Earth's First Snake Likely Evolved On Land, Not In Water

Some scientists have speculated that snakes first evolved in water and that their long, slithery bodies were streamlined for swimming. But a new analysis suggests that the most recent common ancestor of all snakes actually lived on land.

This ancestral protosnake probably was a nocturnal hunter that slithered across the forest floor about 120 million years ago. And it likely had tiny hind limbs, left over from an even earlier ancestor, says Allison Hsiang, a researcher at Yale University.

"They probably weren't using them in locomotion in any way, but they did probably still have vestigial hind limbs stuck on the back of their bodies," Hsiang says.

The evolutionary origin of snakes has been a bit of a mystery for scientists, because the fossil record has an unfortunate dearth of snakes. "For a long time there weren't very good snake fossils," says Hsiang, who explains that researchers had not found "things that sort of told us what snakes looked like early on, or transitional fossils between snakes and their closest ancestors."

That's because snakes are mostly small, with fragile skeletons that aren't easily preserved — although there are some notable exceptions, such as Titanoboa, which lived 60 million years ago and could grow longer than 40 feet.

In the past decade, though, scientists have discovered a bunch of new snake fossils — some new species, as well as better-quality specimens of known species. "Previously, we just had, say, a few isolated vertebrae," says Hsiang, "which tells you it's a snake, but doesn't really tell you very much else."

The new fossils allowed Hsiang and some colleagues to do a rigorous, comprehensive analysis, to try to determine what the most recent common ancestor of all snakes might have been like. Besides fossils, the team studied the genes and anatomy of living snakes. "We had a total of 73 species, and I believe 15 of those were fossil species," says Hsiang.

Their analysis, described in the issue of BMC Evolutionary Biology published Tuesday, supports the idea of an early snake that slithered over the ground, and perhaps went into burrows to find food. "Snakes probably did not evolve, originally, to be in water," says Hsiang. "That's not why they developed this body plan; that's not what the earliest snakes were doing."

It looks like the ancestral snake had needle-like hooked teeth that it used to grab small, rodent-like critters, which it then swallowed whole. And it probably wouldn't have been able to eat anything much bigger than its own head. npr

How A Bigger Lunch Table At Work Can Boost Productivity

The loft-like San Francisco office of software maker Atlassian has an open central amphitheater, where all-staff gatherings and midday boot camp exercises are held.

Jay Simons, Atlassian's president, says the building was originally a book printing factory. He describes it "as a big, two-story warehouse with a lot of steel girders, a lot of natural light."

But the office's rapid expansion to 300 employees has led to gripes about conference room shortages. "We're butting up on growing out of the space," Simons says.

So, early this year, Atlassian installed heat and motion sensors to track when and how often every desk, room and table was used. The result? Desks were used only 20 percent of the workday; conference rooms an average of 40 percent, with peak utilization at mid-morning.

Simons says tracking employees' movements in an anonymous way will help guide choices to convert desk space into meeting rooms, or to stagger meetings to accommodate a growing staff.

"If we're using data to make an environment that people can be more productive in, ultimately that saves us money or helps us make more," he says.

One of Waber's clients found that software developers who ate lunch in large groups wrote 10 percent more code than those who ate solo or with fewer colleagues. Salespeople with more relationships across an organization sold measurably more. That led to larger lunch tables and more strategic placement of coffee machines.

"Where do you spend time, who talks to who and those patterns are so critical when it comes to how effective we are and how happy we are at work," he says.

Waber's company carefully tracks its own employees. Even for things like determining which free snacks tend to draw people into break rooms.

Congdon says designing the ideal workspace is well worth the effort. When Steelcase redid its own offices, she says workers ended up happier with the various options for working and meeting. And, as a bonus, the company reduced its real estate footprint by 48 percent. npr

distinctive leading cause of death by state 2001-2010

Black Rhino Is Killed By U.S. Hunter Who Won Controversial Auction

An endangered black rhino is seen in this file photo from the Etosha National Park in northern Namibia last year. An American hunter has killed one of the animals, under a special permit he bought for $350,000.

