“Drunk” Parrots Fall From the Trees in Australia | Discoblog

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726px-Rainbow_Lorikeet_(TriThe town of Palmerston, Australia is now the unwilling host of a parrot frat party. Hundreds of lorikeets appear to be drunk: The disoriented birds are passing out cold and falling from tree branches.

Though seemingly inebriated parrots have been spotted before in Palmerston, never has the town seen this many at once. The situation concerns veterinarians, since the birds are injuring themselves, and, untreated, could die.

About eight lorikeets arrive each day to the Ark Animal Hospital, which cares for about thirty at a time. “They definitely seem like they’re drunk,” Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the hospital told the the AFP. “They fall out of trees… and they’re not so coordinated as they would normally be. They go to jump and they miss the next perch.” Hansen and colleagues nurses them to health by feeding them a “hangover” broth that includes sweet fruit.

Literally drunk parrots have appeared in other parts of the world, for example in Austria in 2006, when birds ate rotting, fermenting berries. This time the inebriated birds remain a mystery: Some locals speculate that the birds are feasting on something something alcoholic, but others fear they have caught an unknown illness.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons / Mats Lindh


Contrary to Expectations, Rising Seas Aren’t Swallowing Pacific Islands | 80beats

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TuvaluThe tiny islands of the Pacific Ocean appear to be the very the picture of climate change vulnerability—some rise such a short distance above current sea level that it seems like any rise would swallow them up. The Earth’s climate system, though, is a great deal more complex than the simplistic rhetoric that fills the political echo chamber. That’s demonstrated again in a new study that argues some the Pacific’s low-lying islands are actually increasing slightly in land area rather than decreasing. It’s good news, yes—but not without caveats.

First, the specifics. Arthur Webb and Paul Kench published their work, based on decades of aerial and satellite photos, in the journal Global and Planetary Change. During the years spanned by those images, the sea level in the area has been rising by about 2 millimeters per year. Nevertheless, they say that 23 of the 27 Pacific islands they studies either held firm in land area or saw a slight increase. How could this be?

Unlike the sandbars of the eastern US coast, low-lying Pacific islands are made of coral debris. This is eroded from the reefs that typically circle the islands and pushed up onto the islands by winds, waves and currents. Because the corals are alive, they provide a continuous supply of material. “Atolls are composed of once-living material,” says Webb, “so you have a continual growth.” Causeways and other structures linking islands can boost growth by trapping sediment that would otherwise get lost to the ocean [New Scientist].

For the people of places like Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Federated States of Micronesia, who fear the rising seas will swallow up their homes, the idea that these islands might have some kind of resistance to sea level rise is certainly a reprieve. Says Kench:

“We have now got the evidence to suggest that the physical foundation of these countries will still be there in 100 years, so they perhaps do not need to flee their country” [BBC News].

But even if Webb and Kench are right, it wouldn’t put the islands out danger in the longer term. As Kench notes, just having an island isn’t enough:

“An important question is — if islands still exist, will they still be able to carry human communities?” [AFP].

This study measures only total land area. It doesn’t consider the nature of that land, nor the effects of a shape-shifting island on the people who actually live there.

Even on islands where the total land mass is stable or grows, one area may be eroded while another is being added to. It’s not possible to simply move people living in highly urbanised areas to new land, says Naomi Biribo of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia [New Scientist].

Furthermore, it’s not known whether that influx of coral sediment that recharges the islands with material could keep up if sea level rise accelerated past its current pace. And the coral reefs themselves that supply this material aren’t in the best of shape, either—marine scientists worry that they won’t be able to cope with the increasing acidification of the ocean, which is another effect of rising carbon dioxide levels.

Related Content:
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Not Exactly Rocket Science: Bacteria and Languages Reveal How People Spread Through the Pacific

Image: Wikimedia Commons


Cultured mongooses pass on traditions | Not Exactly Rocket Science

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Banded_mongooseAll over the world, people greet, talk, eat, dance and celebrate according to their own cultural practices. We’re not the only species with such traditions. Chimpanzees have rich cultural traditions that determine how they forage for food, communicate, groom each other and wield tools. Other species with their own local customs, including orang utans, monkeys, dolphins and killer whales, are all united by their vaunted intelligence. But another mammal with a comparatively smaller brain has just joined this cultural club – the banded mongoose.

