In the quest to explain why four climbers died on one of Mt. Everest's deadliest days ever, much attention has gone to overcrowding on the 29,035-foot peak. When the season's first good weather window opened on Friday and Saturday, about 150 climbers lined up to go for the summit. Many had to wait an hour or more for their turn. And some ended up making the final push, with dwindling oxygen supplies, in the late afternoon -- far too late to be safe. The four climbers who died over the weekend fell to exhaustion and altitude sickness. NEWS: Four People Die on Mt. Everest To prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening in the future, some mountaineers have proposed imposing limits or schedules that would ... Continue reading →
In a new political ad Mitt Romney is portrayed as a job-destroyer who is out of touch with the American working class. With the message, Barack Obama's campaign takes part in an age-old political tradition -- the attack ad. And even though voters overwhelmingly say they hate negative political advertising, attack ads are becoming more common -- presumably because they sway voters. Why do negative political ads work? Reasons, experts say, are emotional and psychological -- and partly up for debate. Studies show that negativity doesn’t affect voter turnout. Nor does it sway those who are already convinced one way or the other. PHOTOS: Unpresidential Moments in History Instead, the power of negativity may lie in its ability to compel people to seek out more ... Continue reading →
By cramming all of your eating into a smaller number of hours, you might be able to reduce your risk of obesity and related diseases, suggests a new mouse study -- even if you continue to eat exactly the same amount of food that you were eating before. When given the same quantity of high-fat food, mice in the study that ate throughout the day and night became fat and sick, while mice whose eating was restricted to a period of eight hours remained healthy. Researchers suspect that a period of fasting may boost the efficiency of organs involved in metabolism, allowing the body to better regulate blood sugar, fat storage and other measures. Each organ might also have its own clock that is programmed ... Continue reading →
As the climate changes over the next century, the ranges of nearly 90 percent of mammal species will shrink -- in many cases because animals won't be able to get to areas where the climate is going to become suitable for them, says new research. Across the Western Hemisphere, the study also found, nearly 10 percent of mammals will be unable to move fast enough to keep up with changes in climate. In some areas, such as the Amazon, that number will be as high as 40 percent. And while some animals will do just fine or even better than before, certain animals in certain places face catastrophic losses of survivable habitat. Most at risk are primates, which will likely lose 75 percent of their ... Continue reading →
Not far from West Palm Beach in southern Florida, people once lived alongside giant ground sloths, mammoths, tapirs, mastodons and other enormous creatures. The discovery adds the far southeast corner of the United States to the list of places in North America where humans coexisted with massive creatures more than 10,000 years ago. The finding also adds to a growing body of evidence that modern humans spread rapidly after arriving in the Americas, though it’s still not clear when and where they first set foot on the continent. “We found that humans came into Florida before the extinction of megafauna -- they were in Florida by 10,000 years ago,” said Bruce MacFadden, a paleontologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville. This is “clearly documenting that ... Continue reading →
Could Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who bombed buildings in Oslo last July and then went to a nearby island, where he killed dozens of young people at a Labor Party summer camp, possibly be sane? That is the focus of international attention as a Norwegian court considers the possibility of an insanity defense. Breivik continues to insist that he was totally mentally stable at the time of the attack and was acting in self-defense against people who are pro-immigration. He slaughtered a total of 77 people. The simple answer, experts say, is -- legally -- yes, Breivik could be considered sane. Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological one. So, even if Breivik has a mental disorder, he could still be sane in ... Continue reading →
