Bigfoot Backgrounder

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature said to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the Pacific northwest region of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia. In northern Wisconsin, Lakota Indians know the creature by the name Chiye-tanka, a Lakota name for "Big Elder Brother."[1] Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, hairy bipedal hominoid, and some believe that this animal, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal, the Yeren of mainland China,the Orang Pendek of Indonesia, and the Yowie of Australia.

Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology, with an ongoing debate on whether it exists or not. Most scientific experts on the matter consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes. Despite its uncertain scientific status, Bigfoot is nevertheless a popular symbol, included as "Quatchi," one of the mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and used to name both a provincial park and the annual Sasquatch Daze event in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. A minor league baseball team in Arkansas, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, uses a stylized and smiling version of Bigfoot as the team mascot.

In reports on July 27, 2008, Clayton County police officer Matthew Whitton claimed to have found and retrieved a Bigfoot corpse as part of a group of "trackers".[2] In a press release published August 12, 2008, Bigfoot "trackers" announced that they have collected a Bigfoot corpse; alleged photos and DNA evidence are to be issued in a press release on August 15.[3]

Description and behavior

Bigfoot is described as being between 6–10 feet (1.8–3 meters) tall, and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. The head seems to sit directly on the shoulders, with no apparent neck. Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla.

They are claimed to be mainly nocturnal, and seemingly omnivorous. In encounters where a human reported shining a flashlight at them, the eyes glowed red, possibly due to a tapetum lucidum in their eyes, not found in any other higher primate.

Sasquatches are rarely claimed to be aggressive, with only one reported case of a man being killed by one (found in The Wilderness Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt). Although there are claims of harassment of humans traveling through a forest that could be a part of a Sasquatch’s territory.

[edit] Proposed creatures

Various types of creature have been described by proponents to explain the sightings. These descriptions have generally received little support from the scientific community.

[edit] Gigantopithecus

Grover Krantz argued that a relict population of Gigantopithecus blacki would best explain Bigfoot reports. Based on his fossil analysis of its jaws, he championed a view that Gigantopithecus was bipedal.

Geoffrey Bourne writes that Gigantopithecus is a plausible candidate for Bigfoot since most Gigantopithecus fossils were found in China, whose extreme eastern Siberian forests are similar to those of north-western North America. Many well-known animals have migrated across the Bering Strait, so Bourne believes is not unreasonable to assume that Gigantopithecus might have as well. "So perhaps," Bourne writes, "Gigantopithecus is the Bigfoot of the American continent and perhaps he is also the Yeti of the Himalayas."[4]

The Gigantopithecus hypothesis is generally considered entirely speculative. Given the mainstream view that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal, it would seem unlikely to be an ancestor to the biped Bigfoot is said to be. Moreover, it has been argued that G. blacki's enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.[5] An analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film shows that frames 369, 370, 371, and 372 all show a slender lower mandible, that does not match the massive lower mandible of Gigantopithecus blacki, which, assuming that the Patterson-Gimlin film is legitimate, would eliminate G. blacki as a candidate for Bigfoot.[6]

"That Gigantopithicus is in fact extinct has been questioned by those who believe it survives as the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Sasquatch of the north-west American coast. But the evidence for these creatures is not convincing."[7]

[edit] Other extinct apes

A species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, with its crested skull and bipedal gait, was suggested by primatologist John Napier and anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg as a possible candidate for Bigfoot's identity.

Some Bigfoot reports suggest Homo erectus to be the creature, but H. erectus skeletons have never been found on the North American continent.

There was also a little known genus called, Meganthropus, which reputedly grew to enormous proportions. Again, there have been no remains of this creature anywhere near North America, and none younger than a million years old.

[edit] Arguments

Bigfoot is one of the more famous creatures in cryptozoology, and, like many cryptids around the world, there is a fierce debate as to whether the Bigfoot species exists or not.

Cryptozoologist John Willison Green has postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon.[8]

Indian Native tribes in the Northwest note the appearance of large, anthropoid creatures. Such creatures were said to exist on Vancouver Island and near Harrison Lake.

The earliest unambiguous reports of gigantic apelike creatures in the Pacific Northwest date from 1924, after a series of alleged encounters at a location in Washington later dubbed Ape Canyon, as related in The Oregonian.[9] Reports the pro-Bigfoot authors claim are similar appear in the mainstream press dating back at least to the 1860s. The phenomenon attained widespread notoriety in 1958 when enormous footprints were reported in Humboldt County, California by roadworkers; the tracks pictured in the media inspired the familiar name "Bigfoot."

