Canadian climate research calls for radical strategy to reflect sun's rays

Written by Kelly Cryderman, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 28, 2010


CALGARY —" Blocking out some of the sun's rays is a faster and cheaper method of controlling the Earth's temperature than cutting greenhouse gas emissions, says a research paper authored by University of Calgary researcher David Keith."


To read the remainder of this article click on the following link:


http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/environment/Canadian+researcher
+calls+radical+strategy+reflect+rays/2495132/story.html

Analysis of Polgar-Kaidanov Sicilian Theme match 2010 game 2

I have added  analysis of the second game of the Sicilian Theme match involving Grandmasters Judit Polgar and Gregory Kaidanov to the Chessviewer deluxe games menu.This game is numbered game #43 in the Chessviewer deluxe list of games.If you like the Sicilian defense, and in particular the  Dragon variation of the Sicilian defense,then this is a game for you! I hope you enjoy this analysis.I used the World's strongest chess program, Deep Rybka 3 at a setting of analysis in  2 hours to help me understand where the good and bad moves of this game were made.

The New Age of Extinction

The New Age of Extinction

Killer-Whale Tragedy: What Made Tilikum Snap?

Killer-Whale Tragedy: What Made Tilikum Snap?

10 Species Near Extinction

10 Species Near Extinction

Analysis of Topalov-Gelfand, Linares 2010 round 10

For those of you who enjoy chess, I have added another game to the Chessviewer Deluxe program, which I have analyzed with the help of chess programs Deep Rybka 3 and Deep Shredder 12 on my quad-core computer.This game is between Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel.The game took place in the last round of the recently concluded Linares Chess tournament and the victory in this game by Topalov assured him of a first place finish.I hope you enjoy this analysis. I allowed Deep Rybka 3 to analyze this game for three hours. This is game 42 in the games index.

2010 Polgar-Kaidanov chess match update round 3

I found this additional information concerning the match, the two players agreed before the match that the following variation of the Sicilian Defense would be played for each game:


Game 1:Sveshnikov variation, Game 2  Dragon variation, Game 3  Najdorf variation and Game 4) Scheveningen variation.Here are the results for more games from this match,which have been played since I last reported on the match:


Here are the results of all the games thus far:


Game 1:Kaidanov defeated Polgar with the white pieces.
Game 2:Polgar defeated Kaidanov with the white pieces.


Game 3:Kaidanov defeated Polgar with the White pieces.


This makes the match score 2-1


Game 4 is being played today, and the game has started. You can watch it live by going to:


http://monroi.com/judit-polgar-gregory-kaidanov-sicilian-theme-match-games.html and clicking on the "Tournament Name"
Judit Polgar - Gregory Kaidanov Match

Veselin Topalov wins the 2010 Linares Chess Tournament

Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria (pictured above) has won the 2010 Linares Chess tournament in Linares, Spain. Topalov defeated Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel in their last round game to win the tournament by a half-point over Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk.Here are the results from the last round of play:

Round 10 Results  (the player on the left had the white pieces in the game):
-----------------

V. Topalov	1-0	B. Gelfand
L. Aronian	1-0	V. Gashimov
F. Vallejo	1/2	A. Grischuk

As a consequence of these games here are the final standings in the tournament (I used the program Chessbase 10 to create the following crosstable): The digit(s) immediately left of the 4 digit number (the player's elo rating) when added or subtracted from the player's elo rating, give the player's performance rating for the tournament):


XXVII SuperGM  2010

                                            1   2   3     4     5   6
1   Topalov,V       2805   +50  ** 10 ½½ ½1 ½1 1½      6.5/10
2   Grischuk,A      2736   +96  01 ** ½½ ½½ 1½ ½1     6.0/10
3    Aronian,L       2781    +7  ½½ ½½ ** ½½ ½½ ½1   5.5/10
4   Vallejo Pons,   2705    -7  ½0 ½½ ½½ ** ½½ 0½     4.0/10  20.75
5   Gelfand,B        2761   -74  ½0 0½ ½½ ½½ ** ½½    4.0/10  19.75
6   Gashimov,V     2759   -71  0½ ½0 ½0 1½ ½½ **     4.0/10  19.00

Average elo: 2757 <=> Category: 21
gm = 3.00 m = 1.00

Congratulations to Grandmaster Topalov!

Source of image:http://www.chessplayersworld.com/veselin-topalov.html

Cannibal star is devouring a planet: Astronomers

According to a study released in the British Science journal, "Nature", a star 600 light years from Earth is devouring one of its own planets!! The star/planet , named "Wasp-12b by astronomers, was discovered last year  and scientists believe it , is a "gas giant" with a mass about 40 per cent greater and a radius 79 percent larger than that of Jupiter,  the biggest planet of our Solar System!!!!

