Cool Science News

All Time Coldest U.S. Record Nearly Broken

2012-01-30T18:00:00.000-08:00

Bitter Cold Records Broken In Alaska – All Time Coldest Record Nearly Broken, But Murphy’s Law Intervenes -- WUWT

Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971, which is not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, it seems the battery died in the weather station just at the critical moment.

While the continental USA has a mild winter and has set a number of high temperature records in the last week and pundits ponder whether they will be blaming the dreaded “global warming” for those temperatures, Alaska and Canada have been suffering through some of the coldest temperatures on record during the last week.

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My Comment: Damn .... that's cold.

`Space Hurricane`From The Sun Sweeping The Planet Right Now

2012-01-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

'Space Hurricane' From The Sun Sweeping Over Our Planet -- MSNBC

Flights rerouted due to solar storm; radiation rated strongest since 2003

A wave of charged particles from an intense solar storm is raising alerts about airline flights and satellite operations — and raising the prospect of stunning auroral displays.

The storm began when a powerful solar flare erupted on the sun Monday, blasting a stream of charged particles toward our planet. This electromagnetic burst — called a coronal mass ejection, or CME — started hitting Earth somewhere around 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

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More News On Today`s Hurricane`From The Sun

'Space Hurricane': Huge Solar Storm Is Pounding Earth Now -- Space.com
Delta reroutes planes following massive solar eruption -- FOX news
Solar radiation storm sweeps over Earth -- CNET
Strongest Solar Storm Since 2005 Hitting Earth -- Sci-Tech Today
Space station dwellers safe from massive radiation storm -- Christian Science Monitor
Solar storm's effects to lash Earth until Wednesday -- BBC
Solar storm underway: ‘A taste of what’s going to come’ next year -- Washington Post
A solar storm reaches Earth (images) -- CNET

Fears Of Bioterrorism Halts Research On Mutant Bird Flu

2012-01-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

Bioterror Fears Halt Research On Mutant Bird Flu -- BBC

Scientists who created a more deadly strain of bird flu have temporarily stopped their research amid fears it could be used by bioterrorists.

In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams call for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies.

US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications.

A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists.

Biosecurity experts fear a mutant form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people.

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More News On Scientists Suspending For 60 Days Their Research On Mutant Bird Flu

Researchers Pause Work on Bird Flu That Could Kill Hundreds of Millions -- ABC News
Fears of mutant virus escape halt bird flu study -- Reuters
Deadly Bird Flu Research to Be Paused Over Concern About Risks -- Bloomberg
Bird flu scientists suspend work amid epidemic fears -- The Guardian
Scientists call moratorium on study of deadly bird flu -- L.A. Times
Scientists Agree to Halt Work on Dangerous Bird Flu Strain -- Time
Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu -- New York Times
Controversial Killer Flu Research Paused -- Wired
Flu scientists agree to 60-day ‘pause’ in bird-flu research -- Washington Post
Scientists Call for 60-Day Suspension of Mutant Flu Research -- Scientific America

Hackers Retaliate With Massive Cyber Attacks After Shutdown Of Megaupload

2012-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

U.S. Justice Department Website Attacked By Hackers Over Megaupload Shutdown -- National Post

The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives on Thursday as debate in Washington reaches a fever pitch over online piracy. Lawmakers are trying to craft legislation that balances cracking down on violators while avoiding censorship of the Internet.

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More News On The Shutdown Of Megaupload And Hacker Retaliation

Anonymous strikes back after feds shut piracy hub Megaupload -- CNN
Megaupload.com Gets Hit by Mega Piracy Indictment; Hackers Attack Feds, Entertainment Industry -- ABC News
U.S. shutters Megaupload.com, arrests founder; hackers retaliate? -- Seattle Times/AP
Megaupload is Megapwned by Gov't, Anonymous Hits Back, Downs DOJ Homepage -- Daily Tech
Anonymous claims DOJ hack attack -- Politico
FBI shuts down Megaupload.com, Anonymous shut down FBI -- News.com.au
Anonymous says it takes down FBI, DOJ, entertainment sites -- MSNBC
Hackers attack FBI, Justice Department websites after Megaupload shutdown -- National Post
Hackers’ revenge: Federal -- Miami Herald
Anonymous Claims DOJ, RIAA, MPAA Sites Hit for Megaupload Bust -- Time
The Copyright War- Govt Takes Down Megaupload, Anonymous Takes Down Govt! -- Crazy Engineers
Anonymous DOJ Attack Also Targets RIAA and More in Response to MegaUpload Indictment -- Gather
Anonymous Retaliates With Gov., Media Web Site Shutdowns after Megaupload Arrests -- RedmondMag
Anonymous Retaliates for Megaupload Shutdown, Attacks DOJ, Others -- PC World
US govt, entertainment sites attacked after piracy arrests -- ZDNet
Anonymous hacks DOJ, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music websites -- ZDNet

Gravitational Lensing Helps Redraw the Map of Space

2012-01-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

The observations show that dark matter in the Universe is distributed as a network of gigantic dense (white) and empty (dark) regions, where the largest white regions are about the size of several Earth moons on the sky. Van Waerbeke / Heymans / CFHTLens collaboration

A Cosmic Illusion: Gravitational Lensing Helps Redraw the Map of Space -- Time

You can hardly accuse Albert Einstein of being short on imagination. The man who invented General Relativity and helped invent quantum theory probably had more creative thoughts in an hour than most folks have in a year. But one of Einstein's more intriguing scientific papers, which appeared in Science in 1936, wasn't really his idea in the first place. It came instead from a Czech electrical engineer named Rudi Mandl, who was intrigued by one of relativity's implications.

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Major Websites Preparing To Go Dark On Wednesday

2012-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia and other websites plan to go dark in protest. Reuters

SOPA Protest Nears Zero Hour -- Politico

Internet companies and activists are hoping to join the Arab Spring and other online democracy movements by taking an estimated 7,000 websites offline Wednesday to send a message to Washington: Don’t pass a pair of anti-piracy bills.

The websites that have announced plans to go dark include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and Wordpress, but some of the most visited websites are conspicuous in their absence.

And supporters of the copyright bills dismissed the blackout as a “stunt.”

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My Comment: To understand the issues that are involved, go here. As for myself .... unless Blogger goes offline .... I will be blogging tomorrow.

Massacre In The Hive

2012-01-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

Massacre In The Hive: Amazing Footage Of 30 Giant Japanese Hornets Slaughtering 30,000 Tiny Honeybees To Eat Their Young -- Daily Mail

Tens of thousands are dead, hundreds more of the dying lie writhing on the battlefield, powerless to protect their children.

These horrifying and yet fascinating scenes are the highlights of a three-hour battle between just 30 giant Japanese hornets and 30,000 European honeybees.

The video, from a National Geographic documentary called Hornets From Hell, shows a full-scale attack on the honeybees' comb in order that the hornets can get at their larvae.

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My Comment: I got the chills from just watching the video.

The Hunt for Exomoons Is Heating Up

2012-01-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

An artist's impression of a hypothetical exomoon in orbit around a planet in another planetary system. Dan Durda

Forget Exoplanets: The Hunt for Exomoons Is Heating Up

The universe seems almost infinitely reductive: our galaxy rotates around a central hub, planets orbit their planet stars, moons orbit their parent planets, and the odd moonlet may even orbit a moon.

Almost from the moment astronomers began finding planets around distant stars, they thus began talking about the moons that might orbit those alien worlds. It wasn't that they had any hope of discovering something as tiny as a moon: the smallest things they could find at the time were giant planets like Jupiter. But if a Jupiter happened to orbit in its star's Goldilocks Zone, where temperatures were relatively balmy, and if that Jupiter happened to have a moon about the size of Earth — not impossible, surely — then that hypothetical moon might have a chance of harboring life. That's a lot of ifs, which made talk of so-called exomoons seem like more of a marketing gimmick designed to gin up public interest in exoplanet science than a serious area of research.

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The First Ever Saturn-Like Exoplanet Is Found

2012-01-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

A Saturn-Like Ringed Planet, 420 Light-Years Away Michael Osadciw/University of Rochester

Found: The First Ever Saturn-Like Exoplanet Surrounded By Orbital Rings -- Popular Science

The hits just keep on coming out of Austin this week as the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society rolls on. Researchers there have announced the discovery of the first Saturn-like ringed object outside our solar system, documented when researchers were trying to diagnose the cause of a strange eclipsing effect emanating from a nearby star.

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An Innovative Way To Collect Solar Energy

2012-01-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

13-year-old Aidan Dwyer developed a new way to collect solar energy, and along the way sparked a fierce debate among scholars and scientists. He joins the News Hub to tell his story. Photo: Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal

A Youngster's Bright Idea Is Something New Under The Sun -- Wall Street Journal

Aidan Dwyer Took a Leaf from the Trees and Electrified International Debate

NORTHPORT, N.Y.—A new way of collecting solar energy has polarized scientists around the world and ignited fierce debate on the Internet, where the innovator in question has been called everything from an alien to the agent of a global conspiracy.

Maybe a better title would be an intellectual Hannah Montana. That's because the scientist, Aidan Dwyer, is 13 years old.

This past summer, Aidan won a national science competition with what seemed to be a bright idea: His research appeared to show that solar panels arrayed like the leaves on a tree collect sunlight more efficiently than traditional setups.

