BP cleanup crews returned to work Monday after a 10 day break, WKRG reports, and they seem to have their work more than cut out for them. Tarballs have been washing up all along the shores of Alabama's Fort Morgan beach.

According to the Press-Register, they range in size from as small as a nickel to as large as a person's palm. The tarballs are so plentiful on the beach that they are seldom more than an inch apart from each other on shore.

In a BP press release, the company says, "We've stated all along that we expect the beaches to be clean by spring break 2011 tourism season. That's been our goal and commitment all along and we are making steady progress towards meeting that goal."

She was returning from work on Thursday when she drove by the gator and promptly had to back up for a double-take. Luckily, Sylvia wasn't frightened enough to miss out on a great photo opportunity. "I thought this is great...I'm going to snap a picture and send it to my grandkids so they think I'm one of the coolest grandmas in Florida," she said.
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After sending the picture to her local news station she also contacted a biologist who believes the gator is really just half-albino. That said, he says he has never seen or heard of one. But Gary Morse from Florida Fish and Wildlife feels the orange color might be from some environmental element.

Regardless, the University of Florida Gators might have a new mascot.

The order fulfills Strickland's end of a deal brokered by his administration with the Humane Society of the United States, other animal rights groups and Ohio's agribusiness industry. The agreement prompted the Humane Society to withdraw a ballot issue containing a litany of restrictions on pet ownership and treatment and livestock care.
In a statement, he said the agreement "will keep Ohio's vital agriculture industry profitable while appropriately updating animal care standards."
"This rule will help protect Ohioans from deaths and serious injuries caused by attacks from dangerous wild animals held in private ownership," he said.
[....]
"Dangerous wild animals do not belong in the backyards and basements of private citizens," he said. "It's bad for the animals and dangerous for people. This emergency order is good for Ohio, and we look forward to seeing it implemented in the months ahead."
As an emergency measure, Strickland's order is temporary, running through March 6. However, (incoming governor) Kasich said Thursday that he supports the ban in concept.
"We don't want exotic animals here where somebody's bringing something in and then some neighbor gets hurt. So we'll look at it," he said during a news conference announcing three new cabinet directors. "It sounds reasonable, but just let me take a look at it. I would be inclined to say we should continue it."

Underweight tablets may not contain the full amount of active ingredient within a single tablet, a consumer may not receive the prescribed dose. This may cause the infection the drug was intended to treat to worsen or recur, which could be life-threatening when treating severe infections. To date, Teva Pharmaceuticals, U.S.A. has not received any adverse events associated with the use of this product lot.

Wholesalers and retailers have been previously notified of this recall via overnight notification on 10/25/10 and are in the process of returning this product lot. Consumers who have lot 312566 in their possession are instructed to cease using the product and return it to their pharmacy. Wholesalers and retailers should cease distribution and examine their inventory immediately.

Hartland, Wisconsin, Triad Group, a manufacturer of over-the-counter products has initiated a voluntary product recall involving ALL LOTS of ALCOHOL PREP PADS, ALCOHOL SWABS, and ALCOHOL SWABSTICKS manufactured by Triad Group but which are private labeled for many accounts to the consumer level. This recall involves those products marked as STERILE as well as non-sterile products. This recall has been initiated due to concerns from a customer about potential contamination of the products with an objectionable organism, namely Bacillus cereus. We are, out of an abundance of caution, recalling these lots to ensure that we are not the source of these contamination issues.

Use of contaminated Alcohol Prep Pads, Alcohol Swabs or Alcohol Swabsticks could lead to life-threatening infections, especially in at risk populations, including immune suppressed and surgical patients. To date we have received one report of a non-life-threatening skin infection.

