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MONITORING THE EMERGENCE
OF NOVELTY
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 World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
What
do China, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Germany have in common?
These countries most often can’t agree on anything. But they are united
in one strange—and ominous—way. They blame the United States for
wrecking the global economy. And they think the dollar is the wrecking
ball.
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Study Says Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos
Inhaling
carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as breathing in asbestos, and its
use should be regulated lest it lead to the same cancer and breathing
problems that prompted a ban on the use of asbestos as insulation in
buildings, according a new study posted online today by Nature
Nanotechnology.
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Huge blob of Arctic goo floats past Slope communities
IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before:
Something
big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright
and Barrow. Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff
sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and
is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters.
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Now it’s barcodes that can be read at a distance
Radio
frequency identification tags are not fully catching on. For global
corporations and the US Department of Homeland Security, who remain
eager to track individuals, that means it’s time to shift their efforts
back to barcodes. MIT scientists last week said they’ve overcome the
barcode’s strongest privacy protections–its close read range, and fussy
need to be scanned, line-of-sight. Now, using the camera in a mobile
phone, a spy, or hacker, will be able to scan the barcode label on any
object, or person, at an angle, and up to 60 feet away.
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Cats Do Control Humans
If
you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study
points to the obvious. It's your cat. Household cats exercise this
control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow,
according to the findings.
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Pacific-Ocean-Sized Explosion On Jupiter Highlights the Hawking "Asteroid" Theory
In
further evidence that space itself is an action movie (or at least that
God watches Michael Bay movies), an explosion the size of the Pacific
ocean has scarred Jupiter. Yes, the entire ocean. The
explosion occurred on July 19 when an asteroid slammed into the planet,
and although Jupiter has no solid ground the gas can still get thick
enough for things like "impacts" and "KABOOM" to happen.
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Mysterious, Glowing Clouds Appear Across America’s Night Skies
Photographers
and other sky watchers in Omaha, Paris, Seattle, and other locations
have run outside to capture images of what scientists call noctilucent
(”night shining”) clouds. Formed by ice literally at the boundary where
the earth’s atmosphere meets space 50 miles up, they shine because they
are so high that they remain lit by the sun even after our star is
below the horizon.
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The Ultimate Space Gadget: NASA's Ion Drive
We're
one step closer to Star Trek, with NASA successfully testing an
experimental Ion Drive in Earth orbit. In fact, since the
Enterprise only had thrusters for low-speed maneuvers, this means we've
got something even the guys with Warp Drive didn't think of.
|
Blitz of “Cyber Attacks” as Rockefeller Bill Approaches
A
determined propaganda blitz is well underway as the government sets the
stage for the passage of Cybersecurity Act of 2009, introduced in the
Senate earlier this year. If passed, it will allow Obama to shut down
the internet and private networks. The legislation also calls for the
government to have the authority to demand security data from private
networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or
policy restricting such access. In other words, the bill allows the
government to impose authoritarian control over electronic
communications.
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Tremors Point to a Stressed-Out Stretch of the San Andreas Fault
In
a central California area with a history of dramatic earthquakes,
researchers have detected a worrisome amount of seismic activity deep
underground. The researchers looked at data from 76 monitoring stations
along the central California stretch of the San Andreas fault, and
found that almost 2,200 “deep earth tremors” had shaken the earth since
2001, a span of time that included two earthquakes. It’s possible that
the continuing tremors could presage another quake, researchers say.
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Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines, and Threats of a Global Pandemic
Although
international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological
weapons, America has had an active biological warfare program since at
least the 1940s. In 1941, it began secret developmental efforts using
controversial testing methods. During WW II, mustard gas was tested on
about 4000 servicemen. Biological weapons research was also conducted.
Human subjects were used as guinea pigs in various other experiments,
and numerous illegal practices continued to the present, including
secretly releasing toxic biological agents in US cities to test the
effects of germ warfare.
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Russians order Flight Changes, after Massive Magnetic Shift downs Airliners...
Reports
circulating in the Kremlin today are saying that Russian Air Force
Commanders have issued warnings to all of their aircraft to exercise
“extreme caution” during flights “in and around” an area which
covers the greater part of the African Tectonic Plate. The reason for
this unprecedented warning, these reports state, are the rapid
formations of “geomagnetic storms” emanating from the boundaries of the
African Tectonic Plate that due to their intensity have caused the loss
of two major passenger aircraft during the past month leaving nearly
300 men, women and children.
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How to Control Florida’s Invasive, Occasionally Killer Pythons?
The
burgeoning 150,000-snake python population in Florida’s Everglades
National Park threatens crops, livestock, and native animals. And, as
the July 1 story of the toddler killed by a pet python demonstrates, the snakes
can also threaten human lives. The snake overpopulation began when
python owners discarded their unwanted pets in the wild; now, lawmakers
are pushing for legislation to combat this invasive species.
When Animals Invade, Part II:
Giant Pythons Taking Over South Florida
Yesterday
it was Caribbean ants swarming Texas, today it’s giant pythons raiding
South Florida. The behemoth reptiles, which can swallow a dog or
alligator whole and weigh up to 154 pounds, are multiplying at
astounding rates in the southeastern part of the state—between 2002 and
2005, the authorities captured a total of 201 of them, a number that’s
more than doubled in the last two years.
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The Next Tech Frontier: Hacking Your Head
There
is no doubt that brain-computer interfaces will arrive - because
they're already here, in simple forms, and we'll have movie-style mind
links within a decade at most. Which makes the movie idea of
mind-hacking (as in Ghost In The Shell) an extremely serious
problem. Never mind how you keep all your most important files up
there (little things like "me.exe") - if it gets damaged, unless you're
a Buddhist there's no Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
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Photographic Memory In A Pill?
New Study Finds Way to Boost Visual Memory
The
most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even
the internet - they're for you. We've always tinkered with our
own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and
"regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the
system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky
notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.
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Turtle Shell Develops Through Embryonic Origami
Of
all vertebrate animals, turtles have one of the stranger body plans.
Unlike all other four-limbed critters, which have their shoulder blades
riding on the outside of their ribs, the turtle’s ribs are outside of
its shoulder blades. This allows turtles to make their shell out of
fused bones–the only animal to do so. Now, scientists have determined
that embryonic turtles develop this set-up through a neat bit of
origami.
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FDA Admits Drug in Tylenol and Excedrin is Main Cause of Liver Failure in U.S.
The
drug in question is acetaminophen. It`s in prescription and all too
popular over-the-counter drugs including Tylenol and Excedrin.