Mainstream scientists generally dismiss the phenomena due to a lack of representative specimens. They attribute the numerous sightings to folklore, mythology, hoaxes, and the misidentification of common animals.

Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle argues that most cultures have human-like giants in their folk history. "We have this need for some larger-than-life creature."[10]

[edit] Skeptical view

Scientists and academics overwhelmingly "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric, bipedal, apelike creature of such dimensions is scant".[11] In addition to the lack of evidence, they cite the fact that while Bigfoot is alleged to live in regions unusual for a large, nonhuman primate, i.e., temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere, all other recognized nonhuman apes are found in the tropics, Africa, continental Asia or nearby islands. The great apes have never been found in the fossil record in the Americas, and no Bigfoot bones or bodies have been found.

Many scientists do not give the subject of Bigfoot's existence serious attention, given the history of dubious claims and outright hoaxes. Napier wrote that the mainstream scientific community's indifference stems primarily from "insufficient evidence ... it is hardly surprising that scientists prefer to investigate the probable rather than beat their heads against the wall of the faintly possible."[12] Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny."[13] He advises that mainstream skeptics take a proactive position "to offer an alternative explanation. We have to explain why we see Bigfoot when there is no such animal" (ibid 20). Indeed, many scientists insist that the breeding population of such an animal would be so large that it would account for many more purported sightings than currently occur, making the existence of such an animal an almost certain impossibility.

George Schaller is one of a few prominent scientists who argue that Bigfoot reports are worthy of serious study. A 2003 Los Angeles Times story described Schaller as a "Bigfoot skeptic", but he also expressed disapproval for other scientists who do not examine evidence, yet "write [Bigfoot] off as a hoax or myth. I don't think that's fair."[14][15] In a 2003 Denver Post article Schaller said that he is troubled that no Bigfoot remains have ever been uncovered, and no feces samples have been found to allow DNA testing. Schaller notes: "There have been so many sightings over the years, even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest. I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential".[16][17]

On May 24, 2006 Maria Goodavage wrote an article in USA Today titled, "Bigfoot Merely Amuses Most Scientists", in which she quotes Washington State zoologist John Crane, "There is no such thing as Bigfoot. No data other than material that's clearly been fabricated has ever been presented."[10] Several other prominent scientists have also expressed at least a guarded interest in Sasquatch reports, including George Schaller, Russell Mittermeier, Daris Swindler and Esteban Sarmiento.[18]

Prominent anthropologist Carleton S. Coon's posthumously published essay Why the Sasquatch Must Exist states, "Even before I read John Green's book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, first published in 1978, I accepted Sasquatch's existence."[19] Coon examines the question from several angles, stating that he is confident only in ruling out a relict Neanderthal population as a viable candidate for Sasquatch reports.

As previously noted, Napier generally argued against Bigfoot's existence, but added that some "soft evidence" (i.e., eyewitness accounts, footprints, hair and droppings) is compelling enough that he advises against "dismissing its reality out of hand."[20]

Krantz and others have argued that a double standard is applied to Sasquatch studies by many academics: whenever there is a claim or evidence of Sasquatch's existence, enormous scrutiny is applied, as well as it should be. Yet when individuals claim to have hoaxed Bigfoot evidence, the claims are frequently accepted without corroborative evidence.

In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious magazine Nature, argued that creatures like Bigfoot deserved further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth ... Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold."[21]

[edit] Hoaxes

Bigfoot sightings or footprints are often demonstrably hoaxes. Author Jerome Clark argues that the "Jacko" affair, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia was a hoax. Citing research by John Green, who found that several contemporary British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as very dubious, Clark notes that the New Westminster, British Columbia Mainland Guardian wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it."[22]

In 1958 bulldozer operator Jerry Crew took to a newspaper office a cast of one of the enormous footprints he and other workers had been seeing at an isolated work site in Bluff Creek, California. The story and photo garnered international attention through being picked up by the Associated Press.[23] The crew was overseen by Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace. Years after the track casts were made, Ray Wallace got involved in Bigfoot "research" and made various outlandish claims. He was poorly regarded by many who took the subject seriously. Napier wrote, "I do not feel impressed with Mr. Wallace's story" regarding having over 15,000 feet of film showing Bigfoot.[24]

Shortly after Wallace's death, his children called him the "father of Bigfoot." They claimed Ray faked the tracks seen by Jerry Crew in 1958. There were some wooden track makers among Ray's inherited belongings which the family said were used to make the 1958 tracks[citation needed].

