|
Latest Articles: Science/Tech
GM introduces self-propelled rickshaw to combat congestion
Post Date: 2009-04-07 07:11:58 by Tatarewicz
6 Comments
General Motors and Segway have developed a two-wheel, side-by-side passenger electric vehicle which aims to reduce traffic congestion in cities. Called PUMA, it will have a 35-mile range on a charge of its Li-ion battery and travel at up 35 mph. While still in its prototype stage this self-propelled rickshaw is estimated to cost (ownership and operation) a third or quarter of that of a car. POSTER COMMENT: How's that for beating the Chinese at their own game? Pictures on DFP link. Click for Full Text! Click for Full Text!
Trees are growing faster and could buy time to halt global warming
Post Date: 2009-04-06 01:03:41 by farmfriend
2 Comments
Trees are growing faster and could buy time to halt global warming Plants and trees are growing faster because of rising carbon dioxide levels, potentially buying Earth more time to address global warming, according to scientists. By Urmee Khan Last Updated: 1:06PM BST 05 Apr 2009 The phenomenon has been discovered in a variety of flora, ranging from tropical rainforests to British sugar beet crops. It means they are soaking up at least some of the billions of tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere by humans that would otherwise be accelerating the rate of climate change. Plants survive by extracting CO2 from the air and using sunlight to convert it into proteins and sugars. Since ...
O'Hare UFO video surfaces on Youtube
Post Date: 2009-04-01 11:39:04 by gengis gandhi
0 Comments
O'Hare UFO video surfaces on Youtube March 24, 5:23 PM · 27 comments ShareThis Feed Recently posted Youtube video purports to be O'Hare UFO. A video posted March 21, 2009, on Youtube claims to be the real deal of the Nov. 7, 2006, Chicago O'Hare Airport UFO sighting. The video is posted with the headline - "Chicago O'Hare Airport UFO Witness Breaks His Silence." The username is ohareufowitness, age 39, someone who joined Youtube on the same day as the posting. Illinois MUFON Director Sam Maranto, who has studied this case extensively, was able to watch the video from his Chicago area home today. "The footage is shot at an impossible angle," ...
April Fool's Day computer virus is activated... but fails to cause internet chaos
Post Date: 2009-04-01 09:57:39 by christine
1 Comments
A computer virus that has wormed its way into millions of PCs was activated today... but with little effect. The Conficker virus, which has infected up to 15million computers since last autumn, has so far lurked harmlessly - but experts were braced for it to change the way it operated first thing this morning. The 'worm' started looking for new instructions on what it should do next by scanning 50,000 different websites at midnight last night. Experts feared the virus was about to be used by its creators to control an army' of 15 million 'zombie PCs' to steal bank details, send spam emails or even crash a major website. But so far, nothing untoward has taken place. ...
Genomic variations in African-American and white populations
Post Date: 2009-03-27 12:15:27 by Prefrontal Vortex
0 Comments
Genomic variations in African-American and white populations Deletions, duplications or rearrangements of genomic regions in the human genomes produce differences in gene copy numbers, referred to as copy number variations (CNV). Those variations account for a substantial portion of human genetic diversity, and in a few cases, have been associated with behavioural traits or increased susceptibility to disease. A study published today in the open access journal BMC Genetics, describes a CNV map of the African American genome, and compares frequencies of CNVs between African American and white American/European populations. Joseph P McElroy and colleagues from the Department of Neurology, ...
Nicholas Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s son commits suicide (Scientist/Professor in Alaska).
Post Date: 2009-03-23 08:16:08 by noone222
2 Comments
Ben Hoyle, Arts Correspondent The son of the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath has taken his own life, 46 years after his mother gassed herself while he slept. Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at his home in Alaska after battling against depression for some time, his sister Frieda said yesterday. He was 47, unmarried with no children of his own and had until recently been a professor of fisheries and ocean sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr Hughes’s death adds a further tragic chapter to a family history that has been raked over with morbid fascination for two generations. Obsession set limits on Sylvia Plath's poetry Charity shop finds rare Plath poetry ...
interesting thread on chemtrails/morgellons link
Post Date: 2009-03-21 13:24:10 by gengis gandhi
1 Comments
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread275225/pg1
Five minds for success
Post Date: 2009-03-21 07:53:58 by Tatarewicz
0 Comments
The current economic downturn stems from education's failure to cultivate the right kind of minds and this is what brought about reckless disregard for experience, due diligence, caution and contemplation of the downside of decisions according to psychologist Howard Gardner of Harvard. The cognition professor said if anything, "deciders" were selected and rewarded on the basis of whether they could cut corners...make it appear as if they were gaining ever greater profits. The author of Five minds for the future said that in order for markets to work, one needs wise policies and policymakers, tough regulation and above all, individuals who behave in an ethical way and demand ...