Corsin Muller from the University of Exeter gave wild mongooses a plastic shell containing some food (like a reverse Kinder egg). He found that adults preferred to break into the shells using one of two possible tactics, and that they passed on these traditions to their pups.

The results earn some kudos for the humble mongoose, but they’re important because our evidence for animal traditions has always come from studies that compared the practices of wild populations, or that ran carefully controlled experiments in captive groups. This is the first time that anyone has used experiments to show that wild mammals pass on traditions by imitating one another.

Banded mongooses live in large groups of up to 40 individuals, who cooperate to find food and raise their young. Muller worked with five such groups in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. Banded mongooses eat an eclectic menu of insects, centipedes, small reptiles, eggs and even mice. Many of their snacks come in a hard shell that needs to be cracked and mongooses do so either by biting them or smashing them against a stone or tree trunk.

Individuals have clear preferences about these two techniques. When Muller gave the adults his plastic shell, containing a mix of rice and fish, he found that some were exclusive biters, others only smashed and yet others used a combination. Critically, they were stuck in their ways. When Muller tested them three months later, they each showed the same preferences.

He also found these adults transferred their preferences to the pups who watched them. Banded mongoose pups form exclusive one-to-one associations with specific adults who act as their mentors. These adults are usually young males, who aren’t necessarily related to the pup, and the youngster will aggressively monopolise the attentions of these chaperones.

Around 2-4 months after the adults infiltrated their Kinder surprises, Muller gave their attendant pups (now independent) their own eggs to break into. Even though none of them had seen the toy eggs in the intervening time, they showed a significant preference for the technique that their mentors had used. Those who saw an adult bite the toys open did the same themselves; those whose mentors liked to smash copied that strategy instead; and those whose mentors had ignored their toy eggs were themselves uninterested. These preferences even persisted as the pups grew into adults.

Muller’s study expands on experiments with other captive species in a number of ways. In finding the same trend in all five groups of mongooses, he added some valuable replication to his study, which is often missing from experiments that focus on one group of captive animals. Muller showed that multiple traditions can coexist within a single population. And he showed that animals don’t need big brains to pass on traditions across the generations. It may be that such traditions are more commonplace than previously thought.

Reference: Current Biology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.04.037

Photo by Reini68; video by Corsin Muller

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“See You in 520 Days!” Pretend-Astronauts Begin Simulated Trip to Mars | 80beats

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hatchAll aboard for fake Mars!

Earlier today, a six-man crew battened down the hatches on an 1,800-square-foot module for 520 days of isolation as they pretend to go to Mars and back again. The Mars-500 project, run by the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) and funded in part by the European Space Agency, hopes to test the psychological mettle required for such a journey.

“See you in 520 days!” shouted Russia’s Sukhrob Kamolov as he was sealed inside the simulator at around 1000 GMT. [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]

The trip will have three stages, including the trip to and from Mars and a simulated landing and planet exploration.

Psychologists said the simulation can be even more demanding that a real flight because the crew won’t experience any of the euphoria or dangers of actual space travel. They have also warned that months of space travel would push the team to the limits of endurance as they grow increasingly tired of each other. [AP]

Using a variety of unforeseen (for the crew at least) simulated disasters, the project managers hope to keep the men on their feet.

Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist with the satellite manufacturer EADS Astrium and a strong advocate of a manned mission to Mars, believes that the experiment will be extremely valuable–but expects that the main difference between a real and simulated voyage will be the difficulty for the crew in maintaining motivation. “I think the main challenge for them will be trying to maintain motivation for a long period of time,” she says. “It’s far less likely this would be a problem if you really were going to Mars. But the danger is that because you know you’re really in a hangar in Moscow, you start thinking: ‘I can’t be bothered’.” [BBC]

During their voyage, the team of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese will eat canned food similar to that on the International Space Station, have limited communication with the outside world, shower once every ten days, and play video games. One crew member brought a guitar to entertain the others. Why they didn’t recruit college freshmen, we don’t know.

