humans hunt

Humans hunt, their prey gets smaller

• U.S. researchers reported that hunting has a profound impact on animals and plants, driving an evolutionary process that makes them become smaller and reproduce earlier. Collecting of 29 different species shows that under human pressure, creatures on average become 20% smaller and their reproductive age advances by 25%.
  
  
• The human tendency to seek large "trophies" appears to drive evolution much faster than hunting by other predators, which pick off the small and the weak.
  

• Darimont and colleagues calculated the rates of trait change with a metric called the "Darwin," after Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of natural selection to help explain evolution.
  

• They studied changes in the size of fish, limpets, snails, bighorn sheep and caribou, as well as two plants the Himalayan snow lotus and American ginseng. In virtually all cases, human-targeted species got smaller and smaller and started reproducing at younger ages making populations more vulnerable. The findings fit in with other studies that suggest many fish are over-harvested.

Siberia's first metallurgists

Siberia's first metallurgists sing to spirit world

When Olga Tannagasheva starts to sing, her gentle voice transforms into a bass-line growl designed to invoke other-worldly spirits.

Tannagasheva, one of Russia's 14,000 remaining Shors, also wants to communicate with modern Russians, as her ancient culture strives to reassert itself after decades of Soviet repression and enduring economic hardship.

Performing under the pseudonym Chyltys -- meaning 'star' in the Shor language in blue, red and gold silks and a three-pointed hat, Tannagasheva's style of throat-singing is popular with epic performers that draw on shamanist traditions. In Shor culture, such epic songs could last for several days.

"Whenever I travel, people ask me: 'Who are the Shors?'" she said. "They think we come from China!"

The Shor people are descended from various Turkic tribes that migrated to the mountains of southwest Siberia from Central Asia. They had no unified identity until the mid-19th century, when the tribes, skilled horsemen and hunters, amalgamated.

Nicknamed the Blacksmith Tatars for their talent in fashioning tools from local iron deposits, they were granted their own mountain region Gornaya Shoria in 1926. Thirteen years later, Soviet leader Josef Stalin scrubbed it from the map.

"It was the policy of our government, of Stalin. Nobody ever explained this decision or apologized to us," said Nadezhda Pechenina, director of the Shor information center.

The natural resources that once defined the Shors were also responsible for their downfall. Stalin flooded the region with other nationalities to exploit rich iron ore and coal seams for the steel mills that still dominate the city of Novokuznetsk.

"There was an entire period of Russification," said Gennady Kostochakov, a lecturer at the Shor language faculty in Novokuznetsk's teaching academy.

"The incoming urban population was all Russian-speaking, even though they were of different nationalities."

But the Shor language, outlawed by Stalin, is making a comeback. Kostochakov, wearing a pinstriped blazer over a Puma sweater, has 15 first-year students in his class. About 140 people have graduated from his faculty in the last 20 years.

"When I graduate, I want to become a Shor language teacher," said first-year student Nadezhda Sharagasheva. "Why should I, as a real Shor, not know my own native language?"

The Shors, also renowned for fishing, settled in valleys along the Tom River and its tributaries, the Mras-Su and Kondoma. Men and women inhabited separate quarters inside the cramped huts they fashioned from birch branches.

About 11,500 Shors, over 80 percent of the group, live today in this part of Kemerovo region, 3,000 km (1,875 miles) from Moscow. Most of them live in the mountain town of Tashtagol.

Industrial towns, like coal-mining center Mezhdurechensk, have swallowed up many of the original villages, but 90 small settlements remain where over half the residents are Shors.


Chuvashkais one. Leonid Aponkin, 70, lives there with his wife, Rufina. They draw water from a well in their garden and fill the stove in the corner of their living room with coal brought in bags from an opencast mine nearby.

"This was once purely a Shor village. My grandmother didn't even speak any Russian," Aponkin, a retired engineer dressed in a brown blazer, said inside his snowbound wooden cottage.

"They started teaching only in Russian and banned use of the Shor language. But there was no real discrimination."

The Aponkins each receive a monthly pension of 4,000 roubles ($136), which Rufina says is sufficient to live on. Her husband studied in the Siberian city of Tomsk and worked in Kyzyl, capital of the Russian republic of Tuva.

The family album of sepia-tinted photographs includes portraits on Red Square and Sochi's Black Sea coast, revealing how the Aponkins assimilated into Soviet society before retiring to their home village.

But it is also telling that they left their homeland to find work. The depletion of alluvial gold in the rivers and the collapse of state industrial holdings have contributed to unemployment rates of 95 percent in remote Shor villages.

