Florida Python Hunt Captures 68 Invasive Snakes

It's a wrap—the 2013 Python Challenge has nabbed 68 invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, organizers say. And experts are surprised so many of the elusive giants were caught.

Nearly 1,600 people from 38 states—most of them inexperienced hunters—registered for the chance to track down one of the animals, many of which descend from snakes that either escaped or were dumped into the wild.

Since being introduced, these Asian behemoths have flourished in Florida's swamps while also squeezing out local populations of the state's native mammals, especially in the Everglades. (See Everglades pictures.)

To highlight the python problem, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and its partners launched the 2013 Python Challenge, which encouraged registered participants to catch as many pythons as they could between January 12 and February 10 in state wildlife-management areas within the Everglades.

The commission gave cash prizes to those who harvested the most and longest pythons.

Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida and scientific leader for the challenge, said before the hunt that he would consider a harvest of 70 animals a success—and 68 is close enough to say the event met its goals.

It's unknown just how many Burmese pythons live in Florida, but catching 68 snakes is an "exceptional" number, added Kenneth Krysko, senior herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Snakes in the Grass

Finding 68 snakes is impressive, experts say, since it's so hard to find pythons. For one, it's been unusually warm lately in Florida, which means the reptiles—which normally sun themselves to regulate their body temperature—are staying in the brush, making them harder to detect, Krysko said.

On top of that, Burmese pythons are notoriously hard to locate, experts say.

The animals are so well camouflaged that people can stand right next to one and not notice it. "It's rare that you get to see them stretched out—most of the time they're blending in," said Cheryl Millett, a biologist at the Nature Conservancy, a Python Challenge partner.

What's more, the reptiles are ambush hunters, which means they spend much of their time lying in wait in dense vegetation, not moving, she said.

That's why Millett gave the hunters some tips, such as looking along the water's edge, where the snakes like to hang out, and also simply listening for "something big moving through the vegetation."

Even so, catching 68 snakes is "actually is a little more than I expected," said Millett.

No Walk in the Park

Ruben Ramirez, founder of the company Florida Python Hunters, won two prizes in the competition: First place for the most snakes captured—18—and second place for the largest python, which he said was close to 11 feet (3.4 meters) long. The biggest Burmese python caught in Florida, nabbed in 2012, measured 17.7 feet (5.4 meters).

"They're there, but they're not as easy to find as people think," said Ramirez. "You're not going to be stumbling over pythons in Miami." (Related blog post: "What It's Like to Be a Florida Python Hunter.")

All participants, some of whom had never hunted a python before, were trained to identify the difference between a Burmese python and Florida's native snakes, said Millett. No native snakes were accidentally killed, she said.

Hunters were also told to kill the snakes by either putting a bolt or a bullet through their heads, or decapitating them-all humane methods that result "in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the brain," according to the Python Challenge website.

Ramirez added that some of the first-time or amateur hunters had different expectations. "I think they were expecting to walk down a canal and see a 10-foot [3-meter], 15-foot [4.5-meter] Burmese python. They thought it'd be a walk in the park."

Stopping the Spread

Completely removing these snakes from the wild isn't easy, and some scientists see the Python Challenge as helping to achieve part of that goal. (Read an opposing view on the Python Challenge: "Opinion: Florida's Great Snake Hunt Is a Cheap Stunt.")

"You're talking about 68 more animals removed from the population that shouldn't be there—that's 68 more mouths that aren't being fed," said the Florida museum's Krysko. (Read about giant Burmese python meals that went bust.)

"I support any kind of event or program that not only informs the general public about introduced species, but also gets the public involved in removing these nonnative animals that don't belong there."

The Nature Conservancy's Millett said the challenge had two positive outcomes: boosting knowledge for both science and the public.

People who didn't want to hunt or touch the snakes could still help, she said, by reporting sightings of exotic species to 888-IVE-GOT-1, through free IveGot1 apps, or www.ivegot1.org.

