Pilot whales use synchronized swimming when they sense danger

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2012) ? An international team of scientists have observed the behavior of various groups of cetaceans in the Strait of Gibraltar and Cape Breton in Canada belonging to the Globicephala melas species, which are also known as long-finned pilot whales. These results show that these whales use synchronized swimming when they identify the presence of an external threat.

There are 300 pilot whales inhabiting the Straight of Gibraltar. Here these cetaceans remain throughout the entire year in the water of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. But, little is known about their social structure.

Headed by the University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom) in collaboration with the Do?ana Biological Station (CSIC) and Conservation, Information and Study on Cetaceans (CIRCE) group, the study analyzed the patterns of association between individuals within this whale community. The aim was to provide a long-term vision of their social system.

"The important point is that we compared two different populations: one inhabiting the Strait of Gibraltar which is exposed to predators (boats in this case) and another with an ecotype where there are not so many boats (Cape Breton in Canada). The pilot whales are social species and we were interested in seeing how mothers teach their young, for example. We observed that they use synchronized swimming when in danger," as explained Renaud de Stephanis, researcher of the Biological Station of Do?ana and coauthor of the study published in the journal behavioral Processes.

Between 1999 and 2006 the scientists gathered samples in an area of 23,004 km in the Strait of Gibraltar and took 4,887 images of the dorsal fins of whales to compare them with those in Canada.

"They swim in complete synchrony both in the Strait of Gibraltar and Canada. When sea traffic or whale watching vessels are nearby, the whole group collectively reacts to such external stimuli. When we arrived at the watching area they were swimming at their normal rhythm but after 10 or 15 minutes near to them, the mothers and their young began to swim in a synchronized manner in alert position. This is a sign of affiliation to the group," adds the expert.

According to the researcher, these cetaceans also have a social structure formed by permanent partnerships. This means that they spend their life with the same whales and they do not interchange between different groups, as in the case of bottlenose dolphins.

Thanks to the study we now know that the presence of vessels also disturbs diving behavior. "As such, when we began observing the whales up close, they tended to spend quite some time on the surface. However, the longer we spent nearby, the longer they stayed under water. This behavioral change could affect their energy levels, since they then have to make more of an effort to protect themselves and their young. In turn this limits hunting time, which means that they cannot feed their young properly," concludes the researcher.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. Valeria Senigaglia, Renaud de Stephanis, Phillippe Verborgh, David Lusseau. The role of synchronized swimming as affiliative and anti-predatory behavior in long-finned pilot whales. Behavioural Processes, 2012; 91 (1): 8 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2012.04.011

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/8onN0oO3aFs/121123092740.htm

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Gaza shakes, Israelis killed as Clinton seeks truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes shook the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rockets struck across the border as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks in Jerusalem in the early hours of Wednesday, seeking a truce that can hold back Israel's ground troops.

Egypt's new Islamist government is mediating talks and had floated hopes for a ceasefire by late Tuesday between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement controlling Gaza. However, by the time Clinton met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was clear there would be more argument, and more violence, first.

Hamas leaders in Cairo accused the Jewish state of failing to respond to proposals and said an announcement on holding fire would not come before daylight on Wednesday. Israel Radio quoted an Israeli official saying a truce was held up due to "a last-minute delay in the understandings between Hamas and Israel."

An initial halt to attacks may, however, not see the sides stand their forces down from battle stations immediately. Clinton, who flies to Cairo to see Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi later on Wednesday, spoke of a deal "in the days ahead."

Like most Western powers, Washington shuns Hamas as an obstacle to peace and has blamed it for the Gaza conflagration. A U.N. Security Council statement condemning the conflict was blocked on Tuesday by the United States, which complained that it "failed to address the root cause," the Palestinian rockets.

As Clinton arrived in Israel after nightfall, Israel was stepping up its bombardment from air and sea. At one point munitions slammed into Gaza at a rate of one every 10 minutes.

Gazan rocket fire waned overnight but resumed before dawn on Wednesday with six launches, Israel said. No one was hurt.

After seven days of hostilities that have killed over 130 Palestinians and five Israelis, both sides are looking for more than a return to the sporadic calm that has prevailed across the blockaded enclave since Israel ended a much more devastating air and ground offensive four years ago.

