A critically endangered Indonesian crow — long feared extinct — has been rediscovered in its native habitat, scientists announced today.
The all-black Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor), known to science only by two specimens described in 1900, was found again by Indonesian biologists on Peleng Island, off the east coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2007. Pamela Rasmussen, a Michigan State University zoologist verified the finding.
Rasmussen studied the two century-old specimens, housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and compared them to the new specimens to make sure they were not just members of a different all-black subspecies of crow, the more common Slender-billed Crow (Corvus enca).
“The morphometric analysis I did shows that all four unicolor specimens are very similar to each other, and distinctly different from enca specimens. We also showed that the two taxa differ in eye color — an important feature in Corvus,” Rasmussen said. “Not only did this confirm the identity of the new specimens but also the specific distinctness of Corvus unicolor, which has long been in doubt.”
The new specimens are now catalogued at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense on the Indonesian island of Java.
Since the specimens were gathered, other birdwatchers in the mountains of Peleng have photographed and recorded Banggai Crows, which Rasmussen said also confirms the distinctiveness of the species.
A photo of the Banggai Crow appears this week in the “Handbook of the Birds of the World.”
Mochamad Indrawan of the University of Indonesia, who spearheaded the rediscovery, is now focusing on preserving the rare species, which is hunted by local residents. That includes making recommendations for protection of its forest habitat through sustainable agriculture methods and, perhaps, eco-tourism, to address the residents’ livelihood needs.
Archaeologists have found traces of a temple built for the Greek goddess of divine retribution, Nemesis, during excavations in the ancient city of Agora in the Aegean port city of İzmir.
There was no “ancient city of Agora”. Agora in ancient Greek means market and/or city center. In this case, the city center of Smyrna, as the city was called then.
Akın Ersoy of Dokuz Eylül University’s archaeology department and heading the archaeological excavations in the ancient city, told the Anatolia news agency on Monday that they speculated there might be a temple built for Nemesis in the area.
“We found traces of such a temple during our excavations in Agora,” he said. “We want to concentrate our work to unearth the temple in the future.”
This year’s archeological excavations have unearthed many important findings that belonged to the Ottoman era, said Ersoy, including many pieces of Ottoman ceramics. “There are several layers to be worked,” said Ersoy. “We will work on the Ottoman era first, followed by the Eastern Roman, Roman and then the earlier ages.”
Ersoy said it was during the excavation work when they found clues of a temple to Nemesis built in the ancient city. “We think the temple is situated on the western side,” he added. “It might be under the Hürriyet Anatolian High School building. We hope to unearth it in coming years.”
In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate, personified as a remorseless goddess.
The ancient city of Agora was constructed during the rule of Alexander the Great. Today it is mostly in ruins. What little is left remains because of Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, who had the Agora rebuilt after an earthquake devastated the original in A.D. 178.
A problem with this is that Empress Faustina died in 175, three years before the earthquake.
The Agora was first excavated by German and Turkish archaeologists between 1932 and 1941.
Surrounded on the west and north by colonnades, the Agora once had a large altar dedicated to Zeus in the center. The altar is now gone, but statues of Poseidon and of Demeter believed to have come from the altar are on display in the Archaeological Museum in İzmir. Also visible at the site are various capitals, remnants of three of the four main gates, some recognizable stalls, architectural fragments bearing medieval coats of arms and a stone slab that may have been used as a gaming board.
He takes the occasion of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Barack Obama to suggest the US president go to Oslo in December, decline the award for himself, and then declare, “I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century—the men and women of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.”
Friedman mentions a series of actions by the American military, including the Normandy landing of June 1944, the Berlin Airlift of 1948, the stationing of US troops in Europe throughout the Cold War, the troop presence in South Korea, and the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The very length of this list might give a reader pause—there is no other country whose military actions over the last 70 years would require a full column merely to name.
Even in the wars Friedman does mention, his account is one-sided and false. He refers to Normandy and the liberation of Buchenwald, but not Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or the firebombing of Tokyo, Dresden and Hamburg. He describes the role of US forces today in Iraq and Afghanistan as “peacekeeping,” without noting the sea of blood that accompanied the invasion and conquest of those countries.
But it is the omission of Vietnam which is the most telling exposure of Friedman’s attempt to dress up American imperialism in “democratic” and “humanitarian” garb.
Revealed: Corporation-Courting Imperialist Thomas Friedman. Aaron Leonard, Truthout: “This short book shreds any sense of integrity that Friedman might have for the uninitiated, and provides plenty of substance for those needing the polemical ammunition to challenge this powerful spokesman. I recently interviewed the book’s author Belen Fernandez via email”: here.
Thomas Friedman Can’t Stop Comparing Afghanistan to a “Special Needs Baby”.
