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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Everyone's Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship
Post Date: 2007-10-11 19:10:41 by Zipporah
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The Citizen Lab has a new anti-censorware guide, "Everyone's Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide." The 31-page PDF covers a lot of ground, with material for anti-censorware activists and users, and is very handsomely put together. Circumvention and anonymity are different. Anony- mous systems protect your identity from the website you are connecting to and from the anonymity system itself. They can be used for circumvention, but are not designed for this purpose and thus can easily be blocked. Circumvention systems are designed to get around blocking but do not protect your identity from the circumvention provider. Do not mistake open public ...
Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight
Post Date: 2007-10-10 09:25:36 by gengis gandhi
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PARIS, France (AP) -- A kilogram just isn't what it used to be. art.kilogram.ap.jpg Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures with the reference kilogram. The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight -- if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies. "The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and ...
c2c interview: Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix
Post Date: 2007-10-10 09:19:56 by gengis gandhi
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New Study Shows Genetically Engineered Corn Could Pollute Aquatic Ecosystems
Post Date: 2007-10-10 08:03:53 by angle
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A study by an Indiana University environmental science professor and several colleagues suggests a widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to harm aquatic ecosystems. The study is being published this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Researchers, including Todd V. Royer, an assistant professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, established that pollen and other plant parts containing toxins from genetically engineered Bt corn are washing into streams near cornfields. They also conducted laboratory trials that found consumption of Bt corn byproducts produced increased mortality and ...
Following Honeybee Disappearance, Bumblebees Begin Vanishing Act
Post Date: 2007-10-09 23:30:13 by robin
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GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Looking high and low, Robbin Thorp can no longer find a species of bumblebee that just five years ago was plentiful in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. Thorp, an emeritus professor of entomology from the University of California at Davis, found one solitary worker last year along a remote mountain trail in the Siskiyou Mountains, but hasn't been able to locate any this year. He fears that the species — Franklin's bumblebee — has gone extinct before anyone could even propose it for the endangered species list. To make matters worse, two other bumblebee species — one on the East coast, one on the West — have gone from ...
Chimps choose more rationally than humans
Post Date: 2007-10-09 12:58:34 by Horse
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German researchers have demonstrated chimpanzees make choices that protect their self-interest more consistently than do humans. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig studied the chimp's choices by using an economic game with two players. In the game, a human or chimpanzee who receives something of value can offer to share it with another. If the proposed share is rejected, neither player gets anything. Humans typically make offers close to 50 percent of the reward. They also reject as unfair offers of significantly less than half of the reward, even though this choice means they get nothing. The study, however, showed chimpanzees reliably ...
The Inconvenient Science of Racial DNA Profiling
Post Date: 2007-10-08 23:04:48 by Tauzero
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The Inconvenient Science of Racial DNA Profiling by Melba Newsome 10.05.07 | 11:00 AM On July 16, 2002, a survey crew from the Department of Transportation found Pam Kinamore's nude, decomposing body in the area along the banks of the Mississippi known as Whiskey Bay, just west of Baton Rouge. The police tested the DNA and quickly realized that they were dealing with a serial killer: the same man who had killed two other white, middle-class women in the area. The FBI, Louisiana State Police, Baton Rouge Police Department and sheriff's departments soon began a massive search. Based on an FBI profile and a confident eyewitness, the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force futilely upended ...
Asteroid could hit Earth in 2029 - Russian astronomer
Post Date: 2007-10-07 20:49:58 by Brian S
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MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - An asteroid, discovered in 2004, could pose a threat to Earth in 2029, the director of the Institute of Astronomy said Monday. Boris Shustov said at an international space forum in Moscow that the Apophis asteroid, which is due to cross earth's orbit in 2029 at a height of 27,000 km (17,000 miles), could under certain conditions hit Earth in 2029. The explosion could surpass the famous Tunguska explosion of June 30, 1908, which affected a 2,150 square kilometer (830 sq miles) area of Russia felling over 80 million trees in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in Siberia. The meteoroid's air blast was estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons in TNT ...
Free wireless networking HOWTO book
Post Date: 2007-10-07 12:06:05 by Zipporah
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Glenn Fleishman from Wireless Networking News sez, "My colleague Adam Engst and I are releasing our book The Wireless Networking Starter Kit as a free download. We wrote this edition in 2004, and sales weren't strong enough to promote further editions in print. However, we felt that it was still timely enough to give away. The book covers planning a Wi-Fi network, setting it up, security considerations, and adding antennas or more base stations to increase coverage and range. (What's not included? Much about WPA security and anything about 802.11n.) We haven't put it into Creative Commons because we share licensing with our publisher, but it's free for ...
