Trogloraptor spider, new species, video

This video from the USA says about itself:

Trogloraptor – A New family of Spider (photo montage)

Aug 24, 2012

Trogloraptor marchingtoni: This video shows close up images set to music. Stay tuned for a Science in Action video coming soon.

SAN FRANCISCO (August 17, 2012) — A team of scientists and cave conservationists discovered a relatively huge, unique spider in caves and forests of the Pacific Northwest. The novel combination of evolutionary features in this spider, Trogloraptor, compelled them to recognize a new family. A study of the new family and its evolutionary and conservation significance was published in the open access journal ZooKeys on August 17.

The forests of the coastal regions from California to British Columbia are renowned for their unique and ancient animals and plants, such as coast redwoods, tailed frogs, mountain beavers—and now, a large, newly discovered spider. Trogloraptor (or “cave robber”) is named for its cave home and spectacular, elongate claws. It is a spider so evolutionarily special that it represents not only a new genus and species, but also a new family (Trogloraptoridae). Even for the species-rich insects and arachnids, to discover a new, previously unknown family is rare.

A team of citizen scientists from the Western Cave Conservancy and arachnologists from the California Academy of Sciences found these spiders living in caves in southwest Oregon. Colleagues from San Diego State University found more in old-growth redwood forests. Charles Griswold, Curator of Arachnology, Joel Ledford, postdoctoral researcher, and Tracy Audisio, graduate student, all at the California Academy of Sciences, collected, analyzed, and described the new family. Audisio’s participation was supported by the Harriet Exline Frizzell Memorial Fund and by the Summer Systematics Institute at the Academy, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Read our story on Science Today here:

http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/trogloraptor/

Jail for anti-Romney protesters?

This video from the USA is called Occupy Tampa protests at Mitt Romney rally in Dunedin, FL 1-30-12.

From Think Progress in the USA:

Tampa Authorities Empty Jail In Anticipation of Mass Arrests at GOP Convention

Thursday, 23 August 2012 10:54

Thousands of Republicans from around the country will descend upon Tampa, Florida next week for the Republican National Convention, and if recent history is any guide, so too will hundreds of protesters.

To prepare, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee has ordered the Orient Road Jail, a 1,700 bed prison in Tampa, emptied, relocating some inmates to another nearby prison and releasing others on bond. The entire facility has been transformed into a one-stop booking, detention, and bond-issuance center capable of handling large numbers of arrests, which begs the question: will Tampa police keep demonstrators on a short leash?

Sheriff Gee says no, but also indicated in a letter posted on a county website that his department would have very little tolerance for anything more than chanting and holding up signs:

To the agitators and anarchists who want only to bring a dark cloud to this event, let me be clear: criminal activity and civil disturbances will not be tolerated and enforcement actions will be swift.

Four years ago, police in Minneapolis, Minnesota were criticized for their treatment of protesters and reporters covering the RNC, and were even forced to settle in an excessive force lawsuit. And in 2004, police in New York City were found to have been surveilling dozens of protest groups for months leading up to the RNC, even embedding undercover officers within several larger groups.

Mad Women Descend on the Republican Convention: here.

Tampa Area Republicans terrified of Tea Party, Ryan: here.

Bill Maher: ‘Republicans don’t like it when single women have sex’: here.

As Tampa Bay, Florida, boosts its security for the 2012 Republican National Convention next week, one elusive primate remains at large: the so-called Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay: here.

German pterosaur fossil discovery

From The Local in Germany:

Flying fish-eating dinosaur unveiled

Published: 24 Aug 12 15:22 CET

A new kind of flying, fish-eating dinosaur has left German palaeontologists waving their trowels in glee.

No, this is a pterosaur. And pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, though living in the same age.

After a year of examining, dusting and head-scratching, they are putting the fossil on show this Saturday.

Thought to be around 155 million years old and with remnants of its last fish supper in its belly, scientists found the creature’s skeleton in Wattendorf, Bavaria last year. It is the only one of its kind ever found and the dinosaur world is excited about the still unnamed animal.

“It’s an extremely rare and wonderful specimen,” said pterosaur … expert Eberhard Frey from the Karlsruhe natural history museum.

“It had very long arms and very long legs, almost like stilts which were probably an advantage when wading through the water,” he added.

And despite being only around the height of a raven when standing, the pterosaur had a wingspan of around 1.20 metres, director of the Bamberg museum of natural history Matthias Mäuser told The Local.

