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A detailed analysis of eight dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way indicates that their orbital behaviour can be explained more accurately with Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) than by the rival, but more widely accepted, theory of dark matter. The results were presented by Garry Angus, of the University of St Andrews, at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast on Wednesday 2nd April. 'MOND was first suggested to account for things that we see in the distant universe. This is the first detailed study in which we've been able to test out the theory on something close to home....

AYIA NAPA, Cyprus - An abattoir used by early Cypriots, a place where animals went to die, or a shelter that ultimately proved a death trap? Cypriot and Greek scientists are studying a collapsed cave filled with the fossilized remains of extinct dwarf hippopotamuses — descendants of hippos believed to have reached the island a quarter-million years ago. Paleontologists have unearthed an estimated 80 dwarf hippos in recent digs at the site just outside the resort of Ayia Napa on the island's southeastern coast. Hundreds more may lie beneath an exposed layer of jumbled fossils. Scientists hope the fossil haul,...

PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers have pieced together the remnants of a mighty collision that smashed apart a planet-sized rock in the Kuiper Belt, on the far-flung fringes of the Solar System. First identified in the 1950s by Dutch-US skygazer Gerard Kuiper, the disk-shaped belt is believed to be populated by tens of thousands of icy bodies, encircling the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. A team led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) took a close look at the belt's third largest object, 2003 EL61. Nicknamed "Santa" because the team spotted it at Christmas-time, 2003 EL61...

IN TODAY'S SUN What a bunch of Dopeys Short shrift ... drama group's Snow White - and her seven 'gnomes' By ANTHONY FRANCE PANTOS of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs are being censored — to outlaw the word DWARF. A shocked village drama group sent off for a script and found Dopey and his pals — played by kids — had to be called “gnomes” instead. Ray Lionet, 73, of the Coxheath Players in Kent, said the ban was to avoid offending short people. He said: “It’s madness.”

Size doesn’t count at the World Dwarf Games PARIS: Aside from the pursuit of gold medals competitors at the World Dwarf Games being held in France this week wanted to be treated as serious athletes, and not pitied because of their height. The fourth edition of the championships at Rambouillet, south of Paris, has drawn together 135 dwarves measuring between 80cm and 1.40m with the largest delegation coming from Britain. Other countries represented are the United States, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Spain, Morocco, Kosovo, and hosts France. Arthur Dean, president of the International Dwarf Athletics Federation, believes these championships send...

Washington- Senate Judiciary Committee member Mike DeWine, who was mentioned by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday as a potential Supreme Court pick, doesn't anticipate being nominated. "I'm on the short list, just the wrong short list," he joked. DeWine, an Ohio Republican, compared the intense public kibitzing over Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's successor to "watching the speculation for the next pope." Because O'Connor was a swing vote in many cases, DeWine said, whoever fills her slot could shape the court for years to come. He said he plans to scrutinize case decisions and writings of whomever Bush selects...

A little person support group has dismissed the sympathy card played by dwarf Hamilton arsonist Shane Reid. The "tear-jerking" antics of Reid's lawyer do not ring true, says Little People of New Zealand liaison officer Katy Sinclair –- the mother of a 13-year-old with the most common form of dwarfism. Reid, 27, was jailed yesterday for 2 1/2 years for arsons on Cambridge High and Forest Lake classrooms which caused $400,000 damage. He will be kept in a secure facility for intellectually disabled prisoners. During his trial, lawyer Tom Sutcliffe told the court about Reid's claims of a tragic upbringing...

Professor Richard Roberts points to an artist impression of a hobbit-like dwarf, the astonishing discovery that could rewrite the history of human evolution, in Sydney, Australia, Oct. 28, 2004. A 3-foot-tall adult female skeleton found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island is believed 18,000 years old and smashes the long-cherished scientific belief that our species, Homo sapiens, systematically crowded out other upright-walking human cousins beginning 160,000 years ago.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)Wow! Using powerful scanning devices look at what the artist was able to illustrate! Look how wise and thoughtful the little fella appears! Wow, wow, and triple wow: impressive...

RAUL Hernandez, a Cuban rancher, claims to have bred a family pet that pays its way - a mini-cow about the size of an Alsatian dog. Although the same basic shape as any of the world’s famous breeds of cattle, such as Holstein or Aberdeen-Angus, those bred by Mr Hernandez are less than half the size. Standing about 23 inches (58 centimetres) to 28 inches (71 centimetres) tall, the mini-cows can be kept in a small area, graze simple grasses and weeds, and are, Mr Hernandez says, "a perfect source of milk for Cuban families". "They are patio cows -...

