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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Global Warming?
Post Date: 2007-04-20 13:18:45 by intotheabyss
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Are sea levels really rising? Falling sea levels The tiny country of Tuvalu is not cooperating with global warming models. In the early 1990s, scientists warned that the Pacific coral atoll of nine islands - only 12 feet above sea level at its highest point - would vanish within decades, swamped by rising seas. Sea levels were supposedly rising at the rate of 1.5 inches per year. However, new measurements show that sea levels have fallen 2.5 inches since that time. Similar sea-level declines have been recorded in Nauru and the Solomon Islands. (London Telegraph, 6 Aug 2000) In 2003, Nils-Axel Mörner and his colleagues (see below) pub- lished a well-documented paper showing that ...
The real deal?
Post Date: 2007-04-20 12:52:18 by intotheabyss
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Against the grain: Some scientists deny global warming exists Lawrence Solomon, National Post Published: Friday, February 02, 2007 Astrophysicist Nir Shariv, one of Israel's top young scientists, describes the logic that led him -- and most everyone else -- to conclude that SUVs, coal plants and other things man-made cause global warming. Step One Scientists for decades have postulated that increases in carbon dioxide and other gases could lead to a greenhouse effect. Step Two As if on cue, the temperature rose over the course of the 20th century while greenhouse gases proliferated due to human activities. Statistics needed -- The Deniers Part I Warming is real -- and has ...
Soldier on emergency leave ordered to leave dying mother to return to Iraq
Post Date: 2007-04-19 16:23:51 by bluedogtxn
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by spread the word IRAQ NAM [Subscribe] Thu Apr 19, 2007 at 01:15:24 PM PDT MEET TIM ROBINSON, AMERICAN SOLDIER with 19 years proud service. His mother is in bad shape, and dying. His superiors don't care: The 19-year Army veteran with five months left on his enlistment tried unsuccessfully to get an extension on his two-week leave. He faxed word back to his unit that his mother was dying, and he asked for another week. His request included a note from his mother's doctor explaining her condition, he said, but his commanding officer denied the extension. Robinson then went to Redstone Arsenal earlier Tuesday to get help from the Judge Advocate General Corps but was ...
Study: Ethanol May Cause More Smog, Deaths
Post Date: 2007-04-18 11:41:03 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON - Switching from gasoline to ethanol - touted as a green alternative at the pump - may create dirtier air, causing slightly more smog-related deaths, a new study says. Nearly 200 more people would die yearly from respiratory problems if all vehicles in the United States ran on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020, the research concludes. Of course, the study author acknowledges that such a quick and monumental shift to plant-based fuels is next to impossible. Each year, about 4,700 people, according to the study's author, die from respiratory problems from ozone, the unseen component of smog along with small particles. Ethanol would raise ozone levels, particularly in ...
Ebola virus killing thousands of apes
Post Date: 2007-04-17 22:51:31 by robin
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Ebola virus killing thousands of apes BRAZZAVILLE, Congo, April 17, 2007 (UPI) -- The Ebola virus is killing thousands of Republic of Congo gorillas and chimpanzees in an outbreak possibly caused by transmission between ape social groups. Direct encounters between gorilla or chimpanzee social groups are rare, therefore large ape die-offs were assumed to be caused by "massive spillover" from some unknown reservoir host. But a new study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Cambridge University, and Stony Brook University at three sites in the northern Republic of Congo suggests Ebola transmission between ape groups might occur through routes ...
Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs (Push for energy-saving fluorescents ignores mercury disposal hazards)
Post Date: 2007-04-16 13:14:39 by Neil McIver
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Brandy Bridges of Prospect, Maine, shows a newspaper insert promoting the type of CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs she says have caused elevated levels of mercury in her home upon breaking (photo courtesy: Ellison American) WASHINGTON – Brandy Bridges heard the claims of government officials, environmentalists and retailers like Wal-Mart all pushing the idea of replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving and money-saving compact fluorescent lamps. So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a ...
