Homeless Veterans

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs:

VA offers a wide array of special programs and initiatives specifically designed to help homeless veterans live as self-sufficiently and independently as possible.

Back by Popular Demand

I planned to end this blog to focus on new business opportunities. An avalanche of protests from unhappy readers buried that idea.

India

Vikas Bajaj and Heather Timmons of the New York Times: "In what has been a bad year for airlines everywhere, Air India has suffered from a series of particularly painful — and at times embarrassing — misfortunes."

Guide

An elephant killed a BBC guide in Tanzania.

Chirac

Voice of America: "A French magistrate has ordered former President Jacques Chirac to stand trial on embezzlement charges dating back to the 1990s, when he was mayor of Paris."

Last Man Standing

"Final Member of Hitler's Inner Circle Dies at 96" - Fox News

Wreckage

From the BBC: "An Indian tribe in Brazil has found a missing military plane that disappeared over the Amazon region with 11 people on board, the Brazilian air force said."

Skull on a Hillside

The Buffalo Museum of Science issued a press release about a new species of dinosaur.

Oxygen

National Science Foundation:

Scientists widely accept that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply.

Called the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), the oxygen spike marks an important milestone in Earth's history, the transformation from an oxygen-poor atmosphere to an oxygen-rich one, paving the way for complex life to develop.

Two questions that remain unresolved in studies of the early Earth are when oxygen production via photosynthesis got started, and when it began to alter the chemistry of Earth's ocean and atmosphere.

Now a research team led by geoscientists at the University of California at Riverside (UCR) corroborates recent evidence that oxygen production began in Earth's oceans at least 100 million years before the GOE.

Bluebeard in a Skirt

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A Russian woman nicknamed 'Bluebeard in a skirt' has been jailed for stabbing her younger lover, after having already served two jail terms for killing her first husband and another lover."

Folk Singer

Two coyotes killed a 19-year-old folk singer in Nova Scotia.

Teenage Bride

BBC News: "Hundreds of people have attended a wedding in central Somalia between a man who says he is 112 years old, and his teenage wife."

Color

Chromolithograph, 1890s

Mike O'Sullivan at Voice of America:

Technology can bring lasting change to society, and one change it brought in the 19th century was the widespread use of color in art and commerce. A printing process known as lithography began in Germany and then spread to America, where brightly colored printing transformed popular culture. An exhibition called The Color Explosion at the Huntington Library illustrates the changes.

The 19th century is often recalled as a monochrome world, remembered through stiffly posed, black and white photographs of people dressed in shades of gray. Much of the century, however, was awash in color, especially in America, where brightly colored prints found a place on boxes, cans and cartons, as well as children's games, calendars and posters.

Montenegro

Near a beach in Montenegro a teenage swimmer may have discovered a submerged ancient temple.

Business Heritage

"A Brief History of McDonald's Abroad" - Randy James, Time

Curry

Cork Cancer Research Centre in Ireland: "Curry compound kills cancer cells."

Roots

Greg Flakus at Voice of America:

A firm in Houston, Texas, that pioneered the use of DNA tests in genealogy studies is involved in a project in Africa that could help researchers there trace migration patterns over the centuries and help African Americans to connect with their roots.

Ritual Deaths

John Noble Wilford of the New York Times: "Archaeologists said human sacrifices in ancient Mesopotamia might have involved sharp instruments rather than poison."

France

BBC News: "The son of ex-French President Francois Mitterrand and an ex-government minister have been convicted for their roles in illegal arms sales to Angola."

British Yacht

Via IOL: "Somali pirates said on Tuesday they had seized a yacht in the Indian Ocean with a British couple aboard and were taking the vessel to the Horn of Africa nation."

Jurassic Coast

Rebecca Morelle at BBC News: "The fossilized skull of a colossal 'sea monster' has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast."

Juanita Castro

Voice of America: "Juanita Castro, sister of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, says she collaborated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency against her brother's rule in the 1960s."

Russia

Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "It’s mushroom-hunting season and that means dozens of Russians become so hypnotized that they get hopelessly lost in forests."

Fly

Oregon State University:

Just in time for Halloween, researchers have announced the discovery of a new, real-world “monster” — what they are calling a “unicorn” fly that lived about 100 million years ago and is being described as a new family, genus and species of fly never before observed.

A single, incredibly well-preserved specimen of the tiny but scary-looking fly was preserved for eternity in Burmese amber, and it had a small horn emerging from the top of its head, topped by three eyes that would have given it the ability to see predators coming.

Taiwan

U.S. Commerce Department:

On July 15, 2009, Taiwan acceded to the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) of the World Trade Organization. The agreement requires its signatories to open their government procurement and provide national treatment to the goods, services, and suppliers of other members. In Taiwan’s case, this means an estimated $21 billion in procurement contracts offered by central and local government entities are now available to U.S. bidders/suppliers.

(Hat tip: Brendan Alexander, Rakotis)

Down Under

New York Daily News: "A 10-foot shark was bitten nearly in half by a 'monster shark' twice it's size — and that Great White is still on the prowl off the coast of Queensland, Australian officials said."

Rhode Island

Doug Stanglin at USA Today:

Several state lawmakers met with about 30 prostitutes over the weekend to explain likely changes in the state law that will close a loophole that has made Rhode Island the only state where prostitution is legal as long as it occurs indoors, the Providence Journal reports.

Human Skulls

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A Chinese-American academic has been sentenced to eight years in prison for selling human skulls unearthed in China to buyers overseas, state media reported."

Arctic

"Palms Once Grew in Ice-Free Arctic" - Alister Doyle, Reuters

Norway

IOL: "Customs officials in Norway said on Monday they had arrested a man who tried to illegally import 14 snakes and 10 lizards into the country by taping the reptiles to his body."

England

BBC: "An unusual eight-legged spiny starfish has gone on display after being discovered in a crab pot off Cornwall's coast."

Wolves

University of Minnesota:

Although most wolves in Yellowstone National Park live to be nearly six years old, their ability to kill prey peaks when they are two to three, according to a study led by Dan MacNulty and recently published online by Ecology Letters. The study will appear in the journal's December print issue.

The finding challenges a long-held belief that wolves are successful predators for their entire adult lives. It now appears that like human athletes, they are only at the top of their game for about 25 percent of that time.