ELECTION

Netanyahu, who faces an election in two months that he is, for now, favored to win, told Clinton he wanted a "long-term" solution. Failing that, Netanyahu made clear, he stood ready to step up the military campaign to silence Hamas' rockets.

Hamas for its part is exploring the opportunities that last year's Arab Spring has given it to enjoy favor from the new Islamist governments of states once ruled by U.S. proteges, and from Sunni Gulf powers keen to woo it away from Shi'ite Iran. It has used longer-range missiles, some sent by Tehran, and hopes to eclipse Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas has spoken of an easing of Israel's blockade on the 40-km (25-mile) slice of Mediterranean coast that is home to 1.7 million people. It may count on some sympathy from Mursi, though Egypt's first freely elected leader, whose Muslim Brotherhood inspired Hamas' founders, has been careful to stick by the 1979 peace deal with Israel struck by Cairo's former military rulers.

Clinton, who broke off from an Asian tour with President Barack Obama and assured Netanyahu of "rock-solid" U.S. support for Israel's security, spoke of seeking a "durable outcome" and of Egypt's "responsibility" for promoting peace.

She repeated international calls for the kind of lasting, negotiated, comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian settlement that has eluded the two peoples for decades - something neither of the two warring parties seems seriously to be anticipating.

"In the days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region toward an outcome that bolsters security for the people of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region," Clinton said.

"It is essential to de-escalate the situation in Gaza. The rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside Gaza on Israeli cities and towns must end and a broader calm restored," she said.

"SELF-DEFENCE"

Netanyahu, who has appeared in no immediate rush to repeat the invasion of winter 2008-09 in which over 1,400 Palestinians died, said: "If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem with diplomatic means, we prefer that.

"But if not, I'm sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever action is necessary to defend its people."

As Israeli aircraft have carried out hundreds of strikes on rocket stores, launchpads and suspected Hamas command posts since assassinating the head of its military wing a week ago. Tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers have been preparing tanks and infantry units for a possible invasion.

During the night, explosions again rocked the city of Gaza and other parts of the Strip, while rockets from the enclave, some essentially home-made, others Iranian-designed and smuggled through tunnels from Egypt, landed in southern Israel.

One reached as far as Rishon Lezion, near Tel Aviv, on Tuesday, the latest to jar Israel's metropolis, long untroubled by Palestinian attacks. Another rocket fell close to Jerusalem, the holy city claimed by both sides in the conflict.

Medical officials in Gaza said 31 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday. An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier, police and the army said.

Gaza medical officials say 138 people have died in Israeli strikes, mostly civilians, including 34 children. In all, five Israelis have died, including three civilians killed last week.

AMMUNITION STORES

Obama, whose relations with the hawkish Netanyahu have long been strained, has said he wants a diplomatic solution, rather than a possible Israeli ground operation in the densely populated territory, home to 1.7 million Palestinians.

Israel's military said it targeted overnight more than 100 sites in Gaza, including rocket launchers, tunnels and the Ministry of Internal Security, used by Hamas as a command center. Israeli police said more than 150 rockets had been fired from Gaza by Tuesday evening.

"No country would tolerate rocket attacks against its cities and against its civilians," Netanyahu said with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Jerusalem from talks in Cairo, at his side. "Israel cannot tolerate such attacks."

Critics have accused Israel of using disproportionate force that has killed civilians. Israel accuses Hamas of putting Gaza's people in harm's way by siting rockets among them.

Media groups have criticized attacks on Gaza media facilities. On Tuesday, three local journalists died in air strikes on their vehicles.

A building housing AFP's bureau was bombed. The French news agency said its staff were unhurt. Israel's military said it had been targeting a Hamas intelligence centre in the tower.

Hamas executed six Palestinians accused of spying for Israel, who a security source quoted by Hamas Aqsa radio said had been "caught red-handed" with "filming equipment to take footage of positions." The radio said they had been shot.

Militants on a motorcycle dragged the body of one of the men through the streets.

A delegation of nine Arab ministers, led by the Egyptian foreign minister, visited Gaza in a further signal of heightened Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.