According to the FDA, taking too much will kill you and the government
agency also admits this chemical is the leading cause of liver failure
in the U.S. Acetaminophen is responsible for 56,000 emergency room
visits and 456 deaths annually, according to studies done between 1990
and 1998. In spite of this, billions of doses are sold each year.
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Swine
Flu
12,000 U.S. Children To Be Swine Flu Vaccine Guinea Pigs
Around
12,000 U.S. children will be used as guinea pigs for an experimental
swine flu vaccine known to contain the dangerous ingredient squalene,
which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a
host of other debilitating diseases. The children nationwide will
partake in “fast-tracked studies” to test the side-effects of the
untested swine flu vaccine in trials set to begin next month. “The
trials will test the vaccine’s effectiveness and whether or not it has
negative side effects in patients,” states the report.
Swine flu vaccine to be cleared after five-day trial
Regulators
at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the fast-tracked procedure
has involved clinical trials of a “mock-up” vaccine similar to the one
that will be used for the biggest mass vaccination programme in
generations. It will be introduced into the general population while
regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials.
Every British person will get vaccine against swine flu
The
NHS is preparing to vaccinate the entire population against swine flu
after the disease claimed the life of its first healthy British
patient. A new vaccine is expected to arrive in Britain in the next few
weeks and could be fast-tracked through regulatory approval in five
days. As many as 20m people could be inoculated this year. Ministers
have secured up to 90m doses, and the rest of the population is likely
to be offered vaccinations next year.
FDA Threatens to Seize All Natural Products that Dare to Mention H1N1 Swine Flu
In
an effort to censor any online text that might inform consumers of the
ability of natural products to protect consumers from H1N1 influenza A,
the FDA is now sending out a round of warning letters, threatening to
"take enforcement action... such as seizure or injunction for
violations of the FFDC Act without further notice." The message is
crystal clear: No product may be described as protecting against or
preventing H1N1 infections unless it is approved by the FDA.
Swine flu 'not
stoppable,' World Health Organization says
The
World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to
its highest level, saying the H1N1 virus has spread to enough countries
to be considered a global pandemic. Increasing the alert to Phase 6
does not mean that the disease is deadlier or more dangerous than
before, just that it has spread to more countries, the WHO said.
Media Censoring Lethal Side Effects Of Flu
Remedies
Donald
Rumsfeld’s Tamiflu pushers (just as they were in 2006) are set to be
the big winners in the GSFS (great swine flu scare of 2009) lottery.
Shares of Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding had fallen sharply after their
latest cancer drug failure—but the GSFS came just in time to give their
falling stocks a boost—just as the great bird flu scare of 2006 did.
David
Wilcock -- Great Awakening II: Swine Flu +
Mainstream Media = $$$
LET’S JUST SAY…Let’s say
you have an international criminal cartel....
More Swine flu stories
>>>
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Ocean
Blues:
Scientists Find a Microbe Haven at Ocean’s Surface
The
world’s oceans are like an alien world. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration estimates that 95 percent of them remain
unexplored. But the mysteries do not start a mile below the surface of
the sea. They start with the surface itself. Scientists are now
discovering that the top hundredth-inch of the ocean is somewhat like a
sheet of jelly. And this odd habitat, thinner than a human hair, is
home to an unusual menagerie of microbes.
How we are emptying our
seas
Human
exploitation of the seas has changed them forever, writes Callum
Roberts, professor of marine conservation at York University
Are
Our Oceans Endangered? Experts Say "Yes," Deadzones Expanding 
More
"Blue Planet in Peril" news: new calculations made by marine chemists
from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute suggest that
low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over
the next century. Marine animals will need more oxygen to
survive
as more carbon dioxide created by burning fossil fuels dissolves from
the atmosphere into the ocean, causing seawater to become gradually
more acidic.
Predators starve as we plunder
oceans
Starving
sea life – from whales to puffins, tuna to seals – is being found all
over the world's oceans, as the food on which it depends is being
fished out, startling new evidence shows. And much of the depletion,
ironically, is caused by raising captive fish – for the table.
World’s fisheries in crisis as more boats
chase smaller stock
Nearly
half the world’s fishing catch is either thrown back dead or sold
without regard to whether the fish stock is endangered, according to a
report released today. As the numbers of the most popular species fall,
unwanted fish that used to be discarded before returning to port,
traditionally referred to as bycatch, are now being taken to market.
Traditional fishery management plans focus only on target species,
leaving bycatch species heavily exploited and without any scientific
control or monitoring.
Eco-warrior
sets sail to save oceans from 'plastic death'
In
a few weeks, the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes, David de
Rothschild, will set sail across the Pacific - in a boat, the Plastiki,
made from plastic bottles and recycled waste. The aim of this
extraordinary venture is simple: to focus attention on one of the
world's strangest and most unpleasant environmental phenomena: the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rubbish-covered region of ocean, several
hundred miles in diameter.
Japanese
fleet kills 680 whales, misses target
The
fleet had aimed
to kill 900 minke and other whales, but Japan's Fisheries Agency said
the militant, US-based environmental group Sea Shepherd hampered the
hunt.
A
new study of fossilized coral reefs in Mexico has revealed that sea
levels have risen abruptly in past epochs, which researchers say
supports the theory that ocean levels could rise dramatically again in
response to global warming. The study suggests that a sudden rise of
6.5 feet to 10 feet occurred within a span of 50 to 100 years about
121,000 years ago, at the end of the last warm interval between ice
ages.
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Sprawl! Is Earth Becoming a Planet of SuperCities? 
Imagine
a planet dominated by cities like Mega-City One, a megalopolis of over
400 million people across the east coast of the United States, featured
in the Judge Dredd comic or "San Angeles," formed from the
joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and the surrounding
metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake featured in the
1993 movie "Demolition Man." Don't hold your breath: the 21st century
will soon have 19 cities with populations of 20 million or more.
|
Cashless society by 2012, says Visa chief
Peter
Ayliffe said that, by 2012, using credit and debit cards should be
cheaper and more convenient than cash. Some retailers could soon start
surcharging customers if they choose to buy products with cash, because
of the greater cost of processing these payments, he warned.
