Climate Science Skepticism: 5 Controversial Claims

From ABC News:

Is Earth Really Warming? Are Humans Responsible? Why Climate Skeptics Doubt

As Earth Day approaches, climate change is climbing back into the public consciousness. But though most climatologists agree that humans are driving global warming, surveys suggest that public concern about climate change is waning.

A Gallup poll in March found that 48 percent of Americans believe the global warming issue is "exaggerated," which is up from 41 percent in 2009 and 31 percent in 1997.

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Maxed Out: What's The Human Speed Limit?

Not quite as fast as the speed of light (Image: Seiko Press Service / Getty)

From New Scientist:

Last year, Usain Bolt stunned athletics fans when he hacked 0.11 seconds off his previous world record for the 100-metre sprint. But what's the ultimate human speed limit?

Intrigued by this question, Mark Denny at Stanford University, California, decided to work out how fast a human could possibly sprint 100 metres. He examined previous records for various athletics competitions - and greyhound and horse races for good measure - since the 1920s, and found that performances in many events followed a similar pattern, improving steadily until they reached a plateau. Horses in the Kentucky Derby, for example, appeared to approach their speed limit in 1949. Since then any improvements have become minimal and increasingly rare.

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Report: Global Net Speeds Keep Bumping Up

(Credit: Akamai)

From CNET:

The fastest are getting faster.

Eight of the top 10 countries or regions in terms of Internet speed saw a boost in the final quarter of 2009, according to Akamai's "State of the Internet Report" released Tuesday.

Among those top areas, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan grabbed the best Internet performance globally, averaging connection speeds higher than 7.5 megabits per second (Mbps) in the fourth quarter. Although South Korea actually was hit by a 29 percent decline in performance year over year, it still snagged the No. 1 spot at 11.7 Mbps.

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Routine Lifting May Not Be As Bad For Your Back As Thought, Research Suggests

Tapio Videman is a researcher in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. (Credit: Photo courtesy the University of Alberta)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — Tapio Videman says back disorders in the working population are among the most costly illnesses in developed countries around the world. Disc degeneration is the main suspected origin of severe back symptoms and the main target in spine surgery.

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Another Iceland Volcano Under Watch

Visible (left) and infrared (right) images of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, acquired April 17, 2010, from the Hyperion instrument onboard NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/EO-1 Mission/GSFC/Ashley Davies

From Live Science:

News reports earlier today that another volcano on Iceland had erupted just as Eyjafjallajokull was beginning to calm down turned out to be false. But scientists are warily keeping their eye on one of Eyjafjallajokull's neighbors, which has been known to erupt following its sister.

An MSNBC Twitter feed and one other news service ran reports that a volcano called Hekla had erupted on Iceland today. Those rumors turned out to be false, but even if Hekla had blown its top today, it would have been "purely coincidental," said Jay Miller, a volcano researcher at Texas A&M University.

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Maxed Out: How Long Can We Concentrate For?

Surgeons have to concentrate for hours on end (Image: OJO Images / Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

It's a challenge that most of us have faced when up against an essay deadline, a late-night crisis in the office or perhaps a long car drive. Just how long can we push ourselves mentally before our brain needs a break?

For people in jobs where concentration is critical, like truck drivers, power-plant operators or airline pilots, a 12-hour shift is the limit for most. But pity doctors: complex surgery can go on for hours longer than that, although the lengthiest operations tend to be shared by more than one team.

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Five Biggest Volcano Eruptions In Recent History

This picture is of a June 12, 1991, eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines – one of the smaller eruptions that preceded the main eruption on June 15. That eruption was the biggest since 1912 – a 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano rates a 2 or 3. Newscom

From Christian Science Monitor:

The eruption at Eyafjallajökull volcano in Iceland has been hugely disruptive to world travel. But as a volcanic event, it's barely worth mentioning.

By the measure of the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) – a sort-of Richter scale for eruptions – the current outburst is probably a 2 or a 3, experts say. In other words, eruptions like Eyjafjallajökull happen virtually every year somewhere in the world.

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Apple Requests Return Of Lost iPhone Prototype

Photo: Gizmodo posts photos of what it says is the next version of the iPhone. (Credit: Screenshot by Erica Ogg/CNET)

From CNET:

Gizmodo said Monday evening it is making arrangements to return an errant device that is believed to be a prototype of the next iPhone, following a request from Apple's legal department, which Gizmodo calls verification of the device's authenticity.