Peak Soil: Why cellulosic ethanol, biofuels are unsustainable and a threat to America
Post Date: 2007-04-16 11:10:33 by innieway
5 Comments
"The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt - Part 1. The Dirt on Dirt. - Part 2. The Poop on Ethanol: Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI) - Part 3. Biofuel is a Grim Reaper. - Part 4. Biodiesel: Can we eat enough French Fries? - Part 5. If we can't drink and drive, then burn baby burn - Energy Crop Combustion. - Part 6. The problems with Cellulosic Ethanol could drive you to drink. - Part 7. Where do we go from here? - Appendix - Department of Energy's Biofuel Roadmap Barriers - Part 1. The Dirt on Dirt. Ethanol is an agribusiness get-rich-quick scheme that will bankrupt our topsoil. Nineteenth century western ...
Einstein was right: space and time bend
Post Date: 2007-04-15 22:49:08 by BeAChooser
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Einstein was right: space and time bend Ninety years after he expounded his famous theory, a $700m Nasa probe has proved that the universe behaves as he said. Now the race is on to show that the other half of relativity also works Anushka Asthana and David Smith Sunday April 15, 2007 The Observer Under his name in the Oxford English Dictionary is the simple definition: genius. Yet for decades physicists have been asking the question: did Albert Einstein get it wrong? After half a century, seven cancellations and $700m, a mission to test his theory about the universe has finally confirmed that the man was a mastermind - or at least half proved it. The early results from Gravity Probe ...
The Physics of an Idiomaterial Universe
Post Date: 2007-04-15 20:21:27 by gengis gandhi
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FOUNDATION REPORTS IN LIFE PHYSICS The Physics of an Idiomaterial Universe FRLPOnline Idiomaterial Universe FRLP Featured Essays MPO-LERM Series 1 MPO-LERM SERIES ESSAY 1 MPO-LERM SERIES ESSAY 2 MPO-LERM SERIES ESSAY 3 FRLP Issues FRLP Vol 1 No 1 (p. 1) FRLP Vol 1 No. 1 (p.2) FRLP Vol 1 No 1 (p. 3) Ultimate Thought-Upcoming Significant Contributions LifePhysics Worldwide FRLP En Español FRLP En Español Página 1 FRLP En Español Página 2 Ensayos y Articulos Contact us Site Map Few people realize that their conscious mind only processes about 15 bits of information per second of linear time. However, in vertical time, the unconscious mind (i.e., ...
Your communications colonoscopy
Post Date: 2007-04-14 16:55:53 by robin
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Your communications colonoscopyBy Jerry MazzaOnline Journal Associate Editor Apr 13, 2007, 01:19 Your government knows what’s good for you. They won’t want you to catch a terror cancer. So, just to have a clean bill of health, lay back, let the “general” anesthetic work. They’ll wake you up in an hour or so. One, they’ll be looking in the guts of your computer for polyps. Two, they’ll check out your emails for infections. Three they’ll also tap into your phones for anomalous phrases, catchwords and the like. If they see or hear any anything while looking, they’ll remove it on the spot for biopsy, so to speak. Just sign here, good luck.One: ...
German Researchers Make Stem Cells into Proto-Sperm
Post Date: 2007-04-14 12:47:43 by scrapper2
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A German team of researchers has announced they managed to turn adult stem cells taken from the bone marrow into primitive sperm cells in a first step towards creating artificial sperm cells. The research was published yesterday, Friday, April 13th, in the academic journal 'Reproduction: Gamete Biology'. The team, led by Dr. Karim Nayernia at the University of Gottingenin Germany, reported they extracted the bone marrow stem cells from four adult men who were about to undergo bone marrow transplants, a common treatment for cancer. Dr. Nayernia in 2006 succeeded in using sperm cells created from mouse embryonic stem cells to fertilize mice eggs, resulting in seven live births. The ...
Researchers explore scrapping Internet
Post Date: 2007-04-14 01:01:43 by scrapper2
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NEW YORK --Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over. The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969. The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a Rutgers ...