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Google's Chrome Poised To Become World's Most Popular Web Browser

2012-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

Over the past year, Internet Explorer fell from 46 per cent of the worldwide market to 38.5 per cent. In the same period, Chrome rose from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent, overtaking rival Firefox in the process

Google's Chrome Poised To Become World's Most Popular Web Browser This Year, Overtaking Internet Explorer -- Daily Mail

* Internet Explorer falls to 38.5 per cent in 2011
* Chrome soars from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent
* Will overtake IE in 2012 if current trend continues

Google's fast, simple Chrome browser will move ahead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer by the end of this year if current trends continue, according to research from research firm StatCounter.

Over the past year, Internet Explorer fell from 46 per cent of the worldwide market to 38.5 per cent.

In the same period, Google Chrome rose from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent, overtaking rival Firefox in the process.

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A New Design For Robots

2012-01-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

This photo illustration shows an agama lizard with the Tailbot robot. (Discovery Channel 4D Anatomy Model, 2008 Fame Master Ent. Ltd.). Thomas Libby, Evan Chang-Siu and Pauline Jennings. Courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab & CiBER/UC Berkeley

Should We Design Robots To Be More Like Velociraptors? -- Christian Science Monitor

Adding a long tails to a robot to stabilize its body could lead to far more agile search-and-rescue machines, a new study reveals.

Meat-eating dinosaurs like Velociraptor may have been quite the acrobats, using their tails to land aerial maneuvers safely, say scientists studying today's leaping lizards.

Long-tailed robots built as part of this work could help inspire a new generation of maneuverable search-and-rescue droids, the researchers add.

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Google Search Home Page Revamped

2012-01-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

Google's pull-down menus should help highlight the firm's non-core search services to users.

Google Search Home Page Revamp Promotes Other Services -- BBC

Google is rolling out one of its biggest home page changes to date.

The revamp strips its front page of the black bar that currently runs horizontally along its top, and replaces it with a grey logo.

When clicked or highlighted, it reveals seven alternative services to the site's search page with an option to reveal a further eight.

Analysts said the move was designed to promote more of the firm's businesses without cluttering its webpage.

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My Comment: This is going to take some getting use to.

Windows XP Still Dominates The Web

2012-01-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Ten Years Later, Windows XP Still Dominates The Web -- CNN Money

And in the Apple market, Lion is still trailing two-year-old Snow Leopard.

In its final monthly report for 2011, NetApplications offers a window on the shifting fates of the various flavors of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows and Mac OS X that show up at its 40,000 clients' websites.

As a rule, creaky old legacy systems dominate.

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My Comment: It took me a few months to get over Windows 3.1 in favor of Windows 95. Such is the life of software.

'Buffing' Your Brain

2012-01-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Buff Your Brain -- Daily Beast/Newsweek

Read more. Learn a language. Get some sleep! Sharon Begley reports getting a bigger brain is easier—and more fun—than you think.

Brain training to sharpen memory. Aerobic exercise to preserve gray matter. Meditation to hone connections between reason and emotion.

It all sounds great, but there’s something that has long bothered us about the growing number of studies pinpointing ways to buff your brain: they don’t go far enough. Sure, exercises to improve memory are better for your brain than, say, watching reality TV, but the most you’re going to gain is more reliable access to knowledge already scattered around your cerebral cortex. If the information isn’t in there, no amount of brain training will tell you how the Federal Reserve system functions, why the Confederacy lost the Civil War, the significance of Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, or why Word just crashed.

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Is A Super-Volcano In The Heart Of Europe About To Erupt?

2012-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

If the Laacher See eruption is as powerful as the last one, volcanic material could land over 600 miles away

Is A Super-Volcano Just 390 Miles From London About To Erupt? -- Daily Mail

* It's similar in size to Mount Pinatubo, which in 1991 gave us the biggest eruption of the 20th century
* Billions of tons of ash and magma would be ejected
* Southern England would be covered in ash

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up.

It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma.

This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago, so it could blow at any time.

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My Comment: The awesome power of mother nature always gives me pause.

Four Industries Being Targeted By Apple

2012-01-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt In The Near Future -- Time Techland

Tim Bajarin is the president of Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market intelligence firm in Silicon Valley.

Over the last 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries. By my account, it has dramatically impacted the PC, tablet, consumer electronics, telecom, music and TV industries in a big way. And I believe that Apple is on the cusp of disrupting at least four more major industries in the next three to five years.

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My Comment: Only 4?

Is This The Year of Cold Fusion?

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

2012: The Year of Cold Fusion? -- Forbes

Well, there goes 2011, a year that was, to say the least, a mixed bag.

In the tech world it has been an interesting year. The Large Hadron Collider has, so far, failed to find evidence of the Higgs Boson (boo!) but at least it didn’t, as some people had feared, create a black hole that swallowed the earth (hooray!). Biological research produced promising results regarding antiviral drugs that may cure the common cold (hooray!) but a cure for cancer and HIV stills seems a long way away (boo!).

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My Comment: Unfortunately .... we are still a long way off.

How Can I Track My Stolen Gadget?

2012-01-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

Laptop LoJack Nigel Buchanan

Ask a Geek: How Can I Track My Stolen Gadget? -- Popular Science

Thieves make off with millions of dollars’ worth of laptops and mobile devices every year. Most stolen gadgets go unrecovered, but tracking software can help. The software runs in the background of the operating system or, with some services, the boot-level layer, which makes detecting the tracker much more difficult. Services like Prey provide free software for up to three laptops or Android devices. BlackBerry, iPhone or iPad owners can use GadgetTrak (from $4).

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Great White Sharks Hunting Cape Fur Sseals Off The Coast Of Cape Town, South Africa

2011-12-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

A seal tries to outmanoeuvre a great white shark, seconds before it becomes lunch. The tiny Cape fur seal is dwarfed by the enormous shark as it hunts off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. These images taken by wildlife photographer David Jenkins show the constant struggle for survival for the animals that live on Seal Island in False Bay where around 12,000 seal pups are born each November and December. Taken over three years, the photos illustrate exactly why great whites are considered one of the world's most efficient predators. Picture: Specialist Stock / Barcroft Media

CSN Editor: A cool gallery of pictures. The link is here.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

101. Duct Tape
NASA astronauts have used it to make repairs on the moon and in space. The MythBusters built a boat and held a car together with the stuff. Brookhaven National Laboratory fixed their particle accelerator with it. And enthusiasts have used it to make prom dresses and wallets. You might say it's a material, not a gadget, but trust us: Duct tape is the ultimate multitool.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World -- Popular Mechanics

The alarm clock. The personal computer. The smartphone. The radio. You know the greatest gadgets of all time (and you’ve probably owned most of them), but which has changed the world more than any other? To make our list of 101, a gadget had to be something you could hold in your hands, mechanical or electronic, and a mass-produced personal item. The rest was up to the judges. Check out our selections, and watch the 101 Gadgets TV special on History, premiering June 15. Then, let the debate begin.

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My Comment: They are all indispensable in today's world.

A Helicopter Drone For The U.S. Army

2011-12-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

(Credit: U.S. Army)

US Army Unveils 1.8 Gigapixel Camera Helicopter Drone -- BBC

New helicopter-style drones with 1.8 gigapixel colour cameras are being developed by the US Army.

The army said the technology promised "an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground".

A statement added that three of the sensor-equipped drones were due to go into service in Afghanistan in either May or June.

Boeing built the first drones, but other firms can bid to manufacture others.

"These aircraft will deploy for up to one full year as a way to harness lessons learned and funnel them into a program of record," said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Munster, product manager at the US Army's Unmanned Aerial System Modernization unit.

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More News On The U.S. Army`s Newest Helicopter Drone

US deploys 1.8 gigapixel helicopter surveillance drones to Afghanistan -- The Register
Hummingbird robo-drone gets 1.8-gigapixel camera -- CNet
New spy drone has 1.8 gigapixel camera -- Extreme Tech
US Army's A160 Hummingbird drone-copter to don 1.8 gigapixel camera -- Endgadget
Army to deploy vertical take-off UAS -- www.Army.mil

Massive Solar Storm Heading Our Way

2011-12-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

It's coming this way: The CME, seen by Nasa's STEREO-B spacecraft, can be seen blasting out from the Sun on the right-hand side (circled)

Massive Solar Storm 'Could Knock Out Radio Signals' Over Next Three Days, Warn Scientists -- Daily Mail

Skywatchers will be hoping for clear skies from today because particles from a recent solar storm will slam into Earth and produce amazing Northern Lights, or auroras.

On the downside, experts expect radio blackouts for a few days, caused by the radiation from the flare – or coronal mass ejection (CME) – causing magnetic storms.

The flare is part of a larger increase in activity in the Sun, which runs in 11-year cycles. It is expected to peak around 2013.

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Where Science And The Search For Understanding Can Produce Mankind's Worst Nightmare

2011-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

This transmission electron micrograph taken at a magnification of 150,000x, reveals the ultrastructural details of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virion, pictured by the United States government's Centre for Disease Control.

Studies Of Deadly H5N1 Bird Flu Mutations Test Scientific Ethics -- L.A. Times

Dutch scientists have created a version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu that's easily transmitted. In an unprecedented move, a U.S. board asks that some details of the research not be published.

