Does Dinosaur are alive , Tail of dinosaur is found in Amber

The tail of a feathered dinosaur has been found perfectly preserved in amber from Myanmar.

The one-of-a-kind discovery helps put flesh on the bones of these extinct creatures, opening a new window on the biology of a group that dominated Earth for more than 160 million years.Examination of the specimen suggests the tail was chestnut brown on top and white on its underside.

The tail is described in the journal Current Biology.

"This is the first time we've found dinosaur material preserved in amber," co-author Ryan McKellar, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, told the BBC News website.

The study's first author, Lida Xing from the China University of Geo-sciences in Beijing, discovered the remarkable fossil at an amber market in Myitkina, Myanmar.

The 99-million-year-old amber had already been polished for jewelry and the seller had thought it was plant material. On closer inspection, however, it turned out to be the tail of a feathered dinosaur about the size of a sparrow.

Lida Xing was able to establish where it had come from by tracking down the amber miner who had originally dug out the specimen.

Dr McKellar said examination of the tail's anatomy showed it definitely belonged to a feathered dinosaur and not an ancient bird.

Dr McKellar said there are signs the dinosaur still contained liquids when it was fused into the tree pitch that in the end framed the golden. This demonstrates it could even have turned out to be caught in the sticky substance while it was still alive. 

Co-creator Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, included: "It's stunning to see every one of the points of interest of a dinosaur tail - the bones, substance, skin, and plumes - and to envision how this little individual got his tail got in the tar, and after that probably passed on in light of the fact that he couldn't wrestle free." 

Examination of the science of the tail where it was uncovered at the surface of the golden even shows up hints of ferrous iron, a relic of the blood that was once in the example. The discoveries likewise shed light on how quills were orchestrated on these dinosaurs, since 3D components are regularly lost because of the pressure that happens when bodies get to be fossils in sedimentary rocks. The plumes do not have the all around created focal shaft - a rachis - known from cutting edge winged creatures. Their structure recommends that the two finest levels of fanning in cutting edge plumes, known as thorns and barbules, emerged before the rachis shaped.

Child abuse 'Now Soccer stars' are involved

Here are now 83 potential suspects and 98 clubs involved in the inquiry into child abuse in football, police chiefs have said.

The investigations span all tiers of football, "from premier clubs through to amateur", the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said.

Police forces across the country are continuing to receive calls, it added.

Of the identified victims, 98% were male, and the age at the time of abuse was between seven and 20, police said.

A total of 639 referrals had been received from the helpline set up by the children's charity the NSPCC, and directly from police forces.

The information is being passed to Operation Hydrant - which oversees the investigation of allegations of "non-recent" child sex abuse within institutions - which collates it and shares it across forces.

The NPCC's lead for child protection said the allegations were "being swiftly acted upon" by police.

Although 98 football clubs had been "referenced", not all were necessarily under investigation, the police said.

And it said the number of victims, previously reported to be 350, continued to apply until all the referrals had been analysed and processed.

'No complacency'

Meanwhile, Premier League boss Richard Scudamore has written to the parents of more than 3,000 players in the league's youth system to reassure them their children are being protected.

In the letter, which was sent on Wednesday to the parents of children aged eight to 18, Mr Scudamore said the league had been "very concerned" by the allegations of historical sexual abuse at professional football clubs.

"The victims and survivors have been extremely brave to come forward and have our sympathy and support," he wrote.

"Given the volume of media coverage these disturbing stories understandably continue to generate, it is important that you... are made aware of the current standards and provisions in place to keep your children safe."

Mr Scudamore went on to outline the Premier League's various safeguarding measures.

He added: "There is no complacency - the Premier League's own safeguarding team and independent monitors visit each club regularly throughout every season to assess the quality of their work and guide them on any developments that could be made."

Three weeks ago, ex-Crewe defender Andy Woodward waived his right to anonymity to say he had been a victim of sexual abuse as a young footballer.

