A polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687km (426 miles), a new study has revealed.
Scientists studying bears around the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska, claim this endurance feat could be a result of climate change.
Polar bears are known to swim between land and sea ice floes to hunt seals.
But the researchers say that increased sea ice melts push polar bears to swim greater distances, risking their own health and future generations.
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 We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold.  George M. Durner
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In their findings, published in Polar Biology, researchers from the US Geological Survey reveal the first evidence of long distance swimming by polar bears (Ursus maritimus).
“This bear swam continuously for 232 hours and 687 km and through waters that were 2-6 degrees C,” says research zoologist George M. Durner.
“We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. It is truly an amazing feat.”
Macau casino tycoon pays $330,000 dollars for two truffles
Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho paid $330,000 US dollars for two white truffles at a weekend auction, a report said Monday, matching the record price he paid for one of the prized fungi three years ago.
Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho paid $330,000 US dollars for two white truffles at a weekend auction, a report said Monday, matching the record price he paid for one of the prized fungi three years ago.
The billionaire made his winning bid through representatives at the event held at his own Grand Lisboa hotel in the Asian gambling hub, the fourth straight year he has won the truffle auction, the Standard newspaper reported.
Ho’s winning bid bought him a giant truffle from Italy’s central Tuscany region that weighed about 900 grams (two pounds) and a smaller one of about 400 grams, the report said.
The auction in Macau, a former Portuguese colony returned to China in 1999, also saw bidders vie for the delicacy from Rome and London via satellite link, it said.
Ho paid a record $330,000 US dollars in 2007 for a single truffle that weighed almost 1.5 kilograms.
The tycoon’s bid came about two weeks after a Hong Kong-based wine critic paid €105,000 euros ($139,000 US dollars) for a giant white truffle at an auction near the northern Italian town of Alba.
Earth Art
350 Earth: Art that can be seen from space for the climate change conference in Cancun
A collection of artworks reportedly large enough to be seen from space have been created in many countries around the world. Artists worked with 350.org to create the giant artworks, calling for climate change action before the upcoming United Nation climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. The name of the organisation refers to the safe level of 350 parts per million of greenhouse emissions scientists say we need to return to.
“Climate Elephant” by Daniel Dancer, in New Delhi, India. 3,000 students and teachers at the Ryan International School in New Delhi along with volunteers from the Indian Youth Climate Network joined aerial artist Daniel Dancer to form an enormous elephant with rising seas below to ask world leaders to not ignore the “elephant in the room” – climate change…
Art News
271 Picasso paintings discovered in Paris
As a retired odd job man and electrician, Pierre Le Guennec is the unlikeliest of art collectors to be discovered with a haul of 271 unknown works by Picasso.
But to learn that the collection contains a watercolour from Picasso’s blue period, portraits of his first wife Olga, and no less than nine paintings from the cubist period beggars belief.
That’s because the work of few artists in history has been as documented, photographed, described and catalogued as relentlessly as Picasso’s. In 1932, for example, Christian Zervos published the first volume of his monumental 33 volume catalogue raisonee of Picasso’s work, while his biographer John Richardson is at work on the fourth volume of his life.
As for their worth, even a napkin on which the great man doodled could be worth tens of thousands of pounds but highly finished pictures from the cubist period are so rare that the estimate quoted in Liberation of 40 million euros for all nine would be far too low.
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But before we all get too excited, a word of caution: though I have only seen images of three works in the collection, none looked to be of exceptional importance.
One was clearly a painted fragment or study of a hand, and the others unfinished cubist collages. If they are indeed entirely by Picasso (and this story will only going to get interesting when their authenticity is confirmed) none of the works I’ve seen will end up in a museum.
But then, Picasso’s life is intimately intertwined with his work in a way that is true of few other artists.
In his relationship with women, for example, his pictures reflect his changing feelings, from the joy of sensual discovery at the beginning to the cruel dismissal at the end.
Art historians and biographers will therefore be anxious to mine those portraits and notebooks for what they may be able to tell us about his love for Fernande, his hatred of Olga, his passion for Marie Therese, fury with Francoise and devotion to Jacqueline.
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Tigers were my first point of inspiration… from 5 years old I painted them constantly until I realised she was objectified, commercialised and something else came into view…
In China even today you will see street traders selling the body parts of Tigers… horrifying.
Can a summit save the world’s tigers?
The population has plummeted so sharply that it’s near the point of no return. How many are left in the wild
News Oddly
WOW A MIRACLE INDEED!
After decades of fierce opposition, the Pope will end the absolute ban on condom use to “reduce the risk of infection” from Aids.
Growing theological consensus that the Pope is morally justified
Da Vinci coders will be Blogging like crazy tonight
The Really Strange Story Behind Sunday’s Blue Moon
The full moon of November arrives on Sunday and will bring with it a cosmic addition: It will also be a so-called “blue moon.”
“But wait a minute,” you might ask. “Isn’t a ‘blue moon‘ defined as the second full moon that occurs during a calendar month? Sunday’s full moon falls on Nov. 21 and it will be the only full moon in November 2010. So how can it be a ‘blue’ moon?”
Indeed, November’s full moon is blue moon – but only if we follow a rule that’s now somewhat obscure.
In fact, the current “two- full moons in one month” rule has superseded an older rule that would allow us to call Sunday’s moon “blue.” To be clear, the moon does not actually appear a blue color during a blue moon, it has to do with lunar mechanics.
Confused yet?
Well, as the late Paul Harvey used to say — here now, is the rest of the story…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20101119/sc_space/thereallystrangestorybehindsundaysbluemoon
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Nick Garrett 