In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.

It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.

Their noxious creation could help prevent catastrophe in the battle against the deadly H5N1 bird flu that has ravaged duck and chicken flocks across Asia and elsewhere since the mid-1990s but has mostly left our species alone — for one crucial reason. Though H5N1 kills with brutality when it takes hold in a human, it infects extremely rarely and doesn't go on to easily spread between people.

Public health officials have long fretted that the virus may one day find a way to do so.

Read more ....

Previous Post: A Bioterror Weapon That Can Easily Kill Billions

My Comment: From what I have been reading, this genetically engineered virus is incredibly lethal (60%). And while the desire is to now limit it`s findings, the sad fact is that we are now faced with a situation in which "Pandora`s Box" has been opened, and there are now too many people who are aware of its findings.

Should We Scour The Moon For Ancient Traces Of Aliens

2011-12-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

A pit in Mare Ingenii, possibly the result of a collapsed lava tube. Natural tunnels like this would be ideal sites for an alien moon base. Photograph: Nasa

We Should Scour The Moon For Ancient Traces Of Aliens, Say Scientists -- The Guardian

Online volunteers could be set task of spotting alien technology, evidence of mining and rubbish heaps in moon images.

Hundreds of thousands of pictures of the moon will be examined for telltale signs that aliens once visited our cosmic neighbourhood if plans put forward by scientists go ahead.

Passing extraterrestrials might have left messages, scientific instruments, heaps of rubbish or evidence of mining on the dusty lunar surface that could be spotted by human telescopes and orbiting spacecraft.

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My Comment: The moon is one hell of a big place.

Every Bioterrorism Expert's Worse Nightmare: Recent Man-Made Super-Flu Could Kill Half Humanity

2011-12-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Armageddon Super Virus Recipe: Keep Secret Or Publish? -- Sydney Morning Herald

To publish or not to publish?

That is the question gripping scientists after virologists said they had developed a bird flu virus - with a 60 per cent human mortality rate - that could spread as easily as the common cold.

Some fear the virus, if it fell into the wrong hands, could be modified by bioterrorists into a weapon that kills billions of people.

Read more ....

More News On The H5N1

'Anthrax isn't scary at all compared to this': Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab -- Daily Mail
Man-made super-flu could kill half humanity -- RT
Super Virus Report Might Make or Break Biosecurity -- Top News
New manmade super virus? New bird flu has 60% human lethality -- Digital Journal
Canberra Vaccine Expert Urges Censorship on Bird Flu Strain Mutant Research -- IBTimes
“Bird Flu” Virus Experiment Sparks Controversy and a Biosecurity Review -- Decoded Science
US fears Dutch research could be biological weapon -- Radio Netherlands
Deadly man-made strain of H5N1 bird flu virus raises controversy -- Digital Journal
Should a New Recipe for Engineered Bird Flu, Potent Enough to Kill Millions, Be Published? -- Popular Science
Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies -- Science Insider
Deadly Man-Made Flu Won’t Kill Everyone Unless It Escapes From the Lab -- Gawker

The Beauty Of Pollination (Video)

2011-12-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

Can You Crack It? Britain's Spy Agency Looking To Hire Top Cyber Hackers

2011-12-01T08:00:00.001-08:00

Can You Solve This Code? Then This U.K. Spy Agency Might Want To Hire You -- National Post/AFP

LONDON — No longer content with simply approaching the brightest from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ has launched a code-cracking competition to attract new talent.

The electronic surveillance organisation, the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters, is asking potential applicants to solve a code posted on a website.

It will direct potential candidates to the competition, hosted on an anonymous website, via sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Read more ....

More News On Britain's GCHQ Wanting To Hire Code Breakers

iSpy: Government intelligence agency launches online code-cracking puzzle to recruit future stars of cyber-savvy espionage -- Daily Mail
GCHQ: solve the online code, become a real-life spy -- The Telegraph
GCHQ challenges codebreakers via social networks -- BBC
GCHQ aims to recruit computer hackers with code-cracking website -- The Guardian
Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond -- The Register
GCHQ challenges codebreakers in online competition -- Digital Spy
GCHQ sets codebreaking challenge for wannabe spies -- Computer World
Crack an online code, get a job as a spy -- The Inquirer
GCHQ Launches Code-Breaking Competition Through Social Networking Sites -- Jobs and Hire
Crack This Code, and Become a British Spy -- The Danger Room
Intelligence agency recruits spies with online code -- New Scientist

CSN Editor: The GCHQ spy recruitment code problem has been solved (in a few hours after being posted online).

Oldest Evidence Of Violence Between Humans Unearthed In China

2011-11-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

Maba "man" took a wallop from something, but lived to fight another day. BBC

Ancient Skull Found In China May Be Oldest Evidence Of Violence Between Humans -- The Telegraph

An ancient skull discovered in China may be the oldest evidence of violence between humans, according to researchers.

A fracture on the right temple of the skull is likely to have been caused by a blow to the side of the head some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago.

“There are older cases of bumps and bruises and cases of trauma,” said Erik Trinkaus from Washington University in St Louis, US, to the BBC.”

But this is the first one I am aware of where the most likely interpretation is getting whooped by someone else – to put it bluntly.”

The skull was unearthed in a cave near Maba in 1958 but its significance only came to light recently.

Read more ....

More Evidence Of Archaeologists Uncovering Evidence Of Early Human Violence

'Earliest' evidence of human violence -- BBC
Evidence uncovered of world's oldest violent argument -- CBS
The Roots of Violence -- The Scientist
Archaeologists Uncover Evidence Of Early Human Violence -- And Caring -- Forbes
Bashed Skull Is Earliest Evidence of Human Aggression? -- National Geographic

Amazing Video: 'Jet Man' Stunts Alongside Fighter Jets Over Alps

2011-11-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

WNU Editor: OK .... I am impressed.

U.S. Ranks 28th In Life Expectancy

2011-11-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

Life Expectancy 2011 Estimates CIA World Factbook

What's Killing America? U.S. Ranks 28th In Life Expectancy (Lower Than Chile And Greece) While It Pays The MOST For Health Care -- Daily Mail

A new survey on health care is revealing that you may not be getting what you pay for if you check into a U.S. hospital.

The U.S. healthcare system is more effective at delivering high costs than quality care than other developed nations, according to the study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

It found first-rate treatment for cancer but insufficient primary care for other ailments.

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The Construction of NASA's Next Mars Rover

2011-11-24T17:11:00.000-08:00

This artist's concept depicts the rover Curiosity, of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, as it uses its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface. ChemCam fires laser pulses at a target and views the resulting spark with a telescope and spectrometers to identify chemical elements. The laser is actually in an invisible infrared wavelength, but is shown here as visible red light for purposes of illustration. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Inside Look: The Construction of NASA's Next Mars Rover -- FOX News

In May 2011, SPACE.com reporter Mike Wall visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as scientists and engineers were wrapping up work on Curiosity, NASA's next Mars rover. This is his account.

It could be a scene from a James Bond film — a glimpse into the archvillain's lair.

Anonymous white-clad workers, their faces obscured by surgical masks, cross a cavernous, high-ceilinged room. They pause to adjust or inspect large pieces of mysterious equipment, some of which is spangled with bright gold foil. It's obvious that they're building something complicated and important.

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Power Source Unveiled For Cyborg Search-And-Rescue Insects

2011-11-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

Image: The research team proposed putting two spiral energy harvesters on either side of a beetle's thorax.

Cyborg Search-And-Rescue Insects' Power Source Unveiled -- BBC

Efforts to create an army of cyborg insects are being pursued by a team of US-based engineers.

The group is investigating ways to harvest energy from the creatures to power sensors and other equipment fastened to their bodies.

The team has created an energy scavenging device that is attached close to the insects' wings.

It suggested the creatures might one day be used to aid search-and-rescue operations and surveillance.

The University of Michigan team of engineers published their study in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

Read more ....

Emails Question The Impact Of Climate Change

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Uh Oh, Global Warming Loons: Here Comes Climategate II! -- The Telegraph

Breaking news: two years after the Climategate, a further batch of emails has been leaked onto the internet by a person – or persons – unknown. And as before, they show the "scientists" at the heart of the Man-Made Global Warming industry in a most unflattering light. Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Ben Santer, Tom Wigley, Kevin Trenberth, Keith Briffa – all your favourite Climategate characters are here, once again caught red-handed in a series of emails exaggerating the extent of Anthropogenic Global Warming, while privately admitting to one another that the evidence is nowhere near as a strong as they'd like it to be.

Read more ....

Update: 'New release' of climate emails -- BBC

My Comment: The BBC reporter in his post is clearly not amused with this additional release of emails .... not a surprise considering the embarrassing nature of its content and the BBC's agenda of promoting the science behind climate change.

U.S. Singles Out China And Russia For Conducting Cyberespionage

2011-11-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

A cybersecurity analyst works in a watch and warning center at a Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity defense lab at the Idaho National Laboratory, in September, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Jim Urquhart/Reuters

US Names Names – China And Russia – In Detailing Cyberespionage -- Christian Science Monitor

China, in particular, was fingered for massive ongoing cyberespionage against US companies in an alleged effort to gather the technological insights needed to make its economy more competitive.

