knowing can also lead to new kinds of repellents.Genome lonowa is small and contains relatively few genes associated with light reception or reacting to smell and taste, the research found.The researchers said, it seems that humans evolved from humans Wesz lonowa head of the people, time to start wearing clothes, offering lice another place to hide.In addition, they noted that lonowa people and lonowa chimpanzee evolved from a common ancestor between 5 million and 7 million years ago.It was more than annoyance, ever since then, potentially carrying typhus, Relapsing fever and Trench fever. "In addition to its importance in the context of the health of the human genome louse is essential for understanding the evolution of the insects, "said may, Berenbaum, head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois, in a statement.Genome Sequencing effort involved researchers at institutions in the u.s., Europe, 28, Australia and South Korea Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Show Imago utopian, green cities in the year 2030

Karen Matthews, associated PressNEW YORK — imagine no cars — or less, though.In New York City Pas two mile parkway FDR Drive is torn to open lower Manhattan for parks and streets and bicyclists are given their own lane on the Brooklyn Bridge, An elevated highway. Guangzhou, China, is transformed in pedestrian promenade and roofs are connected with raised walkways and bikeways.In Jakarta, Indonesia traditional bicycle taxis called becaks are re-engineered to be lighter and easier to drive.These three towns and seven other featured in exhibition on transport, environment-friendly future opening Thursday in New York City. The exhibition, entitled "Our city Ourselves," will be at the Centre for architecture in Greenwich Village by Sept 11 before travelling to other cities, said organizers. "We hired 10 architects from cities around the world help us imagine what their cities may be look in 2030 if we made the city more human scale, more friendly, "says Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute of transport and the exhibition of the rozwojuorganizowane policy of financing of the ClimateWorks Foundation. Hook based on San Francisco cradled his Bicycle Helmet in one arm, he provided for in tour of the exposition. "Essentially we are trying to send the message that if the city does not move in this direction we're going to face in the urzeczywistniona climate, because in developing countries the use of private cars is Escalating two-digit," Hook, "he said.The city has been selected as the hook and based on the New York ITDP have relationships with them, helped design the bus systems in Jakarta, Indonesia; Mexico (City); Ahmedabad, India, and other locales.The exhibit includes images and 3D models of urban neighborhoods as they are provided in 2030 next to current pictures from the same neighborhoods.In the township Soweto in Johannesburg, the current picture shows low-rise housing and not much more. But Soweto 2030 is the bustling markets and public spaces. "Not allowed to open shops, traditionally, on apartheid, "Hook," he said. "What we have done is, therefore, we have already sort of reimagined as a kind of new city ... where people may actually work and shop in downtown Soweto."Model of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, shows the network path of the roof evoking Theodor Seuss Geisel. "In China, nothing is possible, "Hook," he said.Utopia lower Manhattan shows vision pedestrians, bicycles, and very few cars. Michael Sorkin, architect who designed the piece New York exhibition, said he thought that it is "feasible." "The streets are laid down by the Dutch in the pattern of medieval fundamentally," he said. "You have not edited for cars."In New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won he has accolades from advocates alternative transport for the introduction of pedestrian streets in the middle of Times Square, near the theatres of Broadway and Herald Square, where Macy flagship department store.Sorkin said his own ideas such as the tearing down of the lower part of the FDR Drive, which runs along the East side of Manhattan, are equally plausible. "A year ago nobody thought you can shut down Broadway, "he said. "But suddenly is shut down, and everyone loves." "Our cities, Ourselves" travels to Guangzhou after New York City. Other cities in the exposition are Ahmedabad, India; Budapest, Hungary; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Jakarta, Indonesia; Johannesburg, South Africa, Mexico, Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Stem cells reverse blindness caused by chemical burns

By Alicia Chang, associated ANGELES PressLOS dozens of persons who have been blinded or otherwise serious eye damage when they were sprayed with chemical substances, corrosive substances have their sight restored with transplants or their own stem cells — a stunning success on the field this cell terapiiNaukowców Italian reported Wednesday The treatment completely worked in 82 107 eye and partially in 14 other, with benefits lasting up to a decade now. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago has now vision near normal. "It is a Roaring success, "said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab from the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of this type.Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year, which was suffering from chemical burns in their eyes from the harsh cleansers or other substances in the workplace or at home.Approach does not allow people with damage to the optic Nerve or macular degeneration, which includes the retina. Nor will work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors must be at least some healthy tissue, which can be used to transplant.In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from the patient's eyes healthy, multiplied them in the laboratory and place them in the eye of roasted, where they were able to develop new corneal tissue to replace, which had been damaged. Because stem cells are from their own bodies, patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases such as sickle cell anemia. But the problem of how damage to eyes is a relatively new uses.Scientists studying cell therapies for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.Adult stem cells, which are located around the body, they differ from embryonic stem cells that come from human embryos and the ethical issues are mixed, because deleting cells requires destroying embryos.Now people of eye burns, you can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries out such complications like infection and Glaucoma, or can be obtained is a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but need to take drugs to prevent rejection.An Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage to one eye, and some had such limited vision, that they could only sense, count fingers or perceive the hand movements. Many are blind for years and had unsuccessful restore their vision.The cells were taken from the limbus, rim around the cornea, the clear, which includes a colorful part of the eye. In a healthy eye stem cells in limbus are factories, mixing new cells to replace dead corneal cells. When injury kills off the stem cells, scar tissue forms of corneal clouding vision and causes blindness.In the study of Italian doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued stem cells cultivated in the laboratory over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes are damaged by burns cells were taken from by limbus.Scientists after patients with an average of three years and some for as long as a decade. More than three-fourths of the regained sight after the show. Additional% 13 were considered a partial success. Although their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.Patients with superficial damage was visible in one to two months. Those with more extensive damage took several months longer. "They were very happy. Some said it was a miracle, "said one of the leaders of the research, the University of Modena Graziella Pellegrini Center for regenerative medicine in Italy. "There was no miracle. It was simply technique. "The test has been partly financed by the Italian Government.Researchers in the United States have been testing different way to use self-supplied stem cells, but the work is preliminary.One of the successful transplants or in Italian involved a man who had a serious injury in both eyes due to chemical burn in 1948. Doctors have been grafted stem cells with a small part of his left eye for both eyes. His vision now is close to normal.In 2008 they were settled in connection with the work of the citrus fruit chemical eye burns in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Schwab UC Davis said transplants or stem cells could be not assist this blinded by burns in both eyes, because doctors need stem cells to follow procedure. "I don't want to give false hope to respond to their prayers, "he said Dr. Sophie Deng, expert of the cornea in the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, said the biggest advantage is that the Italian doctors were able to expand the number of stem cells in the laboratory. This technique is less invasive than sampling large eye tissue and reduces the risk of injury to the eye. "The key is whether you can find good stem cell populations and expand it, "she said.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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ROUNDUP.Top of resistant weeds pose a threat to the environment

