Turkey scrambles F-16 jets on Syria border

Turkey has scrambled six F-16 fighter jets near its border with Syria after Syrian helicopters came close to the border, the country’s army says.

Six jets were sent to the area in response to three such incidents on Saturday, the statement said, adding that there was no violation of Turkish airspace.

Last month, Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet in the border area.

The incident further strained already tense relations between former allies.

Turkey’s government has been outspoken in its condemnation of Syria’s response to the 16-month anti-government uprising, which has seen more than 30,000 Syrian refugees enter Turkey.

On Friday, Turkey said it had begun deploying rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns along the border in response to the downing of its F-4 Phantom jet on 22 June.

The move came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey had changed its rules of military engagement and would now treat any Syrian military approaching the border as a threat.

Syria said the Turkish F-4 was shot down by air defence fire inside its airspace. Turkey insists it was downed by a missile after briefly entering and the leaving Syrian airspace.

The plane crashed in the Mediterranean, off the coast of the southern province of Hatay. Its pilots are still missing.

Mr Erdogan spoke of Turkey’s “rage” at the incident and described Syria as a “clear and present threat”.

Nato condemned the attack and voiced strong support for Turkey, after Ankara invoked Article 4 of Nato’s founding treaty, which entitles any member state to ask for consultations if it believes its security is threatened. …

via BBC News – Turkey scrambles F-16 jets on Syria border.

Speaking of Turkey, just yesterday I had a craving to hear “Istanbul” by “They Might Be Giants.”

 

Well, I thought TMBG wrote it, but this seems to be an earlier version:

 

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, forming the country’s economic, cultural, and historical heart. … Founded on the Sarayburnu around 660 BC as Byzantium, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires—the late classical Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (“Byzantine”) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922).^[4] It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold from which the last caliphate ruled.^[5] Although the Republic of Turkey established its capital elsewhere, in Ankara, remnants of Istanbul’s previous central role still remain highly visible across the city, with palaces and imperial mosques lining its hills. … – wikipedia

Genes may play role in educational achievement, study finds

Researchers have identified genetic markers that may influence whether a person finishes high school and goes on to college, according to a national longitudinal study of thousands of young Americans. The study is in the July issue of Developmental Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association.

“Being able to show that specific genes are related in any way to academic achievement is a big step forward in understanding the developmental pathways among young people,” said the study’s lead author, Kevin Beaver, PhD, a professor at the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University.

The three genes identified in the study – DAT1, DRD2 and DRD4 – have been linked to behaviors such as attention regulation, motivation, violence, cognitive skills and intelligence, according to the study. Previous research has explored the genetic underpinnings of intelligence but virtually none has examined genes that potentially contribute to educational attainment in community samples, said Beaver.

He and his colleagues analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as Add Health. Add Health is a four-wave study of a nationally representative sample of American youths who were enrolled in middle or high school in 1994 and 1995. The study continued until 2008, when most of the respondents were between the ages of 24 and 32. The participants completed surveys, provided DNA samples and were interviewed, along with their parents. The sample used for this analysis consisted of 1,674 respondents.

The genes identified in this research are known as dopamine transporter and receptor genes. Every person has the genes DAT1, DRD2 and DRD4, but what is of interest are molecular differences within the genes, known as alleles, according to Beaver. Subjects who possessed certain alleles within these genes achieved the highest levels of education, according to the findings.

Dopamine transporter genes assist in the production of proteins that regulate levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain, while dopamine receptor genes are involved in neurotransmission. Previous research has shown that dopamine levels play a role in regulating impulsive behavior, attention and intelligence.

The presence of the alleles alone did not guarantee higher levels of education, the study found. Having a lower IQ was more strongly associated with lower levels of education. Also, living in poverty and essentially “running with a bad crowd” resulted in lower levels of education despite the genetic effects.

Even though the genetic variants were found to be associated with educational levels, having a specific allele does not determine whether someone will graduate from high school or earn a college degree, according to Beaver. Rather, these genes work in a probabilistic way, with the presence of certain alleles simply increasing or decreasing the likelihood of educational outcomes, he said. …

via Genes may play role in educational achievement, study finds.

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Supports Possibility that All Dinosaurs Had Feathers

A new species of feathered dinosaur discovered in southern Germany is further changing the perception of how predatory dinosaurs looked. The fossil ofSciurumimus albersdoerferi,which lived about 150 million years ago, provides the first evidence of feathered theropod dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds. The fossil is described in a paper published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencestoday.

“This is a surprising find from the cradle of feathered dinosaur work, the very formation where the first feathered dinosaurArchaeopteryxwas collected over 150 years ago,” said Mark Norell, chair of the Division of Palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural History and an author on the new paper along with researchers from Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie and the Ludwig Maximilians University.

