Sunday, October 4, 2009

“Skull fragment tested, found not to be Hitler's - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

“Skull fragment tested, found not to be Hitler's - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

Skull fragment tested, found not to be Hitler's - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 08:26 AM PDT

The cranium fragment is part of a collection of Hitler artifacts preserved by Soviet intelligence in the months after Hitler and Eva Braun reportedly committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.

The collection, now housed in the Russian State Archive in Moscow, also includes bloodstained pieces of the sofa where Hitler reportedly shot himself after taking a cyanide pill. The artifacts were put on public display in 2000.

Connecticut archaeologist Nick Bellantoni was asked to examine the skull and blood samples for a History Channel documentary on Hitler's death that aired last month.

Bellantoni said his initial forensic exam of the skull fragment showed it didn't match what he knew of Hitler's biology.

"The bone was very small and thin, and normally male bones are much more robust in our species," Bellantoni said last week. "I thought it probably came from a woman or a younger man."

Bellantoni then took several pinhead-size pieces of the skull fragment and swabs of the blood stains back to the university for analysis.

Linda Strausbaugh, a professor of molecular and cell biology, got help from two former students who work in the New York City medical examiner's office. The former students, Craig O'Connor and Heather Nelson, are experts in working with challenging DNA samples and were able to extract enough DNA from the bone pieces to do a forensic study, Strausbaugh said.

She said they determined that the DNA came from a 20- to 40-year-old woman. The skull fragment could have come from Braun, but to know that, the lab would need samples of her DNA, she said. Also, the DNA samples were very degraded, making identification unlikely, Strausbaugh said.

Witnesses never reported Braun being shot in the head, Bellantoni said, and she is thought to have died of cyanide poisoning.

"This person, with a bullet hole coming out the back of the head, would have been shot in the face, in the mouth or underneath chin," he said. "It would have been hard for them to miss that."

DNA from the bloodstain swabs showed at least some of it came from a man, Strausbaugh said.

"The DNA is relatively degraded and we don't have a full range of markers that we'd like to have," she said.

Russian officials have said Hitler and Braun's bodies were removed from a shell crater outside the bunker shortly after he died.

An autopsy allegedly showed Hitler's body was missing part of his cranium. A Soviet team went back to the crater in 1946 and allegedly found the piece of cranium that the UConn scientists examined.

Russian officials have said the rest of Hitler was buried beneath a Soviet army parade ground in the former East German city of Magdeburg. They said his remains were exhumed in 1970 and incinerated, and the ashes were flushed into the city's sewage system.

Both Strausbaugh and Bellantoni said there is nothing in their findings that significantly challenges the conclusion that Hitler died in the bunker.

"My gut feeling is he did commit suicide there, and maybe the blood sample we found is his," Bellantoni said.

"What this does is it raises a question: If this is not him, who is it?" he later added. "And, two, what really happened there?"

This article appeared on page A - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment science scores vex educators - Pittsburgh Valley News Dispatch

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 03:25 AM PDT

Brianna Fine was wringing out tiny green sponges into a graduated cylinder, noting how many milliliters of water each absorbed.

"Five-point-two," she said. "Six-point-one."

As Fine, 14, called out each amount, her lab partner, Chris Harvey, 15, noted it in a table.

The Franklin Regional Senior High School sophomores were working on an ecology simulation. The sponges represented animals, and the water stood in for natural resources.

"They're looking at how limited resources limit population," explained biology teacher Mark Wolfgang, who designed the experiment.

At Franklin, science classes include two double lab periods each week, and the activities focus heavily on data analysis.

The rigor seems to be paying off, according to results of the annual science test in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, released last month.

More than 71 percent of Franklin juniors passed the test, up from 58 percent the year before.

"We teach critical thinking skills, and we emphasize problem-solving," said Julie Shank, a biology teacher and head of the science department. To improve the scores, she said, "We only had to do a little bit of tweaking," including using one class period before the test to review.

Franklin was among the few high schools to receive good news. Statewide, fewer than 40 percent of 11th-graders passed the exam, up only slightly from the year before. Fifty-five percent of Pennsylvania eighth-graders passed their version of the test, and 83 percent of fourth-graders passed theirs by logging scores in either a "proficient" or "advanced" category.

"It was surprising," said Ebony Pugh, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Public Schools, where several high schools had pass rates of less than 10 percent.

While the science PSSA is not one of the tests that determines whether schools made adequate progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, the dismal high school scores have some educators worried about the state of secondary science education in Pennsylvania.

There is little agreement, however, on what went wrong or what can be done about it.

At Derry Area High School, officials were shocked by the results of the PSSA, which just 37 percent of their students passed. This past spring, the district won the Carnegie Science School District Award, a regional prize for an innovative science curriculum.

"I can't make the correlation between our honors and this particular test," said Kathy Perry, principal of Derry Area High School.

Perry noted that Derry students can earn college credits from area universities for several science classes offered at the high school and the science faculty has participated in advanced training through Mathematics and Science Partnerships, a federal program.

"Do I think (the test) presents an accurate picture?" asked David Welling, Derry's assistant superintendent. "No, I do not. "

At the handful of area high schools where students did well, officials touted rigorous programs with plenty of laboratory experience.

"We have a great curriculum and a lot of strong teachers in our classrooms, so I'm sure that must be part of it," said Michael Ghilani, the principal at Upper St. Clair High School, where nearly 75 percent of students passed the test.

While students and teachers praised the curriculum, they noted that Upper St. Clair serves a relatively wealthy and well-educated community.