By David Mercer, associated Press, CHAMPAIGN, fig — when the weed killer ROUNDUP.Mount was introduced in the 1970s, has proved it can kill almost any plant but are still safer than many other herbicides, and enabled farmers to give up major chemicals and reduction of tilling that may contribute to erosion.But 24 years later, sturdy several species of weeds resistant to ROUNDUP.Góra evolved, forcing farmers to return to some of the less secure practice abandoned decades earlier.The situation is worst in the South, where some farmers now walk the fields with hoes, killing weeds in their Great grandfathers were happy to leave behind. And the problem is quickly spreading belt corn and beyond, with the ROUND.Mount now proving unreliable in killing at least 10 species of weeds in at least 22 States. Some species, like the Palmer Amaranth in Arkansas and water hemp and marestail in Illinois, quickly grow and large, producing tens of thousands of seeds. "It's getting too big case," says Mike Plummer, 61-year-old farmer and agronomist at the University of Illinois, which soybeans and cotton near Southern Illinois Creal Springs Community. "If you got it, this is a real big deal."When Monsanto introduced Roundup in 1976, "since sliced bread, it was like the best thing," said Garry Niemeyer, who grows corn and soybeans near Auburn in Central Illinois. The weed killer, known generically as glyphosate, is absorbed by the plants leaves and kills them by blocking the production of the protein they need to grow. The US Environmental Protection Agency considers that have low toxicity for humans and animals, and plants is sprayed on, there is less danger to the environment because it rapidly binds to soil and becomes inactive.The introduction of Monsanto seeds designed to survive the ROUND.Mountain made things even better for farmers, because it can spray on emerging weeds growing crops erase beside them. Seeds containing Monsanto's Roundup Ready features are now used to grow approximately 90% of the soybeans nation and 70% of its maize and cotton.With increased dependence on Roundup herbicide to corn fell from 2,76 pounds per Acre in 1994 to 2.06 in 2005, the most-recent year for which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has no data. Distributed over 81.8 million acres planted in 2005 and annually is a decrease of more than 57 million pounds of herbicides.Farmers also found they could reduce, or in some cases, eliminating tilling, reducing erosion and fuel.But with all herbicides, the more it is used, the more likely that it will run individual plants within a species, which have only a few genetic varieties survive which kills most of their relatives. With each generation of the survivors they represent a larger percentage of species St. Louis-based Monsanto maintains resistance is often overstated, noting that most weeds show signs of immunity. "We believe that glyphosate will remain an important tool in the Arsenal of farmers, "said Monsanto Spokesman John Combest. Nevertheless, the company began paying cotton farmers $ 12 an acre to cover the costs of the other herbicides for Use next to Roundup, to increase its effectiveness.Trend confirmed by certain groups of food safety in the belief that biotechnology will not restrict the use of chemicals in the long term "that is were converted," says Bill Freese, chemist with a Washington, D.C.: Center for food safety, which promotes organic farming. "They intend to significantly increase the use of these chemicals, and that is bad."The first weeds in the United States, which survived the ROUND.Góra, it was found that about 10 years ago in Delaware. Agricultural experts said the use of other chemicals is already Creeping up. Monsanto and other companies develop new seeds intended to resist older herbicides such as dicamba and 2,4-D, killer weed developed during World War II and a component of Agent Orange, which was used to destroy the jungle foliage during the war in Vietnam and is blamed for health problems among veterans.Penn State University Weed scientist David Mortensen, estimated that in three or four years, farmers use dicamba and 2,4-D will be increased by 55.1 million pounds in the year due to resistance to ROUNDUP.Góra. That would both far list of herbicides used intensively by the farmers.Dicamba and 2,4-D easily drift outside the areas where you are sprayed, making them a threat to neighbouring crops and wild plants, "said Mortensen. Which, in turn, could also endanger wildlife. "We found that the plants (wild), which grows on the edge of the field actually supports the beneficial insects such as bees, "he said.Australian scientist Stephen Powles was sort of weed Evangelist recording Roundup, calling this tool in near miraculous agriculture.Australia has been involved in the ROUNDUP.Top of resistant weeds from the mid-1990s, but changes in farming practices that have helped to conduct effective, he said. That is enabled using a wider array of herbicides to kill off weeds ROUND.Góra, resistant and using other methods of weed control.These alternative methods, such as planting cover crops, the so-called "such as rye to deter weeds during the winter and in other cases, when the fields are planted with corn, soybeans and cotton, are key," said Freese, chemist, Center for food safety.Otherwise, he said, "that we are talking here of pesticide treadmill. This is only coming back to kick us in the butt now with resistant weeds. "Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Legends of ancient once walked among early humans?