Theropods are bipedal, mostly carnivorous dinosaurs. In recent years, scientists have discovered that many extinct theropods had feathers. But this feathering has only been found in theropods that are classified as coelurosaurs, a diverse group including animals likeT. rexand birds.Sciurumimus—identified as a megalosaur,nota coelurosaur— is the first exception to this rule. The new species also sits deep within the evolutionary tree of theropods, much more so than coelurosaurs, meaning that the species that stem fromSciurumimusare likely to have similar characteristics.

“All of the feathered predatory dinosaurs known so far represent close relatives of birds,” said palaeontologist Oliver Rauhut, of the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie. “Sciurumimusis much more basal within the dinosaur family tree and thus indicates that all predatory dinosaurs had feathers.”

The fossil, which is of a babySciurumimus, was found in the limestones of northern Bavaria and preserves remains of a filamentous plumage, indicating that the whole body was covered with feathers. The genus name ofSciurumimus albersdoerferirefers to the scientific name of the tree squirrels,Sciurus, and means “squirrel-mimic”-referring to the especially bushy tail of the animal. The species name honours the private collector who made the specimen available for scientific study.

“Under ultraviolet light, remains of the skin and feathers show up as luminous patches around the skeleton,” said co-author Helmut Tischlinger, from the Jura Museum Eichstatt.

Sciurumimusis not only remarkable for its feathers. The skeleton, which represents the most complete predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe, allows a rare glimpse at a young dinosaur. Apart from other known juvenile features, such as large eyes, the new find also confirmed other hypotheses.

“It has been suggested for some time that the lifestyle of predatory dinosaurs changed considerably during their growth,” Rauhut said. “Sciurumimusshows a remarkable difference to adult megalosaurs in the dentition, which clearly indicates that it had a different diet.”

Adult megalosaurs reached about 20 feet in length and often weighed more than a ton. They were active predators, which probably also hunted other large dinosaurs. The juvenile specimen ofSciurumimus, which was only about 28 inches in length, probably hunted insects and other small prey, as evidenced by the slender, pointed teeth in the tip of the jaws.

“Everything we find these days shows just how deep in the family tree many characteristics of modern birds go, and just how bird-like these animals were,” Norell said. “At this point it will surprise no one if feather like structures were present in the ancestors of all dinosaurs.

via Newly Discovered Dinosaur Implies Greater Prevalence of Feathers | American Museum of Natural History.

UN declares a day of universal joy

The United Nations on Thursday declared that March 20 each year will be the International Day of Happiness — and it wants everyone to join in the fun.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution proclaiming the new commemoration that adds to an already packed UN calendar of international days — from world poetry day to world migratory bird day.

“The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal,” said the resolution which was passed by consensus in the 193-member assembly.

The resolution calls on all member states “to observer the International Day of Happiness in an appropriate manner, including through education and public awareness activities.”

Securing happiness day was part of a diplomatic campaign by the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan which already has its own gross national happiness index.

Many governments now say that new elements, including happiness, must be included in ways of measuring prosperity which are now dominated by economic indicators.

via UN declares a day of universal joy – Yahoo! News UK.

You have 8 months to prepare. Where will you be on March 20th, 2013? What would make you happy on that day? I’d like to see all wars must stop on that day. No fighting for one day per year. Is 24 hours of peace too much to ask  from our  violent species?

“Nuclear slapshots” could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just weeks

Scientists at UAHuntsville have proposed a scheme that could see a spacecraft propelled through space by using a pulsed nuclear fusion system. To do so, a series of “nuclear slapshots” would apply magnetic pulses in order to slam nuclei into each other inside a hockey puck like structure made of a special lightweight salt. Should it work, this hot gas-propulsed “flying tea kettle” would get us to Mars in weeks rather than months.

Physicists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering are developing the “Z-pinch” – a small, lightweight propulsion system. Jason Cassibry, an associate professor of engineering at UAHuntsville, and his team are attempting to drive a hollowed-out puck in on itself, fusing lithium and hydrogen atoms. In other words, nuclear fusion – the process where four hydrogen atoms combine to make one helium atom in which a small amount of matter is converted into pure energy.

The “pucks” themselves are about two inches wide and an inch thick, smaller than a regulation three-inch hockey puck. They are made of lithium deuteride, the lightest metal combined with the middleweight form of the lightest element. And like a sharpshooter in hockey, the idea is to dig the blade of the hockey stick into the ice to bend the shaft, storing energy for a quicker, more powerful snap against the puck.

But to get it to work, the researchers will need to get heavy hydrogen (one proton plus one neutron) to fuse with each other or with lithium – something that’s easier said than done as getting nuclei to meet is a monumental task. To that end, the researchers will experiment with the Decade Module Two, or DM2, a pulsed power design used by the Department of Defense for weapons effects testing in the 1990s.