Since then, more than 20 former footballers - including ex-youth players, trainees and professionals - have come forward with allegations of historical abuse in football.

Governing body the Football Association has announced an internal review.

A leading civil rights lawyer has backed calls for an inquiry into child abuse in Scottish football.

Raju Bhatt, who sat on the independent panel into the Hillsborough disaster, said failure to do so would be a betrayal of the victims.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already rejected calls for a current inquiry into the abuse of children in care to be widened, saying it should be down to the police to probe football abuse claims.

Children's charity the NSPCC said the "shocking" numbers had revealed the "deeply disturbing extent of abuse" in football.

It said its football hotline, launched with the support of the FA, had seen a "staggering surge" in calls in its first week.

source : BBC News

‘Game of Thrones’ Maester Aemon of castle black Dies

LONDON: British actor Peter Vaughan, best known for his role as Maester Aemon in hit television series “Game of Thrones”, died Tuesday at the age of 93.

The character actor had been a recognisable figure on British television screens since the 1950s, but his appearance in the fantasy epic over five years from 2011 won him global fans.

“Very sadly Peter Vaughan passed away at approximately 10.30 this morning. He died peacefully with his family around him,” his agent Sally Long-Innes said.

Partially sighted in real life, in “Game of Thrones” he played the blind maestro of Castle Black, one of the lord commander’s closest advisors in the Night’s Watch.

Vaughan also appeared as a villain in prison sitcom “Porridge” in the 1970s, and starred in “Our Friends in the North” in the 1990s, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA television award.

Born on April 4, 1923, he was married to actress Billie Whitelaw for 12 years. He is survived by his second wife, actress Lillias Walker.- AFP

Extreme whether and Temperature rise, A sign of Danger for Humans

This “hot and wild” weather meant that global ocean temperatures rose at unprecedented levels, Arctic sea ice coverage and mountain glaciers declined and surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet continued at above-average levels.

The extreme weather also meant that people around the world suffered from high-impact climate events such as severe droughts in Africa, devastating floods in South-East Asia, terrible heatwaves in India and Pakistan, and catastrophic hurricanes and typhoons in the United States and the Philippines.

Against this backdrop and within the context of the ongoing 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Marrakech, Morocco (07-18 November 2016), the United Nations News

Centre spoke with Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of World Meteorological Organization (WMO), on the state of the Earth’s weather and what it means to the people who inhabit the planet.

Q: The global climate report 2011-2015 confirms that the average global temperature in 2015 has already reached the 1 degree Celsius mark. What does this 1 degree Celsius really mean to people on the ground, say for an office worker in South East Asia or a farmer in South Africa?

Petteri Taalas: One degree does not sound like a big number if you compare the temperate over a couple of days but globally [over a long period of time] it means that we have seen an increase in the amount of disasters related to the weather. It means that we have observed more heat waves, for example, in Kuwait, the temperature hit 54 degrees-Celsius limit last summer and there have been devastating heat waves in many continents.

We have also seen changes in the pattern of rainfall, which means that some areas are now seeing flooding – when it rains, it rains much more — and that led to problems for human beings and also for economies. And then in some parts of the world we have seen more droughts, caused by the heat waves, and leading to forest fires and difficulties in agriculture. For example, at the moment, the southern part of Africa is suffering because of a drought that was partly caused by El Nino last year but also by a drying trend behind it. In tropical zones we have observed more intense tropical storms and they have been devastating for countries like Vanuatu. We also observed the first hurricane hitting Cabo Verde on the African coast.

So this one degree change means that the amount of disasters related to weather and hydrology have been increasing and if it goes beyond that one degree limit – which seems to be the case according to this year’s observations – we can expect to see more of this kind of disasters. And it will have a negative impact on the economies of the countries, and it will also impact the lives and wellbeing of all humans.

26 July 2016 – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations specialized agency, will set up a committee to examine whether a 54 degrees Celsius temperature recently recorded in Kuwait, has set the new highest temperature for Asia, as well as for the entire Eastern hemisphere.