Wild, Hairy, spammers fought griffons and Nomads Fat Camel — have Paleontologists unearthed mythic figures from folklore?Denisova Cave of Siberia held the pinky unknown early human species, genetics reported in March. Research Naturejournal, led by Johannes Krause Germany, Max Planck Institute for evolutionary anthropology, offered no response to it has become the "ancient" human species, more than one million years old and living in the vicinity of their human and Neanderthal cousins as recently as 30 000 years ago.But at least one scholar intriguing answer: "the discovery of evidence from different hominin (human) lines in Central Asia as recently as 30 000 years ago does not come as a surprise for those who have looked at the evidence of historical and anecdotal" wild people "target bytujacych region" wrote researcher Michael Heaney United Kingdom Bodleian Library Oxfordin a letter to the times of London Wild?Herodotus, the father of historians, wrote about these human cousins, "arimaspians," approximately 450 BC, they were "strong warriors, good Men rich in herds of cattle and sheep and goats; they are one-eyed, "Shaggy with horsehair, the toughest of men", "according to John Tzetses, writer of the era of the Byzantine Empire. They also fought against the griffons, mythical winged Lions with faces, gold Eagle, according to Herodotus and his contemporaries, Aristeas, who clearly know their stuff when it occurred to enhance writing historical.Heaney noted that legend Hairy wild people, or were fare almases in Russian steppes centuries. "Reports of wild men, though having a common mythic subtext, often reflect what we know from the original hominins," says Heaney, by e-mail. "Presumed almases from Central Asia may be one of a number of pre-(homo) sapien ancestors."At its gold mine guard griffon opponent? In the companion piece (1993) to look at the Arismaspians by Heaney, Stanford historianAdrienne, the Mayor, the author of The first fossil Hunters: paleontology in Greek and Roman times, suggested their legend sprang from the bones of dinosaurs discovered by nomads in their total Western Mongolia steppes. "This region may also be Bayan-Ulgii ????? (province) in Western Mongolia and environs, where I have wandered many days long, and have seen the ancient and modern small mines," says archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball of the Centre for the study of Eurasian Nomads, which requires the origin of the dinosaur bones of griffon stories justified. But as for the Arimaspians are the same as a newly-discovered human in an archaic, Davis-Kimball has a fairly strong doubts. "We have mined hunters and gatherers epoch of bronze and small inhabitants along the rivers of Eurasian — former precede nomads by 1000 or maybe even many years more people. I have seen lots of skeletons of many locales in My trip from Hungary to Mongolia, but none is fully correlated with the new hominid line or one-eyed Arimaspians, "Davis-Kimball says, by e-mail. "It is too difficult for me to believe that the hominids living withstand years ago can be perpetuated in mit until Herodotus or about 450 BC."An explanation of the other came in 2008 Archaeology Ethnology and anthropology of Eurasia journal by Dima Cheremisin Russian Academy of Sciences, which looked at the ancient people of Siberia, the Pazyryk culture iron age tribe burial mounds dot the mountains of Altai. "Mythical griffon is the most popular figure in the art of the Pazyryk culture, suggesting that people identified with the" Pazyryk culture griffons protection gold, "said by Aristeas and Herodotus," Cheremisin noted.And cryptozoologists, who study the legendary creatures, proposed a similar ancient explanations for people in the past, to the emergence of the Yeti or Bigfoot. Bernard Heuvelmans, father of modern Cryptozoology, theorized in 1980, that such emergence of wild individuals may be based on the ancestral memories of course Neanderthals Of, enabling that people seem to have interbred with Neanderthals, in accordance with the may report in the journal Science led by Svante Pääbofor a long time, researcher of ancient genome which also co-authored the report discovery Denisova Cave. More than 50 000 years ago, probably in the Middle East, early modern human and intermingling Neanderthals led to modern Europeans and Asians typically having a genome that is Neanderthal 1-4%, according to research.Such crossing is another staple of old stories. Hercules, the hero of the Greek myths, the lion skin around in with the Club over his shoulders and walked in was wondrously strong, somewhat like a Neanderthal, because the origin of the half-Divine. Even the old testament contains references to Nephilim, "giants," who married people and had children. "These stories go back millennia, but they do not go back that far," says the biblical archaeologist Robert Cargill UCLA. "There is no way that the author of the book of Genesis had in mind the Neanderthals." People most likely to occur, the ancient people were trying to clarify the origin of the high, "says Cargil and giving Back to the time when things were so bad that even semi-divine creatures was faulty.Of course, the fun is over. After all the scientists in 2003 discovered another species of humans, Pope John Paul II, nicknamed "hobbits" for their teams puny about three metres high, who had died probably 12 000 years ago in Indonesia So we hobbits, giants and probably cyclopean men wild, running in Prehistory. It is not quite the Lord of the rings, but we certainly Forgive Herodotus for some of its higher stories. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Design of new details on nationwide borrows earthquake

