The annual hunt on Canadas Atlantic coast “is a bloody reality” every year, said the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis which organised the protest.

The animal rights activists lay in Barcelonas Plaza de Catalunya while men dressed as hunters pretended to beat them with sticks.

“Actually, this is due to overfishing and not to an excess number of seals.”

The hunt is allowed for “commercial reasons” and “hides behind the spurious argument that an overpopulation of seals harms cod stocks off the Canadian coast,” said Jonathan Torralba, the head of communication at AnimaNaturalis in Spain.

The European Union in July 2009 adopted a ban on seal products, ruling the goods could not be marketed from 2010.

Around 6,000 Canadians take part in the seal hunt every year.

In November, Canada filed an official complaint at the World Trade Organization against the EU ban on imported seal products, saying it violated trade rules.

Injuries can range from irritation to full on tears, or ruptures, of the tissue. While anyone who engages in activities that use the calf muscle can suffer an Achilles injury, they are most common in so-called “weekend warriors,” people who arent accustomed to regular exercise and might not take the time to properly stretch and warm up, according to the National Institutes of Health .

The Achilles tendon is a band of fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscle to the heel bone, according to the Mayo Clinic. You use this tendon in practically every activity that involves moving your foot, from walking and running to jumping and standing on tip-toe. Its also the largest tendon in your body, and can withstand more than 1,000 pounds of force, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS).

A ruptured Achilles can sometimes feel like a snap in your lower leg accompanied by a sharp pain, akin to being kicked or even shot, the Mayo Clinic says.

A number of actives can put stress on your Achilles and set off an injury, such as stair-climbing, hill-running or a sudden contraction of your calf muscle during a sprint, the AAOS says. The Achilles also tends to weaken with age.

Treatment for tears involves either wearing a cast or having surgery (as Beckham is reportedly having) to repair the tissue, along with rehabilitation. Most people can get back to their regular level of activity within four to six months, according to the Mayo Clinic. 5 Myths About the Male Body 10 Things You Didnt Know About You Body Quiz: What the Parts Do Original Story: What Does the Achilles Tendon Do?LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

“So far, we have not been able to find anything to explain the incident that Mr. Sikes reported,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a statement.

After reaching speeds over 145 kilometers per hour, Sikes was able to bring the hybrid to a stop with the coaching of a California Highway Patrol officer who pulled up alongside him.

“We would caution people that our work continues and that we may never know exactly what happened with this car,” NHTSA said, adding that “there was very little left of the cars brakes.”

The Prius is equipped with a brake override system that shuts down the engines throttle if both the gas and brake pedals are pressed and was working during the tests.

A lawyer representing Sikes said he is standing by his story and it isnt surprising or unexpected that the engineers were unable to replicate the wild ride.

Toyota planned to discuss the incident and the test results at a press conference later Monday.

Sikes has no incentive to make anything up, Gomez added, as hes made it clear that he has no intention of filing a lawsuit and has turned down invitations to appear on national television.

“Theres a ghost in the machine,” attorney John Gomez said. “And no one is able to replicate it or pinpoint it or identify it.”

Toyota has insisted that it has found a solution to the defects that triggered the recall of more than eight million vehicles worldwide, including six million in the United States, and have been blamed for about 50 US deaths.

“Hes not trying to get rich, hes not trying to get famous. He only wanted the truth to come out,” Gomez said.

The runaway Prius story dominated headlines last week and cast further doubt on Toyotas assurances that there is nothing wrong with its electronics.

Safety regulators said they are investigating more than 60 complaints of unintended acceleration in vehicles which had received the fix and critics insist that Toyotas mechanical fixes ignore the real problem.

California Congressman Darrell Issa, the top Republican on a committee investigating Toyotas handling of the recall believes the tests create concerns about “the veracity of the sequence of events that has been reported by Mr. Sikes,” spokesman Kurt Bardella said.

Only professionals with space flight experience need apply, which limits the pool of possible applicants worldwide to little more than 500.

Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based firm headed by hotelier Robert Bigelow, owner of Budget Suites of America, posted a recruitment notice for astronauts on its website.

