By ReutersAugust 26, 2021 12:02pm  Updated

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CAIRO, Aug 25 – Scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown amphibious four-legged whale species in Egypt that helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.

The newly discovered whale belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that falls in the middle of that transition, the Egyptian-led team of researchers said in a statement.

Its fossil was unearthed from middle Eocene rocks in the Fayum Depression in Egypt’s Western Desert — an area once covered by sea that has provided a rich seam of discoveries showing the evolution of whales — before being studied at Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre (MUVP).

The new whale, named Phiomicetus anubis, had an estimated body length of some three meters (10 feet) and a body mass of about 1,300 lb and was likely a top predator, the researchers said. Its partial skeleton revealed it as the most primitive protocetid whale known from Africa.

“Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African paleontology,” said Abdullah Gohar of MUVP, lead author of a paper on the discovery published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The whale’s genus name honors the Fayum Depression and species name refers to Anubis, the ancient canine-headed Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife.

Despite recent fossil discoveries, the big picture of early whale evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery, the researchers said. Work in the region had the potential to reveal new details about the evolutionary transition from amphibious to fully aquatic whales.

With rocks covering about 12 million years, discoveries in the Fayum Depression “range from semiaquatic crocodile-like whales to giant fully aquatic whales”, said Mohamed Sameh of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, a co-author.

The new whale has raised questions about ancient ecosystems and pointed research towards questions such as the origin and coexistence of ancient whales in Egypt, said Hesham Sellam, founder of the MUVP and another co-author.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hycean-exoplanets-extraterrestrial-life-earth-like-planets-oceans/

BY LI COHEN

AUGUST 27, 2021 / 7:40 AM / CBS NEWS

Life outside our solar system may be found within just a few years, thanks to the discovery of a new class of super hot, Earth-like planets, according to astronomers from the University of Cambridge.

The Cambridge researchers identified a new class of exoplanet, called Hycean planets, that, much like Earth, are covered in oceans and have atmospheres rich with hydrogen, an element that is essential for life. Many of the planets are “bigger and hotter than Earth”— up to 2.6 times larger than our planet and reaching atmospheric temperatures up to nearly 200 degrees Celsius, or 392 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Hyceans are further categorized as either “dark” or “cold,” with dark worlds only having habitable conditions on their permanent night sides and cold worlds receiving just a little radiation from the stars they orbit. But researchers believe that they could support microbial lifeforms that are similar to those found in the extreme aquatic environments on Earth, and that Hycean planets are likely common throughout space.   https://www.cbsnews.com/newsletters/widget/e879?v=305fa90a33f0116dfca7cfc9a664d373&view=compact#vVNNb9swDP0rgg87RY0tf8W%2BdeiA9TIU6HZahkIfdCPUlgxJiRsU%2Fe%2BjHCfpdh52s8lHPvHx8S2xY9DW%2BKR9S0BaBUmbwKZuklVy0DDhn7TDyGXAwGi9jmAM3noPgXy26pi8r5LguHzR5jk20f6L4aIHlbTB7WGVcBe07OF2H3bW3WP4Z1JmWVbWRUFZmW5oUW0E3SiW05orEJUogaky%2BfVX6Tc%2BQCzuNZF2B%2BYDIHbF1xc8V1VOBWPYVFUNFZ2UFFLIqjLtGFciuZQ87MUdD3FalrKM4jNYRbK8zco2b66w7zr0EeSlBhO0D54M%2FEg6bRTpdQfEGgKI3dFevwAZe24AMdIewIEi2hArgRtPJh12%2BBd2QAy8BtLBRI5Y6T9wHUeY9TYBuZ6WKOal7XuQUfmTfJliQqZ1RSXUnBZZ0VGe8pSKHCoODRc1FFGda91ZO4%2BbBPKJcB%2BcNXY4RpiCg5ZndgX%2BJdgRWbW%2Fg0PUJ26eP58BBib%2FpAMMGEY7wFcN7tI6tovBxxNtFG4On6JLBwd%2BRMfpA5AJ4kqQT8t5hxsJWSpKRWUmGlo0JaNNBzlloq6zLs86xtJzwWmmC8Heg1sIuEHqFRpl0CFpi4vAj3bv5Cyx8CTOgSDhuFEPPQ%2BddcP8BkzOM8YXP13l8HgdRnF3%2FB7J%2FTxyNMUy9B%2FZezXn6zxN6xzdJVgWpykAHckb2tVZs%2BlYI8qyPCu2TLOQxxmB93o%2FxJMane10%2FyEdCxACJu4HsyoeoYxja8n7H67H8C6E0bfb9XY9TdPNUniDx7xdx6%2FteneMzqTwahfX4icecgCHCwpO855Gh9OrvekZePL0dr04478TLmL9y8bv778B

“It’s exciting that habitable conditions could exist on planets so different from Earth,” study co-author Anjali Piette said in a statement.

