Scientists eye unusual swarm of Yellowstone quakes

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come. Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."

Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.

"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.

"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."

The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.

A park ranger based at the north end of the lake reported feeling nine quakes over a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to park spokeswoman Stacy Vallie. No damage was reported.

"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," Vallie said.

Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.

He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active — and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.

"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.

Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.

MP3 player saves skiers lost on Alps

From Telegraph.co.uk

The 22-year-old men, one a skier and the other a snowboarder, were suffering from mild hypothermia as they endured overnight temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius.

Both had set off from the resort of Savognin, in south east Switzerland, on Friday, but could not find their way back.

They were able to alert the authorities using a mobile phone, but it when it ran out of battery power all they had left was an MP3 player, which the snowboarder had been using to listen to music.

Airborne rescuers were eventually able to reach the pair high on a wooded slope after being guided by the light of the digital music player.

Gery Baumann, spokesman for mountain rescue service Rega, said: "The two winter sports enthusiasts were found by the crew of the Rega helicopter shortly after midnight – thanks to the faint light of their MP3 player.

"Apart from mild hypothermia, they were safe and well."

The rescued pair, who have not been named, were both French.

Scientists discover new forest with undiscovered species on Google Earth

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent


The pygmy chameleon: Conservationists have found a host of new species after discovering uncharted new territory on the internet map Google Earth.
The pygmy chameleon Photo: Julian Bayliss/RBG Kew
Driving up to Mount Mabu in the distance: Scientists discover new forest on Google Earth
Mount Mabu itself is under threat as Mozambique's economy grows and people use the wood for fuel Photo: Julian Bayliss/RBG Kew

The mountainous area of northern Mozambique in southern Africa had been overlooked by science due to inhospitable terrain and decades of civil war in the country.

However, while scrolling around on Google Earth, an internet map that allows the viewer to look at satellite images of anywhere on the globe, scientists discovered an unexpected patch of green.

A British-led expedition was sent to see what was on the ground and found 7,000 hectares of forest, rich in biodiversity, known as Mount Mabu.

In just three weeks, scientists led by a team from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew found hundreds of different plant species, birds, butterflies, monkeys and a new species of giant snake.

The samples which the team took are now back in Britain for analysis.

So far three new butterflies and one new species of snake have been discovered but it is believed there are at least two more new species of plants and perhaps more new insects to discover.

Julian Bayliss, a scientist for Kew based in the region, discovered Mount Mabu while searching on Google Earth for a possible conservation project. He was looking at areas of land 5,400ft (1,600m) above sea level where more rainfall means there is likely to be forest.

To his surprise he found the patches of green that denote wooded areas, in places that had not previously been explored. After taking a closer look on more detailed satellite maps, he went to have a look.

An expedition was organised for this autumn with 28 scientists from the UK, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Switzerland. The group was able to stay at an abandoned tea estate but had to hack through difficult terrain and use 70 porters in order to carry out their investigations.

Within weeks they had discovered three new species of Lepidoptera butterfly and a new member of the Gaboon viper family of snakes that can kill a human in a single bite. There were also blue duiker antelope, samango monkeys, elephant shrews, almost 200 different types of butterflies and thousands of tropical plants.

Jonathan Timberlake, expedition leader, said digital imagery has helped scientists to discover more about the world. He believes there may be other small pockets of biodiversity around the world that are yet to be discovered that could be stumbled upon by searching on Google Earth, especially in areas like Mozambique or Papua New Guinea which have not been fully explored yet.

Mr Timberlake said discovering new species is not only important to science but helps to highlight conservation efforts in parts of the world threatened by logging and development.

Mount Mabu itself is under threat as Mozambique's economy grows and people use the wood for fuel or clear the land to grow crops.

"We cannot say we have discovered all the biodiversity areas in the world, there are still ones to discover and it helps to find new species to make people realise what is out there," he said.

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

"We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.

"We manage our capital in its aggregate," said Regions Financial Corp. spokesman Tim Deighton, who said the Birmingham, Ala.-based company is not tracking how it is spending the $3.5 billion it received as part of the financial bailout.

The answers highlight the secrecy surrounding the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which earmarked $700 billion — about the size of the Netherlands' economy — to help rescue the financial industry. The Treasury Department has been using the money to buy stock in U.S. banks, hoping that the sudden inflow of cash will get banks to start lending money.

There has been no accounting of how banks spend that money. Lawmakers summoned bank executives to Capitol Hill last month and implored them to lend the money — not to hoard it or spend it on corporate bonuses, junkets or to buy other banks. But there is no process in place to make sure that's happening and there are no consequences for banks who don't comply.

"It is entirely appropriate for the American people to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent in private industry," said Elizabeth Warren, the top congressional watchdog overseeing the financial bailout.

But, at least for now, there's no way for taxpayers to find that out.

Pressured by the Bush administration to approve the money quickly, Congress attached nearly no strings on the $700 billion bailout in October. And the Treasury Department, which doles out the money, never asked banks how it would be spent.

"Those are legitimate questions that should have been asked on Day One," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., a House Financial Services Committee member who opposed the bailout as it was rushed through Congress. "Where is the money going to go to? How is it going to be spent? When are we going to get a record on it?"

Nearly every bank AP questioned — including Citibank and Bank of America, two of the largest recipients of bailout money — responded with generic public relations statements explaining that the money was being used to strengthen balance sheets and continue making loans to ease the credit crisis.

A few banks described company-specific programs, such as JPMorgan Chase's plan to lend $5 billion to nonprofit and health care companies next year. Richard Becker, senior vice president of Wisconsin-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp., said the $1.75 billion in bailout money allowed the bank to temporarily stop foreclosing on homes.

But no bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money.

"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.

