Brian Regal, monster 'historian

The truth is out there, but according to one local expert, it’s just not as crazy as some of the more conspiratorially minded folks may think. Brian Regal is a Ph.D. from Kean University in Union, New Jersey, and the author of “Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology.” His areas of interest include human evolution, monster studies, pseudoscience, obscuranta and more. In other words, he’s a perfect fit for a Halloween Eve interview. Last year, he spoke to Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT) members about “cryptozoology,” which is the study of animals only rumored to exist. (Said PhACT’s Ray Haupt, “The audience reacted very well, as the discussion was light-hearted, dealing with pure myths that were devised with no factual basis.”) RELATED STORIES Philly artist designs U.S. mythical creature map Has the Jersey Devil been spotted? Haunted Hotels: Eight area hotels with histories of paranormal activity As such, he was a natural fit to lend a critical eye for the History Channel’s new series “True Monsters,” where he weighs in on, among other topics, the Jersey Devil. Regal spoke with PhillyVoice about his areas of interest and just why people-READ MORE-http://www.phillyvoice.com/five-friday-brian-regal-phd/

Halyomorpha halys -stink bug is coming

Brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys, also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, or simply the stink bug, is an insect in the family Pentatomidae, and it is native to China, Japan and Taiwan. Wikipedia Scientific name: Halyomorpha halys-this so called stink bug is expected to be visiting british shores.Name is due to the bug giving off a garbage like smell.

Dealing With Stink Bugs

“Uughh!  What is that smell?  It’s these bugs! They really smell foul!”  We are hearing this more and more these days. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) has become firmly entrenched here in the U.S. After being accidentally introduced from Asia into Pennsylvania in the late 1990’s, it has quickly spread across the country and become a major pest to both home owners and farmers alike.

Getting Rid of Stink Bugs and Control for homes

Prevention:
The key to getting rid of and eliminating indoor stink bugs in the spring is preventing their entry in the fall. Once they have entered the home, there aren't a lot of treatment options. The easiest way to remove them once they are indoors is with a vacuum cleaner; however the vacuum may take on the characteristic smell of the stink bug.  If you’ve had them you know the smell.

Mechanical Exclusion:

Mechanical exclusion is the best method to keep stink bugs from entering homes and buildings. Cracks around windows, doors, siding, utility pipes, behind chimneys, and underneath the wood fascia and other openings should be sealed with good quality silicone or silicone-latex caulk.  Damaged screens on doors and windows should be repaired or replaced.
Spraying the exterior of the home early in the fall can offer an additional layer of protection.

Pest Control Treatment for Stink bugs

   Products such as D-Fense SC , Cyzmic CS, Bifen IT, Cyper WP, and Demon WP are very effective at preventing the stink bugs from congregating on the side of the home, thus preventing their entry. Timing of the application is important. As the night time temperatures dip into the low 50's or lower you can expect the stink bugs to arrive.  Focus on spraying the south and west exposure of the house.  The more surface area you cover the better the results will be.  This may require the use of a ladder to reach the uppermost areas around the roof.  Remember to use proper ladder safety protocol and, as always, be sure to read and follow all label directions for the pesticide you are using.
So keep in mind that while stink bugs are a nuisance they can be dealt with.  It's not easy or fun to do but avoiding the stinky smell they bring is worth the effort.

When and Where Stink Bugs Are A Problem

The problem for home owners begins in the fall.  As the temperatures begin to drop, the stink bugs try to stay warm by clustering on the sides of homes and other buildings.  They are particularly fond of the south and west sides of the building because those sides are warmed by the afternoon sun.  Many stink bugs will congregate there and they will inevitably work their way into the building through small cracks or crevices, door jams, attic vents, and other gaps in the structure.   They are seeking a suitable place to stay warm and spend the winter.  Once inside the building, they go dormant and they fully expect to stay dormant until spring.  The problem is that every time there is a warm sunny winter day their hiding spot warms up and they think it is spring.  After spending the winter months tucked away in the walls or the attic, they have simply forgotten how they got in. In their effort to get back outside they accidently end up inside the home. They don't want to be inside at all.  They are merely looking for a way to get outside. This may happen all at once in the spring, or be sporadic all through the winter and spring, depending on the weather. 