[edit] Alleged sightings

There have been many hundreds of alleged Bigfoot sightings, however here are some of the most notable ones:

* 1840: Protestant missionary Reverend Elkanah Walker recorded myths of hairy giants that were persistent among Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants steal salmon and had a strong smell.[25]
* 1924: Fred Beck and four other miners claimed to have been attacked by several sasquatches in Ape Canyon in July, 1924. The creatures reportedly hurled large rocks at the miners’ cabin for several hours during the night. This case was publicized in newspaper reports printed in 1924.[26][27][28]
* 1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed to have escaped their home when a large sasquatch, allegedly 7½ feet tall, approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.[29]
* 1940s onward: People living in Fouke, Arkansas have reported that a Bigfoot-like creature, dubbed the “Fouke Monster”, inhabits the region. A high number of reports have occurred in the Boggy Creek area and are the basis for the 1973 film The Legend of Boggy Creek.[30][31][32][33][34][35]
* 1955: William Roe claimed to have seen a close-up view of a female sasquatch from concealment near Mica Mountain, British Columbia.[36]
* 1958: Two construction workers, Leslie Breazale and Ray Kerr, reported seeing a sasquatch about 45 miles northeast of Eureka, California. Sixteen-inch tracks had previously been spotted in the northern California woods.[37]
* 1967: On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured a purported sasquatch on film in Bluff Creek, California in what would come to be known as the Patterson-Gimlin film.
* 1970: A family of bigfoot-like creatures called "zoobies" was observed on multiple occasions by a San Diego psychiatrist named Dr. Baddour and his family near their Alpine, California home, as reported in an interview with San Diego County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Doug Huse, who investigated the sightings.[38]
* 1995: On August 28, 1995, a TV film crew from Waterland Productions pulled off the road into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and filmed what they claimed to be a sasquatch in their RV's Headlights.[39]
* 2005: On April 16, 2005, A creature resembling a bigfoot was reportedly seen on the bank of the Nelson River in Norway House, Manitoba. Two minutes and forty seconds of footage was taken by ferry operator Bobby Clarke from across the Nelson River.[40] Canadian rock band The Weakerthans later recorded a song about this sighting, "Bigfoot!", on their 2007 album Reunion Tour. [41]
* 2006: On December 14, 2006, Shaylane Beatty, a woman from the Dechambault Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, was driving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan when, she claimed, saw the creature near the side of the highway at Torch River. Several men from the village drove down to the area and found footprints, which they tracked through the snow. They found a tuft of brown hair and took photographs of the tracks.[42][43]
* 2007: On September 16, 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a possible sasquatch using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree.[44] A spokesperson for the Pennsylania Game Commission challenged the Bigfoot explanation, saying that it looked like "a bear with a severe case of mange."[45] The sighting happened near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny National Forest, which is about 115 miles north of Pittsburgh.[46][45]
* 2008: Berry-pickers reports a sasquatch sighting in northern Ontario, Canada.[47]
* 2008: In July, Rick Dyer made claims that he had discovered the deceased body of a possible Sasquatch in the woods of Georgia.[48] A press conference to release alleged photographs and DNA evidence was scheduled on August 15, 2008.[49]

[edit] See also

* Bigfoot in popular culture
* Bigfoot trap
* Evidence regarding Bigfoot
* Formal studies of Bigfoot

Similar alleged creatures

* Almas - Mongolia
* Barmanou - Afghanistan and Pakistan
* Chuchunaa - Siberia
* Ebu Gogo - Flores Island, Indonesia
* Fear liath - Scotland
* Fouke Monster - Fouke, Arkansas
* Hibagon - Japan
* Kapre - Philippines
* Karakoncolos - Turkey, Bulgaria
* Lake Worth monster - Lake Worth, Texas
* Momo the Monster - Missouri, Louisiana
* Người Rừng - Vietnam
* Nuk-luk - Northwest Territories
* Old Yellow Top - Canada
* Orang Mawas - Malaysia
* Orang Pendek - Sumatra, Indonesia
* Pennsylvania Creature - Pennsylvania
* Pitt Lake Giant - British Columbia, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania
* Skunk Ape - Florida
* Woodwose
* Yeren - Hubei, China
* Yeti - Tibet
* Yowie - Australia

Similar beings in folklore

* Giant - Southern Europe
* Ogre - Northern Europe
* Troll - Scandinavia
* Wendigo - Canada and Eastern US

From: www.wikipedia.org

Bigfoot body 'found and put in freezer'

TWO US professional Bigfoot hunters claim to have found a body of the legendary creature and will present evidence of the astounding discovery to the world's press and scientists tomorrow.