Millett runs a public-private Nature Conservancy partnership called Python Patrol that the Florida wildlife commission will take on in the fall. The program focuses not only on eradicating invasive pythons but on preventing the snake from moving to ecologically sensitive areas, such as Key West.

Necropsies on the captured snakes will reveal what pythons are eating, and location data from the hunters will help scientists figure out where the snakes are living—valuable data for researchers working to stop their spread.

"This is the most [number of] pythons that have been caught in this short of a period of time in such an extensive area," said the University of Florida's Mazzotti.

"It's an unprecedented sample, and we're going to get a lot of information out of that."

Read More..

Fiery Debate Over Pistorius' Story at Bail Hearing

As prosecutors today outlined their case against South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, providing details that they say indicates a premeditated act of murder against his girlfriend, his lawyers swatted at each bit of evidence on the dramatic second day of a bail hearing that will likely foreshadow the upcoming trial.

The Johannesburg courtroom sat riveted as police investigators said that Pistorius, a double-amputee who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot his girlfriend through a closed bathroom door at a high angle from which he had to be wearing his prosthetic legs.

Prosecutors insisted that Pistorius took a moment to put the legs on, indicating that he thought out and planned to kill Reeva Steenkamp, his model girlfriend, when he shot her three times through a closed bathroom door early on the morning of Valentine's Day.

There was a "deliberate aiming of shots at the toilet from about 1.5 meters [about 5 feet]," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

Read Oscar Pistorius' Full Statement to the Court

Nel said Pistorius fired four shots into the bathroom, hitting Steenkamp three times in the head, elbow, and hip.

Nel also said a witness would testify to hearing "non-stop talking, like shouting" in the early hours before the dawn shooting.

Oscar Pistorius: Defense Presents New Evidence Watch Video

'Blade Runner' Appears in Court to Hear Murder Charges Watch Video

Pistorius' lawyer, who argued Tuesday that the runner accidently fired on Steenkamp believing she was an intruder, assailed each bit of the prosecution's evidence, even getting a lead investigator to concede that police had not found anything to conclusively disprove the Olympian's story.

"[The angle] seems to me down. Fired down," Police officer Hilton Botha told the court, suggesting Pistorius was standing high up on his fake legs.

PHOTOS: Paralympics Champion Charged in Killing

But when pushed by defense lawyer Barry Roux, Botha admitted he did not know whether Pistorius was wearing the prosthetics.

When asked about the witness who allegedly heard yelling between Pistorius and Steenkamp, Botha admitted under cross-examination that the woman was about 600 yards -- six football fields -- away at the time.

When the prosecutor questioned Botha a second time, he backtracked to say the witness was actually much closer.

The prosecution showed a floor-plan of the couple's apartment and said there was no way for Pistorius to cross from one side of the bedroom toward the bathroom, or retrieve his hidden pistol, without realizing Steenkamp was not in bed.

"There's no other way of getting there," prosecutor Nel said.

The defense further suggested that Steenkamp had gone to the bathroom on her own, and not to flee from Pistorius, because her bladder was empty. Had she simply run there to hide at 3 am, it would have more likely been full, Roux said.

Asked by defense attorney Roux whether Steenkamp's body showed "any pattern of defensive wounds," suggesting she had put up a fight, Botha admitted it did not.

Prosecutors also said that they found two boxes of testosterone and needles in the bedroom, although the defense disputed the finding, calling the substance a "herbal remedy," not banned drugs or steroids.

Botha told the court today that he arrived at Pistorius' home at 4:15 a.m., Feb. 14, to find Steenkamp already dead, dressed in a white shorts and a black vest, and covered in towels. The first thing Pistorius told police was that "he thought it was a burglar," officials said.

Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 19 February 2013

Doctors would tax sugary drinks to combat obesity

Hiking the price of fizzy drinks would cut consumption and so help fight obesity, urges the British Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

Space station's dark matter hunter coy about findings

Researchers on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which sits above the International Space Station, have collected their first results - but won't reveal them for two weeks

Huge telescopes could spy alien oxygen

Hunting for oxygen in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets is a tough job, but a new wave of giant telescopes should be up to the task

Evolution's detectives: Closing in on missing links

Technology is taking the guesswork out of finding evolution's turning points, from the first fish with legs to our own recent forebears, says Jeff Hecht

Moody Mercury shows its hidden colours

False-colour pictures let us see the chemical and physical landscape of the normally beige planet closest to the sun

LHC shuts down to prepare for peak energy in 2015

Over the next two years, engineers will be giving the Large Hadron Collider the makeover it needs to reach its maximum design energy

Insert real news events into your mobile game

From meteor airbursts to footballing fracas, mobile games could soon be brimming with news events that lend them more currency

3D-printing pen turns doodles into sculptures

The 3Doodle, which launched on Kickstarter today, lets users draw 3D structures in the air which solidify almost instantly

We need to rethink how we name exoplanets

Fed up with dull names for exoplanets, Alan Stern and his company Uwingu have asked the public for help. Will it be so long 2M 0746+20b, hello Obama?

A shocking cure: Plug in for the ultimate recharge

An electrical cure for ageing attracted the ire of the medical establishment. But could the jazz-age inventor have stumbled upon a genuine therapy?

Biofuel rush is wiping out unique American grasslands

Planting more crops to meet the biofuel demand is destroying grasslands and pastures in the central US, threatening wildlife

Read More..

Kerry to visit Europe, Mideast on first trip

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit nine countries in Europe and the Middle East starting Sunday as he undertakes his first foreign trip as top diplomat, the State Department said Tuesday.

Kerry will visit Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar through March 6, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

Nuland said that the former senator's trip was partly a "listening tour," although in Rome he will take part in a meeting with the Syrian opposition and fellow countries that support the forces against President Bashar al-Assad.

"He'll look forward to hearing from the Syrian Opposition Coalition, what more they think we can do, and also to hear from counterparts who are deeply involved in supporting the opposition," Nuland said.

The newly installed US secretary of state will notably discuss Syria with regional players including Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, she said.

In Egypt, where tensions have been rising two years after the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak, Kerry will meet with political leaders as well as civil society "to encourage greater political consensus and moving forward on economic reforms," Nuland said.

Kerry will also meet in Cairo with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, while in Riyadh he will also meet foreign ministers from Gulf Arab kingdoms.

He is not visiting Israel or the Palestinian territories. Nuland noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still forming a government and said Kerry would join President Barack Obama on an upcoming visit to the Jewish state.

Nuland said that Kerry would speak in Paris about Mali, where France's military recently intervened to force out Islamists who had seized vast swathes of the African nation.

Kerry, who spent part of his youth in Germany, will use his stop in Berlin as "an opportunity to reconnect with the city in which he lived as a child" and meet with young Germans, Nuland said.

Kerry's first trip as secretary of state marks a sharp change from that of his predecessor Hillary Clinton, who headed to Asia in a sign of the new Obama administration's focus on the fast-growing region.

Nuland said that Kerry will visit Asia "early in his tenure" but that with any additional stops on the upcoming trip, "an already long excursion would be even longer."

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Apple: Employee computers were hacked in targeted attack

Apple's Cupertino campus.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Apple today said it too was targeted as part of the string of hacking efforts on companies and news agencies.

The iPhone and
Mac maker today told Reuters that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that "there was no evidence that any data left Apple."

In a statement, Apple said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability in the Java plug-in, and that it was sourced from a site for software developers.

Reuters says Apple plans to release a security update later today to protect user computers. CNET has reached out to the company for additional information and will update this post when we know more.

Apple joins a list of companies including Facebook, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, as targets of a group of hackers believed to originate from China.

A report Monday by The New York Times claimed that an "overwhelming percentage" of the cyberattacks on U.S. corporations, government agencies, and organizations all came from an office building in Shanghai with ties to the People's Liberation Army, information that remains unconfirmed and flatly denied by Chinese authorities.

