Call me Ishmael
"Subtle variations in sperm-whale calls suggest that individuals announce themselves with discrete personal identifiers. To put it another way, they might have names," Wired.com reports. "The findings are preliminary, based on observations of just three whales, so talk of names is still speculation. But 'it's very suggestive,' said biologist Luke Rendell of Scotland's University of St. Andrews. 'They seem to make that coda in a way that's individually distinctive.' Rendell and his collaborators … have for years studied the click sequences, or codas, used by sperm whale to communicate across miles of deep ocean. … In the latest study, published Feb. 10 in Animal Behaviour, they analyzed a coda made by sperm whales around the world. Called 5R, it's composed of five consecutive clicks, and superficially appears to be identical in each whale. Analyzed closely, however, variations in click timing emerge. Each of the researchers' whales had its own personal 5R riff."
A dolphin, up close
"A dolphin weighing between 600 and 700 pounds [270 to 320 kilograms]jumped onto the deck of a boat, injuring a woman in South Florida," Associated Press reports. "Isles of Capri Fire spokesman Keith Perry says a charter boat captain called 911 Sunday afternoon after the dolphin jumped on the boat and landed on one of his passengers. The woman suffered a sprained ankle. … Officials from the Isles of Capri Fire Department, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Collier County Sheriff's Office used an immobilizing board and a rope to push the dolphin back into the water."
Put off a happy face
Since 1921, a long-term U.S. study has analyzed a group of more than 1,500 gifted boys and girls. Only about two dozen of the participants are still alive. The Longevity Project, by psychology professors Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin, examines the clues to health and well-being into old age provided by the research. "Among the most counterintuitive of the findings," Slate.com reports, "is that cheerfulness can kill. The authors write: '[C]eerful and optimistic children were less likely to live to an old age than their more staid and sober counterparts!' They found that cheerfulness was as big a risk factor for premature death as elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol. … Despite the belief that optimists enjoy better health than pessimists, this research found a dark underside to optimism. When everything is going great, the optimist soars. But when facing life's difficulties, the optimist can feel defeated by the magnitude of the struggle that's required."
Preschool alcoholic
"A three-year-old has become the youngest child in Britain to be treated for alcoholism …," The Daily Telegraph reports. "The child has been treated in hospital after being given alcohol regularly for six months. The unnamed youngster, from the West Midlands, was one of 13 children who were diagnosed alcoholic by the Heart of England NHS Trust between 2008 and 2010."
One-child compensation?
"A Chinese official said Monday that New Zealand should consider special compensation to parents of Chinese students killed in an earthquake last month because their loss was magnified under the country's one-child policy," Associated Press reports. "Seven students from China have been identified among the 166 confirmed deaths in the quake that devastated Christchurch city on Feb. 22, and as many as 20 others are still missing. Chinese Embassy official Cheng Lei said Monday that Chinese quake victims had lost not just their only child, but also a future breadwinner. He said New Zealand should consider providing additional financial assistance to those families."
Watch what you bite
"A huge snake [that]bit a model's surgically enhanced breast later died from silicone poisoning," Orange.co.uk reports. "Israeli model Orit Fox was posing with the snake at a photo shoot in Tel Aviv when it suddenly turned on her. She was holding the boa constrictor and went to lick its head when it suddenly tired of the attention and latched on to her left breast. … The model was taken to [hospital] but later released after a tetanus shot and a few hours of observation." The snake reportedly died several days later of silicone poisoning.
Faster than you think
There's something both fascinating and unsettling about watching a countdown clock, John Morton writes for BBC News magazine. "Parachutists call it ground rush. Apparently while you're falling through the sky and before you open your parachute the perception is that you're dropping toward the ground at a perfectly manageable speed. Yes, it's exhilarating, but there's plenty of time to look around you and take in the wonder of it all. But that's an illusion caused by the lack of visual cues. It's only when you drop below a certain height and suddenly become aware that the ground is rushing up to meet you that you realize how fast you've been falling all along. More sobering still, maybe there's an analogy here for the way we experience time over the course of a human life."
Thought du jour
"For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe."
- Larry Eisenberg (1919-), U.S. science-fiction writer