Hybrid bees 99 percent Africanized
Post Date: 2007-04-13 18:32:23 by Tauzero
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Hybrid bees 99 percent Africanized DAVID FLESHLER South Florida Sun-Sentinel Beehives destroyed in Boca Raton and Cooper City contained the purest strains of Africanized honeybees yet found on Florida's east coast, indicating an increased threat from the aggressive, stinging insects. The Florida Department of Agriculture analyzed bees from nests at a parking lot at Boca Raton City Hall and near a preschool on Stonebridge Parkway in Cooper City. The tests found the bees were 99.9 percent Africanized, a big increase from the 50 percent to 70 percent breeds usually found among hybrid bees in Florida. The Africanized bees mate with European honeybees already in Florida, creating hybrids ...
'Killer bees' seem resistant to disorder
Post Date: 2007-04-13 17:51:11 by Tauzero
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'Killer bees' seem resistant to disorder By Dan Sorenson arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.30.2007 Although experts are stumped about what's causing the colony-collapse disorder die-off in U.S. commercial beehives, there is some speculation that Arizona's famed Africanized — or "killer bee" — wild-bee population is somehow immune. Dee Lusby's bees are doing fine. Actually, they're doing better than that, says the owner of Lusby Apiaries & Arizona Rangeland Honey of Arivaca. Lusby has 900 hives of "free range" organic bees spread out over ranches from Benson to Sasabe. "I've only lost one or two, maybe ...
French Beekeepers Brace For Asian Sting
Post Date: 2007-04-13 17:42:08 by Tauzero
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French Beekeepers Brace For Asian Sting Hornets From China Invade France's Hives, And Beekeepers Wait To Feel The Sting PARIS, Apr. 13, 2007 (AP) Ambushing locals as they return home from work, foreign invaders are dismembering French natives and feeding them to their young. This horror scenario is playing out in France's beehives, where an ultra-aggressive species of Asian hornets _ who likely migrated in pottery shipped from China _ may be threatening French honey production. The hornets are thought to have reached France in 2004 after stowing away on a cargo boat, said Claire Villemant, a lecturer at Paris' Natural History Museum. She said a France-based bonsai merchant ...
Car Runs on Water
Post Date: 2007-04-13 15:06:32 by Lod
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The Enemy Within
Post Date: 2007-04-13 10:41:57 by intotheabyss
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The Enemy Within Hormones move in mysterious ways their wonders to perform. As the body’s chemical messengers bring about adaptive physiological responses to environmental change. How elegantly appropriate it would be if, in chaotic and fractal fashion, they served precisely the same purpose on a global scale. Even manufactured substances that mimic hormones, a rogue element as far as we are concerned, may effect adaptive physiological changes. These substances, often called “endocrine disrupters,” disturb normal sexual development in a wide variety of vertebrates, including humans, causing lower sperm counts, undeveloped or malformed genitalia, repeated failure of embryo ...
T. Rex Related to Chickens
Post Date: 2007-04-12 23:19:40 by Ferret Mike
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An adolescent female Tyrannosaurus rex died 68 million years ago, but its bones still contain intact soft tissue, including the oldest preserved proteins ever found, scientists say. And a comparison of the protein's chemical structure to a slew of other species showed an evolutionary link between T. rex and chickens, bolstering the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. The collagen proteins were found hidden inside the leg bone of the T. rex fossil, according to two studies published in the April 13 issue of the journal Science. Collagen is the main ingredient of connective tissue in animals and is found in cartilage, ligaments, tendons, hooves, bones and teeth. It yields ...
Coulter cleverly exposes Intelligent Design with hoax
Post Date: 2007-04-11 17:29:58 by Mekons4
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The Coulter Hoax: How Ann Coulter Exposed the Intelligent Design Movement By Peter Olofsson posted: 07 April 2007 09:11 pm ET In the summer of 2006, I heard that a new book called Godless presented an insightful and devastating criticism of the theory of evolution. Although I learned that its author, Ann Coulter, is not a scientist but a lawyer turned author and TV pundit, she nevertheless appeared to be an intelligent and well-educated person, so I started reading. At first I was puzzled. There did not seem to be anything new; only tired and outdated antievolution arguments involving moths, finches, and fruit flies. But it wasn’t until Coulter dusted off the old Piltdown man ...