A Texas hunter who paid $350,000 for the right to hunt a rare black rhino in Namibia has killed the animal. The hunt has drawn controversy and spurred debate over the best way to manage endangered wildlife.

Corey Knowlton won an auction last January for a hunting permit that would allow him to kill a black rhino weighing around 3,000 pounds.

"There are only an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 black rhinos living in the wild," Mark wrote for the Two-Way last year. "Namibian authorities issue five kill permits per year."

The permit came from Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism; each year, it targets several older rhinos that are no longer able to breed – but still pose a deadly threat to younger males. The proceeds are meant to go toward anti-poaching and conservation efforts.

Namibia is facing a surge in poaching — last week, the country's New Era newspaper said that 60 rhinos have been poached so far in 2015, leading Namibia's environmental ministry to double its reward for information about the killings.

After winning the auction, Knowlton then had to get special permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring the carcass back to America. The agency, which gave its approval in March, writes:

"The removal of limited numbers of males has been shown to stimulate population growth in some areas. Removing specific individuals from a population can result in reduced male fighting, shorter calving intervals, and reduced juvenile mortality."

Black rhinos have "the highest combat mortality rates of any mammal," Namibia's Oshili 24 reports. "Approximately 50 percent of males and 30 percent of females die from combat-related injuries."

But, the news site adds, "Many in Namibia opposed the auction." Protests against the hunt came from international groups; demonstrators also picketed the auction held by the Dallas Safari Club.

As Knowlton told CNN, the rhino hunt could have ended in three possible scenarios – including one in which the wrong rhino could be killed:

"If it charges at us and we are already sure it's the right one, we are going to kill it," Knowlton said. "If we aren't sure if it's the right one, we are going to try and get out of the way. If we don't feel like we can get out of the way, we got to kill it."

Knowlton invited CNN to join him on the hunt; the network's Ed Lavandera spent several days with the hunter and a team of trackers, documenting their walk through the bush. A sample:

"The rhino is close. Knowlton's hands firmly grip his high-powered 500 Nitro Express rifle. Moments later, I see a massive flash of gray leap up over the bushes some 50 feet in front of us. It disappears and you can't tell which direction the rhino is running.

"It's jarring to see this close how quickly these massive creatures can move."

The hunting party picked up the rhino's trail near a watering hole early in the morning. When they finally got close to it, the rhino charged – and was shot several times.

"Any time you take an animal's life it's an emotional thing," Knowlton tells CNN.

"I felt like from day one it was something benefiting the black rhino," Knowlton tells Lavandera shortly after the hunt. "Being on this hunt, with the amount of criticism it brought and the amount of praise it brought from both sides, I don't think it could have brought more awareness to the black rhino."

If you're wondering how the 36-year-old Knowlton could afford the steep hunting fee, we're seeing that he's a hunting consultant based in Dallas, as well as a personality on an Outdoor Channel hunting show, Jim Shockey's The Professionals. He's also a son of Lary Knowlton, the co-founder of BASA Resources, which was characterized last year as one of "the top 20 oil producers in the state of Texas." npr

riddle of the day

there is a word. six letters it contains. 

take one away, and twelve is what remains.

answer: dozens

sam adoquei

samadoquei.com

Are You Smarter Than A 15-Year-Old?

Here's a map of a system of roads that links the suburbs within a city. The map shows the travel time in minutes at 7:00 a.m. on each section of road.

Question: Julio lives in Silver, Maria lives in Lincoln and Don lives in Nobel. They want to meet in a suburb on the map. No one wants to travel for more than 15 minutes. Where could they meet?

NATO Diplomats Sing 'We Are The World'

you and the world have changed since you were born

Explore BBC Earth's unique interactive, personalised just to you.