Alcohol Prep Pads, Alcohol Swabs and Alcohol Swabsticks are used to disinfect prior to an injection. They were distributed nationwide to retail pharmacies and are packaged in individual packets and sold in retail pharmacies in a box of 100 packets. The affected Alcohol Prep Pads, Alcohol Swabs and Alcohol Swabsticks can be identified by either “Triad Group,” listed as the manufacturer, or the products are manufactured for a third party and use the names listed below in their packaging:
Cardinal Health
PSS Select
VersaPro
Boca/ Ultilet
Moore Medical
Walgreens
CVS
Conzellin

These products were distributed in the United States, Canada and Europe.

"We married these pythons to ask for health and prosperity in our village," said 41-year-old Neth Vy, owner of female python named Chamrouen.

"We were told (by fortunetellers) that the two pythons are husband and wife and they need to live together, and if we don't marry them we will meet bad luck," said Neth Vy, who found the then-tiny python while fishing 16 years ago.

He said since the snake became part of the household, the family's living conditions had steadily improved and no misfortune had befallen them.

The male python, named Kroung Pich, was caught 12 days ago by Hin Mao, a 44-year-old, childless woman who said she regarded it as her son.

According to a death investigation by the Department of Children and Families, Jaren Hare's mother, Sheryl, was concerned about her daughter's ability to care for the python and a smaller snake.

Sheryl Hare told a DCF investigator that a week before the attack, she offered to buy rats for the snakes because the couple had neither jobs nor money. She said she also offered to get sealed containers for the snakes and to keep the snakes at her home.

Both offers were rejected, she told investigators.

[....]

Darnell recalled how the python snatched a roadkill squirrel from his hand about a month before the attack.

(Department of Environment Conservation Officer James Maguire) said the flooding of the Murrumbidgee River is the most likely cause of the frog's resurgence and said there is really only one way to ensure the frogs do not disappear again.

"It's all about the water really," he said.

"If we can get environmental water back into these wetland systems annually or every second year, then we'd be looking pretty good to their population there.

"Also vegetation wise, we need to be managing the systems so they're well vegetated so the frogs have a good habitat to hide and lay eggs in."

Mr Maguire said monitoring of the Murrumbidgee's wetlands will be stepped up, following the discovery.

Brazil has levied more than 100 million reais ($59 million) in fines since July on companies charged with not paying fair compensation for the use of genetic material native to Brazil, said Bruno Barbosa, who heads inspection for the environmental oversight agency Ibama.

Next year, officials will begin pursuing companies that did not notify the government of their use of local species to create products such as pharmaceuticals, as required by law, meaning fines will likely go up.

[....]

Barbosa says examples of biopiracy abound, such as the development in the 1970s of the hypertension medication captopril from a snake venom that indigenous groups used on arrowhead tips.

Pharmaceuticals companies also used the yellow-and-green Kambo frog, found in Brazil's Amazon state of Acre, to create anti-inflammatory drugs without distributing benefits to local residents, he said. Many of these incidents came before a 2001 decree that created the current rules governing species use.

If a snake catcher gets bitten by a venomous snake, it is his own fault. He was careless, most probably trying to show off, and wasn't paying attention. That was the motto of Rom and his snake-hunting buddies in the U.S. during the 1960s, and it still holds to this day. In keeping with that philosophy, anyone who got bit was teased mercilessly. (Non-snake hunting civilians bitten accidentally were exempt, of course.) There is no doubt that this tradition of peer-admonition has kept these men, most of them, alive to this day.
In India, however, numerous snake-catchers, invariably young men, brag about their various snakebite “exploits”.
One bright spark bagged a cobra in a flimsy translucent bag. When he moved in closer to knot it, the snake nailed him on the hand through the cloth.
He was in hospital for a few days, and in the Indian tradition, the entire neighbourhood visited him to express their concern. Basking in all this attention, our man never once paused to think why the incident had occurred. When he bragged about it numerous times, Rom asked him: “Whose fault was it?” The young man didn't seem sure, but it was certainly not his fault, he declared. Rom countered: “If you had used a proper bag to begin with you wouldn't have been bit, right? So tell me now whose fault was it?” The reply was silence.