Can Royal Dutch Shell's Shale Extraction Technique End 'Peak Oil' Paranoia?
Post Date: 2007-04-10 22:32:47 by Indrid Cold
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Over the past few years, more and more apocalyptic stories have been popping up about a supposed phenomenon known as "peak oil." The theory is that we're running out of oil, the big powers are keeping it quiet, and as supplies dwindle, world-wide economic chaos will ensue. This is hardly a new theory. According to the Chicken Littles of the world, we've been "about to run out of oil" for over thirty years. Obviously it hasn't happened yet. With the recent upswing in strife in the Middle East, however, the notion has gained in popularity. The thing is, this theory is utterly false, and can be laid to rest with a single well-established fact: there is more ...
FTC official: Let's imprison spyware distributors
Post Date: 2007-04-10 20:38:08 by Indrid Cold
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WASHINGTON--Steep fines are nice, but one of the best weapons against spyware purveyors is locking them up, a federal regulator told senators on Tuesday. At a morning Senate Commerce Committee hearing here, Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic said most wrongdoers in the spyware arena "can only be described as vicious organized criminals." "Many of most serious wrongdoers we observed in this area, I believe, are only going to be deterred if their freedom is withdrawn," so it's important for the FTC to collaborate on its cases with criminal law enforcement authorities, Kovacic said. Kovacic's remarks came in response to a question from Sen. Mark Pryor ...
Pas de Deux of Sexuality Is Written in the Genes
Post Date: 2007-04-10 11:40:15 by aristeides
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Pas de Deux of Sexuality Is Written in the Genes By NICHOLAS WADE Published: April 10, 2007 When it comes to the matter of desire, evolution leaves little to chance. Human sexual behavior is not a free-form performance, biologists are finding, but is guided at every turn by genetic programs. Desire between the sexes is not a matter of choice. Straight men, it seems, have neural circuits that prompt them to seek out women; gay men have those prompting them to seek other men. Women’s brains may be organized to select men who seem likely to provide for them and their children. The deal is sealed with other neural programs that induce a burst of romantic love, followed by long-term ...
Russian Soyuz Space Capsule Carrying U.S. Billionaire Docks At The International Space Station
Post Date: 2007-04-09 21:02:34 by Brian S
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(04-09) 17:22 PDT KOROLYOV, Russia (AP) -- Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. billionaire bringing a gourmet meal arrived at the international space station Tuesday — to a warm welcome from current crewmen and the earthbound applause of Martha Stewart. The lifestyle guru was among Russian and American officials and visitors monitoring the docking at Russian Mission Control, on Moscow's outskirts, as onboard TV cameras showed the Soyuz nearing the station and then jerking to a stop. Stewart is a friend of Charles Simonyi, the American who shelled out $20-25 million to be the world's fifth paying private space traveler. The Soyuz capsule docked automatically with the ISS and ...
Neal Stephenson's Past,Present, and Future
Post Date: 2007-04-08 17:14:06 by YertleTurtle
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If you met the novelist Neal Stephenson a decade ago, you would have encountered a slight, unassuming grad-student type whose soft-spoken demeanor gave no obvious indication that he had written the manic apotheosis of cyberpunk science fiction (1992's Snow Crash, in which computer viruses start invading hacker minds). It wasn't his debut--he'd published two earlier novels in the 1980s--but the book was such a hit that it put his name on the science fiction map in a way the earlier efforts had not. Meet Stephenson today, and you'll meet a well-muscled, shaven-headed, bearded fellow who's just published a highly acclaimed, massively popular trilogy of 900-page novels set ...
Software to detect fake photos
Post Date: 2007-04-06 19:46:52 by Zipporah
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Software to detect fake photos When the Associated Press thinks that a photo may have been manipulated, they sometimes call Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College computer scientist. As previously reported on BB, Farid has spent several years developing a suite of software that helps automate the detection of manipulation in digital photos. For example, it looks for pixel repetitions, analyzes shadows, and examines the pupils of people in photos to determine if they were composited into the image. From Science News: "The eyes are a partial mirror into the world in which you're photographed," Farid says. If there are two white dots in each eye, there had to have been two separate ...
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