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28. mars 2007
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About those close allies:
Saudi King Abdullah, whose country is a close US ally, on Wednesday slammed the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of Iraq in an opening speech to the annual Arab summit in Riyadh.
Mr President, please choose your friends with greater care in the future.
11:16:27 PM 
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It has long been considered pretty well established that the global extinction of the dinosaurs caused by a meteorite strike 65 million years ago paved the way for mammals and, eventually, us. But as often before, conventional wisdom is now being challenged.
In fact, the ancestral branches of most mammals, including primates, rodents and hoofed animals, emerged long before the global extinction and survived it more or less intact. But it was not until at least 10 million to 15 million years afterward that the lineages of living mammals began to flourish in number and diversity.
Some mammals did benefit from the extinction, but these were not closely related to extant lineages and most of them soon died off.
 These are the surprising conclusions of a comprehensive study of molecular and fossil data on 4,510 of the 4,554 mammal species known to exist today. The researchers are to report the findings in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, and they said this is the first virtually complete species-level study of existing mammals.
Writing in the journal, the leaders of the project said the “fuses” leading to the explosive expansion of mammals “are not only very much longer than suspected previously, but also challenge the hypothesis that the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event had a major, direct influence on the diversification of today’s mammals.”
They said their analysis of more than 40 lineages of existing mammals showed that diversification rates “barely changed” in the aftermath of the extinctions at the boundary of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. The transforming changes started 10 million years later and lasted until about 35 million years ago.
This is interesting, obviously, and the debate will no doubt be long and hard.
On first hearing, I can't help thinking that even if the speciation and number of mammal lineages didn't really change significantly, the difference in what natural niches opened up to mammals certainly would have lead them in very diverging directions. When you have multiton carnivores who consider any mammal a nice pre-dinner snack running around, there are quite a few options that are closed to evolutionary development. I would think that bipedal apes walking around in the open plains in Africa is precisely such a niche.
11:04:35 PM
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Did Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, save his owner's life by trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver?
Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.
"The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."
I suspect Toby had no clue what he was doing, but it may well have worked.
10:52:20 PM
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The always very readable Ablution blogger Scott Burgess has an interview with author Michael Crichton about the climate scare, other environmental challenges, the real threat to civilisation, and his upcoming book. Don't miss it.
While you are there, you shouldn't miss Scott's take on some really crazy environmentalists, who are unfortunately not as rare as we'd hope.
Those who long for the pre-industrial world can't have a frggin clue about human history.
10:47:26 PM
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Iran is humiliating Britain by parading the only female captured, forcing her to issue a "confession" of having trespassed into Iranian waters.
Iran has broadcast a film of the lone woman among 15 Royal Navy personnel seized in the Gulf last week, in which she says she "obviously trespassed" into Iranian territory.
As the seven sailors and eight Marines were paraded on Iranian state television, Leading Seaman Faye Turney was shown separately, wearing a headscarf and smoking a cigarette.
An apparent recording of the 26-year-old said: "I am Leading Seaman Faye Turney. I come from England. I serve on Foxtrot Nine Nine. I have been in the Navy nine years. I live in England."
“I was arrested on Friday March 23. Obviously we trespassed into their waters. They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, good people. They explained to us why we had been arrested. There was no aggression, no hurt, no harm.They were very, very compassionate.”
From all available evidence, it appears all but certain that the boats were well inside the Iraqi border.
This morning the Ministry of Defence published satellite coordinates which commanders said proved that the personnel were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were "ambushed" by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
It is almost impossible to not be reminded of the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis, which all but brought down Jimmy Carter's hope of being reelected for the presidency. That was a national humiliation suffered against a country that simply doesn't play by any rules. The British concern right now is returning the sailors and marines, so overly harsh reactions may well be counter-productive, but the government is already making some minimal responses indicating it will not, and can not, afford to let this pass.
The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, then told MPs that Britain was immediately freezing all bilateral ties with Iran — except for negotiations directly concerning the 15. "They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong," Mrs Beckett said.
Iran responded by stating that the "first stage" of the investigation into the capture was nearly complete and hinted that Leading Seaman Turney could be released as early as this evening. "Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released," Manouchehr Mottaki, the Foreign Minister, said on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh.
Britain is angry, but is effectively short of options for now.
10:30:04 PM
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Britain will publicly confront Iran with satellite pictures and other evidence to prove the captured sailors were not in Iranian territory when they were seized.
The BBC's Nick Robinson says the government is ready to switch from private to public diplomacy with Iran.
Tony Blair has talked of a "different phase" of the dispute and hinted at a more aggressive diplomatic approach.
The sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall were captured on Friday after searching a boat in the northern Gulf.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said preparations are in place for a news conference at the Ministry of Defence where photographs of the moments when the Britons were captured will be revealed.
The diplomacy so far has failed, and that appears to support the idea that Iran is using the 15 as negotiating pieces for some form of concessions. That is a grim prospect.
7:10:37 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2007; 03:27:49.
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