WASP-12b takes only 26 hours to travel once around its star, WASP-12, located in the constellation of Auriga. Because its orbit is so fast, astronomers were able to state that WASP-12b is located very near its host star, WASP-12

Source:Agence France-Presse

Here is some additional information concerning WASP12b:

1."WASP 12b is an exoplanet. This means "it is a planet which orbits a star other than our own Sun."
2."WASP-12b orbits  its host star 1/40 ^th of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun Its host star, WASP  heats WASP-12b to record-breaking temperatures; the  planet is being heated  up to temperatures around 2250 °C!!"

3."Planets  approximately the  size of Jupiter orbiting close to their star in other systems are often referred to as "Hot Jupiters."

4."Scientists are at a loss to explain why WASP 1b is so large..Simulations suggest that the intense heat should keep the planet puffed up a bit — but nothing like what's observed. So the discovery team, led by Leslie Hebb (University of St. Andrews, Scotland), suspects that the planet is shrouded in energy-absorbing hazes consisting of titanium and vanadium oxides, among the few things that are solid at those temperatures. The exotic dust might be absorbing enough light and heat to puff out the planet's outer layer."
Hebb and her colleagues explore this possibility  in a paper which appears in the Astrophysical Journal and which you can download by clicking on the following link:http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0812/0812.3240v1.pdf  You need the program Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the file.
source:http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/15/hottest-ever-exoplanet-discovered-wasp-12b/


Just how common is it  for a star to devour a planet?

According to Dr David Whitehouse  BBC News Online science editor, who wrote the article,"Star devours planets," which you can read by clicking on the following link:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3113468.stm


"Some researchers believe that planet swallowing may be common and may explain why so many stars have enhanced levels of metals in their surface regions. The metals may have come from engulfed planets." It is stated at the website: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/27/the-case-of-the-missing-planets-are-stars-eating-their-young/


"The idea that gravitational forces might pull a planet into its parent star have recently been predicted by computer models."



 "When we look at the observed properties of extrasolar planets, we can see that this has already happened – some extrasolar planet have already fallen into their stars," said Rory Barnes from the University of Washington.

"The computer models can show where planets should line up in a particular star system, but direct observations show that some systems are missing planets close to the stars where models say they should be.
But because the planet is so close to the star, the two bodies begin pulling on each other with increasingly strong gravitational force, misshaping the star's surface with rising tides from its gaseous surface."

Analysis of Kaidanov-Polgar 2010 Sicilian Theme Match game 1

The unusual chess match between Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov and Grandmaster Judit Polgar has begun in the United States.This match is really interesting to me  because the player of the black pieces must play a variation of the Sicilian Defense in the game.  Kaidanov won the first game yesterday and Polgar evened the match today with a victory with the white pieces. I have analyzed the first game of this match in great detail using my chess resources: Chessbase 10, Chessbase Megadatabase 2010, Deep Rybka 3 and Deep Shredder 12 on my quad core computer in analysis mode for 1 hour. I have posted this game to the first page of my blog, in the directory of Chessviewer Deluxe. It is game number  41 in the games directory.I hope you enjoy this analysis.

2010 Linares Chess Tournament:round 9 results and cross-table, round 10 pairings

The ninth round of the 2010 Linares Chess tournament was played today in Spain. There was one game in which a decisive result occurred,that being in the game between Grischuk and Topalov, in which Grischuk was victorious. Here are the results from all of the games today:

Round 9 (February 22, 2010)

Grischuk 1-0 Topalov
Gashimov 1/2 Vallejo
Gelfand 1/2 Aronian

You can play through all of the moves of these games by going to the following website:

http://chessbase.com/news/2010/linares/games/linares09.htm

These results mean the following standings exist after 9 rounds of play (round 10 is the last round of the tournament):

Current standings

Here are the pairings for the last round of play which will be played tomorrow (Wednesday, February 23,2010): (the player on the left has the white pieces in the game):




Round 10: Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Ronda 10: Miercoles, 24.02.2010
V. Topalov	-	B. Gelfand
L. Aronian	-	V. Gashimov
F. Vallejo	-	A. Grischuk

More images of Enceladus are released by NASA

NASA  has released new images of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus (pronounced [en-SELL-ah-dus] )
 that were taken by the Cassini spacecraft in November.You can view these images by going to the following website:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/images20100223.html

Image: This image shows the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

This  image and all of the images released today by NASA were taken by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer Imaging Science Subsystem which was built into the Cassini spacecraft. The image focuses on Baghdad Sulcus, a fracture in the south polar region. Source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA11697_fig1.jpg

"Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel.Enceladus is named after the Giant Enceladus of Greek mythology. The name Enceladus — like the names of each of the first seven satellites of Saturn to be discovered — was suggested by William Herschel's son John Herschel in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope.  He chose these names because Saturn, known in Greek mythology as Cronus, was the leader of the Titans."


