The coyote story narrative is changing

The story carried by the New York Times differs in important details from the first reports in a local newspaper account, which I linked to in the previous post. I am quoting below the entire article that I provided a link to, in the previous article. Because, when a story changes, the original details, accurate or not, (which I cannot judge) have a tendency to get lost. So here is the first story I read about it, the number of animals, the talk of rabies, the number of incidents, all this differs, so compare the below to the New York TImes account, which is at this link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/nyregion/03coyotes.html
Again the story below is linked to in my previous coyote post.

Rye coyote attack — pair of animals maul 6-year-old girl

Timothy O'Connor
tpoconnor@lohud.com

RYE — Two coyotes attacked a 6-year-old girl as she played in her front yard Friday night, police said.

The coyotes singled out the girl for the attack — likely because of her small size — as she and other girls played in the yard with the victim's mother close by, police said.

The coyotes ran at her, tackled her to the ground and began biting her. The girl suffered bite wounds to her shoulder and right thigh and scratches to her her head, neck, and back. She also might have been bitten on her ear, Rye Police Commissioner William Connors said.

She was treated at Greenwich Hospital and released Friday night.

"Her injuries are not life-threatening but she sustained a number of significant bite wounds and lacerations," Connors said.

Other girls alerted the victim's mother to the attack and she scared off the animals, he said. None of the other girls were attacked, he said.

"It seems that she was probably the smallest of the group and the attack seemed to focus solely on her," Connors said.

Police did not release the name or address of the victim because of her age, Connors said.

Shortly after the attack, a police officer spotted a coyote near the Rye Golf Course just a couple of blocks away. He fired a shot at the animal but did not strike it, Connors said. Afterwards, police scoured the golf course. A Westchester County police helicopter was brought in to use infrared heat detection and shine light down on the course. Firefighters accompanied police in golf carts with thermal imaging equipment.

But no coyotes were found.

Police are operating under the assumption that the coyotes are rabid because attacks on humans are so rare, Connors said. He did not know if the girl was treated for possible rabies exposure.

Coyotes are usually afraid of people and will flee when humans make loud noises or throw objects at them, Connors said.

"In light of this incident, however, we urge residents to pay particular attention to small children and to supervise them closely when they are outdoors," he said.

The attack was the second coyote incident in the city in the last three months. A miniature poodle was killed March 31 by a coyote at the Osborn retirement community. Police increased trapping efforts after that incident and caught a female coyote and eight pups which were relocated, Connors said.

Connors said police will continue working with a nuisance wildlife removal company to catch the coyotes.

But, he said, Friday's attack "changes the equation."

"We will continue our trapping efforts," he said, "and also take an increasingly aggressive approach to dealing with the animals when that can be done safely."

Neighbors in the Glen Oaks section were tense Saturday, with one woman who lives on the corner of Glen Oaks Drive and Lasalle Avenue waving off a reporter, saying she did not want to discuss an incident involving a 6-year-old girl.

Another man, Stan Carbone, 44, who lives on Bradford Avenue, said he had bought an air horn to scare off any coyotes he might meet while walking his 19-month old Border collie mix, Kera, whose small size makes her a perfect target for coyotes. Carbone works as a supervisor at Community Veterinary Hospital where a dachsund was brought in after being attacked by a coyote earlier this year. He said he saw one on nearby Boston Post Road recently that was "the size of a German Shepherd."

"I'm totally paranoid," he said.

Possible change in coyote behavior?

http://www.lohud.com/article/20100626/NEWS02/6260362/-1/newsfront/Coyotes-maul-6-year-old-girl-in-Rye

The article above is about an attack on a child, who was playing outside with other children. She was the smallest of them. Her mother was not far away.  And everybody is okay now. Well, except for the coyotes. The behavior of the coyotes in selecting a victim in full view of other people is cited as  evidence the coytoes were rabid. I wonder. It sounds like the coyotes used standard hunting behavior, in isolating the weakest member of a herd. To me this sounds more like coyotes have become more savvy in dealing with human society. Not a good sign in a society which overreacts and may, if this turns out to be a trend, a shift in coyote behavior, may turn out to signal a start for rabid human behavior as a society tries to eliminate a threat in their surroundings, a threat they may not be able to evaluate in terms of the larger welfare of the planet. I mean, coyotes eat a lot of rats. Eliminate the coyotes, sterilize the cats, and then try to poison what's left. Not a good  game plan or evidence of human intelligence. But perhaps I am unduly pessimistic.

Gold worn by Irish Kings found in dumpster

My kind of story: thieves tell the police where they dumped a 4000 year old necklace, but there is not much time to retrieve it before it is compacted.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/4000-Year-Old-necklace-found-in-dumpster-97144989.html

Heck, maybe I had better copy most of the article here in case the link stops working. Story dated June 25, 2010.

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A gold lunula from Coggalbeg, Co. Roscommon

A 4,000 year old necklace is in The National Museum of Ireland  after it was found in a dumpster.

