Plague

The plot thickens, and thins, in the newest issue of Lucifer. If you dig Shakespeare references, convoluted story-lines, and Satan, well then,  Lucifer is the comic for you. Set in the Sandman Universe,  Lucifer is one of four new titles from Vertigo Comics, along with  The Dreaming , Books of Magic ,  and  House of Whispers . This one deals exclusively with the Prince of Lies, and the awkward situation he’s gotten himself into. Written by Dan Watters , drawn by Sebastian and Max Fiumara , and colored by Dave McCaig , this haunting and intriguing comic tells the dual story of Lucifer and Detective John Decker, both trapped by their demons, as it were. Vertigo Comics Prisons of the flesh and of the mind torment our heroes in Lucifer Last issue reintroduced us to Lucifer, who appears to be trapped in some sort of personal Hell, which is unusual, considering who we’re talking about. Concurrently, Detective John Decker’s wife is dying from brain cancer...

It’s a big, big world at Southside Elementary in Lebanon these days. Because teens are so visual in their world of Smartphones, iPads and gaming devices, a Southside teacher decided to bring a huge visual aid into her seventh-grade social studies class. Leslie Tomlinson tries to capture her students’ attention as she teaches units from the Fall of Rome up to the Age of Exploration. Not only does a world map fill up an entire wall, but also it’s interactive with dry erase markers for the students to track the Black Plague, trade routes and other historical events. It’s full circle for this team project. Tomlinson was inspired by a wall world map at West Wilson Middle School, where current Southside principal Wendell Marlowe previously worked. “A couple of years ago I fell in love with the concept; to bring the world to the kids,” she said. Tomlinson, who has spent her entire teaching career at Southside, pitched the idea to Marlowe, who was immediately all in. Marlowe spent ...

A healthy endometrium—the lining of the mare’s uterus—is important for achieving and maintaining a pregnancy. However, it’s a delicate structure, vulnerable to inflammation and capable of harboring bacteria deep in its layers. To boot, this inflammation, known as endometritis , can be challenging to treat effectively, leaving researchers on the hunt for new therapeutic options. But there’s some good news: Veterinarians have tested a new antibiotic option for horses with endometritis, and the initial results are promising. “Endometritis continues to plague the equine industry and is currently touted as the third-most-important medical problem diagnosed in adult horses,” said researcher Dale Paccamonti, DVM, Dipl. ACT, theriogenology professor and head of Veterinary Clinical Sciences in Louisiana State University’s (LSU) School of Veterinary. “Improving our understanding of the endometrium and causes of endometritis will help devise targeted, effective therapies to minimize ...

It's easy to look back on the past through rose-tinted glasses, as the saying goes, but new research suggests that the mid-sixth century was definitely a time to forget. A team of historians and scientists has identified A.D. 536 as the beginning of a terrible sequence of events for humankind. A massive volcanic eruption spewed a huge cloud of ash that shrouded the Northern Hemisphere in darkness and caused a drop in temperatures that led to crop failure and starvation, said co-lead study author Professor Christopher Loveluck of the University of Nottingham in the UK. Then the misery was compounded in A.D. 542 as cold and hungry populations in the eastern Roman Empire were struck by the bubonic plague. Now, in collaboration with glaciologist Paul Mayewski at the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine in Orono, Loveluck's team has identified the source of the cloud. By analyzing ice samples from the Colle Gnifetti Glacier in the Swiss Alps, the researchers were...

A mystery green fireball seen glowing above Russia 's high-tech 'scientific city' has puzzled scientists. The bright flash and streaking tail was spotted by stunned motorists close to research town Akademgorodok, on the edge of regional capital Novosibirsk in southern Siberia.   The research institutes in the area have been dubbed Vladimir Putin 's 'secret weapon'. The images were caught on dashcams in the early-morning darkness on Tuesday and have prompted a range of explanations. The green fireball is caught by a dashcam in southern Siberia. It has sparked a range of explanations including an unexpected meteor or a secret weapons test  The state-run Russia Today described it as a meteor but acknowledged that astronomers were 'somewhat bewildered' by the sight. The pictures have sparked rumours that Russia was testing 'extremely advanced weapons' while others suggested it was a UFO.     Ilya Orlov, deputy director of the Big No...

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – A team led by researchers at the University of Oslo has used medieval Yersinia pestis genome sequences, comparative genomics, phylogenetics, and bioinformatics to explore historical introduction and transmission patterns for the so-called Second Plague Pandemic, which stretched from the mid-14 th century through the 19 th century. "We have reevaluated all medieval strains under the light of archeological and historical evidence to carefully discuss the involvement of different transmission routes during the Second Plague Pandemic," University of Oslo ecological and evolutionary synthesis researchers Barbara Bramanti and Nils Stenseth, the study's co-senior authors, and their colleagues wrote.  As they reported online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers sequenced the genomes of five Y. pestis isolates from Italy, France, Norway, and the Netherlands that were dated to the latter half of the 14 th ...

TALLAHASSEE — Florida has set another tourism record, welcoming 95.8 million visitors from January through September, according to the state's tourism promotion agency, Visit Florida, despite a plague of red tide on much of the West Coast and green algae around southern parts of the state. It was the highest number of visitors to Florida in any nine months and a 6.7 percent increase over the 89.8 million visitors during the same period in 2017. It included 85 million domestic visitors, 8 million overseas visitors and 2.8 million Canadian visitors. The number of visitors from overseas has fallen 1 percent so far this year. The numbers are a testament to the resilience of the state and its marketing, said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County. "It shows the strength of our state that when one area is down the rest can pick up," Haley said. "It also shows how sophisticated the Visit Florida strategies have become in getting us through all of these crisis...