Some 178 species are endangered or in decline, new list says. That’s up 11 percent from five years ago. With birds increasingly hammered by climate change, habitat loss, and a host of other threats, the list of US species in dire trouble is getting longer. Unlike many still common ‘backyard bird’ species whose notable declines were documented in a national study this spring, the much-less familiar species on the new ‘2007 WatchList for US Birds’ released yesterday are considered in danger of extinction or in very serious decline. Some 178 species made this year’s watch list, up 11 percent from five years ago. The masked booby, wandering tattler, and Mexican chickadee are among 12 new species added to the US watch list, which is compiled every five years by the National Audubon Society in New York and the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, both of which are conservation groups. ‘The watch list sounds a real warning,’ said David Pashley, director of conservation programs for the American Bird Conservancy and a coauthor of the list, in a statement. Many consider the ultimate warning list to be the federal Endangered Species list maintained by the US Fish […]
The 2002 North American drought left an extra 360 million tons of heat-trapping carbon in the air, equivalent to the pollution caused that year by 200 million U.S. cars, according to a study released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The prolonged drought cut by half the continent’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide, said the study. Most atmospheric scientists say increased carbon dioxide is the main reason the planet’s average temperatures are creeping up. NOAA used its powerful new modeling system CarbonTracker to analyze data. CarbonTracker found that in North America, humans released 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year – through burning fossil fuels. Typically, forests, grasslands, crops and soil would be expected to absorb about one-third of those emissions in North America. But that natural ratio slumped in 2002 when the continent had one of its largest droughts in a century. Conditions over almost half of the United States were deemed ‘extreme’ or ‘exceptional.’ Vegetation and soil took up only 330 million metric tons of carbon, down from a yearly average of 650 million metric tons. Humans and other animals breathe in […]
LONDON — A ‘cyber cold war’ waged over the world’s computers threatens to become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday. About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report. Intelligence agencies already routinely test other states’ networks looking for weaknesses and their techniques are growing more sophisticated every year, it said. Governments must urgently shore up their defenses against industrial espionage and attacks on infrastructure. ‘Cybercrime is now a global issue,’ said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs. ‘It has evolved significantly and is no longer just a threat to industry and individuals but increasingly to national security.’ The report said China is at the forefront of the cyber war. It said China has been blamed for attacks in the United States, India and Germany. China has repeatedly denied such claims. ‘The Chinese were first to use cyber-attacks for political and military goals,’ James Mulvenon, director of the Center for Intelligence and Research in Washington, was quoted […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Online pornography hunters’ Internet adventures are already fraught with danger from malicious code many porn sites use to commandeer visitors’ machines or steal personal data. Now comes a scheme some researchers say amounts to extortion: One site’s threat to disable visitors’ computers with relentless pop-up ads if they don’t pay for a subscription they were automatically signed up for after a free trial. The threats, reported this week by researchers at security vendor McAfee Inc.’s Avert Labs, affect people who visit the Web site and download software to access a free three-day trial membership. Visitors do get free access for three days, but the download includes code that then generates a stream of pop-up windows, when the user is online and offline, demanding payment of roughly $80 for 90 days’ worth of additional access. The windows stay open up to 10 minutes and appear once a day. They appear on top of any open windows and restore to their original size if shrunk or moved, making them impossible to ignore. They also reappear if the computer is rebooted. The site actually warns visitors they will be billed as full members-and lose […]
Obesity rates in women have leveled off and stayed steady since 1999, long enough for researchers to say the plateau appears to be real. And, they say, there are hints that the rates may be leveling off for men, too. The researchers’ report, published online at cdc.gov/nchs, used data from its periodic national surveys that record heights and weights of a representative sample of Americans. Those surveys, said Cynthia L. Ogden, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics and the lead author of the new report, are the only national ones that provide such data. Dr. Ogden added that the trend for women was ‘great news.’ Obesity rates have held at about 35 percent since 1999, convincing her that the tide had changed. ‘I’m optimistic that it really is leveling off,’ she said. Men’s rates increased until 2003, when they hit 33 percent and stayed there through 2005-6. Dr. Ogden said she would like to see a few more years of data before declaring that men’s rates had stopped increasing. Obesity is defined as a body mass index, a measure of weight for height, of 30 or greater. For example, someone 5 feet 6 […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
