ADVANCING SUNSPOTS: A phalanx of sunspots is turning toward Earth. Their advance is documented in this two-day movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The large one in the middle, AR1401, has a “beta-gamma” magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. At the moment it is unleashing one such flare every day, such as this flash recorded during the late hours of Jan. 19th. Eruptions from AR1401 will become increasingly geoeffective in the days ahead as the sun’s rotation aligns the active region with our planet.
INCREASING SOLAR ACTIVITY CLEANS UP SAT-DEBRIS: Earth’s atmosphere has been puffing up in response to increasing levels of UV radiation from sunspots. This is good news for satellite operators, because a puffed up atmosphere helps clean up low-Earth orbit. “The number of cataloged debris in Earth orbit actually decreased during 2011,” reports Nick Johnson in NASA’s Orbital Debris Quarterlynewsletter. “[The figure below] illustrates how the rate of debris reentries from the Fengyun-1C anti-satellite test of January 2007 increased during the past year.”
“Even though only 6% of the total 3218 cataloged debris from the ill-advised engagement had reentered by the end of 2011, half of these debris fell out of orbit in the past 12 months,” he points out. “Likewise, many debris from the 2009 accidental collision of Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 are accelerating their departure from Earth orbit. In the absence of a new major satellite breakup, the overall orbital debris population should continue to decrease during 2012 and 2013.”
204 km (126 miles) W of Invercargill, New Zealand
293 km (182 miles) SW of Queenstown, New Zealand
380 km (236 miles) WSW of Dunedin, New Zealand
940 km (584 miles) SW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand
Earthquake overview : A very shallow magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck very close to Nayshaboor, a city with a population of 221,000 inhabitants. Especially some bigger villages close to the epicenter may be at risk.
Update 16:13 :
FARS agency reports that 36 people have been injured and hospitalized in the hospitals at Nayshabur.
Update 15:45 :
Authorities in the epicenter area are saying that this is one of the strongest earthquakes during the last decade. The shaking has lasted 5 to 7 seconds, according to local people.
Update 15:14 :
Seyed Reza Abbasi, in the exclusive interview with Gulf correspondent in Mashhad, said that reports of damage caused by this earthquake are coming in. There are reports of cracked walls of houses and more damage in urban and rural areas, especially in the villages and monasteries.
Update 14:46 :
Red Crescent Director General of Khorasan Razavi province, said 11 groups from the department and rescue operations were dispatched to the earthquake affected areas.
Important update 14:42 :
– USGS has lowered his magnitude from M 5.6 to M 5.1. The depth was updated from 10.4 to 14 km, both updates in favor of a better ending.
– EMSC maintains a magnitude of 5.4 at a depth of 10 km.
– The local Iranian Seismological agency reports a magnitude of 5.5 at a depth of 8 km!. The epicenter is following the Iranions just 250 meter from Mir Abad another small town. We tend to believe the Iranians most as they have the most instruments in the area and as they are very skilled seismologists. This is really bad news for Mir Abad.
Update 14:35 :
A Magnitude 4.0 aftershock happened a little while ago. Since the mainshock, IIEES recorded 20 aftershocks!
The townd Earthquake-report.com calls in the highest danger area – click on the image to make it bigger
Update 14:22 :
Mashhad seems to have escaped the big shaking and reports coming in are speaking from only minor damage. Most of the attention goes now to North Neyshaboor, however we at earthquake-report.com are fearing more for the towns of Boshr Abad and Taragh, both towns with a population of of several thousand people.
Update 14:19 : Experience report just in for Mashhad : It was the first time for me to experience such earthquake. I was resting on my bed when I felt the quack and heard the noise made by window.
Update 14:18 :
For Iranian media, this is a very important earthquake. Iranian media are publishing updates almost every 10 minutes, very exceptional!, probably part of a big city in the area.
Update 14:16 : Red Crescent teams are being send to North Neyshaboor. Red Crescent is the Iranian division of the Red Cross.
