Study: Bad boy doesn’t always get the girl

Apparently the bad boy doesn’t always get the girl. At least in a South American tribe with the highest known murder rate, it turns out that the most aggressive guys end up with fewer wives and children than milder men, according to a report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers led by Stephen Beckerman of Pennsylvania State University studied the Waorani of Ecuador, who had their first peaceful contact with outsiders in 1958.

The Waorani had a reputation for killing outsiders and being equally aggressive among one another, being listed as having the highest homicide rate known to anthropology. Indeed, over five generations 42 percent of all Waorani population losses were caused by killing one another and another 8 percent were killed in conflicts with outsiders.

And it wasn’t just men. Murder accounted for 54 percent of male deaths but also 39 percent of women.

Brave researchers interviewed men in 23 settlements, talking to any man old enough to have experienced warfare before the pacification of recent years who was willing to be interviewed about their lives and families.

They found that more aggressive men do not acquire more wives than other men, do not have more children and their wives and children do not survive longer. In fact, warlike men have fewer children who survive to reproductive age, they found.

That’s just the opposite of an earlier study of the also warlike Yanomamo of Venezuela, where men who participated in more killings were found to have more wives.

So why the difference?

Violence in both groups largely turns around revenge, but the researchers found that the Yanomamo battle until there has been a rough balance in the number of deaths on each side, and then have peaceful interludes between warfare cycles. During the “rest” periods, which can last several years, Yanomamo warriors can gain wives and father children.

The Waorani, on the other hand, do not have peaceful respites and will even initiate an action based on something that occurred in their grandparent’s generation. Their goal isn’t a balance with opponents but rather to eliminate the other side.

via Study: Bad boy doesn’t always get the girl.

US fires top general in Afghanistan as war worsens

Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the commander of the Afghanistan war Monday, saying the Obama administration needed “fresh thinking” to turn around the war against a resurgent Taliban. Gen. David McKiernan was replaced after less than a year in the job. The new commander will be Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, also an Army officer but with experience as a leader of special forces. McKiernan has a more conventional background.

“Today we have a new policy set by our new president. We have a new strategy, a new mission and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership also is needed,” Gates said at a news conference.

McKiernan issued a short statement saying his time in Afghanistan made him proud to be an American soldier.

“All of us, in any future capacity, must remain committed to the great people of Afghanistan,” he said.

McKiernan’s exit comes as more than 21,000 additional U.S. forces begin to arrive in Afghanistan, dispatched by Obama to confront the Taliban more forcefully this spring and summer. Despite seven years of effort by the U.S. and allies, Afghanistan remains a battleground with an unstable government, flourishing opium trade and suicide attacks by supporters of al-Qaida. …

via US fires top general in Afghanistan as war worsens.

“The Simpsons” get the (postal) stamp of success

Even Homer might have more to say than “D’oh”.

“The Simpsons” — America’s most-loved dysfunctional family — got their own postal stamps on Thursday, becoming the first television series to be featured as the sole subject of a U.S. stamp set while still in primetime production.

The set of five stamps depicting Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson were issued to celebrate the 20th season of U.S. television’s longest-running comedy.

“We are emotionally moved by the Postal Service selecting us rather than making the lazy choice of someone who has benefited society,” quipped James L. Brooks, the executive producer of the animated series.

“It’s only supposed to be dead people on stamps. Somehow we were able to overcome that.”

“The Simpsons” debuted as a series in December 1989 with a Christmas-themes episode called “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”

It went on to win 24 primetime Emmys and was renewed by Fox television earlier this year for two more seasons.

via “The Simpsons” get the (postal) stamp of success.

Briton wins “best job in the world” on Australia island

A British charity fundraiser won the “best job in the world” Wednesday — caretaker of an Australian tropical island — after an innovative marketing campaign that highlighted the power of social media.

Ben Southall, 34, was picked from 16 finalists in a highly publicised contest by Tourism Queensland which attracted nearly 34,700 video entries from almost 200 countries and surpassed all expectations in promoting tourism in the Australian state.

