Media for the Birds

While the American media has been obsessing once again over JonBenet, it is left to the European Press to give currency to important happenings in the United States. Today, for example, the London Independent gave front page treatment to a story on bird extinction that features a study out of Duke:

Last month, a study by Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences concluded that without the impact of human exploration and activity, a natural rate of extinction would be around one species of bird a century. Instead, one species a year is being lost.

If current trends continue, more than 1,200 different types of bird could become extinct during the course of the 21st century.

Perhaps Hitchcock was a prophet.