Update 14:12 :
As always, most of the attention goes to the big cities, but some other small towns are even closer to the earthquake epicenter like Boshr Abad, only 4 km ! and Taragh, only 5 km ! The epicenter is located at the foot of the mountains, a mountain rang. The highest summit in the mountains in the background of Nayshabur are at a height of 3100 m and are snow covered during winter (now) , Nayshabur has an altitude of approx. 1200 m.
Update 14:04 :
Few people have an idea about the size of unknown Iranian cities like Nayshabur. The Google satellite image below gives an impression about the vast populated area. A lot of the houses are build in masonry and concrete, both vulnerable for earthquake damage if not properly build following earthquake resistant codes.
Google satellite map of the city of Neyashabur
Update 14:00 :
There are no traces of a recent damaging earthquake close to the current epicenter, which makes it difficult for estimations of damage. Another important aspect of the earthquake being dangerous or not is the focal depth or the hypocenter. If very shallow (10.4 km is very shallow) than the impact will be very high.
Despite the huge tumor on his mouth, this sweet dog was given 7 shots 4 weeks before this photo was taken. The tumor grew 10-15% after the shots.”
All vaccine labels and inserts state that vaccines are for use in “healthy dogs only.” Unfortunately, no one defines “healthy.”
Most knowledgeable vets agree that certain animals should NOT be vaccinated (absent proven, urgent need such as inevitable exposure to a life-threatening disease). These include, but aren’t limited to, pets with autoimmune disease … pets undergoing chemo, radiation or surgery (even dental cleaning or neutering) … pets with autoimmune disease, cancer, severe allergies and skin diseases … pets fighting an illness or parasites … pets stressed from shipment or a move to a new home … malnourished pets … and dying housebound pets. Assaulting the immune systems of these animals with vaccination has been likened to throwing gas on a raging fire.
Vaccination is big business and an old habit. Dogs and cats need an advocate with common sense (and a strong backbone) to stand up for their pets. That means you!
So why shouldn’t you vaccinate a sick, stressed or geriatric pet? For one thing, the pet may develop adverse reactions ranging from fever to seizures to autoimmune disease to anaphylactic shock and even death. Furthermore,shots administered to an unhealthy animal may fail to provide immunity while giving you the false security that your dog is protected. On top of that, the animal’s immune system, which should be fighting illness, may be diverted to handle the shot.
Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer states, regarding precautions when using their rabies vaccine: “A protective immune response may not be elicited if animals are incubating an infectious disease, are malnourished or parasitized, are stressed due to shipment or environmental conditions, are otherwise immunocompromised….”
According to the University of Nebraska’s “Understanding Vaccines”: “While it is common to vaccinate stressed animals, these animals are more susceptible to adverse vaccine reactions and frequently do not develop an adequate immune response. Immune stressed animals develop limited protection from vaccination.”
Drugs.com states, re the Rabies Vaccine Precautions: ”… level of performance may be affected by conditions of use such as stress, weather, nutrition, disease, parasitism, other treatments, individual idiosyncrasies or impaired immunological competency. These factors should be considered by the user when evaluating product performance or freedom from reactions.”
Even humans are at risk if a rabies shot fails and the animal becomes infected with rabies. So great is the danger of vaccinating sick and chronically-ill pets that many, if not most, state and local health authorities allow a temporary or permanent exemption from rabies vaccination for these pets. Click to learn how to apply for a rabies vaccination exemption.
I asked some veterinarian friends to share their opinions on this issue. (Note: bold blue type was done by me to emphasize important points.) Special thanks to over-vaccination activist Dr. Patricia Jordan for her help in rounding up responses and references.
From Tamara Hebbler, DVM, holistic consulting vet (San Diego):
The most disturbing, relatively routine, veterinary practice is vaccinating ill or compromised animals. I am appalled that this is still happening yet I hear from my clients that it is more the norm than the exception.
