Category: History
Millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth and another piece of evidence of this has been found one of the islands in the antarctic. This baby plesiosaur is about five feet long and is almost completely intact, much to the delight of its finders.
The expedition was led by James E. Martin, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s Museum of Geology where the bones will be put on display. Other members of the expedition included Judd Case of Eastern Washington University and Marcelo Reguero from Argentina‘s Museo de la Plata.
The best known image of a plesiosaur for most people is Nessie or the Loch Ness monster as it is often called. Though this skeleton is a mere five feet, an adult would measure about 32 feet long. It wasn’t easy to transport the fossil. It was finally flown by helicopter to its new home.
Since the bones were found in volcanic ash, the scientists speculate that the plesiosaur may have been caught in an eruption. It could have been killed by the blast or by the lava or ash from the explosion.
NASA has given the go for the launch of space shuttle Discovery. The Discovery is now scheduled to launch on December 7 at 2135h PST.
The crew is headed by Commander Mark Polansky. Their pilot is Bill Oefelein. Mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Curbeam and Joan Higginbotham as well as astronauts Christer Fusglesang and Sunita Williams of the European Space Agency (ESA) will also be on board. Williams will be staying on board the space station for another six months, replacing ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter who came on board the station in July.
The mission of this team is to continue building the international space station. It is a 12 day mission with three space walks. According to NASA’s senior management the team will be installing girder-like truss to form a new segment. They will also be activating the permanent power and cooling systems of the station. They will be in constant communication with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
If you think you can send an sms text message fast, how about doing 160 characters in less than 42 seconds.
Well, in Singapore, a sixteen-year-old by the name of Ang Chuang Yang did it it 41.52 seconds, beating the Guinness World Record previously held by American Ben Cook, whose record was a mere 42.22 seconds.
The Singaporean student was part of the competition organised by Singapore Telecommunications, to break the SMS (short message service) world record which was won last July by the now ousted American.
Ang, who said that the trick was about using a cellphone with large keys boasted that he’s try for en even speedier 39 seconds next year.
If you’re curious to know (and possibly practice?) what the 160 character sms message provided by the Guinness World Records said, this was it:
“The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”
Hmmm. That would probably take me at least 5 minutes!!
Al Gore recently won the prestigious Quill Literary Award for his acclaimed book on the startling state of the environment, “An Inconvenient Truth”.
The ex-vice president and former electoral Bush opponent has been applauded lately for his staunch efforts on promoting environmental awareness, mostly through his book, which has been also made into a film. The book, which talks about climate change, was awarded the Quill prize in the history, current events and politics category.
The Quills, which just started last year, hope to be likened to the famous Pulitzer and National Book Awards, and was created to promote literacy and gain exposure for authors. The prize was voted by the public, who cast their votes online.
tags]Al Gore,Environment,Quill Prize,Book Awards,Books,Film,An Inconvenient Truth[/tags]
Sometime this month, the 300th Million American will be born, bringing the United States up to the 3rd largest poulation in the world behind China and India.
The US Census Department reported that this milestone to come mid-October marks 39 years after the population reached 200 million.
But pundits believe that this enormous growth is a worrying factor for the already endangered environment because the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world to reach those population heights – the rest are poor or underdeveloped nations. Why? Victoria Markham, who wrote the report explains:
“In combination with our very high rates of natural resource consumption and the associated pollution, that results in America having the highest per capita environmental impact in the world”
Its not the number of people that matter here, but the lifestyle of the affluent – who obviously consume more power, more waste, more land, more food and so on. Ready for more scary facts? Here’s what else the startling report had to say on how more Americans could affect the rest of the world:
1. Each American occupies 20 percent more developed land — housing, schools, shopping and roads — than 20 years ago.
2. Each American uses three times as much water as the world average; over half the original wetlands in the United States have been lost, mainly due to urban and suburban development and agriculture.
3. Half the continental United States can no longer support its original vegetation; nearly 1,000 plant and animal species are listed by the U.S. government as endangered or threatened, with 85 percent of those due to habitat loss or alteration.
4. The United States consumes nearly 25 percent of the world’s energy, though it has only 5 percent of the world’s population, and has the highest per capita oil consumption worldwide.
5. Each American produces about 5 pounds (2.3 kilogram) of trash a day, up from about 3 pounds (1.4 kilogram) in 1960; the current rate is about five times that in developing countries.