To top off its oddly-proportioned shape, the creature had a long flamingo-like beak packed with 400 long, blunt teeth, which Mäuser explained were used to filter “fish, little crabs and other bits of food from shallow rock pools while standing.”

Scientists inspecting the fossil even found remains of its last meal in its stomach – bits of fish – solidifying the theory that it lived near water.

“It did have wings, but that does not mean it was a bird,” said Mäuser, adding that the new pterosaur did not have feathers, but instead was covered in wiry bristles and was a flying reptile.

Little is known about Germany’s new Jurassic age curio, but after a year of rigorous investigations and research, Mäuser said that it may have died from an injury to its jaw, which showed signs of damage.

The Wattendorf limestone where the skeleton was found is a renowned hotspot for fossils. Scientists have unearthed more than 5,000 fossils of sharks, turtles, fish, snails and crocodiles there since excavation begun in 2004.

“It is a treasure trove of fossils,” said Mäuser. The new pterosaur is the oldest to have been found in the area, and Helmut Tischlinger, one of the scientists working on the project believes that links can be seen between the animal and much later giant pterosaurs – which had a wingspan up to ten metres.

The new pterosaur will be on display from Saturday in a special exhibition at the Bamberg natural history museum.

Related articles

• Pterodactyl, Pteranodon & Other Flying ‘Dinosaurs’ (livescience.com)
• How Do They Move? (alreadyanswered.org)
• Second look at fossilized horn leads to new dinosaur discovery (ctvnews.ca)
• Excuse Me, Have You Seen a Pterosaur Pass This Way? (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs Took Flight (bataviapubliclibrary.typepad.com)
• Oldest Dutch dog fossil discovery (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Musing on the Pterosaurs from Deep Time (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• Giant pterosaur needed cliffs, downward-sloping runways to taxi, awkwardly take off into air (phys.org)
• Meet Xenoceratops: Canada’s newest horned dinosaur (esciencenews.com)

Dutch clerical child abuse complaints

This Dutch video with English subtitles is called Dutch Catholic Church Exposed by Deetman Commission of Inquiry (Dec. 2011).

From DutchNews.nl:

Catholic church abuse: victims make formal complaints about three monks

Friday 24 August 2012

A foundation representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic church officials has made a police complaint against three monks who worked in the former Bleijerheide residential school in Kerkrade.

A spokesman for the Mea Culpa foundation told the Telegraaf the three men ‘deliberately and knowingly’ kept secret about crucial information about the abuse of their pupils.

‘All three monks should be questioned by the police as quickly as possible,’ Bert Smeets said.

Youth worker

One of the three is Maastricht minister Jan S who is already the subject of an investigation into sexual abuse. He has been suspended by the bishop of Roermond.

The two others live in Kerkrade and Heerlen and one of them still works as a youth worker in Belgium, the Telegraaf said.

Mea Culpa has also made a formal complaint against the Franciscan community in the Netherlands.

Archives

‘We want to know where all the archives are,’ Smeets said. ‘Specifically, we want the publication of the CVs of 13 monks from Bleijerheide. Complaints have been made about nine of them.’

A church commission looking into abuse at Catholic boarding schools reported in December it had identified some 800 priests and monks who abused children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the report said.

The commission was set up by the Catholic church in March 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke in the Netherlands and hundreds of victims came forward. Over 2,000 people have now registered their abuse with the authorities and a number of cases will be taken to court.

English cemeteries, nature reserves?

This video is called Nimbus Nature Trail presents – The Common Pipistrelle.

From the BBC:

24 August 2012 Last updated at 01:25

Can city cemeteries be nature reserves?

By Victoria Gill and Karen Millington

A sea of gravestones etched with the names of lost loved ones might not be what you would picture when you imagine a nature reserve.

But Manchester City Council plans to give Southern Cemetery in south Manchester, which is the largest cemetery in the UK, that official title.

According to Natural England, it will be one of just 10 graveyard nature reserves in England. And it is part of a bigger plan in Manchester to put cemeteries “on the map” for nature-loving urbanites.

…

Clare Sefton, from the South Lancashire bat group, has carried out bat surveys in Southern Cemetery.

She has found three of the UK’s 18 bat species in the cemetery.

“As well as common pipistrelles, we’ve recorded soprano pipistrelles and noctule bats, which are the UK’s largest species,” she told the BBC.

She explained that the flying mammals hunt for insects among the cemetery’s avenues of mature deciduous trees.

