Bats Prey On Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds

image Batman & Man-Bat © DC Comics

It was previuosly believed that nocturnally migrating songbirds could stop their anti-predator vigilance at night. A new study shows that the giant noctule bat, Nyctalus lasiopterus, exploits [eats] the billions of Eurasian songbirds when the birds' flight routes converge around the Mediterranean basin, such as the Iberian Peninsula.

They showed that the bats ate only insects in summer, included some songbirds' flesh in their diet during spring, and depended a great deal on passerines during autumn. Moreover, a higher fraction of songbirds' flesh in autumn than in spring was attributed to the more massive passerine migration in autumn, because both parents and offspring migrate then towards their wintering grounds in Africa.

Nyctalus lasiopterus. Credit: Ana Popa-Lisseanu

The ability of giant noctules to prey on the wing upon nocturnally migrating passerines appears unique not only among bats but also within the whole animal kingdom. The unique ecological niche of the giant noctule may in turn explain some of its peculiar natural history traits. First, the species occurs almost exclusively in some restricted parts of the Mediterranean where major streams of migrating birds congregate. Second, it is among the largest Palaeartic bats and even belongs to the heaviest aerial-hunting bats of the world, a prerequisite for subduing prey items as large as passerines. Link: press release

The Noctural Predator In Action:


Bats Conquest of a Formidable Foraging Niche: The Myriads of Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds. 2007. Citation: A.G. P.-Lisseanu et al. PLoS ONE 2(2): e205.

How To Ingite A Cosmic Lighthouse

Silver Surfer created by Jack Kirby but © Marvel Comics

Researchers have been able to show that all supernovae of a certain type explode with the same mass and the same energy - the brightness depends only on how much nickel the supernova contains. This knowledge has allowed the researchers to calibrate the brightness of supernovae with greater precision. This means that in the future, they will use the brightness of a supernova that they are observing through their telescopes to determine more accurately how far away from the Earth the cosmic lighthouse is emitting its rays.


The arrow points to the supernova 2002bo, the explosion of a white dwarf in the galaxy NGC 3190 in the Leo constellation--60 million light years away from earth.Image: Benetti et al., MNRAS 384:261-278 (2004)

All supernovae have low-velocity cores of stable iron-group elements. Outside this core, nickel-56 dominates the supernova ejecta. The outer extent of the iron-group material depends on the amount of nickel-56 and coincides with the inner extent of silicon, the principal product of incomplete burning. The outer extent of the bulk of silicon is similar in all supernovae, having an expansion velocity of 11,000 kilometers per second and corresponding to a mass of slightly over one solar mass. This indicates that all the supernovae considered here burned similar masses and suggests that their progenitors had the same mass. link

A Common Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae. 2007. P.A. Mazzali et al. Science.

Hey, Where's Capt. Kirk!?

Chilean Army Reveals UFO Data

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More than 1,000 enthusiasts and experts gathered in Viña del Mar for the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by the Chile’s Ufology Investigation Group (Aion). The highlight of the meeting was a display of photographs taken by members of Chile’s Armed Forces.

The military photographs and videos were revealed late Tuesday evening. They included a photograph of a spherical metallic object captured flying over Antarctica and a video of Navy ships being pursued by a luminous object in 2000.

Also presented at the conference was a report by Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the Army’s Fifth Division, who talked to a rapt audience about his thesis, entitled “Observations of unidentified aerial phenomena identified by the Civil Air Force.” While Bravo’s talk was not technically representative of the institution’s position on UFOs, he had been authorized to give it by his commander-in-chief.

“Captain Bravo gave his talk from the point of view of the importance of UFOs as a phenomenon,” said Fuenzalida. “He talked about encounters such as that of three helicopters near La Unión, when a UFO was spotted parked on the ground, and what happened in 2000, when five people were pursued by a luminous object that did not show up on radar screens.”

Fuenzalida denied the existence of “secret investigations” being carried out by the Armed Forces about extraterrestrial activity. link via the Fortean Times

S.H.A.D.O. battles the U.F.O’.s!


But here’s the real reason we watched Gerry Anderson’s “U.F.O.”


Little known fact is that Lt. Ellis was Nick Drake’s sister.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

On this date in 2001 The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra premiered. That’s all you need to know!

Watch the trailer….Now!

The Hyborian Age: Chapter Four

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Script by Roy Thomas; Art © Walt Simonson;
The Hyborian Age and Conan © their current copyright holders.

Read:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

Building The Creature From The Black Lagoon

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Brain-Munchingly Good Valentines!

Both Kipling West (above) and Tom Bagley from over at the 7 Deadly Sinners blog have art in the Zombie Valentines show at Calgary’s Carbon Media Design. Go check it out now!