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, who run Bigfoot expeditions, say they found a dead Bigfoot in the woods of north Georgia, in the southeast of the US, about two weeks ago and have put the carcass in a freezer.

They along with "the real Bigfoot Hunter" Tom Biscardi, who has endorsed the find, will front a press conference in California, where they say DNA and photo proof will be presented.

Mr Whitton, a Georgia police officer on leave to recover from a shooting, and Mr Dyer, a former prison officer, have posted photos of their "find" on their searchingforbigfoot website.

They describe the creature as being a 2.3m tall "part human and part ape" male and weighing over 230kg with reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.

The infamous feet are described as being flat and 41cm long with five toes.

The hands also have five fingers and and the teeth are more "human-like than ape like".

The hunters claim several Bigfoots were spotted walking upright in the area the body was found but won't reveal the location "to protect the creatures".

Mr Whitton, Mr Dyer and Mr Biscardi say they will soon mount a secret expedition to capture a live Bigfoot.

Commenting on the discovery Scientific American said the apparent reluctance of the Bigfoot hunters to actually display or hand over the body would make those sceptical roll their eyes.

Although many would regard the Bigfoot as mythical, enthusiasts were given more reason to believe in October last year when hunter Rick Jacobs claimed to have taken photos of a Bigfoot in Pennsylvania.

The Bigfoot stir coincides with a supposed Texas sighting and filming of another legendary US monster, the chupacabra, which is a dog like animal with a long snout that according to folklore attacks livestock, especially goats, and drinks their blood.

It seems to be a monster summer in the US with an unidentifed creature creating an internet sensation after it washed up near New York last month.

Bigfoot's erstwhile cousin, the yeti or Abominable Snowman, also came under renewed scrutiny last month with a scientist sending some alleged hair from the creature to a lab for DNA testing.

from: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24179242-2,00.html

Harry Potter Fans Call 'Half-Blood Prince' Trailer 'Bold,' 'Intense' And 'Eerie'

By Jennifer Vineyard (MTV.com)

Far from being disappointed that the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer is barely about Harry at all, most fans say they love this first glimpse of Tom Riddle - the boy who would grow up to become the Dark Lord. They did have a few reservations, though.

"I thought this was a bold move and a wise choice," said Kristina Horner of the wizard-rock band the Parselmouths. "And it's a wise choice. He's easily one of the most fascinating characters in the book. Young Tom Riddle is all the right amounts of crabby, stubborn and adorable - which will make his story even more tragic."

Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, who plays the young Tom Riddle in the orphanage scene with Dumbledore, got raves for being extra creepy. Jen Bensoussan, who runs the fan site DanRadcliffe.com, called him the "perfect evil, eerie child version of Voldemort. Think 'Omen.' "

"It seems that in the way the universe revolved around the role of Dolores Umbridge in the last film, perhaps Voldemort will be stealing the stage this go-around," said Megan Schuyler, a documentary filmmaker who just completed a movie about wizard rock. "Hero Fiennes-Tiffin will make an excellent Dark Lord-in-training."

"I think the trailer did a good job of showing that the concept of absolute power turned an innocent boy into a madman," said 15-year-old Saribel Pages, a sophomore at New York's Horace Mann School.

Since the trailer presented that concept with Riddle's words as a boy over images of actions committed by him or in his name later in life - "I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me" - the effect made it seem more like a horror film, fans said.

Not all fans appreciated that. "Ooh, exciting!" said Sandra Pieloch, a senior designer for Nickelodeon Creative Resources. "Only I didn't know the newest Harry Potter was being directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It feels like some Brit remake of The Sixth Sense. "

"The cinematography is on a much grander scale," Bensoussan said. "From the graphic effects surrounding Dumbledore to the chilling scene of Bonnie in the woods, or of Ron lying death-like on the floor, 'Half-Blood Prince looks to be bolder, darker and more intense."

"The movies pale in comparison to the actual books," said Raina Tinker, a designer at HarperCollins, "but this one looks dark and creepy, which is how the book was."