Using blunt language, a new report by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive singles out China and Russia for cyber economic espionage, saying they are fast-growing threats to US economic and national security. In the past, the US government had largely refrained from naming specific countries as sources of cyberespionage.

Read more ....

More News On Who Is Conducting Cyberespionage

U.S. cyber espionage report names China and Russia as main culprits -- Washington Post
China, Russia Top List Of U.S. Economic Cyberspies -- NPR
U.S. blames China, Russia for cyber espionage -- Reuters
US: Russia, China stealing online from US companies -- BBC
US Report Cites Growing Economic Cyber Espionage -- Voice of America
U.S. Calls Out China and Russia for Cyber Espionage Costing Billions -- FOX News
US report accuses China, Russia of cyber-espionage to help build their own economies -- Chicago Tribune/AP
Report: China, Russia Top Culprits in Cyber Espionage -- National Journal
Report Says China, Russia ‘Aggressive’ Cybercrime Sponsors -- Epoch Times
China's cyberwar capabilities 'fairly limited,' says expert -- MSNBC
US points finger at China, Russia over cyber spying -- AFP
U.S. Intelligence Report Calls China World's Biggest Cyber Thief -- SFGate/Bloomberg
US Official Singles Out China, Russia on Cyber-Spying -- ABC News
China, Russia called out as cyberspy hotbeds -- The Register
Cyber-espionage attempts on US businesses are on rise -- Ars Technica
Russia and China accused of cyber espionage -- TG Daily
US Report Warns of Russia, China Cyber Spying -- PC World
Russia, China 'aggressive' cyberspies, U.S. report frets -- CNET

CSN Editor: The full report from the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive to Congress titled "Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace" can be read here.

A Chinese Cyber Attack Against Japan?

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Japan's parliament building in Tokyo Photo: REUTERS

Japan Parliament Hit By China-Based Cyber Attack -- The Telegraph

Computers in Japan's lower house of parliament were hit by cyber-attacks from a server based in China that left information exposed for at least a month, according to reports.

Passwords and other information could have been compromised in the attacks, which began in July but were not reported to security authorities until the end of August, the Asahi Shimbun said, without citing sources.

Osamu Fujimara, Japan's government top spokesman, chief cabinet secretary and a lower house member, said he was not previously aware of the reported attack but that the government was investigating the issue.

Read more ....

More News On China's Cyber Attack Against Japan

Japanese government ambushed by Chinese Trojan horse attack -- Upbergizmo
Japan Lower House Servers, Lawmakers' PCs Hit By Cyber Attack -Report -- Wall Street Journal
Japanese government hit by Chinese Trojan horse attack -- The Next Web
Hackers May Have Stolen Sensitive Defense Info from Japan's Largest Weapons Supplier -- Daily Tech
Japan contractor hacking likely got military data: Asahi -- Reuters
Japanese Defence Ministry raises concerns about cyber breach at Mitsubishi Heavy -- Computer Weekly
Japanese military contractor hacked -- Passport/Foreign Policy

The Trends And Impact Of Population Growth

2011-10-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Sources: World Bank; U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, U.N. Global Forest Resources Assessment, 2010. Graphic: Dan Keating and Bill Webster/The Washington Post. Published on October 23, 2011, 8:55 p.m.

Population Growth Taxing Planet’s Resources -- Washington Post

Humans have mined resources from the remote and rocky coast of Peru and Chile for more than a century and a half, gathering the guano deposits of seabirds for fertilizer and gunpowder. Those seabirds flourished on anchoveta in the coastal waters, while Peruvians in the highlands ate the same fish as dried snacks.

Now fishing vessels haul 7.5 million tons of the small silvery fish out of the water every year. Almost all the catch is reduced to fish oil and fish meal, which is fed to pigs, poultry and salmon being raised thousands of miles away to satisfy demand in the industrialized and rapidly-growing developing world.

Read more ....

More News On Mankind Reaching The 7 Billion Population Mark

How Do You Get to 7 Billion People? -- Wall Street Journal
World population will more than double to 15billion by 2100, says UN -- Daily Mail
Crowded earth: Bursting at the seams -- News24
Halloween fright: 7 billion humans -- Mother Nature Network
The global population will reach 7 billion this month; here are 7 things you didn’t know -- Smart Planet
Spiralling population puts the planet at risk -- NZHerald
Why current population growth is costing us the Earth -- Roger Martin, The Guardian
Seven Billion -- Joel E. Cohen, New York Times

US Soldiers Will Soon Be Able To See Through Concrete Walls

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

MIT Tech Helps U.S. Soldiers See Through Concrete Walls -- FOX News

Invisible tanks, Iron-Man suits, and now x-ray vision?

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing an experimental radar system that will allow U.S. troops in combat to see through walls.

In recent tests held at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, the radar successfully showed humans moving behind solid concrete.

The researchers’ device is an unassuming array of antenna in two rows — eight receiving elements on top, 13 transmitting ones below — and some computing equipment, all mounted onto a movable cart. But project leader Gregory Charvat and his team believe the technology could have powerful implications for “urban combat situations.”

Read more ....

More News On How MIT Tech Will help The Military To See Through Walls

MIT tests wall-piercing radar for US soldiers -- MSNBC
MIT researchers devise see-through-wall technology -- CNN
MIT Radar System Can "See" Through Walls -- Daily Tech
MIT radar gives real-time video through concrete walls -- TG Daily
MIT's New Radar Technology Lets You See Through Walls (VIDEO) -- Huffington Post
MIT's X-Ray Vision System Can See Straight Through Concrete Walls -- Popular Science
New radar sees through walls, takes video -- UPI

World Population To Reach 7 Billion This Week

2011-10-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Room For One More? World Population To Reach 7 BILLION In Next Few Days -- Daily Mail

* Children most likely to be born in Asia-Pacific region
* Fears over pressure on food supply and medical care

The world's population looks set to smash through the seven billion barrier in the next few days, according to the United Nations.

It comes just 12 years since the total reached six billion - with official estimates saying the figure will top eight billion in 2025 and 10 billion before the end of the century.

And it is most likely the baby will be born in the Asia-Pacific region - where the population growth rate is higher than anywhere else in the world.

Read more ....

My Comment: Will more people mean more unrest and more wars .... hmmm ....we are going to find out in the next decade or two.

Jaguar To Be The World's Fastest Supercomputer Again

2011-10-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

ORNL's Petascale Jaguar Supercomputer The petascale Jaguar is the world's fastest computer, but DARPA wants to take computing to the next level.

Jaguar Is Getting A GPU Upgrade, To Make It The World's Fastest Supercomputer Again -- Popular Science

The new souped-up supercomputer will be renamed Titan.

Back in June when the latest edition of TOP500 dropped (TOP500 lists the world’s top supercomputers), Japan’s K Computer leapt ahead of China’s Tianhe-1A supercomputer to become the biggest, baddest computing platform on the planet. But after more than a year of slipping down the ranks as its competitors across the Pacific surged ahead, Oak Ridge National Labs Jaguar supercomputer is poised to become the fastest computer in the world once more.

Read more ....

Apple's iPad 3 Moving into Production Early?

2011-10-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Rumor: Apple's iPad 3 Moving into Production Early -- Techland

Move over iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 rumors, here comes the iPad 3! What, you thought the grapevine was closed with Apple's iPhone 4S hitting shelves today? Not when it sounds like Apple's newest slate is right around the corner...if we buy Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeff Fidacaro's claims, anyway.

Fidacaro believes, based on supply chain probing, that Apple's ramping up fourth quarter iPad production activity because it plans to produce—ahead of schedule— as many as one million iPads 3s yet this year.

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My Comment: I so wish it was on the market right now. Sighhh ... but I have to wait.

Finding Out Who Wrote the Bible

2011-10-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Write stuff: The computer program searches for how common words are used throughout the scriptures

Computer Program To Reveal Who Wrote The Bible -- Daily Mail

* Can determine when passage has been written by more than one person and when new author takes over
* Scientists and scholars have written algorithm that analyses writing styles

Precisely who wrote the Bible has been debated for centuries – but now scientists have devised a computer program that sheds much more light on the sources of the various religious texts within it.

Israeli computer scientists and Bible scholars have written an algorithm that analyses the writing styles found within various sections.

While it can’t pinpoint an individual author, the program has been able to determine when a passage has been written by more than one person and can detect the point at which a new author has taken over.

Read more ....

Stealth Weapons From Around The World

2011-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Department of Defense/Flickr

Now You See ‘Em, Now You Don’t: Stealth Weapons From Around The World -- The Danger Room

Not long ago, the U.S. was the only country in the world with aircraft that could stroll the skies without fear of being caught. Not any more. Today, militaries from around the world — including Russia and China — are developing their own stealth arsenals. The American monopoly on near-invisible flight is being eroded.

Stealth technology makes vehicles sneakier by limiting the signatures that give them away to enemy radar, sensors and ears. To reduce a plane's radar cross section, designers have two basic options: shape an aircraft to cast incoming radar away from its originating source and coat it to absorb radar waves.

Read more ....

Steve Wozniak Gets His Apple iPhone 4S

2011-10-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Steve Wozniak First In Line As Apple's iPhone 4S Goes On Sale -- L.A. Times

Steve Wozniak, the man who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, was first in line waiting to buy an iPhone 4S at an Apple Store in Los Gatos on Friday.