The hack itself stemmed from a months-long attack on The New York Times, with attackers stealing corporate passwords of its employees as well as spying on personal computers owned by employees. Apple says only "a small number of systems" were infected before being isolated.

Read More..

New Ancient Members of Whale Family Found

Jane J. Lee in Boston

The ancestors of modern baleen whales—including the ancient forbears of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae)—just got four new relatives.

Scientists announced Sunday that they have discovered the new species thanks in large part to a construction crew in southern California.

The researchers discovered 11 whale species at the site, said Meredith Rivin, a paleontologist at California State University in Fullerton, including the four new species.

The newly identified ancient animals belong to the group including baleen whales, named for the frayed blades of fingernail-like material hanging down from the roof of their mouths, which they use to strain seawater for food.

The four new species of ancient baleen whales had teeth—unlike their current relatives—and are not direct ancestors to modern baleen whales, said Rivin. They represent a transitional step and are related to the animals that would eventually give rise to the whales we know today.

During work on a new road through Laguna Canyon (map) near Los Angeles in 2000, construction crews uncovered an outcrop littered with whale fossils around 17 to 19 million years old.

By that time, Rivin said, toothed baleen whales "were supposed to have been extinct for about 5 million years or so, and we got a huge diversity of them."

Not only were they not extinct, she said, but it appears that the lineage was doing well at the time.

Before these finds, there weren't any examples of toothed baleen whales from around the world during this time period, called the early Miocene, said Rivin.

Paleontologists accompanying the Southern California crew eventually uncovered hundreds of whale bones and over 30 whale skulls over a five-year period.

Three of the new species are relatively small, about the size of modern-day dolphins, said Rivin.

One of the larger species, a 30-foot (nine-meter) whale in the genus Morawanocetus, is similar to another ancient whale species, Llanocetus denticrenatus, which was thought to have gone extinct 35 million years ago. (Read about a mud-grubbing toothed baleen whale.)

Rivin discussed the newly discovered species of ancient toothed baleen whales at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

She plans to publish papers on three of the four toothed baleen whale species later this year.

The fourth one she's still trying to extract fully from the rock, although she's been able to uncover enough to know that this whale is unlike anything she's ever seen before. Its teeth have very long roots that bulge up from the bone. Rivin plans to keep chipping away at the rock surrounding the fossil until she can study the entire specimen.

Read More..

Oscar Pistorius Describes 'Sense of Terror'

Olympian Oscar Pistorius today denied that he willfully killed his girlfriend, telling a South African court that he shot the woman through his bathroom door because he believed she was an intruder.

Pistorius, 26 and a double-amputee Olympian, was charged today with premeditated murder, or a Schedule 6 offense, which under South African law limits his chances for parole if convicted.

"I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated murder because I had no intention to kill my girlfriend," Pistorius said in a statement, read by his lawyer.

"I deny the accusation," he said. "Nothing can be further from the truth that I planned the murder of my girlfriend."

The court adjourned today with no decision on his bail and the hearing is scheduled to resume Wednesday.

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Pistorius, who gained worldwide fame for running on carbon-fiber blades and competing against able-bodied runners at the Olympics, is accused of shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 14.

In a statement read by his lawyer today, the runner said he and Steenkamp went to bed together before he was awoken by a noise he thought was an intruder coming from the bathroom.

Filled with a "sense of terror," he removed the 9-mm pistol he kept hidden under his bed and, without putting on his prosthetic legs, began shooting through the bathroom door, according to his statement.

"I was scared and didn't switch on the light," he said. "I got my gun and moved towards the bathroom. I screamed at the intruder because I did not have my legs on. I felt vulnerable. I fired shots through the bathroom door and told Reeva to call police.

Oscar Pistorius: Was Shooting Premeditated? Watch Video

Conflicting Theories Muddle Oscar Pistorius Murder Case Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Allegedly Fought the Night of Shooting Watch Video

"I walked back to the bed and realized Reeva was not in bed. It's then it dawned on me it could be her in there," he said.