Researchers say their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal on Wednesday, indicate that discovering life outside of our solar system within the next few years is possible. 

“Hycean planets open a whole new avenue in our search for life elsewhere,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, the lead researcher from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1430820781618044929&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fhycean-exoplanets-extraterrestrial-life-earth-like-planets-oceans%2F&sessionId=9678d1d942a32cd8a99734d79e396607b58bf106&siteScreenName=CBSNews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=1890d59c%3A1627936082797&width=550px

Astronomers say a new type of #exoplanet, dubbed ‘Hycean’ planets, could be our best chance of finding the signatures of life outside our Solar System, potentially in the next few years: https://t.co/Qdu6yyiENj@cambridge_astro @CambridgeIPLU @exomadhu #space— Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) August 26, 2021

Exoplanets — planets that orbit a star other than the sun in our solar system — were first identified nearly 30 years ago. Thousands of these planets have since been discovered, and most are between the size of Earth and Neptune. They are often referred to as “super-Earths” or “mini-Neptunes” and range from being mostly rocky to covered in ice. 

In 2019, Madhusudhan’s team published observations of a mini-Neptune, dubbed K2-18b, and found that it, along with similar planets, could support life under certain conditions. They believe that the planet and others may be home to certain biosignatures, including oxygen, ozone, methane and nitrous oxide, all of which are found on Earth. 

“Essentially, when we’ve been looking for these various molecular signatures, we have been focusing on planets similar to Earth, which is a reasonable place to start,” Madhusudhan said. “But we think Hycean planets offer a better chance of finding several trace biosignatures.”

“A biosignature detection would transform our understanding of life in the universe,” he continued. “We need to be open about where we expect to find life and what form that life could take, as nature continues to surprise us in often unimaginable ways.”

Researchers believe that these biosignatures can be detected with spectroscopic observations. Several Hycean worlds could be studied with a next-generation telescope, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers said, which is set to launch this year.

by Andrea EymannAugust 26, 2021

NWT Species at Risk is considering putting polar bears back on the species at risk list under “special concern” for 10-years. The organization is inviting the public to comment on the issue through a survey. NNSL file photo

Northwest Territories residents are being asked whether polar bears should be placed back on the species at risk list under the category of “special concern.”

NWT Spices at Risk is posing the following questions:

-Why should polar bears be relisted as “special concern” to the NWT List of Species at Risk?

-What positive or negative impacts would have on polar bears if they are listed?

-Is there any new or missing information about polar bears not added in the status report? If so, what is it?

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE POLAR BEAR STATUS REPORT

The NWT shares an estimated 3,000 polar bears with other jurisdictions. The animals are found in the southern Beaufort Sea, northern Beaufort Sea, and Viscount Melville Sound.

According to NWT Species at Risk, the most serious long-term threat to polar bears in the NWT is climate change from the melting of sea ice.

Melting sea ice affects the habitat of the bear by not having access to prey, areas to sleep and it will increase human-bear interactions.

People can send in their comments to the NWT Species at Risk by completing a survey by Oct. 15.

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE SURVEY

https://upc-online.org/alerts/210825_the_challenge_facing_animal_rights.html

Norm Phelps, 75, spiritual mentor to the animal rights movement
Animals 24-7

Norm is quoted:

“There is no society known to history that did not enslave animals and kill them for food, fabric, labor, transportation, entertainment, religious sacrifice, and/or scientific knowledge.”

“Animal rights is the only social movement in history whose beneficiaries cannot participate in it and whose participants cannot benefit from it.”

For that reason, “The animal rights movement has no access to the indomitably motivated and endlessly renewable resource that has been available to every other social justice movement: the victims themselves. In fact, its membership is drawn entirely from the ranks of the oppressors. Think of the challenge that the abolition movement would have faced if it had had to depend entirely on reformed slave owners for its activists. That is the challenge facing animal rights.”

