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Stevensville, MT (AHN) - Health officials in a Montana county issued a health advisory after the mother of two elementary school student brought a dead bat into an elementary school for a demonstration and allowed about 90 students to touch it. The mother reportedly found the dead bat in a cat's mouth, thought the bat was interesting, brought it into school and gave presentations on the bat in five classrooms, allowing students to touch the bat and giving them disinfectant wipes for their hands afterward. However, the bat was later confirmed to have had rabies, which is a potentially fatal...

Wind turbines can kill bats without touching them by causing a bends-like condition due to rapidly dropping air pressure, new research suggests. ...scientist Erin Baerwald and colleagues report that only about half of the bat corpses they found near Alberta, Canada, turbine bases showed any physical evidence of being hit by a blade. A surprising 90 percent showed signs of internal hemorrhaging—evidence of a drop in air pressure near the blades that causes fatal damage to the bats' lungs.

CARACAS, Venezuela — At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. -snip-

Mysterious Disease Claims Lives Of More Than 10,000 Bats In New York AreaBats found in a New York cave show the signs of white-nose syndrome. (Credit: Photo/ Al Hicks with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation) ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — When Jonathan Storm and Justin Boyles journeyed to New York to investigate what is killing entire colonies of bats, the two Indiana State University doctoral students found bats in crisis. Last year at four caves near Albany, N.Y., more than 10,000 bats died from a mysterious disease involving a white fungus growing on some bats’ noses, leading researchers...

Evolutionary History Of SARS Supports Bats As Virus Source ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2008) — Scientists who have studied the genome of the virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) say their comparisons to related viruses offer new evidence that the virus infecting humans originated in bats. The analysis tracing the viruses’ paths through human and animal hosts counters assertions that SARS was eradicated in 2004 when thousands of palm civet cats in China were identified as the original source and killed in an effort to eliminate the risk of new outbreaks. According to this new analysis, humans actually appear...

Bats in New York and Vermont are mysteriously dying off by the thousands, often with a white ring of fungus around their noses, and scientists in hazmat suits are crawling into dank caves to find out why. "White nose syndrome," as the killer has been dubbed, is spreading at an alarming rate, with researchers calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the U.S. "This is definitely unprecedented," said Lori Pruitt, an endangered- species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bloomington, Ind. "The hugest concern at this point is that we do not know what...

Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the Marburg virus in a nonprimate species — bats. Now, they have turned their attention to a bat-infested lead and gold mine in western Uganda, in an attempt to determine if bats harbor the disease between periodic outbreaks in southern Africa. One miner working in the mine died of Marburg disease on July 14, and several others apparently recovered from it. “We’re trying to see where this goes,” Jonathan Towner, the lead author of the report, published Aug. 22 in the online journal PloS ONE, said in a...

The first-base coach for the minor league Tulsa Drillers died last week after being struck in the head by a foul ball hit off a wood bat during a game in North Little Rock, Ark. The coach, 35-year-old Mike Coolbaugh, had played briefly in the majors in 2002 and 2003; he leaves a wife and two children. His death adds to the debate about dangers in baseball, which usually focuses on young players struck by balls hit off aluminum bats. Supporters of metal bats insist that debate is skewed. "Why is it when there's an injury from a ball hit...

MASON -- Several hours before dusk, the Mexican free-tailed bats begin stirring inside the Eckert James River Cave outside of Mason.As dusk approaches, the bats explode from the cave's mouth, creating a tornado-like vortex that allows the colony to soar higher and higher in the night sky.During the last decade, scientists have learned these nightly feedings offer far greater benefits than providing entertainment for tourists.Scientists gathered at the cave about 100 miles northwest of Austin are heralding them as nature's pesticide.The research shows that some of the bats' favorite delicacies are insects like the corn earworm (also known as the...

WASHINGTON -- Wind farms could generate up to 7 percent of U.S. electricity in 15 years, but scientists want more study of the threat the spinning blades pose to birds and bats. The towers appear most dangerous to night-migrating songbirds, bats and some hunting birds such as hawks and eagles. The risk is not understood enough to draw conclusions, a National Research Council panel said Thursday in a study requested by Congress. "The human impacts of wind farms can be both positive and negative," said Paul G. Risser of the University of Oklahoma, who was chairman of the committee that...