As far as the study of earthquakes, Professor of geology, Oregon State University Bob Lillie has a simple Theory: the more that is known, better persons can prepare and protect themselves.More knowledge about vulnerabilities in certain parts of the nation could lead to stricter building regulations in these places, so probably less overthrow structures, "he says."If we know about the risks, then we can bet on less risk, "Lillie says.Lillie is part of a group of scientists dealing with USArray, nationwide research project, which allows researchers to study earthquakes in unprecedented ways.The project, which includes a travelling with 400 sejsmografy high-quality, portable placed in temporary facilities, to reach the mark in the middle of this summer in its objective to measure the upheavals of the Earth's surface below from California to Maine, "says Project Director Bob Woodward. In the summer, the device will be installed in several countries, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, he said. Number density and systematic position of equipment give researchers a much more detailed picture of seismic activity in the UNITED STATES, "he says. Scientists are intrigued by tremors detected in North-Western Pacific and installed additional equipment in order to learn more about them, "he says.The project, which is formed on the West Coast in 2004, is in the East so scientists can have a systematic way of studying the whole nation, Woodward says. Instruments, at a distance of approximately 40 miles from each other, stay on the site for two years, before they moved, Woodward says. USArray project is scheduled to reach the East coast by 2013, says.USArray's of the annual budget is around 13 million dollars annually from the National Science Foundation, "he says. As part of a wider project known as the EarthScope, also funded by the Foundation. EarthScope's objective is to examine the structure and evolution of North America and learn more about what causes earthquakes and volcanoes.Before the instruments have been installed, "he was kind of like taking pictures from a camera with only a few pixels," says Woodward. "400 Stations where recalls much higher camera resolution. Now you can directly see the seismic Waves rolling across the country. "The project was included in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, he says. Emily Brodsky, seismologist, which researches earthquake at the University of California-Santa Cruz, he says, "By the whole view, you can start to see these in a way never seen before."2011, sejsmografy will be in place near the site of some of the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history — an area known as the new Madrid fault between St. Louis and Memphis, Woodward says.Almost 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes centered in the nearby small town of New Madrid, Missouri was so strong that witnesses said the nearby Mississippi River began to flow back, "says Chuck Langston, Director of the Center for the study of earthquake and information at the University of Memphis."The earthquake was felt in Boston, "Langston says. "There is a transfer, which the River dammed up, and its part toward the back. Spectacular, must have been it. Big waves and water moving every which way. "Although California is commonly associated with earthquakes, says Woodward, vulnerabilities exist throughout the nation, stretching on the East coast of the UNITED STATES.More than 500 billion dollars of losses could result from strong earthquake in the area of Los Angeles, according to Jan 14 Congressional Research service report for Congress. "Estimation of even higher — around $ 900 billion — includes injury to heavily populated areas of the central corridor, New Jersey-Philadelphia if earthquake 6.5-magnitude occurred along the fault lying between New York and Philadelphia, "States the report.Can be changed to the earthquake occurred in the region, "says Michel Bruneau, engineering professor at the University of Buffalo, which has Done an earthquake in extensive research. Bruneau is a study in 2008, which finds the size-5 earthquake damaged buildings in New York in 1737; and quake magnitude-5.5 hit the region in 1884, according to research reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Researchers wrote that there are stronger earthquakes in the area.Martin reports in Argus leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. guidance: sharing in the community of USA TODAY such please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Legends of ancient once walked among early humans?

Wild, Hairy, spammers fought griffons and Nomads Fat Camel — have Paleontologists unearthed mythic figures from folklore?Denisova Cave of Siberia held the pinky unknown early human species, genetics reported in March. Research Naturejournal, led by Johannes Krause Germany, Max Planck Institute for evolutionary anthropology, offered no response to it has become the "ancient" human species, more than one million years old and living in the vicinity of their human and Neanderthal cousins as recently as 30 000 years ago.But at least one scholar intriguing answer: "the discovery of evidence from different hominin (human) lines in Central Asia as recently as 30 000 years ago does not come as a surprise for those who have looked at the evidence of historical and anecdotal" wild people "target bytujacych region" wrote researcher Michael Heaney United Kingdom Bodleian Library Oxfordin a letter to the times of London Wild?Herodotus, the father of historians, wrote about these human cousins, "arimaspians," approximately 450 BC, they were "strong warriors, good Men rich in herds of cattle and sheep and goats; they are one-eyed, "Shaggy with horsehair, the toughest of men", "according to John Tzetses, writer of the era of the Byzantine Empire. They also fought against the griffons, mythical winged Lions with faces, gold Eagle, according to Herodotus and his contemporaries, Aristeas, who clearly know their stuff when it occurred to enhance writing historical.Heaney noted that legend Hairy wild people, or were fare almases in Russian steppes centuries. "Reports of wild men, though having a common mythic subtext, often reflect what we know from the original hominins," says Heaney, by e-mail. "Presumed almases from Central Asia may be one of a number of pre-(homo) sapien ancestors."At its gold mine guard griffon opponent? In the companion piece (1993) to look at the Arismaspians by Heaney, Stanford historianAdrienne, the Mayor, the author of The first fossil Hunters: paleontology in Greek and Roman times, suggested their legend sprang from the bones of dinosaurs discovered by nomads in their total Western Mongolia steppes. "This region may also be Bayan-Ulgii ????? (province) in Western Mongolia and environs, where I have wandered many days long, and have seen the ancient and modern small mines," says archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball of the Centre for the study of Eurasian Nomads, which requires the origin of the dinosaur bones of griffon stories justified. But as for the Arimaspians are the same as a newly-discovered human in an archaic, Davis-Kimball has a fairly strong doubts. "We have mined hunters and gatherers epoch of bronze and small inhabitants along the rivers of Eurasian — former precede nomads by 1000 or maybe even many years more people. I have seen lots of skeletons of many locales in My trip from Hungary to Mongolia, but none is fully correlated with the new hominid line or one-eyed Arimaspians, "Davis-Kimball says, by e-mail. "It is too difficult for me to believe that the hominids living withstand years ago can be perpetuated in mit until Herodotus or about 450 BC."An explanation of the other came in 2008 Archaeology Ethnology and anthropology of Eurasia journal by Dima Cheremisin Russian Academy of Sciences, which looked at the ancient people of Siberia, the Pazyryk culture iron age tribe burial mounds dot the mountains of Altai. "Mythical griffon is the most popular figure in the art of the Pazyryk culture, suggesting that people identified with the" Pazyryk culture griffons protection gold, "said by Aristeas and Herodotus," Cheremisin noted.And cryptozoologists, who study the legendary creatures, proposed a similar ancient explanations for people in the past, to the emergence of the Yeti or Bigfoot. Bernard Heuvelmans, father of modern Cryptozoology, theorized in 1980, that such emergence of wild individuals may be based on the ancestral memories of course Neanderthals Of, enabling that people seem to have interbred with Neanderthals, in accordance with the may report in the journal Science led by Svante Pääbofor a long time, researcher of ancient genome which also co-authored the report discovery Denisova Cave. More than 50 000 years ago, probably in the Middle East, early modern human and intermingling Neanderthals led to modern Europeans and Asians typically having a genome that is Neanderthal 1-4%, according to research.Such crossing is another staple of old stories. Hercules, the hero of the Greek myths, the lion skin around in with the Club over his shoulders and walked in was wondrously strong, somewhat like a Neanderthal, because the origin of the half-Divine. Even the old testament contains references to Nephilim, "giants," who married people and had children. "These stories go back millennia, but they do not go back that far," says the biblical archaeologist Robert Cargill UCLA. "There is no way that the author of the book of Genesis had in mind the Neanderthals." People most likely to occur, the ancient people were trying to clarify the origin of the high, "says Cargil and giving Back to the time when things were so bad that even semi-divine creatures was faulty.Of course, the fun is over. After all the scientists in 2003 discovered another species of humans, Pope John Paul II, nicknamed "hobbits" for their teams puny about three metres high, who had died probably 12 000 years ago in Indonesia So we hobbits, giants and probably cyclopean men wild, running in Prehistory. It is not quite the Lord of the rings, but we certainly Forgive Herodotus for some of its higher stories. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. 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The Group seeks to list endangered for Franklin's Bumblebee