The tech blog site had revealed early Monday that it was in possession of a device it concluded to be a prototype of the unreleased and as-yet-unannounced iPhone 4G. The next-generation device was reportedly found last month on the floor of a San Francisco Bay Area bar after it was apparently left by a customer identified as an Apple employee.

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A Saturn Spectacular, With Gravity’s Help

SEVEN MORE YEARS Brent Buffington, from left, David Seal and John C. Smith arranged models of Jupiter and Saturn in a viewing room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Robert Benson for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

When it comes to voyages of discovery, NASA’s venerable Cassini mission is about as good as it gets.

In six years of cruising around the planet Saturn and its neighborhood, the Cassini spacecraft has discovered two new Saturn rings, a bunch of new moons and a whole new class of moonlets. It encountered liquid lakes on the moon Titan, water ice and a particle plume on the moon Enceladus, ridges and ripples on the rings, and cyclones at Saturn’s poles. Cassini also released a European space probe that landed on Titan. And Cassini has sent back enough data to produce more than 1,400 scientific papers — at last count.

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Bureaucracy Linked To A Nation's Growth

Two of the conquest inscriptions on Building J (ca. 100 BC). Each inscription shows an upside down head with closed eyes signifying conquest on the bottom, a "hill" glyph signifying generalized place in the middle, and a third element on top that varies among inscriptions signifying specific place name. (Credit: Charles S. Spencer, AMNH, used with permission)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2010) — "Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work," said Albert Einstein, sharing a popular view about bureaucracy grinding progress to a halt.

But it now appears that the organizing functions of bureaucracy were essential to the progressive growth of the world's first states, and may have helped them conquer surrounding areas much earlier than originally thought. New research conducted in the Valley of Oaxaca near Monte Albán, a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in southern Mexico, also implies that the first bureaucratic systems may have a lasting influence on today's modern states.

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Mysterious Volcano Lightning Creates Pretty Pictures`

Lightning in the ash plume of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Credit: Olivier Vandeginste.

From Live Science:

It may look like the special effects from a disaster movie, but the bolts of lightning photographed in the plume of the ash-spewing Icelandic volcano are real. Thing is, the process that creates volcano lightning remains a bit of a mystery.

Several photographers have taken pictures of the stunning light show shooting from the angry mouth of Eyjafjallajokull, which has been pumping a cloud of ash into the atmosphere for several days. In addition to the spectacular electric storm in its plume, the volcano has created colorful sunsets around the world with its ash, which has also hampered air travel over Europe.

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A Trick Of The Light -- Mankind’s Ability To Look For Planets Like Earth Just Got Five Times Bette

First rock from the sun

From The Economist:

THREE centuries have passed since the polymath Sir Christopher Wren predicted that “a time will come when men will stretch out their eyes—they should see planets like our Earth.” By most astronomers’ accounts, that time is just about nigh. Indeed, detecting big planets orbiting other stars is no longer tricky—nearly 450 such exoplanets have been catalogued. Smaller, rocky planets orbiting at a comfortable distance from their stars—as the Earth does—remain more elusive.

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Head-Ramming Dino Had 'Gears' in Skull

A reconstruction of Texacephale langstoni shows how the dinosaur may have used its head. Nicholas Longrich

From The Telegraph:

The new Texas dino featured a skull with a domed top and side bones that may have allowed its skull bones to mesh on impact.

A new species dinosaur found in Texas featured flanges on the side of its skull that may have allowed its skull bones to mesh like gears -- a useful feature when it likely rammed heads with other dinosaurs, say researchers.

"It's possible that this would prevent the skull bones from dislocating under stresses," speculated Nicholas Longrich, a postdoctoral associate in Yale University's Department of Geology and Geophysics who was project leader for a study about the find published in the latest issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.

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The Image Microsoft Doesn't Want You To See

Worn out: Some of the workers making computer accessories for Microsoft at a Chinese factory

From The Daily Mail:

Showing Chinese sweatshop workers slumped over their desks with exhaustion, it is an image that Microsoft won't want the world to see.

Employed for gruelling 15-hour shifts, in appalling conditions and 86f heat, many fall asleep on their stations during their meagre ten-minute breaks.