Others said the money couldn't be tracked. Bob Denham, a spokesman for North Carolina-based BB&T Corp., said the bailout money "doesn't have its own bucket." But he said taxpayer money wasn't used in the bank's recent purchase of a Florida insurance company. Asked how he could be sure, since the money wasn't being tracked, Denham said the bank would have made that deal regardless.

Others, such as Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Carissa Ramirez, offered to discuss the matter with reporters on condition of anonymity. When AP refused, Ramirez sent an e-mail saying: "We are going to decline to comment on your story."

Most banks wouldn't say why they were keeping the details secret.

"We're not sharing any other details. We're just not at this time," said Wendy Walker, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Comerica Inc., which received $2.25 billion from the government.

Heine, the New York Mellon Corp. spokesman who said he wouldn't share spending specifics, added: "I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those details."

The banks which came closest to answering the questions were those, such as U.S. Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Inc., that only recently received the money and have yet to spend it. But neither provided anything more than a generic summary of how the money would be spent.

Lawmakers say they want to tighten restrictions on the remaining, yet-to-be-released $350 billion block of bailout money before more cash is handed out. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the department is trying to step up its monitoring of bank spending.

"What we've been doing here is moving, I think, with lightning speed to put necessary programs in place, to develop them, implement them, and then we need to monitor them while we're doing this," Paulson said at a recent forum in New York. "So we're building this organization as we're going."

Warren, the congressional watchdog appointed by Democrats, said her oversight panel will try to force the banks to say where they've spent the money.

"It would take a lot of nerve not to give answers," she said.

But Warren said she's surprised she even has to ask.

"If the appropriate restrictions were put on the money to begin with, if the appropriate transparency was in place, then we wouldn't be in a position where you're trying to call every recipient and get the basic information that should already be in public documents," she said.

Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.

"A year or two ago, when we talked about spending $100 million for a bridge to nowhere, that was considered a scandal," he said.

Sun Induces Strange 'Breathing' of Earth's Atmosphere

From Wired.com

SAN FRANCISCO, California — New satellite observations have revealed a previously unknown rhythmic expansion and contraction of Earth's atmosphere on a nine-day cycle.

This "breathing" corresponds to changes in the sun's magnetic fields as it completes rotations once every 27 days, NASA and University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists said Monday at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting.

The sun's coronal holes, seen as dark regions in the image above, direct plasma away from the sun and out into the solar system. When these particles get to the Earth, they heat the upper atmosphere, causing the outer atmosphere to expand and contract.

"What's going on in the solar side is indeed mysterious and challenges the solar physics understanding," said Stan Solomon, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who was not involved in the research.

The finding emphasizes the many ways that solar activity impacts the Earth — and its increasingly space-utilizing humans.

"From the Earth's perspective, we're in the sun's outer atmosphere," said Jeffrey Thayer, an aerospace engineer at UC-Boulder.

The new discovery could help scientists and engineers design better satellites that account for the changing conditions in the ionosphere. Eventually, it might be possible to predict the severity of ionospheric storms and protect the world's communication infrastructure.

The scientists used changes in the density of the Earth's atmosphere to pinpoint this previously unknown pattern. As the atmosphere contracts or expands, it also gets more or less dense, respectively. In response to the "hills and valleys of density," satellites subtly speed up or slow down, recording those motions with on-board accelerometers. And that's the data that allowed the scientists to back into the discovery of this new atmospheric cycle.

Solomon said that while the cycle on Earth is interesting, the really strange aspect of this work is what it says about our local star.

"What's going on in the sun that's causing all this?" Solomon said. "It's not entirely clear. That part of it is quite mysterious."

See Also:

• High-Resolution Image of the Sun's Jets
• And the Sun Isn't Causing Global Warming Either
• Get Your Own Three-Dimensional Sun!
• Sun's Plasma Bursts Use Earth as "Magnetic Slingshot"
• Astronomers Find Rare Twin of Sun
• Planet Survives Its Sun's Explosion. But Don't Get Any Ideas ...

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and project site, Inventing Green: the lost history of American clean tech; Wired Science on Facebook.

Image: Credit, NASA, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Bush attacked by shoe

Crazy Animation

Watch Death Art Animation in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Water found in hot planet's orbit

By Julian Siddle
Science Reporter, BBC News

The atmosphere of the fiery planet was analysed by measuring heat radiation

Scientists say they have found evidence for water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet 63 light-years from Earth.

The "hot Jupiter" planet's surface temperatures exceed 900C.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists say their discovery may help find planets that can support life.

In a separate study, the US space agency (Nasa) says it has found carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the same planet.

Molten core

The planet known as HD 189733b is classed as a hot Jupiter due to its fiery molten centre and heavily gaseous atmosphere, which mimics the atmosphere of Jupiter, the gas giant in our own solar system.

The generation of heat by the planet's core provides the key to why scientists have been able to identify water vapour in its atmosphere.

Gases in the planet's atmosphere modify the wavelengths of heat radiation coming from the planet's hot surface. These wavelengths can be detected by space telescopes such as Hubble or the Sun-orbiting Spitzer telescope used in this study.

The type of gas present in the planet's atmosphere can be determined by looking at the spread of infrared radiation reaching the telescope, each gas producing a different wavelength.

Dr Drake Deming from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, US, has looked for signs of water on similar gas giants in the past. He says water vapour in the atmosphere leaves an unmistakeable signal.

"It produces a unique fingerprint, water vapour modulates the shape of the radiation in a very characteristic way," he said.

As the planet is so far away it is hard to determine how much of the radiation detected by the telescope comes from this gas giant and how much from the star it orbits.

The scientists solved this problem by studying its orbit.

"There is a time when we know the planet is not visible, so we know the light comes only from the star," says Dr Carl Grillmair from the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, who led the research.

They found HD 1897733b goes round its star every 2.2 days, by taking measurements over several orbiting cycles and deducting the radiation produced during the time when they couldn't see the planet - when it was behind its star - they were able to see how much radiation the planet emitted on its own.