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Study: Huge Swath of Louisiana Wetlands Will Inevitably “Drown” by 2100
The
state of Louisiana is losing its coastal wetlands to the Gulf of
Mexico, and a new study suggests that conservationists won’t be able to
turn the tide. If engineers don’t divert sediment-rich waters from the
Mississippi River to help replenish a sinking river delta, about 10
percent of [the] state will slip beneath the waves by the end of this
century. However, even if the engineers do try to abate the subsidence,
the Mississippi doesn’t carry enough sediment to offset more than a
small fraction of that loss, a new analysis suggests.
|
Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that
could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are
crafting language for an executive order that would reassert
presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely,
according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White
House deliberations. |
Are Planets "Living Super-Organisms"?
Japan's
Maruyama Shigenori, one of the world's leading geophysicists, is
working on a global formula for a new field of study that would include
dozens of disciplines collaborating to produce an overall picture of
the Earth. As he connects the links from astronomy to life sciences, an
outline emerges of an all-encompassing image of entire planets which
appear as living super-organisms.
|
Honda's Hovering Concept Car
The wild Fuzo flying car that goes 350 mph!
It would also be able to take off and land vertically, like Britain's
famous Harrier jump jet and the U.S. military's own V-22 Osprey. What's
more, upon landing, the Fuzo would extend its retractable wheels and
tool around town like a normal automobile.
|
Concerns over bisphenol A continue to grow
Women
may want to reconsider that popular style accessory, certain hard
plastic water bottles available in fashion-coordinating colors. New
animal studies link the chemical bisphenol A, which leaches from such
polycarbonate plastics and food can linings, with heart arrhythmias in
females and permanent damage to a gene important for reproduction.
Other recent research suggests that human exposure to BPA is much
higher than previously thought.
|
The Pirate Bay Will Decentralize Its Operations
Alongside
the news that The Pirate Bay will sell shares on the Swedish stock
market come some other significant changes. The site itself will
decentralize and stop hosting and tracking torrents. Instead, The
Pirate Bay will use a third party tracker and torrent hosting service
to serve its users.
|
Junk food triggers our ‘bliss point’
JUNK
foods such as Snickers bars and ketchup really are irresistible.
Manufacturers have created combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are
so tasty many people cannot stop eating them even when full, according
to America’s former food standards watchdog. David Kessler, former head
of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has warned that snacks,
cereals and ready meals devised by food scientists can act on the
reward centres of the brain in the same way as tobacco.
|
Brighter Than The Sun: Gamma Ray Moon
If
you could see gamma rays - photons with a million or more times the
energy of visible light, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun
according to NASA astronomers. High energy charged particles, known as
cosmic rays,
constantly bombard the unprotected lunar surface generating gamma-ray
photons.
|
China’s Internet Users Force Government to Back Down on Censorship
In
a rare victory for freedom of information in China, the government has
abruptly reversed course on its mandate that Internet filtering
software be installed on every computer sold in China after July 1.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
announced that mandatory installation of the software, called Green Dam
Youth Escort, would be delayed indefinitely.
China backs down over controversial censorship software
The
Chinese government appears to have backed down in the face of public
opposition to its plans for mandatory installation of censorship
software on all new computers. The softening of tone appears designed
to head off a wave of criticism about the program, which has brought
the government culture of information control into an unusually harsh
domestic spotlight.
China moves to censor
home computers
The
Chinese government wants all computers sold in China after July to come
with software that automatically censors the internet. The move will
give the government unprecedented control over what can and cannot be
seen on the internet. In recent weeks, China blocked access to a host
of websites, including Hotmail and Twitter, and expressed worries that
the internet was becoming a tool of protest.
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Hemp
Oregon Resoundingly Passes Hemp Bill
Monday afternoon, on a resounding 46-11
vote, the Oregon House passed a bill clearing the way for licensing
industrial hemp farming in the state. Barring a highly unusual veto of
a bi-partisan bill by Governor Kulongoski (D), Oregon will become the
17th state overall to pass pro-hemp legislation - the sixth this year. Now all that's needed is federal action.
Marijuana
at the Tipping Point:
Is a Tidal Wave of Reason About to Change Our
Pot Laws?
Sometime
in the last few months, the notion of legalizing marijuana crossed an
invisible threshold. Long relegated to the margins of political
discourse by the conventional wisdom, pot freedom has this year gone
mainstream. The issue has exploded in the mass media, impelled by the
twin forces of economic crisis and Mexican violence fueled by drug
prohibition. A Google news search for the phrase "legalize marijuana"
turned up more than 1,100 hits -- and that's just for the month of
April.
While
Uncle Sam's scramble for new revenue sources has recently kicked up the
marijuana debate -- to legalize and tax, or not? -- hemp's feasibility
as a stimulus plan has received less airtime. But with a North American
market that exceeds $300 million in annual retail sales and continued
rising demand, industrial hemp could generate thousands of sustainable
new jobs, helping America to get back on track.
Industrial
hemp, a non-drug variety of the cannabis plan, used for centuries for
its versatile fibers, is the subject of a new bill filed by Congressmen
Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA). They and eight cosponsors,
both Republican and Democrat, hope to legalize the plant so American
farmers can begin supplying fibers for a wide array of products, with
the overreaching goal of opening a new sector in American agriculture.
Medical
Pot Clubs Get a Reprieve From Raids Under Obama
U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the federal
government will not prosecute all sales of medical marijuana, marking
another stark change in policy from the days of the Bush
administration, which conducted frequent raids under a zero tolerance
policy.
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US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens
of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of
drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama
administration to tackle economic decline. The government looking at
expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one
of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and
returning the land to nature.
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NASA moon bombing violates space law & may cause conflict with lunar ET/UFO civilizations
The planned October 9, 2009 bombing of
the moon by a NASA orbiter that will bomb the moon with a 2-ton kinetic
weapon to create a 5 mile wide deep crater as an alleged water-seeking
and lunar colonization experiment, is contrary to space law prohibiting
environmental modification of celestial bodies.