The Los Gatos Apple Store opened at 8 a.m., but Wozniak queued up about 18 hours before the store's opening, as he mentioned on Twitter from his @stevewoz account on Thursday, writing:

The long wait begins. I'm first in line. The guy ahead was on the wrong side and he's pissed.

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My Comment: Good for him.

Double-Checking CERN's Revolutionary Faster-Than-Light Claim

2011-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

MINOS Experiment Far Detector NuMI/Fermilab

Fermilab Will Double-Check CERN's Revolutionary Faster-Than-Light Claim -- Popular Science

So far, the only thing moving faster than light is speculation. But in the wake of last week’s baffling neutrino news out of CERN, physicists are crunching numbers to test whether these ghostly particles really can move faster than photons. Physicists at Fermilab are re-examining some old data to help answer the question.

Read more ....

First Antimagnet Developed

2011-09-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Bar magnet with iron filings showing magnetic field pattern. Researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside. (Credit: © Awe Inspiring Images / Fotolia)

Cloaking Magnetic Fields: First Antimagnet Developed -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2011) — Spanish researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.

The development of such a device, described as an 'antimagnet', could offer many beneficial applications, such as protecting a ship's hull from mines designed to detonate when a magnetic field is detected, or allowing patients with pacemakers or cochlear implants to use medical equipment.

Read more ....

How Asia Was Settled By Man

2011-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

To extract DNA from a fossilized bone, researchers extract material using a dentistry drill. (Credit: Image courtesy of the National Science Foundation)

Asia Was Settled in Multiple Waves of Migration, DNA Study Suggests -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2011) — An international team of researchers studying DNA patterns from modern and archaic humans has uncovered new clues about the movement and intermixing of populations more than 40,000 years ago in Asia.

Using state-of-the-art genome analysis methods, scientists from Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have found that Denisovans -- a recently identified group of archaic humans whose DNA was extracted last year from a finger bone excavated in Siberia -- contributed DNA not just to present-day New Guineans, but also to aboriginal Australian and Philippine populations.

Read more ....

Dog Bites: The Stats

2011-09-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

CSN Editor: From Live Science

Most Polluted Cities In The World

2011-09-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Iranian cities have some of the worst pollution in the world, with fine particle presence 20 times higher than the recommended upper limit. Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP

Iran, India, Pakistan And Mongolia Have Most Polluted Cities In The World -- The Guardian

World Health Organisation's first global survey of fine particle pollutants says US and Canadian towns are among cleanest

Cities in Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia are among the worst on the planet for air pollution, while those in the US and Canada are among the best, according to the first global survey.

The Iranian city of Ahvaz had the distinction of the highest measured level of airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometres, according to the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) survey.

Outdoor air pollution causes an estimated 1.34 million premature deaths a year, said WHO. Investments to lower pollution levels quickly pay off owing to lower disease rates and, therefore, lower healthcare costs, it said.

Read more ....

Tiny Robot To Attempt The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon

2011-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tiny Robot To Attempt Hawaii Ironman Triathlon -- MSNBC/Reuters

'Evolta', just 20 inches tall, is expected to complete course in about a week

TOKYO — After scaling the cliff walls of the Grand Canyon and driving the Le Mans racetrack for 24 hours, a tiny Japanese robot is set for a new challenge — Hawaii's grueling Ironman triathlon course.

Fitted with three different bodies, the hand-sized "Evolta" from electronics firm Panasonic will swim, bicycle and run its way through one of the world's toughest triathlon routes, the company said Thursday.

"This is very tough even for a sportsman, but I think it is worth a challenge," said Tomotaka Takahashi, who created the green-and-white toy-like robot.

Read more ....

Precious Metals On Earth May Have Come From Asteroids

2011-09-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Artist's impression of the Earth during the period of the terminal bombardment.
CREDIT: Julian Baum/Take 27 Ltd

Asteroids May Have Brought Precious Metals To Earth -- Live Science

The precious metals that we see on Earth today may be largely heavenly in nature, coming from the sky billions of years ago, scientists now find.

Back when the Earth was just forming, the materials that make up the planet were combining and differentiating into layers by weight — lighter materials floated to the surface and now make up Earth's crust, while heavier materials such as iron sank to the planet's interior.

Read more ....

Will We Now Be Able To Control Fear?

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

A) Schematic cross-section of a mouse brain showing the distribution of CRHR1 gene activity and the associated neurotransmitter specificity. B) Glutamatergic neuron of the hippocampus. (Credit: © MPI of Psychiatry)

Control of Fear in the Brain Decoded: Emotional Balance Is Regulated by Molecular Factors Behind Stress Response, Study Finds -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — When healthy people are faced with threatening situations, they react with a suitable behavioural response and do not descend into a state of either panic or indifference, as is the case, for example, with patients who suffer from anxiety.

With the help of genetic studies on mice, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry have discovered two opposing neuronal regulatory circuits for the generation and elimination of fear.

Read more ....

My Comment: I can see many applications from this science.

How 9/11 Inspired New Robots

2011-09-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

The PackBot, first used in response to 9/11, helps explore an overheating nuclear plant in Japan this year.

How 9/11 Inspired A New Era Of Robotics -- CNN

When Robin Murphy saw the World Trade Center towers fall on September 11, she knew of an unexpected group that could help respond: robots.

Robots had never been tried in such real-world disasters, but they had gotten much smaller and more nimble in the years before that tragic event. So Murphy, a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, and a small group of her fellow roboticists decided it was time. The robots were ready.

Read more ....

A Computer That's As Clever As A Human?

2011-09-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Rollo Carpenter, the inventor of the Cleverbot

Has Inventor Made A Computer That's As Clever As A Human? -- The Independent

Rollo Carpenter's Cleverbot was smart enough to convince a group of techies it was a person. But can it fool Tom Peck?

Given that, in countless science fiction films, the moment when the computers start thinking for themselves tends to coincide with the end of the world as we know it, it is perhaps a little unsettling that an American inventor has for more than 20 years been sponsoring a prize to encourage such a feat.

More worrying still, a conversational computer by the name of Cleverbot has arguably just come closer than ever to doing it.

Read more ....

Supernova 'Of A Generation'

2011-09-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101, known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, was released in 2006. Newscom/File

Supernova 'Of A Generation': How You Can See It With Binoculars -- Christian Science Monitor

A supernova in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy is the closest supernova in 25 years. Situated near the Big Dipper, the SN 2011fe supernova can be seen with binoculars this week.

If you’ve got a decent pair of binoculars and clear skies, you’ll have a good view Wednesday night of the closest and brightest supernova display of the past 25 years.

The supernova, named SN 2011fe, is the 136th seen by astronomers this year, but its proximity makes it significant not only for stargazers but to the scientific community.

The event was first observed on Aug. 24, only hours after it first became visible from Earth. Located within the Pinwheel Galaxy, the explosion happened 21 million light-years away – a relatively small distance by astronomical standards.

Read more ....

Arctic Sea Ice Falls To A Record Low

2011-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ice thickness is just as important or more so in helping understand what is happening in the far north Photo: AP/John McConnico

Arctic Sea Ice Falls To Record Low -- The Telegraph

The minimum summertime volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year, researchers said in a study to be published shortly, suggesting that thinning of the ice had outweighed a recovery in area.

The study estimated that last year broke the previous, 2007 record for the minimum volume of ice, which is calculated from a combination of sea ice area and thickness.

The research adds to a picture of rapid climate change at the top of the world that could see the Arctic Ocean ice-free within decades, spurring new oil exploration opportunities but possibly also disrupted weather patterns far afield and a faster rise in sea levels.

Read more ....

The Evolution Of Micro-Air-Vehicles (MAV)

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Cyborg Beetle Aktakka, et al. via PhysOrg

Scientists Fit Cyborg Beetles With Generators That Turn Their Own Wings Into Power Plants -- Popular Science

No more battery-driven bugs for DARPA.

For years now, DARPA and other free-thinking research institutions have been developing micro-air-vehicles (MAV), usually modeled after insects. But building a tiny, lightweight flying robot is tough when you need a power supply--like an onboard battery--to keep the MAV flying. Then researchers turned to insect mind control--implanting live insects with machinery that lets humans manipulate their movements--but the problem remained: neural control hardware requires a battery to run.

Read more ....

My Comment: The tools for surveillance are getting smaller and smaller.

World's First Commercial Spaceport Is Now 90% Completed

2011-09-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Phase One Of World's First Commercial Spaceport Is Now 90% Completed - In Time For First Flights In 2013 -- Daily Mail

Phase one of the world's first commercial spaceport, which will be the hub for Virgin's consumer spaceflights, is now 90 per cent complete.

The 1,800-acre Spaceport America site, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is the home base for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's most ambitious business venture yet.

It already boasts a runway stretching to nearly two miles long, a futuristic styled terminal hanger, and a dome-shaped Space Operations Centre.

Read more ....

Quantum Computers Closer to Reality Than Ever

2011-09-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Chip for Quantum Computing The two black squares are the qubits, or processor; the center meandering line is the quantum bus; and the lateral meandering lines are the quantum memory. Erik Lucero

Two Key Advances Bring Quantum Computers Closer to Reality Than Ever -- Popular Science

Researchers on two continents are reporting two big breakthroughs in quantum computing today — a quantum system built on the familiar von Neumann processor-memory architecture, and a working digital quantum simulator built on a quantum-computer platform. Although these developments are still constrained to the lab, they’re yet another sign that a quantum leap in computing may be just around the corner.