"The key to these measurements is the eclipse geometry, we have a unique moment in which to observe the star in isolation," said Dr Deming.

Carbon Dioxide

The scientists were puzzled by earlier observations of HD 189733b and similar gas giants. They expected to see water vapour, but the telescopes did not detect any.

"We concluded there was no water a couple of years ago, the theoreticians were upset, they'd predicted it would be there. We didn't understand it. We looked much harder we watched it for over 120 hours, and sure enough there was the signature matching brilliantly with the models," said Dr Grillmair.

He suggests the planet's proximity to the star means its atmosphere is constantly changing.

"With planets this close to their star, the star covers perhaps half the planet, you're going to get enormous heat loads that create storms, perhaps clouds one year and none the next - this thing is changing right before our eyes" said Dr Grillmair.

The scientists suggest high clouds created by the storms may have hidden the water vapour in the earlier observations, they are confident that the latest findings are correct.

"What's new about this is it's unequivocal," says Dr Deming.

In a separate development, Nasa says the Hubble space telescope has detected carbon dioxide in HD189733's atmosphere.

Although the agency is keen to stress the planet is far too hot to support life, it says the finding represents an important proof of concept, showing that it is possible to detect CO2 in the atmospheres of distant planets orbiting other stars, and that the same method could be used to look at planets which might support life.

"The very fact we are able to detect it and estimate its abundance is significant for the long-term effort of characterising planets to find out what they are made of and if they could be a possible host for life," said Mark Swain, a research scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who analysed the Hubble images.

Hiroshima Atomic Drop

Hedge Funds to Cancer Patients: “Die.”

by RoryKearney

It is just what we have been saying all along.

The thugs on wall street have been crushing the stocks of certain companies that do cancer research. Here is the undisputed proof of what has been going on with Dendreon, a company that makes Provenge, a prostate cancer immunotherapy, that was voted 17-0 safe and 13-4 efficacious, by an FDA hand picked panel of experts and then delayed by the FDA for reasons I believe had nothing to do with the science and everything to do with profiteering and power mongering by those inside the FDA, NCI and Wall Street.

1 out of every 6 men gets prostate cancer and since that terrible FDA decision almost 50,000 American men, including thousands of men around the world, have died without access to this non toxic, non invasive treatment. We were so incensed about this FDA failure to address the health needs of these men, that we formed CareToLive, a not for profit group, and sued the FDA to gain access to this treatment.

Unfortunately we are caught in a catch 22, as the courts to date have said that the FDA has not denied the treatment, but has only delayed it. It is almost 2 years since the delay, and in the meantime CareToLive has lost 3 members who sought access to Provenge. Tell Stephen Study, John Fish and Richard Ripp, that Provenge was just delayed and not denied. We have several members desperate for access. The FDA continues along in la la land as they feed at the public trough and gather fat Federal salaries, pensions and perks, without a care in the world for the men and their families who are suffering.

Wall street, conflicted doctors on the panel, and who knows what conflicts the FDA & NCI had, cashed out some enormous payoffs. One of the NCI doctors, Dr. Alison Martin, was quickly transferred out the Federal Agency, and landed a cushy job at a new Michael Milken healthcare "charitable" organization. Although he runs the largest prostate cancer foundation in the world, he is still, strangely silent on the Provenge debacle. He was, and probably still is, invested in Proquest Investments, who had significant money in other prostate cancer treatments. I assume his pardon by George Bush will be forthcoming. What a guy. Faster Cures, but only for the "chosen ones". Chemotherapy and radiation are huge money makers for the industry.

We currently have a writ in front of the Supreme Court pending. We remain cautiously hopeful, that they will hear our case and get to the bottom of all this.

Visit http://www.CareToLive.com to see more about this story.

Man attacks father with Christmas tree

From the AP

PARRISH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

According to the Manatee County sheriff's report a 37-year-old man was arrested last week after he threw a 3-foot Christmas tree at his father. The tree missed, but the man then tried to use the steel base from the tree to strike his father.

His father and mother were able to grab his arms to prevent the attack. Deputies say the tree could have caused serious injuries because the metal base weighs about five pounds.

The man was charged with felony assault. He denied trying to strike his father.

Life inside a cell

This is simply amazing. It makes you wonder on the scope of life.-DavidG

2,700-year-old marijuana stash found

From Torontosun.com

OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied."

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

"It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years."

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

"I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper.

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.

China blames France, EU for summit cancellation

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – China said Thursday French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to meet with the Dalai Lama — hated by Beijing — left it no option but to pull out of an upcoming China-European Union summit.

Sarkozy's decision "deprived the EU-China summit of the required good atmosphere and made it impossible for it to obtain the anticipated result," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

"We resolutely oppose the Dalai traveling to other countries in any capacity to carry out activities aimed at splitting China. We resolutely oppose foreign leaders having any form of contact with the Dalai," Qin said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner expressed sadness at China's decision to postpone the summit, saying it was "incomprehensible" that China would do so despite the goodwill shown by Sarkozy when he attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August.

"I hope that China will quickly forget this episode," Kouchner told reporters, insisting that France-China relations remain "friendly and fraternal."

The cancellation, first announced Wednesday by would-be summit host France, was a dramatic example of the lengths to which Beijing will go to try to internationally isolate Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader. The Dalai Lama fled the Himalayan region for India amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Pulling out of the summit also suggests that countering criticism on Tibet and boxing in the Dalai Lama are bigger priorities for China's communist leaders than working with the EU and nations like France on solutions to the global financial crisis. The diplomatic snub may also be intended as a warning to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to tread carefully on the prickly question of Tibet.

Sarkozy was to host the EU-China summit — scheduled for Monday in the city of Lyon — because France holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation EU. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had been due to attend.

The summit would have come just five days before Sarkozy's long-awaited meeting with the Dalai Lama. Despite China's ire, the meeting will go ahead, French government spokesman Luc Chatel said Wednesday.