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Image: ESA


Bonobo Cannibalism? | The Intersection

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This is a guest post from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo. Here is the latest from Martin Subeck - who I met a few years ago at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Congo. The first thing about Martin is he's an excellent scientist working with Gottfried Hohmann, who is one of the best. The second thing is, that like Max the bonobo, Martin is really really ridiculously goodlooking. Anyway, I digress. Martin saw something totally cool - bonobos cannibalizing an infant - cool because it's the first time something like this happened. So I was blogging about it on my other blog, bonobo handshake, and I got messages like:
Dave H. said...
Why do you "wonder if the infant was killed by a high ranking male"? In chimpanzees it has always been the adult females that killed and ate their groupmates' offspring. The male chimps have only been seen killing juveniles from other groups. And it would make no sense for a high ranking male to kill what may very well have been his offspring. Anyway, from the New ...


Failing Queen Visit 101

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Keith's note: On 7 May 2007 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited NASA GSFC. Apparently NASA Administrator Michael Griffin did not understand the protocol that goes with attending a reigning monarch in a public event. Note his awkward posture and the way that the security guys made him stand back when he got too close to the Queen.

And to all of you who wonder why I posted this video: Mike Griffin purposefully and deliberately continues to insert himself into undermining the Obama Administrations' space policy. The same awkward approach apparent in this video is evident in his current efforts to torpedo what NASA is trying to do. In so doing he makes himself totally relevant to the things that NASA Watch covers.

Sean O'Keefe, Dan Goldin, Dick Truly etc. do not do this. Hence you do not see them featured on NASA Watch. Alas, Mike Griffin just can't fight the urge to fiddle with things and continues to be a factor. As such, he's on NASA Watch's radar. That's how it works folks.

SpaceX Preps for Falcon 9 Launch

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SpaceX boss: 70-80 % chance of success for Falcon 9 launch, Orlando Sentinel

"Musk conceded that, historically, maiden launches of rockets have had no better than a 50 percent success rate. Their first three launches of a smaller SpaceX rocket, the Falcon 1, failed."

SpaceX cargo rocket set for high-profile maiden flight, CNet

"But in a major change, SpaceX has proposed launching the COTS-2 spacecraft on an actual resupply mission to the space station. The company originally planned to make the first rendezvous on the third COTS mission but Musk said it made more sense to move ahead with an actual rendezvous and to use the third flight as an operational backup."

SpaceX Targets Falcon 9 Launch for Friday, KSC Daily News Employee Update

"SpaceX is preparing the Falcon 9 rocket for its first test launch attempt Friday morning from Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will carry a mock-up of a Dragon spacecraft. There will not be a crew aboard the rocket. The four-hour launch window opens at 11 a.m., and the weather forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions. If the weather cooperates, SpaceX will provide a live webcast of the launch events, scheduled to begin 20 minutes prior to the opening of the launch window. If weather or other difficulties do not allow a Friday launch attempt, SpaceX can launch Saturday during the same window."

Keith's note: I find it interesting (and somewhat amusing) how KSC PAO felt that it was necessary to tell employees that "there will not be a crew aboard the rocket". Gee, wouldn't you think that everyone at KSC (and the rest of the space community) would have known by now if there was going to be a crew aboard - especially since flying crew would mean that the "gap" had just disappeared?

SpaceX Hosts Teleconference to Discuss First Test Launch of Falcon 9

"SpaceX will host a teleconference call at 11:15am EDT on Thursday, June 3, to discuss and take questions on the first test launch of the Falcon 9. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 will be a test flight and will launch a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit into orbit to provide SpaceX with valuable aerodynamic and performance information. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle is expected to launch from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 4, 2010. A live webcast of the launch will be available on the SpaceX website at http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php."

NASA and Commerce Dept. Town Hall Meeting

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NASA And Commerce Present Update On Space Industry Task Force

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke will present an update about the Presidential Task Force on Space Industry Work Force and Economic Development at 10 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 4. The event will be held in the ballroom of the Orlando Airport Hyatt Hotel, Intercontinental Ballroom, Section 5, 9300 Airport Blvd., Orlando, Fla. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and also available on line."

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden To Hold Town Hall Meeting on Space Coast Economy

"The Task Force, co-chaired by Locke and Bolden, is leading the initiative to coordinate and implement a plan to grow the region's economy and prepare its workers for the opportunities of tomorrow. The interagency effort will build on and complement ongoing local and federal economic and workforce development efforts."