"Enceladus  was discovered by Fredrick William Herschel on August 28, 1789, during the first use of his new 1.2 m telescope, then the largest in the world.  Herschel first observed Enceladus in 1787, but in his smaller, 16.5 cm telescope, the moon was not recognized.  Due to Enceladus's faint apparent magnitude (+11.7m) and its proximity to much brighter Saturn and its rings, Enceladus is difficult to observe from Earth, requiring a telescope with a mirror of 15–30 cm in diameter, depending on atmospherical conditions and light pollution."

"Enceladus orbits Saturn at a distance of 238,000 km from the planet's center and 180,000 km from its cloudtops, between the orbits of Mimas and Tethys, requiring 32.9 hours to revolve once (fast enough for its motion to be observed over a single night of observation)."

"Enceladus is a relatively small satellite, with a mean diameter of 505 km, only one-seventh the diameter of Earth's own Moon. It is small enough to fit within the length of the United Kingdom; in fact, it is barely the size of England alone."  (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_%28moon%29)

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Here is a video I found which  is  related to Enceladus and the Cassini mission:

This  video relates to the Cassini findings of  March 2006 : (source:http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/ )

DNA links caribou migration to volcanic eruption

DNA from ancient frozen caribou bones found in the Yukon suggests caribou herds in the area were displaced by a volcanic eruption 1,000 years ago.
Researchers from the U.S., U.K. and Canada have found that DNA from caribou remains found in the Whitehorse area older than 1,000 years doesn't match the DNA of the current population there.
The local population isn't related to herds currently living to the north, east or west, either.

Read more:
 http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/23/tech-caribou-dna-ancient.html#ixzz0gO8gLNx3


This news story made me interested in discovering what the present state of caribou living in my home province of Alberta is. I found the following information:

"Rural and provincial conservation groups today distributed copies of a new provincial government recovery plan for Alberta’s endangered woodland caribou. The ‘Action Plan for West-Central Alberta Caribou Recovery’ authorizes ongoing logging and oil and gas development in the caribou home ranges north of Hinton and Grande Cache. The groups also displayed more than two dozen Alberta government and science reports, consultations and recovery plans for caribou released since the late 1970’s, showing industrial impacts on forests and wildlife as the root cause of caribou decline."

"The groups highlighted the fact that the government did not act on the previous plans written since the 1970’s, while at the same time Alberta’s caribou population has declined by almost two-thirds, from a high of an estimated population of 7,000 - 9,000 in the 1960’s to an estimated 3,000 today. Last year, a Canada-wide scientific review found that Alberta’s herds of woodland caribou were the most in danger of extinction among all provinces. Logging and oil and gas allocations increased rapidly during the 1980’s and 1990’s and now blanket Alberta forests."

"A long-time Hinton resident and wilderness outfitter Rocky Notness said, “I’ve watched government and industry studying and talking about protecting caribou for over thirty years, yet again, I see nothing in this plan by Minister Morton  to protect caribou. We’re losing our caribou, and it makes me very disappointed, and angry.” The caribou recovery plan for West-Central was written in May 2009 by Minister Ted Morton’s department of Sustainable Resource Development, but was not then released to the public."

"A 2005 provincial report listed the Little Smoky caribou herd in the region north of Hinton in immediate danger of extinction, but Helene Walsh of the Canadian Parks And Wilderness Society noted that, “the 2005 report did not lead to forest protection for the Little Smoky caribou and now Minister Morton is repeating that same sad story in the current plan. Albertans might wonder how he can advertise this as a ‘recovery’ plan for caribou, when the summary page states that his department’s mandate is ‘enabling’ access to resources yet only describes caribou habitat protection as a ‘high’ expectation.”

"Cliff Wallis, of the Alberta Wilderness Association, said, “We’ve tried our best for decades to point out solutions. Caribou need large areas of forests protected from industrial development. The Alberta government is simply failing its responsibility to protect wildlife habitat, and there’s no clearer evidence than the declining numbers of caribou.”

