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Vitamin D Deficiency May Be To Blame For Soft Bones In Baby's Skull ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — Softening of the skull bones in normal-looking babies might reflect vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, according to a new study. Furthermore, breast-feeding without vitamin D supplementation could prolong the deficiency, which might lead to a risk of serious health problems later in life, including type 1 diabetes and decreased bone density. “Craniotabes, the softening of skull bones, in otherwise normal newborns has largely been regarded as a physiological condition without the need for treatment,” said Dr. Tohru Yorifuji, of Kyoto University Hospital...

Bison bones bolster idea Ice Age seafarers first to Americas Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service Published: Monday, March 24, 2008 Head of a bison, part of a series of ancient bison bones found on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state. A series of discoveries of ancient bison bones on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state is fuelling excitement among researchers that the Pacific coast offered a food-rich ecosystem for Ice Age hunters some 14,000 years ago -- much earlier than the prevailing scientific theory pegs the arrival of humans to the New World. Fourteen...

Ancient Bones of Small Humans Discovered in Palau John Roach for National Geographic MagazineMarch 10, 2008 Thousands of human bones belonging to numerous individuals have been discovered in the Pacific island nation of Palau. Some of the bones are ancient and indicate inhabitants of particularly small size, scientists announced today. The remains are between 900 and 2,900 years old and align with Homo sapiens, according to a paper on the discovery. However, the older bones are tiny and exhibit several traits considered primitive, or archaic, for the human lineage. "They weren't very typical, very small in fact," said Lee Berger,...

Ancient bones may hold key By Emily Pykett Ancient human remains held in Portsmouth's museum archives are set to be DNA-tested for signs of tuberculosis. Skeletons which have been dug up in the city during developments, some dating back to the Bronze Age, will now form a vital part of new research into TB. Academics from Durham and Manchester universities have asked permission to remove bits of bone and teeth to analyse as part of their research project into how tuberculosis evolved through the ages. The remains of two ancient city dwellers, one which is known to have suffered TB...

Ancient bones found at UCSDBy Tanya Sierra UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERJanuary 27, 2008 Locked away in a museum safe near Escondido are perhaps the oldest skeletal remains found in the Western Hemisphere. More than 30 years after the relics were unearthed during a classroom archaeological dig at UC San Diego, the county's Kumeyaay tribes are fighting to reclaim the bones that anthropologists estimate are nearly 10,000 years old. OVERVIEWBackground: What may be the oldest skeletal remains found in the Western Hemisphere were discovered during a classroom archaeological dig on UCSD property in 1976. Kumeyaay Indians are trying to have the relics...

Earliest Shoe-Wearers Revealed by Toe Bones Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Shod? Look at the Toes Jan. 25, 2008 -- People started wearing shoes around 40,000 years ago, according to a study on recently excavated small toe bones that belonged to an individual from China who apparently loved shoes. Most footwear erodes over time. The earliest known shoes, rope sandals that attached to the feet with string, date to only around 10,000 B.C. For the new study, the clues were in middle toe bones that change during an individual's lifetime if the person wears shoes a lot. "When you walk barefoot,...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- DNA from chewed chicken bones led prosecutors to file charges against a Kansas man in connection with two 2006 burglaries in Gladstone, Mo. The Clay County prosecutor charged John Wyatt Weaver, 43, with burglary and stealing a firearm. Prosecutors accused him of entering two homes in the 100 block of Point Drive in Gladstone on Nov. 23, 2006, according to a news release. At one home, the residents found nothing missing but some leftovers from the refrigerator. While officers were at the home, police found a door kicked in at a neighbor's house. Police contacted that neighbor,...

Archeologist explains link between bones found in Ethiopia, Texas Lucy's bones on display at Houston museum By Pamela LeBlancAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFSaturday, December 22, 2007 One roamed the forests of East Africa 3.2 million years ago. The other lived in Central Texas more than 9,500 years ago. What's the connection between two skeletons found a world apart? That was the question on a recent visit to Houston, where the famous older skeleton is on display. Though not complete, Lucy does have enough pieces, especially skull bones, for scientists to predict her measurements. This model at the Houston Museum of Natural Science shows...

Finding 2,500-year-old bonesOn land for pumping station, investigators get a surprise Saturday, December 1, 2007 3:08 AM By Theodore DeckerTHE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Justin Zink works at the site where a prehistoric skeleton was uncovered on the grounds of the Columbus Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant. On the site beside the Scioto River, the archaeologists had found fire pits dating to about 550 B.C., shards of pottery, even traces of an ancient building. This week, Ryan Weller and his team found something more: a human skeleton, buried on the riverbank by his or her loved ones as long as 2,500 years ago....