A space mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral today carrying a
missile that will fire a hole deep in the lunar surface, The Daily
Telegraph reported. The unmanned Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite mission (LCROSS) will fire a Centaur rocket into the surface
at twice the speed of a bullet. The aim is to see whether any traces of
water or vapour will be revealed by the disruption caused to the
surface.
|
The
Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the
world's wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is
on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S. |
Our human cells are vastly outnumbered (10X) by microbes in our bodies’
cellular cities. If we went by cellular per capita, rather than size of
cell, we’d be more microbe than man. In fact, various microbes have
colonized nearly every conceivable part of our bodies, from the inside
out. Some make us sick, but most allow us to live. In fact, without our
little micro-friends, we couldn’t survive. Microbes known as
“probiotics” break down indigestible food, keep us “regular”, make
vitamins, and aid the immune system by keeping out harmful bacteria,
among other functions.
|
The newest attempt at a viable hydrogen-powered car is a tiny
two-seater that should have early adopters tootling around the United
Kingdom next year. The Riversimple car will have a tiny (and therefore
relatively cheap) hydrogen fuel cell–only about 6 kilowatts, as
compared to the 100 kilowatt fuel cell that Honda’s FCX Clarity
hydrogen car uses. It is driven by four electric motors – one in each
wheel. |
Some of the most incredible minds on Earth lack the ability to filter
irrelevant facts, so perhaps it is accurate to say that to a
savant, the irrelevant IS relevant, and incredibly so. Somehow their
brains are able to store and access incredible loads of information,
even perceiving and relating to this information in an entirely
different way. |
Swarms of snakes are attacking people and cattle in southern Iraq as
the Euphrates and Tigris rivers dry up and the reptiles lose their
natural habitat among the reed beds. |
Artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence after 2020,
predicts Vernor Vinge, a world-renowned pioneer in AI, who has warned
about the risks and opportunities that an electronic super-intelligence
would offer to mankind. |
Some pesky scientists have just pointed out an appalling design error
in NASA’s latest attempts to find life on Mars. This is beginning to
look like a conspiracy. Does someone not want us to find life on Mars? |
If you like to search for "music lyrics" or "free" things, you are
engaging in risky cyber behavior. And "free music downloads" puts 20
percent of Web surfers in harm's way of malicious software, known as
"malware." |
Can Dolphins
Imagine the Future?
Partly because their brains are roughly the same size as humans, and
are similarly or superiorly complex (although differently evolved in
structure), some marine biologists have speculated that dolphins, and
other Cetaceans, are at least as intelligent as humans, and could have
several unknown communicative abilities, that surpass human
understanding. |
FDA Approves
Antidepressants for Children, Even After Revelations of Bribery
The
FDA has approved Forest Laboratories' antidepressant Lexapro
(escitalopram) for use in children and adolescents, even as the federal
government and 11 states have filed a lawsuit against the company for
illegally pushing the drug on kids. Forest is accused of bribing
pediatricians to prescribe Lexapro and a related drug, Celexa
(citalopram), to treat depression in children, even though such use had
not been approved by the FDA at the time. The government also claims
that Forest concealed the results of studies showing the drugs to be no
more effective than a placebo.
|
U.N.
environment chief urges global ban on plastic bags
"Single
use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased
out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for
manufacturing them anymore, anywhere," said Achim Steiner, executive
director of the U.N. Environment Programme. His office advises U.N.
member states on environmental policies.
|
'Orwellian language' in
schools turns pupils into 'customers'
Schools
using the 'Orwellian language of performance management' are
undermining teenagers' education by turning them into 'customers'
rather than students, a landmark report says today. Teachers who are
forced to use phrases such as 'performance indicator' and 'curriculum
delivery' lack enthusiam for the job, the six-year investigation found.
The Oxford-based Nuffield Review, the most comprehensive study of
secondary education in 50 years, said that 'the words we use shape our
thinking'.
|
Earth Losing Atmosphere
Faster than Venus, Mars
Researchers
were stunned to discover recently that Earth is losing more of its
atmosphere than Venus and Mars, which have negligible magnetic fields.
This may mean our planet's magnetic shield may not be as solid a
protective screen as once believed when it comes to guarding the
atmosphere from an assault from the sun.
|
The Bilderberg Plan for
2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy
From
May 14-17, roughly 130 of the world’s most powerful individuals came
together to discuss the pressing issues of today, and to chart a course
for the next year. The main topic of discussion at this years meeting
was the global financial crisis, which is no surprise, considering the
list of conference attendees includes many of the primary architects of
the crisis, as well as those poised to “solve” it.
|
The cloud with no name:
Meteorologists campaign to classify unique 'Asperatus' clouds seen
across the world
Whipped
into fantastical shapes, these clouds hang over the darkening landscape
like the harbingers of a mighty storm. But despite their stunning and
frequent appearances, the formations have yet to be officially
recognised with a name. They have been seen all over Britain in
different forms - from Snowdonia to the Scottish Highlands - and in
other parts of the world such as New Zealand, but usually break up
without producing a storm. [no
meantion of HAARP here. --ed] |
super laser weapon burns
as hot as a star
"We
have invented the world's largest laser system," actor-turned-governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a dedication ceremony attended by
thousands including state and national officials. "We can create the
stars right here on earth. And I can see already my friends in
Hollywood being very upset that their stuff that they show on the big
screen is obsolete. We have the real stuff right here."
|
UK: Police target 'innocent' youths for
arrest in bid to increase DNA samples on database
Youths
with no criminal record are being targeted for arrest so their DNA can
be logged on a database in the event they commit crimes. An
experience officer working for the Metropolitan Police admitted the DNA
was being stored as part of a 'long-term crime prevention strategy'.
The officer said: 'We are often told that we have just one chance to
get that DNA sample and if we miss it then that might mean a rape or a
murder goes unsolved in the future.'
|
Reboot Your Brain?
Science Says It's Possible
Contrary
to popular belief, recent studies have found that there are probably
ways to regenerate brain matter. Animal studies conducted at the
National Institute on Aging Gerontology Research Center and the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine, for example, have shown that
both calorie restriction and intermittent fasting along with vitamin
and mineral intake, increase resistance to disease, extend lifespan,
and stimulate production of neurons from stem cells.
|
A Fluoride-Free Pineal
Gland is More Important than Ever
There
are two types of fluoride. Calcium Fluoride, which appears naturally in
underground water supplies, is relatively benign. However, too much
consumed daily can lead to bone or dental problems. The type
of
fluorides added to water supplies and other beverages and foods are
waste products of the nuclear, aluminum, and now mostly the phosphate
(fertilizer) industries. The EPA has classified these as toxins:
fluorosilicate acid, sodium silicofluoride, and sodium fluoride.
|
Plant to open for 110-mpg car engines
The
man who drove his 20-year-old Mustang from Napoleon, Ohio, to Las Vegas
and back last year on 39 gallons of fuel will open his first
manufacturing facility Monday to allow others to get 110 miles per
gallon.
|
Naturally Produced
Hydrogen Peroxide Summons White Blood Cells to Wounds
Hydrogen
peroxide can kill viruses and bacteria, and it’s been used for
generations to sterilize wounds and help them heal faster. But a new
study published in the journal Nature shows that the substance may also
serve as a Pied Piper for white blood cells, summoning them to the site
of a wound to promote healing.
|
U.S. Federal Obligations: $546,668 Per
Household
Taxpayers
are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising
federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits,
the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis
shows. The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record
$546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis.
