According to new estimates, Nigeria is expected to nearly double its population in the next 27 years.
The rise is in contrast to a growing number of countries that will experience population declines.
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The annual United Nations designation is not only a chance to recognize “the dreams of all 8 billion of us on our planet,” as UN Secretary-General António Guterres put it in a blog post on Tuesday, it’s also a chance to take stock…
Sea cows are the rare mammalian herbivores that made the transition to being fully aquatic.(Gregory Sweeney/Moment/Getty Images)
Aquatic adaptations in mammals may be irreversible, according to a new study investigating the means by which more than 5,000 species transitioned from land to water.
Although the evolutionary journey of animals like whales and seals can ultimately be traced back to marine tetrapods that left the ocean for a life on land, roaming terra firma again isn’t on the cards for the descendants of those that have become mostly or fully aquatic.
By comparing body mass, diet, and genomes of 5,635 existing and recently extinct mammals, University of Fribourg evolutionary biologist Bruna Farina and colleagues tracked the evolution of aquatic adaptations. These include changes in size, locomotion, sensory systems, reproduction, diets, and lung capacity.
Benton County Coroner William Leach told Fox News Digital the girl was believed to have choked on a hot dog, based on the report filed by emergency responders.
FILE: Close-up of signs listing prices at Costco food court, including the price for Costcos hot dog and fountain soda combination, Danville, California, July 3, 2022. A 4-year-old girl choked to death on a hot dog at a Costco in Washington state. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images / Getty Images)
But he was unsure if anyone provided abdominal thrusts or anything else to remove the food from blocking the girl’s airway.
EMS was involved in helping the girl, and she was transported to a nearby hospital where she later died.
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) declared “major victory!” on Tuesday after learning Ford Motor Co. had just changed its policy to ban animal testing.
In a news release, PETA wrote, “In Ford’s 2023 Integrated Sustainability and Financial Report, the automaker has updated its policy at PETA’s request to close all loopholes: ‘Ford’s practice is not to use or fund animals for testing nor to ask others to do that for us.’ “
The nonprofit group discovered in 2021 that Ford paid for a crash test study involving animals years earlier and wanted the company to ban any future testing. PETA collected more than 100,000 signatures protesting the Ford project and distributed a letter from actor Lily Tomlin, a Detroit native.
The controversial 19-page crash study, completed in 2014 and published in 2018 by Wayne State University in Detroit, involved biomedical and auto safety engineers who used 27 pigs to better understand potential crash impact on small children. Data was then compared with previous, similar studies in the context of exploring orthopedic trauma and safety protocols. References in the report indicate the pigs had been euthanized before the testing began.
“The company clarified what we’ve been saying for two years and doing for much longer: We aren’t using animal cadavers, much less live animals, in research and don’t intend to,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday.
Previously, General Motors and Stellantis, which makes Jeep and Ram Trucks and Chrysler products, already made commitments to PETA, the organization noted.
In May, a PETA scientist attended Ford’s annual virtual general meeting of shareholders and urged a vote in favor of a PETA resolution that called on the automaker to issue an annual report to shareholders detailing its animal testing processes. The proposal failed.
After the shareholders meeting, Reid told the Free Press that shareholders did not vote on animal testing but, rather, additional reporting on the subject. Reid said then the company policy was not to voluntarily engage in animal testing.
“Ford has a well-established position on the underlying topic, which we’ve discussed with you before: We don’t use animals for safety testing or ask or fund others to do so — and we won’t unless it’s required by law or there isn’t an acceptable alternative for critical safety research,” Reid said at the time. “On the specific proposal, we don’t believe more reporting would provide meaningful insight or benefit.”
“In a letter to PETA, the company went even further, stating that an update to its Supplier Code of Conduct requires vendors to Ford ‘not to use animals for testing nor require sub-contractors to do so’ and made its no animal testing ‘expectations explicit in rules for university research project[s] conducted on Ford’s behalf,’ ” PETA said in its news release.
Researchers in the study criticized by PETA specifically note that data used to develop crash test dummies for child safety is difficult to obtain. While various tests use human cadavers left to science, no one uses child cadavers. So engineering safety for children in vehicles is challenging.
PETA urged companies to replace animals with computer modeling and three-dimensional medical imaging.
“This is a major, lifesaving win for animals, and Ford will never again pay to have pendulums smashed into pigs as human stand-ins,” PETA Vice President Shalin Gala said in the news release. “PETA applauds this auto giant for catching up to its rivals and hitting the brakes on needless and cruel animal testing.”
A Walker man was found in Leech Lake on Tuesday after being reported missing following a fishing excursion on Monday.
On Monday just before 6 p.m., the Cass County Sheriff’s Office says it received a report of a fisherman on Leech Lake who had not been heard from and had not returned home.
Deputies and officials searched Leech Lake by land, boat and air. They located the fisherman’s boat on the east shore of Sucker Bay at around 8:18 p.m., deputies say.
Officials say they continued to search the area but did not locate the fisherman. On Tuesday, the search began again at 7 a.m. Later in the day, at around 6:30 p.m., the body of the 71-year-old fisherman was recovered near Sucker Bay, officials say.
The identity of the man has not yet been released publicly. An autopsy has been scheduled.
We often hear about the prospects of finding life on other planets, but short of conveniently finding a UFO or a little green man, what would that even look like? Modern scientists actually search other planets for various biosignatures that may be created by living orgasms living on that planet. And now, IFL Science reports that scientists have discovered more of the biosignature phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, meaning there may be a chance that the planet is host to its own form of alien life.