“The cemetery provides an insect-rich habitat in a largely urban area which is a great haven for feeding bats along with some large, old trees which could support bat roosts,” she said.

Tunisian Sidi Bouzid unemployed fight for their rights

This video is about a demonstration in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, 9 August 2012.

From Tunis Afrique Presse (Tunis, Tunisia):

Tunisia: Sidi Bouzid – Jobless People Begin Open Sit-in

23 August 2012

Sidi Bouzid — Jobless people from Sidi Bouzid

Sidi Bouzid, of course, is the town where the mass revolt which drove away dictator Ben Ali began.

began Thursday an open sit-in outside the regional education authority to claim their right to employment and development.

Protesters shouted slogans calling for radical solutions to unemployment and equal opportunities in employment.

The Tunisian League for Defence of Jobless Graduates, Sidi Bouzid chapter, released a statement in which it considers employment a top priority for development and social justice.

The League suggests organising competitions and ensuring their transparency, adopting objective criteria for selecting candidates and reactivating the website dedicated to recruitment in public service.

Tunisia: Security Forces Suppressed the Demonstrations in ‘Hammam-Al-Anf’, ‘Sidi Bouzid’ and ‘Djerba’ Cairo On 8 October 2012: here.

More child labour in Colombia

Colombia. The poster child in South America for pro-capitalist “free market” ideologists.

Colombia, where there are not such horrible things like democratically elected Leftist governments, like in Ecuador and other Latin American countries.

Colombia, where there are death squads to prevent such horrors.

Colombia, the country of about half the murders of trade unionists in the whole world, year after year.

Colombia, land of child labour.

This video is about child labour.

From Colombia Reports:

1.5 million children in Colombia subject to child labor

Thursday, 23 August 2012 14:09

Courtney Scott

Colombia’s government statistics agency said Thursday that 13% of the country’s children are involved in child labor.

Colombia’s National Statistics Department (DANE) reported that approximately 1.5 million children between the ages of five and 17 were dedicated to labor activity in 2011, sometimes along with school and chores at home.

This is a large increase from the last poll that was taken in 2009, showing a 9.2% rate of child labor.

… it is more associated with adolescents between the ages of four and 14 years old than it is with young adults older than 14 years of age.

Will Colombia’s Protesting Workers Be Heard? Here.

David Bacon, Truthout in the USA: The Colombia Free Trade Agreement opens Colombia to foreign corporations and investment, creating an improved environment for the exploitation of natural resources and labor. Union leaders, activists, farmers, indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples are paying the price – in blood: here.

English hairy ants research

This video is called Surface of nest of the Hairy Wood Ant, Formica lugubris, 14 October 2011.

From the BBC:

24 August 2012 Last updated at 06:44 GMT

Tags to shed light on northern hairy ants’ movements

By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

Researchers are planning to fit tiny tags to a protected species of ant in order to gain an insight into the insects’ behaviour.

A team from the University of York will fit the devices to 1,000 northern hairy ants – the UK’s largest ant species.

Although ants have been tagged in laboratories before, the project will be the first to attempt to track the movement of the creatures in the wild.

The project will take place on the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate.

The site in Derbyshire is home to more than 1,000 nests and an estimated 50 million worker hairy ants.

Multiple nests

Sam Ellis, from the University of York, said the study would help answer questions about how the colony of ants organise themselves.

“The ants have this behaviour where one colony is spread among multiple nests,” he explained.

“This behaviour is really interesting because there are some places where they exhibit this behaviour, yet in other places within Europe they do not do this.

“It is unknown how why they maintain this multiple nesting.”

He added that the data gathered from tagging the ants would help shape land management projects.

“With this information, land managers will be better equipped to ensure they do not destroy a colony accidentally by cutting down a tree used by the insects to source food or damaging an area used by the ants,” he told BBC News.

The tags, which measure 1.0mm by 1.6mm, will act like a barcode, allowing the researchers to track the movements of the tagged insects.

“It allows you to build up a picture of how each individual ant behaves, and this builds up to make the colony-wide behaviour,” Mr Ellis told BBC News.

“You stick all the tags on, and then you come back the next day.

The scanner is literally like a barcode reader, so you position yourself on one of the trails between the nests, and as the ants run past, you scan it to see which ant it is.”

Jenny Gerrans, the learning officer for the National Trust at Longshaw Estate, said that the research would help shape the trust’s conservation work that was being carried out at the property.

“We are doing some tree removal and felling over the next few years,” she told BBC News.

