2008: May 21st Good News (Stray Parrot Talks its Way Home, Divers Find Combined Gold Toothpick, Earwax Spoon, more...)

Good Morning all!

It's great to be back. I had to take a couple days off to study for my Korean test. Hopefully I passed. I won't find out until tomorrow. :)

Anyway, a lot has happened in the past couple days! I have some great articles to share with you. First, probably one of the most popular stories on the web right now is about a parrot who memorized its address, and was able to get a stranger to take it home. This parrot was actually Japanese, so I have a version from Japan Today to share with you.


Another great article is about the newly discovered dinosaur tracks in the Arabic Peninsula. Previously, there had been no trace of dinosaurs in the area. The new tracks show that not only were there dinosaurs in the area, but there were large herds of dinosaurs there.

The third article I'd like to highlight today is about some teenagers doing some good in the UK. Two teenage girls set out on a bike ride across the UK in order to raise funds and awareness for a charity to support the prevention of Heart Disease. Way to go girls!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy today's posts! :) I'll see you tomorrow.

Today's Top 5:
1. First Dinosaur Tracks Discovered on Arabian Peninsula (Science Daily)
2. Stray Parrot Talks its way Home (Japan Today)
3. Archaeologists Find 238-yr-old Spanish Shipwreck in Chile (Archaeology News)
4. Pink Floyd and Soprano Renee Fleming Share Polar Music Prise (International Herald Tribune)
5. Teenagers' Mammoth Charity Bike Ride (EADT 24 UK)




Honorable Mentions:
1. Sharp and Enel to Set up Solar Power Plants in Italy (Yahoo News Asia)
2. Smallpox Drug May Protect Against Common Cold (Yahoo Health News)
3. Divers Find Combined Gold Toothpick, Earwax Spoon (Huffington Post)
4. Israel and Syria Begin Peace Talks (Big News Networks)
5. Odenton Woman Commended for Her Military Charity Works (Hometown Annapolis News)





Today's Top 5:

1. First Dinosaur Tracks Discovered on Arabian Peninsula
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520203013.htm
ScienceDaily
May 21, 2008

Scientists have discovered the first dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula. They have discovered evidence of a large ornithopod dinosaur, as well as a herd of 11 sauropods walking along a Mesozoic coastal mudflat in what is now the Republic of Yemen.

"No dinosaur trackways had been found in this area previously. It's really a blank spot on the map," said Anne Schulp of the Maastricht Museum of Natural History in The Netherlands. He conducted the study with Ohio University paleontologist Nancy Stevens and Mohammed Al-Wosabi of Sana'a University in Yemen.

The finding also is an excellent example of dinosaur herding behavior, the researchers report. The site preserved footprints of 11 small and large sauropods -- long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods -- traveling together at the same speed.

"It's rare to see such a big example of a dinosaur herd," Schulp said. "This is interesting social behavior for reptiles."

A Yemeni journalist spotted one of the trackways in 2003, about 50 kilometers north of the capital of Sana'a in the village of Madar. Stevens, Al-Wosabi and Schulp identified it as the footprint of an ornithopod, a large, common plant-eater sometimes referred to as the "cow of the Mesozoic," Schulp said. It walked on its hind legs.

Only a few dinosaur fossils have been reported so far from the Arabian Peninsula, including isolated bones from the Sultanate of Oman, which Schulp has studied, and possible fragments of a long-necked dinosaur from Yemen.

In late 2006, the research team conducted further field work at the Madar site. By taking measurements on the shape and angle of the different digits, they were able to identify the bipedal dinosaur as an ornithopod. The size, shape and spacing of the quadrupedal prints were used to identify the body size, travel speed and other distinguishing features of the animals in the sauropod herd, Stevens said.

The rocks in which the dinosaur tracks are preserved are likely Late Jurassic in age, some 150 million years old, according to Al-Wosabi. The tracks probably went unnoticed for so long, Schulp explained, because they were too big to be spotted by the untrained eye and were partially covered by rubble and debris. "It isn't a surprise that they were overlooked," he said.

Though ornithopods and sauropods overlapped in time, it's a bit unusual to find evidence of such a big ornithopod in the late Jurassic, the researchers noted.

"We really want to learn when did which dinosaurs live where, and why was that?" Schulp said. "How did the distribution change over time, why did one replace another and move from one place to another?"

The researchers agreed that discoveries from Yemen could yield more answers to those questions.

"This international collaboration provides an exciting new window into evolutionary history from a critically undersampled region," said Stevens, an assistant professor in Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. "These trackways help us to assemble a more detailed picture of what was happening on the southern landmasses. It's exciting to see new paleontological data coming out of Yemen -- and I think there is a lot more to discover."