Identification:

Stink bugs can range in colors, but are commonly green or brown. They are about 5/8 inch long. The adults have a triangular thorax. All stink bugs have the characteristic five-sided shield shape. Their eggs are barrel shaped . Sting Bugs nymphs resemble adults in shape but are smaller and have contrasting color patterns

Stink bugs give out a foul odor.

Damage:

Stink bugs feed on plants and shrubbery. Generally thought of as an agricultural pest, stink bugs will take up residence around any garden or landscape rich with plants and flowers.

Stink bugs feed on buds and seedpods, sucking juice from plants. This results from badly formed buds and fruit.

Diet:

Plants are the primary source of food for stink bugs. They feed by sucking on the sap from pods, buds, blossoms and seeds. Some species of stink bugs even feed on juices from caterpillars and beetle larva. They are often crop pests on cabbage, cotton, beans, squash or melons.

Life Cycle and History:

Stink bugs do not reproduce inside, therefore they invade homes from the outside. They go through a simple metamorphosis: egg, nymph, and adult.

There are one to two generations of stink bugs each year .Peak population sizes occur in late September to early October. It is during these months that stink bugs may become agricultural pests. Adults are sometimes dormant in the winter, overwintering in logs, leaf litter or other similar habitats where they are unlikely to be disturbed

Nymphs feed throughout the summer and molt to adults in late summer.

The eggs of a stink bug can be found on the underside of leaves in clumps of 20-30 eggs. Adults mate in the spring and females will lay eggs on plants. These eggs will be laid in groups and are not plant specific. The eggs are oval in shape, ranging from light yellow to a yellowish-reddish color, equipped with tiny spines forming fine lines along the eggs.  The nymphs, similar in appearance to the adult stink bug, are differentiated by its lack of wings. From the nymph stage, the stink bug will molt (5 stages)before becoming a full grown adult. They take a couple months to mature.

Due to milder temperatures the South has the highest populations.

Giant tortoise makes 'miraculous' stable recovery

Where once there were 15, now more than 1,000 giant tortoises lumber around Espanola, one of the Galapagos Islands. After 40 years' work reintroducing captive animals, a detailed study of the island's ecosystem has confirmed it has a stable, breeding population. Numbers had dwindled drastically by the 1960s, but now the danger of extinction on Espanola appears to have passed. Galapagos tortoises, of which there are 11 remaining subspecies, weigh up to 250kg and live longer than 100 years. The study, based on decades of observations of the variety found on Espanola, was published in the journal Plos One. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote It looks like we can step back out of the picture” Prof James Gibbs SUNY-ESF Slow release It offers some good news that contrasts with the tale of Lonesome George, the very last of the related subspecies found on Pinta, on the other side of the archipelago. George's death, at the age of about 100, made international news in 2012. Lead author Prof James Gibbs told BBC News the finding on Espanola was "one of those rare examples of a true conservation success story, where we've rescued something from the brink of extinction and now it's literally taking care of itself". Prof Gibbs, from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York (SUNY-ESF), said he felt "honoured" to be reporting the obvious success of the reintroduction programme, which the Galapagos Islands National Park Service commenced in 1973.READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29801967

Newt flesh fungus 'brought by pets'