The DM2 is comprised of banks of capacitors that store an electrical charge for release on demand. It strips the target into an electrified gas or plasma. The Z-pinch effect happens when electricity flowing through it generates a magnetic field that compresses the plasma – what is equivalent to 20% of the world’s power output in a tiny bolt of lightning no bigger than a finger. This is the power slapshot, a tremendous amount of energy in a tiny fraction of time, just a hundred billionths of a second.

The tests at DM2 will serve as proof of concept, which would allow researchers to progress to the next level of development. At the end of the day, the researchers are hoping to “break-even”, producing more energy than is consumed – the magic that is fusion power. …

via “Nuclear slapshots” could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just weeks.

Postal worker flees street after attacks by dive-bombing seagulls

The Royal Mail has cancelled all deliveries to a street in Elgin after a series of attacks on an employee by dive-bombing seagulls.

A female postal worker complained that she had become a target for persistent attacks by gulls whenever she tried to deliver post to the 30 homes in Muirfield Road.

In scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie The Birds, squabbles of seagulls would swoop without warning on the terrified woman as she distributed the mail.

Concerned for her safety, bosses at the Royal Mail have asked residents of the Moray street to collect their own mail at the local post office until the bizarre avian attacks can be resolved.

It is understood that Royal Mail staff were sent out to the street on Friday to assess the situation and concluded that it was still too dangerous for the post to be delivered.

Many communities in Moray have become used to dive-bombing seagulls although Moray Council has appealed to residents not to feed them to discourage them from nesting.

Earlier in 2012, the local authority said it would consider issuing Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to any residents who ignored warnings not to feed gulls.

A spokesman said: “People do not see any harm in feeding gulls but the fact is that the birds come to rely on it as a regular source of food and they will stay in an area to nest, with all the problems that can cause.”

Royal Mail spokeswoman Jennifer Bird said deliveries would resume “when it was safe”, adding: “The safety of our people is paramount to Royal Mail and swooping attacks have made it difficult for our employee to do her job.

“These frightening attacks have meant that this week we have temporarily suspended deliveries to some residents in Muirfield Road.

via Postal worker flees street after attacks by dive-bombing seagulls | News | Elgin | STV.

In his master work, On the Persian Wars, composed between 500 and 479 BCE, Herodotus praises the stamina and persistence of horsed messengers in the service of Xerxes, king of Persia. According to Bill Casselman, this is the source of the Pony Express motto. His literal translation: 

For these [riders], not snowstorm, not thunder-shower, not heat, not night shall work to delay their imposed mail-route (dromon) nor their carrying it out as fast as possible.

Obviously, if birds are swooping, then it is too dangerous, however.

Question Bridge Art Exhibit at the Oakland Museum: The Black Male Experience

This weekend, after a 2 hour hike with 40lb backpacks to start training for our 3 day half-dome climb in September, my fiance and I went to the Oakland museum and experienced a brilliant art exhibit called Question Bridge. It’s a darkened  room with comfortable cushion seats and multiple screens mounted on the wall where individuals ask and answer questions. The questions were from black men, posed to other black men. They were though provoking, funny and pointed. There were questions such as, “If you woke up tomorrow and all white people where gone, who would you be then?”

Question Bridge: Black Males is a transmedia art project that seeks to represent and redefine Black male identity in America. Through video mediated question and answer exchange, diverse members of this “demographic” bridge economic, political, geographic, and generational divisions.

via Question Bridge.

January 21, 2012 – July 8, 2012

Question Bridge: Black Males is an innovative video installation created by Chris Johnson and artists Hank Willis Thomas in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair after traveling around the country interviewing 150 Black men in eleven cities. They created 1,500 videos of conversations with men representing a range of geographic, generational, economic, and educational levels. They then wove the conversations together to simulate a stream-of-consciousness dialogue, allowing important themes and issues to emerge, including family, love, interracial relationships, community, education, violence, and the past, present, and future of Black men in American society. The project will be on view simultaneously at OMCA, the Brooklyn Museum, the Castain Art Center in Atlanta, and Salt Lake City Arts Center.

via Oakland Museum

Your time to catch Question Bridge in Oakland is running out.  It will be there only until July 8th. We only saw about 1 hour of what I think is a 3 hour experience. You can leave to view the other art and return any time. There were two Question Bridge rooms and both were full all the way up until the museum closed. Some audience members provided their own quick answer and reactions to the questions.

We are both white people living in predominantly white neighborhoods, but for anyone and everyone, hearing and understanding the  diversity of views and concerns within the one particular group “black males” is relevant and eye-opening.

Oldest Known Pottery (20,000 years) Found in China

Fragments of ancient pottery found in southern China turn out to date back 20,000 years, making them the world’s oldest known pottery — 2,000 to 3,000 years older than examples found in East Asia and elsewhere.

The ceramics probably consisted of simple concave vessels that were likely used for cooking food, said Ofer Bar-Yosef, an archaeologist at Harvard and an author of the study, which appears in the journal Science.

