Giant lizard discovered in the Philippines

The Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizard or Varanus bitatawa feasts on fruits and snails rather than carcasses, unlike many monitors, including its larger relative, the Komodo dragon, according to American and Filipino researchers who wrote about the discovery in Wednesday's peer-reviewed Royal Society journal Biology Letters. It spends much of its time in the treetops and has unique claws that allow it to reach its favorite fruits.

"I knew as soon as I saw the animal that it was something special," Luke Welton, a graduate student at the University of Kansas and one of the co-authors of the study, said in a statement.

It is not that unusual to find a new species of tiny fish, frog or insect these days. But Welton and his colleagues said it was a "rare occurrence" to discover such a large vertebrate, particularly on an island hit by deforestation and nearby development. They compared their find to the 1993 discovery of the forest-dwelling Saola ox in Vietnam and a new monkey species discovered in the highlands of Tanzania in 2006.

"The discovery of such a large, charismatic, and strikingly distinct new species of vertebrate in the unexplored forests of the northern Philippines accentuates the degree to which the diversity of this global conservation hotspot is still poorly known," Mundita Lim, chief of the country's Department of Environment and Natural Resources Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said in a statement.

Eric R. Pianka, a lizard expert at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an e-mail interview that it was an "incredible find."

"This is truly a spectacular discovery," Pianka said. "Worldwide, there are about 60-plus species of monitor lizards. In all probability, some as yet undescribed species will be found on various islands in Indonesia," he said.

The new lizard is related to two other fruit-eating monitors in the Philippines, all of which have seen their numbers drop significantly due habitat destruction, as well as hunting and trapping for the pet trade.

"We hope that by focusing on protection of this new monitor, conservation biologists and policy makers can work together to protect the remaining highly imperiled forests of northern Luzon," Rafe Brown, leader of the team that discovered the new species and curator of herpetology at the University of Kansas, said in a statement.

The More I Am Away from You

The more I am away from you,
The more I want you here.
The more I do without your love,
The more I want you near.

I know that it makes little sense
To want what's not around,
But there's just one true love for me
And that's the one I've found.

We've gone through all the weather maps,
The sunshine and the rain,
But I would take a sea of storms
To be with you again.

Terrified by: Kara DioGuardi

Lala Lala la la
Mmmmmm mmm
You by the light
Is the greatest find
In a world
Full of wrong
Your the thing thats right
Finally made it
Through the lonely
To the other side

You set it again
My hearts in motion
Every word feels
Like a shooting star
Im at the edge of my emotions
Watching the shadows
Burning in the dark
And Im in love
And Im terrifed
For the first time
And the last time
In my only life
Life

This could be good
Its already better than that
And nothings worse
Than knowing your holding back
I could be all that you need
If you let me try

You set it again
My hearts in motion
Every word feels
Like a shooting star
Im at the edge of my emotions
Watching the shadows
Burning in the dark
And Im in love
And Im terrified
For the first time
And the last time
In my only life

I only said it 'cause I mean it
Oh I only mean it
'Couse its true
So dont you tear
What I've been dreaming
'Couse it keeps me up
And holds me close
Whenever Im without you

You set it again
My hearts in motions
Every word feels
Like a shooting star
Im at the edge of my emotions
Watching the shadows
Burning in the dark
And Im in love
And Im terrified
For the first time
And the last time
In my only life
Life, life
In my only life

Rules of a Skeptic

1. Don't let what you think get in the way of what you see.

2. Don't let what you see determine what you think, for appearances are deceptive.

3. Be omnivorous in your tastes.

4. The only way to see something whole is from several points of view.

5. The closer you come to reality the more it is a mystery, and the more unimaginable it is that you or anything else exists.

6. The only truth is in scrupulous satisfaction over time.

7. Develop principles that you are willing to abandon, but not easily.

8. When anything is too sacred to joke about, the cause is fear.

9. If you are skeptical of faith and reason, what is left as a basis for decision? Everything, so long as you are prepared to be wrong.

10. Death is the sunlight that makes all things visible.

3

This will not work if you don't want to try.
There is no way to love except to choose.
You cannot go through people as through shoes:
With each love lost a bit of you must die.
We both are yours, the three of us, and I
Still love you though I know that I may lose.
My love is there to answer or refuse;
I wait upon your definite reply.
Do not say yes for any sake but yours,
Nor sacrifice your happiness for duty,
Nor swim against the current of your will.
But you will find abundance on these shores,
And in your love a more abiding beauty
Than any that might barren hunger still.