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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Termites actually social cockroaches
Post Date: 2007-04-26 12:17:22 by Tauzero
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Termites actually social cockroaches Findings could shed light on how social behaviors develop in all insects By Charles Q. Choi Termites may look like white ants, but new genetic research confirms they are really a social kind of cockroach. Given how relatively solitary regular cockroaches are compared with termites and their complex societies, researchers note these findings could shed light on how social behaviors develop in all insects. Researchers added that the cockroach penchant for coprophagy, or eating feces, could very well have led termites to evolve in the first place. Scientists had long known that cockroaches and termites were related to each other and to praying ...
Things Are Heating Up (On the Sun)
Post Date: 2007-04-25 20:56:31 by Horse
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We tend to think of our Sun as a paragon of stability. While other stars pulsate, go nova, collapse, or bubble and churn like overheated pots of oatmeal, Sol provides us with steady, dependable radiance. Of course there are variations, such as the 11 year sunspot cycle, but these are predictable and benign. Recent evidence, however, suggests that we don't know all there is to know about the nearest star. Drs. David Gray (University of Western Ontario) and William Livingston (Kitt Peak) have been studying the Sun's temperature with a technique that compares the strength of absorption lines in the solar spectrum. Gray finds that in addition to a fluctuation of 1.5 degrees Kelvin over ...
To Bee Or Not To Be
Post Date: 2007-04-25 11:39:37 by Horse
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Over the past couple of months we here at SOTT have been following the Bee crisis with some interest. It caught my eye when I read the first media article about it that was brought to my attention; I knew this was important. As Albert Einstein observed: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." This really is BIG, people! Do you realize how CLOSE you are to the total collapse of whatever lifestyle you have, including having food on your table (let alone having a table to put it on or a house to keep the table in!) Don't yawn because ...
To Bee Or Not To Be
Post Date: 2007-04-25 11:36:40 by Horse
9 Comments
Over the past couple of months we here at SOTT have been following the Bee crisis with some interest. It caught my eye when I read the first media article about it that was brought to my attention; I knew this was important. As Albert Einstein observed: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." This really is BIG, people! Do you realize how CLOSE you are to the total collapse of whatever lifestyle you have, including having food on your table (let alone having a table to put it on or a house to keep the table in!) Don't yawn because ...
New 'super-Earth' found in space
Post Date: 2007-04-25 09:39:12 by TheSilverFox
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Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile. They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life. "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this 'super-Earth' lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the ...
Potentially Habitable Planet Found
Post Date: 2007-04-24 19:25:09 by Ada
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WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe." The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun. There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' ...
RedHat goes prix fixe
Post Date: 2007-04-24 12:17:37 by TheSilverFox
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RedHat has rejigged its JBoss offerings in a move it reckons will make it the default choice for businesses that have had enough of the proprietary world. It has also signed a deal to acquire MetaMatrix, which it will integrate into its new JBoss product set. The firm says until now it has offered JBoss solutions on an "a la carte" basis. But no more. RedHat knows what you want, and is making its products available as "a set of integrated, tested, and certified JBoss Enterprise Platform distributions for the most common use cases". The announcement goes on to explain that the idea is to free up the community from the "constraints of the productisation ...
To Bee or not to Be
Post Date: 2007-04-23 14:46:49 by Eoghan
4 Comments
Over the past couple of months we here at SOTT have been following the Bee crisis with some interest. It caught my eye when I read the first media article about it that was brought to my attention; I knew this was important. As Albert Einstein observed: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." This really is BIG, people! Do you realize how CLOSE you are to the total collapse of whatever lifestyle you have, including having food on your table (let alone having a table to put it on or a house to keep the table in!) Don't yawn because ...
Michael Dell chooses Linux at home
Post Date: 2007-04-21 12:47:00 by Red Jones
2 Comments
Michael Dell chooses Linux at home 19 Apr 2007 01:19 Ubuntu and OpenOffice are the software of choice for the PC vendor's chief executive After a lifelong allegiance to all things Microsoft, the chief executive of Dell is using Linux in his own home. His choice of distribution? Ubuntu. It has emerged this week that the Dell chief is using a Precision M90, loaded with the just-released version of Ubuntu called Feisty Fawn. He is also running OpenOffice and Firefox, according to his biography on Dell's website. The revelations about the fondness of the company's founder for Linux may surprise some Dell customers. A recent investigation by ZDNet UK revealed that UK customers ...
Power lines link to cancer in new alert
Post Date: 2007-04-21 07:46:27 by gengis gandhi
3 Comments
Power lines link to cancer in new alert By Nicholas Cecil, Evening Standard 20.04.07 Add your view Power lines Homes and schools could be banned from being built near power lines A secret report has raised fresh fears of a link between power lines and cancer. The confidential study, obtained by the Evening Standard, urges ministers to consider banning the building of homes and schools close to overhead high-voltage power cables because of possible health risks. It says a ban is the best way to reduce significantly exposure to electromagnetic fields from the electricity grid system. The report was drawn up by scientists, electricity company bosses, the National Grid, government ...
Texas Senate waves through cell phone wiretapping bill
Post Date: 2007-04-20 15:14:10 by TheSilverFox
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A bill extending wiretapping provisions to cell phones and covering a wider range of crimes - including kidnaping, human trafficking and money laundering - has been approved by the Texas Senate. Only murder, drug-related crimes and child pornography investigations are covered by existing lawful interception laws in Texas, AP reports. Wiretaps authorised by the proposed laws could be used to authorise the tracking of suspect's mobile, land line and online activities in multiple locations; unlike current laws which are location specific. The draft Homeland Security legislation also places tighter controls on the sale of prepaid phones. Retailers will be asked to keep records of ...
Users force Dell to resurrect XP
Post Date: 2007-04-20 15:10:08 by TheSilverFox
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Responding to customer demand Dell has restarted selling new PCs with Windows XP installed on them. The decision reverses a policy begun in January that meant Windows Vista was the only operating system available on almost all new home machines. The change came after Dell's feedback site was swamped with calls for the return of the venerable software. Now customers can opt for the Home or Professional version of XP on six models of Dell machines. Customer clamour The four consumer versions of Windows Vista went on sale on 30 January and since then many PC makers have sold most of their machines with the software pre-loaded. Since January Dell has been gradually phasing out the XP ...
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 ...
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