CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa - Nine-year-old Matthew Berger dashed after his dog, Tau, into the high grass here one sunny morning, tripped over a log and stumbled onto a major archaeological discovery. Scientists announced Thursday that he had found the bones of a new hominid species that lived almost two million years ago during the fateful, still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family. ‘Dad, I found a fossil! Matthew said he cried out to his father, Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist, who had been searching for hominid bones just a hill and a half away for almost two decades. Fossil hunters have profitably scoured these rolling grasslands north of Johannesburg since the 1930s. Matthew held the ancient remains of a 4-foot-2 boy who had been just a few years older than Matthew himself. Dr. Berger, with the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and his fellow researchers have since found much more of the boy’s skeleton, including his extraordinarily well-preserved skull, and three other individuals. South Africa’s children will compete to name the boy. In a report being published Friday in the journal […]
No one wants a mixed salad tossed with extra bacteria, mold and yeast, but those are just what you might find when you try to eat a healthier diet in poorer neighborhoods. A new study shows that the level of bacteria found on the fresh produce can vary according to the income level of the neighborhoods where it is for sale. Researchers compared levels of bacteria, yeast and mold on identical products sold in six Philadelphia-area neighborhoods. They selected three of the neighborhoods because they had the city’s highest poverty levels. In these, consumer options tended to be small markets that offered less variety in fruits and vegetables. The result: ready-to-eat salads and strawberries sold in stores in the poorer neighborhoods had significantly higher counts of microorganisms, yeasts and molds than the same products purchased elsewhere, while cucumbers had a higher yeast count and mold and watermelon contained more bacteria. ‘Food deteriorates when there is microbial growth,’ said study co-author Jennifer Quinlan, a professor of nutrition and biology at Drexel University. ‘The bacterial count is used to determine the quality of the produce and it was poorer quality, closer to being spoiled. Three of the things […]
CHICAGO — The deaths of 25 coal miners in West Virginia Monday in what is considered the worst mining accident in a quarter century is raising questions about whether a congressional overhaul of mine safety four years ago went far enough. The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act, passed in 2006 in response to a disaster in Sago, W.V., that killed 13 miners, was intended to improve miner safety by mandating the installation of preventive and emergency technologies. But Massey Energy Company, the company that owns the Upper Big Branch South Mine in Whitesville, W.V., where Monday’s accident happened, has been leveled numerous fines for environmental and safety violations in recent years. Moreover, only 14 percent of mines have complied with MINER Act requirements to install improved communications systems. This suggests that the MINER Act is not thorough enough in leveling consequences for mining companies or for establishing a timeline for coming to compliance, say several experts. The result is that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) – the federal agency charged with monitoring coal companies and making them comply with safety standards – essentially has its hands tied. […]
WASHINGTON (AP) – The era of record-low mortgage rates is over. The average rate on a 30-year loan has jumped from about 5 percent to more than 5.3 percent in just the past week. As mortgages get more expensive, more would-be homeowners are priced out of the market-a threat to the fragile recovery in the housing market. And if you wanted to refinance at a super-low rate, you may have missed your chance. Mortgages under 4 percent are still available, but only for loans that reset in five or seven years, probably to higher rates. Rates are going up because of the improving economy and the end of a government push to make mortgages cheaper. For people putting their homes on the market this spring, rising rates may actually be a good thing. Buyers are racing to complete their purchases and lock in something decent before rates go even higher. ‘We are seeing some panic among potential buyers who have not found houses yet,’ said Craig Strent, co-founder of Apex Home Loans in Bethesda, Md. ‘They’re saying: Man, I should have found a house three weeks ago or last month when […]
WASHINGTON — Facing unsustainable budget deficits, the United States will have to make difficult choices between higher taxes and social spending, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said. Wading into a fiercely contested political debate, Bernanke said trimming the deficit was made more urgent by the rapidly aging US population. ‘Inevitably, addressing the fiscal challenges posed by an aging population will require a willingness to make difficult choices,’ he said according to remarks prepared for delivery in Dallas, Texas. ‘To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.’ Tackling the massive US budget deficits and ballooning debt has become a hot-button political issue in Washington, as President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush have spent billions of taxpayers’ money to stave off economic collapse. While both Republicans and Democrats have advocated deficit reduction, they disagree about how and when it should be done. Bernanke said quick steps to balance the books would hurt the fragile recovery, but that a credible […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