Vaccinating a stressed or ill dog violates our Hippocratic Oath: Above All Do No Harm. When an animal is going in for surgery or chemo, or has an autoimmune disease or neoplastic condition [a tumor], or even a chronic immune challenge such as allergies or endocrine/metabolic diseases, they are at a high increased risk to an adverse reaction to any vaccine. I liken such vaccination to playing Russian Roulette with an animal’s immune system — with 5 of the 6 barrels loaded, not just 1.
If negative reactions are severe enough, and immediate, most people will connect the reaction to the shot. However, if the reaction develops over a few weeks or months, you may not tie it to the shot – and your vet probably won’t either. In standard veterinary practice, we have brief appointments and are very busy, I regret to say, treating many of the dis-ease states that we as a profession, with the help of the pet food industry, have created. It is only through laborious record review that I made the connection.
Be bold and stand up for your pet especially when he or she is not feeling well. Just say NO to vaccinations and start researching and titer testing.
Vaccination puts a tremendous burden on the immune system to mount a protective response. If the response is to be adequate and provide protection against disease, there shouldn’t be any other immune-compromising stresses present. Clearly, an animal already fighting an infection, injury, or other illness is not going to have adequate resources to devote to the vaccine–and it could take away from its ability to fight what’s already there. Chemotherapy and steroids suppress the immune system and deplete its ability to produce a good vaccine response. Even something as seemingly benign as a bath or an elective surgery or dental procedure will reduce body temperature, a stress which can also inhibit the immune system. These are some of the reasons why the directions on every vial of vaccine say “for use in healthy animals only.”
Strong dangerous coastal earthquake near Guiuan, Samar, The Philippines – high chance on landslides
Last update: January 17, 2012 at 3:04 pm by By Armand Vervaeck
Earthquake overview : Strong coastal earthquake. Initial reports where mentioning a magnitude of 5.9, but PHIVOLCS, the Philippines seismological agency reports a far less dangerous M 5.0 at a depth of 42 km.
Landscape at the peninsula closest to the epicenter – Panoramio image by Ronnie Muring
– IMPORTANT Update15:58 Phivolcs has also updated his earthquake data as follows : Magnitude 5.9 at a depth of only 25 km, completely the opposite from 1 hour ago
– Update15:58 Phivolcs is expecting damage from this earthquake. ER estimates that the damage will be minor, if any, but as described by meteorologist Robert Speta in the video below, the chance on landslides in the current weather conditions is “very high”. The ground motion sets many earth masses gliding.
– Update15:55
Phivolcs has reported the following intensities (more or less the same than USGS) Intensity V– Salcedo, Borongan and Guiuan, Eastern Samar Intensity IV– Tacloban, Palo and Tolosa, Leyte; Catbalogan, Samar; Dolores and San Policarpo, Eastern Samar Intensity III– St. Bernard and Hinunangan, Southern Leyte; Catarman, Northern Samar Intensity II– Naval, Biliran Intensity I– Cebu City
The PHIVOLCS intensity is ranging from 1 to 10
V, the max. intensity reported by PHIVOLCS is described as : Strong – Generally felt by most people indoors and outdoors. Many sleeping people are awakened. Some are frightened, some run outdoors. Strong shaking and rocking felt throughout building. Hanging objects swing violently. Dining utensils clatter and clink; some are broken. Small, light and unstable objects may fall or overturn. Liquids spill from filled open containers. Standing vehicles rock noticeably. Shaking of leaves and twigs of trees are noticeable
– Update15:47 USGS has decreased his magnitude data from 5.9 to 5.7. The depth has been updated from 50 km to 36 km. As the calculation of earthquake data is very difficult, it is normal that preliminary data are updated later on, however a such a big difference in between a local agency (Phivolcs) and USGS is rather seldom.
Note: The following message has been rechanneled and edited with the groups oversight for clarity in this format.