Bats often risk getting drunk off cocktails of alcohol that stew inside ripened fruit. And just as driving is dangerous for intoxicated humans, so is flying for boozy bats.

Science Daily — The maneuverability of a bat in flight makes even Harry Potter’s quidditch performance look downright clumsy. While many people may be content to simply watch these aerial acrobats in wonder, Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz are determined to understand the detailed aerodynamics of bat flight – and ultimately the evolutionary path that created it. They have taken a major step toward that goal by combining high-resolution, three-dimensional video recordings with precise measurements of the wake field generated by the bats’ wing movements. Their study, published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, marks the first such measurements made...

Scientists believe a species of bat has an inbuilt magnetic compass to find its way home over long distances, in addition to its famous echolocation, which guides it around its neighbourhood. Princeton University batologists used radio telemetry aboard a small aircraft to track big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) that were released 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of their home. They first tested a "control" group of bats, which headed due south towards the roost without a problem. Two other groups of bats were then exposed to a false magnetic field for 90 minutes, comprising 45 minutes before and 45 minutes...

Republican calls president 'derelict' in duty: 'This is not Ellis Island, this is an invasion' Author Pat Buchanan says President Bush should be impeached for failing to stop the invasion of illegal aliens across the U.S. border with Mexico. "I think he's committed an impeachable offense in refusing to enforce the immigration laws and in failing to uphold the Constitution by defending the states against this invasion," Buchanan told radio talk-show host Curt Smith this weekend on National Public Radio stations in upstate New York. "When you have 6 million people apprehended on the border and several million got in...

Republican firebrand Patrick Buchanan said yesterday that President Bush should be impeached for failing to stem the "invasion" of illegal immigrants across America's Southern border...

8/15/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Their mission is simple: save the lives of troops on the ground in Iraq by providing an electronic shield around them. That is the job of the 43rd Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron. Known as the Bats, they take to the air every day of the week to actively support coalition warfighters in harm's way by providing electronic combat coverage. As one of only a few electronic combat squadrons in the Air Force, the 43rd EECS's special skills are in high demand. When not deployed, the 43rd ECS and its sister squadron, the 41st ECS,...

Rabies shots urged for 950 Girl Scouts Associated Press LEESBURG, Va. - Officials are recommending that nearly 1,000 Girl Scouts who may have been exposed to rabies at a Northern Virginia camp consider getting protective vaccinations. There is only a small chance that any of the girls were infected by bats that were found in some of the sleeping shelters at Camp Potomac Woods, Loudoun County officials said. But authorities are erring on the side of caution because around 1 percent of bats carry rabies, a viral disease that is incurable once symptoms appear. Bats can bite children in their...

Blind since age 3, Ben Underwood skateboards, shoots hoops and plays video games. How does he do it? Just like bats and dolphins"I'm a normal kid," says Ben, who lost his sight at 3. (above, he inspects his prosthetic eyes.) Photo by: Theo RigbyThe Boy Who Sees with Sound There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. That's when Ben started his clicking thing. "I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I...

You could call it a batty idea, but bats seem to be more closely related to horses than cows are. Once thought to belong to the same group as primates, bats actually belong to the super-order Pegasoferae, which contains horses, cats and dogs, cows, whales and hedgehogs. Within this group, bats were thought to be only distant cousins to horses, but DNA analysis suggests that only cats and dogs are more closely related to horses than bats are (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0603797103).

An Humble High School sophomore died this afternoon, eight days after being hospitalized for a rabies infection believed to have been caused by a bat. Zach Jones died about 4:55 p.m., according to Texas Children's Hospital, where he had been in an induced coma for several days.

A Texas teenager bitten by a bat while he slept in his Houston area home was in critical condition with rabies in a local hospital on Wednesday, health officials said. The high school sophomore awoke from a nap four weeks ago to find a bat had apparently flown in an open window in his home, said Harris County Health Department doctor Herminia Palacio. "What we have is a history of the child waking up from a nap in his room and seeing a bat in the room and having felt the bat brush against him," she said. The boy did...