That’s quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all
mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.
|
Vulcans
Nixed: You Can’t Have Logic Without Emotion
Science
is discovering that it is our emotions that make thought possible, not
the other way around. We simply cannot understand thought without
understanding emotion. This is a radical departure from the traditional
perspective, which used to regard emotion as the antagonist of reason.
|
Synchronized Brain Waves
Focus Our Attention
Separate brain regions
firing in unison may be what keeps us focused on
important things while we ignore distractions. A deluge of visual
information hits our eyes every second, yet we’re able to focus on the
minuscule fraction that’s relevant to our goals. Now, researchers at
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology have discovered that the brain’s control center
syncs up to its visual center with high-frequency brain waves,
directing attention to select features of the visual world.
|
A Novel Suggestion for
Combating Cancer: Don’t Try to Cure It
What
if we stopped trying to cure cancer, and learned how to live with it?
That’s the provocative question asked by mathematical
oncologist
Robert Gatenby in an essay published in Nature. Gatenby argues that by
trying to eradicate tumors with heavy doses of chemotherapy, doctors
sometimes end up selecting for drug-resistant cancer cells that can
spread rapidly once treatment is halted. Instead, he suggests giving
patients moderate doses that aim to stabilize the tumor and prevent its
growth.
|
Pentagon Plans New Arm
to Wage Cyberspace Wars
The
Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace,
administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the
armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.
The military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced
by President Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United
States safeguards its computer networks.
|
'Crazy Turtle Woman' transforms graveyard
into maternity ward
"Twenty
years ago, this was a graveyard," Suzan Lakhan Baptiste said of the
six-mile stretch of beach near her home. "The stench was horrendous.
You could smell it for miles," she said. Saddened and frustrated,
Baptiste launched a crusade to help end the slaughter of the gentle
giants. Today, she and her group are succeeding: What was once a turtle
graveyard is now a maternity ward -- one of the largest leatherback
nesting colonies in the world.
|
Art of DNA Graffitti: Coding Bacteria With
Secret Messages
You
might think an inner thigh tattoo is a fairly intimate piece of
writing, but scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute authored a
message far more personally placed than that. Famous for
creating
the first piece of synthetic bacteria DNA, we've since learned that
they've autographed it.
|
Can Sight Be Restored
With Stem Cells Grown on Contact Lenses?
Three
patients with severe damage to the corneas of their eyes have achieved
dramatic improvements in their vision thanks to contact lenses coated
with their own stem cells. While the study was extremely small and the
results are quite preliminary, the unequivocal improvement seen in the
three patients has given doctors hope that the treatment may work for
many patients with damaged corneas.
|
In Hot Pursuit of Fusion
(or Folly)
“Bringing
Star Power to Earth” reads a giant banner that was recently unfurled
across a building the size of a football stadium. The $3.5 billion site
is known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF. For more than half
a century, physicists have dreamed of creating tiny stars that would
inaugurate an era of bold science and cheap energy, and NIF is meant to
kindle that blaze.
|
BioHackers:
Is DIY DNA a Threat to Society?
Solitary
citizens are toiling over test-tubes, sacrificing their time and money
to create brand new lifeforms - but this isn't a science fiction movie,
it's a hobby. "DIY Biochemistry" sees private citizens
converting
their dining rooms into DNA labs. It's only a pity that
Michael
Crichton has passed on, because we've got the plot of his next book
right here.
In
Attics and Closets, 'Biohackers' Discover Their Inner Frankenstein
Using
Mail-Order DNA and Iguana Heaters, Hobbyists Brew New Life Forms:
In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a
closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley,
Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage.
In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal
biology lab.
|
Indefinite Detention
The
Supreme Court is to meet on Tuesday to decide whether to review the
case, and it should. The justices need to make clear that a president
cannot trample on individual rights by imprisoning people indefinitely
simply by asserting that they are tied to terrorism.
Brasscheck
TV |
British
police state clamping down
The
British government will soon have a fully-operational network of
cameras fitted with license plate recognition software, according to a
published report. In a major first for any Western government's police
enforcement apparatus, the new system will allow any vehicle in the
United Kingdom to be tracked to its precise location.
|
Company looks to bring
air-powered cars to US
Most
car companies are racing to bring electric vehicles to the market. But
one startup is skipping the high-tech electronics, making cars whose
energy source is pulled literally out of thin air. Zero Pollution
Motors is trying to bring a car to U.S. roads by early 2011 that's
powered by a combination of compressed air and a small conventional
engine. ZPM Chief Executive Shiva Vencat said the ultimate goal is a
price tag between $18,000 and $20,000, fuel economy equivalent to 100
miles per gallon and a tailpipe that emits nothing but air at low
enough speeds.
|
Crisis spurs spike in
'suburban survivalists'
Six
months ago, Jim Wiseman didn't even have a spare nutrition bar in his
kitchen cabinet. Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five
has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall
pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego
suburb of La Jolla.Wiseman isn't alone. Emergency supply retailers and
military surplus stores nationwide have seen business boom in the past
few months as an increasing number of Americans spooked by the economy
rush to stock up on gear that was once the domain of hardcore
survivalists.
|
Meeting in the Dream World: Oneironauticum
On
the last Saturday of every month, Oneironauticum participants worldwide
enter dream space together. We do this by sharing an oneirogen. Derived
from the Greek oneiro, or dream, and gen, to create, an oneirogen is
anything that induces vivid dreams.
|
The Ultimate Memory: New Computer System to
Remain Viable for Billions of Years
Modern
memory is built entirely around the now, and that's not just a
reflection on ADD-afflicted kids. The IT infrastructure of an
entire planet is being built around the internet, the principle of
instant and easy access - with the price that most modern memories
degrade rather rapidly. Now some scientists are working on a
system that can be read by computers but remain viable for billions of
years.
|
Wolfram|Alpha Fails the Cool Test
Wolfram|Alpha
officially launched Monday — and by the looks of it, the computational
engine is the nerdy kid the other kids only talk to when they need help
with a physics exam, not a rival to the cool, well-rounded brainiac
Google.
Stephen Wolfram Reveals
Radical New Formula for Web Search
No,
it’s not Google. It’s Wolfram|Alpha, named after its creator, Stephen
Wolfram, a 49-year-old former particle physics prodigy who became
bewitched by the potential of computers. He invented a powerful
computational software program (Mathematica), built a company around it
(Wolfram Research), and wrote a massive book (A New Kind of Science)
that claims to redefine the universe itself in terms of computation.