Not everything in the book is going to make the movie, and not everything in the movie can make the trailer - otherwise, it would be another movie. Still, fans noticed some discrepancies.

"I think they did a great job of young Dumbledore in the Tom Riddle orphanage, but what is he wearing?" asked Jen Boxerman, a staffer for the upcoming Harry Potter conference Terminus. "It's supposed to be a silly suit, and instead they put him in a polka-dot tie? It's a testament to J.K. Rowling that I even notice these things."

The larger issue for most fans is that the focus on Riddle meant nearly every other character was left out - including the Half-Blood Prince himself. "Where was Slughorn?" asked Caroline Bartels, librarian and host of Horace Mann's "Lit Chat" club. "Where was Snape? Where was Merope? And the battle on the Tower?"

"Where's Rupert Grint?" asked Pieloch. (He was on the floor, after being poisoned, for a split second - blink, and you missed it. But Grint exclusively told the Movies Blog that it's just a teaser trailer, so there's more Ron Weasley to come.)

"There wasn't enough Draco," Boxerman said.

"Horcruxes weren't even mentioned," said Sarah Sanders, a 17-year-old Horace Mann junior.

Perhaps if they had been, the audience would have been lost. If it takes Harry the length of the book to understand what Horcruxes are, how many there are, and what and where they might be, how can you expect a general audience to grasp the concept in a minute and a half? But if the filmmakers steered clear from anything too clunky for the trailer, they might have done themselves a disservice by not alluding to the mystery.

"I don't think it was exciting enough for non-Potter fans," said Finn Vigeland, a 15-year-old junior at Horace Mann. "I don't think it would attract people who are on the fence."

"If you haven't read the books, why would you go see this?" Bartels asked. "It doesn't move you forward from the last book at all."

Others disagree, saying the trailer worked just as well for hard-core fans such like themselves as well as the general public.

"It gave me goose bumps," said Jace Crion of the wizard-rock band Catchlove. "The trailer gave me hope that this could be the best Harry Potter movie yet."

"It makes you want to stick with Harry to see how he's going to get through it all," said Hallie Tibbets, a staffer at Terminus, "even if you know exactly how the story will end."

from: http://www.mtvasia.com/News/200807/31016335.html

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Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in

From: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gH1fcT1QrjvwIaAZTO63_lxHs9EQD929AMOO0

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.

The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.

Tom Ivins, a brother of the scientist, told The Associated Press that another of his brothers, Charles, told him Bruce had committed suicide.

A woman who answered the phone at Charles Ivins' home in Etowah, N.C., refused to wake him and declined to comment on his death. "This is a grieving time," she said.

A woman who answered the phone at Bruce Ivins' home in Frederick declined to comment.

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr and FBI Assistant Director John Miller declined to comment on the report.

Henry S. Heine, a scientist who had worked with Ivins on inhalation anthrax research at Fort Detrick, said he and others on their team have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that has been investigating the anthrax mailings for more than a year.

Heine declined to comment on Ivins' death.

Norman Covert, a retired Fort Detrick spokesman who served with Ivins on an animal-care and protocol committee, said Ivins was "a very intent guy" at their meetings.

Ivins was the co-author of numerous anthrax studies, including one on a treatment for inhalation anthrax published in the July 7 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Just last month, the government exonerated another scientist at the Fort Detrick lab, Steven Hatfill, who had been identified by the FBI as a "person of interest" in the anthrax attacks. The government paid Hatfill $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit he filed against the Justice Department in which he claimed the department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.

The Times said federal investigators moved away from Hatfill and concluded Ivins was the culprit after FBI Director Robert Mueller changed leadership of the investigation in 2006. The new investigators instructed agents to re-examine leads and reconsider potential suspects. In the meantime, investigators made progress in analyzing anthrax powder recovered from letters addressed to two U.S. senators, according to the report.

Besides the five deaths, 17 people were sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The victims included postal workers and others who came into contact with the anthrax.

In January 2002, the FBI doubled the reward for helping solve the case to $2.5 million, and by June officials said the agency was scrutinizing 20 to 30 scientists who might have had the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters.

After the government's settlement with Hatfill was announced in late June, Ivins started showing signs of strain, the Times said. It quoted a longtime colleague as saying Ivins was being treated for depression and indicated to a therapist that he was considering suicide. Family members and local police escorted Ivins away from the Army lab, and his access to sensitive areas was curtailed, the colleague told the newspaper. He said Ivins was facing a forced retirement in September.