As coincidence would have it, Mark Crispin Miller's new book, "Fooled Again" (Basic Books), documenting the Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election, arrived in the same mail delivery with the Jan. 12 edition of the Defuniak Springs Herald, the locally owned weekly newspaper in a Florida panhandle county seat. The Florida panhandle is thoroughgoing Republican. Even Democrats run as Republicans. Nevertheless, the newspaper's editor, Ron Kelley, believes that American political life is measured by something larger than party affiliation. In his editorial, "The Shepherds and the Sheep," Kelley reports that two Florida counties have banned any further use of...

AP - Mon Jan 23, 11:19 PM ET A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick, pictured in Syracuse, N.Y., Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli) SYRACUSE, N.Y. - For some male bats, sexual prowess comes with a price — smaller brains. A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are...

Big brain means small testes, finds bat study 12:16 07 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Gaia Vince Related Articles Fast-tracked sexual promotion swells fish's head 22 October 2005 Romantic rodents give secret serenades 01 November 2005 Are sea birds becoming too dumb to survive? 09 November 2005 Search New Scientist Contact us Web Links Scott Pitnick, Syracuse University Harry Moore, University of Sheffield Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The brainier male bats are, the smaller their testicles, according to a new study. Researchers suggest the correlation exists because both organs require a lot of energy to grow...

<p>Since it was discovered in 1976, the Ebola virus has killed more than 1,200 people in scattered outbreaks in Central Africa, the World Health Organization calculates. But while health workers have managed to contain the outbreaks, scientists have been frustrated that they do not know the virus's hiding place in nature.</p>

I have not read Dracula ever again. I was ashamed of myself. Here I was, a 2nd lieutenant of Marines, fresh out of OCS, going to fight those Japanese SOB's, and just think, I let a book of fiction scare me like that.

BRAZZAVILLE, 24 August (IRIN) - Although the government has not publicly declared the Ebola haemorrhagic fever over, medical authorities in the Republic of Congo say they have the situation well under control. They said 10 people died in the April to July outbreak, the fourth since the virus that causes the fever first appeared in the country in November 2001. At the end of the first outbreak in Cuvette-Ouest in April 2002, Ebola killed 42 of the 57 people who were recorded as having contracted the virus, WHO says. During the second outbreak, in the same area, it killed mostly...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

Taking a cue from King Louis XIV of France, three Britons are proposing a ban on sharp, pointed kitchen knives. In a British Medical Journal article, the three hospital workers suggest banning pointed kitchen knives. They note that in 1669, to reduce violent crimes committed with knives, Louis passed a law demanding that the tips of all table and street knives be ground smooth. In the United Kingdom, where citizens do not have the right to own, much less carry, firearms, violent crime is increasing. For example, figures from London show a 17.9 percent increase in violent crime from 2003...

An excellent compilation of information related to the evolution of echolocation.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Although most people think of bats as stealthy mammals that flit about in the night sky, at least one species has evolved a terrestrial trot never before seen in bats, according to a recent Cornell University study. It's known that the common vampire bats of Central and South America behave much more like four-legged terrestrial mammals, in that they like to walk around on the ground; other bat species fumble helplessly when left to walk. But researchers in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that these bats not only walk but run. The unprecedented gait of...

Morning Edition, January 21, 2005 · Some of the first wind farms were built in the migratory paths of birds and resulted in large avian kills. The bladed turbines have been modified and planners are more conscious of their environmental impact. But as wind power becomes more popular, biologists say the windmills kill thousands of bats.

LIMA (AFP) - At least 12 Peruvian children have died of rabies after being bitten by bats in a remote Amazon province of Peru, a health official said. The children, all of whom were under six years old, were attacked by bats between September and January in the Condorcanqui province bordering Ecuador, 860 kilometers (534 miles) northeast of Lima, said doctor Jorge Escobar, a provincial health official. Another 2,300 people have been bitten by bats in the province, Escobar said. The Health Ministry has designated the province a health emergency zone, launching a massive vaccination campaign in the region. But...

WATERLOO NY — They’re not in the belfry and may not even be along the proposed canal trail, but a few flying mammals have the Seneca County Board of Supervisors going a tad batty. Members agreed Tuesday, in a split decision, not to spend up to $5,000 for engineers to identify endangered Indiana bat habitats and wetlands as an unanticipated part of a contract with Clough Harbour & Associates engineering firm to design the trail from Geneva to the village of Waterloo. The trail, still in the beginning stages, would run along an old railroad bed on the south side...