Greetings from Home
This day is a very magical time. Toward the end of your years, you celebrate and you do so in many different ways. Yes, you have a holiday called Christmas. You also have many of your completions at the end of this time as you begin to step into a new energy. Each one of you starts evaluating what you have just stepped out of, what you have just moved from. We tell you that when you are moving forward, there is an aspect that can part all the seas for you and clear your path more easily than any other. That is what you are experiencing during these times…gratitude. It is the greatest creator that you have, for that is the energy that creates just in front of you even when you are not aware of it. That which you give thanks for, increases every time; that which you focus on automatically grows, for you are creators. You cannot not create. It is not possible. Yet, you have incorporated different aspects of creation to re-mind yourself of your spirit. Often the decorations that you have around your holidays, such as the colors of Christmas, carry more significance than you may realize. Red and green seem to be used as Christmas colors all around the world, no matter the country or culture. We Red is the color that humans believe represents the heart, but the heart chakra color is actually green. In reality that blending of the humanness with the spirit is what this is all about. This is a time when you stop in your path and you look at your experience on planet Earth…where you have been, where you are going, what your joys are, and what piece of that can become a little more comfortable as you step forward.
New Possibilities of Spiritual Creation
The times of 2012 have already happened in all of your dreams. What was going to take place on the 21st of December, or whatever date you had in mind, has already been pulled forward. This is very typical of Lightworkers. We tell you that something will happen on a certain date and you say, “No, we will have it happen now.” You bring it forward, just as you have many times throughout your history, but we also tell you else something. In that vac-ancy of what you have pulled forward, you now have the capabilities of reaching levels that were never dreamt of, that you never thought were possible. This is now possible not only because of the alignment of all of the energies in the cosmos, but because you have created the vacuum. You have already received those aspects which you are ready to move into, and which you thought would come in to magically change your world. You have changed this world and that is the beauty of what is going forward, for each one of you are creators. When you hold a thought in your head and it mixes with another bit of emotion from your heart, the thought manifests. There used to be a long time lag between thought and manifestation, but now it is simply the act of holding a pure thought that begins to manifest everything that you have seen. You have known this truth in your heart, but now you will begin to see phy-sical evidence of it. Now you will begin to see the effect of your power of creation on the world around you. You do it with love; you do it with these times of gratitude. If you wish your power to grow on planet Earth, give thanks for the power you have. Find ways of nurturing this power as you all learn to use it consciously. Share your power with others to exercise it and help to awaken it in every person you encounter. Then as you begin to trust yourselves to carry that power, you will naturally begin to slowly create for yourself.
There came a time on planet Earth when humans developed communications outside of their small local and family groups. News started to tra-vel along a communication grid, for that is the way we perceive all of this. It was a connection from one point to another that originally began in the days of ancient Greece, when a run-ner would run from one city to the other carrying information. That track between this city and the next one became the beginning of a communication grid. Over periods of time the technology changed. You developed telegraphs and eventually telephones. Not the phones you use today, but the ones that actually used wires – do you re-member those? Yes, we tell you that was a phy-sical manifestation of the communication grid, for it literally was a way to connect all of you when it felt like you were disconnected. Now, what has taken place is that communication grid experienced difficulties, because it is not everywhere. It is in your populated cities, but there are gaps in the grid on the outskirts; in some areas it is very strong and in others it is very weak. That was a problem you had to work with, but you have now taken technology to a different level entirely. You no longer need the wires to the degree you needed them before. You are moving this communication grid from one form to another, evolving it with each step.