The job description? Explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef for six months and report back to Tourism Queensland and the world via blogs, a photo diary, video updates and interviews.

Also, if you feel like it, feed the fish, collect the mail and clean the pool — and earn A$150,000 ($110,000) for your efforts.

“To go away now as the island caretaker for Tourism Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef is an extreme honor,” Southall said on live television from Hamilton Island after being named the winner.

“I hope I can fill the boots as much as everybody is expecting, my swimming hopefully is up to standard and I look forward to all of the new roles and the responsibilities that the task involves,” he said, adding he would soon be joined by his Canadian girlfriend on the island.

While the job itself attracted global attention, so did the campaign by state-run Tourism Queensland as it highlighted the marketing potential of websites such as YouTube and Facebook.

“This is probably the first time that a campaign has achieved this sort of reach with so little advertising spend other than a few strategically placed job ads around the world,” said Australian marketing analyst Tim Burrowes, editor of media and marketing website Mumbrella.

via Briton wins “best job in the world” on Australia island.

Here is his video application:

Mystery worms turn on northwest China herdsmen

An invasion of unidentified worms has forced 50 herdsmen and their families from their grassland homes, taking 20,000 head of livestock with them, in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, state news agency Xinhua said Friday.

The worms are packed up to 3,000 per square meter and chew through the grasslands like lawnmowers, leaving only brown soil in their wake, Xinhua said.

The agency described it as the worst plague in three decades in Usu, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi.

Local experts could not identify the 2-cm (1 inch) long, thorny green worm with black stripes and samples had been sent to Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinhua said.

“The pasture was green a week ago. But now the worms are creeping around, and they even come into my house. I have to sweep them out several times an hour,” Xinhua quoted one herdsman as saying.

Xinjiang has in the past used chickens, ducks and other birds to fight locusts, which are also a menace on the grasslands, but so far they have shown little interest in the pesky worms.

One local official said the worms might be moth larvae that have flourished in the relatively warm winter and plenty of rain.

via Mystery worms turn on northwest China herdsmen | Science | Reuters.

A picture would be nice. The one above is a green “Mongolian Death Worm“… which may or may not be a real animal…

Man, 30, gives ‘birth’ to his twin

A PLUMBER reeled in agony as his stomach ruptured — and the embryonic remains of his TWIN spilled out.

The lumpy mass forced its way out after lying inside Gavin Hyatt’s abdomen since he was born 30 years ago.

In a scene echoing the horror movie Alien, Gavin staggered into his GP’s surgery bleeding from his belly button.

His stunned GP Dr Joe Santos said: “It was like something from Alien. I didn’t believe Gavin when he said something was coming out of his belly button until I saw him.”

Medics said the growth was a parasitic twin — Gavin’s identical brother who died in the womb early in their mum’s pregnancy.

The 4cm foetus then became embedded in Gavin’s tissue and stayed in his stomach for the next 30 years.

There are just a handful of cases worldwide — with the majority reported in Asia.

Former firefighter Gavin, of Witney, Oxfordshire, said: “Four hospital doctors had previously examined me and were all puzzled by the lump.

“Some thought it was a cyst, others an in-grown hair.

“Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”

via Man, 30, gives ‘birth’ to his twin | The Sun |News.

Rare prehistoric pregnant turtle found in Utah

Paleontologists say a 75-million-year-old turtle fossil uncovered in southern Utah has a clutch of eggs inside, making it the first prehistoric pregnant turtle found in the United States.

At least three eggs are visible from the outside of the fossil, and Montana State University researchers this week have been studying images taken from a CT scan in search of others inside.

Montana State graduate student Michael Knell says the turtle was probably about a week from laying her eggs when she died and became entombed for millions of years in sandstone.

The fossil was found in 2006 in a remote part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The eggs weren’t discovered until after it sat in storage for two years and was being re-examined by a volunteer.

via Rare prehistoric pregnant turtle found in Utah.

Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion

Modern Australia lacks big land predators, but until about 30,000 years ago, the continent was ruled by Thylacoleo carnifex, the marsupial “lion.”

Several well-preserved skeletons of the leopard-size beast have been found. Now, a newly discovered cave painting offers a glimpse of the animal’s external appearance.

In June 2008, Tim Willing, a naturalist and tour guide, photographed an ancient painting on a rockshelter wall near the shore of northwestern Australia. Kim Akerman, an independent anthropologist based in Tasmania, says the painting unmistakably depicts a marsupial lion.

It shows the requisite catlike muzzle, large forelimbs, and heavily clawed front paws. And it portrays the animal with a striped back, a tufted tail, and pointed ears.

Those last three features aren’t preserved in skeletons, but Aborigines would have known them well. Australia’s first people landed on the continent at least 40,000 years ago and were contemporaries of the big predator.

Previously known rock paintings hinted at marsupial lions, but were rudimentary and could have depicted the other striped marsupial predator, the dog-size Tasmanian “tiger.” That species succumbed to competition from humans in 1936, much as the marsupial lion may have done millennia before.

via Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion | LiveScience.

Ultrasonic Communication Among Frogs

UCLA scientists report on the only known frog species that can communicate using purely ultrasonic calls, whose frequencies are too high to be heard by humans. Known as Huia cavitympanum, the frog lives only on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.

Ultrasounds are high-pitched sounds more than 20 kilohertz (kHz) in frequency, which exceeds the upper limit of sounds detectable by humans and is far higher than the 5 to 8 kHz frequencies most amphibians, reptiles and birds are capable of hearing or producing. Key parts of the ear must be specially adapted to detect ultrasounds.

The frogs can hear sounds up to 38 kilohertz, the highest frequency any amphibian species has been known to hear, the scientists report. Humans can hear up to about 20 kHz and typically talk at 2 or 3 kHz.

While most of the more than 5,000 frog species worldwide have eardrums that are flat on the side of the head, Huia cavitympanum has eardrums recessed in the side of the skull, similar to mammals.

Peter Narins, UCLA distinguished professor of physiological science and of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Victoria Arch, a UCLA graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, spent several nights in the remote area where the frogs live.

“We had very little information suggesting that they would be in this location,” said Arch, lead author of the study. “We found them our first night out.”

Huia cavitympanum produces some audible calls and others that are entirely ultrasonic.

“You look at the frog and can see it is vocalizing — you can tell because their vocal pouches pulsate — but you don’t hear any sound. It’s amazing,” Arch said. “Then you look down at the recording equipment and see the lights flashing, indicating sound. I have never seen that before. In a frog, it’s unprecedented to have purely ultrasonic vocalizations.”

via Ultrasonic Communication Among Frogs.

Ape escapes, then ‘changes mind’

An orangutan used a branch to short-circuit a security fence and escape from an Australian zoo, only to change her mind and return to her enclosure.

Karta, a 27-year-old primate, cleared one fence and began piling up debris to scale a wall at Adelaide Zoo.

Visitors who witnessed the escape alerted staff, and the zoo was promptly evacuated and closed for the day.

But Karta spent less than 30 minutes on the loose before apparently thinking better of her escape attempt.

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead told reporters the ape seemed to realise she was in a place where she should not have been.

“She’s actually hung on to the wall and dropped back into the exhibit,” he said.

It was not the first time Karta had caused a headache for the zookeepers.

“You’re talking about an animal that’s highly intelligent,” Mr Whitehead said.

“We’ve had issues with her before in normal day-to-day operations where she tries to outsmart the keepers. She’s an ingenious animal.”

The zoo offered a refund to visitors after closing down for the day, but few zoo-goers seemed flustered by the drama.

Ryan Johnston, 11, told ABC News he had seen Karta’s escape, and described it as “amazing”.

via BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Ape escapes, then ‘changes mind’.