BOSTON (Reuters) - Writer Dan Baum, a self-described Jewish liberal Democrat and a gun enthusiast since childhood, strapped a revolver to his side in 2009 and set off on an 18-month, 15,000 mileexploration of the U.S. firearms culture.

His book, "Gun Guys: A Road Trip," was released this month amid a gun-control debate rekindled by the December 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Baum, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, says it was a challenge to write for two polarized audiences: liberals and fiercely protective gun lovers.

He spoke to Reuters about America's gun culture, semi-automatic weapons and what he learned about himself from writing the book.

Q: Are you a gun guy, or were you acting?

A: I'm a gun guy, and I live in a world of anti-gun people. Being a liberal Democrat, my whole social world is among people who dislike guns and dislike gun people.

Q: What should gun-control advocates know about America's gun culture?

A: Guns are cool; they're fun; they're mechanically gorgeous; they last forever.

But the really deep stuff is - we have a lot of freedom in this country to own guns. Our gun laws bespeak a trust in the people. And for the gun guys, this is really what America is about.

The ones who mostly buy guns are straight, white, middle-aged men, rural, who have not finished college, and that is a demographic that has seen their world collapse in all kinds of ways. The NRA (National Rifle Association) comes along and whispers in their ear, "Yeah, you're pissed, you know why? Because the liberals want to take away your guns."

Gun guys derive tremendous pride from being able to manage these incredibly dangerous devices safely, and then along come these pointy-headed urban liberals who have never had any guns, and they want to tell you that you can't be trusted with this device. It is unimaginably offensive.

I'm not asking you to like these people. But I'm asking you to listen to them. They are not just testosterone-poisoned death freaks.

Q: And what can the 100 million U.S. gun owners do to lower the temperature?

A: Gun guys have to get serious about locking up their guns. Most of the bad (stuff) that happens with guns in the United States happens with guns that some law-abiding gun owner left unattended.

The problem is, gun guys do not see themselves as responsible for gun violence. Gun guys have to accept, I have to accept, that my guns affect you.

Q: You quote a prediction that President Obama would push for gun control if re-elected.

A: I lost a $100 bet with a guy. I said there's no way that the Democrats are going to make another serious run at gun control. I think they're going to pay big time. Until the gun-control push after Sandy Hook, we had a chance of taking the House (of Representatives) ... Now we have no chance.

Q: Is it wrong to focus on controlling semi-automatic rifles, particularly the AR-15.?

A: It's ignorant. The gun-control world is trying to pass off the AR-15 as some kind of bizarre outlier of the gun world, when in fact it's all anybody wants to shoot.

Q: What did you learn about yourself through this book?.

A: I am no less a Democrat, I am no less an Obama supporter. But I really understand the conservative lament that we are becoming a nation of weak, disrespected, over-managed individuals.

Q: You depicted conversations and scenes at which you were not present. How did you come about your story-telling style.?

A: I ask a lot of questions. If I can go see the place where it happened I do that. I try to talk to as many people who were there as I can. It takes time to get that out of people. I'm writing about ordinary people and I try very hard to portray them the way they want to be portrayed.

Q: You've also written about the drug wars. How does the gun-control effort compare?

A: The gun issue, like the drug issue, is used to avoid talking about all kinds of stuff that's much more central. We have gone out of our way to avoid having any sense of collective care. If we have people wigging out and killing people, maybe it's because we have created a society where everybody is extremely alienated and extremely stressed. And it's getting more so, because the one percent are getting an increased amount of wealth, leaving less for the rest of us.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Paul Simao)

Washington (Reuters) - Tanning beds and sunlamps will be required to carry stronger warning labels under new regulations proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is also recommending the machines not be used by people under the age of 18.

The FDA said on Monday that it plans to reclassify sunbeds from low-risk to moderate-risk products, meaning they will need to be cleared by the agency before being allowed onto the market.