Source:http://albertawilderness.ca/news/2009/2009-11-25-awa-news-
release-woodland-caribou-herds-declining-toward-extinction-in-alberta

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So once again the ruling Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta has been found to lack leadership and direction in regards to an important issue in our province,that being the present and future sustainability of our wildlife in this province!  According to the website
:http://www.deer.rr.ualberta.ca/caribou/bcrp.htm

"Woodland caribou are listed as an endangered species under the Alberta’s Wildlife Act.  Therefore, it is a priority of all Albertans to conserve and maintain caribou populations and habitat in their boreal landscape. 

Why should we be concerned about the population levels of caribou in Alberta? 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We should be concerned about the population levels of caribou in Alberta because, "although they are important prey for wolves and bears, these caribou directly and indirectly impact the entire food web through nutrient cycling - affecting organisms from bacteria to moose."
 (source:http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&a
mp;issue_id=13&articles_id=15) ) . The ecological importance of caribou has been a topic of 
discussion among experts for some time. You can read about this by clicking on this excerpt from the book

You can read more about the future of caribou by reading an exercept from
book at the following link:

Caribou and the North: A Shared Future

"

 By Monte Hummel, Justina C. Ray, http://books.google.com/books?id=igy-SLZY_cwC&a
mp;pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=role+of+caribou+in+the+food+chain&source=
bl&ots=fDzCSxWu9F&sig=ZS7ZtnTXbFAk4eQN53eELyG5YAo&hl=en&e
i=OyyES9qIKpTZnAejz4zeAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum
=6&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=role%20of%20caribou%20in%20the
%20food%20chain&f=false

Scientists encouraged by glimpses of big cats

A group of scientists led by Kashmira Kakati, a wildlife biologist, have encouraging news concerning the populations of "Big Cat" species in the northeast region of India. According to an article written by Cornelia Green, and posted at the New York Times online edition http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/cats-on-camera/),"a  new set of photos, made by automated cameras in a rain forest in northeast India are “an encouraging sign,” according to group of conservation organizations aiming to protect biodiversity hotspots. The photos show that one forest area is home to seven cat species  — clouded leopards, marbled cats and golden cats, all of which are rare, and tigers, leopards, leopard cats and jungle cats, which are more numerous.

Big cats, such as lions,tigers are among the most endangered animals on the planet, due to habitat loss and poaching by humans.Here is a beautiful photo of one of the cats as it encountered an automatic camera owned by  Kashmira Kakati:

According to the blog http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/chinas-year-of-endangered-tiger.html,

"A century ago, more than 100,000 big cats roamed the Earth, but stocks have plummeted: scientists say there are now just 3,200. India has the largest number of wild tigers with almost 1,400.
Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide and trade in tiger parts is banned in more than 160 countries. At the website: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/big-cats/#2366_600x450.jpg I found this statement:

"Lions are threatened throughout most of their African range. But nowhere is their condition as perilous as in Kenyan Maasailand, ... Lions there, which number fewer than 150, are under imminent threat of extinction from Maasai herdsmen thought to be retaliating against prides who prey on their cattle."

"Recent years have seen the extinction of two sub-species of Indonesian tiger, the Caspian Tiger from western Central Asia, a sub-species of clouded leopard from Taiwan, and the Barbary lion from the wild in North Africa. Meanwhile, populations of the Iberian lynx, Asiatic cheetah and Amur leopard have fallen so low that they would be functionally extinct without current conservation efforts. Tiger populations have declined from more than 100,000 at the turn of the century to less than 6,000 today, while cheetah number are estimated at less than 15,000. Even lion populations have dropped: from over 100,000 one hundred years ago to probably less than 40,000 today."
(source: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0907-wcs.html

"Given these trends, it should come as no surprise that big cats have become the focus of conservation efforts. Not only are large predators often the most vulnerable to human pressures and the first to disappear from ecosystems, but efforts to conserve them effectively help protect thousands of other species that share their habitat."




"At the forefront of these efforts in Dr. Luke Hunter, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) where he heads their Great Cats Program. While he has worked in Africa since 1992, in the past year Hunter has tracked highly endangered Asiatic cheetah in Iran and jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal and is part of an effort to develop a comprehensive plan to conserve the snow leopard throughout its range. Hunter believes that understanding the biological needs of these species -- through careful research that sometimes includes tagging and remote monitoring of animals -- is the first step in saving them. Alongside that, he strongly advocates collaboration between conservationists and local people to minimize predation of livestock (often overstated) and activities that threaten predator populations. "


You can read an interview of Dr. Hunter at the monabay.com website posted above.In this interview Dr. Hunter talks about what steps have to be taken to ensure that big cats do not become extinct.