Zoologists say a skin-eating fungus threatens salamanders and newts across Europe, and probably arrived on pet amphibians imported from Asia. It was discovered in the Netherlands in 2013 after wiping out all but 10 of the country's fire salamanders. Now tests show that the fungus causes deadly skin diseases in many related species, but not those from Asia. The findings, published in Science, suggest that the fungus coexisted with Asian salamanders for 30 million years. Researchers from Imperial College and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) collaborated on the study with teams in the Netherlands and Belgium. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote There appear to be no real barriers that prevent the spread of the fungus throughout Europe” Prof An Martel Ghent University The parasitic fungus, called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, is related to another fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) that causes a similar disease in frogs and other amphibians, mostly in the tropics. According to the new study, the recently discovered "B. sal" does not affect frogs or toads but kills a wide variety of salamanders. It rapidly invades and eats an animal's skin, which is crucial to its survival because it helps it to breathe. "Most of the salamander species that come into contact with this fungus die within weeks," said lead author Prof An Martel from Ghent University, Belgium. "There appear to be no real barriers that prevent the spread of the fungus throughout Europe."READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29831384

Koala chlamydia vaccine trial raises hope

Australian scientists say they have successfully tested a vaccine aimed at protecting wild koalas from chlamydia.

The disease has ravaged the native marsupial, which is under increasing threat.

Microbiologists in Queensland now hope to protect some of the remaining population after successfully trialling a vaccine developed over five years.

Koala numbers have plummeted in recent years and there are believed to be as few as 43,000 left in the wild.

In some areas, numbers have dropped by as much as 80% in the past 10 years.

The strain of chlamydia that affects koalas can lead to blindness, infertility and death among the animals.

In the trial, microbiologists from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland gave 30 koalas the vaccine while 30 others were left unvaccinated.

All 60 were then fitted with radio collars so they could be monitored in their natural habitat at Moreton Bay, north of Brisbane.

Of the 30 vaccinated, some were already infected with chlamydia, some were healthy and some were showing symptoms of the disease such as eye infections and reproductive tract infections.

Researchers said that seven out of eight koalas suffering from eye infections who received the vaccine showed an improvement.

But in the unvaccinated group, four of six koalas with eye infections saw their conditions worsen.READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-29828269

Aids: Origin of pandemic 'was 1920s Kinshasa'

Kinshasa in 1955 Kinshasa, pictured in 1955, was at the centre of the pandemic, scientists say Continue reading the main story Related Stories Early HIV drugs are 'not a cure' Aids can be 'under control by 2030' HIV origin 'found in wild chimps' The origin of the Aids pandemic has been traced to the 1920s in the city of Kinshasa, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientists say. An international team of scientists say a "perfect storm" of population growth, sex and railways allowed HIV to spread. A feat of viral archaeology was used to find the pandemic's origin, the team report in the journal Science. They used archived samples of HIV's genetic code to trace its source, with evidence pointing to 1920s Kinshasa. Their report says a roaring sex trade, rapid population growth and unsterilised needles used in health clinics probably spread the virus. Meanwhile Belgium-backed railways had one million people flowing through the city each year, taking the virus to neighbouring regions. Experts said it was a fascinating insight into the start of the pandemic. HIV came to global attention in the 1980s and has infected nearly 75 million people. It has a much longer history in Africa, but where the pandemic started has remained the source of considerable debate. Family affair A team at the University of Oxford and the University of Leuven, in Belgium, tried to reconstruct-READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29442642

duncan-jones-marine-discovery-penzance-interviewd bymark antony riane -ghostman

https://soundcloud.com/ghostman-cole/duncan-jones-marine-discovery-penzance-a better version may be done through cfz onthe track with jon downes as i have original for him to edit.mark..ghostman

Ronan Coghlan interviewed by mark antony raines -ghostman

what inspired you to get into cfz subject?1) Reading Heuvelmans' <On the Track> at university                                           WHAT ARE YOUR AIMS?     I'm past an age where one has aims - I have but memories                                .what plans do you have for the future? Producing an earth-shattering bestseller.

Monkey leaders and followers have 'specialised brains'

Monkeys at the top and bottom of the social pecking order have physically different brains, research has found.