Jeff Barnard, associated PressGRANTS PASS, Oregon — protection lodged a petition Wednesday add Bumblebee from Southern Oregon and Northern California to the list of threatened species.Society for invertebrate conservation and Robbin Thorp, entomologist at the University of California at Davis, formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the insect — called Bombus Franklin — under the endangered species Act. Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces society in Portland, Oregonsaid petition is part of efforts to reverse this decline in bumblebees and other native bees in the world due to Habitat loss, pesticides and diseases of the transition from commercial greenhouses.The group is preparing a petition to protect other species of Bumblebee. Bee Franklin was elected to This petition because the documentation of its decline is more detailed than for other species. THORP found 94 Franklin bumblebees in 1994, but he has not found any since 2006. Farmers often hire Honeybee pollinate crops, farmers, but uli was decimated by the killer of mysterious Honeybee known as colony collapse disorder.Some farmers are turning to bumblebees to pollinate, particularly for hothouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries and crops such as berries, cranberries, raspberries, squash or melon. Bumblebees pollinate approximately 15% of all crops grown in the nation, it is worth 3 billion dollars. "Decrease in Franklin's Bumblebee should serve as an alarm clock that we can begin to lose important pollinators, "Black said. "We hope that will remind us to Franklin's Bumblebee pollinators in the u.s. towards extinction."While many native pollinators have seen decreases related to loss of Habitat, and pesticides, Franklin's Bumblebee and some related species have suffered deep and sudden that Thorp has theorized the theory may be associated with fungi, which has been accidentally transported from bumblebees imported from Europe for commercial use.The work of researchers at the University of Illinois to See if mushrooms known as nosema bombus due to decrease in a number of related bumblebees, Bombus Western once common, Bumblebee and banded patch rusty yellow Bumblebee in the Northeast. Earlier this year, the Xerces society and other conservation groups urged Federal authorities and scientists begin governing shipments of agricultural commercially domesticated bumblebees to protect wild bumblebees from disease threatening their survival.Report of the National Academy of Sciences 2007 blamed the decline of pollinators around the world on a combination of Habitat loss, pesticides, pollution and diseases passing from greenhouses using commercial bumblebees.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

ROUNDUP.Top of resistant weeds pose a threat to the environment

By David Mercer, associated Press, CHAMPAIGN, fig — when the weed killer ROUNDUP.Mount was introduced in the 1970s, has proved it can kill almost any plant but are still safer than many other herbicides, and enabled farmers to give up major chemicals and reduction of tilling that may contribute to erosion.But 24 years later, sturdy several species of weeds resistant to ROUNDUP.Góra evolved, forcing farmers to return to some of the less secure practice abandoned decades earlier.The situation is worst in the South, where some farmers now walk the fields with hoes, killing weeds in their Great grandfathers were happy to leave behind. And the problem is quickly spreading belt corn and beyond, with the ROUND.Mount now proving unreliable in killing at least 10 species of weeds in at least 22 States. Some species, like the Palmer Amaranth in Arkansas and water hemp and marestail in Illinois, quickly grow and large, producing tens of thousands of seeds. "It's getting too big case," says Mike Plummer, 61-year-old farmer and agronomist at the University of Illinois, which soybeans and cotton near Southern Illinois Creal Springs Community. "If you got it, this is a real big deal."When Monsanto introduced Roundup in 1976, "since sliced bread, it was like the best thing," said Garry Niemeyer, who grows corn and soybeans near Auburn in Central Illinois. The weed killer, known generically as glyphosate, is absorbed by the plants leaves and kills them by blocking the production of the protein they need to grow. The US Environmental Protection Agency considers that have low toxicity for humans and animals, and plants is sprayed on, there is less danger to the environment because it rapidly binds to soil and becomes inactive.The introduction of Monsanto seeds designed to survive the ROUND.Mountain made things even better for farmers, because it can spray on emerging weeds growing crops erase beside them. Seeds containing Monsanto's Roundup Ready features are now used to grow approximately 90% of the soybeans nation and 70% of its maize and cotton.With increased dependence on Roundup herbicide to corn fell from 2,76 pounds per Acre in 1994 to 2.06 in 2005, the most-recent year for which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has no data. Distributed over 81.8 million acres planted in 2005 and annually is a decrease of more than 57 million pounds of herbicides.Farmers also found they could reduce, or in some cases, eliminating tilling, reducing erosion and fuel.But with all herbicides, the more it is used, the more likely that it will run individual plants within a species, which have only a few genetic varieties survive which kills most of their relatives. With each generation of the survivors they represent a larger percentage of species St. Louis-based Monsanto maintains resistance is often overstated, noting that most weeds show signs of immunity. "We believe that glyphosate will remain an important tool in the Arsenal of farmers, "said Monsanto Spokesman John Combest. Nevertheless, the company began paying cotton farmers $ 12 an acre to cover the costs of the other herbicides for Use next to Roundup, to increase its effectiveness.Trend confirmed by certain groups of food safety in the belief that biotechnology will not restrict the use of chemicals in the long term "that is were converted," says Bill Freese, chemist with a Washington, D.C.: Center for food safety, which promotes organic farming. "They intend to significantly increase the use of these chemicals, and that is bad."The first weeds in the United States, which survived the ROUND.Góra, it was found that about 10 years ago in Delaware. Agricultural experts said the use of other chemicals is already Creeping up. Monsanto and other companies develop new seeds intended to resist older herbicides such as dicamba and 2,4-D, killer weed developed during World War II and a component of Agent Orange, which was used to destroy the jungle foliage during the war in Vietnam and is blamed for health problems among veterans.Penn State University Weed scientist David Mortensen, estimated that in three or four years, farmers use dicamba and 2,4-D will be increased by 55.1 million pounds in the year due to resistance to ROUNDUP.Góra. That would both far list of herbicides used intensively by the farmers.Dicamba and 2,4-D easily drift outside the areas where you are sprayed, making them a threat to neighbouring crops and wild plants, "said Mortensen. Which, in turn, could also endanger wildlife. "We found that the plants (wild), which grows on the edge of the field actually supports the beneficial insects such as bees, "he said.Australian scientist Stephen Powles was sort of weed Evangelist recording Roundup, calling this tool in near miraculous agriculture.Australia has been involved in the ROUNDUP.Top of resistant weeds from the mid-1990s, but changes in farming practices that have helped to conduct effective, he said. That is enabled using a wider array of herbicides to kill off weeds ROUND.Góra, resistant and using other methods of weed control.These alternative methods, such as planting cover crops, the so-called "such as rye to deter weeds during the winter and in other cases, when the fields are planted with corn, soybeans and cotton, are key," said Freese, chemist, Center for food safety.Otherwise, he said, "that we are talking here of pesticide treadmill. This is only coming back to kick us in the butt now with resistant weeds. "Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Radar reveals the extent of the ancient Egyptian city buried

