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Furry News Weekly (part 1 of 2) - August 3, 2009
16 years ago
Well once again the fire tiger brings you news in the animal world today. A week long saving of news I have read of different animals in the news and what is happening in yer neck of the woods. And so on wit the news :)
First up a few updates:
In last weeks news a Conure had escaped the philly zoo during the zoo's festival of flight bird show. A few days later is was found and returned to its perch. After the reports we're sent out many calls came in to report where it had been sighted.
For the report on the movie G-force, although activists we're getting pissy about the fact the movie would send bad signals to kids to mistreat and mishandle guinea pigs, it would appear the boxoffice wasn't too upset as it toppled every movie and wound up in first place over Harry Potter.
Now for the news at hand
For the Scalies: Hartford, Conn - Police say a driver blamed a car crash on two pet baby snakes that he said escaped from his pants pockets as he was driving. Hartford police Sgt. Christene Mertes says Angel Rolon claimed he lost control on monday when the snakes slithered near the gas and brake pedals and he and a passenger tried to catch them. The SUV veered into some parked cars and overturned. Mertes says animal control officers never found the snakes and police have been unable to confirm his story.
Chicago, IL (Field Museum) - Some 260 million years ago, long before dino's roamed the earth, long-fingered creatures took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land said a museum's paleontologist. Elongated fingers, an opposable "thumb" and a usuable tail of Suminia getmanovi reveal that this small plant-eating animal is the earliest known tree climbing vertebrate, says Jorg Frobisch. Suminia was relatively small (only about 20 inches from the nose to the tail tip.) Skulls and more than a dozen complete skeletons discovered in central Russia's Kirov region make up Frobisch's evidence. Finding that Vertebrates took to trees so early in earth's evolution was unexpected but, says Frobisch, "It makes sense." "There was food available, and they avoided predators on the ground," he said.
In bear news: Asheville, NC - Former game show host and long time animal rights activist, Bob Barker has made a personal appeal to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina to stop exhibiting bears in the pit-like enclosures at three local zoos. The Asheville Citizen Times reported that Barker met Tuesday with Principal Chief Michell Hicks and five members of the Tribal Council. He called the bears' conditions inhumane and asked that they be turned over to a sanctuary in California. "To think that with as advanced as our cililzation is now that there is any place in the US where bears are kept in pits is just unbelievable," said Barker, who is part American Indian and grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The bears are displayed in walled enclosures set into the ground at three local attractions that bill themselves as zoos and theme parks.
San Diego, California - Bai Yun, the adult female panda at the San Diego Zoo, is pregnant --- again. Ultrasound tests have shown that Bai Yun is carrying one, maybe two, fetuses, zoo officials announced Wednesday. The 17 year old panda has given birth to four cubs since coming to the zoo as part of a scientific exchange with China.
In Mice news: China - News that chinese researchers have succed in growing healthy living mice from mouse skin cells takes scientists a significant step closer to human cloning, experts say, and thus figures to reignite an ethics debate. The new feat --- in which animals were grown from cells that had been reverted to Embryos --- is different from cloning. Cloning, in which the nucleus is removed from a cell and implanted in a fertilized egg, has never been achieved in humans. Nor has the new technique --- using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells --- been tested in them. Because that process works in mice, however it should work in humans. "We now have the technology to create iPS cells from skin or hair collicles," said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology Inc. who was not involved in the studies. "What's Very troubleing is that if you have a piece of skin from anybody --- Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson --- you could create a child." The researchers involved in the new studies said it should not be tried on homans. "It would not be ethical to attempt to use iPS cells in human reproduction," said Fanyi Zeng of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her study, she added, was "in no way meant as a first step in that direction."
We have to take a break for now but when we come back, more news on Coon's, Wolves, and Whales. So stay tuned to this tiggy's station and I'll be back after work to report the last remaining news. And now these messages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OPCy0d3tE
First up a few updates:
In last weeks news a Conure had escaped the philly zoo during the zoo's festival of flight bird show. A few days later is was found and returned to its perch. After the reports we're sent out many calls came in to report where it had been sighted.
For the report on the movie G-force, although activists we're getting pissy about the fact the movie would send bad signals to kids to mistreat and mishandle guinea pigs, it would appear the boxoffice wasn't too upset as it toppled every movie and wound up in first place over Harry Potter.