At a regularly scheduled news conference Thursday, Qin insisted China wasn't to blame for the impasse and called on France to "not do things that hurt the Chinese people's feelings."

"There is an old saying in China that whoever causes the problem should solve the problem," Qin said.

The Dalai Lama will visit the Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland from Saturday, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha said. China's ire seems mostly directed at Sarkozy's plans to meet the Tibetan leader at a Dec. 6 ceremony in Gdansk, Poland, to honor Lech Walesa, the Polish founder of the Solidarity pro-democracy movement that helped bring down communism.

In recent months, China has hardened its resistance toward the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner's calls for greater autonomy for his homeland, largely in response to a widespread anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet earlier this year.

China says Tibet has been part of its territory for 700 years, although many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of that time.

The Dalai Lama remains deeply revered among Tibetans despite Beijing's relentless attempts to vilify him.

___

Associated Press writers John Leicester and Nathalie Gentaz in Paris contributed to this report.

Tiny, long-lost primate rediscovered in Indonesia

By Will Dunham

Reuters – This undated handout photo shows a creature called a pygmy tarsier, believed for the eight decades to …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates.

Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized pygmy tarsiers -- two males and one female -- on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, the researchers said on Tuesday.

They spotted a fourth one that got away.

The tarsiers, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found. One of them chomped Sharon Gursky-Doyen, a Texas A&M University professor of anthropology who took part in the expedition.

"I'm the only person in the world to ever be bitten by a pygmy tarsier," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview.

"My assistant was trying to hold him still while I was attaching a radio collar around its neck. It's very hard to hold them because they can turn their heads around 180 degrees. As I'm trying to close the radio collar, he turned his head and nipped my finger. And I yanked it and I was bleeding."

The collars were being attached so the tarsiers' movements could be tracked.

Tarsiers are unusual primates -- the mammalian group that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and people. The handful of tarsier species live on various Asian islands.

As their name indicates, pygmy tarsiers are small -- weighing about 2 ounces (50 grammes). They have large eyes and large ears, and they have been described as looking a bit like one of the creatures in the 1984 Hollywood movie "Gremlins."

They are nocturnal insectivores and are unusual among primates in that they have claws rather than finger nails.

They had not been seen alive by scientists since 1921. In 2000, Indonesian scientists who were trapping rats in the Sulawesi highlands accidentally trapped and killed a pygmy tarsier.

"Until that time, everyone really didn't believe that they existed because people had been going out looking for them for decades and nobody had seen them or heard them," Gursky-Doyen said.

Her group observed the first live pygmy tarsier in August at an elevation of about 6,900 feet.

"Everything was covered in moss and the clouds are right at the top of that mountain. It's always very, very foggy, very, very dense. It's cold up there. When you're one degree from the equator, you expect to be hot. You don't expect to be shivering most of the time. That's what we were doing," she said.

Doctors say marrow transplant may have cured AIDS

By PATRICK McGROARTY

BERLIN (AP) — An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said Wednesday.

While researchers — and the doctors themselves — caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.

Dr. Gero Huetter said his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin who was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the virus.

"We waited every day for a bad reading," Huetter said.

It has not come. Researchers at Berlin's Charite hospital and medical school say tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clean.

However, Dr. Andrew Badley, director of the HIV and immunology research lab at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said those tests have probably not been extensive enough.

"A lot more scrutiny from a lot of different biological samples would be required to say it's not present," Badley said.

This isn't the first time marrow transplants have been attempted for treating AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses reviewed the results of 32 attempts reported between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV was apparently eradicated, the review reported.

Huetter's patient was under treatment at Charite for both AIDS and leukemia, which developed unrelated to HIV.

As Huetter — who is a hematologist, not an HIV specialist — prepared to treat the patient's leukemia with a bone marrow transplant, he recalled that some people carry a genetic mutation that seems to make them resistant to HIV infection. If the mutation, called Delta 32, is inherited from both parents, it prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells by blocking CCR5, a receptor that acts as a kind of gateway.

"I read it in 1996, coincidentally," Huetter told reporters at the medical school. "I remembered it and thought it might work."

Roughly one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have inherited the mutation from both parents, and Huetter set out to find one such person among donors that matched the patient's marrow type. Out of a pool of 80 suitable donors, the 61st person tested carried the proper mutation.

Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system — a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients.

He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS. Huetter's team feared that the drugs might interfere with the new marrow cells' survival. They risked lowering his defenses in the hopes that the new, mutated cells would reject the virus on their own.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases in the U.S., said the procedure was too costly and too dangerous to employ as a firstline cure. But he said it could inspire researchers to pursue gene therapy as a means to block or suppress HIV.

"It helps prove the concept that if somehow you can block the expression of CCR5, maybe by gene therapy, you might be able to inhibit the ability of the virus to replicate," Fauci said.

David Roth, a professor of epidemiology and international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said gene therapy as cheap and effective as current drug treatments is in very early stages of development.

"That's a long way down the line because there may be other negative things that go with that mutation that we don't know about."

Even for the patient in Berlin, the lack of a clear understanding of exactly why his AIDS has disappeared means his future is far from certain.

"The virus is wily," Huetter said. "There could always be a resurgence."

G-20: Shaping a new world order

U.S. economic mettle tested as emboldened leaders of the world's 20 largest countries gather in Washington.

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By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer

AMERICA'S MONEY CRISIS

• Stocks set to drop at open
• G-20: Shaping a new world order
• Global stocks rise on Wall Street's rally
• Dodd: Auto bailout lacks GOP support
• Fed lends less to banks

Germany enters recession

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Group of 20 countries

• Argentina

• Australia

• Brazil

• Britain

• Canada

• China

• European Union

• France

• Germany

• Indonesia

• Italy

• Japan

• Mexico

• Russia

• Spain

• South Africa

• Saudi Arabia

• South Korea

• Turkey

• United States

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The role of the United States as the world's economic leader will be tested this weekend when emboldened leaders of the 20 most powerful countries meet in Washington to address the global financial crisis.