Squaring the Circle
Post Date: 2007-10-07 01:05:28 by Tauzero
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Squaring the Circle An ingenious attempt to explain racial differences in achievement. reviewed by Michael Levin The gaps in achievement among world cultures are an obvious problem for racial egalitarians. If no group is more talented than any other, why did Eurasians rather than Africans split the atom? Why didn’t indigenous Americans invent arithmetic? Egalitarians usually dodge such questions, citing American “racism” to explain black and Hispanic failures in the United States despite its irrelevance to the “developing (i.e. undeveloped) world.” To his credit, Jared Diamond has confronted this issue head-on. He hopes to explain the attainments of each race ...
Rewriting the Reality Code-The Quantum Power of Living From The Answer
Post Date: 2007-10-05 17:02:40 by gengis gandhi
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Rewriting the Reality Code-The Quantum Power of Living From The Answer Copyright © Gregg Braden Reprinted with permission from Mystic Pop Magazine, Nov/Dec Issue 2006 www.mysticpopmagazine.com “What strange beings we are!” noted the 13th Century mystic Rumi, “That sitting in Hell at the bottom of the dark, we are afraid of our own immortality!” Perhaps it is actually the power to choose our immortality, as well as everything from our personal healing to the peace of our world, that truly frightens us! A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that it is us —our consciousness— that holds the key to life and even reality itself! In 1967 the pioneering ...
CNN Meteorologist: ‘Definitely Some Inaccuracies’ in Gore Film
Post Date: 2007-10-04 16:58:43 by christine
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CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano clapped his hands and exclaimed, “Finally,” in response to a report that a British judge might ban the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" from UK schools because, according to “American Morning,” “it is politically biased and contains scientific inaccuracies.” "There are definitely some inaccuracies,” Marciano added. “The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming.” Video (0:48): Windows (514 kB), plus MP3 audio (365 kB) Marciano went on to explain that, “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we've seen,” ...
FTC shuts down adware ring [Spyware disabler]
Post Date: 2007-10-03 13:31:29 by Eoghan
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A company accused of running an adware scam which infected 15 million PCs has settled its case with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The owner of ERG Ventures has agreed to pay a $330,000 penalty and follow stricter distribution guidelines in the future. The FTC alleged that ERG used seemingly harmless software downloads, such as screen savers and video files, to mask covert installations of the Media Motor adware program. The covertly installed software proceeded to disable any antivirus or adware-blocking software installed on the user's computer and initiate a series of malicious installations. These included tracking software, pop-up generators and other pieces of malware ...
China May Win New Space Race, NASA Says
Post Date: 2007-10-03 11:51:53 by Brian S
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(10-03) 08:23 PDT Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) -- The Soviets beat the United States at getting a satellite, and a man, into space. Now, the Chinese may get to the moon before the U.S. can make a return visit. Fifty years after Sputnik became the world's first artificial satellite, a new race is under way with the finish line on the moon. NASA, the former lunar champion, already is predicting defeat. "I personally believe that China will be back on the moon before we are," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a low-key lecture in Washington two weeks ago, marking the space agency's 50th anniversary, still a year away. "I think when that happens, Americans ...
Our Rosy Future, According to Freeman Dyson
Post Date: 2007-10-02 06:59:31 by Ada
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Climate change is nothing to worry about, says the eminent physicist. Let's celebrate genetic engineering and our ability to design a new world of plants and creatures. Sep. 29, 2007 | In his new collection of essays, "A Many-Colored Glass," renowned physicist Freeman Dyson turns his thoughts to do-it-yourself biotech and breeding one's own pet lizard, the fallacies of global warming science, science fiction (with a tip of the hat to recently departed Madeleine L'Engle) and the importance of biology to the future of religion. To Dyson, a deeper understanding of the human brain means a better understanding of theology and perhaps more tolerance for those with ...
Britain looks to US for wolf breeding plan
Post Date: 2007-09-30 15:20:36 by robin
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Ten years ago wildlife experts released 31 wolves into the wild in America's Yellowstone National Park. From that small beginning, hundreds of grey wolves in packs now roam the vast park and beyond in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and have changed the ecology of the region. This weekend experts in Britain will meet to discuss whether wolf reintroduction schemes could be used as a model to change this country's landscape. The conference comes as a scheme to create a vast, fenced Highland safari park with roaming wolves in Scotland has just got the go-ahead from planners. Support for going a step further and having wild wolves in Britain after centuries of extinction is also growing, ...
The Contrail Effect : Are vapor trails from aircraft influencing the climate, and if so, should we worry?