The Singularity and Deep Contact
There is coming a time soon that has been known in the scientific worlds as the “singularity.” There have even been lots movies made about this subject; scary movies, of course, for those are the ones that sell. The idea of the singularity is very simple: it is a point at which computers can outthink humans. There has been much speculation about it; many projects, and fun little science fiction stories have come from singularity. What will take place? Will computers take over your world? No, this is actually the point where the communication grid goes to the next level, where you no longer need the wires. It is not a re-sult of your wireless technologies. Instead it is because you hold that ability to communicate in your heart, and this no longer knows the boundaries of big cities or unincorporated areas. It is now a communication directly from your heart to another. We have told you this was coming, and mentioned it many times. We have called it “deep contact,” and we simply said that there will come a point on planet Earth where you will no longer need all the communication devices. You will be able to communicate with very few words and eventually with energy alone. In the meantime, the first expressions of this deep contact are simply communicated from the heart and through using fewer words. Many times your words get in the way of your meaning, because sometimes there are not words in your language that describe what you are feeling.. These challenges will begin to erase themselves as you move to this next level, and that is a possibility that was never there before. This is one of the greatest pieces that you have created on planet Earth as a real possibility. We still describe it as a possibility rather than a reality, for we cannot tell the future. You are creators, and you are writing it every day of your lives. We can tell the direction you are going and we can see what is a little further down the path ahead you, but you are in charge every moment and we love it when you suddenly take a turn. You suddenly say, “This does not feel good anymore. I am going to turn.” And you come to us and ask, “Which is the best direction? Should we turn right or should we turn left?” And we tell you to turn right and watch as you take a left turn, for we tell you that also works. We will make the best of any path you are on. We work with you as best we can to help you understand there are no right turns or wrong turns. There is your path which is now led from your heart in a different way, in a different form of communication than was ever dreamt of.
You are closing a very magical year; 2011 produced more vibrational changes on planet Earth than we have ever seen and you are just getting warmed up. That is the beautiful part, for you are starting to carry this energy and it is no longer about hiding. The days of, “Oh, I cannot tell anybody about this,” or “I cannot share anything about this,” are over. Now you are seeing everything coming out in the open. You are seeing a blend of your scientific world and your metaphy-sical world, which was never before dreamt to be possible. The scientific and metaphy-sical concepts reside in totally different worlds; one can be proven while the other cannot, yet they are starting to agree with one another. They are starting to find the commonalities of love on planet Earth and how to grow love, for that is the piece that you are all discovering in front of now. You have the oppor-tunity to create a new world in the next year, a world of your choosing. We talk not about the entire world, for it is your world; it is your daily path that you will be choosing and every part of that. What would you like in your world? What is important to you in that perspective? What would be the most important pieces if you were god and you were designing a new planet Earth? Look at that now, for you are creating your own reality. You are the center of your own universe, and that has always been the way. The first thing that you do as the center of your own universe is take responsibility for being the center…take responsibility for who you are on this planet. It is a joyous piece, not a difficult piece. Once you accept that responsibility, you own who you are. There is no right or wrong about that; there is no adjusting to make people understand. You simply put your message out to the universe. You carry it in your smile and in your language, even your common everyday words. You even carry it every time you lau-gh, sending out a new vibration.
The changes that are taking place in the year 2012 are beyond your understanding on many different levels. It will take you almost 27 years to realize the connections that are being made in this next year, and to fully unfold them and see what is really taking place. So we ask you, do not concern yourself with what is going to happen or how it is going to happen. Simply walk into it with your arms open and with a smile on your face. Let it have the highest potential possible. If you hear us yelling to turn right and you turn left, you are going to hear the lau-ghter as well for there are no wrong turns. It is a path of your own choosing. You have been looking for this path of least resistance into your spirituality. We tell you the path is created just before your foot hits the ground, for you are creating so much now.