Find out how, since the date of your birth, your life has progressed; including how many times your heart has beaten, and how far you have travelled through space.

Investigate how the world around you has changed since you've been alive; from the amount the sea has risen, and the tectonic plates have moved, to the number of earthquakes and volcanoes that have erupted.

Grasp the impact we've had on the planet in your lifetime; from how much fuel and food we've used to the species we've discovered and endangered.

And see how the BBC was there with you, capturing some of the most amazing wonders of the natural world. bbc

my heart has beaten 1 billion times in my lifetime. 

a fly my age would have a family of 10,544 generations by now.

on mercury i am 116.

there have been 131 major eruptions since i was born. 

swedens gay defense system

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) is to deal with encroaching Russian submarines in Swedish waters with a device emitting anti-homophobia Morse code.

The device – officially titled The Singing Sailor Underwater Defence System, but nicknamed the “gay sailor” – is a “subsurface sonar system”, which sends out the message: “This way if you are gay” in an attempt to deter apparently homophobic Russians.

Russia has come under fire since the Putin administration introduced homophobic laws in 2013 banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations”, in a climate of increasing intolerance towards its LGBT population.

The design of the device features a neon, flashing sign of a dancing sailor, naked but for a cap and small white briefs, surrounded by hearts.

“Welcome to Sweden: Gay since 1944” is written in English and Russian, in a reference to the year of decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Scandinavian nation.

Sweden has cut its military budget in recent years but announced in March it would increase spending, as a result of alleged Cold War-style Russian aggression.

An operation involving helicopters, minesweepers and 200 troops was launched last October to search for a suspected rogue Russian submarine in Swedish waters.

Sweden is currently not a member of Nato. And thanks to the gay sailor defence system, it may never have to be. the guardian

marco grassi paintings

http://www.marcograssipainter.com/

Location of Nepal's 7.8 and 7.3 earthquake epicenters

yes, there is a difference between i.e. and e.g.

i.e. is the abbreviation of the Latin phrase ‘id est,’ meaning ‘that is.’

e.g. is the abbreviation of the Latin phrase ‘exempli gratia,’ meaning ‘for example.’

Give women an even chance

1. By Marcia McNutt Editor-in-Chief Science Journals (and former USGS Science Director)

An important part of the mentoring role of academic advisors is writing letters of recommendation for worthy students who are applying for research grants, fellowships, and entrance to elite programs. Such letters often have more impact than grades or test scores at the graduate level, where factors such as initiative, hard work, creativity, independence, problem-solving ability, and teamwork are prized skills. Well-crafted, honest letters help in determining whether a candidate is a good fit. For that reason, I was surprised recently when asked to review 60 proposals from graduate students for small research grants. More than 10% of the applicants had a least one supporting letter containing inappropriate material for the decision at hand. All of the students so affected, unfortunately, were women, and those writing the problematic letters were nearly equally men and women. By describing how these instances appear from the standpoint of a selection committee member, my hope is that the professionalism in recommendation letters will improve.

As examples of the sort of problems, one letter described how the candidate was so good to her elderly mother, yet still enjoyed life, spending time in nature with her husband and her animal friends. Another letter reflected amazement that the candidate managed to balance so efficiently being a student, a scientist, and a mother. Such comments do indeed make impressions on a committee that must select only 1 in 10 for an award from a highly competitive pool. They cannot help but put a candidate at a disadvantage when compared to others who are praised for their self-initiated research projects, interesting uses of coursework to address new scientific problems, or careful background preparation for the research project proposed.

Beyond comments that were simply out of place for the decision at hand, I noted an overall bias in the language used to describe the male candidates versus some of the female candidates. In some letters, women were described as “friendly,” “kind,” “pleasant,” “humble,” and frequently, “nice.” While I am sure they were all of that, those were not necessarily the most relevant characteristics I was looking for in the next generation of scientists to advance the frontiers of discovery. Very different words were used to describe the male candidates (and many of the females as well): “brilliant,” “creative,” “hard-working,” “insightful,” and “showing leadership.”