Same Species, Polar Opposites: The Mystery of Identical Creatures Found in both Arctic and Antarctic Waters

Chionodraco hamatus, an Antarctic ice fish, can withstand temperatures that freeze the blood of all other fish types. Photo  by H. William Detrich. (source:http://www.physorg.com/news148753307.html )




Written by   Daniel Grushkin


"Two years ago, several research vessels shipped out to the North and the South poles to assemble a census of creatures living under the ice. One of the most surprising results was a discovery that 235 identical species lived on opposite sides of the world but were undocumented anywhere else. It's easy to understand how massive humpbacks can swim from Arctic to Antarctic waters, but most of the miniature worms, snails and crustaceans on the researchers' list are no bigger than grains of rice. How could tiny creatures adapted for the frigid waters travel 9,500 kilometers through warmer climes to reach the opposite pole?"


To find out the possible reasons for this phenonemon click on the following link:


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=same-species-polar-opposites

To see  a slideshow concerning this story go to this website by clicking on the following address:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=same-species-polar-opposites

An amazing photograph of an Asian weaver ant

 (Thomas Endlein, University of Cambridge)

The  photograph you see above  won the top prize in a recent photo contest.The photo was taken by Zoologist Thomas Endlein of Cambridge University  who snapped the shot of the Asian weaver ant carrying a 500-milligram weight in its jaws while sticking to a glass-smooth ceiling.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/22/tech-biology-photo-ant.html#ixzz0gITII5FH

This photo reveals that the Asian weaver ant  (which has a scientific name of Oecophylla smaragdina) carry something which is 100 times its own body weight. This species of ant lives on trees and "protects the host trees from attacks of phytophagous insects (insects which feed on plants)  and therefore has been used for biological control in the tropics. The presence of Oecohylla nests on the trees statistically significantly lowered the flower-visiting rate of flying insects, involving the major pollinator Trigona minangkabau. The visiting rate of Oecophylla workers to each flower shoot of rambutan significantly negatively correlated with the visiting rate of flying insects. Empirical evidence of such an inhibitory effect on flower-visiting of pollinators cased by aggressive ants has been scarce so far." (source: http://www.springerlink.com/content/9c201ef1485a7a53/ ) 

"Weaver ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae (order Hymenoptera). This means these ants have the highest level of social organization among all ants. Colonies of weaver ants can be extremely large consisting of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and contain more than half a million workers.These ants are highly territorial and workers aggressively defend their territories against intruders.Although Oecophylla weaver ants lack a functional sting they can inflict painful bites and often spray formic acid  directly at the bite wound resulting in intense discomfort".

"Oecophylla weaver ants are known for their remarkable cooperative behaviour used in nest construction. the word "Oecophylla refers to the genus of these ants belong to (see http://www.antweb.org/description.do?name=oecophylla&project=worldants&rank=genus ).

"Possibly the first description of weaver ant's nest building behaviour was made by the English naturalist Joseph Banks, who took part in Captain James Cook's voyage to Australia in 1768. An excerpt from Joseph Banks' Journal (cited in Hölldobler and Wilson 1990) is included below:

The ants...one green as a leaf, and living upon trees, where it built a nest, in size between that of a man's head and his fist, by bending the leaves together, and gluing them with whitish paperish substances which held them firmly together. In doing this their management was most curious: they bend down four leaves broader than a man's hand, and place them in such a direction as they choose. This requires a much larger force than these animals seem capable of; many thousands indeed are employed in the joint work. I have seen as many as could stand by one another, holding down such a leaf, each drawing down with all his might, while others within were employed to fasten the glue. How they had bent it down I had not the opportunity of seeing, but it was held down by main strength, I easily proved by disturbing a part of them, on which the leaf bursting from the rest, returned to its natural situation, and I had an opportunity of trying with my finger the strength of these little animals must have used to get it down."

The weaver ant's ability to build capacious (spacious) nests from living leaves has undeniably contributed to their ecological success.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_ant


"The Vietnamese tradition of using weaver ants to protect citrus crops is in danger of being lost, according to a farmer participatory specialist having studied the practice over the past six years.
Intensification of horticulture and subsequent pressure from chemical companies are to blame, says Dr Paul Van Mele of CABI Bioscience, but encouraging farmers to reintroduce the method could offer an economically and environmentally viable way to sustain fruit production systems in Vietnam and beyond."


