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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Why Israel Really Fears Iranian Nukes, Part Two
Post Date: 2005-02-26 19:02:01 by crack monkey
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Why Israel Really Fears Iranian Nukes, Part Two by Roger Howard The acquisition of a nuclear warhead by any country, whether a friend or foe of the United States, is a development of not merely military significance. Instead it necessarily has immense political importance both to a domestic audience and on a wider international stage: the bomb helped India to shake off feelings of post-colonial inferiority, for example, while the French nuclear deterrent symbolized the country's independence from Washington and, at one stage, from the European Community. So too should the prospect of an Iranian warhead be seen in these wider terms. For as Part 1 of this essay argued, however much Western ...
Mystery of the silent woodlands: scientists are baffled as bird numbers plummet
Post Date: 2005-02-26 12:14:24 by 1776
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It has hardly been noticed, but it is another sinister warning sign of a world going badly wrong. Populations of some of Britain's most attractive woodland birds are plummeting at a rate that threatens them with extinction, and nobody knows why. Precipitous declines in the numbers of some species, of up to four-fifths, have been registered over the past 30 years, but scientists are just realising what is happening, and they have no simple explanation. In its scale and its range, the phenomenon is one of the most ominous events in the natural history of Britain over the past half-century. Perversely, the decline comes at a time when Britain is planting more woodlands than ever, and forest ...
Solar Tower of Power Finds Home
Post Date: 2005-02-26 08:00:27 by 2Trievers
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02:00 AM Feb. 24, 2005 PT The quest for a new form of green energy has taken a significant step with the purchase of a 25,000-acre sheep farm in the Australian outback. The huge alternative energy project isn't driven by manure, but by a 1-kilometer-high thermal power station called the Solar Tower. Announced several years ago, the 3,280-foot Solar Tower is one of the most ambitious alternative energy projects on the planet: a renewable energy plant that pumps out the same power as a small reactor but is totally safe. If built, it will be nearly double the height of the world's tallest structure, the CN Tower in Canada. The Solar Tower is hollow in the middle like a chimney. At ...
Father Of Intermittent Wipers Dies
Post Date: 2005-02-26 07:43:45 by 2Trievers
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DETROIT -- You may never have known his name, but Robert Kearns was responsible for making driving on a drizzly day a lot easier and a lot quieter. The man who invented intermittent windshield wipers has died at the age of 77. His daughter said Kearns was buried, appropriately enough, on a misty day when it rained "just enough to have the wipers going on intermittent." Kearns patented his intermittent system in 1967 and then demonstrated it for Ford Motor Co. Eleven years later, when Ford began installing the wipers on new cars, Kearns sued the automaker and won. He collected $10 million from Ford and another $21 million from Chrysler. But Kearns called the settlements a ...
Stellar Eclipse: Moon to Hide Bright Star March 3
Post Date: 2005-02-26 07:10:40 by 2Trievers
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As the Moon makes its monthly circuit around the sky it often passes in front of stars, blotting them out for as much as an hour or so. Such an event is called an occultation (derived from the Latin word occultare, which means “to conceal.”), and it can be a startling spectacle, especially if the star happens to be bright. The star appears to creep up to the Moon’s limb, hangs on the edge for a minute or two, and then, without warning, abruptly winks out. Later it pops back into view just as suddenly on the Moon’s other side. The suddenness with which occultations take place was one of the first proofs that the Moon has no atmosphere. If our natural satellite were ...
Probe points to chance of recent life on Mars
Post Date: 2005-02-26 05:45:05 by 2Trievers
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SPACE:After the discovery of lava flows and a frozen sea, a quarter of scientists say they believe life may still exist on the planet. BY TOBY STERLING ASSOCIATED PRESS NOORDWIJK, Netherlands - Scientists said Friday that they have discovered active volcanoes and a frozen sea on Mars and called for a follow-up mission to find out if there is life on the red planet. The recommendations came at the end of a weeklong conference in the Netherlands to analyze results from the European Space Agency's Mars probe. A poll conducted among 250 conference participants showed that 75 percent believed life in the form of bacteria once existed on Mars, and 25 percent thought it might still be there. ...
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Post Date: 2005-02-26 05:36:09 by 2Trievers
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APOD: 2005 February 26 - Frizion Illume Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 February 26 Frizion Illume Credit & Copyright: Peter Wasilewski (Goddard Space Flight Center) Explanation: Scientific images of cosmic dust clouds or even frozen water can be esthetic too. In fact, this picture of thin layers of forming ice crystals uses a scientific understanding of light's wave properties solely for artistic purposes. Titled "Illume", the picture was created by astrophysicist Peter ...
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Post Date: 2005-02-25 06:56:15 by 2Trievers
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Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 February 25 Saturn's Dragon Storm Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA Explanation: Dubbed the "Dragon Storm", convoluted, swirling cloud features are tinted orange in this false-color, near-infrared image of Saturn's southern hemisphere. In one of a series of discoveries announced by Cassini researchers, the Dragon Storm was found to be responsible for mysterious bursts of radio static monitored by Cassini instruments during the last ...