Studies have documented bias in referees' unblinded reviews of manuscripts for publication, but this was the first time that I noted such a bias in the language used to assess a student's suitability for a research grant—a bias that could carry over to future funding decisions. I suspect that such bias creeps in unintentionally in most cases, but I also understand that gender stereotypes persist and that they have a basis in reality. Women still bear the majority of caregiver burdens for children and elderly parents. But that information does not belong in letters of recommendation. I like to think that I am a nice person. But “nice” never got me a research grant or professional position.

Now is the time to promote women as well as other underrepresented groups in science. The future strength of the global scientific enterprise depends on boosting the influx of diverse and talented researchers into science and engineering fields. Subtle bias, even unintended, in advancing this cohort can be more damaging than outright bias, because it is more difficult to detect and correct. I urge all who write these important letters of recommendation to take a last look before hitting “send” to be sure that what you have written is free of bias.sciencemag.org

Misconceptions About Miscarriage

In fact, between 15 percent and 20 percent of clinically recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, defined as a pregnancy loss earlier than 20 weeks of gestation. (Pregnancy loss after that point is called a stillbirth.) Miscarriage is actually "by far the most common complication of pregnancy," says Williams. He and his colleagues wanted to find out how widespread some of the mistaken beliefs about miscarriage are.

They asked 1,084 adults about miscarriage and its causes. They also asked the 15 percent of survey respondents who had suffered a miscarriage, or whose partner had, about their experience. The results echoed what he'd seen in his patients: Some 55 percent of all respondents believed that miscarriage occurred in 5 percent or less of all pregnancies.

Chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus cause 60 percent of miscarriages. A handful of other medical conditions are also known to cause miscarriage. Most survey respondents knew that genetic or medical problems were the most common cause of early pregnancy loss. But they also mistakenly believed that other factors could trigger a miscarriage: a stressful event (76 percent); lifting something heavy (64 percent); previous use of contraception like an IUD (28 percent) or birth control pill (22 percent); and even an argument (21 percent). Some 22 percent believed that lifestyle choices, like using drugs, tobacco or alcohol, were the single biggest cause of miscarriages. That's not true. npr

earthquake in nepal

Aftershocks following Saturday's magnitude-7.8 quake in Nepal are jangling nerves and complicating rescue operations. So far, there have been more than a dozen quakes of magnitude 5 or higher, and another two dozen between magnitude 4.5 and 5.

That rate of aftershocks is in line with a forecast by Andrew Michael and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. The forecast is based on the location of the initial quake — along a deep boundary between colliding continental plates. In this case it feels like a large number because they're striking a heavily populated region, Michael says, "so every single one of these small aftershocks is being felt."

"Unfortunately this is simply what earthquakes do," says Ross Stein, scientist emeritus at the USGS and consulting professor of geophysics at Stanford University.The initial earthquake in Nepal released stresses underground that had been building up for 150 years. It ruptured a network of faults in a region 150 miles long and 100 miles wide, along the boundary of two colliding tectonic plates.

That reshuffling of stress underground, Stein says, is now triggering smaller earthquakes near the epicenter and on nearby faults — aftershocks."What's happening, particularly for these more remote aftershocks, is they are striking on the neighboring faults," Stein says, "and these neighboring faults could rupture in subsequent large earthquakes."

In fact, there's a 1 to 2 percent chance in the next year or two that an aftershock in this area could be even bigger than the original quake.

There is also a record of two large quakes in quick succession in this region, so a twin quake now "wouldn't be unprecedented here either," Stein says.

That means it's very challenging for people in Nepal to figure out when it's safe enough to go back into buildings. Some more recent buildings are relatively safe, because they have been built with reinforcing steel — rebar — which increases earthquake resilience.