Faulty equipment has led to patients being burned or exposed to too much radiation, Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's center for devices and radiological health, said in an interview.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basal cell and squamous cell cancer, the two most common forms, are generally curable; but melanoma, the third most common type, is deadly.

In 2009, the most recent year numbers are available, 61,646 people in the United States were diagnosed with melanoma and 9,199 people died, according to the CDC.

The FDA's proposed regulations stop short of recommendations made by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, which in 2009 concluded that commercial tanning devices were more dangerous than previously thought and recommended people under 18 be banned from using them.

The FDA's regulations also stop short of new rules being developed by some U.S. states.

More than 30 states regulate the use of tanning facilities to differing degrees. Delaware, New Hampshire and North Dakota, for example, ban the use of indoor tanning by anyone under age 14 unless medically necessary and they require parental consent for those between the ages of 14 and 18.

Some states, including Georgia, Illinois and Maine, ban tanning beds for children under the age of 14, and eighteen states require tanning bed operators to limit exposure time to a manufacturers' recommendations and provide eye protection.

In January 2012, California became the first state to ban tanning beds for all people under 18.

The Indoor Tanning Association argues vigorously that the decision on whether a teen is allowed to suntan is one for parents, not government, and it supports parental consent. But it is fighting the growing number of states issuing bans.

"Is the next step to ban teens from sun bathing at public beaches and pools?" the association asked in a statement last year in opposition to New Jersey's proposal to ban tanning bed use for those under 17.

"You also have to consider the health risks associated with banning teenagers from using tanning salons," it said. "They will just go outside with no adult supervision and no trained staff where they are much more likely to get sunburned."

The FDA's actions follow a 2010 meeting of a federal advisory panel which unanimously recommended that the agency reclassify tanning devices. Panelists had mixed views on whether to implement a ban on minors.

An estimated 5.6 percent of U.S. adults reported indoor tanning at least once in 2010, with the highest rates among white, female 18 to 25-year-olds, according to the CDC, which notes that frequent exposure to UV rays for people under the age of 35 increases the risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.

"For right now our proposal tries to focus on providing better information for consumers," Shuren said, "including a warning on the tanning beds themselves that they shouldn't be used in people under 18," he said.

Depending on the feedback the agency receives to its proposal, it may make changes to the final order, he said.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be similar to the group's authoritative , which created internationally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.

"The Red Lists for species and ecosystems will together provide a more comprehensive view of the status of the environment and its biodiversity than either can on its own," said lead study author David Keith, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"Thefocuses on a high level of biodiversity, the habitats for species, as well as their interactions and dependencies, including food webs, Keith told OurAmazingPlanet in an email interview. These are difficult or impossible to address in Red List assessments of individual species, but very important for the functioning of ecosystems and the services that they provide to support our standards of living."

Through 20 case studies, Keith and an international team of biologists and conservationists designed criteria that could assess the health of all of Earth's varied , from spring-fed limestone caves to sparkling coral reefs.

"This is really a unifying framework," said study co-author Richard Kingsford, also a professor at the University of New South Wales. "The most important thing here, from my point of view, is providing evidence that pushes governments to do things to protect these magnificent parts of the world."

Of the ecosystems examined in the case studies, the most endangered site was the . Drained by a massive irrigation project and further devastated by drought and pollution, the inland sea's ecosystem has collapsed the equivalent of species extinction, the study concludes.The rest of the ecosystem threat categories mirror those for species: critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable and least concern.

North American ecosystems appearing in the case studies included Alaska's giant kelp forests; the Great Lakes' rare Alvar beaches, a legacy of glaciers grinding across the landscape; and Caribbean coral reefs.

The IUCN group that developed the Red List of Ecosystems criteria plans to formally propose the framework to IUCN leadership this year. Funding is in place for listing ecosystems in the Americas, and the organization hopes to have a global list in place by 2025.

Development of ecosystem and speciesare also underway the carrot to the Red Lists' stick to help the IUCN promote conservation by rewarding successes.