"Our living standards are the lowest in the region. Scholars consider our demographic situation to be critical," said Pechenina, also a former deputy in the Kemerovo administration.

"Chuvashka is an exception in that it has electricity."

Urban Shors have launched a monthly newsletter to inform villagers, many of whom live without television or the internet, of events in the wider world. It's in Russian, because printing costs were too high for an edition in the Shor language.

The Shors, without a republic of their own, have less autonomy than other Siberian ethnic groups. Neighboring Altai and Khakassia each have their own republics.

Novokuznetsk, the region's largest city with a population of over 500,000, is dominated by heavy industry. It hosts two giant steel mills, as well as an aluminum smelter and coal mines.

Not far from the city's original, 1930s-era steel plant, a Shor cultural group meets regularly on the top storey of a theater to celebrate their culture and prepare for their next New Year celebration on March 21-22.

The Shors were originally shamanists, although their belief in the spirit world has co-existed with Christianity for centuries after the first Europeans arrived in the region. Now, many are Russian Orthodox Christians first and foremost.

The epic songs are an enduring fragment of the culture, often accompanied by a two-stringed wooden instrument known as the kai-komus.

Carole Pegg, a musician and lecturer at Cambridge University, says epic performance traditionally offers a way for the narrator to reach beyond the living world.

"It's not speaking and it's not singing. It's a particular sound that is designed to communicate with other levels of the universe spirits and the epic heroes," said Pegg, an expert on Inner Asian music who has lived in neighboring Altai region.

"It's a sound that is produced for a reason. It opens up pathways to other levels of reality and that enables the epic performer to then travel to those other levels."

Urgent action needed

Urgent action needed to cut maternal deathsThe UNICEF said, a global effort to reduce deaths during pregnancy & child birth is likely to fail unless action is taken to improve health care in the developing world. Half a million mothers die each year, most in Africa & Asia where obstetrical & post-natal care is often unavailable and many pregnancies are complicated by HIV.

Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director said, "Progress has been made in reducing child mortality, but much more must be done especially in addressing maternal and newborn health, the world must approach this task with a shared sense of urgency and a collaborative response."

The UN has called for a 75% reduction in the maternal mortality rate by 2015 as part of its Millennium Development Goals program. About 99% of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 occurred outside industrialized nations, more than half of them in Africa. Poor nations were more than 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or pregnancy related complications than those in the developed world and children were almost 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life.

UNICEF said many of the deaths could be reduced by improving family planning and post natal-care and ensuring that trained medical personnel were on hand for deliveries. About four in 10 of all births worldwide are not attended by a doctor or other health professional. Providing HIV drugs to infected women also would improve the chances of survival for new mothers and their babies.

According to UNICEF, the riskiest place to give birth was Niger, where the chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth over the course of a woman's lifetime is one in seven. The safest place was Ireland where the risk was one in 47,600. Liberia had the highest rate of neonatal mortality at 66 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Seeking dream job

Seeking dream job on paradise island? Apply here

Depressed about the global economy, unemployed, or just looking for adventure? Then look no further because a tiny Australian island is offering a dream job, advertising globally to find the right person.

It involves spending six months immersed in the culture and beauty of the Great Barrier reef island of Hamilton and promoting its tourism through a video blog.

Duties include feeding ocean fish, cleaning a pool and collecting deliveries of mail that arrive by plane but the employee is also required to go scuba diving, snorkeling and hiking and to enjoy at least 25 nearby island resorts.

To offset the drudgery, the state of Queensland is offering 150,000 Australian dollars ($105,000), accommodation in a luxury three-bedroom house and transportation to and from the island.

No skills or experience are required for the job that starts in July and there is no age requirement.

"We are looking for someone who is dynamic, charismatic and interested in the world of barrier reefs," said Shana Pereira, Tourism Queensland's Regional Director for the Americas.

Queensland created the job as an antidote to the global economic slump and is advertising in 18 countries including the United States and China, she said.

Applicants must submit a one-minute video expressing interest in the Great Barrier Reef, a vast coral reef system that is classed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

"It is such a fantastic opportunity, I wish I didn't have a conflict of interest or I would apply," said Pereira.

Oldest U.S. man

Oldest U.S. man dies in California at 112

The most oldest man (George Rene Francis) in US has passed away at the age of 112 after a life that touched three centuries. He was listed as America's oldest man by the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles, died of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Sacramento.

The Bee newspaper reported that Francis, a black man who was born in New Orleans on June 6, 1896 and grew up in the South, told the newspaper in a recent interview that he had voted with pride for Barack Obama in the November presidential election. Obama will be the 1st black U.S. president when he takes office on January 20.