"Unfortunately, you can't tell when you're in that building if it has rebar, and if it's been properly built," Stein says. "If concrete were translucent, the world would be a safer place."

And you can't simply wait it out until the hazard has passed. "It's kind of a cruel part of aftershocks that we cannot depend on them getting smaller," Stein says. "They just get less and less frequent with time."

The USGS forecast warns there is still a better than 50-50 chance of another aftershock that's magnitude 6 or larger in the next week, and also in the next month — and also over the course of the next year.

More than 5,000 people are confirmed dead from Saturday's earthquake just outside Kathmandu, Nepal. Nearly 11,000 more were injured, according to Nepal's National Emergency Operation Center.

Dead(5057):Injured(10915);Internally Displaced(454769)— EarthquakeNepal-MoHA (@NEoCOfficial) April 28, 2015

Hillary Clintons supports same-sex marriage

Hillary Clinton's campaign logo was changed Tuesday to show support for same-sex marriage on the day of oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

Support for Gay Marriage Reaches Record High (POLL)

An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted this month found Americans’ support for same-sex marriage at 61 percent, the highest level of support recorded by ABC/Post polls to date.

Similarly, 61 percent say they oppose allowing states to prohibit same-sex marriages, and 62 percent support requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

There continue to be large differences in views of the issue by age. The poll found support for same-sex marriage at 78 percent among adults under age 30, compared with 46 percent among those 65 and older. And partisanship is a factor: While 76 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents support same-sex marriage, support drops to 34 percent among Republicans. abcnews

republican presidential hopefuls views on gay marriage

Senator Ted Cruz

“If one of my daughters was gay, I would love them just as much,” Mr. Cruz said at a dinner in New York last week, explaining that same-sex marriage should be left to the states.

“The people should decide the issue of marriage, not the courts. The union of a man and a woman has been the building block of society since the dawn of history, and the people in numerous states have repeatedly affirmed that truth in their laws. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits that. In fact, it is inconceivable that when the 14th Amendment was ratified, Americans would have understood they were sowing the seeds for courts to invalidate traditional marriage,” Mr. Cruz said in a statement after the report about his daughters.

Senator Marco Rubio

“It doesn’t exist. There is no federal constitutional right to same sex-marriage. There isn’t such a right. You would have to really have a ridiculous and absurd reading of the U.S. Constitution to reach the conclusion that people have a right to marry someone of the same sex. There is no such constitutional right,” Mr. Rubio told the Christian Broadcasting Network last weekend.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush

“It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision. The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess,” Mr. Bush told The Miami Herald in January.

“I believe in traditional marriage,” Mr. Bush said at CPAC in February.

Gov. Scott Walker

“Tonette and I and our family already had a family member who’s had a reception. I haven’t been to a wedding. That’s true even though my position on marriage is still that’s defined between a man and a woman, and I support the Constitution of the state. But for someone I love, we’ve been at a reception,” Mr. Walker said this month in New Hampshire.

Senator Rand Paul:

“States will end up making the decision on these things. I think that there is a religious connotation to marriage. I believe in the traditional religious connotation of this, but I also believe people should be treated fairly under the law. I see no reason why if the marriage contract conveys certain things, if you want to marry another woman, you can do that and have a contract, but the thing is the religious connotation of marriage that has been going on for thousands of years, I still want to preserve that,” Mr. Paul told CNN this month. nytimes

alzheimers disease

walk to end alzheimers

Happy 25th Birthday Hubble!

NASA images by Hubble

A giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2. The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light years away in the constellation Carina.

(Left to right, clockwise) Cat's Eye Nebula, Merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, Horsehead Nebula, Jupiter, Crab Nebula, Carina Nebula.

Hubble the song

The Terror Strategist: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State By Christoph Reuter

An Iraqi officer planned Islamic State's takeover in Syria and SPIEGEL has been given exclusive access to his papers. They portray an organization that, while seemingly driven by religious fanaticism, is actually coldly calculating.

