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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Stealthy surveillance robots designed for police, military
Post Date: 2008-03-28 22:07:29 by robin
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With rising casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan and violations of privacy in the United States and abroad being popular discussion topics, advances in military robotics and spy technology have also become a popular topic of news coverage. One video that has received a great deal of press coverage and been seen at least three million times in recent days is of a new robot called "Big Dog" that was designed by Boston Dynamics. The robot, which has four legs and a remarkable ability to keep its balance - even when kicked hard by a human, as demonstrated in its popular internet video debut - is meant to be a "pack mule" and carry large loads for the military. Because of the ...
Holes In Sun's Corona Linked To Atmospheric Temperature Changes On Earth
Post Date: 2008-03-28 15:18:31 by farmfriend
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Holes In Sun's Corona Linked To Atmospheric Temperature Changes On Earth ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2000) — Brooklyn, NY -- An unusual interdisciplinary study by astronomers and climatologists has found a striking correlation between holes in the outermost layer of the sun--or the corona--and the globally averaged temperature of the Earth, suggesting that the Earth's atmospheric temperature may be strongly linked to solar magnetism changes over months or years. In a paper that appears in the February 28 issue of the journal New Astronomy, climatologist Eric Posmentier of Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, solar physicists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the ...
Human noses 'can detect danger'
Post Date: 2008-03-28 10:40:55 by robin
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Human noses 'can detect danger' Our noses can quickly learn to link even subtle changes in smell with danger, claim scientists. Volunteers who could not differentiate between two similar smells found they could do it easily after being given a mild electric shock alongside one. Brain scans confirmed the change in the "smelling" part of the brain. The US research, published in the journal Science, suggests our distant ancestors evolved the ability to keep us away from predators. It warns us that it's dangerous and we have to pay attention to it. Dr Wen LiNorthwestern University, Chicago The 12 volunteers ...
RUN YOUR CAR OR ANYTHING ELSE ON SALT WATER
Post Date: 2008-03-28 02:07:52 by Uncle Bill
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VIDEO: Salt water as fuel VIDEO: Seat Water Car
Sunspots Erupt Suddenly
Post Date: 2008-03-27 18:02:13 by Tauzero
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Sunspots Erupt Suddenly By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 26 March 2008 11:54 am ET After months of relative quietude, a trio of new sunspot groups appeared this week and they are all growing rapidly. But there's something strange about these spots. Sunspots are cool regions of intense, twisted magnetic activity at the solar surface. They act like caps on the upwelling of energy, and when the caps pop, flares of radiation and ejections of charged particles are unleashed. Major solar storms can disrupt communications on Earth and even disable satellites. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. The last peak, when sunspots were common and flares frequent, ...
The K9 Comparison—What Dogs Tell Us About Humans
Post Date: 2008-03-27 15:55:09 by Tauzero
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The K9 Comparison—What Dogs Tell Us About Humans By Frank Miele [See Steve Sailer's review of Race: The Reality of Human Differences, Routing The Race Deniers (Not That They’ll Notice)] We share about 97% of our genes with chimpanzees. But when Francis Crick, co-discoverer with James D. Watson of the double helix structure of DNA, was asked what unraveling the chimpanzee genome would tell us about human differences he replied: "I wouldn't waste any American money on the chimp". The dog genome, Crick went on, would be a better target—because dogs vary so widely in appearance and behavior that unraveling their DNA would reveal much more about the influence ...
Research Center to Study Health-Race Link
Post Date: 2008-03-27 15:17:20 by Tauzero
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Research Center to Study Health-Race Link By GARDINER HARRIS Published: March 18, 2008 WASHINGTON — Drugs to treat hypertension and diabetes are substantially less effective in blacks than they are in whites, one of the many mysteries involving the interaction between health and race that the National Institutes of Health hopes to unravel at a new research center. The Center for Genomics and Health Disparities will be led by Charles N. Rotimi, former director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Born in Nigeria and trained at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Rotimi has been involved in genetic epidemiology projects in Africa, China and the United ...
How A Little-Known Cattle Breed Could Revolutionize The Beef Business
Post Date: 2008-03-27 15:10:53 by Tauzero
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How A Little-Known Cattle Breed Could Revolutionize The Beef Business Maurice Boney is worried about the beef business. He says the U.S. cow herd is too diverse, comprised of too many breeds and too many gene-trait combinations, to ever produce consistently high-quality products for consumers. So he’s spent much of his life trying to do something about it. Boney, who ranches near Johnstown, Colo., has been developing a linebred breed of cattle called Irish Blacks and Irish Reds for nearly 40 years. The breed, trademarked by Boney and marketed under an exclusive contractual agreement to a select but growing group of producers in 22 states, is gaining attention from cattle feeders, ...
