New fossils bringing 'Hobbit humans' to life

New bones attributed to Homo floresiensis ? aka the "Hobbit human" ? along with other recent findings, are helping to reveal what members of this species looked like, how they behaved and their origins.

The latest findings, described in a Journal of Human Evolution paper, are wrist bones unearthed on the Indonesian island of Flores. Since they are nearly identical to other such bones for the Hobbit found at the site, they refute claims that H. floresiensis never existed.

"The tiny people from Flores were not simply diseased modern humans," Caley Orr, lead author of the paper, told Discovery News.

"The new species of human stood approximately 3' 6" tall, giving it its nickname 'The Hobbit,'" continued Orr, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy at Midwestern University.

He said that they were "similar to modern humans in many respects." For example, he explained that they walked on two legs, had small canine teeth, and lived what appears to have been an iconic "cave man'" lifestyle.

"Stone tools and evidence of fire use were found in the cave, along with the remains of butchered animals, such as Stegodon (an extinct elephant relative), indicating that meat was a part of diet," Orr said.

He and his colleagues, however, also point out the differences between the Hobbit individuals and modern humans.

The Hobbits had arms that were longer than their legs, giving them a slightly more ape-like structure. Their skulls had no bony chins, so their faces had more of an oval shape. Their forehead was sloping. The inferred brain size was tiny, putting them in the IQ range of chimpanzees.

"Remarkably, the feet were also long relative to the legs, as fantasy fans might expect of a Hobbit," he added.

The Hobbit's wrist looked like that of early human relatives, such as Australopithecus, but the key ancestral candidate now is Homo erectus, "Upright Man."

It is possible that a population of H. erectus became stranded on the Indonesian island and dwarfed there over time. Orr said that "sometimes happens to larger animals that adapt to small island environments."

A problem, however, is that H. erectus is somewhat more modern looking than the Hobbit, so researchers are still seeking more clues.

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Another question concerns whether or not the Hobbits ever mated with modern humans. There is evidence that happened to Neanderthals, which have left traces of their genome in modern human DNA. So far, however, conditions have not been right to extract DNA from H. floresiensis bones.

Nonetheless, the Hobbit ? which went extinct relatively recently during the Pleistocene ? is now better known due to the new discoveries.

"These fossils provide further, clear evidence that H. floresiensis is in no way a pathological modern human, or that its primitive morphology is related simply to its small body size," said Tracy Kivell, a paleoanthropologist from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "Instead, it is clearly its own, unique and very intriguing species."

Kivell added, "What is particularly interesting is that H. floresiensis is associated with such a long, well-documented history of stone tools. (Its primitive hand and wrist were) still apparently capable of making and using stone tools, suggesting that H. floresiensis solved the morphological and manipulative demands of tool-making and tool-use in a different way than Neanderthals and ourselves."

Orr and his team continue to study the Hobbit humans, with at least one other paper about the interesting species in the works.

? 2012 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50434876/ns/technology_and_science/

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Notre Dame's Brian Kelly to return next season

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly talks with a referee during the Purdue game Sept. 8, 2012 in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

The Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind. >> Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly will be trying for his first BCS championship, instead of a Super Bowl title, next season.

The third-year Fighting Irish coach, who interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier in the week a day after the Irish were beaten 42-14 by Alabama in the BCS title game, says his interest with the NFL is over for now.

?Like every kid who has ever put on a pair of football cleats, I have had thoughts about being a part of the NFL. However, after much reflection and conversation with those closest to me, I have decided to remain at Notre Dame,? Kelly said in a statement released by the university Saturday evening.

?This decision was motivated purely by my love for Notre Dame and the entire Fighting Irish community, the young men I have the great fortune to coach, and my desire to continue to build the best football program in the country,? he said.

The remarks were the first comments by Kelly since news broke late Wednesday that he had interviewed with the Eagles.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday night that he believes Kelly interviewing for an NFL job and deciding to stay in South Bend is a positive.

?I think what you get to say to young men is you?re going to be coached by somebody who is recognized by the NFL as a really excellent NFL coach,? Swarbrick said.

Swarbrick said he was confident all along that Kelly would be back, said he continued to negotiate a contract extension with Kelly?s agent during the past week.

Swarbrick said those talks began in early December and were put on hold as the BCS game approached because Kelly wanted to be focused on the game. Continued...

Swarbrick said Kelly?s talks with the Eagles didn?t affect contract negotiations.