Read more ....

How Stem Cell Test-Tube Techniques Will Save The Northern White Rhinos

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tragic: Northern white rhinos are extinct in the wild. This photo, taken in 2000, is of a young male with his mother Najin at a Zoo in the East Bohemian town of Dvur Kralove

Northern White Rhinos Set For Stem Cell Test-Tube Babies To Save Species From Extinction -- Daily Mail

The northern white rhino, one of the planet’s most endangered animals, could be saved by pioneering stem cell research.

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, also hope their work will save other animals teetering on the edge of extinction.

The team have managed to create stem cells from the majestic animals and hope they will eventually be able to produce ‘test tube babies’, too.

Read more ....

Why The Arctic Will Be A Strategic Hotspot In The Future

2011-09-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Unlocked By Melting Ice-Caps, The Great Polar Oil Rush Has Begun -- The Independent

Trillions are at stake, and the ecological risks are equally huge. Michael McCarthy reports.

It's the melting of the Arctic ice, as the climate warms, that makes it possible — and you can understand why they're all piling in. In July 2008, the US Geological Survey released the first ever publicly available estimate of the oil locked in the earth north of the Arctic Circle.

It was 90 billion barrels, representing an estimated 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil resources. If you're an oil company, or an oil-hungry economy, that's more than enough to make your mouth water.

Read more ....

My Comment: One word sums up why we have this flurry of activity now .... oil.

Why Are Women's "Boobs" Getting Bigger?

2011-09-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Mystery Behind Mega Boobs Revealed! -- Times of India

Scientists in the UK are trying to figure out why women's breasts are getting bigger.

While some boffins blame expanding waistlines for the increase in bust sizes, others say pollution from pesticides is causing the 'outburst'.

But others feel there's an as yet uncovered real reason as to why boobs are growing, reports The Daily Star.

A scientific source said: "It's the big question and it's got a lot of people baffled."

Read more ....

My Comment: Are the scientists male? .... Just curious.

India - Pakistan Border Is So Brightly Lit It Can Be Seen From Space

2011-09-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Spectacular: The International Space Station image captures the floodlit border between India, above the orange line, and Pakistan, below the border in the picture

Whose Bright Idea Was That? Border Between India And Pakistan Is So Brightly Lit It Can Be Seen From Space -- Daily Mail

Snaking for hundreds of miles across the earth's surface, this spectacular picture shows one of the planet's land borders like never before.

The dramatic picture shows a bright orange line jutting across the earth, indicating the border between India and Pakistan.

The stunning image of the earth, taken from the International Space Station last month, also shows busy cities show up as bright clusters hundreds of miles apart.

Read more ....

My Comment: It must be working .... cross border raids from Pakistan into India have dropped appreciably in the past few years, all be it that the peace can be broken at any time.

A Stroke Prevention Pill?

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Pradaxa is now available for use in the UK

New Pill To Stop Strokes -- Express.co.uk

A PILL costing less than £3 a day is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough in stroke prevention in 50 years.

The drug, which slashes the risk of suffering a stroke by over a third, will help more than a million Britons.

Pradaxa is now available for use in the UK. In trials it was found to significantly reduce the risk of a stroke in patients with an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation. This is one of the main causes of strokes.

Read more ....

My Comment: Looks promising.

The Impact Of High-Density Reactive Materials (HDRM)

2011-08-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

High-Density Reactive Material (HDRM) missiles increase the chances of a "catastrophic kill," according to US military scientists.

US Military Develops 'Bigger Bang' Explosive Material -- BBC

The US Office of Naval Research says that it has successfully tested a new type of explosive material that can dramatically increase weapons' impacts.

Missiles made from the high density substance can explode with up to five times the energy of existing armaments.

The material mixes metals and polymers and is said to be as dense as steel but have the strength of aluminum.

Read more .....

More News On High-Density Reactive Materials (HDRM)

ONR tests new warhead casings -- UPI
U.S. military munitions to become even deadlier -- TG Daily
US has new catastrophic killing machine -- Press TV
High-Density Reactive Material Improves Lethality of Weapons -- Azom.com
Here Comes A New Explosive With 5x The Power Of Any Substance Seen So Far -- Business Insider
Material Dramatically Increases Explosive Force of Weapons -- Science Blog
Revolutionary Material Dramatically Increases Explosive Force of Weapons by Five Times -- Next Big Future
A new kind of missile makes for even bigger explosions -- io9

NASA Moon Rocket Could Cost $38 Billion

2011-08-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

In this undated photo provided by NASA, the Orion space capsule is displayed at a Lockheed Martin test facility in Colorado. (Getty Images / August 12, 2011)

New NASA Moon Rocket Could Cost $38 Billion -- L.A. Times

At that price tag, it would fly just twice in the next 10 years, according to internal NASA documents. That could pose big problems for NASA supporters in Congress.

Reporting from Washington — The rocket and capsule that NASA is proposing to return astronauts to the moon would fly just twice in the next 10 years and cost as much as $38 billion, according to internal NASA documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

The money would pay for a new heavy-lift rocket and Apollo-like crew capsule that eventually could take astronauts to the moon and beyond. But it would not be enough to pay for a lunar landing or for more than one manned test flight, in 2021.

Read more ....

My comment: Only $38 billion?

Temporarily Reversing Aging In The Immune System?

2011-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism controlling aging in white blood cells. The research opens up the possibility of temporarily reversing the effects of aging on immunity and could, in the future, allow for the short-term boosting of the immune systems of older people. (Credit: © nyul / Fotolia)

Possibility of Temporarily Reversing Aging in the Immune System -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2011) — Researchers have discovered a new mechanism controlling aging in white blood cells. The research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Immunology, opens up the possibility of temporarily reversing the effects of aging on immunity and could, in the future, allow for the short-term boosting of the immune systems of older people.

Weakened immunity is a serious issue for older people. Because our immune systems become less effective as we age we suffer from more infections and these are often more severe. This takes a serious toll on health and quality of life.

Read more ....

Earth's Gravity Is Being Altered By Melting Glaciers

2011-08-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

In this image, the location of the successive calving fronts of Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier between 1851 and 2009 are overlain on a Landsat image from July 29, 2009. The retreat of the glacier shows the substantial melt that has occurred over the time period. CREDIT: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Melting Glaciers Alter Earth's Gravity -- Live Science

Melting glaciers can alter Earth's gravity field, scientists have found, a discovery that is shedding light on when Greenland and Antarctica began heavily melting.

Knowing the timing of this melting could help climate scientists make better estimates of the potential sea level rise resulting from melting ice pouring off these two massive ice sheets.

Read more ....

My comment: There is no details on how much of a shift in gravity has occurred. My suggestion .... compile the data between summer and winter, and look at the difference.

A One-Armed Personal Robot For The Rest Of Us

2011-08-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

PR2 SE Half the arms, nearly half the price. Willow Garage

Willow Garage Introduces Discount PR2 SE, a One-Armed Personal Robot for the Rest of Us -- Popular Science

Willow Garage’s PR2 has provided a unique, open source robotics platform to all kinds of labs and institutions that otherwise wouldn’t have access to a complex robotics system--but not to that many. For all the absolutely cool things you can do with PR2, the $400,000 price tag is prohibitive--only about two dozen commercial and academic labs have their own PR2s. So, in an attempt to make their robot more accessible, Willow Garage is introducing the PR2 SE this week, a pared-down version of the same robot costing a mere $285,000.

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Making Ships Efficient and Invisible

2011-08-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

U.S. Navy Ships at Sea Wikimedia Commons

Anti-Wave Tech Tricks Ocean Water Into Standing Still, Making Ships Efficient and Invisible -- Popular Science

We’ve already seen how future ships can be cloaked against sonar, and maybe someday even space and time. Now researchers say they can cloak the ships’ wakes, tricking water itself into acting as though nothing is there.

A new metamaterial cloaking system can trick water into standing still as an object moves through it, by eliminating the shear force and reducing water displacement, Duke University researchers say. This in turn reduces the amount of energy required to move an object — say, a ship — through the water, theoretically saving fuel.

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My Comment: And this is the research that they are publicizing .... I would love to know what they are not telling us.

Military's Maple-Seed-Inspired Drone

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Sneak Preview: Military's Maple-Seed-Inspired Drone, Plus More to Come at UAV Show Next Week -- Popular Science

After years of development and military funding setbacks, defense contractor Lockheed Martin is finally ready to debut its maple seed-inspired drone. The one-winged, one-foot-long SAMARAI drone just flew a test flight for the Associated Press ahead of its official unveiling at an unmanned vehicle conference next week.

The asymmetric UAV is modeled after maple seeds, called samara, that fly off trees and twirl through the air with the utmost efficiency. Originally, the SAMARAI was envisioned as a seed-sized drone that could deliver a 2-gram payload and send back streaming video, but that has since changed to a much bigger, whining drone.

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My Comment: It appears that the future for UAVs is to be miniaturized .... the smaller the better.

SETI Project Is Back Online

2011-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Allen Telescope Array

SETI Project: We're Listening Again, ET -- Mercury News

E.T., you can phone home again.