Prepare for the Worst, Because Solar Storms Are About to Get Ugly
Post Date: 2008-03-27 12:42:26 by Horse
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Every 11 years or so, the sun gets a little pissy. It breaks out in a rash of planet-sized sunspots that spew superhot gas, hurling clouds of electrons, protons, and heavier ions toward Earth at nearly the speed of light. These solar windstorms have been known to knock out power grids and TV broadcasts, and our growing reliance on space-based technology makes us more vulnerable than ever to their effects. On January 3, scientists discovered a reverse-polarity sunspot, signaling the start of a new cycle — and some are predicting that at its peak (in about four years) things are gonna get nasty. Here's a forecast for 2012. Detours Clumps of ions in the atmosphere could interfere ...
Massive ice shelf collapsing off Antarctica
Post Date: 2008-03-26 12:01:20 by robin
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Scientists are citing "rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica" as the cause of an initial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The damage got started at the end of February when an iceberg dropped off and triggered the "runaway disintegration" of a 160-square-mile portion of the 5,282-square-mile shelf. The ice shelf, which scientists speculate has floated in the Antarctic region for hundreds of years, is succumbing to recent rises in temperature in the area--an average of 0.9 degree Fahrenheit every 10 years for the last 50 years. This series of pictures that show the beginning of the breakup were taken by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging ...
Why Are Hibernating Bats Dying?
Post Date: 2008-03-25 11:43:21 by ghostdogtxn
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Huge Ice Deposits "seen" on Mars
Post Date: 2008-03-24 14:50:12 by ghostdogtxn
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An 'Astounding Time' for Planetary Discoveries
Post Date: 2008-03-24 11:21:20 by ...
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It used to be that planets were familiar places such as Mars and Saturn that orbited our sun and were well known to all schoolchildren. Since astronomers identified the first planet outside our solar system 13 years ago, however, that idea has become downright quaint. Because now, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, there are 277 confirmed "extrasolar" planets, and quite a few more on the list of those suspected but not yet confirmed. This explosion in planetary discoveries is taking place at such warp speed that even those most intimately involved are often amazed -- especially because their ultimate goal is nothing less than finding life elsewhere in the ...
Climate facts to warm to
Post Date: 2008-03-22 21:36:27 by farmfriend
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Climate facts to warm to Christopher Pearson | March 22, 2008 CATASTROPHIC predictions of global warming usually conjure with the notion of a tipping point, a point of no return. Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril. Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?" She replied: ...
Best Computer Monitor Screen Cleaner ever
Post Date: 2008-03-18 21:55:29 by Itisa1mosttoolate
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www.tcvh.com/screenclean.swf
Fed Futures Imply 90% Chance of 100 BP Cut tomorrow
Post Date: 2008-03-17 19:44:36 by tom007
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April-dated fed fund futures contracts rose 11 cents to 97.98 -- implying a 90% chance that the Fed will slash its base rate to 2%. End of Story Commentary - 75 BP were the expected as of a few hours ago. This means the Fed is Damned Concerned of a economic melt down SOON. Tom007
Robot Olympics - The RoboGames 2008 (VIDEO)
Post Date: 2008-03-17 15:20:44 by Tauzero
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The Robot Games 2008 will get underway in June, geeks. The list of competitions include, autonomous auto, sumo, beam, bot hockey, combat, robot soccer, humanoid challenges, humanoid competitions, tetsujin, and art bot, micromouse maze and more. They also have a “Best of Show” category which can be any kind of robot doing anything. Robots from various countries participate in this event and there are, as in the human Olympics, Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal categories. RoboGames is the world's largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!) We invite the best minds from around the world to compete in over 70 different events. Combat robots, ...
4 Recommendations to Defend Against a Financial Armageddon
Post Date: 2008-03-17 13:21:13 by tom007
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4 Recommendations to Defend Against a Financial Armageddon posted on: March 17, 2008 * Font Size: * Print * Email Another week of all-time record high commodity prices and a fresh record low US dollar has had the expected result in US equity markets: the stocks of the commodity producers and export manufacturing sectors have led the way to a week over week gain in the broad indexes, but traders are focused on the macro picture and remain nervous. Capital markets are operating in a stagflationary environment, similar to the 1970’s. The combined impact of slowing or receding economies and rising costs is that equity prices, which are based on inflation-adjusted corporate revenue, ...
