2010-05-06
proposes allowing Japan to hunt 120 whales a year
| The chairman of the International Whaling Commission on Thursday proposed allowing Japan to hunt 120 minke whales a year in Japanese coastal waters for 10 years. The proposal also calls for cutting Japan's annual catch quota of minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean to 400 over the next five years, and gradually reducing the quota to 200 over the subsequent five years. The IWC seeks to obtain approval for the proposal at its annual meeting in Morocco in June. |
| Apr 23 | Mercury in Tuna Higher at Restaurants Than Grocery Stores (Fox News) |
| Tuna sushi from your local supermarket might have lower mercury levels and so be safer to eat than sushi from a high-end restaurant, a new study using fish DNA suggests. The results show that some species of tuna, particularly those that restaurants value for their firmer flesh and appealing look - such as blue fin akami and all big eye tuna - have higher mercury levels than other species typically found in grocery stores. Overall, however, all the tuna had pretty high mercury levels. The levels were, on average, greater than the concentrations considered safe to consume in one day by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and higher than the concentrations allowed in Japan. |
| Apr 23 | Japan eyes 'mind-reading' devices, robots 'by 2020' (AFP) |
|  Japan plans to develop "mind-reading" robots and consumer electronics that can be controlled by thought alone and hopes to market them within a decade, the Nikkei daily reported Thursday. The sci-fi like devices would employ so-called brain-machine interface technology, which analyses users' brain waves and brain blood-flow patterns detected through sensor-mounted headsets. The envisaged devices would include television sets that can be operated without lifting a finger and mobile phones that send text messages composed purely through thought, the business daily said. |
| Apr 23 | 1st cloned pig in Japan euthanized (AP) |
| The first pig cloned from fetal pigskin cells in Japan has been euthanized after becoming unable to stand on her own because of natural causes, researchers said Thursday. The pig, Xena, who was nine years and eight months at the time of her death, was the oldest cloned pig in the world. She was born on July 2, as the world's second cloned pig after the first one created in Britain, according to the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences. |
| Apr 22 | Scientists try algae 'alchemy' to cultivate oil (Japan Times) |
|  As Japan's rice fields turn fallow and farming communities decline, a new army of workers is preparing to make the countryside fertile again. This time the crop is motor fuel and the laborers are microscopic algae. At least 75 developers globally are studying algae, which have the potential to generate more energy per hectare than any other crop used for making fuel, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. |
| Apr 21 | Tiny Japanese spacecraft scheduled to land in Australia (Courier Mail) |
|  A Japanese spacecraft the size of a basketball carrying material from an asteroid is set to touch down in Woomera in June. The Hayabusa spacecraft, which weighs only 17 kilograms, will be the first craft to bring asteroid materials back to Earth. The craft, which first made contact with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005, will land in Australian defence land, at the Woomera Prohibited Area in Southern Australia. |
| Apr 21 | Zoro breaking record for most time as boss of Mt. Takasaki monkeys (AP) |
| The boss of one of two troops of wild monkeys in the Mt. Takasaki nature park in Oita, a popular tourist attraction, is extending the record for the longest serving known leader on the mountain. The male monkey, Zoro, has been the No. 1 of the troop with a current population of 696 since wresting a banana from Genta, his predecessor as boss, in December 1998. Zoro, who is 28 years old, the equivalent of 90 in human years, established the record on March 25 by keeping the position for 11 years and three months. |
| Apr 21 | U.S. space shuttle carrying Japan's Yamazaki returns to Earth (AP) |
|  The space shuttle Discovery with seven crew members aboard including Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki returned to Earth on Tuesday after their two-week mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle descended to a smooth landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:08 a.m., winding up the mission that lasted 15 days, 2 hours and 47 minutes since liftoff on April 5. Yamazaki is the second Japanese female astronaut to fly on a shuttle mission. |
| Apr 20 | Japan proposes sharp cut in minke whale catch quota in Antarctic Sea (AP) |
|  Japan has proposed catching up to 440 southern minke whales for what it calls research purposes in the Antarctic Ocean, down from 935 at present, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. Japan made the proposal to an informal meeting of representatives from a small group of International Whaling |
бичлэг