Scientists observing phosphine on Venus, the chemical compound produced by microorganisms on Earth, may be close to finding life on the planet.
Interestingly, this is not the first time phosphine has been detected on the planet Venus. This biosignature was originally detected back in 2020 by a group of astronomers, and the discovery understandably triggered a flurry of excitement throughout the scientific community.
There were two primary reasons for this initial excitement: none of the researchers were expecting to find this biosignature on the planet, and there was no easy explanation for why it was there.
After that initial discovery of phosphine on Venus, the original research team has had years to look deeper into their unexpected discovery. They began using different instruments optimized to find phosphine, and this helped to verify that the initial discovery was no fluke. In fact, the team has discovered phosphine on five different occasions now, and it has appeared in areas where they weren’t expecting to find it.
For example, phosphine was first discovered in the clouds of Venus. More recent findings have verified that the biosignature is present not only in the upper parts of those clouds but in the lower parts as well. This was particularly exciting because there is still an ongoing question of whether phosphine is being created by living organisms.
If it is present in the lower clouds, then it may be caused by living organisms on the surface of the planet.
Related video: Scientists Have Found A Planet That Shouldn’t Exist (unbranded – Newsworthy)
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The initial discovery was no fluke – the team has discovered phosphine on five different occasions now, and it has appeared in areas where they weren’t expecting to find it.
We say “if” because the presence of phosphine doesn’t automatically mean that it was created by living organisms, intelligent or otherwise. It can be caused by other things, but since life is one of the possible causes, phosphine is considered a biosignature. While the existence of life on Venus remains a long shot, this latest research does strengthen the possibility of this being the case.
When phosphine is created by natural phenomena, it would normally vary over time, but over the course of five different observations, the team has noted that the phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus has remained mostly consistent.
Team leader Professor Jane Greaves points out that “it is not really variable,” meaning that the sheer consistency of this biosignature makes the presence of life that much more likely.
If the phosphine is present in the lower clouds, then it may be caused by living organisms on the surface of the planet.
Considering that this team will continue to study the phosphines in question and that NASA has multiple missions to Venus planned for the future, we may be getting closer to confirming life on another planet in our solar system.
And while there is plenty of excitement for exploring Mars, outer space aficionados should perhaps look to Venus as the “next big thing” in space exploration. Ultimately, it’s a very exciting time for humanity as we prepare to “boldly go” on our own ongoing adventures to the stars.
So far in 2023, Gulf waters are the warmest on record, but what does it mean for hurricane season?
The Gulf of Mexico – the land-fringed head of hurricane alley along whose edge some 16 million Americans live – is observing its warmest start to a hurricane season (and year) since satellite records began in 1981.
The exceptional marine heat is driving up nighttime lows from South Florida to Texas and contributing to oppressive summer heat indices, includinga record 31 consecutive daysof heat indices over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Miami. The environmental impacts of such an intense marine heatwave are far-reaching – from extremecoral bleachingstressing important reef ecosystems to decreasing oxygen levels for marine life, leading to large hypoxic episodes, dead zones and fish kills.
What influence could the record warm Gulf of Mexico have on the hurricane season ahead?
Former Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedevwarned the “completely mad West” that World War III was “fast approaching,”RadarOnline.comhas learned.
Vladimir Putin‘s ally issued the warning as PresidentJoe Bidenmet with fellow G7 leaders at theNATOsummit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
While Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskywasn’t extended the expedited path to NATO membership he desperately pleaded for, G7 leaders vowed to support in the form of a long-termsecuritypackage.
Image caption,The breeding colony at Long Nanny is the UK’s biggest mainland colony which this year attracted a record number of breeding pairs
More than 600 dead Arctic tern chicks have been collected at the biggest mainland breeding colony in the UK following an outrbreak of bird flu.
National Trust rangers initially recorded 2,600 eggs for the peak breeding season at Long Nanny in Northumberland – but within the past two weeks discovered dying chicks.
A number of dead adult seabirds have also been collected from the site.
It is feared the population of rarer little terns could also be infected.
Image caption,Bird flu is posing a big challenge to the seabirds which migrate from their northern hemisphere breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year
James Porteus, lead ranger at the site near Beadnell said: “The season started so well, with over…
A white-tailed buck in Gwinnett County is among the 1 million of its deer species roaming Georgia’s woodlands, farmlands and urban areas. Hank Ohme/Georgia Wildlife Federation
Georgia conservationists are putting hunters on high alert about the possibility of a deadly deer disease crossing the state border after the discovery of a case in north Florida.
The Georgia Wildlife Resources Division will carry out an emergency response once the state has its first detected case of Chronic Wasting Disease. It can take as long as two years before an infected white-tailed deer shows zombie-like symptoms of listlessness, droopy head, severe weight loss, repetitive walking and drooling.
In June, a road-killed doe found 38 miles from Georgia’s southwest border made Florida the 31st state to report a confirmed case of a condition that has no treatment or vaccine and always results in…
Sea cows are the rare mammalian herbivores that made the transition to being fully aquatic.(Gregory Sweeney/Moment/Getty Images)
Related video: Scientists Have Found A Planet That Shouldn’t Exist (unbranded – Newsworthy)
unbranded – Newsworthy
Exposing the Big Game 