"Traditionally, Vietnamese farmers had a broad experience of natural pest management. Before the 1990s, fruit growers controlled insect pests by conserving a multitude of locally occurring natural enemies, including insect predators and parasitoids (small wasps that lay their eggs on or in a particular pest). This helped to keep pest numbers within acceptable limits and there was little neeed for use of pesticides.
In particular, use of the Asian weaver ant or Oecophylla smaragdina as a pest management method - a practice originating from China - has been used to protect citrus crops in Vietnam for centuries. Weaver ants get their name from their habit of binding living leaves with silk to form communal nests in trees. They feed on a variety of insects including the citrus stinkbug, leaf-feeding caterpillars, aphids and the citrus leafminer, which attack orange, tangerine, lemon and pomelo trees and their fruit. Use of the weaver ant as a pest management method is reported to protect both fruit and nut crops from pests and can also deter small rats. Other benefits include increases in cashew yield, increases in mango fruit sets and an improvement in citrus fruit quality and yield. Some farmers also use the ants as a form of weather forecasting, as a change in the insects' behaviour can denote an impending storm."


"Vietnamese fruit production intensified in the 1990s, when farmers converted paddy field into orchards to benefit from the significantly higher profits. . Newcomer fruit farmers lacked any knowledge of natural pest management, which led to a dramatic increase in pesticide use and a decline in the use of traditional methods. The weaver ant is now mainly confined to more extensively managed orange orchards.
With the increased use of broad-spectrum pesticides the number of pollinators and other natural enemies such as ladybirds, spiders and parasitoids have been affected. In some cases, over-use of chemicals has induced new pest problems by killing beneficial organisms and producing chemical resistance in pests - a phenomenon called 'pest resurgence'. This has, for instance, led to an increase in citrus leafminer and mites."


"Farmers are responding with increased spraying, even some traditional citrus growers are resorting to chemicals to keep on top of pests coming in from surrounding areas. Investigations suggest that in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam, none of the citrus farmers practise weaver ant husbandry anymore, while in the Mekong Delta it is mainly older citrus farmers who keep the tradition going."

"However, attitudes are beginning to change. Rising chemical application costs, pest resistance and the imposition by many industrialised countries of strict limits for pesticide residues are causing some farmers to question their intensive farming practices. The premium on organic fruit in the West is also a powerful incentive to convert to greener farming methods."
"Vietnam is witnessing a growing interest in a return to cheaper, more environmentally friendly means of growing fruit," says Van Mele. "We hope that by exploring and building on local weaver ant husbandry knowledge through consultations and workshops in other provinces and countries, and by linking to organic traders in the West, these ancient practices can be revived and safeguarded for future generations."

source: http://www.new-ag.info/03-2/develop/dev02.html

Here is a video of weaver ants taken by Mikey Bustos  during his visit to the Phillipines.This video was posted at Youtube

2010 Cappelle la Grande Open Chess tournament final crosstable

The 26th Cappelle-la Grande Open chess tournament took place from February 13th to February 20th. Here are the final standings.Congratulations to Grandmaster Yaroslav Zherebukh of the Ukraine for winning the tournament.