Integrating Radar Image Data With Google Maps

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A public Web site has been developed as a method for displaying the multitude of radar imagery collected by NASA’s Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIR-SAR) instrument during its 16-year mission. Utilizing NASA’s internal AIRSAR site, the new Web site features more sophisticated visualization tools that enable the general public to have access to these images.

Falcon 9 is ready for launch

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Falcon 9

Falcon 9 on the pad at Cape Canaveral for a static test firing earlier this year.

If all goes as planned, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will lift off Friday from Cape Canaveral on a mission to demonstrate the capabilities of the new launch vehicle. However, the problem with new launch vehicles is that things often don’t go as planned, a concern not just for SpaceX but for the broader commercial spaceflight industry at a key time for it.

SpaceX CEO and CTO Elon Musk was well aware of the difficulties of launching new rockets, something he and SpaceX have already gone through with the smaller Falcon 1, which failed to reach orbit on its first three launches. “Historically, I think it might be something like a 50/50 shot of the first flight succeeeding,” he said in a teleconference with reporters Thursday, referring to the historical record of first launches of new rockets.

He does feel a little more optimistic about the chances of success with Falcon 9, citing the company’s experience and heritage of some Falcon 9 components on the Falcon 1. “My personal assessment of the likelihood of success is probably 70-80 percent,” he said. He did have a colorful way of putting that into perspective. “I should point out that this is less than the probability of success in Russian roulette,” he noted. (Assuming success in Russian roulette is defined as not getting a bullet, you have a 5 out of 6, or 83%, chance of getting an empty chamber.) “So if anybody remembers that scene from The Deer Hunter, that’s tomorrow.”

Well, that’s one way to look at it. It’s also worth noting that success is not a binary condition for this test flight: there’s a spectrum of outcomes between complete success and complete failure. “One hundred percent success would be reaching orbit” with the model of the Dragon spacecraft the rocket is carrying, Musk said. “But I think that, given that this is a test flight, whatever percentage of getting to orbit we achieve would still be considered a good day.” He added it would be a “great day” if both stages work correctly.

SpaceX is finally ready to launch the Falcon 9, having overcome the last obstacle to launch, the certification by the Air Force of a flight termination system that would be used if the rocket veers off course and has to be destroyed. Getting that approved took much longer than SpaceX anticipated. “There were I think some elements of it we underestimated, some elements that our suppliers underestimated,” he said.

If this launch was just about SpaceX it would be one thing: the company has been through the process of developing and testing a launch vehicle before, and from their accounts seem prepared for a failure, either partial or total. However, the launch also comes at a time when commercial spaceflight has been thrust into the political spotlight by plans by the Obama Administration to have NASA rely more on commercial launch providers, including a $6-billion initiative to develop commercial crew capabilities. That has put a lot of scrutiny on this launch from those skeptical of, or outright opposed to, the president’s plans.

“I feel like sort of a political punching bag, a whipping boy, I suppose,” Musk said. “The opponents of the commercial approach have taken a very calculated strategy of attacking SpaceX” while ignoring alternative vehicles, like United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, that have already demonstrated the ability to safely launch spacecraft on more than 30 missions since 2002.

The Falcon 9 launch, he continued, “should not be a verdict on commercial space. Commercial space is the only way forward” because of the unsustainably high costs of government programs. He later said that “if some company like SpaceX doesn’t succeed, then the future of space is not a bright one.”

SpaceX will be webcasting the launch starting at 10:40 am EDT (1440 GMT) Friday, 20 minutes before the four-hour launch window opens. They also have the same time block reserved on Saturday should the get scrubbed Friday by technical issues or the weather. In addition, Spaceflight Now will have its own webcast featuring Miles O’Brien, David Waters, and former astronaut Leroy Chiao starting at 10 am EDT.

NASA Images Show Oil’s Invasion Along Louisiana Coast

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Oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands
Multiple cameras on JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft were used to create two unique views of oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands.
› Full image and caption
These images, acquired on May 24, 2010 by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft, show the encroachment of oil from the former Deepwater Horizon rig into Louisiana's wildlife habitats. The source of the spill is located off the southeastern (bottom right) edge of the images.