MSN Search Finds Viral Campaign
Post Date: 2005-02-24 22:55:52 by Dakmar
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NOT CONTENT WITH its massive television, Internet, and radio advertising blitz to promote its newly released proprietary search engine MSN Search, MSN apparently has released a viral campaign, “MSN Found,” to promote the search site. An MSN spokesperson declined to comment on the viral campaign, other than to say: “There is a lot of great content to be found out on the Web. ‘Found’ complements MSN Search by finding more of the unique content on the Web.” When the MSN Search marketing blitz was being announced, an MSN executive told OnlineMediaDaily that an agency called 42 Entertainment would be creating virals to promote the search engine. 42 Entertainment ...
The UFO Phenomenon - Seeing Is Believing (Peter Jennings tonight 8-10 est)
Post Date: 2005-02-24 20:01:46 by Brian S
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Almost 50 percent of Americans, according to recent polls, and millions of people elsewhere in the world believe that UFOs are real. For many it is a deeply held belief. For decades there have been sightings of UFOs by millions and millions of people. It is a mystery that only science can solve, and yet the phenomenon remains largely unexamined. Most of the reporting on this subject by the mainstream media holds those who claim to have seen UFOs up to ridicule. On Feb. 24, "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" takes a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. "As a journalist," says Jennings, "I began this project with a healthy dose of skepticism ...
Glasses get piercing stares [and you thought you'd seen it all]
Post Date: 2005-02-24 09:28:23 by 2Trievers
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www.piercedglasses.com "Freaky, yet cool," is the reaction James Sooy of Dallas gets when people realize his eyeglasses are attached to his face via body piercing. Gross. Weird. Freaky. James Sooy hears it all. But when you stick a barbell through the bridge of your nose and screw prescription lenses to it, the 22-year-old Dallas artist admits, you come to expect some criticism. Beauty is, after all, in the eyeglasses of the beholder. "Since I've been wearing glasses so long, it was kind of odd," said Sooy, who created the "pierced glasses" that he now sports. "I'd reach up to take them off and I'd realize they were stuck on there." After years ...
Test for canine personalities
Post Date: 2005-02-24 07:10:47 by 2Trievers
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[Science News]: Dogs show huge differences in personality, according to a US scientist who has developed a test to assess canine character. Dr Sam Gosling, of the University of Texas, rates the dogs on four key traits with positive and negative extremes. He adds that his work suggests pets should be matched with owners who have similar personalities. The work was presented at a major science conference in Washington DC. Personality traits "We used approaches used to assess human personality and applied them to dogs," said Dr Gosling. "You do find personality differences between breeds. Indeed, many have been bred on that basis. But you also find enormous [personality] ...
Space probe finds frozen sea on Mars
Post Date: 2005-02-24 06:35:46 by 2Trievers
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LONDON (Reuters) - A European space probe scanning the surface of Mars has discovered what scientists say appears to be a giant frozen sea near the planet's equator. The discovery was the first of a body of what may be water that has been found away from the polar ice caps and was revealed by the Mars Express spacecraft that has been orbiting and photographing the planet for a year. Although the high resolution images only cover an area a few tens of kilometres across, they are in what appears to be a flood plain measuring a massive 800 kilometres long by 900 kilometres wide. The area is covered by a thick layer of volcanic ash, according to the European Space Agency which has published ...
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Post Date: 2005-02-24 06:15:06 by 2Trievers
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APOD: 2005 February 24 - Ski Enceladus Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 February 24 Ski Enceladus Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA Explanation: Small, icy, inner moon of Saturn, Enceladus is only about 500 kilometers in diameter. But the distant world does reflect over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow. Seen here in a sharp view from the Cassini spacecraft's recent flyby, Enceladus shows a variety of surface ...
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Post Date: 2005-02-23 11:14:07 by 2Trievers
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APOD: 2005 February 23 - Voyage of an Antarctic Iceberg Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 February 23 Voyage of an Antarctic Iceberg Credit: MODIS, Terra, NASA Explanation: What if part of New York broke off and slammed into New Jersey? Both being anchored land masses, that is unlikely to happen, but an event of that size scale did occur off the Antarctic coast over the last three months. Long Island, New York sized B-15A iceberg floated across 100 kilometers of the Ross Sea and struck a submarine shoal just ...
Analysis of Energy Requirements for the Expansion of the Dust Cloud Following the Collapse of 1 World Trade Center
Post Date: 2005-02-19 14:51:53 by RickyJ
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The North Tower's Dust Cloud Analysis of Energy Requirements for the Expansion of the Dust Cloud Following the Collapse of 1 World Trade Center by Jim Hoffman October 16, 2003 [Version 3] On September 11th, Both of the Twin Towers disintegrated into vast clouds of concrete and other materials, which blanketed Lower Manhattan. This paper shows that the energy required to produce the expansion of the dust cloud observed immediately following the collapse of 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) was much greater than the gravitational energy available from its elevated mass. It uses only basic physics. Introduction Vast amounts of energy were released during the collapse of each of ...
