The United States has listed the polar bear as a threatened species, because its Arctic sea ice habitat is melting due to climate change. US government scientists predict that two-thirds of the polar bear population of 25,000 could disappear by 2050. However, the government stressed the listing would not lead to measures to prevent global warming. Environmentalists have expressed disappointment that more will not be done to protect the bear’s habitat. US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the government had made the decision on the advice of scientists, but he suggested the impact of the move would be limited. ‘While the legal standards under the Endangered Species Act compel me to list the polar bear as threatened,’ he said, ‘I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting.’ He said that could only be achieved through action by all of the world’s major economies. Mr Kempthorne also said he was taking measures to make sure the listing was not ‘abused’ to make policies on climate change which would cause ‘harm to the society and the economy of the United States’. […]
Like swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano - except with a longer interval (73 years in this case) - the zeppelins are returning to California. Operating out of Moffett Field, near Mountain View at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, Airship Ventures has announced that it has inked a deal with Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH of Germany (the successor of the same firm who made the Hindenburg and the zeppelins that bombed London in World War I) to acquire a modern, 12-passenger zeppelin. The $8 million airship will be sent to California in September, where it will be used mostly for sightseeing excursions. Being much smaller than the passenger zeppelins of the 1920s and 1930s, it will have to cross the Atlantic on the deck of a ship. New zeppelins The airship will be the fourth of the Zeppelin NT line produced by the German firm, which differs considerably from the aerial giants that roamed the skies before they were retired after the fiery crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. First, they lack the rigid hulls of the old-style zeppelins, which housed loose-hanging gas cells. Instead, the gasbag is the hull, and it houses an […]
UFOs hovering over Waterloo Bridge? Green men known as Elgar? This can only mean the British ‘X-Files’ have been opened up to the public for the first time. The fascinating reports, taken so seriously they were documented by the Ministry of Defence, have been revealed after a Freedom of Information request by UFO researchers. And, according to the files, the number of reports of UFOs doubled after the release of Steven Speilberg’s sci-fi drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. Among the most sensational is the famous Rendlesham Forest case. A report from Lt.Col Charles Halt on 13th January 1981 tells how on the night of December 27th security patrolmen spotted odd lights above the forest. They saw the lights plunge down and went to investigate. In the forest they found a triangular shaped object 9ft long by 6ft high hovering above the ground. Flashing lights The object had a pulsing red light on top with blue lights underneath. According to the patrolmen a white light coming from the UFO illuminated the whole forest. The object suddenly took off and flew away. Other airmen on the base also […]
NEW YORK — News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it’s a step toward creating ‘designer babies.’ But an author of the study says the work was focused on stem cells. He notes that the researchers used an abnormal embryo that could never have developed into a baby anyway. ‘None of us wants to make designer babies,’ said Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The idea of designer babies is that someday, scientists may insert particular genes into embryos to produce babies with desired traits like intelligence or athletic ability. Some people find that notion repugnant, saying it turns children into designed objects, and would create an unequal society where some people are genetically enriched while others would be considered inferior. The study appears to be the first report of genetically modifying a human embryo. It was presented last fall at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, but didn’t draw widespread public attention then. The result was reported over the weekend by The Sunday Times of London, […]
One woman said her husband now comes home from work only on weekends, the rising price of gas making it all but impossible for him to afford a daily commute between his home in East Moriches and his job in Maspeth, Queens. Some readers are riding bicycles to and from work. Other readers have said that, in response to the current gas price crisis on Long Island, they are driving less — and, walking more. Others have taken to riding the train. But at least one reader, Fran Magadan, of Lindenhurst, said she can barely afford to work anymore — the cost of filling her car with gas is too much. ‘This is ridiculous,’ Magadan, who works for an air-freight company in Jamaica, wrote Monday. ‘I drive 250 miles a week to get to work. It doesn’t pay to go to work. I will apply for unemployment, because I can’t afford to go to work anymore. Not everybody in this country makes [a six-figure salary].’ Which, it seems to most Long Island drivers these days, is the kind of salary you need to fill your car’s gas tank. After all, the average price […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