For as little as 34p an hour, the men and women work six or seven days a week, making computer mice and web cams for the American multinational computer company.

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Is God A Mathematician?

From afar, Richard Feynman seemed as dangerous as plutonium (Image: CERN/SPL)

From New Scientist:

THE physicist Richard Feynman said, "It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvellous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil - which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama."

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New Tech Sees Dead People

Using hyperspectral imaging, scientists from McGill University have found unmarked animal graves with special cameras that measure changes in the light coming from soil and plants. (Getty Images)

From ABC News:

Technology Can Detect Chemicals Released by Decomposing Bodies

A spooky sounding technology is finding old, unmarked graves. Using hyperspectral imaging, scientists from McGill University have found unmarked animal graves with special cameras that measure changes in the light coming from soil and plants.

Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes light from across the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light as well as ultraviolet and infrared light. The research could help police solve missing persons cases or reveal new mass graves from hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.

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The Page: An E-Ink Newspaper That Won't Smudge Your Fingers

From Gizmodo:

For some reason I'm skeptical that the one thing keeping newspaper readers from switching to E-Ink readers is the form factor, but that doesn't make this semi-transparent E-Ink newspaper display concept any less cool.

The key word, of course, is concept, but flexible/foldable displays aren't anything new. Nor are interactive content or E-Ink. It's bringing these concepts together in a workable package that might take some time. Meanwhile, though, here's how it would ideally work (without all the wobbly images):

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Microsoft Debuts 'Fix It' Program

From The BBC:

Microsoft has launched "Fix It" software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.

The software basically adds the automatic diagnostics system in Windows 7 to older versions of Microsoft's operating system.

The software, currently available as a trial or beta version, is intended for users of Windows XP and Vista.

The package also tries to anticipate how security updates will affect a PC before they are installed.

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Why Can't Planes Fly Through Volcanic Ash? NASA Found Out The Hard Way

Jet Engine Meets Volcanic Ash This British Airways engine experienced a run in with a volcanic ash plume in 1982. Image: Eric Moody, British Airways

From Popular Science:

If you’ve been anywhere near a television or Web enabled device in the last week (and you must have been), you know that a volcanic eruption in Iceland has grounded airline flights across Europe and even halted a few flights into the northeastern-most areas of Canada. What you probably don’t know is how to pronounce the name of the volcano (Eyjafjallajökull) or why an eruption in Iceland is grounding flights in London, Madrid and Berlin.

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Dry Regions Becoming Drier: Ocean Salinities Show an Intensified Water Cycle

An Argo robotic profiling instrument being deployed from the research vessel, Southern Surveyor. (Credit: Alicia Navidad)

From Live Science:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2010) — The stronger water cycle means arid regions have become drier and high rainfall regions wetter as atmospheric temperature increases.

The study, co-authored by CSIRO scientists Paul Durack and Dr Susan Wijffels, shows the surface ocean beneath rainfall-dominated regions has freshened, whereas ocean regions dominated by evaporation are saltier. The paper also confirms that surface warming of the world's oceans over the past 50 years has penetrated into the oceans' interior changing deep-ocean salinity patterns.

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Will The Iceland Volcano Change The Climate?

This image, acquired on 15 April 2010 by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth. Credit: ESA

From Live Science:

The vast plume of material spewing from this week's eruption of an Icelandic volcano is reddening sunsets and clouding skies across Europe. If the eruptions continue and get bigger — a possibility given the explosive history of Iceland's volcanoes — even the global climate could be affected. But the current eruption is too wimpy to have any significant impact, scientists say.

The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano may be treating European sky watchers to spectacular sunsets and hampering air travel due to the ash and gas it has spewed into the atmosphere. But "there will be no effect on climate," said Alan Robock of Rutgers University, who studies the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate.

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Ash Cloud Reminds Us That We Should All Be Afraid Of Volcanoes

From The Telegraph:

Eyjafjallajökull's giant cloud of ash is a nuisance, but a supervolcano's catastrophic eruption could threaten the fabric of civilisation, says Kate Ravilious.

Every so often the Earth chooses to remind us that we really aren't in control of this planet. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, which began on Wednesday, is just such a reminder. As ash spews out across northern Europe, grounding all flights across Scandinavia and the UK, we begin to realise how powerless we humans are.

