Animals interrupting sporting events

By Lauren Hansen | The Week:

7 adorable animals that interrupted sporting events [Updated]

These enthusiastic cats, dogs, and squirrels weren’t content to remain on the sidelines

1. The marten who wouldn’t go quietly

Just as FC Thun and FC Zurich were starting their Swiss Super League soccer game on Sunday, a wild [pine] marten — a small, ferret-like animal — ran onto the field, brazenly bobbing and weaving through the players, managing to evade capture, and finding refuge in the stands. But it wanted more, and soon after play resumed, the stubborn little star zipped across the field once again. Zurich defender Loris Benito made an impressive jump and tackle, grabbing the marten with both bare hands, but was bitten on the finger. … The animal almost got away again, but Zurich’s gloved goalkeeper Davide Da Costa managed a one-handed grab of the surprisingly speedy critter and successfully sent it off the field. Watch the exciting episode below.

2. The dog who stole a golf ball

During the Dunhill Links in Scotland last October, a spunky pooch appeared out of nowhere, temporarily stealing the game’s spotlight and golf ball. Just as golfer Paul Casey was about to line up for a putt, the small mutt ran onto the 12th green, picked up the ball, and ran off. “I’ve heard of alligators jumping out of the water at unsuspecting hackers,” says Shane Bacon at CBS Sports. “But man’s best friend? Nah, not when we’re out on the links.”

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

3. The squirrel who ran across home plate

In a 2011 playoff game between the Phillies and Cardinals, a wayward squirrel skipped across home plate just as Philadelphia’s Roy Oswalt threw a pitch. Despite Oswalt’s best protest, the home plate umpire ruled the pitch a ball, and the tiny guy darted away.

4. The stray cat who interrupted a soccer match

Last year, an English Premier League match between Liverpool and Tottenham was momentarily halted when a stray cat trotted out onto the pitch. It wasn’t until multiple security guards surrounded the confused feline that play was able to resume.

5. The dog who tried to run with the big boys

Cats aren’t the only ones who like football. In 2011, this Jack Russell terrier ran out onto the field to try and commandeer the ball in an international rules football match, tripping up more than a few players in the process.

6. The cow who interrupted a Polish soccer game

Yet another soccer game was put on hold this fall when a tiny cow ran out onto the field with his presumed owner in tow, winded and ragged. This time, though, players took things into their own hands, chasing the spotted animal back from whence it came.

7. The squirrel who invaded the U.S. Open

At last year’s U.S. Open, a plucky squirrel put a screeching halt to the action when it bolted out onto the court. “The poor thing’s scared now,” said a concerned announcer. Luckily, it didn’t take long for the furry critter to escape to safety.

This article — originally published on Oct. 5, 2012 — was last updated on March 11, 2013.

Related articles

• Pine Marten On Pitch During Swiss League Game (news.sky.com)
• When animals attack: Angry marten halts match and bites FC Zurich star on the hand (metro.co.uk)
• That’s no ball: Soccer player chases, tackles furry field invader (photoblog.nbcnews.com)
• The Animal Invader: A marten bites FC Zurich’s Loris Benito finger during a match with Thun (101greatgoals.com)
• Marten invades Swiss soccer match, bites player (cbsnews.com)
• Pine marten pitch invasion leaves Swiss footballer with nasty bite – video (guardian.co.uk)
• Soccer match in Switzerland delayed after wild animal intruder BITES player on the pitch (dailymail.co.uk)

Nestlé horse meat scandal

From Reuters:

Nestle withdraws beef products after horse DNA found – FT

Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:29pm GMT

Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain on Monday after tests revealed traces of horse DNA above 1 percent, the Financial Times online reported, citing a company statement.

Swiss-based Nestle, which just last week said products under its labels were not affected by the escalating horsemeat scandal, said it had informed the authorities, the FT reported.

Nestle was not immediately available for comment.

The discovery of horsemeat in products labelled as beef began in Ireland last month and has rapidly spread across Europe, resulting in several product withdrawals and government investigations into the long and complex food-processing chains that criss-cross the continent.

Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain, the FT said. Lasagnes à la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.