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit police investigating injuries to a one-year-old boy say they found the skeletal remains of another baby who is the brother of the living child. Police say Reid told investigators that Deante Miller died two years ago. Authorities say the couple burned him in a barbecue grill and hid what was left of the baby in the ceiling of a home.

Clinton T. Rubin knows full well that his recent results are surprising — that no one has been more taken aback than he. And he cautions that it is far too soon to leap to conclusions about humans. But still, he says, what if ... ? And no wonder, other scientists say. Dr. Rubin, director of the Center for Biotechnology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is reporting that in mice, a simple treatment that does not involve drugs appears to be directing cells to turn into bone instead of fat. All he does is put...

Senate bill could untie Kennewick Man bones Published Thursday, October 4th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer A Senate committee has approved a bill that could clear the way for Native Americans to claim the ancient bones of Kennewick Man. This is the third time the change has been proposed to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It would ensure federally recognized tribes could claim ancient remains even if a direct link to a tribe can't be proven. Tribes have pushed for a change to the law since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004...

Giant bones challenged 18th-century intellectuals By Dan Hurley Post columnist Today, the valley is dry, dusty and unremarkable, but 250 years ago it was one of the most fascinating spots ever discovered in the North America. From the very first time in 1739 that local Indians led a contingent of French explorers to the salt licks near the Ohio River in what is today Boone County, Ky., the spot raised intellectually troubling questions. European and American scientists understood the importance of salt licks and why thousands of modern buffalo, deer and elk beat broad paths to the marshy lick, but...

Boning up. Mice with high osteocalcin levels (left) made far more insulin (pink) than regular mice.Credit: Hideaki Sowa, Karsenty Research Group, Columbia University Give your skeletal system some credit. Not only do your bones keep you upright, they produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, and help control pH. But that's not all: According to a new study, bones secrete a protein called osteocalcin that regulates sugar and fat absorption. The finding qualifies osteocalcin as a hormone, meaning the skeleton can now add being an endocrine organ to its impressive list of accomplishments. There have already been hints that...

Dinosaur bones: the latest status symbol By Philip Sherwell, Sunday Telegraph in Hulett, Wyoming, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 4:29pm BST 29/07/2007 The bidding war between the two Hollywood stars was intense as the price soared for the 67 million-year-old dinosaur skull. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research has unearthed a jumble of dinosaur remains Only when it reached $276,000 did Leonardo DiCaprio blink - and Nicolas Cage walked away from the Beverley Hills auction with a ferocious-looking addition to his fossil collection. As this recent battle of the celebrities for the head of a tyrannosauras bataar — the Asian...

Archeologists in Sarpsborg have found one thousand year old skeletal remains that appear to be Incan. The skeletal remains were found during conservations work at St. Nicolas church in Sarpsborg, a city 73 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Oslo, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. When archeologists were to move some rose bushes they made the surprising discovery of the remains of two older men and a baby. "When we were about to take hold under the rose bush the skeletal remains slid out. It was quite surprising," Mona Beate Buckholm, archeologist at the Borgarsyssel Museum, told NRK. One of the skulls...

So the Rice team decided to investigate using sound instead of radio waves. Bone is known to be a great conductor of sound, but so far it has only been used to transmit analogue signals in applications such as checking how bone is healing after a fracture, and in hearing aids that transmit sound from outside the skull to the auditory nerve. To see if bone could transmit digital signals over longer distances - to a headset, say, from a sensor worn on the wrist - the team applied a small vibrator to various parts of the body. When they...

(03-20) 04:42 PDT Mundelein, Ill. (AP) -- Golf course workers uncovering the tees for the season discovered a human skull at a suburban Chicago club and found bones nearby in the fairway, authorities said. The skull was spotted Monday near the 14th tee of the Prairie Course, one of two 18-hole courses at the Countryside Golf Club in Mundelein, according to Lake County Forest Preserve Police Chief John Galford. "It was laying there, right in the middle of the fairway," Galford said. He said the identity and gender of the person had not been determined, but the skull had some...

Bones found near Indian BeachBuilders unearth remains, but excavation of site is unlikely By LATISHA R. GRAY 3-10-2007 latisha.gray@heraldtribune.comSTAFF PHOTO / DAN WAGNER Construction was halted on this waterfront property in Sarasota after human remains were found. SARASOTA -- The remains of what appears to be an American Indian have at least one local archeologist both excited and dismayed. Palmetto archaeologist Bill Burger said the rib, femur and vertebrae unearthed this month by construction workers building a luxury home along the bayfront could offer clues of a tribe from long gone. But it is impossible to determine just what else...