?There is nothing about either the dynamic or the substance which was changed by the past week,? he said. ?Somewhere down the road we?re both confident it will result in a revised agreement.???

Kelly originally signed a five-year contract three years ago at a reported $2.5 million a year and was given a two-year extension a year ago

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming of CBS College Sports said it was too early to tell whether Kelly?s talk with the Eagles will hurt what was expected to be Kelly?s best recruiting class at Notre Dame and possibly the No. 1 recruiting class in the country.

?The key thing now is to call all the top players and assure them he?s never going to leave while he?s there, even if you lie, you?ve got to say it, and convince them it was just a thing,? Lemming said. ?If they believe it, they?ll stay.?

Lemming said the Irish already lost one recruit, linebacker Alex Anzalone, who is expected to enroll at Florida.?

Kelly led the Irish to a 12-1 record this past season and a No. 4 ranking, their best finish since they were No. 2 with an 11-1 record after the 1993 season, which is the last season the Irish won a major bowl game.

The Irish haven?t won a national championship since 1988. He failed to join Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz as Irish coaches who won national titles in their third seasons at the school.

?We still have a lot of work to do and my staff and I are excited about the challenges ahead,? Kelly said.

The Eagles, who also interviewed Oregon coach Chip Kelly and Penn State?s Bill O?Brien, said in a statement saying they spent a lot of time and effort looking at coaches they believed were the best collegiate candidates. Continued...

?We did so knowing that there was a remote chance that these coaches would leave their current posts. We understood that going into the process, but we wanted to leave no stone unturned while trying to find the best head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles,? the statement said.

?We have no regrets about the effort we made in that direction and we will continue to proceed as planned in our search.?

Source: http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2013/01/12/sports/doc50f2299c58a77191395672.txt

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Small-Scale Wind Energy on the Farm

Wind-generated electricity is attracting the interest of farmers, ranchers, and other landowners across the country. People find wind energy attractive for a variety of reasons, including its lower impact on the environment than other fuels and its potential economic benefits, writes Cathy Svejkovsky, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) Energy Specialist.

In some situations, wind-generated electricity can help farmers and ranchers reduce their energy costs. This publication introduces small-scale wind energy to help farmers and ranchers decide whether wind energy is the right option for them.

Wind energy systems convert the power of the wind to electric power.

The machine that does the conversion is called a wind turbine (it is also sometimes called a windmill).

Wind energy systems are the fastest- growing technology in the energy sector: in the last 10 years, wind energy growth has averaged over 25% per year worldwide (World Wind Energy Association, 2012).

Small wind electric systems can make an important contribution to our nation?s energy needs.

Similar to the trend of wind power in general worldwide, small wind energy systems are being installed in ever-greater numbers, with an estimated 35% growth rate (World Wind Energy Association, 2012).

Many rural areas have sufficient wind speeds to make wind energy an attractive alternative, and farms and ranches can often install a small-scale wind energy system without a significant impact on their ability to plant crops and graze livestock.

Most farms and ranches have enough open land (generally an acre or more) to be able to use a wind turbine to provide a significant portion of their electricity from wind power.

Why Should I Choose Wind?

Wind energy can be a cost-effective small-scale renewable energy system.

Depending on the wind resource and the electricity consumption of a farm, a small wind energy system can lower electric bills, help avoid the high costs of extending utility power lines to remote locations, prevent power interruptions, and provide a non-polluting source of electricity.

How Do Wind Turbines Work?

Wind is created by the unequal heating of the Earth?s surface by the sun.

Cold and warm areas make pressure differences in the atmosphere, and air moves from higher-pressure areas to lowerpressure areas, creating winds.

Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical power that runs a generator to produce electricity.

Wind turbine blades are aerodynamically designed to capture as much energy as possible from the wind. The wind turns the blades, spinning a shaft connected to a generator that makes electricity.

Is Wind Energy Practical for Me?

A small wind energy system may provide a practical and economical source of electricity if:

• Your property has a good wind resource
• You have at least one acre of land in a rural area
• Your local zoning codes or covenants allow wind turbines
• Your have high electric energy (kWh) rates
• Your property is in a remote location that does not have easy access to utility lines
• You commonly experience utility power outages
• You are comfortable with long-term investments

It?s important to examine your reasons for wanting to purchase a wind energy system.

If your reasons are purely economic, you could be disappointed, since wind energy systems can have long payback periods.

If you are also interested in benefits such as environmental protection, independence, reliability, or energy security, you may find the cost and payback period perfectly acceptable.