(Reporting by William Waterman; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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• EU experts plan horsemeat response (bbc.co.uk)
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Good Swiss bird news

From BirdLife:

Swiss recovery programme shows increase in bird species

Wed, Jan 30, 2013

Photo SVS/BirdLife Switzerland

Over the past ten years the population of Little Owl in Switzerland has increased after a sharp decline. Hoopoe has more than doubled and Corncrake has come back at the level of breeding species after almost reaching the level of extinction in the 1990’s. These are some of the results of the Swiss Species Recovery Program for Birds.

This programme, which was launched in 2003 by SVS/BirdLife Switzerland together with the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the Federal Office for the Environment, provides safe species-specific nesting sites and improves or creates habitats providing sufficient food. A common coordination unit is partly based in Zurich, at SVS/BirdLife Switzerland and in Sempach, at the Ornithological Institute.

At the beginning of the programme a sound analysis of the target species was made. Endangered species were only included if they were not naturally rare (e.g. at the edge of the breeding area). A next step was the realisation of an assessment aiming at measuring the sufficiency and relevancy of the existing conservation measures in habitats and sites for the conservation of these species, or if they needed additional measures. The result was that 50 priority species were in need of specific measures, which would be delivered by the programme.

During the last ten years actions in the field have been carried out for 30 species and six official action plans were produced; the first ones for species conservation in Switzerland. The action plans should give the programme even more strength and extend its outcomes to more than 50 species.

For more information, please contact: Werner Müller and Raffael Ayé.

Bankers’ arrogance at Davos forum

This video from the USA is called UBS Bank Fined $1.5 Billion For LIBOR Scandal.

By Bill Benfield:

Banking elite turns its back on demand for regulation

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Leading world bankers at the annual World Economic Forum beano closed ranks today in the face of outside demands to regulate their industry.

Bankers have been widely and accurately blamed for the financial crisis that has damaged economies across the world.

But JP Morgan chairman Jamie Dimon insisted: “We’re doing the right thing.”

He insisted that “there will be a financial services sector” whether critics liked it or not.

Mr Dimon said the world needs banks so that people can get on with their everyday lives.

He was recently forced to take a 50 per cent cut in his pay – to £7.25 million – after JP Morgan lost billions in a debt gamble.

Mr Dimon claimed that governments couldn’t function without banks.

JP Morgan and nine others agreed earlier this month to cough up £5.4 billion to settle US charges that they had wrongfully foreclosed on struggling homeowners.

Former central banker and current UBS chairman Axel Weber acknowledged the “excesses” of the past but said it was pointless to debate breaking up banks.

“Where does the financial sector start or stop?” he asked. “It’s so intricately linked we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater … We all provide valuable social functions.”

UBS agreed in December to pay £950m to regulators for manipulating the Libor interbank lending rate.

The banking bosses were in Davos, Switzerland, at the annual invitation-only gathering of more than 2,500 corporate big shots.

The forum has been accused of clinging to a capitalist model that has sparked waves of financial meltdowns.

At the event in the posh Alpine resort, business elites party in luxury hotels to make deals and debate the world’s problems.

But many pin them with the ultimate responsibility.

Even IMF deputy managing director Min Zhu questioned the bankers’ assertion that the financial sector is doing fine.

“The financial sector is too big,” he said. “The products are too complicated. Transparency is not there.”

Related articles

• Updated: Big bankers at Davos defend selves against critics (macleans.ca)
• Leading world bankers on defensive in Davos (panarmenian.net)

Billionaires could end poverty

From Al Jazeera:

Oxfam says world’s rich could end poverty

UK-based charity says the world’s 100 richest people earned enough in 2012 to end global poverty four times over.

Last Modified: 20 Jan 2013 07:49

The world’s 100 richest people earned enough money last year to end world extreme poverty four times over, according to a new report released by international rights group and charity Oxfam.

The $240 billion net income of the world’s 100 richest billionaires would have ended poverty four times over, according to the London-based group’s report released on Saturday.

The group has called on world leaders to commit to reducing inequality to the levels it was at in 1990, and to curb income extremes on both sides of the spectrum.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with the holding of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

The group says that the world’s richest one percent have seen their income increase by 60 percent in the last 20 years, with the latest world financial crisis only serving to hasten, rather than hinder, the process.