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Space Shuttle Discovery Soars Over Crystal Clear Caribbean On Long Journey Home

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi sent this amazing picture of the underside of the Discovery Shuttle from the International Space Station

From The Daily Mail:

Gliding over the deep blue waters of the Caribbean, the shuttle Discovery has started its long journey back to Earth.

The crew, including a record-breaking trio of female astronauts, wrapped up a two-week mission on the International Space Station on Saturday before undocking from the orbiter.

Pilot Jim Dutton performed a loop the loop, which gave ISS astronaut Soichi Noguchi a fantastic view of the shuttle's well-weathered underside. Mr Noguchi was quick to snap the impressive sight and share his pictures with his 200,000 followers on Earth.

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The Biggest Bangs In History

From New Scientist:

The colossal Toba supervolcanic eruption 74,000 years ago was big – but not the biggest in Earth's history. Here's our rundown of chart-topping blasts from the past.


The Tunguska event

One of the 20th century's most notorious bangs happened at 7.14 am on 30 June 1908. At that moment, something exploded with enormous force over the Tunguska river in Siberia, Russia.

The resulting shock wave flattened trees over an area of 2000 square kilometres, and people tens of kilometres away were knocked off their feet.

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For Prom, Teens Let YouTube Do The Asking

From ABC News:

High School Students Woo Would-Be Prom Dates With Online Creativity.

Sweaty-palmed, tongue-tied teens take note: If you want to score a date to the prom, asking the simple question just might not cut it anymore.

Hallway conversations and handwritten notes might have worked for previous generations, but with prom season under way, high school students across the country are turning to YouTube to give an age-old rite of passage a new media moment of fame.

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This Is Apple's Next iPhone

From Gizmodo:

You are looking at Apple's next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It's the real thing, and here are all the details.

While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it's clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here's the detailed list of our findings:

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Water - Another Global 'Crisis'?

Sharper, more intense rains may reduce the water available to farmers

From The BBC:

If you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how many East African communities made it through the long drought of 2005 and 2006.

Among people who study human development, it is a widely-held view that each person needs about 20 litres of water each day for the basics - to drink, cook and wash sufficiently to avoid disease transmission.

Yet at the height of the East African drought, people were getting by on less than five litres a day - in some cases, less than one litre a day, enough for just three glasses of drinking water and nothing left over.

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Behind The Air Force's Secret Robotic Space Plane

Behind The Air Force's Secret Robotic Space Plane -- Popular Mechanics

Move over NASA. The U.S. Air Force has spent decades on the concept: an unmanned space plane that can be used to spy, reposition satellites, possibly even bomb targets, then return to base. A successful launch next week could turn that vision into a reality.

When the engines of a 19-story Atlas V ignite in April at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the liftoff will look like any other for the workhorse launch vehicle. After about 4 minutes, the engines will cut off and the rocket's first stage will fall away, freeing the second stage to boost the upper section of the rocket into low Earth orbit.

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My Comment: A lot of eyes are now focused on this program .... from NASA to foreign powers. After many years and mega-billions spent .... they better succeed.

A Mobile Touchscreen Projectable On Any Flat Surface

Light Blue Optics Light Touch Price not set; lightblueoptics.com Gregor Halenda

From Popular Science:

This tiny projector casts images that you can click and swipe.

When you go to a restaurant in the near future, you might order your food by poking at icons on your table -- they'll vanish when the plates arrive, and spilled drinks won't do them any harm. Light Blue Optics's pico projector is the first to turn any flat surface into a computer touchscreen. It beams a 10-inch display, which can show photos, videos, Web sites or apps running on its simple interface, and uses an infrared sensor to track your fingers' movements. Done browsing?

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Climatologists Ponder Earth's Missing Heat

From Science A Go-Go:

Astonishingly, climatologists can't account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on the Earth in recent years. "The heat will come back to haunt us sooner or later," lament National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientists in an article in the journal Science.

The scientists believe that satellite sensors, ocean floats, and other instruments used to measure energy are inadequate to track this "missing" heat, which may be building up in the deep oceans or elsewhere in the climate system. "The reprieve we've had from warming temperatures in the last few years will not continue. It is critical to track the build-up of energy in our climate system so we can understand what is happening and predict our future climate," said NCAR scientist Kevin Trenberth, the article's lead author.

