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Mount Everest is about 12ft lower than previously thought, according to the results of a Chinese survey of the world's highest peak. It revealed the summit is now only 29,017.16ft above sea level - 12.14ft below a 1975 Chinese survey and 21.65ft lower than a 1999 American study. Using a combination of radar and global positioning system (GPS) equipment, Chinese mountaineers scaled the peak in May this year and measured the height against six control points near the mountain's base for reference. The revised measurement does not threaten Everest's revered position as the world's highest peak - the secondhighest, K2, is 28,251ft above sea level - but it may surprise some observers, while perhaps confirming suspicions that the mountain has been shrinking due to the effects of global warming.
Speaking when the study was proposed earlier this year, Dr Hugh Sinclair, an expert on the processes of mountain formation and erosion at Edinburgh University's school of geosciences, said he was "extremely doubtful" that the mountain would have shrunk. He said: "The Himalayas are uplifting at a rate of about 1cm a year due to the collision of the Indian continental plate with the Asian plate. Basically, we have India pushing into Asia at a rate of about 25mm a year, and this causes the high Himalayas to rise up in response to thatpressure at about 10mm a year, so the overall tendency should be for the mountain range to grow." At a news conference in Beijing yesterday, Chen Bangzhu, the director general of China's state bureau of surveying and mapping, was non-committal in accounting for the discrepancy, saying "we cannot arrive at the conclusion now that Everest has become shorter, because there have been problems ... of surveying technology with previous measurements". 
View: Full Article | Source: The Scotsman
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Submitted by Rick Hamell: Alligators have clashed with nonnative pythons before in Everglades National Park. But when a 6-foot gator tangled with a 13-foot python recently, the result wasn't pretty. The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week. The species have battled with increasing frequency scientists have documented four encounters in the last three years. The encroachment of Burmese pythons into the Everglades could threaten an $8 billion restoration project and endanger smaller species, said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlifeprofessor.The gators have had to share their territory with a python population that has swelled over the past 20 years after owners dropped off pythons they no longer wanted in the Everglades. 
An Italian computer programmer has discovered the remains of an ancient Roman villa not on an archaeological dig but by studying satellite images on the internet. Luca Mori, 47, from Sorbelo near Palma, was idly examining a close-up "Google Earth" map of his area when he noticed unusual shading near his home."At first I thought it was a stain on the photograph but when I zoomed in I saw that there was something underthe earth," he said.The darker area had an oval shaded form, more than 500 yards long, with some unusual rectangular shadows nearby.Curious, Mr Mori made contact via the internet with archaeologists. 
It's official -- scientists have proved that the people of the small Irish town of Skibbereen do not have unnaturally good fortune. But they do seem pretty happy anyway. The picturesque town near Ireland's southern coast earned a reputation as the country's luckiest after a series of lottery wins.But Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in England told a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Dublin that he had proved there was nothing particularly lucky about the place.He bought 50 lottery tickets in Skibbereen andanother 50 in Dublin. 
