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After erupting more dramatically Monday and Tuesday than it has in 1,200 years, according to scientists, the Popocatepetl volcano 35 miles from Mexico City staged a sudden shutdown.

This was not the ominous pause that volcanologists had feared, which would have been accompanied by tremors indicating a dangerous buildup of internal pressure, but a return to a quieter state. Hopefully, this means that the eruptive period has ended without major loss of life or property damage. However, the Mexican government plans to provide residents with shelter outside of the danger area until after Christmas.
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Mexican authorities were on maximum alert Tuesday afternoon as el Popo began to show signs of a possible serious eruption, and a glacier at the summit was endangered by rising surface temperatures. Red-hot rocks the size of beach balls were exploding out of the crater.

Authorities have closed off a 10-kilometer ring around the volcano, and 30,000 people had been evacuated by noon Tuesday. Residents are no longer resisting Federal efforts at evacuation. When President Vincente Fox visited the area by helicopter, he was besieged by locals who told him that the recent upsurge in activity has frightened them badly. Nobody can remember a time when the volcano was this violent.

Through the night, Popo created a spectacular light show above Mexico City.
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NYT – A biotechnology committee formed by the U.S. and the European Union is expected to recommend that the United States toughen its regulation of genetically modified foods.

Consumers, they feel, should have the “right of informed choice,” meaning that genfoods should be labeled so that consumers can avoid them if they want to. Right now the Food and Drug Administration requires nutritional labeling on food, and has requirements for a food to be labeled “organic,” but does not require that genetically engineered foods be identified.
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In a twist on the Sasquatch legend, scientists in Thailand have acted on videotape evidence that pre-historic mammoths may still be living in the remote forests of northern Thailand. Princess Rangsrinopadorn Yokol, a conservationist who is a member of Thailand?s royal family, has released videos of a small herd of elephants-like creatures she filmed in 1984 while making a survey of the remaining wild elephant population. The Princess said she could clearly see that these animals had the unusually long hair of mammoths, despite the fact that the images she captured are hazy.

Dr. Preecha Puangkam, a leading elephant expert, has stated that this is merely a herd of wild elephants, of which there are only 2,000 left. “They?re no hairier than normal elephants,” he said.
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