“As part of that, we will be mapping the ants’ nests, and we will be able to give the information from this study to the contractors that will be carrying out the work.

“They will then be able to make sure that they do not ruin the tracks or paths that the ants use.”

Wood ants are a group of six closely related species found across the forests of Europe. Within the UK, there are three species. One which is found in the north of Scotland; the northern hairy ant, which is found in southern Scotland and northern England, and there is another species found in southern England.

“They are the dominant invertebrate predator, so they are not eaten by any other invertebrate – although they are eaten by woodpeckers and sometimes badgers,” Mr Ellis explained.

He added that trees – such as oak, birch, pine and larch – played an important role in the ants ecology.

“Their main food, about 60-80%, comes from aphids. They have farms, literally like we have farms, of aphids up in the trees. So they protect the aphids,” he said.

“The aphids drink tree sap, and as this is very rich in sugar, they cannot process it all so they [dump] the excess sugar.

“The ants collect this sugary water and take it back to the nests.”

The tagging is set to get underway during the summer of 2013.

Hairy giants

Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature

The wood ant is the largest native ant species in Britain, with workers measuring up to 1cm
Hairy wood ants (Formica lugubris) are a northern species in the UK, but can be found as far south as mid-Wales
They live in mound-shaped nests made of leaves and twigs, which are designed to trap heat
The ants can defend themselves from predators by spraying formic acid, a smelly acidic substance that can blister the skin
Some birds, such as jays and woodpeckers, use the defensive spraying to their advantage by using the acid as a cleansing agent to rid themselves of parasites

See also here.

New Zealand sea lions threatened by money grabbing

This video is called New Zealand Sea Lions.

From Wildlife Extra:

New Zealand Government fails sea lions – Bows to fishing industry

Squid fishery decision won’t save sea lions

August 2012. Fishing restrictions announced by the New Zealand government will not halt the predicted slide of their nationally critical New Zealand sea lions to extinction within the next two decades, according to NZ conservation charity Forest & Bird.

“We are extremely disappointed that this decision ignores the latest internationally peer reviewed research showing that if current levels of by-catch continue, the Auckland Island New Zealand sea lion population will be functionally extinct by 2035,” Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar said.

68 bycatch deaths per year allowed

Primary Industries Minister David Carter announced that the maximum allowed number of accidental fishing related sea lion deaths for the 2012-13 fishing season would remain at 68. He said this limit would remain in effect until a review in four years, unless information shows fishing is causing a decline in the sea lion population.

40% decline since 1998

Katrina Subedar said urgent action is needed to protect the sea lion population following a 40 percent fall in numbers since 1998. New Zealand sea lions have a “nationally critical” threat classification, the same as the kakapo.

“The ministry has dropped the ball on this issue because the latest research shows the sea lion population will continue to spiral downwards towards extinction unless steps are taken to reduce the impact of fishing,” she said.

Sea lion deaths more likely

“At the same time the ministry is allowing the number of trawls in the fishery to be effectively doubled to 4700 per season, making it more likely that sea lions will be caught in the fishing nets.”

David Carter said scientific information showed sea lion exclusion devices (SLEDs), which are meant to allow sea lions to exit the giant trawl nets, are working.

But Katrina Subedar said there is no evidence that injured or dead sea lions are being retained in the nets. Increasing the number of observers on fishing vessels, as the new rules require, may therefore not give an accurate assessment of how many sea lions are being killed.

Forest & Bird believes the squid fishing industry could continue to prosper without threatening one of our most endangered species by switching to more sustainable fishing methods such as jigging.

Sea lions deliberately collapse their lungs so they can dive deeper: here.

Hundreds of emaciated stranded sea lion pups are washing ashore in California: here.

Related articles

• Endangered sea lions die in protective nets (stuff.co.nz)
• Megan Pincus Kajitani: Want to Save Starving Sea Lion Pups? Here’s How (huffingtonpost.com)
• Celine v Sea Lion – Dunedin, New Zealand (travelpod.com)
• Officials urge West Linn park visitors to steer clear of sea lion (oregonlive.com)
• WATCH: Sea Lion Pup Hops Aboard Kayak (ktla.com)
• For struggling sea lion pups, a lot of healthy attention (latimes.com)
• Sickly sea lion pups rescued at Oceanside Pier (swrnn.com)
• Watch: Saving the Sea Lion Pups (abcnews.go.com)
• Sea Shepherd to document killing of sea lions along Columbia River (q13fox.com)