EDC Image Gallery Collections [interesting website]
Post Date: 2005-02-19 08:54:29 by 2Trievers
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Earth As Art Collection Earth As Art 2 Collection
Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth
Post Date: 2005-02-18 20:48:16 by Brian S
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posted: 18 February, 2005 2 p.m. ET A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packed so much power it briefly altered Earth's upper atmosphere in December, astronomers said Friday. No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival. But you could not have seen it, unless you can top the X-ray vision of Superman: In gamma rays, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moon's reflected visible light. The blast originated about 50,000 light-years away and was detected Dec. 27. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). The commotion was caused by a special variety of neutron star known as a ...
Russian Cargo Ship Set for Launch to Space Station [Old Russian Junk At It Again]
Post Date: 2005-02-17 21:27:48 by Brian S
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Feb 17, 2005 — By Irene Klotz MELBOURNE, Fla. (Reuters) - A Russian cargo ship filled with extra food, water and equipment to repair and upgrade life support systems is being prepared for launch to the International Space Station, NASA officials said on Thursday. The supplies will not only build up the reserves for the station's live-aboard crew, but help prepare the outpost in case it needs to serve as a temporary shelter for visiting space shuttle astronauts. NASA plans to dispatch in May its first shuttle to the space station since the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia accident grounded the remaining fleet. A panel investigating the Columbia disaster determined that NASA should always have ...
Macrovision touts new copy-protection technology for DVDs
Post Date: 2005-02-17 10:36:08 by Flintlock
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Macrovision touts new copy-protection technology for DVDs Associated Press LOS ANGELES - A new technology from Macrovision Corp. claims to block virtually all known methods for making unauthorized copies of DVDs. The Santa Clara-based company's RipGuard DVD, launched this week, is designed to thwart cracking programs that get around the encryption system used in standard DVDs. Macrovision also claims a related system to be used with RipGuard can foil attempts to make analog copies of DVDs. Such copies are made by connecting a video recorder to a DVD player's video and audio output jacks, a method that previous DVD copy protection software has failed to prevent fully. Attempts to ...
Fossil Reanalysis Pushes Back Origin of Homo sapiens [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2005-02-17 05:49:36 by 2Trievers
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A new analysis of human remains first discovered in 1967 suggests that they are in fact much older than previously believed. The results, published today in the journal Nature, push back the emergence of our species by nearly 35,000 years. Ian McDougall of the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues worked with two well-known fossil finds known as Omo I and Omo II, which were recovered from Ethiopia's Kibish Formation by Richard Leakey. The remains include two partial skulls as well as arm, leg, foot and pelvis bones for Omo I. "Anthropologists said they looked very different in their evolutionary status," remarks study co-author Frank Brown of the ...
Pentagon prepares to build £70bn robot army
Post Date: 2005-02-17 03:21:30 by Zipporah
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The Pentagon is spending £70 billion on a programme to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers' lives. MSN Search The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defence budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over £265 billion in five years' time. Much of the cash will be spent computerising the military, but the ultimate aim is to take members of the armed forces out of harm's way. They would be replaced by robots capable of hunting and killing America's enemies. Gordon Johnson, of the US joint forces research ...
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Post Date: 2005-02-05 12:56:36 by 2Trievers
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Magnitude 6.9 - CELEBES SEA 2005 February 5 12:23:18 UTCPreliminary Earthquake Report West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS A strong earthquake occurred at 12:23:18 (UTC) on Saturday, February 5, 2005. The magnitude 6.9 event has been located in the CELEBES SEA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.) Magnitude6.9Date-TimeSaturday, February 5, 2005 at 12:23:18 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Saturday, February 5, 2005 at 8:23:18 PM = local time at epicenter Location 5.500°N, 123.400°EDepth514 km (319.4 miles) set by location programRegionCELEBES SEADistances 209 km (130 miles) WSW (251°) from General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines 214 km (133 miles) ...
As SE Asian Farms Boom, Stage Set for a Pandemic - Bird Flu
Post Date: 2005-02-05 06:55:55 by crack monkey
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As SE Asian Farms Boom, Stage Set for a Pandemic Conditions Ripe for Spread of Bird Flu By Alan Sipress Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, February 5, 2005; Page A01 BANGLANE, Thailand -- Prathum Buaklee stepped nimbly along the aging planks running between the cages of his chicken farm, shoveling grain with his meaty hands from a bucket into the feed trays. His feet were bare and caked with dirt. The old plaid shirt hanging on his stocky frame was soiled. And the air was rank with the smell of feathers, droppings and feed. This soft-spoken farmer is part of an agrarian revolution in Southeast Asia and China that has more than doubled poultry production in barely a decade, ...
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who'll be fattest of them all?
Post Date: 2005-02-03 08:00:01 by 2Trievers
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The wicked queen in Snow White had a magic mirror that told the truth. French scientists have gone one better. They have a mirror that will tell the ugly truth - five years on. They have fashioned a thinking looking glass that will offer a reflection of the future, after years of binge drinking and junk food have taken their toll, according to New Scientist today. This mirror will know you better than you know yourself, and never fail to tell you so. Researchers at Accenture Technology, in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, have devised a flat liquid crystal display television screen linked to a set of cameras and some powerful image processing technology. Its first role is to capture the real ...
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