“We sometimes talk about the ‘have-nots’ and the ‘haves’ – well, we’re talking about the ‘have-lots’. [...] We’re anti-poverty agency. We focus on poverty, we work with the poorest people around the world. You don’t normally hear us talking about wealth. But it’s gotten so out of control between rich and poor that one of the obstacles to solving extreme poverty is now extreme wealth,” Ben Phillips, a campaign director at Oxfam, told Al Jazeera.

‘Global new deal’

“We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true,” said Jeremy Hobbs, an executive director at Oxfam.

“Concentration of resources in the hands of the top one per cent depresses economic activity and makes life harder for everyone else – particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

“In a world where even basic resources such as land and water are increasingly scarce, we cannot afford to concentrate assets in the hands of a few and leave the many to struggle over what’s left.”

Hobbs said that “a global new deal” is required, encompassing a wide array of issues, from tax havens to employment laws, in order to address income inequality.

Closing tax havens, the group said, could yield an additional $189bn in additional tax revenues. According to Oxfam’s figures, as much as $32 trillion is currently stored in tax havens.

In a statement, Oxfam warned that “extreme wealth and income is not only unethical it is also economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.”

Related articles

• Billionaires’ fortunes hinder fight against poverty, says Oxfam (guardian.co.uk)
• Annual Income of 100 Richest People Enough to End Extreme Global Poverty Four Ties Over (consciouslifenews.com)
• Oxfam plea on global inequality (bbc.co.uk)
• Illinois’s 33%: One in Three Illinoisans Live in or Near Poverty According to Heartland Alliance (prweb.com)

Swiss dog-eating still legal

This video about Switzerland is called Eating Dogs (A Dogumentary).

Translated from VARA TV in the Netherlands:

“Swiss should not eat dogs”

Thursday, January 3, 2013 11.11

Animal welfare organizations in Switzerland ask for a ban on eating dogs. Politicians seem not yet inclined to legislate and want to leave it to each citizen himself whether or not to eat dogs.

Tradition

The Bild newspaper reported this on Wednesday. The tradition of eating dogs is alive in some rural areas of the Alpine country, such as the Rhine valley, Appenzell and central Switzerland. Often farmers eat ‘surplus’ dogs.

No ban

Eating dogs is not forbidden in Switzerland as long as it is for personal use and the animals are not killed in a cruel way. The dog meat trade is illegal.

Swiss chow down on delicacy made out of cats and dogs: here.

Farmers Eat Dogs, Cats In Switzerland: Report: here.

Farmers in Switzerland routinely EATING cats and dogs with their meals: here.

Related articles

• Dogs and cats ‘still eaten in Switzerland’ (thelocal.ch)
• The Swiss Cheese Misconception (helveticla.wordpress.com)

Triassic wildlife after mass extinction

This video is called Excavating Triassic Fossils in Antarctica.

From ANI news agency:

Ups and downs of biodiversity after mass extinction unveiled

Saturday 22nd December, 2012

Marine animal groups like ammonoids and conodonts already peaked three or four million years earlier, namely still during the Early Triassic, researchers say.

The climate after the largest mass extinction so far 252 million years ago was cool, later very warm and cool again. Thanks to the cooler temperatures, the diversity of marine fauna ballooned, as paleontologists from the University of Zurich have reconstructed.

The warmer climate, coupled with a high CO2 level in the atmosphere, initially gave rise to new, short-lived species. In the longer term, however, this climate change had an adverse effect on biodiversity and caused species to become extinct.

Until now, it was always assumed that it took flora and fauna a long time to recover from the vast mass extinction at the end of the Permian geological period 252 million years ago.

According to the scientific consensus, complex ecological communities only began to reappear in the Middle Triassic, so 247 million years ago.

However, a Swiss team headed by paleontologist Hugo Bucher from the University of Zurich chart the temperature curves, demonstrating that the climate and the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere fluctuated greatly during the Early Triassic and what impact this had on marine biodiversity and terrestrial plants.

For their climate reconstruction, Bucher and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the oxygen isotopes in conodonts, the remains of chordates that once lived in the sea. According to the study, the climate at the beginning of the Triassic 249 million years ago was cool.

