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The cave entrance. (Chris Grooms) You may not give a pile of bat poop gathered over 4,300 years a second look – but to a group of scientists, it's provided an intriguing insight into how bat diets and therefore climate conditions have shifted over thousands of years. Taller than the average man (2 meters or 6-and-a-half feet), the pile of poop (also known as guano) records history in clear layers, much like sediments under a lake. By analyzing the layers back through time, the scientists have been able to figure out changes in the diets of the bats that have...

The study, which focused on the ancient settlements of Shivta and Sa'adon, found archaeological evidence that the Byzantines in the Negev did not raise their pigeons for food, but to fertilize the dry loess soil and making it more suitable for intensive agriculture. Loess is made up of fragment of geological detritus, formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. But despite its lowly origins, loess tends to develop into very rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, it forms some of the most agriculturally productive terrain in the world. "The pigeon droppings are rich in phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, which are...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions. Researchers led by Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa studied several ponds below the cliffs at Cape Vera on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. Scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the ponds, which receive...

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed. Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more. Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world. That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia....

President Barack Obama wants more people to appreciate and visit America's national parks as the park system nears its 100th birthday in August. Obama and his family spent the night at Yosemite National Park in California after touring an underground cave on Friday at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. The president then gave a rousing speech at Yosemite that urged Americans to "get out into the great outdoors." He tapped Congress, thanking them for working to protect the parks.

Inspectors say they found the bat feces this week in the area right above the ceiling of Ken Lawson's office. Lawson is secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. State legislators in the new state budget ordered that state workers leave the Tallahassee offices where the department is housed. The new budget says no money can be spent on lease payments for the offices, but that provision does not take effect until this summer.

Michael Jordan was interviewed by Ahmad Rashad recently about who his dream foursome would entail (if he was included in the four) and President Obama isn't getting an invite. "I've never played with Obama but I would," said Jordan. "But no, that's okay, I'd take him out. He's a hack, it would be all day playing with him. "Don't worry about it," said Jordan. "I never said he wasn't a great politician, I'm just saying he's a sh---- golfer."

The White House on Wednesday sought to tamp down the controversy over a magazine piece that detailed deep tensions between the U.S. and Israel – and quoted an unnamed senior Obama administration official calling the Israeli leader a “chicken****.” Administration officials, including White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, did not deny the quote. They also did not signal there would be any robust effort to find out who said it. But Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the criticism does not reflect how the rest of the administration views Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Certainly that's not the...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/5/02 - Strike Video, Salman Bak, Al-Tuwaitha, al-Muthanna, Halabja, Mosul BREAKING: Salman Bak, Al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex BREAKING: al-Muthanna - guano and tanks BREAKING: Halabja - ~20 of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan killed or wounded trusting a truce with al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists BREAKING: Mosul - U.S. and British warplanes defended the sky STRIKE VIDEO Iraqi Spoon-rest Radar on a truck. (Note: mpg file is 16.4 MB) From the DoD News Briefing =========== Baghdad =========== In Baghdad, Iraq, inspectors leaving UN HQ. In Iraq, at Salman Bak, at the Al-Tuwaitha nuclear...

“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America,” Obama said in a statement Sunday. “I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.” “And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the...

LIMA, Peru — Drug agents in Peru say they have seized 3 tons of cocaine mixed into a shipment of guano bound for Spain. A four-month investigation led to the seizure at a warehouse in the capital of Lima. ...

Cruelty to animals? A waste of time and money? A project to get rid of some pesky birds beneath bridges is being met with serious questions. The motivating factor behind the project is avian excrement - otherwise known as poop. Tucked beneath 14 North Texas tollway bridges, you'll find cages baited with corn, waiting for pigeons to step inside. The tollway says trapping them is necessary to cut down on bird droppings hazardous to the highway and people's health. But Teri Latsko and Nicole Matocha say the threat is to the birds. And they have the pictures to prove it....

Good grief. The bizarre antisemitic propaganda being fed to the Iranian people would be funny in a dark way if it didn’t provoke such a sense of foreboding, of history repeating. (Courtesy of MEMRI TV.) (Video at link) Following are excerpts from an episode of an Iranian documentary series on Hollywood cinema, featuring “Saving Private Ryan,” which aired on IRINN – the Iranian News Channel on May 27, 2008: Narrator: The concentrated efforts of the Zionist lobbies in America have led the U.S. government to be the greatest supporter of the regime occupying Jerusalem. In recent years, following the exposure...

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster...

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. - An upstate New York couple didn't think a few bats in the attic were much of a problem when they were buying a house last summer. Months later, they found out how wrong they were when they discovered more than a ton and a half of bat droppings up there. Nick LaBoda and Jenna Caputo say a home inspector informed them about the bats. They called an exterminator, who told them to wait a while before removing the bats because the babies were too young to fly. Then they forgot about the bats until they smelled...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- After two years of study in an isolated northeast Oklahoma cave, Jim Stout has discovered that a rare species of grotto salamander has a diet much different from what was expected. Stout, the supervisor of the Herpetarium at the Oklahoma City Zoo, has helped write a report published by a leading scholarly journal that documents how a blind cave-dwelling salamander eats bat droppings. The salamander was thought to subsist on bugs and shrimp and this is the first report of a salamander, or any amphibian, living on bat guano.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have clashed at least 16 times, including one man who claims he has been beaten by fellow prisoners because he practices a different form of Islam than the majority at the camp. None of the incidents resulted in life-threatening injuries to the detainees at the center for U.S. terror suspects, according to the documents, which were obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. In one incident, two detainees fought after one accused the other of lying to military interrogators...

Lackawanna County Courthouse jokesters have had a lot of rich material to work with lately: At least 1,000 pounds worth, in fact. That's the low estimate of how much pigeon dung has been excavated from above a bathroom at the courthouse in the last week. The deposit may weigh a ton, said president of the company cleaning the feces out. The deposit -- two feet deep -- was in the turret on the northwest corner of the courthouse, above the private bathroom off Judge Vito P. Geroulo's chambers. Bob Conway, president of Alicon Environmental of Clarks Summit, estimated the dung,...