The skeleton of the fossilised, 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy, will go on display in the US, Ethiopian officials say. After four years of negotiations with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, Ethiopia agreed to lend the bones for scientific study until 2013. It is hoped Lucy's 11-leg tour will boost tourism and increase Ethiopia's profile as the "home of all humanity". She will leave her country of origin - and the origin of mankind - in June. As well as Lucy, the travelling exhibition will also include about 190 other Ethiopian artefacts including humankind's earliest...

NEW YORK — Searchers found more bones believed to belong to Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack victims Sunday in manholes and utility areas that apparently were overlooked years ago. Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who is overseeing the recovery effort, also said search officials had identified 12 additional underground areas that will be examined in coming days. Utility and city officials have excavated about five underground areas, yielding more than 100 pieces of human remains, since construction workers discovered bones earlier in the week in a manhole excavated as part of work on a transit hub. The medical examiner's office...

NEW YORK — More than five years after the World Trade Center came crashing down, human remains keep cropping up near the site, angering family members who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack.

Ancient Bones Belonged to a Man -- Probably By Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writer September 11, 2006 By the time you reach 13,000 or so, you'd figure that the people closest to you would know some fundamental personal details — like your sex. But consider the plight of the oldest person yet found in North America.All that remains of him — or is it her? — are a couple of thigh bones, which were discovered on Santa Rosa Island in 1959. At the time, scientists thought they belonged to a man of a certain age — perhaps 10,000. The bones...

Australian scientists are using stem cells to repair fractures in patients whose bones won't heal. The hope is it will save patients having to undergo many painful operations. Jamie Stevens, 21, fell off his motor bike nine months ago, fracturing his thigh bone. It didn't heal, leaving a five-centimetre gap. The usual treatment would be to graft a new bone from his hip. Instead, he was chosen as the first Australian patient to get an injection of specially treated stem cells. "The benefits outweigh the old procedure which takes a big chunk out of your hip," Jamie Stevens said. "It's...

Using a relatively new technology called RNA interference to turn off genes that regulate cell differentiation, University of Pittsburgh researchers have demonstrated they can increase the propensity of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) to become bone-forming cells. Based on these results, the investigators believe that by turning off specific genetic factors they can control the capacity of MDSCs as a means of treating various musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. RNA interference is a simple yet powerful technique that uses short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) – small molecules that prevent a gene from being expressed – to turn off the production of specific proteins...

CALPULALPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people traveling with invading Spanish forces in 1520. Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archaeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say. The findings support accounts of Aztecs capturing and killing a caravan of Spanish conquistadors and local men, women and children traveling with them in revenge for the murder of Cacamatzin, king...

CALPULALPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people travelling with invading Spanish forces in 1520. Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archaeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say. The findings support accounts of Aztecs capturing and killing a caravan of Spanish conquistadors and local men, women and children travelling with them in revenge for the murder of Cacamatzin, king...

In the last 10 years, millions of patients have taken a class of drugs that can prevent agonizing broken and deteriorating bones. The drugs once seemed perfectly safe and have transformed life for patients with cancer or osteoporosis. But recently there have been reports of a serious side effect: death of areas of bone in the jaw. Everyone agrees that the condition, osteonecrosis of the jaw, is an uncommon complication, but that its true incidence is not known. It is estimated that among the 500,000 American cancer patients who take the drugs because their disease is affecting their bones, 1...

Bones in togas puzzle Vatican archaeologists By Nick Pisa in Rome (Filed: 21/05/2006) Archaeologists exploring one of Rome's oldest catacombs are baffled by neat piles of more than 1,000 skeletons dressed in elegant togas. The macabre find emerged as teams of historians slowly picked their way through the complex network of underground burial chambers, which stretch for miles under the city. They say the tomb, which has been dated to the first century AD, is the first known example of a "mass burial". The archaeologists are unable to explain why so many apparently upper-class Romans - who would normally have...

MADRID, Spain - Scientists said Friday they have confirmed that at least some of Christopher Columbus' remains were buried inside a Spanish cathedral, a discovery that could help end a century-old debate over the explorer's final resting place. DNA samples from 500-year-old bone slivers could contradict the Dominican Republic's competing claim that the explorer was laid to rest in the New World, said Marcial Castro, a Seville-area historian and high school teacher who devised the study that began in 2002. However, some of Columbus' remains also could have been buried in the Dominican Republic, he said. The announcement came a...

