spleenless

Here’s another rat story but with a positive spin instead of ending up at the wrong end of a pitch fork. In Tanzania rats have been successful trained to hunt land mines. Now thailand is trying the same along the Burmese border where humans and elephants have had a history of land mine casualties. “Rats have excellent senses of smell and weigh too little to set off land mines with their bodies, making them the perfect alternative to using robots or humans to find mines in war-torn... Read Full Story

Taken at the Marcy House projects in Brooklyn last week this photo apparently shows housing worker Jose Rivera holding a three-foot rat he killed at the end of a pitch fork.Rivera told The Daily News he hit the rodent once and it kept moving, but he struck it again and it died. “I’m not scared of rats,” he said, “but I was scared of being bitten.” Rivera was filling a rat hole when three came running up at him, but he managed to kill only one. Read Full Story

Environmental changes have always had a profound impact on the evolution of species. The advent of cities like NYC, have especially brought along swift environmental changes, steering evolution in a completely new direction. White footed mice for example, originally brought along by European settlers, have now become accustomed to urban stress, and have adopted from living in forests to modern day buildings. Scientists have also identified mutations in more than 1,000 genes in NYC mice, as... Read Full Story

from: Atlantic Monthly Lockheed Martin wanted to sell F-16 fighter jets to the Thai government The Problem: Lockheed Martin was competing with Russia’s Sukhoi and Sweden’s Saab. Also the Thai government didn’t want to pay in cash, so it proposed paying with 80,000 tons of frozen chickens. The Role of U.S. Diplomats: They actually worked to promote the odd-ball deal since it A) helped Lockheed and B) kept the Russians from winning the deal. Incredibly, Lockheed indicated that it was “was... Read Full Story

By Jen Phillips | Thu Dec. 16, 2010 4:15 AM PST For some time, it’s been apparent that just as climate change is killing some species, it’s making room for others to expand, or fostering creation of new species [1] altogether via hybridization. In the Arctic, hybridization is a particular problem for conservationists trying to save unique species from extinction. Take the magnificent polar bear: with thick white fur over black skin, and blubber up to 5″ thick, the animal is... Read Full Story

“I didn’t want to believe it,” said Ms. Mayo, a soft-spoken young woman who has long been active in the slow-food movement. She found it particularly hard to believe that the bees would travel all the way from Governors Island to gorge themselves on junk food. “Why would they go to the cherry factory,” she said, “when there’s a lot for them to forage right there on the farm?” It seems natural, by now, for humans to prefer the unnatural, as if we ourselves had been genetically modified to... Read Full Story

Wi-fi networks blanket urban areas around the world, keeping us constantly connected to the internet wherever we may be — however a new European study finds that these networks may have harmful side-effects on the environment. According to a report by Wageningen University , the constant humming of internet data centers and wi-fi networks could have an adverse effect on nearby trees. The article states that the background radiation produced by these beacons of tech could be making trees sick... Read Full Story

from bldgblog A single-family home in California has been “invaded” by bees—so much so that honey is now leaking from the electrical outlets, coming “from a giant beehive behind the walls.” When the owner reached into one of the house’s vents to investigate this growing problem, he pulled out “honeycomb after honeycomb after honeycomb,” according to news channel KSBW . via moounits BROWSE / IN TIMELINE « Radioactive rabbit trapped at nuclear reservation BROWSE / IN... Read Full Story

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald A radioactive rabbit caught at Hanford just north of Richland had Washington State Department of Health workers looking for contaminated droppings Thursday. Contaminated animals occasionally are found at the nuclear reservation, but more often they are in the center of Hanford, far from town. The rabbit trapped at the 300 Area caught the Department of Health’s attention because it was close enough to the site’s boundaries to potentially come in contact... Read Full Story

From nytimes “When Mr. Landers read of the federal government’s gassing and disposal of nearly 400 Canada geese in Prospect Park in the name of airline safety, and then read comments on City Room that Canada geese were not fit for human consumption anyway, he recognized an educational opportunity. “I saw people saying you can’t eat them, and I knew that wasn’t true,” he said. Canada geese, Mr. Landers said, taste better than most species of duck. Their diets are more consistent. “They’re... Read Full Story