In CAIRO, EGYPT (AP) — an Austrian archeological team used radar imaging to determine the scope of the ruins of the once 3.500 year-old foreign capital, said the Department concluded Egypt Antiquities Sunday with 1664. Egypt-1569 B.C. demolished by the Hyksos, Warrior people from Asia, possibly Semitic in originin the summer capital, which was in the area of the Northern Delta. Irene Mueller, the head of the Austrian team, said the main objective of the project is to determine how far extends Metro City.Imaging radar showed the outlines of streets, houses and temples behind the green box and the modern city of Tel holding al-Dabaa. Archaeology Chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement that such noninvasive techniques are the best way to determine the scope of the site. Delta Egypt is densely populated and heavily farmed, which makes it difficult, unlike in southern Egypt with his more Famous tombs and temples, extensive excavations desert.An Austrian team of archaeologists working in the site since 1975. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Nations cannot agree on curbing Japan whale hunt

By Arthur Max, associated PressAGADIR, Morocco — Japanese officials and environmentalists traded blame Wednesday as Nations failed to reach a deal to control whale hunts by Japan, Norway and Iceland — countries that kill hundreds of whales every year 88 Nations International Whaling Commission was held two days of intense closed-door talks on the basis of a proposal in order to facilitate the 25-year-old ban on commercial whaling Exchange for smaller kills by the three countries which qualify for exemption to a moratorium on hunting for profit.Around 1500 animals are killed each year in Japan, Norway and Iceland. Japan, which kills most of the whales, insists on his hunt for research — but more whale meat and products of the whale's Japanese restaurant than in laboratories.The key sticking point was that the Agency declared the shrine of whaling in 1994 in the Southern Ocean south of Australia, but Japanese ships hunt freely there because the Agency does not have any enforcement powers.Australia began already complaints against Japanese Wielorybnicza in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Supreme Court of the UNITED NATIONS.Acting IWC Chairman Anthony Liverpool, said the meeting opened Wednesday that "the basic position remained far apart." "After nearly three years of discussions, it seems our discussions are at a stalemate," said the Chief delegate of the U.S. Monica Medina. Japanese Wielorybnicza Yasue Funayama Commissioner told her country had offered major concessions to reach a compromise and accused anti-whaling countries which refused to accept the killing of a single animal. "We must rise above politics and engage in a wider perspective, "said Funayama. Anti-Whaling countries seek to end Japan's forays in the Southern Ocean Hunting Wielorybnicza shrine, a ban on international trade in whale meat and set firm quotas for Peoples whaling for next years 10. proposed transaction will let Japan kill 400 whales in the South of the shrine for the next five yearsthat many countries, that was too high and that Japan Saw with as main concessions. Set in Japan 2009 quota for each kill more than 900 whales, but have not reached this figure due to the harassment of the anti-whaling groupsAustralia and groups of countries in Latin America held firm on zero of whaling in the Antarctic ocean, said a delegate from a country of whaling. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in the media.Iceland refused to consider any transaction limit for the international sale of whale products, he added.Be blamed for the breakdown of Japan. "If Japan had agreed to phase out in the Southern Ocean, would be a good opportunity "for the transaction," said Wendy Elliott WWF.Other defenders expressed relief that the 25-year-old ban on whaling has not been lifted. "This has been done here, this contract would be lived in infamy, "said Patrick Ramage, the International Fund for Animal Welfare .it was unclear if the private discussions will continue until the meeting is scheduled to Close on Friday. Many delegations called break of one year in the efforts.The formal talks will Center on issues such as preventing collisions between whales and ships, the effects of climate change and to the discussion on the research of the planned Russian crude oil in seasonal feeding grounds of endangered Gray Whale.Some derive have accused Japan of purchase of the vote, using development aid money and personal przyslugi Jitter small, poorer Nations to its side in the debate of whaling.But a delegate from Saint Kitts and Nevis, Daven Joseph said the media and environmental groups to stop the allegations. "We have been accused of being surrogates. This is not the case, "he said.Liverpool, a diplomat from Antigua and Barbuda and the Ambassador of Japan, is quoted by the British paper as unless Japanese interests paid hotel bills for him and says he does not see anything "odd about that."Whaling Commission was created after World War II, to the conservation and management of whale stocks. Tens of thousands of animals killed each year until 1986, when the IWC adopted a moratorium.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Not only oil: methane can cause a "dead zone" in Gulf

Click here to see how the CAP and the exemption also work to stop the flow of oil.