Speak Your Truth
The biggest piece we wish to share with you about the year 2012 is that the entire focus of humanity on planet Earth is changing. It has already begun in many small ways, and this is why you are seeing so much upheaval on planet Earth. Almost every time you turn on your tele-vision, you can see some big, dramatic event taking place in some part of the world. You are evolving it and you must find what you are unhappy with, in order to evolve. If you come together and express your dissatisfaction, even though you may not know the complete answers about what would bring you satisfaction, still speak your truth of where you are at that moment even if it is difficult. For that is what is clearing the deck and making it possible for you to create this new world that you are stepping into. As you step forward one other part is changing, which is that you are the center of your own universe. That will never change again. What is changing is how you harmonize your universe with the other gods on planet Earth. This has always been part of getting along on Earth: “How do I harmonize with other people? How do I work with other people? How do I get along?” It is much more than that now, for they are a part of you and you are a part of them. That connection is actually going to be seen more on the other side of 2012, and it is happening day by day. The veil is beginning to thin. The connections that you have with each other will become more visible and more usable; you will become aware of the possibilities for anchoring that energy in many different ways. The idea is to play with it and to know that these changes will be happening. You have seen people that have been psychic, who can communicate by literally sending something from here to someone there without the challenges of distance or time. Now you are going to learn how to use it within yourself, how to be responsible for using and sending your own energy to connect with other people. Sometimes it is a simple connection and you will make a big difference in their lives by helping them make a course correction. Other times you will simply be helping them to step up a step. Whatever it is, your success on planet Earth after 2012 will have to do with how you get along with the other gods on planet Earth. That is the reason we call this the Age of Empowerment, not just your personal empowerment. How well you empower the people around you will have a lot to do with your next steps, and your connections to yourself and this new energy.
There are many pieces of that are starting to unfold little by little. Yes, you will still experience some course corrections and see some changes that need to come to planet Earth…the planet herself. You have had a little breather in between your tsunamis, your earthquakes and similar challenges in these areas. This has been the Earth making her adjustments to get to this next level, and there are some more adjustments that need to be made. What we tell you about this is that the more you work with yourself, the easier it is for the planet to make these corrections. It does not need to have an extremely negative on this planet or be a tragedy. You can walk into this energy with your eyes open and many of you are beginning to do that. You are walking daily with a cosmic connection of your own spirit of who you are, and this was never before dreamt to be possible on planet Earth. It is the reason there is so much attention on Earth now, for you are creating miracles on a daily basis. You are changing all that is; you are the masters of the ga-meboard.
Each step that you experience will put you in a new place. Becoming comfortable anchoring in the new energy will bring with it some challenges for many people. Many of you feel as if you are on unstable ground, and you do not know how to anchor yet or understand what is taking place. The truth is that you have stepped in to experience that, so that once you do find the anchor and stop moving the first thing you do is to reach out your hand to someone else to help them stabilize. This is the new planet Earth, the new connection. You will look out there for oppor-tunities as you always have, but instead of the oppor-tunities that you have found before you will be looking for oppor-tunities to help others in some way. We tell you it is not measured; it is not a collect-ion; there is not a certain mark where you have helped other people enough to get into heaven. Instead it is a lifestyle, a way of working with each other in order for all of you to step into this energy. You do not need to wait for heaven when you die. Create it right here, right now. That is the part that each and every one of you have carried from Home.
When you start connecting these pieces and experience this new communication, you will understand that unique piece that you have and making it easier to bring all the pieces together to create heaven here on Earth. It is underway. It is happening. Are you ready? The energy will be a conscious step for each and every one of you. You will have to answer that question in your own heart. It is here and our hands are out to you, for every step that you take is changing planet Earth and changing the love energy here. You have shifted this planet far beyond your understanding and you are just getting started.
It is with the greatest of honor that we address the masters of the ga-meboard. We ask you to treat each other with the greatest respect for you are looking in the mirror. Nurture one another every cha-nce you get. Hold your hand out as often as you can to make a difference in someone’s life. Re-member it is a beautiful ga-me. Play well together.
Espavo.
The group
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ScienceDaily (Jan. 11, 2012) — Why are the faces of primates so dramatically different from one another?