"We have kids who can go home and ask their parents about math and science," said chemistry teacher Dominick Frollini.

But some teachers and students questioned the breadth of the exam, which, despite their advantages, a quarter of the school's juniors failed.

"I think it's extremely difficult," said science department chairwoman Lynn Kistler. "There are some specific, content-related questions. How are you going to remember nitty-gritty details from ninth grade? We've looked at it as a department, and none of us think we could pass it."

"I was really surprised that we did so well, because a lot of the PSSA is environmental and earth science," said Michelle Szucs, 17, a senior who took the test last year. "If you can talk about global warming, you're good."

At Upper St. Clair, environmental science is an elective, Kistler said. Earth science, a field that includes topics such as geology and meteorology, was discontinued as a course 10 years ago to give students time to take advanced biology, chemistry and physics courses.

"What we're doing is right our kids go on to be successful in college," Frollini said. "I question if the state's in touch with what kids need to go on to engineering and science careers. "

The PSSA science exam tests students' knowledge of two sets of academic standards, or lists of subjects the state requires schools to teach. "Science and Technology" includes topics such as physical sciences and biology. "Environment and Ecology" includes the study of renewable energy and ecosystems.

Pennsylvania is one of five states to have a separate set of standards for environmental education, according to the North American Association for Environmental Education. They were written into the state's School Code in 2002.

Many high schools try to incorporate environmental education and ecology into biology and chemistry classes, and in recent years environmental science has become a popular elective. But the standards are not enforced, and at most schools biology, chemistry and physics take priority.

Jeff Taylor, the director of curriculum and assessment in the North Hills School District, attributed his district's scores to a misalignment with the state's standards. Last year, only 48 percent of 11th-graders passed the science PSSA, a figure at odds with their high math and reading scores. This year, Taylor said, students would be required to take a semester of earth and environmental science in 11th grade.

"We don't believe in teaching to the test, but we aligned our curriculum to better fit the standards," he said.

Still, Taylor questioned the idea of a test designed to cover so many disciplines.

Michael Race, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said department officials agree there were issues with the breadth of the test. The problem would be solved, he said, by the Keystone Exams that the Rendell administration proposed last spring. These end-of-course exams in biology, chemistry and other subjects would replace the 11th-grade PSSA.

"Part of the rationale behind Keystone is that one issue with science at the high school level is you're being tested on subjects you've taken over the past two to three years," Race said.

Much of the General Assembly has opposed the Keystone exams, and the controversial idea remains in limbo.

Though the 11th-grade science PSSA carries no consequences, perplexed educators still are hoping for improved scores next year.

"We don't feel these tests are unimportant," said Welling, the Derry administrator. "We'll make adjustments, and I think scores across the state will slowly start to come up. "


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Mighty caribou herds dwindle, warming blamed - Ledger-Enquirer

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 08:26 AM PDT

From wildlife spectacle to wildlife mystery, the decline of the caribou - called reindeer in the Eurasian Arctic - has biologists searching for clues, and finding them.

They believe the insidious impact of climate change, its tipping of natural balances and disruption of feeding habits, is decimating a species that has long numbered in the millions and supported human life in Earth's most inhuman climate.

Many herds have lost more than half their number from the maximums of recent decades, a global survey finds. They "hover on the precipice of a major decline," it says.

The "People of the Caribou," the native Gwich'in of the Yukon and Alaska, were among the first to sense trouble, in the late 1990s, as their Porcupine herd dwindled. From 178,000 in 1989, the herd - named for the river crossing its range - is now estimated to number 100,000.

"They used to come through by the hundreds," James Firth, 56, of the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board said as he guided two Associated Press journalists across the tundra.

Off toward distant horizons this summer afternoon, only small groups of a dozen or fewer migrating caribou could be seen grazing southward across the spongy landscape, green with a layer of grasses, mosses and lichen over the Arctic permafrost.

"I've never seen it like this before," Firth said of the sparse numbers.

More than 50 identifiable caribou herds migrate over huge wilderness tracts in a wide band circling the top of the world. They head north in the spring to ancient calving grounds, then back south through summer and fall to winter ranges closer to northern forests.

The Porcupine herd moves over a 250,000-square-kilometer (100,000-square-mile) range, calving in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, near Alaska's north coast, where proposals for oil drilling have long stirred opposition from environmentalists seeking to protect the caribou.

The global survey by researchers at the University of Alberta, published in June in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology, has deepened concerns about the caribou's future.

Drawing on scores of other studies, government databases, wildlife management boards and other sources, the biologists found that 34 of 43 herds being monitored worldwide are in decline. The average falloff in numbers was 57 percent from earlier maximums, they said.

Siberia's Taimyr herd has declined from 1 million in 2000 to an estimated 750,000, as reported in the 2008 "Arctic Report Card" of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Couple bring international experience to new jobs - Texarkana Gazette

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 05:20 AM PDT

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Texarkana Seventh-day Adventist Church recently welcomed Rodil Capobresand as youth leader and associate pastor and his wife, Sheila,as principal of the Adventist Christian School. The couple hold bachelor's of arts degrees in history and ...

Across Arctic, time may run out on timeless spectacle of migrating ... - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 08:26 AM PDT

This Aug. 12, 2009 photo shows a grizzly bear traveling across the Porcupine River Tundra in the Yukon Territories, Canada. On the endlessly rolling and tussocky terrain of northwest Canada, where man has hunted caribou since the Stone Age, the vast antlered herds are fast growing thin. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Rick Bowmer, AP / August 12, 2009)
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