Some European leaders are hailing the summit as the next Bretton Woods - a reference to the historic talks in the latter days of WWII that in effect made the dollar the world's dominant currency and laid the foundation for the economic order of the past 60 years.

The United States basically ran those meetings. Close to prevailing in the Great War, it was the world's undisputed military and economic leader.

But today, with the current credit crisis partly rooted in America, and with the rising economic might of China and a unified Europe, that dominance is being challenged.

"The Europeans see themselves as taking a position equal to the U.S.," said Irene Finel-Honigman, an international affairs professor at Columbia University specializing in international banking. "We're looking at a different composition of players and a different powerplay. It's going to be fascinating to watch."

Europe's heavy hand

To bolster their position, the Europeans come to the meeting emboldened by their belief that the credit crisis didn't originate on their soil.

They say that means the more tightly regulated European banking model has triumphed over the more lax laws favored in America.

"The initial response was accusing the U.S. of cowboy capitalism," said Finel-Honigman. "But as the weeks passed, it's become clear we're all in this together."

Together or not, deep divisions still exist between the United States and the Europeans, who initially called for this meeting and will be pushing an agenda heavy on new rules.

Their proposals include: Greater oversight of hedge funds and investment banks. Increasing how much money banks need to keep in reserve. More transparent and universal accounting standards. And limits on executive pay.

All that would be accompanied by a new global network of regulators - regulators that would presumably have power over U.S. banks, a potential non-starter with the Bush administration.

"Self-regulation to solve all problems, it's finished," French President Nicholas Sarkozy was quoted saying in the Guardian newspaper last month. "Laissez-faire, it's finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it's finished."

Moreover, the Europeans are expected to come to the talks presenting a more united front than ever. And they are likely to use one voice to gain international support to counter U.S. policies which many blame for this crisis.

The United States

For the United States, the main goal of the summit will be to derail many of these new regulations, said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics, a Manhattan consultancy.

It's a goal Brusca seems to fully support.

"The last thing we need is another powerless, toothless, cumbersome global agency," he said. "You need to let [banks] run their business, the government isn't going to run it any better."

The Bush Administration is of the same mindset.

While Bush has agreed some more regulation is needed, particularly when it comes to unifying accounting standards and increasing transparency, he is wary of too much government involvement.

"We must recognize that government intervention is not a cure-all," Bush said in statement just before the summit Thursday, which seemed almost designed to temper European expectations. "History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market - but too much."

Brusca said the United States should instead focus on what he views as more fundamental causes of this economic crisis - mainly China's unwillingness to let its currency, the yuan, rise in value.

The low yuan, Brusca argues, make Chinese goods unfairly competitive, and prods U.S. consumers buy too much. This gives China its huge trade surplus, which it has used to buy U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities and other products that allowed all these banks to lend so freely in the first place.

"They have abused the rules of the game, and politically, this is very dangerous," he said.

The Bush Administration may raise this issue at the talks. Getting China to raise the yuan was, after all, one of the administration's highest priorities just a few years ago.

China, Russia, and everyone else.

When a consensus is achieved by the G-20 it carries a lot of weight. With its 19 nations plus the European Union, it represents 90% of the world's economy and 75% of its population. But reaching a consensus is the toughest part for such a big and powerful group.

And at this summit, China, Russia, and most developing countries will be pushing for more power, not just within the G-20, but in other, more exclusive clubs like the G-7, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund.

With all these nations pushing for such disparate things, it's unlikely much will get done, at least this time around.

The Europeans are unlikely to push China to reform its currency because of what China will likely ask in return, said Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"China isn't going to give up its export-led growth strategy for the sake of the international system unless it gets a bigger stake in that system - meaning a much bigger voice within the International Monetary Fund and a corresponding reduction in Europe's exaggerated influence," Mallaby wrote in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. "Naturally, the Europeans aren't proposing it."

And despite America coming to the table with a black eye from selling these rotten mortgage backed securities around the globe, nearly everyone says the country, with its massive economy and long history of solid stewardship, is still in the driver's seat when it comes to setting worldwide economic policy.

"There is no other country that could offer the leadership that would cause the G-20 to come up with anything even worth thinking about," said George Magnus, a senior economic advisor at the Swiss bank UBS.

That means the Europeans are unlikely to get the type of oversight they're proposing.

Combine the wide range of interests, the complexity of the problem, and the fact that the U.S. is being represented by a lame duck president - Barack Obama is not expected to attend - and it's unlikely anything will get accomplished besides, maybe, a commitment to meet again.

"I have quite low expectations of what's likely to be achieved," said Magnus. "This is just the beginning of a long and crucial dialogue."

Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'

From the BBC.com

The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US.

CIA director Michael Hayden said the Saudi militant was probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan.

Mr Hayden said Bin Laden was "putting a lot of energy into his own survival" and that his capture remained the US government's top priority.

But he warned that al-Qaeda was still spreading in Africa and the Mid-East.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Mr Hayden said: "[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security."

Mr Hayden pointed out both progress and setbacks in dealing with al-Qaeda

"In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads."

However, Gen Hayden added: "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda."

The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing al-Qaeda's activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

However, Mr Hayden said other areas were showing an increase in activity, including:

• East Africa: "Al-Qaeda is engaging Somali extremists to revitalise operations... al-Qaeda could claim to be re-establishing its operations base in East Africa"
• The Maghreb: Attacks have worsened since the merger in 2006 of al-Qaeda and the Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The GSPC has renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
• Yemen: Saw an "unprecedented number of attacks" in 2008, and could become a launch-pad for attacks in Saudi Arabia
• Pakistan: Safe haven has allowed al-Qaeda to train a "bench of skilled operatives"

Nevertheless, the CIA chief said the hunt for Bin Laden remained the top priority of the US security forces.