Here are the 20 case studies published today, from most to least endangered, with the ecosystem type noted if available.

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The Pentagon this week said China appeared to be cyberspying against the U.S. government, the first time it has made such an assertion in its annual report on Chinese military power. A bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would require the president to block imports of products using stolen U.S. technology or made by companies implicated in computer theft.

Washington's sudden focus on Chinese hacking comes after rising complaints from U.S. businesses about theft of trade secrets. Amid growing evidence that the People's Liberation Army and other state-backed groups are behind the infiltrations, Beijing's statements that the cyberhacking allegations are groundless repeated anew Wednesday by the Chinese Defense Ministry are being broadly dismissed.

"Hacking has become a significant sore spot in the U.S.-China relationship," said Abe Denmark, senior director of the National Bureau of Asian Research, an independent U.S.-based think tank. "It encompasses security, trade and intellectual property rights, and has become an issue of strategic significance to Washington."

Thus far, President Barack Obama's administration has mostly sought to apply pressure and avoid a confrontation that could set off a Chinese backlash at a time when Washington wants to keep the economy afloat. The issue was raised on recent visits by U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, although Dempsey said that no specific measures to discourage such activity were discussed.

The sides also agreed to form a joint working group to address the matter, adding it to the other disputes that bedevil ties, including trade, North Korea, Iran, Chinese territorial claims and human rights.

There are scant signs of progress so far, with State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell saying only that "we look forward to engaging in that dialogue."

Chinese hacking and cyberspying are described by experts to be so widespread and persistent that it has caused billions of dollars in economic losses and become an issue of U.S. national security by possibly placing critical infrastructure at risk. Washington is trying to beef up defenses by working with Internet companies and security firms.

The Pentagon report released Monday said China is using its cyber capabilities to collect intelligence against U.S. diplomatic, economic and defense programs. And the report warned that the skills needed for such espionage are similar to those needed to conduct more aggressive cyberattacks.

Though the Pentagon did not pinpoint sources of the hacking, U.S.-based Internet security firm Mandiant said in a February report that it traced years of cyberattacks against 140 mostly American companies to a People's Liberation Army unit in Shanghai. Mandiant executives say attacks originating in China have continued since then, with the exception of those from Shanghai-based Unit 61398 that had been highlighted in its earlier report.

China has called the accusations groundless, saying it's impossible to tell the origin of cyber-intrusions, and complained that it too is a target of hacking, with many attacks coming from the U.S.

"As everyone knows, it's America that is the real 'hackers empire,' People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, wrote in a commentary.

Though China has provided scant specifics, the National Security Agency was tasked in 1997 with developing ways to attack foreign computer networks, according to recently declassified information released last month by the National Security Archive of George Washington University. One of the most successful acts of cyber-sabotage the insertion of the Stuxnet virus into computer systems for Iran's nuclear program in 2010 is believed to have been the work of the U.S. and Israel.

China's Defense Ministry dismissed the Pentagon report, calling it an attempt to "turn black into white and mislead international public opinion," in a statement that did not directly address the assertions about cyberspying and the overall rising capabilities of the PLA.

"In recent years, the United States vigorously developed advanced weapons and equipment and formed an offensive cyberwarfare unit. This is obvious to the international community. The United States has no right to make irresponsible remarks on China's legitimate building of its defense and military," the ministry said.

James Mulvenon, a specialist on the Chinese military and cyberwarfare at Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Defense Group Inc. scoffed at the dismissal. He tweeted: "'Groundless accusations,' eh? Wasted 100s of hours fighting in my networks."

With Beijing so far not forthcoming, often partisan forces in Washington are coalescing around the need for tougher action.

The Senate bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, including Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican John McCain of Arizona. While it doesn't mention China as a specific target of sanctions, a news release on the legislation notes that "recent reports indicate that China is by far the largest source of theft attempts against U.S. companies."

"We need to call out those who are responsible for cyber theft and empower the president to hit the thieves where it hurts most in their wallets, by blocking imports of products from companies that benefit from this theft," Levin was quoted as saying in the release.

