Jerusalem News 889. Views, Jews, Ten Tribes News
17 December 2009, 30 Kislev 5770
Contents:
1. Israel-South Africa Air Connection Threatened
2. US Foreign Aid to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan
3. Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopus
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1. Israel-South Africa Air Connection Threatened
From: Guysen International News <webmaster@guysen.com>
Subject: mailinfo Guysen International, Tuesday 15th December 2009
http://www.guysen.com/
11:48 The flight route between Israel and South Africa is in danger of being cancelled, El Al airline said on Monday, as reported in Haaretz. The Israeli airline was criticized by the South African government for its stringent security checkups, as documented on a South African television research show. A reporter with a hidden camera filmed an El Al security guard allegedly discriminating against dark-skinned passengers at the airport check in. As a result of the broadcast the South African government issued a request that Israel change its security procedures in the country, which El Al has denied on the basis that they are part of the company's flight regulations. (Guysen.International.News)
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2. US Foreign Aid to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan
From: Guysen International News <webmaster@guysen.com>
http://www.guysen.com/
Subject: mailinfo Guysen International, Tuesday 15th December 2009
17:10 US foreign aid to Israel will rise by $225 million to $2.775 billion in fiscal year 2010. The figure is included in the fiscal year 2010 foreign operations appropriations bill. Fiscal year 2009 was the first under a ten year, $30 billion agreement on US aid to Israel. Annual aid to Israel under the plan is to rise from $2.55 billion in 2009 to a ceiling of $3.1 billion in 2013, and it will remain at that level for the rest of the period. Like in previous years, Israel can spend up to 25% of the sum for defense purchases from Israeli manufacturers, and the remainder must be spent for defense purchases in the US. Egypt will receive $1.3 billion in aid in 2010, and Jordan will receive $540 million. (Guysen.International.News)
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3. Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_sc/
as_australia_coconut_octopus
Extracts:
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Writer, 41 mins ago
SYDNEY. Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.
The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.
Julian Finn and Mark Norman of Museum Victoria in Melbourne observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.
Octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter. But the scientists found the veined octopus going a step further by preparing the shells, carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere.
That's an example of tool use, which has never been recorded in invertebrates before, Finn said.
"What makes it different from a hermit crab is this octopus collects shells for later use, so when it's transporting it, it's not getting any protection from it," Finn said. "It's that collecting it to use it later that is unusual."
The researchers think the creatures probably once used shells in the same way. But once humans began cutting coconuts in half and discarding the shells into the ocean, the octopuses discovered an even better kind of shelter, Finn said.
The findings are significant, in that they reveal just how capable the creatures are of complex behavior, said Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville.
"Octopuses have always stood out as appearing to be particularly intelligent invertebrates," Robson said. "They have a fairly well-developed sense of vision and they have a fairly intelligent brain. So I think it shows the behavioral capabilities that these organisms have."
There is always debate in the scientific community about how to define tool use in the animal kingdom, Robson said. The Australian researchers defined a tool as an object carried or maintained for future use. But other scientists could define it differently, which means it's difficult to say for certain whether this is the first evidence of such behavior in invertebrates, Robson said.
Still, the findings are interesting, he said.
"It's another example where we can think about how similar humans are to the rest of the world," Robson said. "We are just a continuum of the entire planet."
See BBC Video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8408233.stm
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