"His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core al-Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world," he said.

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans

From Firedoglake.com

What is this man hiding?

What is this man hiding?

Apparently Bernanke, that wonderful bipartisan soul who is so competent and wonderful that everyone in the village thinks Obama should leave him in charge is refusing to identify who got almost 2 trillion dollars of Fed cash. Bloomberg News is suing to find out. Personally I really, really, really want to know. What exactly is Bernanke hiding? Who got the money he doesn't want us to know got the money?

This is money that was loaned in exchange for "collateral", by which we mean "trash no one else but the Fed would buy for anything but cents on the dollar". Barney Frank, embarrassing himself yet again, claims the Fed should keep its clap shut because if people know how bad it is, well, there might be a run. I think Barney's missing the point, as long as people don't know how bad it is, they won't trust anyone who might be borrowing large amounts of money from the Fed with crap collateral, because they don't know how bad it is and they suspect it's really really really bad. As in 10 cents on the dollar bad.

More to the point, that 2 trillion is taxpayer money, and taxpayers have a right to know what sweetheart deals Bernanke's been giving out, and who's been getting what. This whole "this information is too scary for citizens to know" schtick is so Bush regime. I thought we were moving into a new era of openness? Perhaps Barney should get with the program?

As for Bernanke, this is yet another reason why Bernanke, a central banker so incompetent he lost complete control of LIBOR, his most basic job, should lose his position. Sure, his mandate runs for another year, but if Obama asks him to step down, I can't imagine he wouldn't. The idea that a central bank that has screwed up as badly as the Fed has under both Greenspan and Bernanke is so much better off independent than with the public having some control is ridiculous and fundamentally anti-democratic. Central bank independence has just led to a huge financial bubble and economic collapse, while Bernanke and Greenspan both acted as if they were virtual dictators.

Bernanke needs to go, and either before or after he goes, the Fed needs to come clean about who it has given 2 trillion in loans to, and what the collateral is.

Black History

First Dog takes a bite at White House reporter

From CNN's Kathleen Koch and Erika Dimmler

A happier Barney, with President Bush.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama's daughters have been promised a puppy for the White House — President Bush's dog, Barney, demonstrated his technique for dealing with the media Thursday…sinking his teeth into Reuters TV White House correspondent Jon Decker.

Call it a case of biting the hand that covers you.

First Dog Barney and his handler were out on the front lawn for a walk when Reuters' Decker and another reporter approached.

"He looked very nice and friendly," says Decker. "I bent down to pet him and he just snapped at me."

Decker holds up his right index finger, now sporting two band aids. The First Dog's teeth punctured the skin and Decker started bleeding, so he was sent to see presidential physician, Dr. Richard Tubb. Tubb gave Decker a two- to three-day supply of antibiotics, and told him to come back Friday for a tetanus booster.

"I don't know what he did, but apparently Barney didn't like it," says April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Network, who captured the entire incident on her Flip video camera.

Decker insists he didn't provoke Barney, and that in fact he's good with Scottish terriers. Decker's mother's dog, Fergus, came from the same New Jersey breeder.

"I don't know what set him off," says Decker. "Maybe it was the Republican debacle Tuesday night, the fact that soon he'll be replaced as America's first dog or that I happened to have bacon for breakfast."

Did The Planet's Tectonics Trigger Human Evolution?

Posted by Casey Kazan.

“Tectonics was ultimately responsible for the evolution of humankind.”

Royhan and Nahid Gani of the University of Utah, Energy and Geoscience Institute.

The scientists argue that the "Wall of Africa" - an accelerated uplift of mountains and highlands stretching from Ethiopia to South Africa- blocked much ocean moisture, converting lush tropical forests into an arid patchwork of woodlands and savannah grasslands that gradually favored human ancestors who came down from the trees and started walking on two feet – an energy-efficient way to search larger areas for food in an arid environment.

The East African Rift runs about 3,700 miles from the Ethiopian Plateau south-southwest to South Africa’s Karoo Plateau. It is up to 370 miles wide and includes mountains reaching a maximum elevation of about 19,340 feet at Mount Kilimanjaro.

The rift “is characterized by volcanic peaks, plateaus, valleys and large basins and freshwater lakes,” including sites where many fossils of early humans and their ancestors have been found, says Nahid Gani (pronounced nah-heed go-knee), a research scientist. There was some uplift in East Africa as early as 40 million years ago, but “most of these topographic features developed between 7 million and 2 million years ago.”

“Because of the crustal movement or tectonism in East Africa, the landscape drastically changed over the last 7 million years,” says Royhan Gani (pronounced rye-hawn Go-knee). “That landscape controlled climate on a local to regional scale. That climate change spurred human ancestors to evolve from apes.”

Hominins – the new scientific word for humans (Homo) and their ancestors (including Ardipithecus, Paranthropus and Australopithecus) – split from apes on the evolutionary tree roughly 7 million to 4 million years ago. Royhan Gani says the earliest undisputed hominin was Ardipithecus ramidus 4.4 million years ago. The earliest Homo arose 2.5 million years ago, and our species, Homo sapiens, almost 200,000 years ago.

Plate Tectonics – movements of Earth’s crust, including its ever-shifting tectonic plates and the creation of mountains, valleys and ocean basins – has been discussed since at least 1983 as an influence on human evolution.

But much of the previous debate of how climate affected human evolution involves global climate changes, such as those caused by cyclic changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun, and not local and regional climate changes caused by East Africa’s rising landscape.

“Although the Wall of Africa started to form around 30 million years ago, recent studies show most of the uplift occurred between 7 million and 2 million years ago, just about when hominins split off from African apes, developed bipedalism and evolved bigger brains,” the Ganis write.