Now for the news at hand
For the Scalies: Hartford, Conn - Police say a driver blamed a car crash on two pet baby snakes that he said escaped from his pants pockets as he was driving. Hartford police Sgt. Christene Mertes says Angel Rolon claimed he lost control on monday when the snakes slithered near the gas and brake pedals and he and a passenger tried to catch them. The SUV veered into some parked cars and overturned. Mertes says animal control officers never found the snakes and police have been unable to confirm his story.
Chicago, IL (Field Museum) - Some 260 million years ago, long before dino's roamed the earth, long-fingered creatures took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land said a museum's paleontologist. Elongated fingers, an opposable "thumb" and a usuable tail of Suminia getmanovi reveal that this small plant-eating animal is the earliest known tree climbing vertebrate, says Jorg Frobisch. Suminia was relatively small (only about 20 inches from the nose to the tail tip.) Skulls and more than a dozen complete skeletons discovered in central Russia's Kirov region make up Frobisch's evidence. Finding that Vertebrates took to trees so early in earth's evolution was unexpected but, says Frobisch, "It makes sense." "There was food available, and they avoided predators on the ground," he said.
In bear news: Asheville, NC - Former game show host and long time animal rights activist, Bob Barker has made a personal appeal to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina to stop exhibiting bears in the pit-like enclosures at three local zoos. The Asheville Citizen Times reported that Barker met Tuesday with Principal Chief Michell Hicks and five members of the Tribal Council. He called the bears' conditions inhumane and asked that they be turned over to a sanctuary in California. "To think that with as advanced as our cililzation is now that there is any place in the US where bears are kept in pits is just unbelievable," said Barker, who is part American Indian and grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The bears are displayed in walled enclosures set into the ground at three local attractions that bill themselves as zoos and theme parks.
San Diego, California - Bai Yun, the adult female panda at the San Diego Zoo, is pregnant --- again. Ultrasound tests have shown that Bai Yun is carrying one, maybe two, fetuses, zoo officials announced Wednesday. The 17 year old panda has given birth to four cubs since coming to the zoo as part of a scientific exchange with China.
In Mice news: China - News that chinese researchers have succed in growing healthy living mice from mouse skin cells takes scientists a significant step closer to human cloning, experts say, and thus figures to reignite an ethics debate. The new feat --- in which animals were grown from cells that had been reverted to Embryos --- is different from cloning. Cloning, in which the nucleus is removed from a cell and implanted in a fertilized egg, has never been achieved in humans. Nor has the new technique --- using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells --- been tested in them. Because that process works in mice, however it should work in humans. "We now have the technology to create iPS cells from skin or hair collicles," said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology Inc. who was not involved in the studies. "What's Very troubleing is that if you have a piece of skin from anybody --- Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson --- you could create a child." The researchers involved in the new studies said it should not be tried on homans. "It would not be ethical to attempt to use iPS cells in human reproduction," said Fanyi Zeng of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her study, she added, was "in no way meant as a first step in that direction."
We have to take a break for now but when we come back, more news on Coon's, Wolves, and Whales. So stay tuned to this tiggy's station and I'll be back after work to report the last remaining news. And now these messages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OPCy0d3tE
I'm surprised to hear that some people think that G-Force would send a bad message about that. WTF is up with those people? Why do they always think movies would send bad messages about stupid stuff.
But, even more surprised that it got #1 in the boxoffice over Harry Potter. It didn't even look that promising. I thought it was gonna bomb because I didn't even find anything good about that film. I thought all of it was stupid.
*leans on the tiger*
Regardless, cloning seems like one of those scifi pasttimes that is just gonna end up in a horrible, bloody debate. I personally think it would be cool to like grow yourself organs ^^. So if you need a heart transplant BAM, they grow a new heart all nice and ready instead of waiting on....THE LIST!
mammals predating dinosaurs? I'm... a little skyptical due to the fact that it makes you wonder why we've not found more evidence til just recently, but I suppose the earth is a fucking huge place XD. As far as I know, they might have existed, died off due to giant insects and dinosuars, and then somehow came back when life was pretty much gone. I'm sure it'll spark some interesting debate ^^.