Bigelow seeks staff for its planned orbital space complex, prototypes of which already are in orbit. The company plans a series of inflatable space habitats that can be used for research, tourism, manufacturing and other activities.

NASAs shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired at the end of this year. With no successor craft on the near horizon, thousands of workers expect to lose their jobs.

The ad made no mention of salary, and the job description includes working with the marketing department to secure government and corporate clients.

As part of running the Bigelow space complex, company astronauts may be tapped for spacewalks, the job note says.

The opening for an unspecified number of astronauts is among 45 positions Bigelow is looking to fill. Most are engineering and technical posts. The company is also hiring for its building and grounds maintenance team.

That’s why a NASA team was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera’s cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

Six hundred feet below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist.

“We were just gaga over it,” he said of the 3-inch-long, orange critter starring in their two-minute video. Technically, it’s not a shrimp. It’s a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is distantly related to shrimp.

“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there,” said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be presenting the initial findings and a video at an American Geophysical Union meeting Wednesday. “It was a shrimp you’d enjoy having on your plate.”

“They are looking at the equivalent of a drop of water in a swimming pool that you would expect nothing to be living in and they found not one animal but two,” said biologist Stacy Kim of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California, who joined the NASA team later. “We have no idea what’s going on down there.”

The video is likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know about life in harsh environments. And it has scientists musing that if shrimp-like creatures can frolic below 600 feet of Antarctic ice in subfreezing dark water, what about other hostile places? What about Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter?

“This is a first for the sub-glacial environment with that level of sophistication,” Ellis-Evans said. He said there have been findings somewhat similar, showing complex life in retreating ice shelves, but nothing quite directly under the ice like this.

Microbiologist Cynan Ellis-Evans of the British Antarctic Survey called the finding intriguing.

But Kim, who is a co-author of the study, doubts it. The site in West Antarctica is at least 12 miles from open seas. Bindschadler drilled an 8-inch-wide hole and was looking at a tiny amount of water. That means it’s unlikely that that two critters swam from great distances and were captured randomly in that small of an area, she said.

Ellis-Evans said it’s possible the creatures swam in from far away and don’t live there permanently.

So how do they survive? That’s the key question, Kim said.

Yet scientists were puzzled at what the food source would be for these critters. While some microbes can make their own food out of chemicals in the ocean, complex life like the amphipod can’t, Kim said.

“It’s pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything,” Kim said.

NEW LABELS, COUPONS - P&G’s campaign, besides TV and online ads, will include labeling for products in stores and special coupons.

SAVE ENERGY, SAVE MONEY - P&G says research shows strong consumer interest in products that can benefit both the environment and their household budgets.

Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) announced the new program, known as ZERO-G Weightless Lab, on Thursday. The company already flies special airplanes in parabolic arcs to simulate microgravity experiences for paying passengers. Now they are offering Martian, lunar, and hyper gravity environments as well. The ZERO-G Weightless Lab is open to academic, corporate and government agency customers.

A commercial company is offering researchers a chance to fly in a plane that simulates weightless and low-gravity environments like the moon, Mars, and Earth-orbit.

Eric Anderson, President and CEO of Space Adventures/ZERO-G said in a statement, “The ZERO-G Weightless Lab provides open access for commercial and government entities to conduct research in a reduced gravity environment that is not only affordable, but available today. The microgravity laboratory is completely operational; no test flights, development effort, or outside investment is required.”

In the past, the company has flown adventure-seekers including Stephen Hawking, and even a full wedding party on weightless runs.

Richard Garriott, a space tourist who brokered his 2008 trip aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft through Space Adventures, endorsed the new program.

The ZERO-G Weightless Lab offers clients the opportunity to charter a section of the plane, rather than the entire plane, for the two-day program. The lab program includes a total of 25 parabolas, storage space and a containment unit for smaller research projects.

During his trip, Garriott traveled to the International Space Station and conducted research to test the effects of the weightless environment on things like protein crystals.

“The ZERO-G Weightless Lab is a great first-step in space-based research,” he said.

Research proposals will be reviewed by ZERO-Gs research staff and its airline partner, Amerijet International Cargo. The Federal Aviation Administration must issue approvals for the experiments, including a Test Readiness Review.