The colleague declined to be identified out of concern that he would be harassed by the FBI, the report said.

Ivins was one of the nation's leading biodefense researchers.

In 2003, Ivins and two of his colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick received the highest honor given to Defense Department civilian employees for helping solve technical problems in the manufacture of anthrax vaccine.

In 1997, U.S. military personnel began receiving the vaccine to protect against a possible biological attack. Within months, a number of vaccine lots failed a potency test required by federal regulators, causing a shortage of vaccine and eventually halting the immunization program. The USAMRIID team's work led to the reapproval of the vaccine for human use.

The Times said Ivins was the son of a Princeton-educated pharmacist who was born and raised in Lebanon, Ohio. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in microbiology, from the University of Cincinnati.

Dishneau reported from Hagerstown, Md.

Pluto Now Called a Plutoid

From Yahoo! News

The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term "plutoid" as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto.

Sidestepping concerns of many astronomers worldwide, the IAU's decision, at a meeting of its Executive Committee in Oslo, comes almost two years after it stripped Pluto of its planethood and introduced the term "dwarf planets" for Pluto and other small round objects that often travel highly elliptical paths around the sun in the far reaches of the solar system.

The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III and by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, according to a statement released today.

Here's the official new definition:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Controversy continues

Already the IAU recognizes it is adding to an ongoing controversy.

The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s. Its decision in 2006 to demote Pluto was highly controversial, with some astronomers saying simply that they would not heed it and questioning the IAU's validity as a governing body.

"The IAU is a democratic organization, thus open to comments and criticism of any kind," IAU General Secretary Karel A. van der Hucht told SPACE.com by email today. "Given the history of the issue, we will probably never reach a complete consensus."

It remains to be seen whether astronomers will use the new term.

"My guess is that no one is going to much use this term, though perhaps I'm wrong," said Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, who has led the discovery of several objects in the outer solar system, including Eris. "But I don't think that this will be because it is controversial, just not particularly necessary."

Brown was unaware of the new definition until the IAU announced it today.

"Back when the term 'pluton' was nixed they said they would come up with another one," Brown said. "So I guess they finally did."

More debate coming

The dwarf planet Ceres is not a plutoid as it is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to the IAU. Current scientific knowledge lends credence to the belief that Ceres is the only object of its kind, the IAU stated. Therefore, a separate category of Ceres-like dwarf planets will not be proposed at this time, the reasoning goes.

A meeting, planned earlier this year for Aug. 14-16 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, aims to bring astronomers of varying viewpoints together to discuss the controversy. "No votes will be taken at this conference to put specific objects in or out of the family of planets," APL's Dr. Hal Weaver, a conference organizer, said in a statement in May. "But we will have advocates of the IAU definition and proponents of alternative definitions presenting their cases."

The term plutoid joins a host of other odd words -- plutinos, centaurs, cubewanos and EKOs -- that astronomers use to define objects in the outer solar system.

* Why Planets Will Never Be Defined
* The History of the Pluto Controversy
* Gallery: Our New Solar System

* Original Story: Pluto Now Called a Plutoid

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Perfect storm' knocks out 911 service

* Much of Monday's storm damage was focused on the city's northwestern edge, authorities say.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Calling it the “perfect storm,” Dougherty County’s EMA director says they still haven’t discovered how the area’s 911 system, designed to withstand most natural disasters, shut down during a thunderstorm Monday evening.

As rain, hail and near hurricane-force winds moved through the metro area around 8:30 p.m. Monday, Dougherty County’s lifeline between the public and public safety officials went down.

“It’s not supposed to happen,” EMA Director and Fire Chief James Carswell said. “I’m not sure exactly, at this point, why all of them failed; the phones were down, the radios were down, and the CAD system was down. Everything shut down.”

Carswell said that the system is designed to handle catastrophes including severe weather and power outages, but that, for some reason, all of the backups designed to keep the system functional, failed.

“I don’t know if we’re calling it the perfect storm or not, but everything that could go wrong did,” he said.

The storm that toppled trees and brought down power lines, shut off the department’s computer and telephone capabilities, Carswell said.

After several minutes, Carswell said that the system slowly started to come back on line, allowing just a few of the department’s lines to open.

Meanwhile, operators were forced to use portable radios to communicate with police, fire and EMS units who were responding during the storm.