Understanding Body Language
Post Date: 2009-03-21 07:36:16 by Turtle
1 Comments
Understanding body language in the workplace isn't just a game - it's a career necessity Imagine this scenario: You're talking to your boss about why you feel you're due for a raise. You itemize what you've done beyond your job requirements, and he says, "Fair enough. I'll consider it and get back to you." That sounds good, except that you didn't notice the steeple he formed with his hands while listening to you, and the distracted way he rubbed his nose. Meaningless? Absolutely not. Fact is, he's already given you an answer, but you may not have noticed the telltale signals. It's easy to miss subtle messages in the way someone positions his ...
Study gives more proof that intelligence is largely inherited
Post Date: 2009-03-19 18:58:19 by Prefrontal Vortex
2 Comments
Study gives more proof that intelligence is largely inherited UCLA researchers find that genes determine brain's processing speed By Mark Wheeler| 3/17/2009 They say a picture tells a thousand stories, but can it also tell how smart you are? Actually, say UCLA researchers, it can. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Feb. 18, UCLA neurology professor Paul Thompson and colleagues used a new type of brain-imaging scanner to show that intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons, or wiring that sends signals throughout the brain. The faster the signaling, the faster the brain processes information. And since the integrity of the brain's ...
Opt Out Of Google’s Interest-Based Advertising
Post Date: 2009-03-14 14:29:58 by Brian S
3 Comments
For years, privacy advocates have warned that we are becoming an Orwellian society. We are being monitored and tracked more than ever. Thankfully, our society is very different from George Orwell’s 1984. However, we do face daily threats to our privacy. Case in point: Google has launched an interest-based advertising program. Basically, your browsing history is tracked. You are then shown ads based on your interests. Certain sensitive interests won’t be tracked, according to Google. But you will want to take steps to protect your privacy. Google’s collection of information on its users must be vast. This makes me uncomfortable. In the wrong hands, it could be downright ...
"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave
Post Date: 2009-03-13 04:11:43 by farmfriend
0 Comments
"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death. "This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire," Borrini told Reuters by telephone. "This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born." The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 -- in which the artist Titian died -- on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around three km (2 ...
Pollution and Green Energy
Post Date: 2009-03-12 18:45:22 by Turtle
0 Comments
Yet one more breathless announcement of renewable energy, green and clean, just around the corner. Of course it costs about five times as much as we're using, and they can use a few billion more for development to make it economic, but there will be Green Pie in the Sky Bye and Bye. Somehow if it's green we need not pay attention to the laws of physics, nor yet of economics. It's Green! Isn't that enough? Well, no. Pollution control, like economic growth, is primarily a function of the cost of energy. As I pointed out in A Step Farther Out, with cheap energy we can take pollutants apart, down to their constituent elements if that's needed; there is never a pollution ...
Husky short field landing and takeoff
Post Date: 2009-03-12 15:59:35 by X-15
3 Comments
Poster Comment:Pay particular attention to the uber-steep takeoff at 1:30...almost no forward movement due to the stiff headwind.
Debris Threat to International Space Station; Crew Evacuating to Soyuz as Precaution
Post Date: 2009-03-12 12:45:51 by Brian S
4 Comments
March 12, 2009 12:20 PM A moderately large piece of space debris has only recently been identified as a threat to the International Space Station - too recently for the station to be moved out of the way. The object is now projected to pass close enough to the ISS to put it into the high threat category. As a result, the astronauts onboard the ISS will be moving from the station into the Soyuz escape capsule as a safety precaution. The closest approach is predicted to occur at 11:39 CDT - about 20 minutes from now. The crew is currently preparing to board the Soyuz. If all goes well, they'll be in the Soyuz from 11:34-11:44 - the ten minute period that brackets the closest approach.
U of Texas research funding up 20% despite slump
Post Date: 2009-03-12 03:57:02 by Tatarewicz
0 Comments
As of January the University of Texas secured nearly $224-million in research funding, up from $180-million a year ago. This does not include research funds from Congress' $8-billion science stimulus allocation. The current larger amount still will fund less than ten percent of the University's research proposals (compared to the funding of 25% of submissions six years ago). POSTER COMMENT: Encouraging to see that in an area where the U.S. excels things are not being cut back. Click for Full Text!
Climate Change: Driven by the Ocean not Human Activity
Post Date: 2009-03-11 20:09:52 by farmfriend
2 Comments
Climate Change: Driven by the Ocean not Human Activity by William M. Gray Professor Emeritus, Dept of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University Prepared for the 2nd Annual Heartland Institute sponsored conference on Climate Change. New York City, March 8-10, 2009 Paper also available at tropical.atmos.colostate.edu (under News) Abstract This paper discusses how the variation in the global ocean’s Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) resulting from changes in the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation (THC) and deep water Surrounding Antarctica Subsidence (SAS) can be the primary cause of climate change. (MOC = THC + SAS) is the likely cause of most of the global warming that ...
Which of Consumer Reports' picks for best used cars gets the best gas mileage?