CAPPELLE-LA-GRANDE 2010 Classement final
Pl		Nom	Elo	Cat.	Fed			Pts	Tr.	Perf.
1	g	ZHEREBUKH Yaroslav	2527	CadM	UKR			7,5	43	2734
2	g	KRYVORUCHKO Yuriy	2602	SenM	UKR			7	43	2695
3	g	RADULSKI Julian	2577	SenM	BUL			7	43	2683
4	g	NEGI Parimarjan	2621	CadM	IND			7	43	2663
5	g	GUREVICH Mikhail	2597	SenM	TUR			7	42,5	2743
6	g	AMIN Bassem	2544	SenM	EGY			7	42,5	2724
7	g	EDOUARD Romain	2608	JunM	FRA			7	41,5	2705
8	g	ARUTINIAN David	2566	SenM	GEO			7	40,5	2589
9	g	DZIUBA Marcin	2587	SenM	POL			7	40	2686
10	g	KRAVTSIV Martyn	2543	JunM	UKR			7	38	2556
11	g	RIVAS PASTOR Manuel	2531	SenM	ESP			6,5	45,5	2636
12	g	DROZDOVSKIJ Yuri	2625	SenM	UKR			6,5	45	2666
13	g	KAZHGALEYEV Murtas	2643	SenM	KAZ			6,5	44,5	2654
14	g	GAJEWSKI Grzegorz	2568	SenM	POL			6,5	43,5	2678
15	g	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	2627	JunM	NOR			6,5	43,5	2654
16	g	MAMEDOV Nidjat	2610	SenM	AZE			6,5	43	2666
17	g	VOVK Andrey	2512	JunM	UKR			6,5	42,5	2617
18	m	SZABO Krisztian	2500	SenM	HUN			6,5	42,5	2605
19	m	LE ROUX Jean-Pierre	2497	SenM	FRA			6,5	42	2634
20	g	ZAKHARTSOV Viacheslav	2562	SenM	RUS			6,5	42	2616
21	g	SANDIPAN Chanda	2622	SenM	IND			6,5	41,5	2613
22	g	BALOGH Csaba	2619	SenM	HUN			6,5	41	2643
23	g	OLSZEWSKI Michal	2562	SenM	POL			6,5	40,5	2566
24	m	TOMCZAK Jacek	2500	JunM	POL			6,5	40,5	2533
25	f	VAN ASSENDELFT Floris	2330	SenM	NED			6,5	40,5	2484
26	mf	CORI T. Deysi	2412	CadF	PER			6,5	40	2562
27	g	GOLOD Vitali	2591	SenM	ISR			6,5	39,5	2570
28	m	GREKH Andrey	2333	SenM	UKR			6,5	39,5	2498
29	g	CORNETTE Matthieu	2554	SenM	FRA			6,5	39	2541
30	g	BINDRICH Falko	2512	JunM	GER			6,5	39	2536
31	m	DELORME Axel	2428	JunM	FRA			6,5	38,5	2499
32	m	SHIRAZI Kamran	2426	VetM	FRA			6,5	38,5	2352
33	g	CORRALES JIMENEZ Fidel	2602	SenM	CUB			6,5	38	2537

Sourcehttp://www.cappelle-chess.fr/fr2/default.php

You can play through some of the games and download a PGN file of some games by clicking on the following link:http://www.cappelle-chess.fr/cappelle2010-games/

2010 Linares Chess Tournament:round 6, 7, and 8 results and crosstables,round 9 pairings

The sixth, seventh, and eighth  rounds of the 2010 Linares Chess Tournament have been played since I last reported on the event.Here are the results from round 6 (the player on the left had the white pieces in the game):

Ronda 6: , 19.02.2010 V. Topalov 1-0 F. Vallejo A. Grischuk 1/2 L. Aronian V. Gashimov 1/2 B. Gelfand

Some analysis of some of the games of this round done by Grandmaster Giri can be viewed by clicking on the following link:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6142 As a consequence of these results these were the standings after 6 rounds:

The seventh round of the tournament was played on Saturday, here are the results (the player on the left had the white pieces in the game):

Ronda 7: , 20.02.2010
V. Gashimov	1/2	V. Topalov
B. Gelfand	1/2	A. Grischuk
L. Aronian	1/2	F. Vallejo

The standings looked like this after 7 rounds of play:

Analysis and commentary concerning round 7 can be read by clicking on the following link:
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6143

The eighth round of play in the tournament was played on Sunday. Here are the results from the three games:

Ronda 8: , 21.02.2010
V. Topalov	1/2	L. Aronian
F. Vallejo	1/2	B. Gelfand
A. Grischuk	1-0	V. Gashimov

These results mean the following standings exist in the tournament after 8 rounds of play:

You can play through the games from round 8 and read some commentary by clicking on the following link:
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6144

Here are the pairings for round 9 (which will be played on Tuesday, Monday is a rest day for the players):

Grischuk-Topalov
Gashimov-Vallejo
Gelfand-Aronian

Tinnitus does not appear to be inherited

OSLO, Norway, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Researchers in Norway suggest that tinnitus -- ringing in the ears -- does not appear to be a highly inherited condition.




Dr. Ellen Kvestad of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and Akershus University Hospital says tinnitus, or the perception of sound without an external acoustic stimulus, is common, but the causes of tinnitus onset and tinnitus maintenance are far from fully understood.



Kvestad said colleagues analyzed data collected from 12,940 spouses, 27,607 parents and offspring and 11,498 siblings. All completed a questionnaire about tinnitus and underwent a hearing examination.



A subgroup of 16,186 individuals with some hearing loss and 17,785 controls were sent a second questionnaire requesting more details about tinnitus, to which a total of 28,066 responded.



About 20.9 percent of the participants reported having definite or probable symptoms of tinnitus.



The researchers found a low overall correlation that does not indicate that any prevalent type of tinnitus is largely passed down through families.