This cooler phase was followed by a brief very warm climate phase. At the end of the Early Triassic, namely between 247.9 and 245.9 million years ago, cooler conditions had resumed.

The scientists then examined the impact of the climate on the development of flora and fauna.

“Biodiversity increased most in the cooler phases,” Bucher said.

“The subsequent extremely warm phase, however, led to great changes in the marine fauna and a major ecological shift in the flora,” he said.

Bucher and his team can reveal that this decline in biodiversity in the warm phases correlates with strong fluctuations in the carbon isotope composition of the atmosphere.

These, in turn, were directly related to carbon dioxide gases, which stemmed from volcanic eruptions in the Siberian Large Igneous Province.

Through the climatic changes, conodont and ammonoid faunae were initially able to recover very quickly during the Early Triassic as unusually short-lived species emerged. However, the removal of excess CO2 by primary producers such as algae and terrestrial plants had adverse effects in the long run: The removal of these vast amounts of organic matter used up the majority of the oxygen in the water. Due to the lack of oxygen in the oceans, many marine species died out.

“Our studies reveal that greater climatic changes can lead to both the emergence and extinction of species. Thus, it is important to consider both extinction rates and the rate at which new species emerged,” Bucher added.

The study has been published in Nature Geoscience.

More than 200 million years ago, a massive extinction decimated 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species, marking the end of the Triassic period and the onset of the Jurassic. The event cleared the way for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 135 million years, taking over ecological niches formerly occupied by other marine and terrestrial species: here.

Related articles

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• Life on Earth has been mostly obliterated at least five times (thestar.com)
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Galapagos islands exhibition in Switzerland

This video is called Galapagos: the finches (4/7).

From the Universität Zürich in Switzerland:

Tour the Galapagos Islands in Zurich

10.12.2012

Galapagos, the completely isolated volcanic islands in the Pacific, can be explored right here on your doorstep from December 11. The University of Zurich Zoological Museum has dedicated its new special exhibition to this small archipelago so important for evolutionary theory. Armed with a guide, visitors travel around the Galapagos Islands, where they learn about its unique flora and fauna.

Once a refuge for pirates and a supply station for whalers, today the Galapagos Islands are an eldorado for nature lovers and biologists. Probably the most famous biologist of them all, Charles Darwin, made observations in the Galapagos that would later convince him that species can develop through natural selection; a revolutionary insight.

Visitors to the special exhibition Galápagos travel from one island to the next via the exhibits, learning about Darwin’s little world within itself. They can explore the extraordinary animal and plant world and find out how biologists from the University of Zurich conduct research on the Galapagos Archipelago while pursuing nature conservation.

Endemites: witnesses to evolution

The Galapagos Islands are teeming with species that do not exist anywhere else, so-called endemites. The ancestors of these plants and animals came from the South-American mainland 1,000 kilometers across the sea. Only a few animals made it: some invertebrates, birds and reptiles, very few mammals and no amphibians. In their new home, they adapted to a different diet, climate and habitat. For instance, visitors to the exhibition learn about iguanas that feed on algae on the seabed, finches that peck at seabirds until they bleed or huge giant tortoises.

Tame but still stressed

All visitors are impressed by the how tame the animals on the Galapagos Islands are. Because there were no people, dogs, cats or other predatory mammals there for millions of years, the animals in the archipelago lost their flight instinct in the course of evolution, which had dire consequences for some species. Even though the animals do not run away from humans and land predators, they are still stressed, as is demonstrated to exhibition-goers with a frigate bird, whose heart beats faster and faster the closer they get to him.

Nature conservation and research

The plants and animals introduced and a population boom threaten the unique environment of the Galapagos Islands. Nature conservation and research are tackling this threat, such as by introducing conservation programs for the giant tortoises, rat control measures to protect the Galapagos albatross or resettling the endangered mockingbirds.

The latter is a project conducted by biologists from the University of Zurich. To protect the first UNESCO World Heritage natural site successfully, public interest, research and nature conservation are essential. Thats why and because the Galapagos Islands are so important in the history of the natural sciences we are devoting an exhibition to them, explains Head of the Zoological Museum Marianne Haffner.