“Nature built this wall, and then humans could evolve, walk tall and think big,” says Royhan Gani. “Is there any characteristic feature of the wall that drove human evolution?”

“Clearly, the Wall of Africa grew to be a prominent elevated feature over the last 7 million years, thereby playing a prominent role in East African aridification by wringing moisture out of monsoonal air moving across the region,” the Ganis write. That period coincides with evolution of human ancestors in the area.

Royhan Gani says the earliest undisputed evidence of true bipedalism (as opposed to knuckle-dragging by apes) is 4.1 million years ago in Australopithecus anamensis, but some believe the trait existed as early as 6 million to 7 million years ago.

The Ganis speculate that the shaping of varied landscapes by tectonic forces – lake basins, valleys, mountains, grasslands, woodlands – “could also be responsible, at a later stage, for hominins developing a bigger brain as a way to cope with these extremely variable and changing landscapes” in which they had to find food and survive predators.

For now, Royhan Gani acknowledges the lack of more precise timeframes makes it difficult to link specific tectonic events to the development of upright walking, bigger brains and other key steps in human evolution.

“But it all happened within the right time period,” he says. “Now we need to nail it down.”

Has new physics been found at the ageing Tevatron?

From NewScientistSpace.com

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The Collider Detector at Fermilab has found hints of new physics (Image: Fermilab)

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When Ghosts Attack

By John Blake
CNN
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(CNN) -- Strange things seem to happen when Grant Wilson enters a room.
Grant Wilson, left, and partner Jason Hawes were driven by personal experiences to track ghosts.

Grant Wilson, left, and partner Jason Hawes were driven by personal experiences to track ghosts.
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Human forms materialize in darkened hallways. The dead whisper greetings from beyond the grave. Unseen entities attack and hurl terrified people to the ground.

Every day is Halloween for Wilson, co-star of the Sci Fi Channel's hit show, "Ghost Hunters." Close encounters of the paranormal kind would drive most people to look for another hobby, but Wilson says he ain't afraid of no ghosts.

"That's part of the job," says Wilson, who investigates suspected hauntings with his co-host, Jason Hawes.. "We tell everyone that we train that you'll be punched, slapped and grabbed. Be prepared for it."

Anyone who has watched their 401(k) account evaporate during the recent stock market dive knows something about horror. But Wilson is part of a growing community that prefers getting their chills the old-fashioned way. They are ghost hunters, or, as they prefer to be called, paranormal investigators.

"Ghost-Hunters," which airs a special live show at 7 p.m. Halloween night, is helping lift the stigma once attached to paranormal investigators. The show has become so popular that the group featured in each episode -- The Atlantic Paranormal Society - has spawned imitators across the United States and affiliates in 12 countries.
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TAPS, as the "Ghost Hunters" group is informally known, even has its own "Beyond Reality Radio" show, magazine, lecture tours, T-shirts --and groupies.

"Ghost Hunters" has made creepy cool, says David Schrader, a paranormal investigator and co-host of "Darkness Radio," a radio show that investigates paranormal activity.

"Five or six years ago, you'd be embarrassed to sit around the water cooler talking about ghosts, but now everybody talks about it -- it's gone mainstream," Schrader says.

It's also gone Hollywood. Paranormal shows like "Paranormal State" on A&E Television; "Haunting Evidence" on truTV (which, like CNN.com, is owned by Time Warner); "Dead Famous" on the Biography Channel; and "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel are trying to mimic the success of "Ghost Hunters."

Paranormal investigators aren't just chasing ghosts anymore; they're chasing television gigs, Schrader says.

"Everybody I know has a pilot in development -- including me," Schrader says. "They throw it around like Frisbees. It's become a joke."

The paranormal shows have also created a paranormal circuit. Families and friends attend ghost-hunting conventions, retreats (one was dubbed "GhoStock,") swap tips on ghost-hunting gear and make pilgrimages to famous haunted places like The Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the setting for the Stephen King movie, "The Shining." I hear dead people. »

Why they chase ghosts

Many of these amateur paranormal investigators are inspired -- and freaked out - by what they see on "Ghost Hunters."

Some of the incidents recorded by "Ghost Hunters" are mystifying: Ghostly forms appear on camera, chairs lurch across rooms by themselves and voices of people long dead are played back to their wide-eyed relatives.

In one of the most famous "Ghost Hunters" episodes, a cameraman is grabbed and hurled to the ground --though no one appears to touch him. The cameraman is so shaken that he sobs and quits the show.

Wilson says people who think they have a ghost at home should not try a do-it-yourself home ghost repair. A person who uses Ouija boards or anything else to contact ghosts can unleash malevolent spirits.

"You might not be ready for what happens," Wilson says.Video Watch Grant's encounter with a ghost »

Some ghost-hunters say they entered the field because, like Wilson, they had personal experiences with the supernatural. Others want to know if there is something beyond death.

Others like Marley Gibson, an author and paranormal investigator says they're more scared by current events.

"We're living in a world where we're fighting two wars, we've got poverty, homelessness, people not having health care and a job -- people want escapism," says Gibson, author of "Ghost Huntress: The Awakening" a forthcoming book that follows the exploits of a 16-year-old girl who forms a paranormal research team.

Ask ghost hunters if they get scared and many give the same reply -- I don't do scared, just startled. Gibson says many ghost-hunters go into investigations armed with strong spiritual beliefs.

"I've never met such spiritually-grounded, religious, God-fearing people as I have in the paranormal community," she says.

'I felt a ... very large finger or a paw poke me in the back'

Sometimes paranormal investigators, though, admit they experience what Schrader, the Darkness Radio co-host calls, "Oh [bleep]' moments."

Schrader had one last December, when he apparently took his job home with him one evening. He visited his ex-wife and children after coming back from a ghost-hunting retreat and decided to spend the night in the basement.

Around three in the morning, he says, he heard his then one-year-old daughter screaming. He ran upstairs to hear her say that a shadow was watching her in her room. He comforted his daughter and returned to sleep downstairs.