Scientists Find Another Huge Mini-World in Outer Solar System The most distant object ever seen orbiting the Sun is nearly as large as Pluto, expanding astronomers notions of how the solar system formed and what resides in its outskirts. The round world is currently three times farther away than Pluto from the Sun, a distance that expands even further on its 10,000-year orbit. It sits in a part of the solar system that some astronomers had thought empty. It is redder and brighter than anything astronomers have seen in the outer solar system, and scientists don't know why. The object...

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Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 February 28 POX 186: Not So Long Ago Credit: Michael Corbin (CSC/STScI), William Vacca (MPE), NASA Explanation: Not so long ago and not so far, far away, a galaxy was born. Seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, the island universe of stars, gas, and dust cataloged as POX 186 is a mere 68 million light-years distant toward an uncrowded region in the constellation Virgo. POX 186...

Gephardt Is History Faced with a crushing defeat in Iowa, Rep. Dick Gephardt is dropping out of the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, the Associated Press and Fox News Channel reported tonight. AP quoted a party official as saying Gephardt would quit. Fox News said the announcement could come Tuesday morning. The lame-duck congressman himself hinted as much during a concession speech. "My campaign to fight for working people may be ending tonight, but our fight will never end," he said. He offered congratulations to his rivals and admitted one of them would wind up with the nomination. Gephard...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 November 10 An Intermediate Polar Binary System Illustration Credit & Copyright: Mark Garlick (Space-art) Explanation: How can two stars create such a strange and intricate structure? Most stars are members of multiple-star systems. Some stars are members of close binary systems where material from one star swirls around the other in an accretion disk. Only a handful of stars, however, are members of an intermediate polar, a...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 September 30 The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream Drawing Credit & Copyright: David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA) & Gabriel Perez (IAC) Explanation: Is our Milky Way Galaxy out to lunch? Recent wide field images and analyses now indicate that our home galaxy is actually still in the process of devouring its closest satellite neighbor. This unfortunate neighbor, the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, is now seen to be part of a larger...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 July 27 The Aquarius Dwarf Credit & Copyright: A. Oksanen, 2.6 meter Nordic Optical Telescope Explanation: Our Milky Way Galaxy is not alone. It is part of a gathering of about 50 galaxies known as the Local Group. Members include the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M32, M33, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud, Dwingeloo 1, several small irregular galaxies, and many dwarf elliptical and dwarf...

A warm welcome for Lucy 'Just because she's not average doesn't mean she's not normal' 01/15/2003 By ESTHER WU / The Dallas Morning News It's never easy being the new kid in school. But for Lu Chiu-Ting, whose English is limited to a few phrases, including "OK, bye-bye," "potty" and "telephone," school is particularly challenging. At 29 inches tall, the 9-year-old is about half the size of her classmates and can barely see over the top of the school desks. But to third-grade students at Southlake's Florence Elementary School, Chiu-Ting, or Lucy, as she is now called, is a...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 13 The Dumbbell Nebula in Hydrogen and Oxygen Credit & Copyright: George Jacoby (NOAO) et al., WIYN, AURA, NOAO, NSF Explanation: The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of "annoying" diffuse objects not to be confused with "interesting" comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27...

RIYADH --A Saudi newspaper Monday lashed out at Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, calling him a "dwarf" and accusing him of openly dealing with Israel. "Hamad bin Jassem has chosen the (wrong) door to history, the one shunned by honest people dedicated to their (Arab) nation," ***Al-Watan*** daily said in a hard-hitting editorial. "The damage and abuses of the man have reached an unacceptable level ... We felt it was our duty to address him so he may understand ... We hope he does," the daily said. The criticism comes one day after Sheikh Hamad...

Reich is falling behind in $ race: Democratic candidate has less cash than foes by Joe Battenfeld Thursday, April 18, 2002 <!CAT-LONW!> Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Robert Reich, facing a key test at next month's party convention, has about $140,000 in campaign cash - less than one tenth the size of his top rivals' accounts.<!ENDSUMM!> New campaign finance reports show that Reich actually spent more money last month than he took in - a glaring problem for any candidate seeking to get his campaign off the ground. Reich, the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, spent more than $157,000...