Over the last 2 months, my cat has had to kill two bats that have gotten into my house. I can hear the critters in the walls of the top floor. Once they are gone, I realize that I will have to seal everything up, so as to make sure they don't return, but I need them out first. I am positive theres a small group of them living in the attic. Has anyone had luck in mass killing these things? Any suggestions? All the websites I've seen have little helpful advice on eradication, one even suggested it was a...

Regarding a Osama bin Laden & Saddam Hussein terrorist connection, Russian President Vladimir Putin tells America: da!His country passed intelligence to America (Bush) in 2002 regarding Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein having a terrorist pact to destroy the USA.Hello, 9/11 Commission.... doh!

<p>Whenever there is a discussion of energy policy, many environmentalists and their political allies tout wind power as an alternative to burning fossil fuels. Even if electricity from wind power is more expensive than conventional fuel sources, and it is, wind advocates argue its environmental benefits are worth it. In particular, proponents claim increased reliance on wind power would reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.</p>

"It's not as bad as it sounds," he said. "You get used to it. You can work in it. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty cool place to work." Sloan is part of a five-man crew mining the bat waste from the Bracken Bat Cave, home to 20 million or more Mexican freetail bats from February to October every year, making it the largest bat colony in the world. That many bats leave a lot of guano. In fact, in parts of the cave it's piled 30 feet deep, and if some of it weren't removed periodically, the...

Bat saliva shows promise for saving stroke victims By The Associated Press November 29, 2003 NASHVILLE - Last March, Margie McGregor pulled a pan of muffins out of the oven, and her right arm went limp. Her left leg gave out and she stumbled. She had suffered a massive stroke. Today, the 78-year-old woman is gardening and taking 2-mile walks without a hint of a limp. She says bat saliva saved her. McGregor was part of a study at St. Thomas Hospital and 17 other medical centers nationwide of a drug called Desmoteplase, a synthetic version of a substance found...

<p>The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) yesterday introduced a new, Internet-accessible system that will allow state, local and other federal law-enforcement agencies to share information about bomb and arson cases and related incidents.</p> <p>ATF spokesman Andrew L. Lluberes said the Bomb and Arson Tracking System (BATS) will serve as a library that law-enforcement agencies can use to manage and exchange information. It was developed by the agency's Arson and Explosives National Repository, which Congress entrusted with maintaining all national information on explosives incidents and arson.</p>

COOPERSTOWN, New York-Tests conducted on five of Sammy Sosa's game bats donated to the National Basball Hall of Fame revealed no cork, unlike the infmaous one he used Tuesday night, the museum announced Thursday.The Hall of Fame had X-Rays taken of three bats Wednesday, and CT scans of two others on Thursday.MConducted by a radiologist at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, the tests were negative.

Bat-watching still popular, but its protection now key 07/28/2002 By CHERI D. CONNER / The Dallas Morning News FREDERICKSBURG, Texas - They're heard long before they're seen. The sound mimics trickling water, chirping crickets and humming bees. They swarm more than 10,000 feet above the Hill Country, spiraling and zigzagging as the dawn arrives. In a rush of wind, millions of Mexican free-tailed bats plunge into a tunnel returning to their roosts. In Texas, bat-watchers troop every summer by the thousands to about a dozen sites such as the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin or here at the Old...

After this weekend, we all have new reason to worship Ozzy Osbourne. While hamming it up as one of the stars of the annual glitzfest known as the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the heavy metal papa was asked what message he wanted to pass on to the president. Some of Hollywood's beautiful people, puffed up with self-importance (among other things), would have felt the need to twitter portentously about their current cause celèbre. Not Ozzy. He's his own cause celèbre, and all he wants is dual-citizenship. " I want to be American," he called out. "America is the...

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The world has lost its largest colony of bats living in a man-made structure. They've been evicted -- to save centuries of Cambodian history. Visitors to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh will no longer see the dusk flight of more than two million bats from the roof of the National Museum like billows of smoke stretched across the orange setting sun. The huge colony of wrinkle-lipped bats has been shut out of its old roost in the museum's roof, their home since April 1975 when the communist Khmer Rouge rebels emptied Phnom Penh of people at...