Forty-two radio telescope dishes near Mount Shasta will again start listening for sounds of intelligent life in the universe this fall after donors -- including actress Jodie Foster -- came up with more than $200,000 to save the Mountain View-based SETI program, made famous by the movie "Contact."

The Allen Telescope Array was shut down in April when the SETI (Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute ran short of of money for the project.

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The Blackest Planet

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Space spy: The team made their discovery while working through data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, one of the world's most powerful telescopes

The Blackest Planet: Astronomers Uncover Alien World So 'Extraordinarily Dark' It Makes Coal Look Shiny -- Daily Mail

Astronomers have discovered the darkest known planet.

The exoplanet, known as TrES-2b, reflects less than 1 per cent of light, which makes it darker than any other planet or moon.

The discovery, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made by analysing data from Nasa's Kepler spacecraft, which provides extremely precise measurements on the brightnesses of faraway stars.

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Jodie Foster Helps Revive SETI Search

2011-08-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

A look at the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Francisco, Calif. CREDIT: SETI Institute

Jodie Foster Helps Revive SETI Search For Aliens -- Live Science

E.T., the phone line is open and SETI is waiting for your call. And apparently Jodie Foster, too.

The nonprofit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, which was forced earlier this year to shutter its Allen Telescope Array, used to listen for alien signals, due to budget issues, has raised enough money to resume the search for life beyond planet Earth.

The institute reached its goal last week of raising $200,000 to operate the telescope through the end of this year. The funds came from over 2,000 private donors, including the actress Jodie Foster, who played fictional SETI scientist Ellie Arroway in the 1997 movie "Contact."

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U.S. Science Funding Will Soon Be Cut Because Of The Debt Deal

2011-08-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

U.S. Debt Deal Could Dramatically Slash Science Funding In 2013 -- Scientific American

US science agencies avoid immediate pain but could be devastated by automatic cuts in 2013.

Scalpel or guillotine? Those are the possible fates in store for US science funding after Congress and the White House reached a deal to cut federal spending and raise the nation's self-imposed debt limit before a 2 August deadline.

The product of tumultuous negotiations, the deal largely spares science in the short term but puts a day of reckoning on the horizon: 2 January 2013. If politicians cannot agree on how to improve the government's fiscal outlook by then through targeted cuts and other means--the scalpel option--their failure will automatically trigger the guillotine: a deep cut applied across a range of expenditures, including research. In the worst case, the automatic cuts could mean shuttered laboratories and mass lay-offs at universities.

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My Comment: The cutting has already happened .... look at NASA

Mars Rover Nears End Of Road

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

An artist's impression of one of the two Mars rovers, which have been studying geological samples on the planet. Reuters

Eight Years And 34 Million Miles On, Mars Rover Nears End Of Road -- The Independent

It travelled at an average speed of 60cm an hour and it has arrived a year late. But the Mars rover Opportunity is finally approaching its destination, the rim of the vast Endeavour crater.

Nasa hailed the six-wheel Opportunity's approach to the 22.5km-wide crater last night as a "tremendous scientific success".

The ageing robotic field geologist has logged more than 32km since it was first parachuted on to the planet's surface in 2003, along with its twin rover Spirit, for a planned three-month mission after their 34 million-mile journey from Earth. Spirit emitted its last signal a year ago after becoming trapped in sand. Opportunity crawled out from a crater in 2008 and headed south to the Endeavour, a two-year journey in theory, which has taken longer because Opportunity had to drive backwards to prevent its front wheel from wearing out.

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Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare In Five Years

2011-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare In Five Years, Sending 10Billion Ton Storm Cloud Hurtling Through Space At 5Million MPH -- Daily Mail

The sun unleashed an unusually powerful solar flare yesterday, the largest in nearly five years.

The eruption launched a ten billion ton storm cloud hurtling through space at five million miles per hour.

Scientists said the event took place on the side of the sun that was not facing Earth, so there will be little impact to satellites and communication systems.

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My Comment: 10 billion tons .... that certainly makes one feel very small.

2011-08-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Image: The antiprotons lie sandwiched between the inner and outer Van Allen belts (in red) around the Earth.

Antimatter Belt Around Earth Discovered By Pamela Craft -- BBC

A thin band of antimatter particles called antiprotons enveloping the Earth has been spotted for the first time.

The find, described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter.

The team says a small number of antiprotons lie between the Van Allen belts of trapped "normal" matter.

The researchers say there may be enough to implement a scheme using antimatter to fuel future spacecraft.

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How Wine Pollutes

2011-08-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Vineyards in Napa Valley, Calif. Many winemakers use sulfur on their vines and the chemical poses environmental problems. Getty Images

How Wine Production Pollutes -- Discovery

Sulfur applied to vineyards washes into nearby water -- and there's no way to know which vineyards use the chemical.

* Virtually all of the fungicidal sulfur applied to vineyards washes off into nearby bays and river basins.
* Sulfur has a number of potentially concerning consequences for plants, animals and ecosystems.
* For now, there is no good way to know what the environmental impact of your wine might be.

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Three Solar Flares Spark Power Grid Concerns

2011-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Solar Flare Aug. 4 This still from a video shows the CME lifting off from sunspot 1261. NASA/SDO

Video: Three Solar Flares Spark Power Grid Concerns And Ignite Auroras In The Upper United States -- Popular Science

A trifecta of sunsplosions over the past few days has prompted government agencies to once again warn of possible power and communications disruptions. The coronal mass ejections could produce a strong aurora as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to space weather forecasters at NOAA.

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Are Office Environment's Bad For Your Brain?

2011-08-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Working in an office is bad for your brain researchers say Photo: ALAMY

Working In An Office Is Bad For Your Brain -- The Telegraph

Working in an office is bad for your brain and can make you less productive, according to researchers.

A study has found that the hustle and bustle of modern offices can lead to a 32% drop in workers well being and reduce their productivity by 15%.

They have found that open plan offices create unwanted activity in the brains of workers that can get in the way of them doing the task at hand.

Open plan offices were first introduced in the 1950s and quickly became a popular as a way of laying out offices.

Having a clean and sterile desk can also leave employees with smaller brains, scientists claim.

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My Comment: I have to agree .... I was always more productive when I was not faced with distractions .... which an open plan office will provide.

World Wide Web Celebrates Its 20th Birthday

2011-08-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Basic: Sir Tim Berners-Lee's first web site was simply a page of links to allow scientists to share data and news

Many Happy Returns! World Wide Web Celebrates Its 20th Birthday -- The Daily Mail

* First web page born on August 6, 1991
* Now there are more than 19.68billion pages

It began as a simple page of links that allowed a group of scientists to share data in the confines of their laboratories.

But in the 20 years since, it has become an inextricable part of the lives of billions of people.

The World Wide Web (WWW) was born on August 6, 1991, when the first web page was launched on the internet by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

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My Comment: I suspect that the web will be around for a little longer.

Is Music A Powerful Antidepressant?

2011-08-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Making Music Proves To Be Powerful Antidepressant -- Live Science

Making music might help lift more depressed people out of the dumps than common antidepressant medications do, the results of a new study suggest.

That's not to say the people with depression should toss out their meds and pick up a guitar. The music therapy administered to patients in the new study was in addition to regular therapy, and the patients continued their regular medication routines. But about one out of four depression sufferers is likely to respond to music therapy, Finnish researchers reported in August in the British Journal of Psychiatry. In comparison, a 2009 review of research published in the journal Cochrane Database Systemic Review found that doctors must treat between seven and 16 people with tricyclic antidepressant drugs for one person to see improvement.

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Nigeria's Oil Pollution Will Take Decades To Clean-Up

2011-08-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Nigeria Ogoniland Oil Clean-Up 'Could Take 30 Years -- BBC

Nigeria's Ogoniland region could take 30 years to recover fully from the damage caused by years of oil spills, a long-awaited UN report says.

The study says complete restoration could entail the world's "most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up".

Communities faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of carcinogens, it said.

Oil giant Shell has accepted liability for two spills and said all oil spills were bad for Nigeria and the company.

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Where Did Man Learn To Walk

2011-08-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

Giraffes roam in a wooded grassland savanna in Kenya's Nakuru National Park. The savanna grades into the woodland in the background. Credit: Naomi Levin, Johns Hopkins University

Where Did Humans Learn To Walk? -- Cosmos/AFP

PARIS: Grasslands dominated the cradle of humanity in east Africa longer and more broadly than thought, a new study has said, bolstering the idea that the rise of such landscapes shaped human evolution.

According to the so-called 'savannah hypothesis', the gradual transition from dense forests into grasslands helped drive the shift toward bipedalism, increased brain size and other distinctively human traits.

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The U.S. Military Wants To Reach The Stars

2011-08-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

Space Travel: Finding The Technology To Traverse The Stars -- L.A. Times

The research-and-development arm of the U.S. military is launching a 100-Year Starship Study to find the technologies necessary for interstellar travel.

What will it take to build a spaceship capable of traveling to the stars? And what if you wanted it to be ready to launch in just 100 years?

It may sound like the premise of a science fiction show or reality TV series. But these are serious questions being asked by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research-and-development arm of the U.S. military.

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My Comment: This is $500,000 that we will never see again.