The Yemen Geological Survey has implemented protective measures to preserve the trackways and to improve their accessibility to tourists, the researchers report.

Partial funding for the research was provided by the Yemen Geological Survey and Ohio University.



2. Stray Parrot Talks its Way Home
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/stray-parrot-talks-its-way-home
Wednesday 21st May, 04:29 PM JST

CHIBA —
A stray parrot captured on a street in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, by a police officer earlier this month has been returned to its owner after repeating its name and its owner’s address, police said Wednesday. After it was captured on May 6, the African grey parrot was taken to a veterinary clinic in the city where it repeated the words ‘‘Nakamura Yosuke-kun,’’ the name given to it by its owner Yoshio Nakamura, and the owner’s address including the house number. It also entertained clinic staff by singing songs, police said.

The clinic notified police on May 19 and they located the Nakamura residence and returned the parrot to the owner. ‘‘I was careless because it hardly flies,’’ Nakamura was quoted as telling the police. ‘‘I had been teaching it things such as the address.’’ The African grey parrot is a popular pet among Japanese people for its ability to mimic words uttered by humans, according to an official of Chiba Zoological Park.




3. Archaeologists Find 238-yr-old Spanish Shipwreck in Chile
http://www.archaeologynews.org/story.asp?ID=289630&Title=Archaeologists%20find%20238-yr-old%20Spanish%20shipwreck%20in%20Chile
2008-05-20 10:28:28

SSantiago (Chile), May 20 : A private archaeological excavation firm has discovered the remains of a 238-year-old shipwrecked Spanish galleon on the coast near the Chilean town of Curepto, located in Chile's Region VII.

According to a report in The Santiago Times, the Spanish galleon, named "Our Lady of the Good Council and San Leopoldo" was discovered by Oriflama S.A, a private archaeological excavation firm.

The Oriflama S.A's scientific team found the ship through the use of magnetomentry, a methodology using a machine that detects materials with magnetic properties, like iron.

Most archaeologists expected to find the remains of the ship deep on the ocean floor.

But fragments of the 41-meter x 11-meter ship were discovered embedded in the sand under fairly shallow waters near where the Huenchullami River flows into the ocean.

According to the company Web site, a graphic explanation provides information as to how the ship went down.

It suggests that the crew was so malnourished and sick that they could not even raise all of the ship's sails. They were caught in a terrible storm and could not be rescued, condemning the galleon and its crew.

The once ornate vessel, built by the French in the mid 1700s and, loaded with 56 canons, was used by their military until the ship fell into Spanish hands. The Spaniards then revamped the ship into a merchant vessel and set it sailing to "New Spain."

After several trips to the new world, the ship sank after five months at sea when it was nearing the end of a journey from Puerto de Cadiz, Spain, to El Callao, Peru.

The ship was carrying precious glassware from the Spanish royal family to be sold to Peru's Spanish royalty. The glassware, along with garments decorated with gold, gold money, fancy furniture and over 50 canons, today have an estimated value of 30 million US dollars. (ANI)




4. Pink Floyd and Soprano Renee Fleming Share Polar Music Prize
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/21/arts/EU-A-E-MUS-Sweden-Polar-Music-Prize.php
The Associated Press
Published: May 21, 2008


STOCKHOLM, Sweden: British rock group Pink Floyd and U.S. soprano Renee Fleming on Wednesday were named the winners of the 2008 Polar Music Prize for their contributions to their respective musical genres.

The band and the opera singer will each receive a cash prize of 1 million kronor (US$168,000; €108,000) at an award ceremony in Stockholm on Aug. 26, organizers said.

The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award. It was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.

The prize committee cited Fleming's "sublime, unparalleled voice and unique stylistic versatility."

A two-time Grammy winner, the 49-year-old soprano has performed in opera houses worldwide after her professional debut more than 20 years ago.

Today in Culture
'Changeling': A lurid tale of crime told with restrain by Eastwood'Hunger': An artist-turned-filmmaker's take on a coming-of-age protestPeople: Jessica Alba, Heather Mills, George Takei The committee said Pink Floyd, founded in the 1960s, had made a "monumental contribution" in the development of popular culture.

"They captured the mood and spirit of a whole generation in their reflections and attitudes," the citation said.

The prize is typically split between pop artists and classical musicians.

Last year's winners were composer Steve Reich and jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

Previous winners include Led Zeppelin, former Beatle Paul McCartney, violinist Isaac Stern, rock musician Bruce Springsteen, and music producer Quincy Jones.