Post Date: 2007-09-30 07:24:44 by Kamala
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The Contrail Effect by Peter Tyson Dimming the Sun homepage Are vapor trails from aircraft influencing the climate, and if so, should we worry? I've always wanted to hate contrails, the "condensation trails" streaming out from behind jets. They're man-made. They force lines on nature, which knows no lines. They arise out of pollution, and they generate visual pollution—aircraft graffiti that can erase blue from the sky and light from the sun. All good reasons to despise these artificial clouds. But I don't. I've always been drawn to them. When I see one above, I like to run my eye along its length until I find the plane, a tiny silver toy. I like to ...
Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief
Post Date: 2007-09-27 15:30:58 by Tauzero
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Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour. "Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters. "Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency. Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory. ...
An Electonic Concentration Camp: Big Brother in the Sky
Post Date: 2007-09-27 10:27:29 by ghostdogtxn
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EPA to Approve New Toxic Fumigant for Crops (
Post Date: 2007-09-27 08:50:31 by angle
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The Environmental Protection Agency is expected within days to approve a new toxic fumigant for use by fruit and vegetable farmers, despite opposition from California regulators, prominent scientists and environmental and farmworker groups. The agency intends to register methyl iodide as a substitute for the pesticide methyl bromide, which is being phased out by international treaty, according to government officials familiar with the decision. The new product is MIDAS, a methyl iodide compound manufactured by Tokyo-based Arysta LifeScience Corp. Its EPA approval is due by Friday, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ...
Rhino, Tickbird Stuck In Dead-End Symbiotic Relationship
Post Date: 2007-09-26 19:36:30 by intotheabyss
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POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA—After three rainy seasons together, a black rhinoceros and a parasite-eating tickbird are beginning to suspect that their symbiotic relationship has fallen into a rut, the couple reported Sunday. "We're really symbiotic—almost too symbiotic," the rhino said. "It's just gotten so predictable lately that I'm starting to wonder, 'Is this all there is?'" The rhino and tickbird pass another morning on the African savannah not saying one word to each other. First meeting at a local watering hole in 2004, both creatures immediately saw themselves as natural for one other and, in the words of the rhino, felt something ...
Salmonella more virulent in space, study suggests
Post Date: 2007-09-25 16:52:32 by aristeides
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Salmonella more virulent in space, study suggests James Randerson The Guardian Tuesday September 25 2007 Food poisoning bacteria become super-virulent in space, according to a study of salmonella that spent 12 days orbiting the Earth on the space shuttle Atlantis. The research raises fears that diseases boosted by low gravity could pose unexpected medical problems on future long-haul space journeys or for astronauts on a proposed future moon base. It is the first study to examine the effect of space flight on the virulence of a pathogen. "Given the proposed increase in both duration and distance from Earth for future manned space flight missions - including lunar colonisation ...
Study: Farms Fuel Frog Deformities
Post Date: 2007-09-25 11:47:14 by Horse
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Frog-deforming infections caused by tiny parasites are increasing because of North American farms' nutrient-rich watershed, a new study shows. The excess nitrogen and phosphorus found in farm runoff causes more algae to grow, which increases snail populations that host microscopic parasites called trematodes, said Pieter Johnson, a water scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "This is the first study to show that nutrient enrichment drives the abundance of these parasites, increasing levels of amphibian infection and subsequent malformations," said Johnson. Johnson noted that he and his colleagues' work, which is detailed in the Sept. 24 issue of the ...
Maestro Memoirs
Post Date: 2007-09-25 07:12:28 by Kamala
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Maestro Memoirs Caroline Baum had an interesting take on Greenspan's new book "The Age of Turbulence" in Memoir Shows Dangers of Irrational Book Advances. For someone who made headlines with his every utterance -- even if no one could agree on what he had said -- Alan Greenspan offers few newsmaking moments in his eagerly awaited memoir, "The Age of Turbulence". Sure, his criticisms of the Bush administration (for its "out-of-control spending"), Republicans in Congress (they "lost their way," "swapped principle for power" and "ended up with neither") and the Iraq War ("largely about oil") provided weekend ...
Semen 'Makes Women Happy'
Post Date: 2007-09-24 06:17:29 by Uncle Bill
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With the Clinton's coming back into power, it's time to start talking about important things again. Thanks. Semen 'makes women happy' BBC News June 26, 2002 Women exposed to their partner's semen during sex may find themselves feeling happier than those who use a condom, say scientists. Scientists in the US believe the mood-altering hormones in semen absorbed through the vagina help to boost women's mood. Semen contains a range of hormones, including testosterone and oestrogen, both of which have been shown to improve mood. However, they warned that their findings should not be used to encourage people to practise unsafe sex. Gordon Gallup and colleagues ...
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