Dear Friends,
Beth Clifton’s art published in Animals 24-7.

Please read this illuminating tribute to Norm Phelps, an icon of the modern Animal Rights Movement. Merritt Clifton, founder-publisher of Animals 24-7, highlights Norm’s enormous contributions to our Movement through his writings, conference presentations, and countless informal discussions (including disputes) about strategies most likely to win support from the majority of people who, Norm said,“believe that their health, happiness, and prosperity depend on the abuse and murder of animals. And they will fight to defend these against what they see as dangerous, hostile attacks by radical fanatics.”

Animals 24-7 recounts Norm’s frustrating engagement with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, with whom he personally met to discuss compassionate vegetarianism and Mongolian trophy hunting and who, while professing his “deep compassion” for animals, gobbled them up at public events. The Dalai Lama’s hypocrisy led Norm to publish an open letter to him, as quoted in the Animals 24-7 tribute.

Norm told the Dalai Lama, who ate veal roast, stuffed pheasant breast, and chicken soup at a dinner at the Elysee Palace for Nobel Peace Prize laureates, “you refused the vegetarian meal that you had been served with the comment, ‘I’m a Tibetan monk, not a vegetarian.’” Thus, “you lent your public support to some of the most egregious cruelty that our society is capable of. The lack of consistency between your public statements in support of vegetarianism and animal protection on the one hand and your personal behavior on the other is troubling.”

Postscript:

In his book, The Longest Struggle, Norm wrote generously: “Thanks to Karen Davis, chickens and turkeys are now front-and-center on the animal rights agenda.”

I first met Norm and his wife Patti in the 1980s in a van at around 4am taking us to a hunt sabotage in Maryland outside Washington, DC. We remained good friends despite some of our differences on advocacy strategy. We also disagreed on whether plants are sensate in some sense that eludes us. Norm thought no, but I thought/think yes. Norm was a speaker at our very first conference, June 26-27, 1999, here in Machipongo, VA, but unfortunately he had to cancel the invitation to speak at our conference in Columbus, Ohio, do to his illness.

I attended the memorial gathering for Norm that was organized by Compassion Over Killing in their office, in 2014, to honor and remember Norm’s many contributions to the Animal Rights Movement. He was a very kind-hearted person, and his books are a permanent contribution to our movement. He and Patti always supported United Poultry Concerns, for which I will always be grateful.

Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns

• Alerts
• Effective Activism
• Thinking Like a Chicken

More From UPC

2021 Farmed Animal Conference E-Summit

The Challenge Facing Animal Rights

Turkeys Stomped on, Punched, and Left to Die at ‘Humane’ Farms
UPC’s Summer-Fall 2021 Poultry Press Now Available!

United Poultry Concerns

www.upc-online.org

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Machipongo, VA 23405 USA

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oregon-covid-19-patients-hospital-icu/

AUGUST 26, 2021 / 12:44 PM / CBS NEWS

“Every day we see just the body boxes roll out one after the other and then as soon as we clean the room we get somebody back in there… It’s the worst we’ve ever seen.”

That’s what ICU nurse Clarissa Carson told CBS News’ Janet Shamlian Wednesday at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, where COVID-19 patients have filled the hospital.

