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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Internet flaw could let hackers take over the Web
Post Date: 2008-07-10 06:54:34 by Ada
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Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the World Wide Web. Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released on Tuesday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses. "It's a very fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the Internet works," Securosis analyst Rich Mogul said in a media conference call. "You'd have the Internet, but it wouldn't be the Internet you expect. (Hackers) would control everything." The flaw would be a boon for ...
Brazil's National Indian Policy
Post Date: 2008-07-10 06:34:52 by Ada
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Imagine for a moment that, hovering just off of planet earth, there is a fleet of alien spacecraft. The ships are stocked with all of the fantasies of science fiction: cures for every disease encountered on earth, nano-robots that can maintain our bodies and allow individuals to live for millennia, production technology that makes toil a thing of the past, and replication machines that turn refuse into food. Yet, for now, the aliens do not allow humans to know of their presence – and thus, we remain in (what would be to them) extreme poverty. Something like this was proposed in the science fiction film Star Trek VIII: First Contact. Aliens close to Earth withhold contact because, in ...
The Science of Air Pharmacology or Chemtrails
Post Date: 2008-07-10 04:28:30 by wudidiz
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The Science of Air Pharmacology or Chemtrails
Mars Soil Fit for Life, Tests Confirm
Post Date: 2008-07-09 09:58:24 by gengis gandhi
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Mars Soil Fit for Life, Tests Confirm Alicia Chang, Associated Press Mars Arable Land? | View Images From the Mars Lander June 26, 2008 -- The Phoenix lander's first taste test of soil near Mars' north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, scientists said Thursday. The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. Phoenix landed a month ago to study the habitability of Mars' northern latitudes. "There's nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly," mission scientist Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University said of the soil. ...
Tit-for-tat: birds found to repay wartime help
Post Date: 2008-07-07 15:37:20 by Tauzero
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Tit-for-tat: birds found to repay wartime help July 6, 2008 Special to World Science When it spots a lurking predator, the sparrow-like pied flycatcher reacts in a way common among some birds and mammals. It calls up a mob of its peers to drive the interloper away. But more than a feisty defender, the northern European bird is also a shrewd account keeper, researchers say: it remembers which of its neighbors answered its call to arms, and which stayed home. And it repays each in kind. Scientists say the behavior offers new ...
Flying Saucer Craft Set to Fly
Post Date: 2008-07-06 00:33:28 by Tauzero
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Flying Saucer Craft Set to Fly Eric Bland, Discovery News June 23, 2008 -- A new wingless, saucer-shaped aircraft is scheduled to take to the skies. Just don't call it a UFO. Subrata Roy, a scientist at the University of Florida, calls his aircraft a "wingless electromagnetic air vehicle," or WEAV, and if it flies he says it could usher in a new age of aircraft design. "If this works and we are able to fly it, this will be a quantum shift in how we see flying objects," said Roy. The WEAV will fly based on a physical phenomena known as magnetohydrodynamics. Sean Connery skippered a submarine powered by a magnetohydrodynamic drive in the movie "The Hunt For ...
Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2008-07-04 01:00:25 by Original_Intent
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"Spin-orbit coupling" to blame; effects could last decades. A new paper published by the Astronomical Society of Australia is warning of upcoming global cooling due to lessened solar activity. The study, written by three Australian researchers, has identified what is known as a "spin-orbit coupling" affecting the rotation rate of the sun. That rotation, in turn, is linked to the intensity of the solar cycle and climate changes here on Earth. The study's lead author, Ian Wilson, explains further, "[The paper] supports the contention that the level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 - 30 ...
Why People Vote: Is it in the Genes?
Post Date: 2008-07-03 13:36:50 by Tauzero
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Why People Vote: Is it in the Genes? Studies Suggest a Link Between Voting Behavior and Genetics By Todd Zwillich WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MD July 2, 2008 -- Candidates trying to drive up their poll numbers this election year might want to target more than voters' politics. They may also want to consider their genes. That's what a pair of studies suggest by claiming the first-ever link between voting behavior and genetic factors. The studies -- based in part on the voting records of identical twins -- suggest that DNA may explain half or more of differences in peoples' participation in politics. Researchers even singled out a pair of genes that could play ...
Study finds long benefit in illegal mushroom drug
Post Date: 2008-07-01 09:59:43 by angle
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In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project. She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open. But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. "I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected." Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, ...
Poll: 74 percent support offshore oil drilling in U.S.
Post Date: 2008-07-01 08:01:05 by Disgusted
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Three in four likely voters – 74 percent – support offshore drilling for oil in U.S. coastal waters and more than half (59 percent) also favor drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows. A majority of likely voters across the political spectrum support offshore oil drilling, with vast majorities of Republicans (90 percent) and independents (75 percent) in favor of drilling for oil off U.S. coastal waters more than half of Democrats (58 percent) also said they favor offshore drilling. Republicans (80 percent) and political independents (57 percent) are much more likely to favor drilling for oil in ANWR than Democrats (40 ...
Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100
Post Date: 2008-06-30 19:44:29 by farmfriend
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Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100 By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News At 7:17am on 30 June 1908, an immense explosion tore through the forest of central Siberia. Some 80 million trees were flattened over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska River. The blast was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and generated a shock wave that knocked people to the ground 60km from the epicentre. The cause was an asteroid or comet just a few tens of metres across which detonated 5-10km above the ground, 100 years ago today. Eyewitnesses recalled a brilliant fireball resembling a "flying star" ploughing across the ...
