Not only that, they’re nasty, they refuse to bathe and they eat everything they see.
Bacteria sent to space come back more infectious
Microbes that cause salmonella came back from spaceflight even more virulent and dangerous in an experiment aboard the US space shuttle Atlantis, according to a study published on Monday.
The experiment by microbiologists at Arizona State University sent tubes with salmonella bacteria on a shuttle flight in September 2006 to measure how space flight might affect disease-causing microbes.
The salmonella sample that travelled millions of kilometers (miles) in orbit changed their pattern of certain genes compared to identical bacteria back on Earth, said the study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Following the shuttle flight, studies using mice showed the salmonella bacteria aboard the shuttle were "almost three times as likely to cause disease when compared with control bacteria grown on the ground," said a university statement outlining the study.
After about three weeks, 40 percent of mice fed the salmonella from Earth were still alive while only 10 percent of those given the bacteria from space survived, according to the study.
Salmonella and other related bacterial pathogens are a leading cause of food-borne illness and infectious disease, particularly in developing countries. No vaccine exists for salmonella and it has become increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatment, the study said.
The scientists plan to carry out more experiments on the same theme possibly on space shuttle flights in 2008.(Breitbart/AFP)
Rule number one: No church picnics in space.
Let’s see, four and twenty blackbirds, a nice ripe brie, a good red and to start…
France Cracks Down on Poaching Tasty Songbirds
PARIS (AP) — On the world's list of weird foods, ortolan — a bite-size songbird roasted and gulped down whole — can claim a place of distinction. It's an illegal place, though, since the ortolan is a protected species and hunting it is banned in France. Now the government is out to get poachers of the coveted fowl.
Thought to represent the soul of France, ortolan was reportedly on the menu at late French President Francois Mitterrand's legendary “last supper” on New Year's Eve 1995, eight days before he died. Though cancer had diminished his appetite, Mitterrand saved room for the piece de resistance — roasted ortolan — downing the 2-ounce bird, according to a detailed account in Esquire magazine and Georges-Marc Benamou, a journalist who was a Mitterrand confidant.
Some of the late president's associates, however, insist the bird-eating never took place.
According to tradition, the French shroud their head in a napkin to eat ortolan: Tucking into the bite-sized bird — which is killed by being drowned in Armagnac, plucked and roasted with its yellow skin and skeleton intact — can be a messy business. It's also an illicit one.
A 1998 law banned hunting the ortolan, a copper-breasted bird that migrates from Africa to Europe, because of its endangered status. Ortolan hunters — who trap the birds alive and keep them in cages for several weeks to fatten them up — face fines of up to $12,460 and six months in prison, if caught and convicted. But environmentalists complain the law is rarely enforced.
Earlier this month, the minister in charge of the environment, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, pledged to step up inspections of the ortolan's habitat in the Landes region in southwestern France. The increased inspections have already born fruit, she said.
What a tasty dish to set before a socialist with a Vichy past. How can you resist something that's usually eaten with a napkin on your head. It's so European, n'cest pa?
So if some is good, more has to be better, right? Just like more better. And so good for you
Frog Deformities May Be Fueled By Excess Nutrients
From LiveScience.com
The excess nitrogen and phosphorus found in farm runoff causes more algae to grow, which increases snail populations that host microscopic parasites called trematodes, said Pieter Johnson, a water scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Johnson noted that he and his colleagues' work, which is detailed in the Sept. 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also explain "a wide array of diseases potentially linked to nutrient pollution."
Frog species also are vanishing from Earth in the past few decades for reasons that are difficult to tease apart, including habitat loss, global warming and emerging diseases such as one caused by chytrid fungus. Nutrient pollution and limb malformations also contribute, Johnson said.
A worldwide study of more than 6,000 species of amphibians recently concluded that 32 percent were threatened and 43 percent were declining in population.
Deformed frogs first gained international attention in the mid-1990s, when a group of schoolchildren discovered a pond where more than half of the leopard frogs had missing or extra limbs, Johnson said. Since then, widespread reports of deformed amphibians have led to speculation that the abnormalities were being caused by pesticides, increased ultraviolet radiation or parasitic infection.
Parasite infection is now recognized as a major cause of such deformities, but the environmental factors responsible for increases in parasite abundance have largely remained a mystery.
"What we found is that nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from agriculture, cattle grazing and domestic runoff have the potential to significantly promote parasitic infection and deformities in frogs," Johnson said.
Really Mr. Bonds, an extra head means you will be able to see the ball twice as quickly
Your tax dollars at work
More On The Man Charged With Killing St. Paul Hotel's Pet Duck
The defendant was belligerent to officers and told them, "It's just a ... duck," the complaint said.
Star Tribune/The Obscure Store
Scott D. Clark allegedly stalked and cornered one of the ducks against a brick wall early Saturday, then wrenched off its head. He told astonished onlookers that he was hungry, police said.
Scott, 26, of Denver, was charged Monday with felony animal cruelty. He made his first court appearance, posted bail and was released. The charge is not ranked by state sentencing guidelines. It is up to a judge to decide on suitable punishment if Clark is convicted.
According to the complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court, Clark became belligerent with officers when they arrested him at the hotel on E. 10th Street about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
"Mr. Clark stated to police that he worked for the federal government and when this was over he would have the officers' jobs," the complaint said. Records show that Clark is an auditor in the Office of Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Denver. He could not be reached to comment Monday.
The complaint said Clark asked officers if he was in trouble.
"Yes," they told him.
"Why, because I killed it out of season?" the complaint quotes Clark as saying. "Big deal, it's just a [expletive] duck."
Police Sgt. John Wuorinen said, "It sounds like there was quite a bit of alcohol involved."
Rosco Larson, general manager of the Embassy Suites, said Monday, "These animals have been a part of our hotel's family for many years and we are deeply saddened by this incident."
The hotel has about seven ducks that swim in the pond and wander the plant-filled walkways. Each is valued at about $400.
Clearly, the guy suffers from some kind of psychological mallard-dy.
Haven't you ever heard of consultants?
Judge admits to looking to elfs for advice.
According to an article in today's WSJ by JAMES HOOKWAY, trial-court judge, Florentino V. Floro Jr. acknowledged that he regularly sought the counsel of three elves only he could see. The Supreme Court in the Philippines deemed him unfit to serve and fired him last year.
Helping him, he says, are his three invisible companions. "Angel" is the neutral force, he says. "Armand" is a benign influence. "Luis," whom Mr. Floro describes as the "king of kings," is an avenger.
Mr. Floro says he is not suffering from psychosis, and that he's not to blame for the incidents. He points the finger squarely at "king of kings" elf Luis, who Mr. Floro says is bent on cleaning up what he says is the Philippines' corrupt legal system.
He could have said he was just praying on it. But no...
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