There are few public figures more justifiably reviled by thinking people than Thomas Friedman. As a columnist for the New York Times, Friedman has served as a propagandist for every war the United States has started over the past two decades, from the bombing of Serbia, to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, to the “regime change” operations in Libya and Syria: here.
On January 18, 1985, the Reagan administration announced it would not abide by any World Court ruling in a case brought by Nicaragua against the terrorist methods employed by the US in its drive to bring down the nationalist Sandinista government: here.
Responding to mass popular hostility toward the Reagan administration’s rapid nuclear build-up, the governments of Australia and New Zealand this week in 1985 delivered separate rebukes to US military planning, rattling the South Pacific military alliance, the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty, or ANZUS: here.
There are growing signs of a major shift in world currency alignments. Since March, the US dollar has steadily declined, depreciating by 13.3 percent on a trade-weighted basis. Last week the decline accelerated: here.
President Obama’s leading economic advisor said Monday that the US was well on the way to recovery, while acknowledging that higher levels of unemployment may become a permanent feature even after economic growth resumes: here.
USA: A recently released study reveals high levels of incarceration, joblessness, and poverty among young high school dropouts: here.
A recently released report by Australia’s Productivity Commission into CEO salaries has opposed any significant restraint on the multi-million dollar remuneration packages: here.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has released a report demanding that the government raise university tuition fees from £3,225 to at least £5,000 a year: here.
The UN Food Organisation revealed on Tuesday that around one billion people across the world are still suffering from hunger and insisted that food production will have to increase by an incredible 70 per cent to ensure that everyone has enough to eat: here.
In the three months since soldiers overthrew leftist President Manuel Zelaya and marched him out of the country in his pajamas, international and Honduran human rights groups say security forces have committed a litany of abuses.
They link at least 10 deaths to de facto rule under Roberto Micheletti, who was named president after the June 28 coup. The government admits three people have died in protests.
Repression of protests against the coup increased after Zelaya slipped back into the country on Sept 21, took refuge in the Brazilian embassy and called his backers onto the streets.
Honduran human rights group Cofadeh said it had numerous reports of police firing guns in poor areas of Tegucigalpa.
Some shootings occurred during night-time curfews enforced by Micheletti.
Unemployed Angel Manuel Osorto broke the curfew to go out to borrow money for medical treatment for his pregnant wife and his 13-year-old son Angel David was hit in the lower back when a policeman fired a pistol from a motorbike.
“As we walked home a police patrol rode up shooting. One bullet hit him,” said Osorto. “Thank God he is alive.”
That same night a Zelaya supporter was shot dead. Five more were hospitalized with bullet wounds. “People are terrified to go out at night. I am scared of the authorities,” said Osorto.
The curfew has been lifted in Honduras, but Micheletti has put in place an emergency decree allowing the army and police to break up protests. And they do so with gusto, firing gas at almost any small demonstration.
“Before, they hid the dead. Now they do it in public, challenging every principle of human rights,” said Oliva, who formed human rights group Cofadeh when her husband, a left-wing activist, was abducted in 1982.
Two days after Zelaya’s return, police fired tear gas into Cofadeh’s office where about 150 people were gathered to report beatings by soldiers and police dispersing protesters from the streets of Tegucigalpa.
The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the attack. …
“The human rights situation in Honduras has worsened substantially in the sense that the controls and repression of protests have risen exponentially,” the commission’s president Luz Patricia Mejia told Reuters.
One 22-year-old medical student who declined to be named says she and other members of her leftist, pro-Zelaya group have received threats by text message. One recent message read: “The best communist is a dead communist.”
Last week, the student says masked, armed men tried to force her into a black car with dark windows. She escaped, but broke a ligament in her arm struggling to free herself from one of the men’s grip.
“The idea was to torture me for information about my organization, I am sure of that,” she said, her arm in a cast and dark rings around her eyes from the stress.
(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, editing by Anthony Boadle)
Honduras: Stop Blocking Human Rights Inquiries: here.
Leaders of a progressive bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states have urged the international community to reject a presidential election planned by the Honduran coup regime next month: here.
Reports from Washington indicate that the Obama administration may back a presidential election in Honduras under state of siege conditions and without the restitution of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to office: here.
Monday 12 October 2009: Workers are the main casualties of the coup d’état that overthrew the Honduran president, Manual Zelaya, on 28 June. Trade unions continue to mobilise to demand a return to democracy, although many of their members have been killed, imprisoned and tortured. The de facto government controls the press: here.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has joined legitimate Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in condemning the Honduras coup regime’s withdrawal from a trade treaty uniting Latin America’s most progressive countries: here.
There are growing signs of a major shift in world currency alignments. Since March, the US dollar has steadily declined, depreciating by 13.3 percent on a trade-weighted basis. Last week the decline accelerated: 
Dear Kitty. Some blog 