Most of the land is owned by the federal government; 96 acres are owned by the state and 470 acres are privately owned.

Mississippi gopher frogs once lived in longleaf pine forests from western Alabama to southeast Louisiana. Timbering all but eradicated those forests.

They now live in only a few spots in south Mississippi.

Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos — in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami and Omaha, Nebraska — have been breeding or raising them.

While the animals may very well be delighted that love seems to be in the air more than usual lately, crocodile handler David Golan believes the jet inspired drive to matie is cause for concern. The crocs, which normally perform mating rituals in a particular part of the year, are having their biological clocks thrown off by all the unnatural noise.

To make matters worse, the crocodiles are none the more satisfied by the mating call confusion. The crocs have been observed bellowing back their own song, but for some reason they never seem to partner up with any mate -- as if it's just the jet overhead that has won them over, though it never ceases to play hard-to-get.

There, the rain has made lakes so acidic, native fish can no longer tolerate the water.

The scientists, however, have suggested animals and plants living in the natural springs have adapted to the toxic conditions.

Exactly how, though, remains unexplained, according to UQ team leader Prof Craig Franklin.

"Would I swim in it? I wouldn’t drink it, let’s put it that way," Prof Franklin told The Cairns Post.

The springs flow into the Wenlock River.

Researchers had observed many of the saltwater crocodiles in the Wenlock with stained and weak-looking teeth.

Prof Franklin said this may be related to the acidic spring water.

The classified ad is titled "Alligators." It starts out saying "two weeks ago we found one alligator. We're still looking for two more alligators to fill the two positions that are open." The ad goes on several more lines but closes asking interested applicants to call Mr. Alligator.

“It's something to catch people's eyes,” said Peebles. “The actual ad I didn't write. I don't want to take credit for that, but it's kind of funny.”

“Someone asked me, 'is Mr. Alligator there?' and I was pretty shocked,” said Jeremy Peebles, Dan’s son and an agent at the insurance company. “I thought it was a prank at first because they never told me about it.”

Key findings include:

Workers with dogs were more likely to report holding senior management positions (CEO, CFO, Senior Vice President, etc)

Workers with snakes/reptiles were the most likely to report earning six figures.

Workers with birds were the most likely to report being satisfied with their jobs.

In terms of career paths, owners of certain pets were more likely to report being drawn to certain professions:

Dog owners were more likely to be professors, nurses, information technology professionals, military professionals and entertainers

Cat owners were more likely to be physicians, real estate agents, science/medical lab technicians, machine operators and personal caretakers

Fish owners were more likely to be human resources professionals, financial professionals, hotel and leisure professionals, farming/fishing/forestry professionals and transportation professionals

Bird owners were more likely to be advertising professionals, sales representatives, construction workers and administrative professionals

Snake/Reptile owners were more likely to be engineers, social workers, marketing/public relations professionals, editors/writers and police officers

FROM THE DEEPEST REACHES of the Australian desert to the cloud forests of Mexico, the University of Melbourne's Dr Bryan Fry has been on the trail of a group of lizards - and, more specifically, their venom.

One of the key results of his team's study of so-called 'anguimorphs' - which include monitor lizards and the komodo dragon - is the discovery of three toxins that lower blood pressure. The team hopes this could one day lead to new drugs to treat people.

It was only four years ago that the same international team reported finding that venom is widespread in lizards, not restricted to a few species, as had been thought. In a bid to find out more, the researchers extracted and analysed venom from 23 different lizards.

In women, such bites are mostly on the foot, the result of accidentally stepping on or near the snake. "Ninety percent of the time men get bitten on the hand because they're doing something dumb," said Dr. Rangan. He told the story of a man who kissed a rattler on the mouth – and got bitten – in two separate incidents.

[....]

Besides calling a pharmacy to make sure it has the appropriate antivenom in stock, Dr. Rangan said, appropriate first aid includes immobilizing the patient and elevating the bitten extremity above the heart.

[....]