The Senate's bipartisan approach, rising attention from the administration and public expressions of concern from the normally pro-Beijing business community illustrate how the issue has already reached critical mass, said Yu Maochun, a China scholar at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

"The Chinese hacking is so staggering and so significantly un-American that it has actually united major bickering and partisan sections of American society, the same way Pearl Harbor or Sept. 11 did," Yu said.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Matthew Pennington contributed to this report from Washington.

The politically volatile debate reflects a reality that's difficult for parents, including the president, to swallow: Quite a number of teenagers have sex. So how easily should they be able to get a pill that prevents pregnancy if taken soon enough after sex?

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration made it a little easier, saying anyone 15 or older could begin buying one brand, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription two years younger than the current age limit of 17 and that the pill no longer has to be locked behind pharmacy counters.

But it's far from clear whether that will happen. U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York had given the FDA until Monday to lift all age limits on Plan B and a cheaper generic, mandating that emergency contraception be sold just like aspirin. Instead, by requiring that buyers prove their age at the cash register, the FDA decided to treat it like beer.

The Justice Department hasn't said whether it will appeal Korman's order and thus back FDA's new approach, and that leaves the whole issue in limbo.

"This is a truly bizarre and unprecedented situation," said American University law professor Lewis A. Grossman, a specialist in food and drug law.

On Wednesday, doctors' groups, led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, urged the Obama administration not to let the FDA action be the last word.

Any over-the-counter access marks a long-awaited change, but it's not enough, said Dr. Cora Breuner of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which supports nonprescription sale of the morning-after pill for all ages.

"We still have the major issue, which is our teen pregnancy rate is still too high," Breuner said.

Even though few young girls likely would use Plan B, which costs about $50 for a single pill, "we know that it is safe for those under 15," she said.

Most 17- to 19-year-olds are sexually active, and 30 percent of 15- and 16-year-olds have had sex, according to a study published last month by the journal Pediatrics. Sex is much rarer among younger teens. Likewise, older teens have a higher pregnancy rate, but that study also counted more than 110,000 pregnancies among 15- and 16-year-olds in 2008 alone.

The White House sought Wednesday to put much as much distance as possible between President Barack Obama and this political hot potato.

"The president, the White House, did not weigh in on this decision," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of the FDA's move.

Obama must balance his own instincts as the father of two school-age daughters with the wishes of numerous political constituencies, including women's groups whose influence runs deep within the Democratic Party. It was just last week that Obama became the first president to address Planned Parenthood in person, telling the abortion rights group that as long as women must fight to make their own health choices, "you've also got a president who's going to be right there with you fighting every step of the way."

Contraception advocates see a double standard. No one is carded when buying a condom, but under the FDA's decision they would have to prove their age when buying a pill to prevent pregnancy if that condom breaks.

"This isn't a compromise. This is wrong," said Cynthia Pearson of the National Women's Health Network.

Likewise, social conservatives were outraged by the FDA's move, saying it was important for parents and medical professionals to be involved in such decisions involving teens.

"This decision undermines the right of parents to make important health decisions for their young daughters," said Anna Higgins of the Family Research Council. She added that removing the prescription requirement meant "teens and women will avoid necessary medical screenings" that could detect serious problems.

The FDA had been poised to lift all age limits and let Plan B sell over the counter in late 2011, when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in an unprecedented move, overruled her own scientists. Sebelius said some girls as young as 11 were physically capable of bearing children but shouldn't be able to buy the pregnancy-preventing pill on their own.

Ruling earlier this month in a lawsuit challenging that decision, Korman blasted the Obama administration for letting election-year politics trump science. The judge called the morning-after pill "among the safest drugs sold over the counter," and gave the government 30 days to lift all age limits.

Obama aides bristled at the suggestion that the FDA decision was an attempt at political compromise, insisting the FDA merely responded to an application filed by Plan B's manufacturer which sought the 15 age limit and over-the-counter sales.