Primates from Central and South America. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California – Los Angeles)
UCLA biologists working as “evolutionary detectives” studied the faces of 129 adult male primates from Central and South America, and they offer some answers in research published Jan. 11, in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The faces they studied evolved over at least 24 million years, they report.
“If you look at New World primates, you’re immediately struck by the rich diversity of faces,” said Michael Alfaro, a UCLA associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the senior author of the study. “You see bright red faces, moustaches, hair tufts and much more. There are unanswered questions about how faces evolve and what factors explain the evolution of facial features. We’re very visually oriented, and we get a lot of information from the face.”
Some of theprimate species studied are solitary, while others live in groups that can include dozens or even hundreds of others.
The life scientists divided each face into 14 regions; coded the color of each part, including the hair and skin; studied the patterns and anatomy of the faces; and gave each a “facial complexity” score. They studied how the complexity of primate faces evolved over time and examined the primates’ social systems. To assess how facial colors are related to physical environments, they analyzed environmental variables, using the longitude and latitude of primates’ habitats as a proxy for sun exposure and temperature. They also used statistical methods to analyze the evolutionary history of the primate groups and when they diverged from one another.
“We found very strong support for the idea that as species live in larger groups, their faces become more simple, more plain,” said lead author Sharlene Santana, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in ecology and evolutionary biology and a postdoctoral fellow with UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics. “We think that is related to their ability to communicate using facial expressions. A face that is more plain could allow the primate to convey expressions more easily.
“Humans have pretty bare faces, which may allow us to see facial expressions more easily than if, for example, we had many colors in our faces.”
The researchers’ finding that faces are more simple in larger groups came as a surprise.
“Initially, we thought it might be the opposite,” Santana said. “You might expect that in larger groups, faces would vary more and have more complex parts that would allow one individual to identify any member of that group. That is not what we found. Species that live in larger groups live in closer proximity to one another and tend to use facial expressions more than species in smaller groups that are more spread out. Being in closer proximity puts a stronger pressure on using facial expressions.”
“This finding suggests that facial expressions are increasingly important in large groups,” said co-author Jessica Lynch Alfaro, associate director of the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics. “If you’re highly social, then facial expressions matter more than having a highly complex pattern on your face. ”
The evolutionary biologists also found that when primates live in environment with more species that are closely related, their faces are more complex, regardless of their group size. This finding is consistent with their need to recognize individuals of other closely related species that live in the same habitat to avoid interbreeding, Santana said.
Santana, Lynch Alfaro and Alfaro present the first quantitative evidence linking social behavior to the evolution of facial diversity and complexity in primates, and they also show that ecology controls aspects of facial patterns.
As species live closer to the equator, the skin and hair around their eyes get darker, the biologists report. They also found that regions of the face around the nose and mouth get darker when species live in humid environments and denser forests and that facial hair gets longer as species live farther from the equator and the climate gets colder, which may be related to regulating body temperature.
“This is a good start toward understanding facial diversity,” Alfaro said. “There was not a good idea before about what aspects of faces were shaped by which evolutionary pressure. Sharlene [Santana] has been able to say what social complexity, social behavior and ecology are doing to faces.”
In the future, Santana, Lynch Alfaro and Alfaro may use computer facial-recognition software to help quantify the faces in a more sophisticated way. They also plan to study the faces of carnivores, including big cats.
Previous studies, they noted, have found that primate species with moustaches and beards (such as No. 11 and No. 9 in the accompanying image) tend to look poker-faced; they don’t move their faces much when they communicate, compared with other species (such as No. 4).
Alfaro praised Santana’s ability to answer some of these difficult evolutionary questions.
“Sharlene has tested ideas that have been virtually impossible to test before,” he said. “She has found a clever way to implicate the degree of sociality as contributing to the diversity of faces. Social behavior explains some aspects of facial diversity.”