“My most prized on-orbit activity was the protein crystallization project,” he said. “The results were just as we predicted and my team has flown another specimen to the ISS since my flight.”

Two ZERO-G Weightless Lab flights have already been scheduled for July in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and September in Memphis, Tenn. Is There Gravity in Space? Video - The Zero G Coffee Cup Video - Orbital Acrobatics Original Story: Zero-G Launches Airborne Weightless Science Lab SPACE.com offers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including our space image of the day and other space pictures,space videos, Top 10s, Trivia, podcasts and Amazing Images submitted by our users. Join our community, sign up for our free newsletters and register for our RSS Feeds today!

Past ZERO-G client projects have included studies in biomedical and pharmaceutical research, fluid and fundamental physics, materials science, aerospace engineering, space exploration hardware and human space habitation.

The government campaign is based on the children’s poems “Jack and Jill” and “Rub-A-Dub-Dub.”

An Advertising Standards Association spokesman says nearly 1,000 complaints about the ads have been received.

The watchdog agency believes the ads exaggerate the threat Britain faces as the planet heats up. It says uncertainties about climate change were not taken into account.

Spokesman Matt Wilson said Monday that many of those who complained found the ads would be distressing to children. He said many also objected to the implication that climate change is caused by human activity.

Just 20 years ago, there were 100,000 tigers in Asia. Only 3,200 remain in the wild, according to the U.N.

Willem Wijnstekers, the secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, said Monday the tiger is on “the verge of extinction.” Delegates discussed ways to end poaching and illegal trade in tiger products.

Tigers are poached for their skins and parts of their bodies are prized for decoration and traditional medicine.

But in reindeer, “it is this clock element that seems to be missing,” said study author Andrew Loudon of the University of Manchester in England, referring to the internal ticker.

In mammals, including humans, some hormone levels rise and ebb on a rhythmic daily cycle. This circadian rhythm influences various processes in the body, from the sleep/wake cycle to reproduction. The light-dark signals of day and night help drive these cycles, as does an internal body clock that works on a 24-hour cycle even in the absence of a light-dark switch.

Loudon and his colleagues looked at levels of melatonin (a hormone that responds to the circadian cycle) in Arctic reindeer and found that they showed no natural internal rhythm of melatonin secretion. Instead, their hormone levels rise and fall in direct response to light and dark.

The missing clock doesnt have any effect on the sleep patterns of the reindeer, as they sleep after they eat, and tend to eat some 8 to 10 times a day, as is the case for all ruminant animals.

“We suspect that they have the full range of normal clock genes, but these are regulated in a different way in reindeer,” Loudon said.

And studies of reindeer skin cells showed that two well-known clock genes dont oscillate the way they do in other organisms as a way of keeping time.

“Our findings imply that evolution has come up with a means of switching off the cellular clockwork,” Loudon said. “Such daily clocks may be positively a hindrance in environments where there is no reliable light-dark cycle for much of the year.”

The findings of the study, detailed online on March 11 in the journal Current Biology, initially came as a surprise, but the researchers now suspect that similar patterns could be seen in other Arctic animals.

Instead, light and dark signals that come during the years two equinoxes (fall and spring) could be enough to jumpstart certain processes in the reindeer, such as the annual reproductive cycle, the researchers say.

Because the Earth is tilted on its axis, the Arctic is pointed toward the sun during the summer months, which keeps the sun perpetually above the horizon during this time. During the winter, the opposite is true, and the Arctic is plunged into months of darkness. The same is true of the Antarctic.

“We do not know how extensive the loss of clockwork is in reindeer,” Loudon told LiveScience. “There may still be a clock in there ticking away, but we have not been able to find it. It looks like the molecular clock is switched off at least in skin cells (and frankly I suspect elsewhere as well).” Video - The Ticking of Biological Clocks 10 Amazing Things You Didnt Know About Animals More About the Arctic

Just how many body processes are affected by this unusual development isnt certain.

Original Story: Body Clock of Arctic Reindeer Ticks DifferentlyLiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.