“What it seems is that in China, the making of pottery started 20,000 years ago and never stopped,” he said. “The Chinese kitchen was always based on cooking and steaming; they never made, as in other parts of Asia, breads.”

The crockery, found in Xianrendong Cave in Jiangxi Province, belonged to a group of mobile foragers, Dr. Bar-Yosef said. They were a hunting and gathering community; plant cultivation and agriculture probably did not arrive until about 10,000 years later.

On the other hand, plant cultivation in the Middle East arrived about 1,000 years before it did in China. Still, pottery was not used in the Middle East until much later, Dr. Bar-Yosef said. …

via Oldest Known Pottery Found in China – NYTimes.com.

Could they have been made by neanderthals? I’ve found no evidence that neanderthals made pottery, but they were in parts of China and they did make art. However, they were supposedly gone 8,000 years earlier if the pottery was found to be 20,000 years old, according to this:

Neanderthals’ ancestors evolved in Europe 350,000 years ago and by 130,000 years ago, genuine Neanderthals were already present. Almost 28,000 years ago they were gone, wiped out by modern men or by intermingling with them.

Neanderthal remains have been found from Spain to Middle East (Israel) and Central Asia (Uzbekistan). Now, a new area must be added onto their range: China, appearing that our evolutionary cousin migrated much further than previously believed.

Fossils discovered on the Altai mountains, some 2,000 km (1,250 mi) further away into southern Siberia, just above the northwestern tip of modern China, at the border between China, Russia and Mongolia, have been proven to belong to the Neanderthals.  … – link

 

Timbuktu’s tombs destroyed by militants

Islamist militants, swinging pick-axes and shouting God’s praise, have destroyed ancient tombs of Muslim saints in Mali’s fabled city of Timbuktu, sparking international condemnation.

The rampage of destruction in the UNESCO designated world-heritage city comes after three months of unrest in Mali’s remote desert north, which has raised fears of a new Islamist extremist haven in west Africa.

Ansar Dine and other Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups have imposed strict sharia law since sweeping across northern Mali in the chaotic aftermath of a March 22 coup in the capital, Bamako.

“They have raped Timbuktu today. It is a crime,” said a source close to a local imam in Timbuktu, known as the “City of 333 Saints”.

Witnesses said the Islamists, who regard shrines as idolatrous, had destroyed the tombs of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya.

In addition to three historic mosques, Timbuktu is home to 16 cemeteries and mausoleums, according to the UNESCO website.

A spokesman for the group, Sanda Ould Boumama, vowed: “Ansar Dine will today destroy every mausoleum in the city. All of them, without exception.”

Alissandra Cummins, the chair of UNESCO’s executive committee, said: “This is tragic news for us all.

“I appeal to all those engaged in the conflict in Timbuktu to exercise their responsibility – for the sake of future generations, spare the legacy of their past.”

Mali’s government in Bamako denounced the “destructive fury”, comparing it to war crimes and threatened action on the national and international level.

Former colonial power France condemned “the systematic violation of these places of reverence and prayer” and appealed “for an end to this violence and this intolerance”.

A witness said that early Saturday morning, about “30 fighters of Ansar Dine moved towards the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud” in the city’s north.

“Some had guns. They did not shoot. Then they started shouting ‘Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!’ (God is greatest! God is greatest!) And with pick-axes and hoes, they started to break down the mausoleum.” …

via Timbuktu’s tombs destroyed by militants.

The 30 fighters have no fear of ghosts, I guess. If I was resting in peace and some damn religious mob disturbed my bones, I’d haunt the hell out of them, perhaps even drive them insane.

‘Vampire-slaying kit’ bought by Royal Armouries museum

A “vampire-slaying kit” has been bought by the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds.

The 19th Century box, containing a crucifix, pistols, wooden stakes and a mallet, was sold for £7,500 at an auction in North Yorkshire on Friday.

It had been left to a Yorkshire woman in her uncle’s will.

The Royal Armouries said it expected the box would prove a major attraction when it went on display at the Clarence Dock museum later this year.

The box and its contents all date from the 19th Century but are likely to have been put together in the 20th Century.

It is thought it was produced to capitalise on the popularity of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and the Hammer Horror Movies.

As well as the weaponry, the box contains a copy of the Book of Common Prayer from 1851 and a handwritten extract from the Bible which quotes Luke 19:27.

It reads: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”

Jonathan Ferguson, curator of firearms at the Royal Armouries, said: “These kits are often said to have been made as novelties in the Victorian period, but research shows they are later than this.

“We’ve yet to establish a firm date for our kit, but we know it will attract a lot of interest from our museum visitors.” …

via BBC News – ‘Vampire-slaying kit’ bought by Royal Armouries museum.

In case of vampires, you know right where to find the box.