Dark filaments of oil are seen approaching the shores of Blind Bay and Redfish Bay at the eastern edge of the Mississippi River delta, and also nearing Garden Island Bay and East Bay farther to the south. These areas are home to many varieties of fish. To the north, the arc-shaped pattern of land and runoff is associated with the Chandeleur Islands, which are part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge is the second oldest in the United States and is a habitat for dozens of seabird, shorebird and waterfowl species. Oil is reported to have reached the islands on May 6. Eighteen days later, this image shows filaments of oil crossing the island barrier -- which had been heavily eroded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- and entering the Breton and Chandeleur Sounds.

The left-hand image contains data from MISR's vertical-viewing camera. It is shown in near-true color, except that data from the instrument's near-infrared band, where vegetation appears bright, have been blended with the instrument's green band to enhance the appearance of vegetation.

The Mississippi River delta is located below the image center. The slick is seen approaching the delta from the lower right, and filaments of oil are also apparent farther to the north (towards the top). The oil is made visible by sun reflecting off the sea surface at the same angle from which the instrument is viewing it, a phenomenon known as sunglint. Oil makes the surface look brighter under these viewing conditions than it would if no oil were present. However, other factors can also cause enhanced glint, such as reduced surface wind speed. To separate glint patterns due to oil from these other factors, additional information from MISR's cameras is used in the right-hand image.

Previous MISR imagery of the spill shows that the contrast of the oil against the surroundings is enhanced by using a combination of vertical views and oblique-angle views. The right-hand panel was constructed by combining data from several MISR channels. In this false-color view, oil appears in shades of inky blue to black; silt-laden water due to runoff from the Mississippi River shows up as orange, red and violet; and land and clouds appear in shades of cyan.

The images cover an area measuring 110 by 119 kilometers (68 by 74 miles).

Read more at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=pia13174

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Legend lost: Former UCLA coach John Wooden, 99, dies – USA Today

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CBC.ca
Legend lost: Former UCLA coach John Wooden, 99, dies
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SpaceX did it

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Falcon 9 launch

The Falcon 9 lifts off at 2:45 pm EDT Friday from Cape Canaveral, as seen in this screen capture from the SpaceX webcast.

If you had polled the attitudes of the people watching the launch of the first Falcon 9 on Friday, the most common feeling leading up to liftoff might be something like “hoping for the best but expecting the worst”. People wanted SpaceX to succeed with the Falcon 9 on Friday, but know that first launches of new rockets had no guarantee of success—something that Elon Musk and SpaceX impressed upon the community leading up to the launch.

So when the Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:45 pm EDT today and soared into the skies, eventually placing a demonstration Dragon capsule into nearly the planned orbit, the reaction was something approaching euphoria, even by Musk himself. “It’s been one of the best days of my life,” he said in a teleconference with reporters a couple of hours after the launch. “It’s certainly been one of the greatest days for the people of SpaceX.”

The launch had some drama, as well. The launch window opened at 11 am, but because of problems with an antenna for the rocket’s newly-approved flight termination system, they weren’t ready to launch until 1:30 pm. In the final seconds of the countdown, though, just as the nine rocket engines were about to ignite, the launch was aborted.

Musk said the abort was caused by a reading from an igniter on engine number three on the first stage. “The pressure rise on engine three was higher than expected,” he said, triggering the abort. “We looked at the data and concluded that… we were being a little too conservative” in the allowable values for the pressure in the engine. “So we widened that band [of allowable values], reconfigured the engine three computer, and it lifted off without a problem.”

About the only discernable problem during the launch was a roll in the second stage that appeared to speed up as the burn continued. “There was a little more roll than expected. It didn’t affect the mission,” Musk said. “That is definitely something that we want to refine,” he said, adding they didn’t immediately know the reasons for the roll.

So how did the launch feel, Elon? “When the rocket achieved orbit, there was tremendous relief and elation at SpaceX,” he said. “Upon liftoff there was sort of relief that it cleared the pad; things were obviously extremely tense here.” And his plans to celebrate? “I think with a lot of margaritas.”

After consuming those drinks, Musk and his team plans to spend about a month reviewing the data from the launch to fully characterize it and look for any issues (in addition to the second stage roll) that need to be corrected. Musk said he still planned to launch the next Falcon 9 mission, the first of three planned NASA COTS missions, later this summer. The Falcon 9 for that mission has already been built and is sitting in Texas ready to ship to the Cape; the Dragon spacecraft that it will launch is undergoing final reviews.