Only through a broad understanding of the singularity of the Galapagos Islands will the archipelago survive for generations to come, adds Curator Lukas Keller. The idea is thus to show special exhibition at other museums and stimulate enthusiasm for the extraordinary world of the Galapagos.

Special exhibition Galápagos

Opening times:
December 11, 2012 until September 8, 2013, Tuesday to Friday: 9 am 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday: 10 am 5 pm, closed Monday.

Opening times over the Christmas period:
Dec. 24 and 25: closed
Dec. 26: 10 am 5 pm
Dec 27 and 28: 9 am 5 pm
Dec. 29 and 30: 10 am 5 pm
Dec. 31 and Jan. 1: closed

Family workshop (free) every Sunday from 2 4 pm: Galápagos einfach Reise zu den verwunschenen Inseln with an exciting tour of the special exhibition and twelve research tasks for the whole family.

Group tours on request: zminfo@zm.uzh.ch

Guide to the special exhibition: CHF 15 in the museum shop

Entrance is free.

Zoologisches Museum der Universität Zürich
Karl Schmid-Strasse 4
8006 Zürich
Switzerland
Tel. +41 44 634 38 38
zminfo@zm.uzh.ch
facebook.com/uzh.zm

Galapagos conservationists use poison to fight invading rats: here.

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Fungi make violin sound like a Stradivarius

This video is called Yehudi Menuhin plays rare Stradivarius violin.

From the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres:

Treatment with fungi makes a modern violin sound like a Stradiavarius

A good violin depends not only on the expertise of the violin maker, but also on the quality of the wood that is used. The Swiss wood researcher Professor Francis W. M. R. Schwarze (Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St. Gallen, Switzerland) has succeeded in modifying the wood for a violin through treatment with special fungi. This treatment alters the acoustic properties of the instrument, making it sound indistinguishably similar to a Stradivarius. In his dinner talk at the 1st ECRC “Franz-Volhard” Symposium of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin on September 7, 2012 in Berlin-Buch, Schwarze reported on his research and gave a preview of what his wood treatment method could mean, particularly for young violinists.

Low density, high speed of sound and a high modulus of elasticity – these qualities are essential for ideal violin tone wood. In the late 17th and early 18th century the famous violin maker Antonio Stradivari used a special wood that had grown in the cold period between 1645 and 1715. In the long winters and the cool summers, the wood grew especially slowly and evenly, creating low density and a high modulus of elasticity. Until now, modern violin makers could only dream of wood with such tonal qualities.

Professor Schwarze’s developments could soon make similarly good wood available for violin making. He discovered two species of fungi (Physisporinus vitreus and Xylaria longipes), which decay Norway spruce and sycamore – the two important kinds of wood used for violin making – to such an extent that their tonal quality is improved. “Normally fungi reduce the density of the wood, but at the same time they unfortunately reduce the speed with which the sound waves travel through the wood,” the researcher explained. “The unique feature of these fungi is that they gradually degrade the cell walls, thus inducing a thinning of the walls. But even in the late stages of the wood decomposition, a stiff scaffold structure remains via which the sound waves can still travel directly.” Even the modulus of elasticity is not compromised; the wood remains just as resistant to strain as before the fungal treatment – an important criterion for violin making. Before the wood is further processed to a violin, it is treated with ethylene oxide gas. “No fungus can survive that,” Professor Schwarze said. That ensures that fungal growth in the wood of the violin is completely stopped.

See also here.

This video is on fungi, including Xylaria longipes.

Tour de France cycling and Swiss dinosaurs

This video says about itself:

Thousands of dinosaur footprints have been discovered in the Swiss Jura region, making it one of the world’s biggest track sites. The discoveries — and the great interest in the area – have prompted the authorities to consider turning the site into a tourist and archaeological attraction.

Today, a stage of Tour de France cycling race finished in Porrentruy in the Swiss Jura mountains. The stage was won by Thibaut Pinot from France.

The cyclists, just before the finish, passed a big dinosaur statue in a roundabout. The Tour de France TV helicopter also showed a dinosaur image, carved into the earth. This is because of the dinosaur discoveries of Porrentruy town.