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Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:14:43 am
by interesting
Discovery Channel
updated 7:46 p.m. ET, Wed., April 22, 2009
When Julien Petillon wanted to see how long a salt marsh-dwelling wolf spider could survive underwater, he did the logical thing — he submerged them, and waited until they died.
Spiders are known for their resilience to being underwater, so it was no surprise to him that the dozens of Arctosa Fulvolineata in the experiment took almost 24 hours to grow still. What did surprise him is the dead-still spiders then came back to life.
As they lay drying in Petillion's laboratory at the University of Rennes in France, something odd happened: the 'dead' spiders began to twitch. First one small movement, then another — before long the salt marsh spiders were skittering about as though nothing had happened.
"It was really a surprise," Petillon said. "We did not suspect the spiders could go into a coma."
But that's exactly what happened. In a paper published today in the journal Biology Letters, Petillion and a team of researchers report that A. Fulvolineata can survive up to 40 hours underwater by slipping into a brief suspended animation, switching its metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic when oxygen is in short supply.
Only a few A. Fulvolineata survived that long, but almost all withstood 16 hours of immersion without a scratch. Their close marsh-dwelling cousins Pardosa purbeckensis and the forest-living Pardosa lugubris didn't fare nearly as well, and showed no signs that they could come back from an unresponsive state.
"Many species of spider live in submerged habitats," Petillon said. "Most avoid flooding by climbing up in vegetation. A. Fulvolineata is the first we've seen that withstands flooding like this."
Petillon believes the 16-hours sweet spot of survival is no accident. In the salt marshes of northwestern France where A. Fulvolineata lives, flooding from high tide usually only lasts 8 hours or so. But on rare occasions marshes won't drain for two consecutive tidal cycles.
"I would not be surprised to see this in many other species," Todd Blackledge of the University of Akron in Ohio said. "A large number of spiders are ground-dwelling, and would be faced with similar challenges."
Spiders have used silk throughout their 400 million-year history, and many scientists suspect it first arose as a defense against water. By spinning a waterproof wall over the entrance to their burrows or dens, the animals could ride out floods and heavy rains. Modern spiders still exhibit this behavior too, using silken 'diving bells' to patrol lake bottoms, and to build homes in the crevices of coral reefs.
The wolf spiders Petillon and his team studied don't build webs, and spend very little time using their silk, which may account for their strange talent in dealing with regular inundation.
© 2009 Discovery Channel
Reproduced from MSNBC
Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:12:34 pm
by interesting
A roller disco coach, a part-time toothbrush adviser for infants and a ceremonial sword bearer are just some of the 'non-jobs' offered by councils across Britain.
Other roles which have come under criticism from the Taxpayer's Alliance include trampoline coaches, skate park attendants, flower arrangers, a 'befriending co-ordinator'; and a 'street football co-ordinator', which pays £19,000-a-year.
The audit of local government positions, obtained by a freedom of information request, have been criticised as 'bizarre non-jobs' aimed at satisfying a culture of health and safety and political correctness.
'There has been a huge boom in the number of unnecessary and bizarre jobs in local government in recent years,' said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group.
'Many of the posts are laughable, but they have a serious financial impact for taxpayers. The last thing we need in the middle of a recession is to have hundreds of ‘non-jobs’ on the public payroll soaking up taxpayers’ money.'
The Sunday Times, which submitted the freedom of information request, received responses from 118 councils, and estimated that 'non-jobs' cost the taxpayer around £800,000-a-year. Applied across all 442 local authorities, such posts would cost about £3m a year.
Newcastle upon Tyne was highlighted as one of the worst offenders. It employs a dedicated 'breastfeeding peer support co-ordinator' and a 'composting supervisor', attracting a salary of up to £23,470 to run a facility that turns garden waste into compost.
One of the council's most diverse employee is a part-time sword bearer and mace bearer to help mayor David Wood on ceremonial occasions.
The mayor, who is government chief whip Nick Brown's political agent, also enjoys the services of four chauffeur-butlers, who collectively earn more than £60,000 a year.
A spokesman for the council, which will cut 500 jobs this year, told The Sunday Times the jobs were 'necessary and sensible roles'.
'Step one: Brush': One council offers a part-time job teaching infants how to clean their teeth
Other 'non-job' positions include a falls prevention fitness adviser to help the elderly of Tewkesbury and a £13,000-a-year 'bouncy castle attendant' in Angus, Scotland.
Falkirk's part-time 'toothbrush assistant' earns £3,032 teaching nursery children how to clean their teeth and the council also employs a 'cheerleading development officer'.
Glasgow taxpayers fund a £17,000-a-year 'street mediator' to deal with teens hanging around on street corners and a 'chewing gum removal labourer'. The council also funds a £17,800 florist.
Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, employs several part-time pianists for council events and Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire employs a 'roller disco coach' every Saturday night.
Moray Council in the Highlands pays £19,887 a year for a street football co-ordinator.
The Local Government Association told the paper councils provided vital services despite falling income.
A spokesman said: 'From lollipop ladies to street cleaners and librarians, town halls employ people that provide more than 800 vital services that many local residents rely on to get through the day.'
Reproduced from dailymail.co.uk
BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.
The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.
China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol gulf and waters off Somalia, one of the world's busiest marine routes, where surging piracy endangered intercontinental shipping.
China's first fleet has escorted 206 vessels, including 29 foreign merchant vessels, and successfully rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirate attacks.
About 20 percent of Chinese merchant ships passing through the waters off Somalia were attacked by pirates from January to November in 2008, before the task force was deployed.
A total of seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked.
Tianyu No. 8, a Chinese fishing vessel with 16 Chinese and eight foreign sailors aboard, was captured by Somali pirates on Nov. 14 and released in early February.
The second fleet of Chinese escort ships arrived at the Gulf of Aden on Monday to replace the first fleet.
Reproduced from Xinhuanet
"In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate."
For the complete article, go here
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