HARTFORD, Conn. - A Yale University historian discovered a 1918 letter that raises anew questions about a secretive Yale student society and the remains of the American Indian leader Geronimo. The letter, written by a member of Skull and Bones to another member of the society, purports that some of the Indian leader's remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club's headquarters. A portion of the letter and an accompanying story were posted Monday on the Yale Alumni Magazine's Web site. At one of the...

Old bones are telling new tales BY SANDI DOUGHTONMay 5, 2006 The Seattle Times ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Behind two locked doors at Central Washington University, what might be called Son of Kennewick Man sits inside a cardboard box. The faceless skull dates back 9,000 years - just 400 years younger than the superstar skeleton unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River. While Kennewick Man ignited a legal battle over the control of ancient bones, the skull at CWU has barely raised a ripple. "It just misses the mark in terms of people's interest," said CWU anthropology professor Steven Hackenberger....

The NRC reports that adults drinking 2 liters of water fluoridated at 4 mg/L (or 8 milligrams of fluoride) daily risk broken bones and joint pain. EPA employees reported this years ago; but were ignored.

A team of researchers has succeeded in engineering stem cells taken from tooth germ to quickly develop into liver or bone tissue, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's Research Institute (AIST) for Cell Engineering said. A joint team of scientists from the institute and Osaka University succeeded in repairing damaged liver and bones in rats using stem cells taken from wisdom tooth germ. The finding raises hopes of developing regenerative medicine using wisdom teeth germ taken from people during orthodontic treatments. Tooth germ disappears as a tooth is formed, but that of a wisdom tooth stays in...

WILKES-BARRE (PA)– Family members of two men allegedly gunned down by Hugo Selenski erupted in anger Wednesday after Selenski’s attorney handled the bones prosecutors say belonged to the slain men. The parents of Frank “Rudy” James and Adeiye “Redman” Keiler, the drug dealer suspects whom Hugo Selenski stands accused of killing, believe attorney Demetrius Fannick showed a lack of respect to their sons by dropping the bones onto the defense desk while questioning a witness about them. “How dare you throw our children’s bones,” said Keiler’s mother, Sharon Forrester, during an impromptu press conference during the lunch break. “How dare...

SEATTLE -- Kennewick Man was buried by other humans. That finding, which scientists have pondered for nearly 10 years, was finally confirmed Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists here. The scientists also have concluded the ancient skull appears different than those of Indian tribes who lived in the area. Scientists long had wondered whether Kennewick Man, whose 9,000-year-old skeleton was found 10 years ago in Columbia Park alongside the Columbia River, was naturally covered with silt or if others had laid him to rest. The answer is he was laid out on his back,...

Scientists plan to disclose their findings about Kennewick Man on Thursday in Seattle, nearly a decade after the discovery of the 9,000-year-old skeleton that attracted worldwide interest and sparked a lengthy legal fight. "Kennewick's story is finally going to get told," said Cleone Hawkinson, president of Friends of America's Past. Hawkinson has been working for years to ensure Kennewick Man's bones would be studied by the top scientists in the country. Kennewick Man's bones are significant to scientists because they are considered one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. Scientists have theorized he was about 45 years old...

The biggest study ever of calcium and vitamin D supplements for older women showed they offered only limited protection against broken bones, raising questions over what has been an article of faith among doctors and nutritionists. The supplements seemed to reduce the risk of broken hips in women over 60 and also helped those who took the supplements most regularly. But as to preventing bone fractures overall, vitamin D and calcium flunked in these healthy women. One of the researchers, Dr. Norman Lasser at New Jersey Medical School, said the study is "not as ringing an endorsement of calcium as...

When it comes to the body, they say you can't take it with you when you die. But they didn't say it should be sold from the back of a truck. Or that you should not have the right to give a fully informed consent for whatever it is that medical science wants to do with your remains. Recently it was revealed that a group of criminals was stealing bones from bodies at crematoriums in New York. They were then sold to for-profit tissue banks in New Jersey and Florida. Among the victims was the late host of PBS television's...

Bone loss is an often-overlooked consequence of heavy drinking, but recent research has illuminated how alcohol takes a toll on the bones, according to a new report. ADVERTISEMENT In a review of cell, animal and human studies, Dr. Dennis A. Chakkalakal of the Omaha VA Medical Centre in Nebraska describes how heavy drinking leads to bone loss, higher risk of fractures and slower healing of bone breaks. The main problem appears to be that alcohol inhibits the normal formation of new bone, Chakkalakal reports in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Though excessive drinking has been shown to promote...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Scientists said Friday they found a major cache of bones and likely complete skeletons of the long-extinct Dodo bird, which could help them learn more about the lost creature's physique and habits. The find is significant because no complete skeleton of a single Dodo bird has ever been retrieved from a controlled archaeological site in Mauritius. The last known stuffed bird was destroyed in a 1755 fire at a museum in Oxford, England, leaving only partial skeletons and drawings of the bird to go on. The bird was native to Mauritius when no humans lived there but...