Juno Explorer Launches On Five-Year Journey To Jupiter

2011-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

NASA's Juno Explorer Launches On Five-Year Journey To Jupiter -- L.A. Times

The Juno spacecraft, which NASA hopes will unlock key mysteries about Jupiter and the origin of the solar system, lifts off from Florida's Cape Canaveral. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the $1.1-billion mission.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

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How The Brain Remembers What Happens And When

2011-08-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Neuroscientists Identify How the Brain Remembers What Happens and When -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2011) — New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions.

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Next Generation of Computer Chips

2011-08-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Caltech engineers have developed a new way to isolate light on a photonic chip, allowing light to travel in only one direction. This finding can lead to the next generation of computer-chip technology: photonic chips that allow for faster computers and less data loss. (Credit: Caltech/Liang Feng)

Engineers Solve Longstanding Problem in Photonic Chip Technology: Findings Help Pave Way for Next Generation of Computer Chips -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2011) — Stretching for thousands of miles beneath oceans, optical fibers now connect every continent except for Antarctica. With less data loss and higher bandwidth, optical-fiber technology allows information to zip around the world, bringing pictures, video, and other data from every corner of the globe to your computer in a split second. But although optical fibers are increasingly replacing copper wires, carrying information via photons instead of electrons, today's computer technology still relies on electronic chips.

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Warfare Started With The Creation Of Man's First Nation States

2011-08-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

PLUNDER Ruins at Monte Alban in Oaxaca, Mexico. A wave of new research holds that early states arose from warring chiefdoms as populations grew. Beth Greenfield for The New York Times

Sign of Advancing Society? An Organized War Effort -- New York Times

Some archaeologists have painted primitive societies as relatively peaceful, implying that war is a reprehensible modern deviation. Others have seen war as the midwife of the first states that arose as human population increased and more complex social structures emerged to coordinate activities.

A wave of new research is supporting this second view. Charles Stanish and Abigail Levine, archaeologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have traced the rise of the pristine states that preceded the Inca empire. The first villages in the region were formed some 3,500 years ago. Over the next 1,000 years, some developed into larger regional centers, spaced about 12 to 15 miles apart. Then, starting around 500 B.C., signs of warfare emerged in the form of trophy heads and depictions of warriors, the two archaeologists report in last week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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My Comment: Economic cooperation or warfare .... the two underlying mechanisms that has always dictated how nation states behaved. It seems we have not changed much in 5,000+ years.

Atlantic Cod Recovering

2011-08-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Cod and similar species on the Scotian Shelf have been eight to 18 per cent more massive for their age between 2006 and 2010 compared with 1992 to 2005. (Associated Press)

East Coast Cod Found To Be Recovering -- CBC

New evidence shows that Atlantic cod off Nova Scotia are recovering from their dramatic collapse two decades ago — and that the ecosystem is recovering with them.

That suggests major changes to marine ecosystems can be reversed with time, says a Canadian study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

It also "bodes well" for other cod populations further north along the East Coast that have yet to recover, says the study, led by researcher Kenneth Frank at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, N.S.

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A New Type Of Airship

2011-08-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

New Type Of Flying Vehicle In Development -- Voice Of America

A California company is developing a new type of airship for transporting cargo and, possibly, passengers. It is not an airplane and not a blimp, but has elements of both. The vehicle uses new technology and has commercial and military applications.

The new flying ship from the Aeros Corporation is called an Aeroscraft, and is designed to carry more than 50 tons of cargo and make deliveries thousands of kilometers away.

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Human Body Vulnerable To Cyberattack

2011-08-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Credit: Dreamstime

Human Body Vulnerable To Cyberattack -- Live Science

LAS VEGAS — The next frontier of cybercrime could be the human body, a researcher at the Black Hat Security Conference demonstrated.

In his presentation, "Hacking Medical Devices for Fun and Insulin: Breaking the Human SCADA System," Jay Radcliffe showed how a hacker could remotely hack two medical devices used to treat diabetes and trigger them to malfunction — with potentially disastrous results.

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Remote Control Toy Trucks Save Lives In Afghanistan

2011-08-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan War: Hobbyists' Toy Truck Saves 6 Soldiers' Lives -- ABC News

Staff Sgt. Christopher Fessenden is on duty in Afghanistan now after tours with the Army in Iraq. He has traveled with standard-issue equipment -- weapons, helmet, uniform, boots and so forth -- plus a radio-controlled model truck his brother sent.

The truck is not a toy to him. He says it just saved six soldiers' lives.

"We cannot thank you enough," said Sgt. Fessenden in an email from the front that his brother Ernie, a software engineer in Rochester, Minn., shared with ABC News.

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More News On How Remote Vehicles Save Lives In Afghanistan

Remote-controlled toy truck saves the lives of six U.S. soldiers after it finds bomb in Afghanistan -- Daily Mail
Hobbyists' toy truck saves 6 soldiers' lives in Afghanistan -- Stars and Stripes
Remote-control truck gift saves soldiers’ lives -- Yahoo News/Lookout
Toy truck saves soldiers from bomb -- UPI
A Toy Truck Saved the Lives of Six Soldiers in Afghanistan -- Gizmodo
This Toy Remote Controlled Truck Saved The Lives Of 6 U.S. Soldiers -- Business Insider

Boeing Is Looking For Astronauts

2011-08-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

An artist's conception shows Boeing's CST-100 crew-carrying spaceship atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a launch pad. Such a craft could fly to the International Space Station as early as 2015. Boeing

Boeing Chooses A Rocket, Looks For Astronauts To Fly On It -- MSNBC

Atlas 5 to be used for tests of new spaceship for NASA's use; pilots wanted.

Test flights of The Boeing Co.'s future crew-carrying spaceship would be conducted starting as early as 2015 on United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket, executives announced Thursday.

Whether Boeing's CST-100 capsule actually flies in that timeframe depends on whether NASA provides the necessary development funding, said John Elbon, the aerospace company's manager for the commercial crew project. But just in case, Boeing is already looking for pilots who could help with the design and testing of the craft.

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The Negative Side Of Solar And Wind Power Projects

2011-08-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Dark Side Of Solar And Wind Power Projects -- L.A. Times

Building and maintaining solar and wind power projects can be hazardous, and industry watchdogs worry that the push for more green energy places more workers and bystanders in harm's way.

They can look benign from a distance — solar panels glistening in the sun or turbines gently churning with the breeze to produce electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes. But building and maintaining them can be hazardous.

Accidents involving wind turbines alone have tripled in the last decade, and watchdog groups fear incidents could skyrocket further — placing more workers and even bystanders in harm's way — because a surge in projects requires hiring hordes of new and often inexperienced workers.

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Dieting Forces Brain To Eat Itself

2011-08-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

A cross-section of the human brain

Dieting Forces Brain To Eat Itself, Scientists Claim -- The Telegraph

Dieters struggle to lose weight because a lack of nutrition forces their brain cells to eat themselves, making the feeling of hunger even stronger, scientists claim.

Like other parts of the body, brain cells begin to eat themselves as a last-ditch source of energy to ward off starvation, a study found.

The body responds by producing fatty acids, which turn up the hunger signal in the brain and increase our impulse to eat.

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York said the findings could lead to new scientifically proven weight loss treatments.

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Water On Mars?

2011-08-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dark Streaks On Mars Could Be Water -- The Telegraph

Dark finger-like channels stretching across the surface of Mars could be streams of salty water running down the sides of craters, scientists have claimed.

The clusters of trails, which fade during winter and reappear in warmer months, could prove to be the first solid evidence of liquid water currently existing on the red planet.

Scientists are convinced water probably flowed across the surface of the planet at some distant point in history, but have only been able to detect samples of frozen water near the surface.

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The U.S. Army Kills The Robotic Vehicle MULE Program

2011-08-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

XM1219 Armed Robotic Vehicle, an unmanned ground combat vehicle based on the MULE Platform.

Why The Army Killed The Robotic Vehicle MULE -- Popular Mechanics

Over the weekend, the U.S. Army killed a Lockheed Martin program to build a heavy six-wheeled robot capable of hauling gear and countering improvised explosive devices. Here's why they did it, and what it says about the future of Army bots.

Late last Friday, July 29, the Army formally canceled the Multi-Function Utility/Logistics and Equipment Vehicle, a heavyweight, six-wheeled robot known as the MULE, which was built by Lockheed Martin. The MULE program was meant to produce three variants of combat robots: One to haul gear, another to counter improvised explosives and a heavily armed version. According to the Army, however, other programs had equaled or bettered the autonomous navigation research at MULE—yet there are plenty of other reasons that Lockheed's program got the ax. Here's what MULE's demise tells us about the Army's future:

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My Comment: Fortunately, there are scores of more 'robot' programs out there .... but this is a sign that a shake-up in the industry is going to occur.

Cleanup of Space Shuttle Launch Zone Chemicals Will Take Decades and Millions of Dollars

2011-08-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

Atlantis Launch 1 Clearing the tower John Mahoney

With Shuttle Launches Over, Cleanup of Launch Zone Chemicals Will Take Decades and Millions of Dollars -- Popular Science

With every ending comes a new beginning, as they say — so with the ending of the space shuttle program comes the beginning of a long environmental remediation at NASA’s Florida facilities.

Five decades of spacecraft launches have taken a toll on the sandy soils beneath the Kennedy Space Center, according to a report by Florida Today. Plumes of chemicals will cost $96 million to clean up in the next 30 years, including $6 million this year.

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