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The racers are on the track at 2 p.m. each day. As the crowd cheers, the competitors are squirted with water to help them move, and they begin their slow crawl toward the finish line. This unconventional race, which takes place every day at the San Diego County Fair, features worms instead of horses, and it takes some contestants 10 minutes to cover the short distance. "I think it's slow, but funny because the little kids cheer on their worms," Landry Urbanowicz, who runs the worm race, said Thursday. The activity takes place in the farm area at the San...

Would you swim with frogs?

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours. Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says "millions" of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki. "There was a carpet of frogs," he said. Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. No human injuries were reported. Thanoglou said the amphibians probably left a nearby lake to look for food.

THESSALONIKI, Greece – Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours. Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says "millions" of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki. "There was a carpet of frogs," he said. Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. No human injuries were reported. Thanoglou said the amphibians probably left a nearby lake to look for food.

An herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs, "chemically castrating" some and turning others into females, a study shows. Frogs in the experiment were exposed to amounts of the weedkiller atrazine that are comparable to the levels allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, says lead researcher Tyrone Hayes of the University of California-Berkeley. The study was released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In Hayes' earlier studies, atrazine caused male frogs to begin growing eggs in their testes. In...

An animal protection group is urging French authorities to build special crossings to save millions of frogs and toads from being squashed on the country's roads. "For frogs, toads and newts, the most visible cause of death is undoubtedly road traffic: the animals try to reach the damp areas they need to reproduce and are flattened by the million," the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals said on its website.

A 31-state salmonella outbreak first detected in Utah was linked to pet frogs, U.S. health officials said Thursday, suggesting that public-health efforts to educate children about the proper handling of reptiles should be expanded to amphibians. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta started a national investigation to find the source of the outbreak this summer, after five Utahns were sickened by the Typhimurium strain of salmonella. In all, 85 people across several states became ill and nearly two-thirds had had some contact with frogs, according to a report released Thursday by the CDC. Most of the...

Frogs are suffering from a fatal fungal infection.Vance T. Vredenburg/SFSU A fungal infection that is killing amphibians around the world acts by disrupting the flow of electrolytes across their skin, ultimately causing heart failure. The discovery is helping to raise hopes that a treatment for the infection could one day be given to amphibians in the wild.Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a kind of chytrid fungus that causes the skin disease chytridiomycosis in amphibians, was likely spread around the world by the South African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) in the 1930s and 1940s, when the frog was widely used as a pregnancy test....

MONTREAL — As George W. Bush joked with a business crowd inside a historic hotel ballroom Thursday, hundreds of people outside the room cheered while he was being burned in effigy. Police in riot gear and others on horseback held back a crowd of hundreds, including several people who tossed shoes at the Queen Elizabeth hotel in a demonstration of disdain for the man speaking inside. Two protesters tried forcing their way through the line of shield-and baton-carrying police, were wrestled to the ground, and arrested. Ironically, this anti-war protest took place outside the same hotel where the ultimate anti-war...

CRAZY Horse, the upmarket Paris cabaret that insists its strip show is art, is revamping its decades-old revue to include a number that presents clothes removal as a solution to economic crisis. The cabaret off the Champs Elysees, which has seen stars like Madonna, U2 and Gerard Depardieu sip champagne in its red velvet seats as they watch women undress, has hired star choreographer Philippe Decoufle to update its show. Decoufle, who staged the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the Albertville Winter Olympics ceremonies in 1992, will launch the new revue next Monday after months of rehearsals. "We work with...

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. 'A giant woolly rat never before seen by science' Link to this audio A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia has escaped, reportedly by killing three of his captors, Somali officials said Wednesday.

Scientists think they have resolved one of the most controversial environmental issues of the past decade: the curious case of the missing frogs' legs. Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution. However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause. The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.

Scientists think they have resolved one of the most controversial environmental issues of the past decade: the curious case of the missing frogs' legs. Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution. However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause. The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.

Tina Brown: Liberal Ad Elevates 'Blow-hard Bullfrog' Rush Limbaugh By Scott Whitlock | February 27, 2009 - 11:49 Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown appeared on Friday's "Morning Joe" to lament that a new liberal ad featuring Rush Limbaugh would only elevate the status of the "blow-hard bullfrog" conservative host. The liberal group Americans United for Change has a spot running that slams Republicans as a party of no and features a clip of Limbaugh's now famous comment that he wants Obama's liberal policies to fail. After "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist played the ad, Brown asserted...

Are frogs being 'eaten to extinction'? Some researchers say yes Could the global market for frog legs be pushing the little guys toward extinction? Some scientists and conservationists fear it's possible, and they're calling for tighter regulations and increased monitoring on the world's consumption of frog meat to avoid it. From the New Scientist: According to U.N. figures, global trade has increased in the past 20 years. France -- not surprisingly -- and the U.S. are the two largest importers, with France importing between 2,500 and 4,000 tons of frog meat each year since 1995.

In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''. The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers. Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the...

A conservation group officially notified the city of San Francisco Wednesday intends to sue over alleged harm to two federally protected species on a city-owned golf course in Pacifica. The Center for Biological Diversity claims activities at San Francisco's Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica are harming and killing California red-legged frogs and San Francisco garter snakes in violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The California red-legged frog is listed as a threatened species and the San Francisco garter snake is classified as an endangered species under the law. The law requires submission of a 60-day notice of intent...

The well-known WII museum of Normandy, France, authorized within its walls a conference organized by the extremists who pretend 911 was an inside job. Held on September 16, 2008, the conference features several commentators, from the one attributing the 911 attacks to the neocons to the one saying it was the jews. The "Memorial de Caen" was built to commemorate the millions of Allies who landed in France in 1944 to liberate the country.

There's a great post from CQ's Craig Crawford here. I'd been trying to think of the right analogy for what John McCain is doing to Barack Obama and the GOP consultant who talked to Craig nails it: the ugly frog (not to be confused with fish or pigs wearing lipstick). The "ugly frog", Craig explains, "can be anything that opposing candidates do or say that, out of context, puts them on the defence". The Republican consultant said: "Stick that frog right in their face, shake it all around, and say, 'Here, look at this BIG UGLY FROG'. Then, as they...