UN underscores readiness to assist South-East Asian countries hit by floods

18 October 2011 – The United Nations voiced deep concern over the devastating floods in Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam and offered to assist the affected countries to respond to the disaster that has claimed hundreds of lives and caused heavy damage to property and infrastructure.

Q: What has caused this dramatic change in temperatures?

Petteri Taalas: The main reason behind it is that we are using much more fossil fuel: coal, gas, and oil. We have changed the composition of the atmosphere. Therefore, we have seen a very dramatic increase of the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. And we have also seen an increase in the amount of methane (CH4) in the atmosphere and an increase of the nitrous oxide (N2O). And all these are contributing to this warming that we have seen.

Q: Earlier WMO had said that this 1 degree rise – already half way to the 2-degree threshold – and that the national climate change plans adopted so far may not even be enough to prevent even a 3-degree rise. Do you think this is something that could have been foreseen before the Paris agreement?

Petteri Taalas: In our field we have known about this problem for 30 years. So about 30 years ago, we established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and then years later we established the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to start mitigating climate change. So this problem has been around for a long time, but the good news is that governments now understand the need to mitigate climate change, and that’s why they adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change last year, and it has very recently entered into force. This gives us a good basis for moving forward, and to mitigate the effects of climate change. And the key issue is whether we are acting quickly enough to avoid a 1.5 or 2 degree warming or are we going to go beyond that. So far the pledges behind the Paris Agreement indicate about a 3 degree warming level, which would mean that we might have a larger amount of disasters related to the weather. So it would be a smart thing for the governments to start reducing the emissions, and that would also be good for the coming generations.

There is optimism in the fight against climate change, but the best time to act is now, according to Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The head of the UN weather agency was speaking to UN News Centre, shortly after releasing a report on global greenhouse gases and climate change, which categorised 2011 to 2015 as the hottest five-year period on record. Mr. Taalas also noted that the world is now better equipped with technologies to mitigate the levels of greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the global climate.

Q: In this context, what other messages would you like to give to the leaders attending the COP22 in Morocco?

Petteri Taalas: I would like to thank them for ratifying the Paris Agreement, which gives us hope. And we also now have better technological means for mitigation. And those means are also cheaper than they used to be. For example, solar and wind energy sources are cheaper than they used to be ten years ago. And we also have possibilities to convert our transport systems to use more electric cars. In the case of diet, we can go to more vegetarian diet; which could also reduce emissions.

So we have all the means available, and now it’s time to act and prevent these negative impacts of climate change, and it’s important that we start acting very soon, because if we wait, the problem will become more severe. I am very optimistic that we have all the means to be successful, but we should start changing our behavior very soon.

Combine initiative of Facebook and Google

Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its Ad Sense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news.

The shifts comes as Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The issue has provoked a fierce debate within Facebook especially, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg insisting twice in recent days that the site had no role in influencing the election.

Facebook’s steps are limited to its ad policies, and do not target fake news sites shared by users on their news feeds.

“We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news,” Facebook said in a statement, adding that it will continue to vet publishers to ensure compliance.

Google’s move similarly does not address the issue of fake news or hoaxes appearing in Google search results. That happened in the last few days, when a search for ‘final election count’ for a time took users to a fake news story saying Trump won the popular vote. Votes are still being counted, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton showing a slight lead.

Nor does Google suggest that the company has moved to a mechanism for rating the accuracy of particular articles.

Rather, the change is aimed at assuring that publishers on the network are legitimate and eliminating financial incentives that appear to have driven the production of much fake news.

“Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property,” Google said in a statement.

The company did not detail how it would implement or enforce the new policy.

“One of the incentives for a good portion of fake news is money,” he said. “This could cut the income that creates the incentive to create the fake news sites.”

However, he cautioned that detecting fake news sites was not easy. “What if it is a site with some real information and some fake news? It requires specialized knowledge and having humans (do it) doesn’t scale,” he said. –REUTERS

source: The News Tribe