The Apocalyptic Temptation: A plea for scientific rationality - part 1
Post Date: 2008-06-30 12:16:31 by Tauzero
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The Apocalyptic Temptation: A plea for scientific rationality - part 1 Published on June 15th, 2008 in News and Views Tags: Apocalypse, economics, environment, Lysenko, rationality, science The Prologue Although some might construe this as an attack upon people I like and respect, that isn’t the intention and I don’t believe that the people I quote here would take it as a personal attack because they’re grown-up, mature people. If its a criticism of them, then its also a criticism of myself. The Apocalyptic Temptation It is historically axiomatic that humankind is obsessed with the future, the “undiscovered country”. It is also axiomatic that humankind has ...
The Worm Turns
Post Date: 2008-06-29 10:19:14 by Ada
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In the early 1990s, Joel Weinstock, a gastroenterologist, encountered a puzzle. The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (I.B.D.) across North America increased markedly during the 20th century. Many thought that “bad” genes would eventually explain the spike, but Weinstock didn’t buy it. In areas where fewer than two generations ago the I.B.D. incidence might have been as low as 1 in 10,000, it was now 1 in 250. A defective gene couldn’t spread that quickly, he reasoned. It had to be something in the environment. But what? Stumped, Weinstock tried turning the question around. Instead of asking what triggered I.B.D., he asked what, before the 20th century, protected ...
Science by intimidation
Post Date: 2008-06-28 23:02:28 by farmfriend
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Science by intimidation REX MURPHY Commentator with The National and host of CBC Radio's Cross-Country Checkup Read Bio | Latest Columns June 28, 2008 Truth may enter the world by many doors, but she is never escorted by force. I thought that was a lesson learned long ago, and learned by none more tellingly than scientists. Real scientists, actually, have learned it. A new amalgam has emerged however, the scientist-activist, and for that specimen it's a lesson passed by. In the dawn of the Enlightenment, it was scientists who were hauled before tribunals and inquisitions. Galileo is the arch example, the pioneer empiricist who rejected the ancient Earth-centric model of the ...
Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects
Post Date: 2008-06-28 15:40:02 by farmfriend
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So sad that environmental rules are getting in the way of all those renewable resources. Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects By DAN FROSCH Published: June 27, 2008 DENVER — Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years. The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. But ...
Stoners, Like, Totally Solve Nation's Air Travel Problems
Post Date: 2008-06-27 20:44:00 by tom007
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Stoners, Like, Totally Solve Nation's Air Travel Problems By Chuck Squatriglia EmailJune 25, 2008 | 2:53:24 PMCategories: Air Travel, Airports, Autopia WTF? Dept. Upinsmoke_5 Air travel is a total hassle, man, and marijuana advocates in Denver say everyone would find the normally excruciating process a lot more pleasant if they could enjoy a few bong hits before boarding. It might even help solve a few of the problems that airlines have been experiencing lately. The way they see it, if people can knock a few back before a flight, they should be able to spark one up. They're calling on airports nationwide to install marijuana lounges. "All we're saying is, in light of ...
Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study
Post Date: 2008-06-27 18:31:34 by farmfriend
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Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study PARIS (AFP) - Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday. The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia. Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms. But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in ...
Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole
Post Date: 2008-06-27 17:35:07 by FormerLurker
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Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole By Steve Connor, Science EditorFriday, 27 June 2008 It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. "From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ...
North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer
Post Date: 2008-06-27 17:17:45 by FormerLurker
5 Comments
North Pole Could be Ice-Free This SummerBy Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor posted: 26 June 2008 10:34 pm ET Arctic sea ice could break apart completely at the North Pole this year, allowing ships to sail over the normally frozen top of the world. The potential landmark thaw — the first time in human history the pole would be ice-free — is a stark sign of global warming, according to an article Friday on the web site of the The Independent, a London newspaper. "Symbolically it is hugely important," said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado. "There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water." ...
AN INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON.
Post Date: 2008-06-27 16:06:53 by Rotara
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Railroad tracks. This is fascinating. Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will depend on the earlier part of the content. The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and En glish expatriates built the US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs ...
Sun goes longer than normal without producing sunspots
Post Date: 2008-06-26 22:34:37 by Horse
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BOZEMAN -- The sun has been laying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites. That's good news for people who scramble when space weather interferes with their technology, but it became a point of discussion for the scientists who attended an international solar conference at Montana State University. Approximately 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered June 1-6 to talk about "Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment." The scientists said periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has gone on longer than usual. "It continues to be ...
Climate change: Learning to think like a geologist
Post Date: 2008-06-25 17:34:01 by farmfriend
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Climate change: Learning to think like a geologist Paul MacRae, June 24, 2008 Most geologists aren’t part of Al Gore’s “100 per cent consensus” of scientists that humans are the principal cause of global warming and that we have to take drastic steps to deal with it. For example, in March 2008, a poll of Alberta’s 51,000 geologists found that only 26 per cent believe humans are the main cause of global warming. Forty-five per cent believe both humans and nature are causing climate change, and 68 per cent don’t think the debate is “over,” as Gore would like the public to believe.1 The position of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists is ...
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2008-06-25 02:36:28 by RickyJ
131 Comments
THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity. What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot. Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously. All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley ...
GOING GREEN = $4 PER GALLON
Post Date: 2008-06-22 14:27:27 by Rotara
2 Comments
You hear it everywhere now. On the nightly news; in car ads; in government reports; at the super market. Instructions on how to "reduce your carbon footprint," "save the planet" and "go green" are the new national mantras for behavior modification of our daily lives. It's interesting to note that as the nation jumps on the "go green" band wagon, more Americans are beginning to feel that the American Dream is passing them by. "Fewer Americans now than at any time in the last half century believe they're moving forward in life," concluded a recent report by the Pew Research Center. The report went on to say that today's economic ...
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol
Post Date: 2008-06-21 08:03:38 by Ada
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Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum' Some diesel fuel produced by genetically modified bugs “Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.” He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on ...
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