Santana also devised a way to test a theory that has been in the biological literature for decades but had never been tested before. As a lineage diverges and species accumulate, a series of changes in facial coloration and body coloration emerges. The theory she was able to test suggests that once a species evolves to have a certain color, such as hair color, the change is irreversible and it cannot evolve back to a previous color in its lineage. Santana found this theory to be wrong.
“The idea in biology that evolutionary change is irreversible is rejected very strongly by our data,” Alfaro said.
Lessons for human faces?
Does the study have implications for the evolution of human faces?
The findings do suggest, Alfaro said, that an important factor in shaping human faces is the premium on making unambiguous facial expressions.
“Humans don’t have all these elaborate facial ornamentations, but we do have the ability to communicate visually with facial expressions,” Alfaro said. “Does reduced coloration complexity create a blank palate for visual expressions that can be conveyed more easily? That is an idea we are testing.”
Santana’s research is funded by fellowships from the National Science Foundation and UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics.
Dark Side of the Moon Revealed: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s LAMP Reveals Lunar Surface Features
e These images (insets) produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the Moon’s northern and southern poles in the regions that lie in perpetual darkness. They shows many permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, are darker at far-ultraviolet wavelengths (top) and redder than nearby surface areas that receive sunlight (bottom). The darker PSR regions are consistent with having large surface porosities — indicating “fluffy” soils — while the reddening is consistent with the presence of water frost on the surface. (Credit: Image courtesy of Southwest Research Institute)
ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2012) — New maps produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the Moon’s northern and southern poles in regions that lie in perpetual darkness. LAMP, developed by Southwest Research Institute®(SwRI®), uses a novel method to peer into these so-called permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), making visible the invisible. LAMP’s principal investigator is Dr. Alan Stern, associate vice president of the SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division.
The LAMP maps show that many PSRs are darker at far-ultraviolet wavelengths and redder than nearby surface areas that receive sunlight. The darker regions are consistent with large surface porosities — indicating “fluffy” soils — while the reddening is consistent with the presence of water frost on the surface.
“Our results suggest there could be as much as 1 to 2 percent water frost in some permanently shadowed soils,” says author Dr. Randy Gladstone, an Institute scientist in the SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division. “This is unexpected because naturally occurring interplanetary Lyman-alpha was thought to destroy any water frost before it could accumulate.”
The LAMP team estimates that the loss of water frost is about 16 times slower than previously believed. In addition, the accumulation of water frost is also likely to be highly dependent on local conditions, such as temperature, thermal cycling and even geologically recent “impact gardening” in which micrometeoroid impacts redistribute the location and depth of volatile compounds.
Finding water frost at these new locations adds to a rapidly improving understanding of the Moon’s water and related species, as discovered by three other space missions through near-infrared emissions observations and found buried within the Cabeus crater by the LCROSS impactor roughly two years ago. During LRO’s nominal exploration mission, LAMP added to the LCROSS results by measuring hydrogen, mercury and other volatile gases ejected along with the water from the permanently shaded soils of the Moon’s Cabeus crater.
“An even more unexpected finding is that LAMP’s technique for measuring the lunar Lyman-alpha albedo indicates higher surface porosities within PSRs, and supports the long-postulated presence of tenuous ‘fairy-castle’ like arrangements of surface grains in the PSR soils,” says co-author Dr. Kurt Retherford, a senior research scientist also in SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division.
Comparisons with future LAMP maps created using data gathered from the Moon’s day side will prove helpful for revealing more about the presence of water frost, as well as the surface porosities of the darker surface features observed. The LAMP team is also eager to apply the Lyman-alpha technique elsewhere on the Moon and on other solar system objects such as Mercury.
LRO’s findings are expected to be valuable to the future consideration of a permanent Moon base. The permanently shadowed regions of the Moon are revealing themselves to be some of the most exotic places in the solar system, well worthy of future exploration, says Retherford. Any discovery of water frost and other resources in the area also could reduce the need to transport resources from Earth to a base at the pole.
Google satellite map of the city of Neyashabur
