Researchers have shown that the animals can add small numbers of apples to get their trunks on a bigger food prize Elephants are famous for their supposedly superb memory. Now it seems that they are good at simple maths too. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found an Asian elephant named Ashya can add small quantities together and correctly identify which is larger. For example, when researcher Naoko Irie-Sugimoto dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples into the first and five into the second, Ashya correctly identified that the first bucket contained more apples and began munching on her tasty prize. Ashya and her companions chose the correct bucket 74% of the time. ‘I even get confused when I’m dropping the bait,’ Irie told New Scientist magazine. The elephants’ counting abilities are far from unique. Chimps, salamanders and pigeons have shown numerical abilities in lab tests, but what is more impressive for the elephants is that their ability to distinguish between two figures does not get worse when those numbers are more similar. The elephants that Irie-Sugimoto tested were as good at telling the […]
BAGHDAD — At a communal water station in a Baghdad slum, a young boy’s skinny arms fly up and down as he uses a bicycle pump to coax water from the dry ground. His efforts produce a languid stream that will tide over his family — and the families of the children waiting near him to fill their cooking pots — until the next day. This is a daily ritual for millions of Iraqis who lack access to sufficient clean water and proper sewage five years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Water and sewage are perennial challenges in this arid country, where the overhaul of decrepit public works has been hindered by years of war and neglect. Nearly a billion litres of raw sewage is dumped into Baghdad waterways each day — enough to fill 370 Olympic-sized pools. The United Nations estimates that less than half of Iraqis get drinking water piped into their homes in rural areas. In the capital, people set their alarm clocks to wake them in the middle of the night so they can fill storage tanks when water pressure is under less strain. New investments in […]
Miles of Midwest land under 10 feet of water, a major bridge collapsing to the ground, a flood-ravaged New Orleans – these are all images we won’t soon forget. But how can we keep history from repeating itself yet again? Our nation’s infrastructure is in dire shape. If the past few weeks of flood coverage following the Midwest’s 30-plus deadly levee breaks doesn’t convince you, think back a year or so ago. Just last summer, the collapse of the I-35W Bridge left many of us pondering the safety of our highways and byways. And who could ever forget the shocking images of post-Katrina New Orleans? If you’re wondering what America has done in response to these disasters, the answer is ‘not nearly enough’ – and that does not bode well for the future. Each of these infrastructure breakdowns could have been prevented. Take the Midwest floods, for instance. In 1993, the same areas experienced massive flooding that resulted in over $10 billion in damage as well as loss of life. The current flooding has so far cost $1.5 billion and that number is sure to grow. It makes you wonder: What went wrong? Why weren’t proper […]
NEW ORLEANS — Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind. In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood. Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated. ‘People forget, but they cannot afford to forget,’ said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. ‘If you believe you can’t flood, that’s when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don’t think they talk about the risk.’ Tyrone Marshall, a 48-year-old bread vendor, is one person who doesn’t believe he’s going to flood again. ‘They’ve heightened the levees. They’re raised up. It makes me […]
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – When the wind blows just the right way, the overpowering smell of the chicken business – housing, slaughtering and processing – wafts across Shelbyville’s town square, past Bedford County’s historic courthouse and the benches where locals sit, grab a smoke and talk about life in town. The pungent smell is a powerful reminder of just how central the poultry industry is to this Middle Tennessee town, population 19,477. Since buying the facility in 1972, Tyson Foods Inc. has not only processed and packaged 67 million birds a year and provided 1,200 of the area’s jobs. It has also reshaped Shelbyville’s population. And the talk among the locals these days is how that population has been reworked yet again as part of the new immigrant wave. During more than 50 years of operation under various owners, the plant at first hired whites, then African-Americans and later Hispanics. But it’s the newest group of workers – Muslim Somalian refugees hailing from a politically unstable and war-torn East African nation – who this month pushed the town into the national spotlight. And it brought Shelbyville’s discomfort with its latest population change sharply into focus. In Shelbyville, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