Worn by early kings the necklace, called a lunala, and discs were worn by the early kings of Ireland. It is thought to day from between 2,300 and 1,800 BC.

In March 1945 it was found in Coggalbeg, County Roscommonby farmer Hubert Lannon. He found it in a bog while he was cutting turf and kept it in his home.

Two years later he passed the necklace on to a local chemist Patrick Sheehan, in Strokestown, who kept the priceless piece of history in his shops' safe. There it remained until February 2009 when two thieves grabbed the safe during a burglary.

In March this year two men pleaded guilty for the burglary and were given three year suspended sentences. Working with the police curators from the National Museum’s Irish Antiquities Division found out that the jewelry along with other documents and papers from the Sheehan’s safe had been left in a dumpster in Dublin.

By the time the police had received this information they literally had hours to locate the dumpster before the trash would be collected. The detectives who waded through a dumpster of trash to find the delicate jewelry, which weighs just 78 grams, were rewarded on the retrieval of the treasures.

The three pieces, the necklace and two discs, are thought to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries for many years. As the Museum director Pat Wallace said himself “There is a whole lot of conjoined freaks of good luck to make it possible.”

Fern Can Remove Arsenic from Soil

Quoting from the Science Daily article (which quotes the original source, the journal Plant Cell)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100608183044.htm


A particular fern can process  "100 to 1,000 times more arsenic than other plants. Jody Banks, a professor of botany and plant pathology, and David Salt, a professor of horticulture, uncovered what may have been an evolutionary genetic event that creates an arsenic pump of sorts in the fern.

"It actually sucks the arsenic out of the soil and puts it in the fronds," Banks said. "It's the only multi-cellular organism that can do this..."It stores it away from the cytoplasm so that it can't have an effect on the plant."

...

Salt said the gene that regulates arsenic tolerance could be a duplicate of the other that has changed slightly to give itself a new function.

"The fact that it has these two genes could be a sign of evolution," Salt said. "One of the thoughts of gene evolution is that one copy could continue to do what it has always done, while the duplicate can develop another function."

The plant might have evolved to accumulate arsenic, Banks and Salt theorized, as a defense against animals or insects eating them...."

AND a few other tidbits that caught my eye

Biochemists have shown that air pollution inhibits the distance that flower's fragrances can travel. Scent molecules usually travel easily in the air, but pollutants break them apart...

AND one kind of cancer protects from another kind:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100607165730.htm

Spiral Troughs on Mars

Onset and migration of spiral troughs on Mars revealed by orbital
radar pp450-453
A pinwheel array of deep troughs has been one of the most perplexing
features of the north polar layered deposits on Mars. Many ideas have
been put forward about how it formed, but there is as yet no
consensus. Here, penetrating radar has been used to rule out
erosional cutting as a mechanism for the formation of the array.
Instead, it is concluded that the troughs are largely depositional
in origin, and have migrated to the poles and upwards in elevation
over the past two million years or so.
Isaac B. Smith and John W. Holt
doi:10.1038/nature09049

Smallpox eradication leads in increase in HIV infections

This at least is the speculation of scientists, detailed at the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8686750.stm

Canvas found in trash might sell for a million

http://www.museum-security.org/?p=3877&utm

This story is reprinted below from museumsecurity.org since I am not confident about the link working.

Stolen painting worth $1 million found in trash

April 28, 2010 – 21:55Stolen painting worth $1 million found in trash
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21435335/
Woman recovered 1970 artwork by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo
“I know nothing of modern art but it didn’t seem right for any piece of art to be discarded like that,” Elizabeth Gibson said after finding “Tres Personajes.”
updated 10:25 a.m. ET Oct. 23, 2007
NEW YORK – A painting stolen more than 20 years ago was found lying in trash along a street, and now it could fetch up to $1 million at an auction.
Elizabeth Gibson didn’t know anything about the brightly colored work she spotted on her morning walk four years ago on Manhattan’s upper West Side, but she said she took it home because “it had a strange power.”
“I know nothing of modern art but it didn’t seem right for any piece of art to be discarded like that,” Gibson told the Sotheby’s auction house.

It turned out that it was a 1970 painting by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, titled “Tres Personajes” (Three People), and had been stolen more than 20 years ago.
Gibson said she learned of the work’s worth when her research led her to the Web site of “Antiques Roadshow FYI,” a companion program to the PBS show “Antiques Roadshow.”
Sotheby’s expert August Uribe had featured the painting on “Antiques Roadshow FYI” after it was stolen.

Sotheby’s says “Tres Personajes” is an important work that represents the artist’s mature period.
The painting was returned to the original owners, who wish to remain anonymous.
The New York Times said the couple paid $55,000 for it. Sotheby’s says it could bring up to $1 million when it is sold at its Latin American Art auction on Nov. 20.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21435335/#ixzz0mQVONDRL