Shamlian reported constant turnover in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but not because patients are getting better.https://www.cbsnews.com/newsletters/widget/e883?v=6acbe40adc856155830fb6502db7fbf0&view=compact#tVTBbtswDP0VQZdtQNTIjuPIvnXogPUyFOh2WopAlpiYqC0ZkpwgKPrvkxKn7TYMww67xeR74uMjmSdqh4DWeFo%2FUVBWA60pCLGgM7pHOMQvZftBqhADg%2FWYwDF47T0E8tHqI32e0eCkekSzS4%2Bg%2F2Rk04GmdXAjzKh0AVUH12NorbuN4e90wbVUulGslEKyLIOcVTrLGeeZ2IKQnDecPvxC%2FSJ7SGTVeAMHT963qDUY0hw7NPDhDT4VoUIsheJZwapiqVihhGbNoiqY5EupV6BksyroC%2BVubG5kSM3nPM8YFywvSbaoc1Hz1SvsK4YugayDnTWktX7AIDsSDXoETQ4YWqLsHnWMBAQTPJGeKOnBEz%2B6HdRkTfHdHoiBPTjiITbgLelH1RINMtLRkP4YKQ7Aremb0scBTtMwIb67maIxr2zXgUpzOZtb5aVSsFww0FXJilJKJmQFrGnKaLRcCcEXyaxX3ouz1lkj9%2BjGqNmhR59wGvaoLuU1%2BMdgh1gW%2FQ3sk19pMeTuAkij2WCAPobjtsBnBDdNjYQWPemtM2lVHs75%2B7OE1FnjWUKwC%2BIMmN514Ie4phitO0ATc1EFqtOki5IX5TIXbLWMQ%2F7DNk2Ec6u%2Fq5nR0YObakkTBc1ohz0GWhcvI7i3o1MXemo0ghonjb7rZNha15%2FkTPu5SeI3r375eF1GS3f8mnT45EkLsgvtqfbJjp8Qt%2FqEEaIoRcnlX5rbrrgGsWhYk8P2DJOLLWc8r7JMFJlYLauL5a8eTD2EqAPHPl3v4OwWuzfpRIgQMGnWMavTvavkECrZfXNdDLchDL5ez9fzw%2BFwNRGv4v%2FGep5%2Brefnc2Gny2BZxS7HwS4HxFCN6%2Fm0Sf%2Fl0anpfyU%2FP%2F8A

“We have patients waiting to get onto life support,” ICU Dr. Somnath Ghosh said. “The turnaround is so rapid, it’s pretty sad.”

Carson said relatives used to be able to stay in rooms to grieve after loved ones passed as long as they wanted. Now, they have to be out in less than an hour so another COVID patient waiting down the hall can get in.

There’s only one ICU bed available in the entire region.

Coronavirus hotspots have been popping up in the South for weeks, but communities in other parts of the country, including the Pacific Northwest, are also suffering amid the latest surge. 

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_2142002673https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_1223922061https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_1319027192javascript:false

Hospitalizations in Oregon hit a record high on Wednesday. ICU beds are at 93% capacity statewide.

Oregon’s governor has deployed National Guard members to 20 hospitals, and many health systems have canceled elective surgeries.

“These patients are on such tremendous levels of life support,” Ghosh told Shamlian. “Once we stop that, they last less than a few minutes.”

Suffering and sorrow are now part of every day.

“I’ve never seen so much death in my career,” ICU manager Kelsea Robinson said. “We’re surrounded by it.”

Robinson said she’s frustrated by vaccine hesitancy.

Wednesday night, hundreds protested vaccines outside the hospital. Many said they were hospital staffers.

“Our community is getting ripped apart by the people who don’t believe in the vaccine,” Carson said. 

Most of the patients in the intensive care unit Shamlian visited were unvaccinated. Every patient except one was on a ventilator.

According to Carson, the patients are so sick that the odds are against survival.

“The grief is tremendous,” Carson said. “We are used to winning. Us ICU nurses, we’re used to winning and we’re not winning. We’re losing.”

And there will be more loss — what some are calling collateral deaths. Ghosh said they have put off at least 100 heart surgeries over the past two months because there’s no room for those cardiac patients at the hospital, no resources right now.

Some of those patients, he said, will likely die.

Cases identified so far are residents of Okanogan and Skagit counties and the Colville Reservation.

• Thursday, August 26, 2021 6:13am
• NORTHWEST

By Oscar Rodriguez / The Wenatchee World

OMAK — More than two dozen people who attended the Omak Stampede earlier this month have tested positive for COVID-19.

Okanogan County health officials on Wednesday urged anyone who attended the four-day rodeo, which took place Aug. 12-15 in Omak, to watch for COVID-19 symptoms. The caution also applies to people who have been in close contact with someone who attended, the health district said in a news release.

COVID-19 symptoms to watch for include fever, scratchy throat, headache, cough, diarrhea, chills, loss of taste or sense of smell and body aches, nausea or vomiting, or shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.ADVERTISEMENThttps://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_598363251https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_1903306212Volume 0% 

If someone who attended the event has symptoms, the health district asks that they get tested and self-quarantine until test results are confirmed as negative.

Cases identified, as of Wednesday, are residents of Okanogan and Skagit counties and the Colville Reservation, according to the news release. Officials said that they are aware of one Okanogan County resident hospitalized due to COVID-19 who is fully vaccinated.

Okanogan County Public Health is working with the Colville Federated Tribes Health and Human Services and other county public health partners to identify other cases in people who may have attended the event.

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