At the same time, Carney signaled that a policy allowing 15-year-olds to buy the pill off the shelf would be more palatable to Obama than the prospect of 11-year-olds having unfettered access. Pointing to Obama's comments in support of Sebelius back in 2011, Carney said, "he referred to younger girls, and I believe so did Secretary Sebelius."

If a woman already is pregnant, the morning-after pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg. According to the medical definition, pregnancy doesn't begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. Still, some critics say Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it may also be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, a contention that many scientists and Korman, in his ruling said has been discredited.

Fossils of at least five species of vegetarian birdlike dinosaurs known as caenagnathids have been found from West Texas to Canada with wide variation in their beak shapes and body size, giving scientists clues about how the small creatures could coexist by carving out different dietary niches.

Charlesby natural selection was famously inspired by the diversity ofon the Galapagos Islands, which he took as a sign that the birds had somehow adapted to the specific environments where they lived. More recent research has shown that Darwin's finches can evolve quite quickly. For instance, one speciesto better compete with another bird for small seeds in a mere two decades. []

Millions of years ago, different species of caenagnathids may have similarly adjusted their beak size across western North America.

"Each species has a different beak structure. You could have a lot of different species in one environment, because they ate different kinds of foods, which is how different species of Darwin's finches coexist," Nicholas R. Longrich, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, said in a statement. "So, in a way, the evolution of modern dinosaurs birds provides insight into ancient, extinct dinosaurs."

Fossil collectors in Texas recently found a new species of the turkey-sized dinosaur, dubbed Leptorhynchos gaddisi, in the Aguja Formation near Big Bend National Park. The 75-million-year-old remains of this species suggest it had a more rounded chin and a less upturned beak than its Canadian relative, Leptorhynchos elegans. The short deep mandible of the new species also suggests it ate tougher, more fibrous plants than its neighbors known as Chirostenotes and Caenagnathus, researchers say.

"These are subtle differences, but they mean we're dealing with different species," Longrich said. "If you look at modern birds, one of the things that distinguishes a crow from a raven, or two types of albatrosses from each other, is the beak proportions. We can do the same thing with dinosaurs that we do with modern birds, and identify them using beak shapes."

Considering that small dinosaurs have a poor fossil record in North America, having at least five known specialized species of caenagnathids some of them living side-by-side suggests the group had relatively high diversity, the researchers say.

The findings were detailed April 26 in the Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After enduring a roller-coaster season described by Hall of Famer Earvin 'Magic' Johnson as "one of the worst" in franchise history, Los Angeles Lakers fans are scratching their heads over what may happen next.

Widely tipped as National Basketball Association (NBA) championship contenders after assembling a star-studded lineup for their 2012-13 campaign, the injury-hit Lakers were swept out of the playoffs in the opening round by the San Antonio Spurs.

It was the first time in 46 years they had been knocked out of the post-season in four games, a humiliating exit for a team many had predicted would challenge the record 72 games won by the Chicago Bulls during their landmark 1995-96 regular season.

Despite boasting a potent starting five including All-Stars Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, Los Angeles limped to an underwhelming 45-37 record as their ageing lineup succumbed to a spate of injuries.

Though they ended the regular season on a 28-12 run to book their place in the playoffs as the seventh-seeded team, that achievement came at a price with the inspirational Bryant ruled out of the post-season due to an Achilles tendon injury.

The Lakers were totally outplayed by the second-seeded Spurs in their first-round series, routed 103-82 in Game Four after center Howard was ejected following a second technical foul early in the third quarter.

"Dwight Howard that was a big No, No. Your teammates and the fans were counting on you," Johnson tweeted, before adding: "Dwight, I've been swept before but I never let my team down by getting kicked out of the game."

Johnson, who with fellow Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spearheaded the Lakers in the fabled "Showtime" era from 1979-1989, was not finished.

"I'm sooooooooooo happy the season is over. With the talent on this team this could go down as one of the worst seasons in Lakers' history!"

