YouTube enlists big-name help to redefine channels

CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) — YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes.

The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.

Coasts in peril plan ahead for rising seas

Scientists warn that by the end of this century, the sea level along North America's west coast will rise by about a meter due to global warming and melting arctic glaciers.

That presents a scenario that few people in the world's coastal and island communities want to think about -- the end of their water's edge way of life, their homes flooded, their farming fields drenched and rendered useless.
But one coastal port in British Columbia has begun to plan for this grim future with the help of scientists who created computer images that show exactly what their town will look like when it is inundated with water.

Animal diseases increasingly plague the oceans

When dead sea mammals started washing ashore on Canada's west coast in greater numbers, marine biologist Andrew Trites was distressed to find that domestic animal diseases were killing them.

Around the world, seals, otters and other species are increasingly infected by parasites and other diseases long common in goats, cows, cats and dogs, marine mammal experts told a major science conference.
The diseases also increasingly threaten people who use the oceans for recreation, work or a source of seafood, scientists told reporters at the annual meeting of the

Britain warns of widespread summer drought

Britain on Monday declared a drought in the southeast and warned that the rest of the country faced widespread water shortages this summer, with some supplies at their lowest for a quarter of a century.

Despite Britain's reputation as having a rainy climate and the fact that it is still winter in the northern hemisphere, the government hosted a "drought summit" with water companies, farmers and wildlife groups.
Environment Minister Caroline Spelman said southeastern England had now joined the Anglia region in eastern England and other parts of the country in drought.