Could
Wolfram|Alpha Sway Google Regulators?
Wolfram|Alpha,
a company whose product you have never used, may turn out to be
Google’s best friend. For those who haven’t heard yet, Wolfram|Alpha is
a much-hyped, badly-named computational search engine that gives real
answers to queries such as “internet users in Europe.” It pulls off the
techie magic by using structured data sets, rather than messy web
pages, as its index. Its demo has impressed quite a few tech
journalists, including the originally skeptical Danny Sullivan, one of
the crown princes of search engine journalism.
|
How Could You Fit Your
Movie Library on 1 Disc?
By Using *5* Dimensions
A
new optical storage technique that records in five dimensions could
hold up to 10,000 times what a standard DVD can store. The new
technology could see a whopping 1.6 terabytes of information fit on a
DVD-sized disc [BBC], whereas a DVD now can hold only 8.5 gigabytes and
a Blu-ray disc up to 50.
|
Artificial intelligence, once the preserve of science fiction writers
and eccentric computer prodigies, is back in fashion and getting
serious attention from NASA and from Silicon Valley companies like
Google as well as a new round of start-ups that are designing
everything from next-generation search engines to machines that listen
or that are capable of walking around in the world. A.I.'s new
respectability is turning the spotlight back on the question of where
the technology might be heading and, more ominously, perhaps, whether
computer intelligence will surpass our own, and how quickly. |
Tennessee speeders could
get fingerprinted
Currently,
when drivers are cited during traffic stops, police officers ask for
the driver's signature on the ticket, but the proposed bill would allow
police departments to eliminate signatures and collect fingerprints.
Supporters say collecting fingerprints would save money and help police
determine whether the driver is wanted for a criminal offense, but
opponents worry that it allows the government to tread on individual
privacy rights.
|
Obama
Expands the American Warfare State
Although
the U.S. is not in imminent danger of attack from any country,
President Obama’s first budget further expands the Pentagon’s already
dominant global operations. Not even the prospect of a $3.1 trillion
combined budget deficit for this year and next deters him. Let them
chop the budget for black colleges and police officer death benefits,
the Pentagon and its contractors continue to feast at the
champagne-and-caviar table.
|
Haiti:
the land where children eat mud
Haiti
is mired in historic debt and in danger of complete collapse. It is
stricken by flood and famine, and kidnap, rape and child abuse are
rife. So what is the West doing to rescue the ‘nightmare republic’?
|
Have you heard 'the
Hum'?
For
decades, hundreds of people worldwide have been plagued by an elusive
buzzing noise known as "the Hum". Some have blamed gas pipes or power
lines, others think their ears are faulty. A few even think sinister
forces could be at work.
|
Scientists
Developing Memory-Erasing Drug
Scientists
have renewed the controversy over the bounds to which psychiatric drugs
should be allowed to go, with research into a drug designed to erase
unpleasant memories. Researchers have said that the new drug could help
in the treatment of phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder or other
memory-related psychological distress.
|
Is
There a Milky-Way Galaxy/Earth Biodiversity Link? Experts Say "Yes"
Earlier
this year, a team of researchers at the University of Kansas came up
with an out-of-this-world explanation for the phenomenon of mass
extinctions on Earth that hinges upon the fact that stars move through
space and sometimes rush headlong through galaxies, or approach closely
enough to cause a brief cosmic tryst. Researchers at the University of
California, Berkeley found that marine fossil records show that
biodiversity increases and decreases based on a 62-million-year cycle.
At least two of the Earth's great mass extinctions-the Permian
extinction 250 million years ago and the Ordovician extinction about
450 million years ago-correspond with peaks of this cycle, which can't
be explained by evolutionary theory.
|
Will
We Ever Travel Faster Than Light, a la Star Trek?
The
speed-of-light speed limit only applies within space-time (the
continuum of three dimensions of space plus one of time that we live
in). While any given object can’t travel faster than light speed within
space-time, theory holds, perhaps space-time itself could travel. “The
idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it,” said Marc
Millis, former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project.
“The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it’s not moving at all.
It’s the space-time that’s moving”
|
UK taxman can use database of ID cards to
track spending habits and bank accounts
Personal
data gathered for the controversial ID cards scheme will be made
available to the taxman. HM Revenue and Customs officials will be able
to trawl through a person's financial transactions for hints of any
undeclared earnings or bank accounts. The revelation last night renewed
fury about the £5.5billion ID cards project.
|
Israeli founds world's first tuition-free
online university
An
Israeli entrepreneur who has started what is believed to be the world's
first tuition-free online university said Saturday he hopes the effort
will expand education to less fortunate people around the world. "It's
a simple idea. Take social networking and apply it to academia," said
Reshef, who helped develop several other Internet-based education
businesses in Europe.
|
NATO "Fun and Games": Bringing the threat of
war to Russia’s borders
The
battleground between East and West these days thus includes not only
Georgia, but the Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltics. Not only is US
President Barack Obama continuing Bush’s policy of provoking Russia in
Georgia, but he made no indication in his first 100 days that he would
reverse the planned Star Wars missile bases in the Czech Republic and
Poland.
Pentagon Preparing For War With The Enemy: Russia
Today
the situation is much more serious than before August 2008....[A]
possible recurrence of war will not be limited to the Caucasus. "The
new President of the United States did not bring about any crucial
changes in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant role in
NATO he still insists on Georgia's soonest joining of the Alliance. If
it happens, the world would face a more serious threat than the crises
of the Cold War. "Under the new realities, Georgia's war
against
South Ossetia may easily turn into NATO's war against Russia. This
would be a third world war." (Irina Kadzhaev, South Ossetia political
scientist, South Ossetia Information Agency, April 2009.)
|
World's oldest carving
of a human found in German cave
A
carving of a human figure has been found in Germany that is said to be
35,000 years old - which would make it the oldest such sculpture ever
discovered. Scientists unearthed the piece - in the shape of a woman
with XXL breasts and mega-hips - in the town of Alb-Donau-Kreis in
Baden Württemberg.
|
China has
developed its own operating system for cyber war with U.S.
A
leading cyber security specialist said last week that China has
developed its own ultra-secure operating system for a strategic edge in
its cyber warfare with U.S. computer systems. Part of the cyber arms
race includes China’s creation of Kylin, a new "hardened" operating
system. It began converting systems to it in 2007, according to the
current edition of East-Asia-Intel.com.
|
BioHackers:
Is DIY DNA a Threat to Society?