The storm came virtually out of nowhere, giving area residents little advance notice through traditional TV and radio warnings. But the county’s new CODE RED notification system — which calls registered users when severe weather or other emergencies are threatening their area — was successfully used for the first time, Carswell said.

By Tuesday morning, most of the 1,000 people who lost power during the storm had it restored.

On the city’s northwestern edge, homes were more greatly impacted, Carswell said.

“There were a lot of trees down and lines down over near Nottingham, Gail and that area,” he said.

Despite the damage, no injuries were reported and no vital calls were missed while 911 was down, although Carswell said that an immediate investigation is under way to determine the cause of the failure.

from: http://www.albanyherald.com/archives/News/2008/front061108f.html

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Sleeping Your Way to the Top

Americans are not renowned for their powers of self-deprivation; doing without is not something we do particularly well. But experts say there is one necessity of life most of us consistently fail to get: a good night's sleep.

The recommended daily requirements should sound familiar: eight hours of sleep a night for adults and at least an hour more for adolescents. Yet 71% of American adults and 85% of teens do not get the suggested amount, to the detriment of body and mind. "Sleep is sort of like food," says Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. But, he adds, there's one important difference: "You can be quite starved and still alive, and I think we appreciate how horrible that must be. But many of us live on the edge of sleep starvation and just accept it."

Part of the problem is we are so used to being chronically sleep deprived--and have become so adept at coping with that condition--that we no longer notice how exhausted we really are. In 2003, sleep expert David Dinges and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine tested the effects of restricting slumber to eight, six or four hours a night for two weeks. During the first few days, subjects sleeping less than eight hours admitted to being fatigued and lacking alertness. But by Day 4, most people had adapted to their new baseline drowsiness and reported feeling fine--even as their cognitive performance continued to plummet.

Over time, the experiment's sleep-restricted subjects became so impaired that they had difficulty concentrating on even the simplest tasks, like pushing a button in response to a light. "The human brain is only capable of about 16 hours of wakefulness [a day]," says Dinges. "When you get beyond that, it can't function as efficiently, as accurately or as well."

In the real world, people overcome their somnolence--at least temporarily--by drinking coffee, taking a walk around the block or chatting with office mates. But then they find themselves nodding off in meetings or, worse, behind the wheel. Those short snatches of unconsciousness are what researchers call microsleep, a sure sign of sleep deprivation. "If people are falling asleep because 'the room was hot' or 'the meeting was boring,' that's not coping with sleep loss. I would argue that they're eroding their productive capability," says Dinges.

What most people don't realize is that the purpose of sleep may be more to rest the mind than to rest the body. Indeed, most of the benefits of eight hours' sleep seem to accrue to the brain: sleep helps consolidate memory, improve judgment, promote learning and concentration, boost mood, speed reaction time and sharpen problem solving and accuracy. According to Sonia Ancoli-Israel, a psychologist at the University of California at San Diego who has done extensive studies in the aging population, lack of sleep may even mimic the symptoms of dementia. In recent preliminary findings, she was able to improve cognitive function in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's simply by treating their underlying sleep disorder. "The need for sleep does not change a lot with age," says Ancoli-Israel, but often because of disruptive illnesses and the medications used to treat them, "the ability to sleep does."

If you're one of the otherwise healthy yet perpetually underrested, there's plenty you can do to pay back your sleep debt. For starters, you can catch up on lost time. Take your mom's advice, and get to bed early. Turn off the TV half an hour sooner than usual. If you can't manage to snooze longer at night, try to squeeze in a midday nap. The best time for a siesta is between noon and 3 p.m., for about 30 to 60 minutes, according to Timothy Roehrs, director of research at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He advises against oversleeping on weekend mornings to make up for a workweek of deprivation; late rising can disrupt your circadian rhythm, making it even harder later to get a full night's rest.

According to Dinges' analysis of data from the 2003 American Time Use Survey, the most common reason we shortchange ourselves on sleep is work. (The second biggest reason, surprisingly, is that we spend too much time driving around in our cars.) But consider that in giving up two hours of bedtime to do more work, you're losing a quarter of your recommended nightly dose and gaining just 12% more time during the day. What if you could be 12% more productive instead? "You have to realize that if you get a good night's sleep, you will actually be more efficient and get more done the next day. The more you give up on sleep, the harder it is to be productive," says Ancoli-Israel. "What is it going to be?"

If mental sharpness is your goal, the answer is clear: stop depriving yourself, and get a good night's sleep.

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