Make sure you fully understand the results you can expect, as well as potential obstacles, such as zoning laws, generation capacity, maintenance requirements, and warranty coverage.

January 2013

Source: http://www.thebioenergysite.com/articles/8/wind/1358/smallscale-wind-energy-on-the-farm

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U.S. Effort on Ocean Acidification Needs Focus on Human Impacts

A beachgoer harvests oysters near New Kamilche, Washington. Scientists fear increasing ocean acidification as a result of greenhouse gas emissions could impair the ability of oysters and other sea creatures to grow a shell, impacting the lives and livelihoods of many dependent on the sea. Image: Flickr/cswtwo

A federal plan to tackle ocean acidification must focus more on how the changes will affect people and the economy, according to a review of the effort by a panel of the National Research Council.

"Social issues clearly can't drive everything but when it's possible they should," said George Somero, chair of the committee that wrote the report and associate director at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station. "If you're setting up a monitoring station, it should be where there's a shellfish industry, for example."

Acidification is one of the larger problems associated with greenhouse gas emissions, as oceans serve as a giant sponge for carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide is dissolved in seawater, water chemistry changes and acidity increases. More acidic seawater can hurt ocean creatures, especially corals and shellfish, because it prevents them from properly developing their skeletons and shells. Shrinking coral reefs could dent eco-tourism revenue in some coastal areas. It also could trigger a decline in fish populations dependent on those reefs.

Decreasing shellfish populations would harm the entire ocean food chain, researchers say, particularly affecting people who get their protein or paycheck from the sea. Globally, fish represent about 6 percent of the protein people eat.?

The acidification blueprint was drafted by nine federal agencies in March 2012. It establishes guidelines for federal research, monitoring and mitigation of ocean acidification. In reviewing the plan, the research council, which advises the government on science policy, recommended that federal research and action be focused on issues with human and economic consequences.?

Pacific Northwest
The panel cited the Pacific Northwest as an economic example, where high acidity levels have hampered oyster hatcheries, worth about $270 million and 3,200 jobs to coastal communities there. It is unclear if ocean acidification is the culprit, but it could be a harbinger of things to come, according to the report.

In 2011, U.S. commercial fishers caught 10 billion pounds of seafood valued at $5.3 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The panel also suggested the plan should have a clearer mission, prioritized goals and ways to measure progress.

"This plan would cost a lot of money so there needs to be priorities and ways to prove impact," Somero said. "The federal budget simply won't allow for everything that needs to be done."

In 2009, Congress passed the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, creating a federal program to deal with ocean acidification.?

Somero said the agencies will take the recommendations and "tune up" the plan.

Ocean acidification is an "emerging global problem," according to NOAA. Over the past 250 years, about one third of the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels has ended up in oceans, according to a 2010 study. Over that time, ocean acidity has increased about 30 percent, according to the National Research Council.

Ocean advocacy groups supported the panel's recommendations.

"Ocean acidification is one of the greatest threats to marine life and fisheries," said Matthew Huelsenbeck, a marine scientist at Oceana. "We are encouraged that the Council has suggested communicating this issue to policy makers and the public to increase awareness and hopefully lead to solutions."

Julia Roberson, a director at the Ocean Conservancy, said the original plan was a good first step and she hopes government will use the council's suggestions.

Amid recommendations, the panel also offered praise for the federal effort, saying the plan does "an excellent job of covering the breadth of current understanding of ocean acidification and the range of research that will be required to advance a broadly focused and effective National Ocean Acidification Program."

This article originally appeared at The Daily Climate, the climate change news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=54ac1c965bf72fbbc3eab1dd93d35996

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Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Vuzix's Paul Travers (update: video embedded)

Wearable domination at this year's show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we've been hearing so much about. We'll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company's CEO, Wearable domination at this year's show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we've been hearing so much about. We'll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company's CEO, Paul Travers.

January 10, 2013 4:30 PM EST

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Update: Unfortunately Paul was unable to join us.

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Vuzix's Paul Travers (update: video embedded)

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2w2a3SjX4oo/

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Flu season hits early and, in some places, hard

NEW YORK (AP) ? From the Rocky Mountains to New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some medical centers have limited visitors, and one Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to handle the feverish patients.

Flu season in the U.S. has hit early and, in some places, hard. But whether this will be considered a bad season by the time it has run its course in the spring remains to be seen.