Francis told the Bee, "I think he's great because he's black, because the white people thought the Negro would never be promoted. I think it's beautiful."

Francis, who left school after 6th grade & briefly had a career as a boxer, moved to California in 1949 and found work as a chauffeur, auto mechanic and barber. His wife, Josephine, died in 1963 after 46 years of marriage.

The Bee reported that Francis was survived by four children, 19 grandchildren & more than 30 great-grandchildren. With the death of Francis, Montana resident Walter Breuning becomes the country's oldest man at 112 years and 98 days old. America's oldest woman is 114-year-old Gertrude Baines of Los Angeles.

The oldest living person is 115-year-old Maria de Jesus of Portugal, who was born on September 10, 1893, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Gone in 60 seconds

Gone in 60 seconds

The exposing of a car hijacking ring involving educated young women points to the glamourisation of crime that has an unmistakable link to the genre of heist films. But, as morality takes a beating and adrenaline provides the ultimate rush, the demarcation between right and wrong becomes tenuous.

A beautiful woman befriends a young man owning a car or a bike and then goes for a long ride. In a secluded spot or near a restaurant, the couple leaves their transport and goes for a drink or, some intimate moments, and out from the shadows come out several men with a master key. The vehicle is stolen, the owner comes out from a romantic reverie and the girl can only express her sympathy.

But, a few months ago, the police busted a car hijacking ring and it was discovered that a major role in the stealing was played by the 'girl' in question as she was the one who took the unsuspecting young man to an isolated spot and later on signalled her 'other' friends to come and finish the act.

At that time, the news made top page as the whole car hijacking business was exposed with a new dimension – the presence of a woman. Today, a major English newspaper ran a story of the police arresting several groups involved in the trade and again, the involvement of women were found. And, this is disconcerting because, in the last couple of years we have seen that women have played major roles in several criminal activities. Just a little over a year ago, we read the story of a fraudulent matchmaking organisation where one single woman was used to lure in young men willing to go abroad.

In that scenario, the girl in question was shown to be holding a foreign passport and utilising it to the maximum with a small ring of men took large sums of money from people.

Fortunately, their exploitative business came to a halt when one of the many men married to the same girl lodged a case with police. Then, there is the publicised case of the out of work Dhaliwood actress, who, after acquiring information of a certain family, which has a member residing abroad, used to move in on the family members under the disguise of a friend of the member staying overseas. Her way of operating was ingenious: after getting friendly with the family, she would ask for a sum of money in local currency saying that since she has just come back from overseas, she only has foreign currency.

The actress was caught in time but from time to time we still see cases of fraud and deception involving young women.

Today, we find that women are being used for hijacking cars and motorbikes and reportedly, the girl arrested just months ago is only 20 years old. When someone becomes engaged in crime at a young age, one is compelled to ask about the moral vacuum that is taking shape within us. Needless to say it is a very grim forecast on the erosion of values in society. But before we start tearing our vocal chords condemning such crimes and the involvement of women in them, perhaps there should be some in depth search for the motivation of such acts and, the association of romance and adventure to acts, that in reality are nothing but blatant acts of crime.

The finger, I am sorry to say, points at the undeniable influence of Hollywood and Bollywood. That genre of heist films may provide the adrenaline rush but once it's put to practice in real life, the social fabric starts to become tainted.

Today, car hijacking involves pretty young women, use of high tech gadgets, a carefully laid plan and clandestine links with high-ups. Of course, when the newspaper reports such a case, it makes intriguing reading but once the thrill subsides, there is much more to it that the fun.

Experts say that the idea of the recent bomb attack in Mumbai was taken from a film and way back in 2001, just after the 9/11 bombing, analysts pointed to the uncanny resemblance between the real attack and a fictional one in a film.

The reality is that, people will continue to be influenced by films and books but maybe there should be a halt to glamourising certain acts in movies.

In several Hollywood movies, stealing of cars, especially sports cars, was presented with bravado and this theme was quickly picked up by Bollywood and used in the film, Dhoom, and others.

The sad thing is that though the villain in such films are shown to die in the end, their acts of machismo, no matter how criminal, eclipse the good guy and remains in viewer memory. Understandably, when the human mind is impressed with a certain act, no matter how fictional, s/he will, at a certain point, start to think of that as right. In every decade, we have movies that have unabashedly glamourised stealing of paintings, cars, gems and all these acts were justified in one way or the other.

The truth is: we loved every bit of it, and today, if young people, especially women are lured into high profile crime, then one has to think deeper to find a link that joins crime, educated young and movies.

Gone in 60 seconds' is an entertaining film, but let's ask what is gone, the car, the bike or the sense of right and wrong.

By Towheed Feroze