Post Date: 2009-03-09 22:33:55 by richard9151
10 Comments
Posted Wed Mar 4, 2009 7:37am PST Consumer Reports released its annual list of best cars recently, naming the 2009 Toyota Prius as the overall best-value new car. It's in its own class in terms of fuel economy, as The Daily Green's Most Fuel-Efficient Cars and SUVs of 2009 feature shows. It bests its nearest rival (the Honda Civic Hybrid) in city driving by 20%. But the annual report also includes a list of the most reliable used cars on the market -- reminding us that for fuel efficiency, "sticker" price, and often reliability, used cars are the best value. (The 2000 Honda Insight -- if you can find one -- achieves a combined 53 mpg, which would easily beat the 2009 ...
Tilt! [No The Earth's Tilt on It's Axis Has Not Changed]
Post Date: 2009-03-09 04:38:59 by IndieTX
0 Comments
Tilt! I have received several emails about a website claiming that the Earth is tilting wildly from its usual 23.5º inclination, and that this is causing global catastrophe that has been covered up by the government. Of course. The website is called Divulgence.net. It goes on for page after page with breathless warnings of Doom and Coverups. From what I have read, it appears the author is claiming that solar activity has caused the polar ice to melt, tilting the Earth an additional 26 degrees, moving the positions of sunrise, changing weather patterns, and so on. Image of the new tilt of the Earth from divulgence.net. Now, you’d think you’d notice this, right? But as ...
Union of Concerned Scientists Says No to GMO Corn for Biofuel
Post Date: 2009-03-04 09:43:24 by richard9151
2 Comments
Corn-based ethanol has fallen from favor in the past year amid reports that corn ethanol has a heavier carbon footprint than originally thought. Now a new debate looms over whether the U.S. should allow genetically altered corn to be grown for use as biofuel. The Union of Concerned Scientists says no, arguing that genetically modified corn will inevitably mix with and contaminate corn grown for food products. Syngenta, a multi-national company that has readied a new genetically modified corn intended for ethanol production, has already applied for permission to sell its corn seed in the U.S., telling officials that it would control where the crops are grown so the GMO corn would not mix ...
13 Unsolved scientific puzzles
Post Date: 2009-03-04 02:47:44 by X-15
2 Comments
Author Michael Brooks has investigated some of the most puzzling anomalies of modern science, those intractable problems that refuse to conform to the theories. Here he counts down the 13 strangest. 1. MOST OF THE UNIVERSE IS MISSING We can only account for 4 per cent of the cosmos If you’re wondering what the LHC might do for you, how’s this: it might just find a whole quarter of the universe. The collider is hoping to create some particles of what physicists call “dark matter”, an enigma that is thought to make up roughly 25 per cent of the universe. Then there is the “dark energy”, a mysterious force that seems to be ripping space and time apart. In ...
Moon Landing A Fake or Fact
Post Date: 2009-03-02 22:10:08 by richard9151
28 Comments
This is a youtube series of 9 tapes, and I would say that it pretty well settles the entire issue about the moon landing. By all means, give your opinion! This goes to part 3; www.youtube.com/watch?v=G...=3545A9A873E4000F&index=6 Click for Full Text!
Silencing the Lambs: Scientists Target Sheep Belching to Cut Methane
Post Date: 2009-03-02 14:33:42 by Prefrontal Vortex
4 Comments
Reducing Gas in Livestock Could Help World Breathe Sigh of Relief Over Global Warming By PATRICK BARTA PALMERSTON NORTH, New Zealand -- On a typical day, researchers in this college town coax hungry sheep into metal carts. They wheel the fluffy beasts into sealed chambers and feed them grass, then wait for them to burp. The exercise is part of a global effort to keep sheep, deer, cows and other livestock from belching methane when they eat and regurgitate grass. Methane is among the most potent greenhouse gases, and researchers now believe livestock industries are a major contributor to climate change, responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than cars are, according to the United ...
Carbon Regulation: One Scientist's Unscientific Dream?
Post Date: 2009-03-01 19:32:02 by farmfriend
2 Comments
February 27, 2009 Carbon Regulation: One Scientist's Unscientific Dream?By Marc Sheppard There's an understandably growing unease about the likely prospect that the Obama administration will soon choose to regulate CO2 as a pollutant. But that disquiet would likely turn quickly to rage if more people knew the truth about the scientific conclusions on which this unprecedented incursion on both industry and individual freedom was based. You see, it appears that those conclusions weren't based on accepted scientific procedure at all, but were instead predetermined -- and perhaps by a single man. Our story unfolds just weeks after Barbara Boxer's pet cap-and-trade bill -- the ...
Why so many minds think alike
Post Date: 2009-02-28 07:12:24 by Disgusted
18 Comments
(CNN) -- You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others? Imaging techniques help scientists look at the basis for principles of social psychology in the brain. Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images. A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the "oops area" becomes extra active, while ...
Latest [Newer] 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 [Older]
|