One Flew Over the Bird Flu's Nest


By Michael Fumento
Published 9/14/2007 12:08:00 AM
American Spectator – Sep 13, 2007

New scientific discoveries keep eating away at the prophecy that “bird flu,” avian influenza type H5N1, will become readily transmissible from human to human and unleash a disastrous pandemic. This leaves little but rhetoric and those big, terrifying, huge, terrifying (Did I already say that?) numbers that panic purveyors throw around based on nothing more than extrapolations from baselines of their own choosing.
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On the Behavior of the Black Swift


links.jstor.org
M Marin – The Condor, 1997 – JSTOR
Abstract

The behavior of Black Swifts was studied in southern California from 1990 to 1992. Four types of aerial interactions were distinguished: (a) group chase, (b) pair chase, (c) pair contact, and (d) touch and grasp. The latter two interactions can be intraspecific or interspecific. Aerial copulation was not observed.
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France’s songbird delicacy is outlawea


Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom – Sep 8, 2007
By Susan Bell in Paris, Sunday Telegraph
French gourmands are to be denied what one restaurant critic describes as the “barbaric pleasure” of feasting on tiny songbirds after their government announced that it intended finally to enforce laws that have been on the statute books for eight years.
Long considered the pinnacle of gastronomic delight by the French, the ortolan is a protected species after being hunted almost out of existence.
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Testosterone and group size in cliff swallows: testing the “challenge hypothesis” in a colonial bird


sciencedirect.com
Linda C. Smitha, Samrrah A. Raoufb, 1, Mary Bomberger Brownc, John C. Wingfieldb and Charles R. Brownc, ,
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ 08240, United States
bDepartment of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
cDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, United States
Received 17 May 2004;  revised 25 July 2004;  accepted 18 August 2004.  Available online 26 October 2004.
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Edible bird's nest extract inhibits influenza virus infection.


sciencedirect.com
Chao-Tan Guoa, b, c, Tadanobu Takahashia, c, Wakoto Bukawad, Noriko Takahashic, e, Hirokazu Yagic, e, Koichi Katoc, e, Kazuya I.-P. Jwa Hidaria, c, Daisei Miyamotoa, c, Takashi Suzukia, c and Yasuo Suzukia, c,
aDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Shizuoka, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and COE Program in the 21st century, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan
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