U.S. could face another Dust Bowl era
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- With ongoing drought, the American West may be entering a period when it will see dust storms on a scale to dwarf the 1930s Dust Bowl era, researchers say.
As evidence they point to the giant dust storms known as haboobs that hit Arizona last summer, some more than a mile high and 100 miles wide, that knocked out electricity, created traffic jams and grounded airplanes.
With Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and other states experiencing drought conditions, researchers worry this might just be the start of a trend, an article in EARTH magazine reports.
The problem, researchers said, is that rising temperatures will contribute directly and indirectly to there being more dust in the air.
Persistent droughts, increasingly violent and variable weather patterns, and urban and suburban development will compound the problem, they said.
Over the next couple of decades, the American West could transition to another possibly long-duration Dust Bowl environment, they said.
Catching casino cheats goes high-tech
LONDON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Cheaters at roulette in Britain will soon find themselves up against software that can spot cheating at the table and alert the croupier, casino officials say.
Grosvenor Casinos, a major British casino chain, is assessing software that would be installed on the existing closed-circuit TV cameras in casinos and can spot cheating schemes and alert casino personnel, NewScientist.com reported Thursday.
In one scheme, cheaters place chips on the table after the croupier has already called "last bets" because doing so gives a player an advantage, since as the ball slows it becomes easier to predict which quarter of the wheel it will land in.
The prevent that, the software analyzes the video feed to monitor the speed of the ball to determine when last bets are called, then detects if a hand enters the betting area of the table and leaves a chip.
"When you have 10 people around a table all trying to place bets as late as possible it can be difficult to see these things," says Sean Cunningham, director of security for Rank Group, which owns Grosvenor Casinos.
The group will make a decision on installing the software in January, he said.
Huge iceberg forming off Antarctica
PUNTA ARENAS, Chile, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A giant iceberg forming in West Antarctica is being monitored and is expected to break off from its parent glacier in the next few months, NASA researchers say.
A crack 20 miles long and 20 feet deep has formed in the shelf of floating ice at the foot of the Pine Island Glacier, one of the largest and fastest-moving tongues of ice on the Antarctic continent, the BBC reported Thursday.
NASA scientists said the eventual iceberg would cover about 340 square miles.
"The last big calving event occurred in 2001 so in general people have been expecting something like this to happen fairly soon, and for us it is very exciting to see this while it is happening," Micheal Studinger, a scientist with NASA's Icebridge project, said.
The Icebridge project has been conducting instrumented airborne missions flying from Chile to measure the thickness of the ice in the region.
Record rhino poaching seen in S. Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Poaching driven by a demand for rhino horns has reached record levels in South Africa this year, wildlife charity WWF says.
Officials with South African National Parks say 341 rhinos have been killed so far in 2011, passing last year's total of 333, the BBC reported Thursday.
The increase in poaching in Africa, and a similar increase in South Asia, is largely the result of increased demand for rhino horn in Vietnamese traditional medicine, the WWF said.
In Vietnam it is widely believe ground rhino horn can cure cancer despite the lack of any scientific evidence.
Prior to 2005, an average of just 36 rhinos were killed each year in South Africa, the WWF said.
Although law enforcement efforts in South Africa were increasing they were not sufficient to stop the smuggling and sale of rhino horns by organized crime rings, the group said.
"Since armed protection for rhinos in South African national parks is strong, poaching syndicates are likely to shift to countries with weaker enforcement power, including possibly Asian countries that may be caught off-guard," Carlos Drews, global species program director at WWF, said in a statement.