(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-shakes-israelis-killed-clinton-seeks-truce-001606371.html

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Dreading The ?Grandchildren? Thanksgiving Talk? Older First-Time Moms May Live Longer

Amidst the awkward barrage of family disfunction that is the American Thanksgiving tradition, there is one constant: the interrogation of career-focused twentysomethings about why they haven't given their parents any grandchildren yet. Knowing that much of our entrepreneurial young readers fall into this troubled demographic, we thought it would be helpful for them to know about a new book that can arm them with evidence for a compelling retort: older first-time moms may live longer.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/keEWs69w6eM/

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'Fiscal cliff' 101: 5 basic questions answered

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky (r.), accompanied by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D) of California (l.), and House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio, speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington on Nov. 16 following a meeting with President Obama to discuss the 'fiscal cliff.' (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

The fiscal cliff adds up to more than $600 billion in higher taxes and lower spending in 2013. Of that total, taxes make up about two-thirds of the hit with lower spending making up a third.

The biggest chunk comes from the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 (which Mr. Obama and Congress extended in 2010) and Congress?s failure to patch the AMT, or alternative minimum tax, in order to adjust it for inflation. Together, those issues would raise $221 billion in new tax revenue in 2013.

On the spending side, the big-ticket item is known as the sequester. The sequester means across-the-board reductions to nearly all government programs and services (although military personnel and children?s health care, for example, are exempt). The $109 billion in reductions are divvied up between defense ($55 billion) and nondefense ($45 billion), with the balance coming from reducing the rates at which Medicare pays physicians.

Due to a variety of budgetary factors, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this hit will only amount to $65 billion in the first year, with the balance following in later years.

Other key items include:

• ?$95 billion in higher taxes from the expiration of President Obama?s payroll tax cut from 2010, which lowered the Social Security payroll tax by 2 percentage points for two years.
• ?$65 billion in taxes from so-called ?tax extenders,? a passel of provisions that Congress routinely extends for (mostly) business interests.
• ?$26 billion in lower spending from the end of extended unemployment benefits.
• ?$18 billion in new taxes from Obama?s health-care law.
• ?$11 billion in lower payments to Medicare providers stemming from Congress?s failure to pass what?s known as the ?Doc Fix,? a patch that covers shortfalls federal Medicare payments.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bxnxu7I65Bk/Fiscal-cliff-101-5-basic-questions-answered

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Video: Sec. of State Clinton headed to Israel, Egypt

>>> morning with the violence in the middle east and the breaking news overnight that secretary of state hillary clinton is now headed to that region. we have two reports from richard angel in gaza and chuck todd traveling with the president in cambodia. chuck, we'll start with you. good morning.

>> good morning, matt. well, this had originally been phone diplomacy that the president was practicing during the gaza conflict, almost on the phone daily with netanyahu of israel and mohamed morsi. the president was on the phone until 2:30 last night between president morrisey and benjamin netanyahu . after those phone calls he and secretary clinton huddled together. the decision was made to send secretary clinton in person so she heads to jerusalem. she's in the air now. that will be her first stop. one-on-one meetings with netanyahu and then it's off to ramallah, the palestinian authority . no direct talks with the hamas. the united states does not deal directly with terrorist organizations. then it's off to cairo and a meeting with president morrisey because it is the egyptian president that is the liaison, if you will in these talks with hamas. the goal is to create space, bide time, to see if they can prevent israel from doing a full-fledged ground invasion, seeing if they can get some sort of temporary cease-fire to create room for a more negotiated settlement. shuttle diplomacy is back.

>> what about the risk/reward in that? if she accomplishes something that's a great feather in her cap and the administration's, fanned she doesn't, does she come off as being ineffective?

>> reporter: well, there is a risk to this, and i talked to white house aides. i said, look, are you sending her in because you think there's something pre-cooked, that they have a possibility of pushing this over the finish line and getting it done. they admit it's not there. they feel it's needed to nudge things along. you're right politically. this could be a great way for secretary klinish to finish her four-year tenure at the state department . there's been some talk that she's not had that one big moment. this would be a big moment if she's the one that's there making this cease-fire happen, but there is a downside. if it doesn't happen and suddenly a full-fledged ground invasion, a whole new ball game.

>> chuck todd in cambodia this morning, thank you very much.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49898537/

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