That's when he realized Steenkamp was not in bed, he said in the statement. Fearing she was inside the bathroom, he says, he broke down the door using a cricket bat and carried the woman outside, where he called for help, and she soon died.

Excerpts of Prosecutor's Case Against Pistorius

Pistorius appeared in court today for the first time since his Valentine's Day arrest, as prosecutors laid out their case, insisting that the runner could not have mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder.

"[Pistorius] shot and killed an innocent woman," Gerrie Nel, the senior state prosecutor, said in court, adding that there is "no possible explanation to support" the notion that Pistorius thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

Prosecutors said, "There is no possible explanation to support his report that he thought that it was a burglar. Even [in] his own version, he readied himself, walked to the bathroom with the clear intention and plan to kill the 'burglar' and did so whilst the burglar was harmless and contained in a toilet. This in itself also constitutes premeditated murder of a 'defenseless burglar.''

Pistorius said he and Steenkamp were in his bedroom the night before Valentine's Day, when she
was doing yoga exercises and he was in bed watching television. "My prosthetic legs were off," according to his statement. "We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I
know she felt the same way. She had given me a present for Valentine's Day
but asked me only to open it the next day.

"After Reeva finished her yoga exercises she got into bed and we both fell
asleep."

Later, police responding to neighbors' calls about shouting and gunshots at Pistorius' home in the guarded and gated complex in the South African capital discovered Steenkamp's body. A 9-mm pistol was recovered at the home.

Prosecutors said Steenkamp had arrived at the house with the expectation of spending the night with Pistorius. They said that Steenkamp was shot while in the bathroom, which is about 21 feet from the main bedroom, and that the two rooms are linked by a passage. The door to the toilet was broken down from the outside, prosecutors said, implying that the bathroom door had been locked.

Prosecutors believe it's a case of premeditated murder because, they say, Pistorius had to stop, put on his prosthetic legs, grab a gun and then walk 21 feet to a bathroom.

The premeditated murder charge means that he would likely be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, and that he is likely to be denied bail.

Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 18 February 2013

One-Minute Physics: Are unknowns part of the universe?

Watch an animation that examines the contents of the universe as described by physics - does it contain everything that is, including the unknown?

Traces of life on Mars may have been bleached away

Bleach-related compounds in a Mars meteorite from Antarctica suggest that chemical reactions may have destroyed organics - at least on Mars's surface

Predict an Oscar winner by crunching the numbers

Predictive techniques got a boost after Nate Silver's tremendous success with the US elections. Can others do likewise with the Oscars?

Oil spill firm to pay $400 million to fix Gulf coast

Offshore drilling firm Transocean is to pay a huge fine for its role in the Deepwater Horizon spill, helping fund restoration work in the affected states

The fish with a rainbow eye

See the spectral eyes of the Caribbean trumpetfish glowing in many different colours in an award-winning photograph

Nuclear waste: too hot to handle?

Cumbria's decision to veto an underground repository for the UK shows how hard it is to find a long-term solution, say William M. Alley and Rosemarie Alley

Wiping out top predators messes up the climate

It isn't just the food chain that is disrupted when creatures at the top die out - so are mechanisms that keep carbon dioxide emissions down

False memories prime immune system for future attacks

Exposing our bodies to vaccines based on benign microbes could promote immunity to much nastier but totally different diseases

Taxpayers' money keeps Japan's whaling fleet afloat

Public funds subsidise Japan's whaling industry to the tune of $8.9 million, even though only 11 per cent of citizens support it

Did police use Twitter effectively during the riots?

An analysis of tweets from the UK riots of 2011 compares how police in different cities varied in their approaches to communicating with the public

Tongue-tingling interface lets you taste data

Tongueduino's electrodes send signals from sensors to the tongue, allowing taste buds to "read" information such as the orientation of Earth's magnetic field

Meteor guide: science and safety of Earth-bound rocks

As the meteorite landing in Russia today showed, space rocks can be destructive - but they also tell us about a lot about our solar system

Quake could rock asteroid as it skims Earth

The near-Earth fly-by of the huge space rock 2012 DA14 could reveal an asteroid quake in action

Read More..