Surgical intervention is rarely needed. Some necrotic tissue debridement might be called for, but fasciotomy is rarely indicated and is the largest contributor to comorbidity, he added.

t turns out that researchers just weren't looking closely enough. While studying a batch of salamander embryos, scientist Ryan Kerney of Dalhousie University saw something different than the prevailing dogma would suggest — a bright green color coming from inside their cells.

That color usually indicates the presence of chlorophyll, which is the light-absorbing green pigment that makes photosynthesis possible.

"On a lark, I decided to take a long-exposure fluorescent image of a pre-hatchling salamander embryo," said Kerney. After backing that experiment up using transmission electron microscopy, he confirmed his suspicion. There were algal symbionts located inside the salamander cells.

In fact, the symbiotic partners were often found bordering mitochondria, organelles responsible for generating a cell's energy. Thus, it's likely that the mitochondria were taking direct advantage of the oxygen and carbohydrate, byproducts of photosynthesis that were generated by the algae.

Once home to the most complete rattlesnake collection in the world, the zoo is trying to make a comeback one slithery reptile at a time.
And for every new species it acquires, it must have the right anti-venom - costly but essential should anyone be bitten by the deadly creatures.
"This vial alone was over $1,000," said Matt Lanier, who manages the zoo's snake collection, holding a tiny bottle of white powder.
It can take more than two dozen vials to counteract a bad bite - and the antidote must be administered within minutes.
There are alarm buttons between every padlocked exhibit, and a lightup panel shows which one was hit so staffers can secure the snake and grab the right antidote.
Car keys hang from magnets on the fridge door, ready for a dash to Richmond University Medical Center - which sent staffers to tour the zoo.
"From the time I hit that alarm button we are at the door to the emergency room in under seven minutes," Lanier said.

They have been spotted in numbers that are larger than had been expected when the reptiles were spotted after a gap of 60 years in downstream Hooghly two years ago. Now, a team of researchers has identified a breeding group at Purbasthali in Burdwan which signals that the gharials are finally multiplying.

A young gharial, about three feet in length, was trapped in a fishing net at Purbasthali on Saturday. About a half-a-dozen more followed it into the net. They were all pulled up, examined and released back into the river. "By last count, the number of gharials had shot up to around 180. Now, it seems the number is actually more than 250 since they are breeding. We have spotted even smaller ones, new-born gharials merely six inches long. This is great news for conservation since the reptile was taken to be extinct in eastern India for six decades," said Tanmoy Ghosh, president of iRebel an NGO that has been researching on gharials with support from the West Bengal Bio-Diversity Board and the Hooghly Zilla Parishad.

A SET of 200-million-year-old teeth from a beast related to dinosaurs and crocodiles has shed light on how snake fangs evolved. They support the idea that venom canals inside fangs evolved from grooves on the tooth surface.

The late Triassic reptile Uatchitodon is known only from its teeth, which resemble tall, serrated crocodile or dinosaur teeth. Several have been found, and the two youngest ones, dating from 220 million years ago, have what look like venom canals. An older set have grooves of different depths but no canals. Until now it was unknown whether the variations reflected evolutionary changes, different stages of tooth development, or even teeth from different positions in the mouth.

The endangered reptiles washed up on the beaches of Wellfleet late Wednesday night. They'd come north to feed on crabs over the summer and got stuck in the chilly waters of Cape Cod Bay.

LaCasse says "September first it's 70 degrees, October first, it's 60 degrees, November first it's 50 degrees and at that point they're really just floating out in the water."

"This group as a whole really concerns me," says Rescue Rehab Director Connie Mergio.

She and the other biologists at the Aquarium's newly opened Animal Care Center say all of these turtles are suffering from hypothermia. Many of them have bacteria and algae growing on their bodies. Most are also dehydrated and will likely be diagnosed with pneumonia.

"When you pick them up they should flap their flippers around they should take a good breath," says Mergio. "We're really not seeing a lot of that."