Solitary
citizens are toiling over test-tubes, sacrificing their time and money
to create brand new lifeforms - but this isn't a science fiction movie,
it's a hobby. "DIY Biochemistry" sees private citizens
converting
their dining rooms into DNA labs. It's only a pity that
Michael
Crichton has passed on, because we've got the plot of his next book
right here.
In
Attics and Closets, 'Biohackers' Discover Their Inner Frankenstein
Using
Mail-Order DNA and Iguana Heaters, Hobbyists Brew New Life Forms:
In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a
closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley,
Calif., works in his attic to
cultivate viruses extracted from sewage.
In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal
biology lab.
|
From Deep Space, Two New
Telescopes Will Study the
“Cold Universe”
The
two European Space Agency observatories, named Herschel and Planck, may
revolutionize our understanding of how galaxies formed in the young
universe, shortly after the Big Bang. Once the telescopes are in place,
says ESA science director David Southwood, the next era of space-based
astronomy will then be well and truly upon us. “They are at a pivotal
point,” he says. “From now on astronomy is going to be done from deep
space”.
|
Wired for war - robot soldiers more fact
than fiction
THE
world is on the brink of a "robotics revolution" in military combat
that will have profound social, psychological, political and ethical
effects, says a leading US defence analyst, Peter Singer.
More
than 43 countries were developing military robotics, including Israel,
Iran, China, Pakistan and Russia, as well as Britain and Australia. In
25 years, "our robotics will be about a billion times more powerful [in
their computing power] than today".
|
Space Zen: Will Humans'
Brains Change During Travel in Outer Space?
In
February, 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell experienced the
little understood phenomenon sometimes called the “Overview Effect”. He
describes being completely engulfed by a profound sense of universal
connectedness. Without warning, he says, a feeing of bliss,
timelessness, and connectedness began to overwhelm him. After decades
of study and contemplation about his experience, Mitchell believes that
the feeling of “oneness” with the Universe that he and others have
experienced is a consequence of little understood quantum physics.
|
Credit card companies
piling on fees, raising rates ahead of new federal rules
It
appears that credit card issuers are insisting upon exercising their
right to abuse their customers in the name of higher profits. A survey
of recent activities by the top eight credit card issuers reveals that
since the Federal Reserve announced rule changes designed to curb
unfair credit card industry practices last December, the companies have
implemented even more onerous practices, raised interest rates more
aggressively and increased the number of fees that they can impose on
their customers.
|
Gender-bending chemical
timebomb fear for boys' fertility
Chemicals
in food, cosmetics and cleaning products are 'feminising' unborn boys
and raising their risk of cancer and infertility later in life, an
expert warns today. Professor Richard Sharpe, one of Britain's leading
reproductive biologists, says everyday substances are linked to soaring
rates of birth defects and testicular cancer, and to falling sperm
counts. The government adviser's report published today is the most
detailed yet into the threat posed to baby boys by chemicals that block
the action of the male sex hormone testosterone, or mimic the female
sex hormone oestrogen.
Watch
the documentary: "The Disappearing Male" |
Emotional intelligence
'aids sex'
Women
who are more "emotionally intelligent" get greater pleasure from sex,
research on twins suggests. These women were better able to monitor
their own and others' feelings and emotions, which is key, say the
King's College London investigators.
|
US red ink rising even
higher, to $1.8T
The
government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it
spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8
trillion under new White House estimates. Budget office figures
released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 red ink -- increasing
it to more than four times last year's all-time high as the government
hands out billions more than expected for people who have lost jobs and
takes in less tax revenue from people and companies making less money.
|
Atlantis Mission
Offers One Last Lifeline to Hubble
Periodic
maintenance visits by astronauts have been the lifeblood of the Hubble
telescope ever since it was launched in 1990 from the shuttle. On the
Atlantis mission that began Monday, astronauts for the first time will
be opening instruments and replacing circuit boards in space. The last
maintenance mission was in March 2002.
|
Nanoscale Origami: A Box—With Lock &
Key—Made Entirely of DNA
In
a masterful work of “DNA origami,” researchers have created a nanoscale
DNA “box” which can be opened with DNA “keys”. One day, such structures
could be filled with drugs, injected into the blood, and then unlocked
when and where the drugs are required. Researchers say the boxes could
also be used as minuscule environmental sensors that open or close in
response to a stimulus, or as the logic gates of a DNA-based computer.
|
YooouuuTuuube
Takes YouTube on Psychedelic Trip
Online
buzz is building for a trippy new image generator that can take any
YouTube video and send it straight down the rabbit hole with Alice. New
York City programmer/designer David
Kraftsow’s YooouuuTuuube
project re-imagines video as a procession of postage-sized clips. They
pulse across the screen in a mesmerizing swarm that seems to literally
underscore the internet’s function as a universal copy machine.
|
Hydrogen Car
Goes Down Like the Hindenburg: DoE Kills the Program
The
dream of hydrogen fuel cell cars has just been put back in the garage.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday that his
department is cutting all funding for hydrogen car research, saying
that it won’t be a feasible technology anytime soon. “We asked
ourselves, ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will
covert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘no,’” Chu
said. While innovative new cars are a high priority, Chu declared that
his department will focus on efforts that may pay off sooner, like
plug-in electric cars.
|
Botnets Took Control of 12 Million New IPs
this Year
Botnet
criminals have taken control of almost 12 million new IP addresses
since January, according to a quarterly report (.pdf) from anti-virus
firm, McAfee. The United States has the largest number of
botnet-controlled machines, with 18 percent of them based here. The
number of zombie machines represents a 50-percent rise over last year.
|
Indonesian
'hobbit' confirmed to be a new species
Half-size
humans whose remains were found on the remote Indonesian island of
Flores in 2003 have been confirmed to be a new species, and not modern
pygmies whose brains had shrivelled with disease.
|
Ancient Herbal
Remedy Beats Hayfever
Butterbur
has been used by generations of herbalists as a potent way of treating
the itchy eyes and runny noses of hay fever sufferers. Doctors have
frequently dismissed such remedies as “old wives tales”. Now scientists
have discovered that butterbur is as effective as the widely used
antihistamine drugs, but has none of the nasty side-effects.
|
Secret US
robo whispercopters head to 'undisclosed location'
The
US Special Operations Command - SOCOM, America's secret military elite
- is to double its fleet of robot whispercopters in coming years,
according to reports. It has also been revealed that eight of the high
tech droid kill-choppers will soon go operational as surveillance craft
at "an undisclosed location" overseas.
|
Bohemian Club Logs it's own old growth trees?