Listen to it here: npr

...not even those who shot and killed him (Haji Bakr) after a brief firefight in the town of Tal Rifaat on a January morning in 2014 knew the true identity of the tall man in his late fifties. 

They were unaware that they had killed the strategic head of the group calling itself "Islamic State" (IS). The fact that this could have happened at all was the result of a rare but fatal miscalculation by the brilliant planner. The local rebels placed the body into a refrigerator, in which they intended to bury him. Only later, when they realized how important the man was, did they lift his body out again.

Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi was the real name of the Iraqi, whose bony features were softened by a white beard. But no one knew him by that name. Even his best-known pseudonym, Haji Bakr, wasn't widely known. But that was precisely part of the plan. The former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein's air defense force had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years. Former members of the group had repeatedly mentioned him as one of its leading figures. Still, it was never clear what exactly his role was.

But when the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state. It is a folder full of handwritten organizational charts, lists and schedules, which describe how a country can be gradually subjugated. SPIEGEL has gained exclusive access to the 31 pages, some consisting of several pages pasted together. They reveal a multilayered composition and directives for action, some already tested and others newly devised for the anarchical situation in Syria's rebel-held territories. In a sense, the documents are the source code of the most successful terrorist army in recent history.

Until now, much of the information about IS has come from fighters who had defected and data sets from the IS internal administration seized in Baghdad. But none of this offered an explanation for the group's meteoric rise to prominence, before air strikes in the late summer of 2014 put a stop to its triumphal march.

For the first time, the Haji Bakr documents now make it possible to reach conclusions on how the IS leadership is organized and what role former officials in the government of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein play in it. Above all, however, they show how the takeover in northern Syria was planned, making the group's later advances into Iraq possible in the first place. In addition, months of research undertaken by SPIEGEL in Syria, as well as other newly discovered records, exclusive to SPIEGEL, show that Haji Bakr's instructions were carried out meticulously.

Bakr's documents were long hidden in a tiny addition to a house in embattled northern Syria. Reports of their existence were first made by an eyewitness who had seen them in Haji Bakr's house shortly after his death. In April 2014, a single page from the file was smuggled to Turkey, where SPIEGEL was able to examine it for the first time. It only became possible to reach Tal Rifaat to evaluate the entire set of handwritten papers in November 2014. spiegel

The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted

Quiet since 1972, it's blown twice since Wednesday, generating striking images and concerns over the effects of both the lava and a mammoth cloud of ash.

That column of ejected ash measures nearly 7 miles, says Chile's National Mining and Geology Service, citing a "flyby" that was made early Thursday. In its latest update, the agency says volcanic activity is finally diminishing but that a state of emergency remains for a 12-mile area.

Saying 5,000 people have left the area around the volcano, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports, "Local officials say people are very, very frightened. The immediate concern is the volcano's eruption could trigger snow melts and cause flooding."

bottle cap rooster

bottle cap bathroom floor

mac demarco

iCoast: Did the Coast Change?

Hurricane season started again in June. Do you know what happens to our coasts after these extreme storms? The U.S. Geological Survey has launched a new crowdsourcing application called “iCoast – Did the Coast Change?” to show you these coastal changes from extreme storms.
 
Since 1995, the USGS has collected more than 140,000aerial photographs of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts after 24 hurricanes and other extreme storms. For Hurricane Sandy alone, more than 9,000 aerial photographs were taken a week after the storm. iCoast allows citizen scientists to identify changes to the coast by comparing these aerial photographs taken before and after storms.
 
Crowdsourced data from iCoast will help USGS improve predictive models of coastal change and educate the public about the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme storms. Currently, USGS’s mathematical models are derived from dune elevation and predicted wave action during storms. Adding the human observations will allow the scientists to validate the models and to provide better predictions of damage before storms occur.  scientific american

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/icoast/