A particular network of brain areas was bigger in dominant animals, while other regions were bigger in subordinates.
The study suggests that primate brains, including ours, can be specialised for life at either end of the hierarchy.
The differences might reflect inherited tendencies toward leading or following, or the brain adapting to an animal's role in life - or a little of both.
Neuroscientists made the discovery, which appears in the journal Plos Biology, by comparing brain scans from 25 macaque monkeys that were already "on file" as part of ongoing research at the University of Oxford.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Dominance might depend not only on aggression and physical strength, but also on forming bonds and making coalitions - and being quite smart about placing your loyalties”

Dr MaryAnn Noonan University of Oxford

"We were also looking at learning and memory and decision-making, and the changes that are going on in your brain when you're doing those things," explained Dr MaryAnn Noonan, the study's first author.

The decision to look at the animals' social status produced an unexpectedly clear result, Dr Noonan said.
"It was surprising. All our monkeys were of different ages and different genders - but with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) you can control for all of that. And we were consistently seeing these same networks coming out."
The monkeys live in groups of up to five, so the team identified their social status by watching their behaviour, then compared it to different aspects of the brain data.
In monkeys at the top of their social group, three particular bits of the brain tended to be larger (specifically the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the raphe nucleus). In subordinate monkeys, the tendency read more

Study creates 'time travel' illusion

Virtual reality can be used to give the illusion of going "back in time", according to an exploratory study.

In this virtual world, subjects were able to reduce how many people a gunman killed, an event they had unknowingly been part of.
Going into "the past" increased the level of guilt the participants felt.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the team says that virtual time travel could help people overcome traumatic experiences.
Most interesting, the researchers add, was the emotional impact virtual time travel had on the participants.
"The more the participants felt the illusion, the greater the sense of their own morality," explained co-author Mel Slater of the ICREA (Catalan Research Institute) and University College London.
Mutable past In the virtual world, participants could walk, talk and move similar to how they would in real life, and previous studies have shown that people strongly associate with their virtual selves.
"In virtual reality, the brain's low level perceptual system does not distinguish between the virtual and the real world; the brain takes what it sees and hears in a surrounding environment as given," added Prof Slater.
"Therefore, if they had an experience with the illusion of time travel, there is implicit learning that the past is mutable, that is: 'my own past decisions don't matter because they're changeable'-."READ MORE

SEAGULL -NOT THAT BAD

Yes i know seagulls can be a problem when scavenging scraps.But it is our fault for encouring them to ffed,i dot agree with spraying them with water -similar to riot
control.

Rosetta spacecraft reaches Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

European spacecraft Rosetta became the first ever to catch up with a comet on Wednesday, a landmark stage in a decade-long space mission that scientists hope will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar system.
Scientists and spectators at ESA's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, cheered Wednesday after the spacecraft successfully completed its final thrust to swing alongside comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
A Twitter account run by the ESA tweeted a photo of the craft's approach shortly after 5:30 a.m. ET.read more ,see photos and video link

HI E.T

DR.Sara Seager,Massachusetts Institute Of Technology  is  claiming  that  evidence of  alien life  could  be found  within 2o years.This  is  due  to a new  generation of  super powered telescopes that  can  peer into distant planets atmospheres for chemical footprints and  due  to  launch 2018.

HI BIRDMAN

On Monday 4th august  it  started out  a normal garden duty day  at  cfz headquarters.Then along  came  aunt  Beth with come doves,pigoens,a couple  of  rabbit  cages.Then  me ,jon,corinna,graham preceded to take them to the  pheasant  home.Where me  and  aunt  Beth released  them, and  after a moment  1,2 then 3 birds  were  on my baseball cap on my  head  much  to the  amusement to the  cfz family.Jon filmed for   cfz on the  track  and  said my  new name was birdman.All the birds  brought in were tame and  each had  a tale to say,one came from appledore and was perching on people,aut beth is a person who is pasionate about animals.

Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) Paw Print in Mud?