Members
of the ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club are known to urinate freely
against the ancient redwoods that cover their 2,700-acre property. Have
they been chopping down the trees as well? According to one former
member turned whistle-blower, the San Francisco–based society may have
logged some of its old-growth forest.
|
Have Scientists
Discovered a Way of Peering Into the Future?
Deep in the basement of
a dusty old library in Edinburgh lies a small black box that churns out
random numbers. At first glance the box looks profoundly dull, but it
is, in fact, the ‘eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering
into the future. The machine apparently sensed the September 11th
attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened, and
appeared to forewarn of the Asian Tsunami.
|
“Space Tornadoes” Power
the Northern Lights
Researchers
have gotten their best look ever at how auroras–also known as the
southern and northern lights–begin to form in space. The dazzling light
displays are provoked by “space tornadoes”. Whirling at more than a
million miles per hour, these invisible, funnel-shaped solar windstorms
carry electrical currents of more than a hundred thousand amps—roughly
ten times that of an average lightning strike. And they’re huge: up to
44,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) long and wide enough to envelop Earth.
|
John
Michell, Counterculture Author Who Cherished Idiosyncrasy, Dies at 76
John Michell, a
self-styled Merlin of the 1960s English counterculture who inspired
disciples like the Rolling Stones with a deluge of writings about
U.F.O.’s, prehistoric architecture and fairies — when he was not
describing fascinating eccentrics or the perils of the metric system —
died on April 24 in Poole, England. He was 76.
|
Montana Governor Signs
Stunning New Gun Law
Gov. Brian Schweitzer
has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from
federal regulation. It applies only to guns made and kept in Montana.
Its supporters hope it triggers a court case to test the legal basis
for federal rules governing gun sales.
|
'Green' lightbulbs
poison workers
Large
numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms
part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand,
set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory
within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that
have ruined the environment.
|
The Fight
over the Google of All Libraries
The
Google Book Search Settlement has been much in the news recently, with
the Internet Archive, Philip K. Dick’s heirs, consumer groups and
Microsoft registering their objections to the search giant’s agreement
with authors and publishers. And now Justice Department anti-trust
lawyers are meeting with Google about the settlement, raising the
possibility of a full-blown anti-trust court showdown between the
government and the world’s biggest search and advertising company.
|
New Study Casts Doubt on
the Asteroid Strike Theory of Dino Extinction
The
enormous meteor that smashed into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula 65 million
years ago didn’t deal a death blow to the dinosaurs, a new study
declares. Based on a close examination of sediment layers from that
epoch, a team of researchers led by Gerta Keller has previously argued
that the Chicxulub impact happened 300,000 years before the mass
extinction known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Now,
Keller has found supporting evidence that the impact had little
immediate effect on the planet’s biome. Says Keller: “It didn’t kill
the dinosaurs. In fact, it didn’t cause much damage that we can
determine from the geological record”
|
Is this the secret of
eternal life?
Most
centenarians attribute their great age to some magic elixir or other.
The longevity of the Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who this
week became the first Nobel Prize-winner to reach the age of 100, might
be the result of a potion that is a little out of the ordinary:
Professor Levi-Montalcini, it is said, puts her undiminished mental
vigour down to regular doses of nerve growth factor (NGF) – the
discovery that made her famous.
|
Obama
Moves to Undo Bush-Era Environmental Policies
The
Obama administration is once again working to reverse the path of
former president Bush in another series of environmental policy
changes, with two moves in particular looking to some like a crackdown
on the coal industry. The Justice Department announced this week that
it will challenge Bush’s mountaintop coal mining rules, the EPA has
withdrawn a permit for a coal power plant scheduled to be built on
Navajo land, and the Interior Department has strengthened endangered
species rules.
|
Beware
surfers: cyberspace is filling up
Internet users face
regular “brownouts” that will freeze their computers as capacity runs
out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this
year. Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 per
cent a year, will start to exceed supply from as early as next year
because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of
bandwidth-hungry websites such as YouTube and services such as the
BBC’s iPlayer.
|
Darwin's Radio:
Prehistoric Gene Reawakens to Battle HIV
About 95% of the human
genome has once been designated as "junk" DNA. While much of this
sequence may be an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day
purpose, some junk DNA may function in ways that are not currently
understood. The conservation of some junk DNA over many millions of
years of evolution may imply an essential function that has been
"turned off." Now scientists say there's a junk gene that fights HIV.
And they've discovered how to turn it back on.
|
H.R. 875
The
Clandestine War Over the Food Safety Modernization Act
Critics
say that the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875),
introduced in early February by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), will
“effectively criminalize organic gardening,” conceivably outlaw “seed
banking,” and will serve as part of a concerted Monsanto conspiracy to
drive all but corporate agri-business out of the food production
racket.'
The
Monsanto Connection
"Monsanto uses overt and
covert strategies to accomplish their goals. Monsanto is behind both
sides of the battle over HR 875. They don’t leave important
matters like these to chance."
Some
small farms and organic food growers could be placed under direct
supervision of the federal government under new legislation making its
way through Congress. House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety
Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in
February. DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, conducts research for
Monsanto – the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically
engineered seed. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety
Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at
all levels – and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1
million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers,
manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations.
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Can
we reverse aging by changing how we think?
A
provocative new book from a Harvard psychologist suggests that changing
how we think about our age and health can have dramatic physical
benefits presenting a theory that we are all victims of our own
stereotypes about aging and health. We mindlessly accept negative
cultural cues about disease and old age, and these cues shape our
self-concepts and our behavior. If we can shake loose from the negative
clichés that dominate our thinking about health, we can "mindfully"
open ourselves to possibilities for more productive lives even into old
age.
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The
missing sunspots: Is this the big chill?
Could
the Sun play a greater role in recent climate change than has been
believed? Climatologists had dismissed the idea and some solar
scientists have been reticent about it because of its connections with
those who those who deny climate change. But now the speculation has
grown louder because of what is happening to our Sun. No living
scientist has seen it behave this way. There are no sunspots.
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UK:
Every phone call, email or website visit 'to be monitored'
The
proposals will give police and security services the power to snoop on
every single communication made by the public with the data then likely
to be stored in an enormous national database. The precise content of
calls and other communications would not be accessible but even text
messages and visits to social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter would be tracked.
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