LYME REGIS, England: The snout, teeth, vertebrae and ribcage of a 15-foot reptile that lived off the coast of England 190 million years ago have been found. Geologist Paddy Howe, who is monitoring work on the site in Lyme Regis, says the ichthyosaur looked a bit like a dolphin but was a reptile that swam in the sea at the same time dinosaurs roamed the land, the BBC reported Friday. The remains were found during work to prevent landslides along the coastline and took months to painstakingly remove. "Now it's a case of waiting to identify the exact species and...

Bones of dismembered warriors unearthed at ancient Tul Talesh TEHRAN, Oct. 12 (MNA) -- Archaeologists recently unearthed a great number of skeletons at the ancient site of Tul Talesh which are believed to be the remains of warriors who were dismembered and killed in battle, the Persian service of the Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency reported on Tuesday. The skeletons were found without heads, feet, and hands in the cemetery of Tul Talesh, which covers an area of 350 hectares. Located 140 kilometers northwest of Rasht in Gilan Province, the cemetery is one of Iran’s unique ancient burial grounds. Tul...

Sturdy shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to a US scientist.Humans' small toes became weaker during this time, says physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, who has studied scores of early human foot bones. He attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes, that reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance. The research is presented in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The development of footwear appears to have affected the four so-called "lesser" toes - excepting the big toe. Ancient footwearWhile early humans living in cold northern climates may...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The fossilized bones of a creature that might have been a mastodon were unearthed Tuesday in the creek bed of a suburban river being renovated for flood protection. The remains of what appears to be a massive pelvic bone, ribcage fragments and a tusk were uncovered along the Guadalupe River in San Jose. The river project has been cited as a model of how to integrate nature and development. The discovery prompted both wonder and frustration, as officials tried to determine the source of the remains but couldn't find experts to scour the site. "We've never...

Bones of ContentionIs a small, 18,000-year-old skeleton the older cousin of modern-day Pygmies—or a new human species? BY SIMON ELEGANT | RAMPASASA JOHN STANMEYER FOR TIMESMALL WORLD: Rampasasa resident Anggalus Jalur, 55, stands just 130 cm tall "In those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of...

First the antiquities thieves sold stolen ancient burial boxes. Now, they are trying to sell the human bones inside them as well. Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Sunday that they had thwarted an attempt by two Jerusalem Arab men to sell four Second-Temple ossuaries - and the human bones inside them - to Israel's disaster victims' identification organization for reburial. The 2,000 year old burial boxes, with Aramaic lettering on them, were dug up from an ancient Jewish cemetery located on the edge of east Jerusalem village of Issawiya, the head of the Antiquities Authority's anti-theft division Amir Ganor said. The...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A human skeleton found by three kids in Salt Lake City's Harvard/Yale neighborhood appears to be American Indian. Clayton Middle School students, Scott Paulsen, Alex Baker and Hayden Schofield were digging a fort when their shovels struck a bone. Paulsen said they thought it was just an animal and kept digging. The boys, all age 14, uncovered a portion of a rib cage and what appeared to be the back of a skull. Schofield told his grandfather about their discovery who then called police. Salt Lake City police Lieutenant Cray Croft say the remains were...

Anthropologists have built a "Frankenstein" Neanderthal skeleton, the first and only full-body reconstruction of the species. The result, announced today, is a shape no one expected. "It’s almost like making my own fossil discovery," said Gary Sawyer, one of the skeleton’s architects. Sawyer, an anthropologist at the American Natural History Museum in New York, and his colleague Blaine Maley of Washington University, pieced together the skeleton using bones mostly from an individual known as La Ferrassie 1. La Ferrassie 1 was missing its rib cage, pelvis, and a few other parts, so Sawyer and Maley had to scrounge around to...

Forgotten ashes await permanent resting place Boxes containing ''cremains,'' or ashes of cremated human bodies, sit on the floor of Virginia Humaniteks in Virginia Beach. CHRIS TYREE PHOTOS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT By JASON SKOG, The Virginian-Pilot © December 16, 2004 It seems an odd spot for a final resting place, stacked against a bare concrete wall, between a cluster of old mop handles and a coil of extension cord. Yet, there they are: more than 250, each labeled with a five-digit code. Some containers are covered in a fine, chalky dust. Some have sat in this dark corner for almost a decade....