Glaciers suffer record shrinkage
Post Date: 2008-03-16 18:29:00 by robin
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Glaciers suffer record shrinkage Some glaciers in Europe have suffered significant losses The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown. Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006. Some of the biggest losses have occurred in the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges in Europe. Experts have called for "immediate action" to reverse the trend, which is seen as a key climate change indicator. Estimates for 2006 indicate shrinkage of 1.4 metres of 'water equivalent' compared to half a ...
Climate panel on the hot seat
Post Date: 2008-03-16 14:07:58 by farmfriend
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Climate panel on the hot seat By H. Sterling Burnett March 14, 2008 More than 20 years ago, climate scientists began to raise alarms over the possibility global temperatures were rising due to human activities, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. To better understand this potential threat, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 to provide a "comprehensive, objective, scientific, technical and socioeconomic assessment of human-caused climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation." IPCC reports have predicted average world temperatures ...
Watch Higher Quality YouTube Videos
Post Date: 2008-03-16 13:43:27 by robin
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Watch Higher Quality YouTube Videos From Wired How-To WikiJump to: navigation, search Run a well-encoded video through YouTube's backend compression engine and it's going to turn out looking worse for the wear. It's a well-known critique of the site among videophiles, and to its credit, the video-sharing site has been promising it would start encoding videos at higher resolutions. Thankfully, YouTube is finally making good on that promise. Select videos on the site are already available in 480x360 resolution -- it's not HD, but it is a step up from the old 320x240 format. For the most part, this change only affects newer videos and YouTube is rolling it out in a somewhat ...
Feeling Scared? Just Clone Yourself and Become Smaller
Post Date: 2008-03-14 17:19:25 by Tauzero
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Feeling Scared? Just Clone Yourself and Become Smaller It's a popular defensive strategy at the bottom of the ocean: If you're scared, just clone yourself. The process will make you smaller and harder to find, as well as doubling the chance that your genes will survive. Sand dollar larvae are rampant self-cloners, but they only do it when they sense danger. That means there's a kind of conscious intent behind their cloning -- it's not just an ordinary part of their reproductive cycle. How easy would it be to port this trait to humans, so we could just pop out a new self when the old one is about to be offed? Probably pretty difficult, not least of which because we ...
Ants riddled with cheating and corruption
Post Date: 2008-03-14 15:46:23 by Tauzero
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Ants riddled with cheating and corruption Researchers find offspring of some fathers more likely to become queens updated 1:04 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 12, 2008 Although ants are noted for their communal cooperation, the ranks of ant royalty are actually riddled with cheating and corruption, a new study finds. Ant queens were thought to be the products of nurturing, as certain larvae were fed foods that prompted their development into queens, with any larvae having an opportunity to ascend to the royal ranks. But researchers who used DNA fingerprinting on five colonies of leaf-cutting ants found that the offspring of some fathers were more likely to become reproductive queens than others. ...
Beware the politician posing as a scientist
Post Date: 2008-03-14 06:52:50 by Ada
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Christopher Booker squares up to Sir David King, the former Chief Scientist, whose knowledge of chemistry does little to underpin his crusading rhetoric as a green campaigner One of the fond delusions of our age is that scientists are a breed apart from ordinary mortals, white-coated custodians of a mystery with authority to pronounce on any scientific issue, however remote it may be from their own field of expertise. A shining example was the status given to Sir David King, who has just retired after seven years as the government Chief Scientist. In 2001, when he was appointed by Tony Blair at the height of the foot-and-mouth crisis, Professor King’s speciality was ‘surface ...
Street-Level Credit Card Fraud
Post Date: 2008-03-13 23:06:55 by Indrid Cold
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Until recently, Las Vegas police officers couldn't figure out why some of the prostitutes and drug addicts they arrested were found carrying multiple hotel room keys and slot machine player's club cards. When confronted, the suspects said they kept them as souvenirs or found them on the sidewalk. The cops initially assumed that the cards were stolen, or -- in the case of the prostitutes -- perhaps belonged to some of their more frequent clients. "It was getting fairly regular that in post-arrest inventory, we would find eight to 10 room key cards ... all from different hotels," said Dennis Cobb, deputy chief of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Technical ...
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