Johnson, along with many others, had expected much of the men in purple-and-gold after the off-season acquisitions of Howard and Nash beefed up a roster already bristling with quality and experience in Bryant and Gasol.

However Nash ended up missing 24 games because of a fracture in his left leg while Howard never appeared to recover fully from back surgery in mid 2012 while battling a shoulder injury and perceived tension between himself and team leader Bryant.

Forwards Gasol and Metta World Peace, along with backup guards Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, were sidelined because of assorted ailments during a tumultuous season as the team failed to gel until the pressure was on to make the playoffs.

SHIFTED ROLES

Head coach Mike D'Antoni was widely criticized for an apparent inability to adjust his offense-minded style to fit a mainly old and slow roster, gifted Spaniard Gasol suffering the most as he was repeatedly shifted between multiple roles.

"It was a bit of a roller-coaster, obviously," D'Antoni said of his first season in charge of the Lakers.

"A lot of disappointment at the end. Due to a lot of circumstances, we started off slow and got us in a hole.

"The last 40 games, we played well. Disappointed we couldn't do anything in the playoffs - a lot of it due to injuries. We had ourselves set up to make a run, but we didn't do it."

The biggest question mark facing the Lakers ahead of next season is whether they can retain both big men, Howard and Gasol, as the team's luxury taxes will soar from $30 million to $85 million if they again have a $100-million payroll.

Howard, 27, will test free agency and is noncommittal about his plans. He can either re-sign with Los Angeles for five years and $118 million or opt for a four-year, $88-million deal with another team.

Gasol, 32, has been a frequent subject of trade rumors and, with a guarantee on his contract of $19.3 million for next season, said earlier this week that he understood the "business side" of the Lakers.

"There's a possibility I could be gone," he told reporters. There's a possibility I could stay. I'm prepared either way.

"I understand the challenges the franchise is facing and the decision they have to make in order to keep the team in the direction they want looking at the present and the future."

Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, fervently hopes the Lakers can go into next season with both Howard and Gasol.

"I want him here," Bryant said of Gasol. "He gives us the best chance to win titles. You bring Dwight back, then we're off and running. You saw how well they played together (at the end of the season). That puzzle finally got solved."

Bryant, who averaged 27.3 points and 6.0 assists during the regular season before he tore his Achilles tendon on April 12, felt the Lakers never had the chance to gel because of their alarming injury rate.

"It was crazy," he said.

"It was a constant process for us, but we finally figured it out. It will be great to bring the group back because we know what to do, and we know how lethal we can be."

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

Its been more than six months since Superstorm Sandy ravaged the coastal areas of New York and New Jersey, but the deadly storm is on the verge of claiming another high profile victim.

Coney Islands famed Mermaid Parade, an annual event dating back to 1983 in which thousands of people dress up like fantastical sea creatures and march through the streets to welcome the beginning of summer, is on the brink of cancellation because of damage from Sandy.

While the parade route hasnt been affected, the parades organizer, Coney Island USA, suffered nearly $500,000 in damage when Sandy sent more than five feet of water into its headquarters along Surf Avenue last October. Rebuilding the facilitywhich includes a museum dedicated to Coney Island as well as a performance space for the areas legendary freak show, burlesque dancers and old-time strongmenhas left the nonprofit group cash-strapped and unable to front the estimated $190,000 cost of the parade.

On Monday, the groupcampaign in hopes of raising the funds needed to hold the parade, which is tentatively scheduled for June 22. It attracted 750,000 people last year and has generated millions in revenues for businesses in Coney Island, which was hard hit by Sandy.

It is painful to say it, but if we cant raise the money, there will be no Mermaid Parade. For real, Dick Zigun, head of Coney Island USA and the founder of the parade, told Yahoo News. It would be a blow to the neighborhood and to the city. But we just cant afford it.