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Stem cells reverse blindness caused by chemical burns

By Alicia Chang, associated ANGELES PressLOS dozens of persons who have been blinded or otherwise serious eye damage when they were sprayed with chemical substances, corrosive substances have their sight restored with transplants or their own stem cells — a stunning success on the field this cell terapiiNaukowców Italian reported Wednesday The treatment completely worked in 82 107 eye and partially in 14 other, with benefits lasting up to a decade now. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago has now vision near normal. "It is a Roaring success, "said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab from the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of this type.Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year, which was suffering from chemical burns in their eyes from the harsh cleansers or other substances in the workplace or at home.Approach does not allow people with damage to the optic Nerve or macular degeneration, which includes the retina. Nor will work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors must be at least some healthy tissue, which can be used to transplant.In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from the patient's eyes healthy, multiplied them in the laboratory and place them in the eye of roasted, where they were able to develop new corneal tissue to replace, which had been damaged. Because stem cells are from their own bodies, patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases such as sickle cell anemia. But the problem of how damage to eyes is a relatively new uses.Scientists studying cell therapies for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.Adult stem cells, which are located around the body, they differ from embryonic stem cells that come from human embryos and the ethical issues are mixed, because deleting cells requires destroying embryos.Now people of eye burns, you can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries out such complications like infection and Glaucoma, or can be obtained is a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but need to take drugs to prevent rejection.An Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage to one eye, and some had such limited vision, that they could only sense, count fingers or perceive the hand movements. Many are blind for years and had unsuccessful restore their vision.The cells were taken from the limbus, rim around the cornea, the clear, which includes a colorful part of the eye. In a healthy eye stem cells in limbus are factories, mixing new cells to replace dead corneal cells. When injury kills off the stem cells, scar tissue forms of corneal clouding vision and causes blindness.In the study of Italian doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued stem cells cultivated in the laboratory over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes are damaged by burns cells were taken from by limbus.Scientists after patients with an average of three years and some for as long as a decade. More than three-fourths of the regained sight after the show. Additional% 13 were considered a partial success. Although their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.Patients with superficial damage was visible in one to two months. Those with more extensive damage took several months longer. "They were very happy. Some said it was a miracle, "said one of the leaders of the research, the University of Modena Graziella Pellegrini Center for regenerative medicine in Italy. "There was no miracle. It was simply technique. "The test has been partly financed by the Italian Government.Researchers in the United States have been testing different way to use self-supplied stem cells, but the work is preliminary.One of the successful transplants or in Italian involved a man who had a serious injury in both eyes due to chemical burn in 1948. Doctors have been grafted stem cells with a small part of his left eye for both eyes. His vision now is close to normal.In 2008 they were settled in connection with the work of the citrus fruit chemical eye burns in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Schwab UC Davis said transplants or stem cells could be not assist this blinded by burns in both eyes, because doctors need stem cells to follow procedure. "I don't want to give false hope to respond to their prayers, "he said Dr. Sophie Deng, expert of the cornea in the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, said the biggest advantage is that the Italian doctors were able to expand the number of stem cells in the laboratory. This technique is less invasive than sampling large eye tissue and reduces the risk of injury to the eye. "The key is whether you can find good stem cell populations and expand it, "she said.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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John Glenn: Keep U.S. space shuttle flying

By Marcia Dunn, associated PressCAPE CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, USA — Mercury astronaut John Glenn, now 88, wants to NASA space shuttle to keep flying until their replacement is ready.Glenn joined the debate Monday on the future of America national in area and became the latest ex-astronaut to speak on this matter. He released a statement by the nine parties, in which he questioned the decision to retire the shuttle fleet and to be able to rely on Russia to take astronauts to the international space station. "We have a vehicle, why throw away? This works well, "the first American to orbit the Earth, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press," said he. Glenn is against paying the Russians 55.8 million USD for a person to fly U.S. astronauts to the space station and back. This is the price of a ticket starting in 2013; Right now, is for the valuation of US $ 26.3 million NASA and will jump to $ 51 million next year.Glenn does not believe the public realizes what happens to the forward area. "Turning to Russia and, as a result, under the control of Russia to our space program just doesn't sit right with me, and I don't think there are also people, American or not, either, "said Glenn, a former senator who ran a shuttle in orbit in 1998 at the age of 77. It included 89 next month.Glenn said, little, if any, money will be saved by cancelling the program Transfer from the airport, taking into account all the millions of dollars going to Russia to rocket races. Shuttle at least two flights a year to keep the station going and force work employed until something new comes along, he said.Astronaut wonders what happens if there is an accident and Soyuz rockets are grounded. He supposes space station — an investment of 100 billion dollars--would have to be abandoned. He also bezstresowej scientific research at the station will take a hit if the experiments must be run from Russia and have no way of getting back to Earth in bulk.President George w. Bush made the decision to retire, shuttle services and retarget the Moon six years ago in the wake of the Columbia tragedy. President Barack Obama keeps closing the transfer from the airport, you kill effort the Moon only two shuttle missions remain on the composition of the Official; the second almost certainly will be delayed until early next year. NASA is hoping the White House will add an additional ticket next summer before the end of the 30-year shuttle program.Glenn Democratic support Obama's plan, announced earlier this year on the space station by going to the year 2020 and give up on the basis of the moon now. But the original Mercury 7 astronauts, "said the nation needs a rocketship capable of lifting heavy loads — whether it is part of NASA'S Constellation program or something else — if astronauts ever to achieve asteroids and Mars. Private companies, in the meantime, interested in the performance of astronauts back to the space station and the need to first prove their ability and niezawodnoscGlenn noted. "I'm very often this momentum to the placing on the market," he said.Glenn said he waited it public, because he thought, "people would see the wisdom of" preserve the continuity of a shuttle. "If we're going to do anything, it must be done fairly quickly," he said.Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Jimmy Buffett Gulf rescue mission: rescuing marine life