5. Teenagers' Mammoth Charity Bike Ride
http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED20%20May%202008%2018%3A18%3A46%3A657
21 May 2008 06:23

ELLIOT FURNISS
TWO teenage girls from Essex are heading out on a mammoth charity bike-ride stretching the length and breadth of the UK.

Emily Mayo, from Braintree, and Louisa De Dross, from Colchester, both 18, will be cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats this summer to raise money to support the prevention of heart disease.

The girls, both sixth form students at the Colchester County High School, have raised £200 for the Cardiomyopathy Association so far through selling food, running raffles and organising music concerts.

They will be setting off on the 900-mile journey on June 27 and are aiming to make the distance in about three weeks while staying at youth hostels and with friends along the way.

Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle and is currently the number one cause of sudden death in young people in the UK.

The girls both have friends who have been diagnosed with this disease, which affects approximately one in 500 people.







Honorable Mentions:

1. Sharp and Enel to Set up Solar Power Plants in Italy
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080518/afp/080518025739business.html
Sunday May 18, 10:57 AM
Photo: AFP
Click to enlarge

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. has agreed with Enel SpA to jointly set up solar power plants in Italy, a newspaper said Sunday.

Sharp, one of the world's largest makers of solar power panels, and the second largest power company in Europe plan to begin operation by 2011, the Nikkei business daily said.

The solar power plants will have a combined output capacity of more than 160 megawatts which will be one of the world's largest solar power operations, the newspaper said.

The two firms are also considering building a plant in Italy to produce thin-film solar cell panels with the investment possibly amounting to several tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars), it said.

The tie-up with Enel is Sharp's first step to a further expansion in its solar power operation overseas.

By building overseas plants, Sharp aims to raise its annual production capacity for solar cell panels to 6,000 megawatts from the current 710 megawatts.

Sharp is stepping up efforts to boost its clean energy business by gaining a foothold in Europe, where the governments provide subsidies to buy solar power at high prices, Nikkei reported.




2. Smallpox Drug May Protect Against Common Cold
http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/smallpoxdrugmayprotectagainstcommoncold.html
By HealthDay
Tue May 20, 8:47 PM PDT

An investigational smallpox drug may also protect against adenovirus, which causes upper respiratory infections and is one of the many viruses that causes the common cold.

Currently, there are no drugs specifically approved to treat adenovirus. In part, this is because there have been no animal models in which to test new drugs, something that needs to be done before new drugs can be tested in humans.

Saint Louis University researchers and colleagues report two important advances. They identified an animal model (Syrian golden hamsters) suitable for adenovirus testing and a drug that successfully attacks adenovirus in the hamsters.

The drug -- hexadecyloxypropyl-cidofovir (CMX001) -- is currently being developed to protect against smallpox or monkeypox, and as an antiviral agent in transplant patients.

The Saint Louis University team found that CMX001 protected the hamsters against adenovirus when the drug was given both before infection with the virus and after infection. The drug worked by greatly reducing the ability of the virus to replicate in key organs, especially the liver.

The study was published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is exciting news and a major step forward in finding a drug to treat adenovirus infections in humans," lead author William Wold, chairman of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

CMX001 is an oral derivative of cidofovir, a drug developed to treat a type of retinitis in AIDS patients. Cidofovir is quite toxic to the liver and kidneys and is not available in oral form, which limits its potential as a treatment for viral infections.

In this study with hamsters, the researchers found that CMX001 was much less toxic and far more powerful than cidovovir.



3. Divers Find Combined Gold Toothpick, Earwax Spoon
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/20/divers-find-combined-gold_n_102602.html
May 20, 2008 01:32 AM EST

KEY WEST, Fla. — Experts found a tiny gold combined toothpick and earwax spoon, believed to be more than 385 years old, during the search for a shipwrecked Spanish galleon off the Florida Keys.

The late 16th or early 17th century grooming tool, which weighs only about an ounce, was located Sunday by Blue Water Ventures diver Chris Rackley as he searched the area about 22 feet below the surface and 40 miles west of Key West. He says its value could exceed $100,000.

The divers, who are searching the shipwreck trail of the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita that sank in a 1622 hurricane, also recovered ceramic pieces, spikes, ships' fittings, rigging elements and two skeleton keys.

"We were on the trail on the Margarita site following the artifact scatter pattern to the north," said Blue Water head archaeologist Dr. R. Duncan Mathewson. "This is the furthest point on that trail where gold has ever been found before, so it confirms that we're on the right trail."

The search for Santa Margarita artifacts began more than a quarter-century ago by the late Key West treasure hunter Mel Fisher. Today, the Blue Water team is leading that search under a joint-venture partnership with the Fisher family owned company, Motivation Inc.