The findings are published in the Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery.

source:United Press International http://www.amatechtel.com/news/wed/cp/Unorway-tinnitus.RXxS_KFJ.asp


Copyright 2010 by United Press International (via ClariNet)
 
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As someone who suffers from tinnitus (I believe due to the 6 rear-end car accidents I have been involved in), it sure would be nice if science could find a way to reduce this loud ringing in my ears!
 
 
According to the website:http://www.rezat.com/2009/04/hearing-loss-from-a-car-accident-loss-of-hearing-from-traumatic-impact/
 
"When we think of hearing loss, we typically think of a person who has listened to loud music for years, has worked in noisy industrial buildings or construction areas all of his or her working life, or the natural decline of the auditory senses with age. But hearing loss can also be due to a sudden event, such as hitting one’s head in a fall or a swift powerful blow to the side of the head such as that suffered in an automobile accident. A blow to the head that causes unconsciousness can lead to an inner-ear concussion and hearing loss. Other damages that can result in trauma to head or ear include the dislocation or fracture of the middle ear bones, fracture of the cochlea in the inner ear (the cochlea is the main sensory organ of hearing), a hole in the inner ear leading to inner ear fluid leakage, a fracture of the temporal bone fracture leading to hearing loss, and bleeding in the inner ear. Serious traumatic injuries to the ear arising from an automobile collision can cause permanent hearing loss or balance problems" (or in my case both!)

Scientists find young planet

Artist's impression of BD+20 1790b, the youngest exoplanet yet discovered. Credit: M. Hernon Obispo



"The discovery of  a large planet, which has been named BD+20 1790b,has been found to be the youngest planet ever found orbiting a star of a similar size to Earth's sun, said astronomer Maria-Cruz Galvez-Ortiz of the University of Hertfordshire.

"The planet, located 83 light years from Earth, is 35 million years old and six times the size of Jupiter, Galvez-Ortiz and her team wrote in a recent issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics."There are still very few extrasolar planets that have been discovered –- only about 420," Galvez-Ortiz told The Daily Telegraph in a story reported Friday."

"BD+201790 is a very active star, and astronomers announced last year that it could possibly have a companion. An international collaboration of astronomers, led by Dr. Maria Cruz Gálvez-Ortiz and Dr. John Barnes were able to "weed out" the data to determine the planet was actually there."


"BD+20 1790b was discovered using observations made at different telescopes, including the Observatorio de Calar Alto (Almería, Spain) and the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain) over the last five years. The discovery team is an international collaboration including: M.M. Hernán Obispo, E. De Castro and M. Cornide (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain), M.C. Gálvez-Ortiz and J.R. Barnes, (University of Hertfordshire, U.K.), G. Anglada-Escudé (Carnegie Institution of Washington, USA) and S.R. Kane (NASA Exoplanet Institute, Caltech, USA). The discovery has just been published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal."

“The planet was detected by searching for very small variations in the velocity of the host star, caused by the gravitational tug of the planet as it orbits – the so-called “Doppler wobble technique,” said Gálvez-Ortiz. "Overcoming the interference caused by the activity was a major challenge for the team, but with enough data from an array of large telescopes the planet’s signature was revealed.”

Source:http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=68654&CultureCode=en

Analysis of Vallejo Pons-Gashimov, 2010 Linares Chess tournament round 5

With the help of the chess program Deep Rybka 3, Chessbase 10 and the database Megadatabase 2010 I have analyzed another game from the 2010 Linares Chess tournament currently being played in Spain. This game I analyzed is between GM Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain and GM Vugar Gashimov of    .The opening used in this game was the Benoni Defense. It is game number 40 in the Chessviewer Deluxe program.I hope you enjoy the analysis and the game!

2010 Linares Chess Tournament:Round 5 results and standings,round 6 pairings

The fifth round of the 2010 Linares Chess Tournament was played today.Here are the results from the games:

Topalov-Grischuk Result: 1-0  Opening:Sicilian Defense:Najdorf variation    Number of moves:69
Vallejo-Gashimov:Result: 0-1  Opening:Modern Benoni Defense:                 Number of moves:35
Aronian-Gelfand Result: draw  Opening:Semi-Slav Defense:Meran variation Number of moves:46

Analysis of the Topalov-Grischuk game done by GM Giri can be viewed by clicking on the following link:



http://www.chessbase.com/news/2010/linares/games/giri05.htm


These results mean the following standings exist in the tournament  after 5 rounds of play:

Here are the pairings for round 6 (which will be played on Friday): (the player on the left
has the white pieces in the game)

Topalov-Vallejo
Grischuk-Aronian
Gashimov-Gelfand