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and two friends are hoping their new rescue boats may save birds and marine life under threat from the worst of the nation. Boats specially designed to navigate shallow marshlands, coming from a wide range of wildlife, coast of the Gulf ".In principle, we can set something on a cocktail napkin and provided the idea, "says Mark Castlow, a boat builder in Vero Beach, Fla. That was the second day of the disaster, he says, as he watched television images of the spill and saw the need for a boat that could achieve the shallow waters of the Gulf Coast estuaries.Castlow shared the idea with his friend Buffett, who agreed to operate the boat cost $ 43,000, "he says. "Called and Jimmy and says:" Let's go for it. Let's do it, "" Castlow says. "It is so like all of us. He's got in suicide. "Shortage of equipment to help contain oil — and rescuing wildlife — have been a recurring problem since the April 20 deepwater Horizon on oil rigs, the outbreak of the Carys Mitchelmore, says he is a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "If you can get in these areas, shallow and rescue everything can be oiled, this is great," says Mitchelmore, who has testified before Congress on oil spill pollution. "If anyone can help, I think it is an excellent idea, especially if you do not want to be costing anything."Buffett, who graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1969, met with school President Martha Saunders this month brainstorming ways it can help, "says Beth Taylor, University news and Media Relations Manager.Miss decided to grant the first boat at the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, the composer then. He was expected to arrive late this week or next week, and Castlow says there are plans to build three other boats of the same type of boat is needed, "says Taylor, because boats lab will not be able to navigate in shallow waters, such as the 10 cm depth, such as new, donated. "Our boats are larger, and they cannot be find around in the shallow water, "he says. "This will be used by our scientists and our graduate schools to go out in the estuaries and wetlands."Castlow and Jimbo Meador, friend and colleague at Castlow's Dragonfly Boatworks, designed for boats s.w.a.t. — an acronym for shallow water account terminal — running misting to cool the injured wildlife, after he is taken on board in the Gulf of summer heat. "Crown wraps around the boat, and that there is a great case, because now you can work in the shade and misting," says Castlow that "sounds like a great idea, because you might want to do meaningful right there," says Ed Verge, an instructor, a boat building lead Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina, N.C.Madilyn Fletcher, Director of the school of the University of South Carolina for the reduction of stress on the injured party srodowiskamówi nature is the key to the animals recover and idea is sensible. "Everything you can do to save these bird damaged is all the better, and the more you can do to reduce the load on them when you are trying to do this is all for the better, as well as" Fletcher says.Monday 724 birds apparently array had been rescued off the coast of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, in accordance with the consolidated fish and report collection of wild animals, which tracks the number of reported by government agencies and rescue Centers to the Unified area command in the zone of the spill. 247 other birds of the five Member States have been found dead. "When you see something is thinning what to do for life — what you love — it simply tore everyone, "says Castlow."Simply we thought, "we have the opportunity to make a difference here." "Sharing in the Community Guidelines: USA TODAY so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.

Show Imago utopian, green cities in the year 2030

Karen Matthews, associated PressNEW YORK — imagine no cars — or less, though.In New York City Pas two mile parkway FDR Drive is torn to open lower Manhattan for parks and streets and bicyclists are given their own lane on the Brooklyn Bridge, An elevated highway. Guangzhou, China, is transformed in pedestrian promenade and roofs are connected with raised walkways and bikeways.In Jakarta, Indonesia traditional bicycle taxis called becaks are re-engineered to be lighter and easier to drive.These three towns and seven other featured in exhibition on transport, environment-friendly future opening Thursday in New York City. The exhibition, entitled "Our city Ourselves," will be at the Centre for architecture in Greenwich Village by Sept 11 before travelling to other cities, said organizers. "We hired 10 architects from cities around the world help us imagine what their cities may be look in 2030 if we made the city more human scale, more friendly, "says Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute of transport and the exhibition of the rozwojuorganizowane policy of financing of the ClimateWorks Foundation. Hook based on San Francisco cradled his Bicycle Helmet in one arm, he provided for in tour of the exposition. "Essentially we are trying to send the message that if the city does not move in this direction we're going to face in the urzeczywistniona climate, because in developing countries the use of private cars is Escalating two-digit," Hook, "he said.The city has been selected as the hook and based on the New York ITDP have relationships with them, helped design the bus systems in Jakarta, Indonesia; Mexico (City); Ahmedabad, India, and other locales.The exhibit includes images and 3D models of urban neighborhoods as they are provided in 2030 next to current pictures from the same neighborhoods.In the township Soweto in Johannesburg, the current picture shows low-rise housing and not much more. But Soweto 2030 is the bustling markets and public spaces. "Not allowed to open shops, traditionally, on apartheid, "Hook," he said. "What we have done is, therefore, we have already sort of reimagined as a kind of new city ... where people may actually work and shop in downtown Soweto."Model of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, shows the network path of the roof evoking Theodor Seuss Geisel. "In China, nothing is possible, "Hook," he said.Utopia lower Manhattan shows vision pedestrians, bicycles, and very few cars. Michael Sorkin, architect who designed the piece New York exhibition, said he thought that it is "feasible." "The streets are laid down by the Dutch in the pattern of medieval fundamentally," he said. "You have not edited for cars."In New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won he has accolades from advocates alternative transport for the introduction of pedestrian streets in the middle of Times Square, near the theatres of Broadway and Herald Square, where Macy flagship department store.Sorkin said his own ideas such as the tearing down of the lower part of the FDR Drive, which runs along the East side of Manhattan, are equally plausible. "A year ago nobody thought you can shut down Broadway, "he said. "But suddenly is shut down, and everyone loves." "Our cities, Ourselves" travels to Guangzhou after New York City. Other cities in the exposition are Ahmedabad, India; Budapest, Hungary; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Jakarta, Indonesia; Johannesburg, South Africa, Mexico, Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY Community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally and keep your language decent. Use the "report abuse" button to make the difference. Learn more.