The parade, which has been described as a cross between Mardi Gras and Burning Man, usually has been paid for by a mix of registration fees, corporate sponsorships and proceeds from the Mermaid Ball, an annual gala held after the march. But this years ball has been derailed, according Zigun. Its usual locationthe New York Aquariumalso sustained heavy damage from Sandy and has been closed since last October. The same thing goes for other potential venues in the neighborhood, including the Abe Stark Roller Skating Rink, which is being rebuilt in the aftermath of Sandy.

While Coney Island USAs museum and events center is aiming to reopen later this month, lost revenues from the last six months have taken a major toll on the nonprofit group, which was created to help preserve and promote the neighborhoods arts and culture and attract new visitors to the area. The Mermaid Parade was launched as part of that outreach and soon gained international attention, luring participants from around the world attracted to the weird, quirky nature of the event.

Even celebrities have shown up. Actor Harvey Keitel and singers David Byrne and Lou Reed are among those who have served as the parades King Neptunethe honorary male grand marshal. Last year, the Mermaid Queen was actress Annabella Sciorra.

This is a peoples parade, a free event. We dont make money. We usually come close to breaking even or lose money, which is normally fine by me, Zigun said. But after Sandy, he added, his top priority has been getting Coney Island USA running again.

This year, I cant sacrifice everything for the Mermaid Parade. I cant let the organization commit suicide, he said.

As one of the most popular traditions in Coney Island, the Mermaid Parade has enjoyed the backing of city officials, who offered to let Zigun cancel this years event without fear that permits would be harder to get in 2014. But Zigun insists he doesnt want to do thatarguing the Mermaid Parade is important to a neighborhood that is still struggling to get back to normal after Sandy.

(The parade) is the symbolic heart and soul of the rebirth of Coney Island, dating back to 30 years ago, Zigun said. The last thing we need is for Sandy to take this away.

At the burial shortly afterward, amid tears and embraces, the brothers vow vengeance against the leftist rebels who kidnapped and killed him.

It's a crucial moment in a Colombian paramilitary soap opera that has stirred unprecedented controversy by dramatizing and some say romanticizing the career of the Castano brothers, central figures in the creation of the country's murderous far-right militias.

While founded to fight leftist guerrillas, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia evolved into criminal gangs, enriched by drug trafficking, that killed thousands and stole land from tens of thousands more, colluding with scores of prominent politicians.

The soap opera is called "Three Cains," an allusion to the Biblical story of Cain slaying his brother Abel, in part because Vicente Castano had his brother Carlos murdered in 2004.

A grassroots campaign against the show, which runs on the Mundo Fox cable channel in the United States and RCN in Colombia, also has raised questions about a whole genre of Colombian TV series that focuses on the country's top drug traffickers. Some say such shows glorify killers while minimizing victims.

"It's clear that those topics have to be dealt with. The question is, why treat them from the point of view of Cain and not Abel?" said Daniel Naranjo, who with three friends launched a Facebook campaign promoting an advertising boycott against the series that has gained thousands of supporters.

Instead of focusing on the Castano brothers, or the late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, he asked, why not instead focus on their victims?

"Three Cains" portrays the brothers in their loves as well as their conflicts aspects of their lives that were sometimes entangled, at least on the screen, as they sent killers after romantic rivals or those who betrayed them. The first few weeks also have traced the Castanos' secret alliance with police and soldiers to attack Escobar and his allies.

Less detail so far has been given to incidents such as the January 1990 Pueblo Bello massacre, in which the brothers' gang kidnapped 43 peasants, loaded them into trucks, hauled them away to a family ranch and killed them, according to the Inter-American Human Rights Court. The Castanos allegedly believed at least some of the villagers had aided rebels who had stolen cattle from them.

Among the dead was Wilson Fuentes, a 45-year-old banana farmer and rancher. For his daughter Katy, who was 14 when her father was seized, the series is an affront.

"It makes me re-live that moment," she said. "What it does is re-victimize us ... It's a lack of respect for the victims."