His wife then called him an hour later on his cell phone from her bedroom and whispered: "Get up in my room. There's something here and I can see it."

Nothing was there but Schrader says some spirits had apparently thought it was OK to pay a visit to his family. He says people who are open to the existence of ghosts sometimes become "beacons" that attract spirits.

Schrader decided to solve the problem by calling for a supernatural version of pest-control. He blessed the house with holy water and called in two "demonologist" to cleanse the house. No more ghosts.

Patrick Burns, a paranormal investigator and co-host of "Haunting Evidence," had one of his teeth-chattering moments when there was no one around to call.

He says he was working on a documentary on ghosts from his home computer one night when he felt something touch him.

"I felt a very pronounced poke with a very large finger, or possibly a paw, just above my beltline on the back," he says.

Now the average person might have taken that as a cue to run from the room. But Burns is a professional, and besides, he has his own paranormal television show. He shrugged and kept working.

Then, he says, he felt the room temperature drop. Cold spots are often associated with hauntings, but Burns kept working because, as he said later: "No way is my house is haunted."

Finally, he heard a thud that sounded like a body slammed against the wall. The impact is so hard that it shook the house, he says.

"I throw off my headphones and say, 'Okay you have my attention now,' "Burns says. "After that, nothing else happened. It just wanted me to acknowledge that it was there."

Sometimes encounters with the living can be just as strange as their encounters with the paranormal, ghost hunters say.

Wilson, the "Ghost Hunters" co-host, says he's more leery of people than ghosts. Paranormal investigators like him and Burns are now so famous that they have adoring fans.

Wilson is a Roto-Rooter plumber by day, but he had to stop answering residential calls because too many people were breaking their toilets just to meet him Hawes, his ghost hunting/plumbing partner.

Though Wilson says he's never been scared by a ghost, he still sounds shaken by one encounter.

He says he once met an entity that displayed a personal interest in him. She appeared in front of him, displayed a tattoo of his face stenciled on her leg, and asked him what he thought.
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The "entity" was a fan Wilson met during a public appearance.

"That," Wilson admits, "was a little scary."

The Mysterious Zodiacal Light

By Joe Rao
SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
posted: 24 October 2008
12:16 am ET

During the next few weeks on some clear moonless early morning, if you are fortunate to be far from any haze and bright lights, keep a close watch on the eastern horizon about two hours before sunrise. If you're lucky you might catch a glimpse of a ghostly column of light extending upward into the sky.

Many have been fooled into thinking that it's beginning of morning twilight and indeed the Persian astronomer, mathematician and poet Omar Khayyam (1050? -1123?) referred to this ghostly glow as the "false dawn" in his poem, The Rubaiyat.

That faint ghostly glow was once thought to be solely an atmospheric phenomenon: perhaps reflected sunlight shining on the highest layers of Earth's atmosphere. We know now that while it is indeed reflected sunlight, it is being reflected not off our atmosphere, but rather off of a non-uniform distribution of interplanetary material; debris left over from the formation of our solar system.

These countless millions, if not billions of particles – ranging in size from meter-sized mini-asteroids to micron-sized dust grains -- seem densest around the immediate vicinity of the sun, but extend outward, beyond the orbit of Mars and are spread out along the plane of the ecliptic (the path the sun follows throughout the year). Hence the reason for the name Zodiacal Light is because it is seen projected against the zodiacal constellations.

Before the break of dawn

The best time to see the Zodiacal Light is when the ecliptic appears most nearly vertical to the horizon. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the best morning views in the eastern sky will come during the next few weeks without the interference of bright moonlight. Conversely, for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, the best views now are in the western evening sky right after sunset.

Those who live in the tropics or at the equator are luckiest of all since the Zodiacal Light is always very conspicuous from these regions. This is probably because from these locations the ecliptic is always favorably oriented allowing views of the Zodiacal Light both in the western evening sky and eastern morning sky all year long.

For northerners at this particular time of the year, it is just before morning twilight begins (about 90 minutes before sunrise), that the Zodiacal Light should appear at its brightest and most conspicuous.

A ghostly slanted pyramid

The Zodiacal Light is something you have to see to believe.

My best views of it came from southeast Arizona back in 2001. I had chosen that part of the country for a view of a pristinely dark and starry sky to serve as the backdrop for an upcoming display of Leonid meteors. Imagine my surprise when I stepped outside on my first early morning watch, and was surprised to see what looked like the glow of a town or small city just beyond the horizon to my east. It took a while for me to realize that what I was seeing was not urban light pollution, but the Zodiacal Light!

To a discerning eye, its diffuse shape somewhat resembles a tilted cone, wedge or slanted pyramid. At the base of the cone, the light may extend some 20 to 30-degrees along the horizon. At its best, it can approach or even equal the Milky Way in brightness, but more often than not it is so faint that even a small amount of atmospheric haze can obscure it. On exceptionally clear nights, the tapering cone might be seen to stretch more than halfway to the zenith.

In fact, should you be blessed with such conditions – absolutely no artificial lighting, smoke or haze – you should also try to see the Zodiacal Band, which runs along the entire ecliptic and usually averages about 5 to 10-degrees in apparent width.

Counterglow

There is yet another ghostly glow in the sky which few have seen or heard about.

This is the Gegenschein, derived from a German word meaning "counterglow," since it is always opposite or "counter" in position to the sun in the sky. The Gegenschein is visible only with the unaided eye, as it is far too large and diffuse to be viewed with a telescope or even binoculars.

The exact nature of the Gegenschein is still somewhat of a mystery, though most think that – like the Zodiacal Light – it might be some sort of tail formed by minute particles from our atmosphere that are streaming out into space away from the Earth in the opposite direction from the sun.

• Online Sky Maps and More
• Sky Calendar & Moon Phases
• Astrophotography 101

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.