Almost a year ago, Blue Water divers located gold bars, gold chains and a lead box containing thousands of pearls that were carried by the Margarita. The value of that find was estimated at more than $2 million.

On the Net: Blue Water Ventures: http://www.bluewaterventureskw.com



4. Israel and Syria Begin Peace Talks
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=361662
Big News Network.com
Wednesday 21st May, 2008

Israel and Syria have confirmed the beginning of indirect peace negotiations, with Turkey as the
mediator.

Both parties have said the negotiations should lead to a full peace between their countries.

In April, it became clear that Turkey had been functioning as mediator between Israel and Syria for months.

Representatives for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Syrian government arrived in Turkey on Monday.

The previous round of peace talks between the two archenemies stalled in 2000.



5. Odenton Woman Commended for Her Military Charity Work
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/05_19-16/CWC
By JOSHUA STEWART, Staff Writer
Published May 19, 2008

Ramona Vazquez believes in equal-opportunity helping.
After she and other Coast Guard spouses started a charity for sailors with young children at Curtis Bay, they said they realized there were many more people who needed help.


"I never let rank or military branch get in the way of me assisting," Ms. Vazqeuz said. "And I said 'You know, anyone who serves, you're welcome.'"

For her work creating and running Nate's Open Door Baby Pantry and Exchange, Ms. Vazquez of Odenton received the President's Volunteer Service Award and was one of six military spouses honored at the White House earlier this month on Military Spouses Day.

President George Bush created the award to recognize people and groups who "set a standard of service to others," according to the administration's Web site.

Ms. Vazquez, a civilian who works for the Coast Guard, and other spouses at Curtis Bay, created the baby pantry, which is now 3 years old, to help keep Coast Guard families together, said Mona Hatfield, a co-founder and current treasurer of the Greater Baltimore Area Coast Guard Spouse Association, the group that runs the baby pantry.

Projects like this create a sense of community, Ms. Vazquez said.

"We especially need to stay together because we have families that live as far away as Alaska or as close as 5 minutes down the road," she said.

The pantry originally provided diapers, formula and other baby supplies to the families of the junior enlisted at Curtis Bay. But it soon became apparent that many others needed their help. The people who ran the pantry decided to open it to all branches of the military - without regard to rank or commission - as well as to the families of anyone remotely attached to the military, said Ms. Vazquez, president of the spouse's association.

Her efforts have earned her kudos from Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Baltimore County.

"Her selfless dedication to military families in her community is inspiring," he said in a prepared statement. "She went above and beyond the call of duty to help young families get the things they need to care for their infants."

She named the charity after Petty Officer Nate Bruckenthal, a Coast Guardsman who was killed in Iraq in April 2004. Petty Officer Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guardsman killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

Ms. Vazquez had known Petty Officer Bruckenthal, originally from Smithtown, N.Y., years ago, and was struck when she learned he had died.

"When he was killed, it was 'Oh my God, I know him.' He was just a good human being," she said.

On April 24, 2004, Petty Officer Bruckenthal was killed from an explosion by a suicide-bomber aboard a type of Arab sailboat his team had intercepted in Iraq. Two Navy sailors were killed and four other servicemen also were hurt in the attack.

Petty Officer Bruckenthal was buried at Arlington National Cemetery and posthumously received the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for his actions. It was his second deployment to the Arabian Gulf.

He left behind his wife. He was 24.

When Petty Officer Bruckenthal died, he and his wife were awaiting the birth of their first child. He was always devoted to kids and public service; he wanted to become a firefighter or police officer, and Ms. Vazquez said this inspired her.

"Having known what I knew, I really wanted to find a tribute to Nate Bruckenthal," she said.

She began speaking with his family and eventually developed a friendship with his father, Ric Bruckenthal. He always told her "When one door closes, another opens."

This philosophy eventually lead to Nate's Open Door Baby Pantry, Ms. Vazquez said.

They help anyone in need, as long as there is some tie to the military. Many of the people they assist are young mothers whose spouse is overseas.

As single-parents-in-practice, they sometimes need a helping hand.

All that the charity wants is for the people they help to eventually return the favor to someone else. If they no longer can use baby's clothes, find someone who can. If their child no longer uses diapers, find one who does, she said.

"We just ask that if they no longer have a need for it, pay it forward. Find someone who has a need for it and pay it forward," she said.

Running the baby pantry is time consuming but a cadre of volunteers makes it manageable, said Ms. Hatfield.

Besides the baby pantry, the spouses' association also runs a coat drive, and children's holiday parties. They are considering starting a food pantry for the area as well, Ms. Hatfield said.

"It's not a high tea. It's not a social club, we keep it positive," she said.