Discovery
Ice Age cave bear found:
Reindeer herders in a Russian Arctic archipelago have found an immaculately preserved carcass of an Ice Age cave bear, researchers said Monday.
The find, revealed by the melting permafrost, was discovered on the Lyakhovsky Islands with its teeth and even its nose intact. Previously scientists only had been able to discover the bones of cave bears that became extinct 15,000 years ago.
Scientists of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric species, hailed the find as groundbreaking.
In a statement issued by the university, researcher Lena Grigorieva emphasized that “this is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues.”
“It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose,” Grigorieva said. “This find is of great importance for the whole world.”
A preliminary analysis indicated that the adult bear lived 22,000 to 39,500 years ago.
“It is necessary to carry out radiocarbon analysis to determine the precise age of the bear,” the university quoted researcher Maxim Cheprasov as saying.
The bear carcass was found by reindeer herders on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. It is the largest of the Lyakhovsky Islands, which are part of the New Siberian Islands archipelago that lies between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea.
At about the same time, a well-preserved carcass of a cave bear cub has also been found in another area in Yakutia’s mainland, the university said. It didn’t describe its condition in detail but noted that scientists are hopeful of obtaining its DNA.
Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, Ice Age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost melts across vast areas in Russia’s region of Siberia. (AP)
❑❑❑ EPA sides with farmers: Federal regulators on Monday handed a victory to corn farmers and the renewable fuels industry by refusing to allow a group of petroleum refiners in 14 states to forego requirements to blend ethanol into the gasoline they make.
Members of Congress from farm states have heavily lobbied President Donald Trump to reject the waiver requests for months. Those representing oil-producing states supported the waivers, which were originally designed to help small refineries that struggled financially to meet federally mandated ethanol targets. In recent years, however, larger refineries also have received exemptions from the Trump administration.
The petroleum refiners had sought 54 exemptions retroactively, some as far back as 2011, that would have allowed the petroleum industry to remove hundreds of millions of gallons of corn-based ethanol from the market.
Significant exemptions from the congressional requirement of blending at least 15 billion gallons of ethanol a year
into the nations fuel supply began after Trump took office and appointed Andrew Wheeler as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
By agreeing to reject the waivers the Trump administration is essentially fixing a problem it created.
Congressional Republicans including Iowa Sens Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley nevertheless lauded Trump for the decision.
“I applaud President Trump for keeping his word and supporting our farmers and biofuel producers,” Grassley said in a statement.
Democratic Rep Abby Finkenauer agreed the EPA decision will help Iowa farmers but called out the Trump administration for approving previous waivers that removed 4 billion gallons of ethanol from production and waiting “until 50 days before an election to finally take even this modest action.” (AP)
were part of a larger enforcement action against others including film producer Ryan Felton, who faces wire fraud and other charges in a 28-count indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Felton and William Sparks, T.I.’s social media manager, also sought to trade on his name to sell and promote the cryptocurrencies, federal authorities said.
Federal officials allege Felton took in more than $3 million from investors in two cryptocurrencies — FLiK and CoinSpark — in 2017 and 2018.
“Despite promising to use the funds raised from investors to build the FLiK and CoinSpark online platforms, Felton instead used the funds to buy a Ferrari, a milliondollar home, diamond jewelry, and other luxury items for himself,” the SEC civil complaint states.
A spokesperson for T.I. emailed a statement late Monday that the rapper regretted his involvement with Felton. It said T.I. had attempted to help a local entrepreneur who presented an innovative idea for a streaming online platform to help new creators of music and video content.
“Regrettably, Mr Felton apparently never built the platform he promised T.I. and many others, and instead sought to profit from Mr Harris’s popularity and reputation. Mr Harris never took a dollar from Mr Felton’s failed venture and immediately removed his name from it once he learned that the project was undeveloped,” the statement said. (AP)