Her father's body, like most of those slain, was never found, and the possible explanations say much about the Castanos' reputation. "There are many versions," Fuentes said. "Supposedly they had an oven; they tossed them in the oven and they were incinerated. Other versions say they had some lions and they gave them to the lions to eat. Others say they threw them into the Sinu River."

"The truth, nobody knows," said Fuentes. "Or if they know, they do not want to say."

The fate of two of the Castanos themselves is a mystery as well. While Carlos was killed in 2004, just as the paramilitaries were disbanding as part of a peace deal with the government, Fidel and Vicente both disappeared under murky circumstances. Carlos had long maintained that Fidel died in combat in the 1990s but no corpse was ever recovered. Vicente's fate is unknown.

While some earlier TV series generated protests, the campaign against "Three Cains" is the first to prompt sponsors such as the Falabella chain of stores and Nivea cosmetics to pull backing from a show, local media analysts say.

Even so, the show is winning viewers. It has been among the top five most-viewed programs on Colombian television during its run.

RCN Television, which produced the show and is the target of the protests, refused to comment on the complaints when contacted by The Associated Press. A screenwriter for the series, Gustavo Bolivar, rejected the campaign against it as "bordering on censorship" and denied glorifying the criminals.

"We are showing how these drug traffickers became paramilitaries and these paramilitaries attacked the civilian population," he said.

A chapter of Colombia's history "is being told, for good or ill," Bolivar said. "Those who want, watch it. Those who don't have the remote control in their hands and can watch another program."

Still, the societal trauma from Colombia's seemingly interminable conflict the paramilitary phenomenon is just one offshoot of a nearly half-century-old guerrilla conflict is so deep that many are offended by an attempt to earn television ratings by dramatizing it.

"The issue is that paramilitarism is still a relatively recent topic, so sectors of the population still have an open wound," said Jeronimo Rivera, head of the audiovisual department at the University of La Sabana in Bogota.

For sociologist Miguel Angel Hernandez of the University of the Atlantic, the show's depiction of huge houses, luxurious cars and numerous bodyguards leaves the message "that evil pays."

"Evil pays for 95 percent of the series and in the 5 percent at the end it says that evil does not pay. Why"? So it can be, let's say, presentable before public opinion."

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Associated Press writer Cesar Garcia contributed to this report.

The new research, published today (April 22) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the historical links between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and surface temperatures on Earth. Between about 333.5 million years ago and 34 million years ago, the climate transitioned from theclimate to the cooler, low-carbon-dioxide Oligocene epoch. Scientists estimate that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dropped from 1,000 parts per million to about 600 to 700 parts per million in this time frame.

During this time, ice sheets emerged overand the ocean cooled by some 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Researchers have been able to peg ocean temperatures accurately using cores of rock and mud drilled from the deep ocean. Figuring out what was happening on land has been more difficult, however.

So study researcher Michael Hren, a professor of chemistry and geosciences at the University of Connecticut, and his colleagues turned to snails. They tested fossils of a freshwater snail, Viviparus lentus, from the Isle of Wight in Great Britain, looking for variations in carbon and oxygen molecules called isotopes. []

Most important, the researchers examined how the carbon and oxygen isotopes were bound together in the fossils. These bonds are temperature-dependent, so they told researchers how chilly or warm the water was when the snails lived. From that information, the scientists could calculate how hot the air must have been.

The shells revealed that freshwater temperatures cooled by 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. The water-cooling translates to about a 7.2 degree to 11 degree F (4 to 6 degrees C) drop in air temperatures over northern Europe, the scientists reported.

These findings are important because human greenhouse gas emissions could drive atmospheric carbon dioxide up to near-Eocene levels. Ice cores put pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels at about 278 parts per million from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1800. Today, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at about 397 parts per million and climbing. According to a 2011 study in the journal Science by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), if carbon dioxide continues to rise as it is today, Earth's atmosphere could hitby 2100.

"We are on a path to fundamentally alter our global climate state," Hren said in a statement. "These data definitely give you pause."

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