"Those of us with gray hair have seen worse," said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

The evidence so far is pointing to a moderate season, Schaffner and others believe. It just looks bad compared with last year ? an unusually mild one.

Flu usually doesn't blanket the country until late January or February, but it is already widespread in more than 40 states.

What's probably complicating the situation: The main influenza virus this year tends to make people sicker. And there are other bugs out there causing flu-like illnesses. So what people are calling the flu may, in fact, be something else.

"There may be more of an overlap than we normally see," said Dr. Joseph Bresee, who tracks the flu for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The flu's early arrival in the U.S. coincided with spikes in a variety of other viruses, including a childhood malady that mimics flu and a new norovirus that causes what some people call "stomach flu."

Most people don't undergo lab tests to confirm flu, and the symptoms are so similar that it's sometimes hard to distinguish flu from other viruses, or even a cold. Over the holidays, 250 people were sickened at a Mormon missionary training center in Utah, but the culprit turned out to be a norovirus, not the flu.

Flu is a major contributor, though, to what's going on.

"I'd say 75 percent," said Dr. Dan Surdam, head of the emergency department at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, Wyoming's largest hospital. The 17-bed ER saw its busiest day ever last week, with 166 visitors.

The early onslaught has resulted in a spike in hospitalizations, prompting hospitals to take steps to deal with the influx and protect other patients from getting sick, including restricting visits from children, requiring family members to wear masks, and banning anyone with flu symptoms from maternity wards.

One hospital in Allentown, Pa., this week set up a tent for a steady stream of patients with flu symptoms.

But so far, "what we're seeing is a typical flu season," said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.

On Wednesday, Boston declared a public health emergency, and all the flu activity has caused some to question whether this year's flu shot is working.

There's a new flu vaccine each year, based on the best guess of what flu viruses will be strongest that year. This year's vaccine is well-matched to what's going around. The government estimates that between a third and a half of Americans have gotten the vaccine.

But the vaccine isn't foolproof, and even those who were vaccinated can still get sick. At best, the vaccine may be only 75 percent effective in younger people and even less so in the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

Health officials are analyzing the vaccine's effectiveness, but early indications are that about 60 percent of all vaccinated people have been protected from the flu. That's in line with how effective flu vaccines have been in other years.

In New York City, 57-year-old Judith Quinones suffered her worst case of flu-like illness in years, laid up for nearly a month with fever and body aches. "I just couldn't function," she said.

She decided to skip getting a flu shot last fall. But her daughter got the shot. "And she got sick twice," Quinones said.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.

Most people with flu have a mild illness and can help themselves and protect others by staying home and resting. But people with severe symptoms should see a doctor. They may be given antiviral drugs or other medications to ease symptoms.

The last bad flu season involved a swine flu that hit in two waves in the spring and fall of 2009. But that was considered a unique strain, different from the regular winter flu.

___

Online:

CDC flu: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flu-season-hits-early-places-hard-173837682.html

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Snake On A Plane: Scrub Python Hitches Ride On Qantas Flight From Australia To Papua New Guinea

Paging Samuel L. Jackson, paging Samuel L. Jackson. Please proceed immediately to Qantas Flight 191, which just encountered a "motherf*****g snake," on a "motherf*****g plane."

Contrary to expectations, this is not a low-budget sequel to the 2006 Hollywood movie "Snakes On A Plane." The snake on this plane, bound from Cairns, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, was decidedly real.

About 20 minutes into the Thursday morning flight, reports the Sun-Herald, a woman notified cabin crews there seemed to be a snake on the wing.

Skepticism turned to disbelief, then sadness, as passengers realized there was indeed a snake hitching a ride on the aircraft -- and it was fighting for its life. While it had initially been safely tucked away, a gust of wind soon extended the cold-blooded creature, fully exposing it to the 10-degree temperatures outside.

"There was no panic," passenger Robert Weber told the Sun Herald. "At no time did anyone stop to consider that there might be others on board.''

An expert later identified the snake to the BBC as a 10-foot long scrub python, Australia's longest species of snake.

"It appears as though the snake has initially crawled up inside the landing bay, maybe housed himself in there, and then crawled into the trailing ledge flap assembly," Paul Cousins, the president of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, explained to the outlet.

A Qantas representative told the Australian Times they'd never heard of this happening aboard their aircraft before.

As for the snake, the BBC reports it held on for the entire 1 hour, 50-minute flight, but ultimately did not survive the ordeal.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/snake-on-qantas-flight_n_2449599.html

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