French horsemeat scandal firm resumes work as ban eased

PARIS: The French firm that sparked a Europe-wide food scandal by allegedly passing off 750 tonnes of horsemeat as beef was allowed Monday to resume production of minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals.

But Spanghero, whose horsemeat found its way into 4.5 million "beef" products sold across Europe, will no longer be allowed to stock frozen meat, Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll told AFP.

Upholding that ban means it cannot act as middleman between abattoirs and food-processing companies, the situation which allegedly allowed it to change labels on horsemeat and sell it on as beef.

The firm's sanitary licence was suspended last Thursday after it was accused of passing off huge quantities of mislabeled meat over a period of six months.

France's DGCCRF anti-fraud office concluded after an initial inquiry that 500 tonnes of that horsemeat were sent to French firm Comigel, whose frozen meals were sold to 28 different companies in 13 European states.

Le Foll said the results of a full inquiry into the activities of Spanghero -- where experts have been carrying out inspections at its plant in the southwestern town of Castelnaudary -- would be ready by Friday.

"At this point, 80 percent of the total meat stock has been verified, the work continues for the remaining 20 percent," he said.

His ministry said its inspectors confirmed the DGCCRF's findings that labels on horsemeat had been changed by Spanghero to pass it off as beef. The DGCCRF's criminal investigation into the wider horsemeat scandal is continuing.

Spanghero on Friday again insisted it was not responsible for the mislabelling that has seen supermarket chains across the continent pull millions of suspect food products from their shelves.

"I don't know who is behind this, but it is not us," said Spanghero boss Barthelemy Aguerre, adding that the accusations were putting his 300 workers' jobs on the line. "I will prove our innocence."

Union leaders at Spanghero had warned that revoking its licence would put the company out of business.

Concerns about horsemeat first emerged in mid-January when Irish authorities found traces of horse in beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and Britain and sold in supermarket chains including Tesco and Aldi.

The scandal then intensified when Comigel alerted Findus this month to the presence of horsemeat in the meals it had made for the food giant and which were on sale in Britain.

Since then, supermarket chains have removed millions of "beef" products as tests are carried out to detect horsemeat, which is eaten in many European countries but is considered taboo in Britain.

Horsemeat in "beef" ready-to-eat meals has so far been confirmed in products found in Britain, Ireland, France, Austria, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Most of the mislabeled products were made by Comigel.

The scandal spread on Monday to Finland, where two ready-made meals sold at German discount chain Lidl -- canned beef goulash and tortellini bolognese -- were found to contain horsemeat.

Lidl said it was also pulling the products from its shops in Sweden.

The European Union, seeking to reassure nervous consumers that their food is safe and to end the horsemeat scandal, on Friday agreed the immediate launch of tests for horse DNA in meat products.

Germany said Monday it planned to tighten checks and sanctions on food production under an action plan to counter the scandal.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Burger King Twitter account hacked, defaced

Burger King's hacked Twitter account (click to enlarge).

(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

The Twitter account associated with the fast-food chain Burger King was suspended after an apparent hacking that defaced the page with messages that the account had been sold to rival McDonald's.

The @BurgerKing account name was changed today to "McDonalds" and the Golden Arches' familiar logo was added to the page, as was a message that the account had been sold to McDonald's "because the whopper flopped."

The page has since been taken down, but images of the defacement are still visible on Web cache.

Before the feed's suspension, hackers posted messages to Burger King's some 83,000 followers that included racial epithets.

The online hacktivist collective Anonymous appeared to take responsibility for the hack in a tweet that mentioned a new operation dubbed #OpMadCow, although it was not immediately clear what the aim of that campaign was.

CNET has contacted Burger King and will update this report when we learn more.

Read More..