Mockingbirds Can Remember Faces of People to Attack (Links)
Cost of Cigarette Litter May Fall on San Fran’s Smokers A proposed fee would add 33 cents to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, helping offset the estimated $10.7 million a year spent cleaning up discarded butts. Styrofoam Ban Grows in CA Palo Alto joins 21 other California towns in prohibition of polystyrene takeout containers. Yosemite’s Giant Trees Disappearing Data collected over 60 years by forest ecologists show that the oldest and largest trees in Yosemite National Park are disappearing. Climate change appears to be a major cause of the loss. Summer Haze Cooling SE United States Some local cooling is one effect of climate change. Marine Pleads Guilty in Wildfire A Marine was sentenced to a year in prison for horseplay that started a wildfire that burned a section of California’s Camp Pendleton, prompted widespread evacuations, and caused $2 million in damage. Cactus Wren Gets Another Chance in Culver City In an effort to bring the cactus wren back to a Culver City state park, Dorsey High students are restoring the coastal sage scrub preferred by the bird. Hollywood and the Flush Factor “If it’s yellow leave it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down,” said actor Cameron Diaz. EPA Approves Most Outstanding Mountaintop Removal Permits Environmental leaders criticized the EPA for not taking a stronger stand agains the highly destructive and polluting form of mining. Where Are All the Fish? Fisheries can’t keep up with the rate of seafood consumption by humans. New Study Provides Insight into Evolution of First Flowers Charles Darwin described the origin of flowering plants about 130 million years ago as an abominable mystery, one that scientists have yet to solve. Taking Back the Catalytic Converter A new bill would allow independent repair shops to compete for the business now guaranteed only to dealer-controlled establishments. Monkeys Found To Wonder What Might Have Been Monkeys register missed opportunities and learn from their mistakes. Intoxication May Not Always Be Visible It is difficult for even trained observers to fully identify “intoxication,” given that so many factors contribute to it. Some People Really Never Forget A Face “Super-recognizers” have an extraordinary ability to recognize faces, and can easily recognize someone they met in passing, even many years later. Mockingbirds Can Remember Faces of People to Attack Scientists find that the grey and white birds common in cities can distinguish between different people and will swoop to attack those they perceive as a danger.
Major Losses For Caribbean Reef Fish In Last 15 Years
By combining data from 48 studies of coral reefs from around the Caribbean, researchers have found that fish densities that have been stable for decades have given way to significant declines since 1995.
“We were most surprised to discover that this decrease is evident for both large-bodied species targeted by fisheries as well as small-bodied species that are not fished,” said Michelle Paddack of Simon Fraser University in Canada. “This suggests that overfishing is probably not the only cause.”
Toxic Chinook Salmon is Killing Killer Whales (Links)
Scientists say human-caused climate change is…real? Clear days have exacerbated climate change in Europe. The termite insecticide used when pest control guys tented your house has been found to be a potent greenhouse gas. Department of It Takes a Catastrophe: After December’s toxic spill in Tennessee, a West Virginia lawmaker has introduced legislation to set federal standards for storing the waste. Department of Sounds Familiar: 3,600 years ago, a natural disaster destroyed a civilization, after 2,000 years of ‘no incentive to change.’ Grist looks at the green aspects of the $825 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ecologists have identified invasive plants that pose the biggest threats to southern forest ecosystems in 2009. Bush must’ve dropped the ball on preventing this one: the U.S. government may kind of try to offset environmental damage from the construction of hundreds of miles of walls along the Mexican border. Once as ‘divided as oil and water,’ labor unions and environmental groups are uniting over health care worries shared in workplaces and communities. Toxic Chinook salmon is killing killer whales. Frogs (and their legs) are being eaten to extinction. The LA Times profiles the civil disobedience of Tim DeChristopher, who found a loophole in Bush rules and threw a monkeywrench into Utah public land sales. The Economist looks at the staggering rate of species extinction in the world’s tropical forests. Indonesian orangutans are on the verge of extinction because forests are being clear-cut and burned meet world demand for palm oil. Human hunting and fishing is accelerating the speed of evolution in some species as it removes whole generations of large adults that would otherwise reproduce. Side effects include ‘changes in eyelid pigmentation,’ but the enhanced eyelash growth is probably worth it. You’ve had three cups of coffee. Are you hallucinating?
