Berkeley CA (SPX) Dec 09, 2021 Look around any wetland today and you’re likely to see 3-foot-tall egrets or 4-foot-tall herons wading in the shallows in stealthy search of fish, insects or crustaceans. But 70 million years ago, along the Rio Grande River in Texas, a more impressive and scarier creature stalked the marshes: the 12-foot-tall pterosaur known as Quetzalcoatlus. With a 37- to 40-foot … Continue reading Fleshing out the bones of Quetzalcoatlus, Earth’s largest flier ever

Johannesburg (AFP) Dec 7, 2021 HIV infection rates in Africa have decreased markedly, but the continent is still behind set targets, with efforts slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. “Africa has made significant progress against HIV over the past decade, reducing new infections by 43 percent and nearly halving AIDS-related deaths,” the WHO Africa office said in a statement. Buthttp://dlvr.it/SF5GR9 Continue reading HIV infections drop, but Covid hampers fight: WHO

Davis CA (SPX) Dec 09, 2021 The Tibetan Plateau has long been considered one of the last places to be populated by people in their migration around the globe. A new paper by archaeologists at the University of California, Davis, highlights that our extinct cousins, the Denisovans, reached the “roof of the world” about 160,000 years ago – 120,000 years earlier than previous estimates for … Continue reading Who were the first to permanently settle the Tibetan Plateau

Paris (AFP) Nov 24, 2021 North Atlantic fishing nations have pledged to better protect the endangered shortfin mako shark by ending overfishing from 2022 and helping stocks to rebound over the next 50 years. At the conclusion of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) this week, countries agreed “to end overfishing immediately and to gradually achieve biomass levels sufficient tohttp://dlvr.it/SD9XDQ Continue reading Fishing nations agree better protection for mako shark

Taiyuan (XNA) Nov 22, 2021 China launched a new satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi on Saturday. The satellite, Gaofen-11 03, was launched by a Long March-4B rocket at 9:51 a.m. (Beijing Time) and entered the planned orbit successfully. Developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the satellite will be mainly used for land surveys, cityhttp://dlvr.it/SD9XDL Continue reading China launches new satellite

Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 23, 2021 A young Hong Kong democracy activist was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars on Tuesday after pleading guilty to secession under the city’s sweeping national security law. Tony Chung, 20, is the youngest person to be convicted under the new law, which has crushed dissent in Hong Kong and transformed the once outspoken international business hub. … Continue reading Hong Kong independence activist jailed for secession

‘Tis the season to go phishing. Nothing brings out digital bandits like the holidays, and this year is no exception. Proofpoint, an enterprise digital security company, reports its researchers are seeing a massive global increase in holiday-themed mobile phishing attacks, a.k.a. smishing. It noted the volume of mobile phishing messages has almost doubled, compared to this time last year.http://dlvr.it/SD7vqk Continue reading Holidays Fuel Surge of Mobile, Online Phishing Scams

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 22, 2021 Gender stereotypes are not only pervasive, but they can also contribute to the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math-related careers, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers found that children start developing ideas that STEM courses are more fit for boys as young as six years old. “Gender-interehttp://dlvr.it/SD5y2h Continue reading Study: Gender stereotypes affect girls’ interest in STEM subjects as early as age 6

Dohuk, Iraq (AFP) Nov 23, 2021 After spending three weeks in the freezing forests on the Belarus-Poland border, Hussein Khodr, his wife and his mother found themselves back at square one – an Iraqi camp for displaced Yazidis. But despite the “cold” and “hunger” of their arduous and fruitless journey, Khodr dreams of making the trip out once again. The family was among 400 Iraqis, … Continue reading Despite hurdles in Belarus, Iraqi migrants still long for way out

Quito (AFP) Nov 23, 2021 A tremor measuring 4.6 hit the Ecuador capital Quito on Tuesday, rattling the city of 2.7 million people but without causing any major damage, authorities said. The epicenter of the quake was a few kilometers from the city center, at a depth of some 12 kilometers, according to the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador. Hospitals and other public buildings were evacuated, … Continue reading Quake rattles Quito, but no major damage