Mystery 'beast' washes up on Wales coast

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

Yahoo!7 [28/02/13]

Mystery 'beast' washes up on Wales coast. 
- Picture Facebook/Peter Bailey
[SOURCE: http://au.news.yahoo.com]

It's the mystery beast of South Wales and it has washed up on a beach on the Pembrokeshire coast.

The creature which appears to have the face of a horse, the body of a pig and the claws of a bear was spotted by local Peter Bailey as he walked his dog last week.

Mr Bailey took a picture and sent it to the local paper, the Western Telegraph

He told the paper: “I was taking my dog for her evening walk across the south beach when she started acting out of character by howling and running round in circles.

U.S. college fraternity raises money for member's partial sex change

REUTERS [28/02/13]

By Daniel Lovering / CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts

(Reuters) - A college fraternity in Massachusetts has launched a campaign to raise money for one of its members to undergo partial sex-change surgery, a college official said on Wednesday.

Donnie Collins, 20, a sophomore at Emerson College in Boston, was born female but has been living as a male since he was 17, said Jason Meier, the college's director of student activities.

When Collins, a visual media arts major, pledged the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity earlier this year, he told fraternity brothers his insurance would not cover the cost of surgery to remove his breasts, Meier said.

Uganda: Raised By Monkeys, Struggling to Be Human

ALLAFRICA.COM

NEW VISION [17/02/13]

By Andrew Masinde

His story began in 1985 when NRA soldiers discovered him in the forest, with his adoptive family - a pack of monkeys. A replica of the fairy tale, The Jungle Book, Robert Mayanja has since been rehabilitated among humans, but still has tendencies of the animal he was raised to be.

He strains his legs as he walks, with his mouth full of grass. His tongue hangs out as he constantly moves from place to place, looking for privacy. He is short with small feet. It is his wrinkled mature face that shows his estimated age.

As I stretch my hand to greet him, he forcefully reaches for me; with wild gestures and moves that make me freeze in utter shock, before instinctively jumping away. But that does not deter Mayanja from following me.

Dinosaurs became extinct 'earlier'

ITN [08/02/13]

By Mark Morris

© Reuters   [SOURCE: http://www.itn.co.uk]

Dinosaurs vanished earlier than previously thought and "within a gnat's eyebrow" of the meteor impact blamed for their extinction, according to scientists. 

Corrected dates for both events suggest they occurred almost at the same time, around 66 million years ago.

DNA Stores MLK's Speech, Shakespeare's Sonnets

DISCOVERY CHANNEL [23/01/13]

by Jesse Emspak  

Although researchers have previously put data on DNA, this is the first time anyone has included 

error-checking routines that enable reliable retrieval.

Steven Hunt / Getty Images                                                                                           (Source: news.discovery.com)

A team of scientists in the U.K. has encoded text, sound files and a photograph onto strings of DNA, and successfully retrieved it without errors.

Scientists spot elusive giant squid

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (powered by Yahoo! News) 

AFP January 8, 2013

Scientists spot elusive giant squid

Scientists and broadcasters in Japan say they have captured footage of an elusive giant squid up to eight metres long that roams the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Japan's National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature in its natural habitat for the first time, working with Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the US Discovery Channel.

They spotted the squid at a depth of 630 metres using a submersible in July, some 15 kilometres east of Chichi island in the north Pacific Ocean.

The submarine with three people on board, including Tsunemi Kubodera from the museum, followed the enormous mollusc to a depth of 900 metres as it swam into the ocean abyss.

Penguin Invasion: South African Town Is Fed-up with Stink and Braying of Endangered Birds

National Geographic [12/11/12]

By David Braun 

When the African penguin made a comeback to the South African mainland in the 1980s, most people were thrilled that the embattled bird was again breeding in places other than on a few rocky islets off the coast of Cape Town. Fences and viewing platforms were erected to protect the penguins from tourists flocking to see them. The adorable penguins stimulated business for restaurants and gift shops.

Ever Wonder What Elephants Would Have to Say?

The New York Times

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

Published: November 2, 2012

Current Biology

Angela Stoeger and Daniel Mietchen recording Koshik's vocalizations at the Everland Zoo in South Korea

At the Everland Zoo in South Korea, there is a young male elephant that can speak Korean. His vocabulary includes “annyong” (hello), “anja” (sit down), “aniya” (no), “nuo” (lie down) and “choah” (good). Researchers say the elephant, whose name is Koshik, vocalizes in a novel way: He puts his trunk in his mouth.