Most schools should be able to stay open even if swine flu outbreaks occur again this fall, government officials said Friday as they issued recommendations for dealing with the illness when the school year starts.

Decisions about whether to close schools should be made locally, the officials said, and “should balance the goal of reducing the number of people who become seriously ill or die from influenza with the goal of minimizing social disruption and safety risks to children,” which sometimes occur when schools close.

The nation has 130,000 schools, 55 million students and 7 million staff members. Closing schools may mean that parents have to stay home or find child care, which some cannot afford. People in essential jobs, like health care, may be stuck at home during outbreaks when they are most needed. In some cases, children may wind up being left home alone or going to the mall, where they can spread the H1N1 flu virus.

Read more: Swine Flu Should Not Close Most Schools

Articles - Science

Some sea snake species, such as Hydrophis pachycercos (pictured), have evolved so that sharks and other predators can't tell whether the serpents are coming or going, Johan Elmberg and Arne Rasmussen report in a new study today in the journal Marine Ecology.

When Rasmussen on a research dive in Indonesia, said Elmberg, who was not on the dive, "he saw a venomous sea snake go head first into a narrow crevice. Then suddenly he was surprised to see the snake pull its head out, as if the snake had been able to very quickly turn around inside the crevice."

Moments later Rasmussen, a biologist with the School of Conservation in Copenhagen, Denmark, realized that the "head" was in fact the tail.

While the yellow-lipped sea krait, a nocturnal, shallow-water snake, had been "probing the reef crevice" for fish, Elmberg, an ecologist at Kristianstad University in Sweden, said, "the tail was slowly writhing back and forth, much in the same way as the head moves on a vigilant and actively searching snake."

Later, after studying 98 preserved specimens of the roughly three-foot-long (meter-long) tropical species at three European museums, the researchers concluded that all yellow-lipped sea kraits have "two headed" tail patterns.

Read more: "Two Headed" Sea Serpents Fool Attackers

Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto - Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto

Related article: Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto set for 14 Nov at Vegas?

Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto on 14 Nov at Vegas: this is gonna be a big date!

Southpaw Stance

A boxer in the southpaw stance would have his right hand and right foot forward, leading with right jabs, and following with a left hook right cross.

Alternatives

The corresponding designation for a right-handed boxer is orthodox, and is generally a mirror-image of the southpaw stance.

Strategy

Left-handed boxers are usually (but not always) taught to fight in a southpaw stance. This may give the left-handed fighter a strategic advantage because of the tactical and cognitive difficulties of coping with a fighter who moves in a mirror-reverse of the norm. However, some left-handed fighters are brought up fighting in the orthodox stance because of a widespread perception that boxing from an atypical stance (or attempting to learn to do so) would be a disadvantage to the fighter.

Read more: Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto: Southpaw vs Orthodox?

Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto - Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto

It's no secret promoter Bob Arum had Miguel Cotto firmly on his list of potential next opponents for pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao - even before Cotto's win over Joshua Clottey this past Saturday night. Now that Cotto has won and is still the holder of a world title, it seems as though Arum is keen to get the fight made a done deal. There was reportedly a short list of possible opponents for Pacquiao's next fight (originally thought to be set for October) and it sure looks like Cotto is at the top of that list now.

Pacquiao doesn't seem keen on taking on "Sugar" Shane Mosley, at least not yet. Floyd Mayweather has just pulled out of his July fight with Juan Manuel Marquez with an injured rib, meaning those two greats will have to wait a while - possibly until September - before finally getting it on.. This leaves just Edwin Valero and Cotto from the list we heard about pre-June 13th. Box-Rec already have the Pacquiao-Cotto fight up on their site as happening at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 14th, and moments after his Top Rank fighter won via a somewhat debatable split decision on Saturday, Arum spoke to some members of the press about a possible fight between the two huge names.

Read more: Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto set for 14 Nov at Vegas?