| 4 al-Qaida prisoners escape US custody in Iraq By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA 2010-09-09T18:05:13ZBAGHDAD (AP) -- Four prisoners with links to al-Qaida being guarded by American troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad and are still at large, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.... hosted.ap.org |
Letters: Lovely but Lethal (1 Letter) A letter to the editor. feeds.nytimes.com |
Today's Mystery Bird for you to identify | GrrlScientist Today's Mystery Bird could be dubbed "the blue bird of happiness", except that it is not really blue at allMystery Bird photographed at Heritage Community Park, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Audrey DeRose-Wilson, 2 October 2010 (look at this bird with binoculars).Nikon D80, 70-300mm, f/5.6, 1/400, iso: 160This neotropical migrant's blue plumage is not based on pigments at all. Instead, it uses another strategy to create blue feathers. Can you tell me about that?Daily Mystery Bird Rules: 1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification, keeping in mind that more than one field mark is often necessary to distinguish between species. IDs without any supporting information are not valid and may be deleted by the moderators. 2. Expert and intermediate level birders: do NOT try to be the first to blurt out the mystery bird's ID. Instead, please provide helpful hints, such as descriptions, literary references, puns, personal anecdotes, and other forms of discussion and assistance for beginning birders and for those following on their iPhones without naming the species. Expert and intermediate birders are free to name the bird species 24 or more hours after it was first published.3. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation. 4. Each bird species will be demystified 48 hours after publication. If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Science funding: Back the boffins | Editorial The slender margin between painful but unavoidable cuts and economic masochism is the difference between success and failureIf anything keeps the chancellor, George Osborne, awake on the eve of tomorrow's spending review, it should be worrying over the link between the decisions he has taken about where his axe will fall and the prospects for future recovery. The slender margin between painful but unavoidable cuts and economic masochism is the difference between success and failure. Luckily for Mr Osborne, an engine of growth is at hand that has hundreds of years of success behind it. It is called science.British science is efficient: for less government investment than any comparable European nation, its academic output is rated more highly than anywhere bar the US, while nearly a third of the UK's GDP comes from science-intensive industries. In these days when costs enforce co-operation, it is at the forefront of many of the most ambitious international projects: from the Large Hadron Collider to the giant observatories in Chile, British scientists are involved in research of global significance.But it is not only about the glossy high-status work of big science. The money the state invests in science is seed corn for innovation, new startup ventures and new jobs and it attracts and magnifies cash from business and charities. The OECD points to the experience of Finland and Korea, which both chose to protect their science base in the downturns of the 1990s. Finland's technology investment arm became "a springboard for recovery". Korea saw corporate research and development labs increase from 100 to 11,000 in five years. British science already has a strong record. According to the Campaign for Science and Engineering, between 2003 and 2007, 31 university "spin-outs" were floated on stock exchanges, with an initial value of 贈1.5bn. Ten spin-outs were bought for a total of 贈1.9bn. Mr Osborne acknowledged some of this in his interview on BBC TV on Sunday morning when he said he would protect large infrastructure projects, including the diamond synchrotron at Harwell which has repeatedly proved its academic importance in the past two years.What the increasingly vocal science campaign argues is that all this cannot be turned off and then turned back on again. The Royal Society has assessed the impact of a standstill budget, 10% cuts and 20% cuts. No change would be bearable, they conclude. Cuts of 10%, they warn, would "seriously jeopardise" stability and productivity, and British science would lose its appeal to overseas scientists (already deterred by immigration caps). But 20% cuts would do "irreversible" damage. There will be many genuinely deserving causes aired in the next few weeks. What makes investment in science stand out is that it is the surest way to a recovery that benefits everyone.Spending review 2010Tax and spendingScience funding crisisScience policyEconomic policyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
British barn owls rely on humans Three quarters of British barn owls now live in man-made nest boxes, according to conservationists. news.bbc.co.uk |