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Good Prospects For Extraterrestrial Life? Rocky Planets 'Are Commonplace' In Our Galaxy

An artist's impression of a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star. (Credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech / T. Pyle (SSC))

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2010) — An international team of astronomers have discovered compelling evidence that rocky planets are commonplace in our Galaxy. Leicester University scientist and lead researcher Dr Jay Farihi surveyed white dwarfs, the compact remnants of stars that were once like our Sun, and found that many show signs of contamination by heavier elements and possibly even water, improving the prospects for extraterrestrial life.

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Icelandic Volcano Creates Beautiful Sunsets

The sky was colored by ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April. Apr. 15, 2010, Northeastern outskirts of Athens, Greece. Image © Anthony Ayiomamitis. Used with permission

From Live Science:

The plume of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which is now inching across Europe's skies, is creating vivid red sunsets while thwarting airline travel plans. The phenomenon could last for days, and depending on how long the volcano continues to erupt, it could spread volcanic clouds all around the Northern Hemisphere, a scientist says.

The volcanic sunsets might even be glimpsed from the United States if the volcano keeps erupting, but chances for that are slim, experts say.

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Supercomputers Map Pathogens As They Emerge And Evolve

A screenshot from a Supramap study of avian influenza, with red lines representing the spread of drug-resistant strains and the white lines drug susceptible strains. Credit: Ohio Supercomputing Center

From Cosmos:

BRISBANE: Instead of simply focussing on human infections, infectious disease researchers can now track the complex interactions, movement and evolution of the pathogens themselves using supercomputers.

The researchers are using a new program called Supramap, which operates on the computing systems at Ohio State University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

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Green-Eyed Monster: Why Women Can be Literally Blinded By Jealousy

Green-eyed-monster: jealousy, of the type enjoyed by Gabrielle and Carlos in Desperate Housewives, has been shown to affect women's ability to see

From The Daily Mail:

It's hard to see things clearly when you fall victim to the green-eyed monster. And sometimes jealousy can make it hard to see at all.

Researchers found that a woman can fail to notice things in front of her when distracted by the possibility that her husband or boyfriend is attracted to someone else.

Psychologists suggest this reveals something profound about social relationships and perception.

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Calorie Restriction Leads Scientists To Molecular Pathways That Slow Aging, Improve Health

Healthful cooking. Organisms from yeast to rodents to humans all benefit from cutting calories. In less complex organisms, restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. It's not yet clear just how much longer calorie restriction might help humans live, but those who practice the strict diet hope to survive past 100 years old. (Credit: iStockphoto/Diane Diederich)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — Organisms from yeast to rodents to humans all benefit from cutting calories. In less complex organisms, restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. It's not yet clear just how much longer calorie restriction might help humans live, but those who practice the strict diet hope to survive past 100 years old.

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'Leaked' First Pictures Of iPhone 4G Surface On The Web With Rumours Of June Release... But Are They Real?

Apple's next iPhone? There is a fierce online debate on whether this grainy image is the new 4G

From The Daily Mail:

Gadget geeks, prepare yourselves to be overwhelmed - or at least feel a flutter of excitement.

For these grainy pictures are supposedly the first peek at the next generation of iPhone - the 4G.

Apparently leaked onto the internet, the images show what look like a sleeker version of the current iPhone, with a thinner, aluminium case.

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When Black Holes Go Rogue, They Kill Galaxies

A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy in the system known as 3C321 (Image: (NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN)

From New Scientist:

Massive black holes may be kicking the life out of galaxies by ripping out their vital gaseous essence, leaving reddened galactic victims scattered throughout the universe. While the case is not yet closed, new research shows that these black holes have at least the means to commit the violent crime.

It was already known that "supermassive" black holes at the centre of most galaxies sometimes emit vast amounts of radiation. But nobody had a good idea how common such violence is. A snapshot of the universe doesn't give enough information to judge this because the activity of the black holes is thought to be intermittent, depending on how much nearby matter they have to feed on.

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Infected XP Owners Left Unpatched

From The BBC:

Some of the latest security updates for Windows XP will not be installed on machines infected with a rootkit virus.

A rootkit is sneaky malware that buries itself deep inside the Windows operating system to avoid detection.

Microsoft said it had taken the action because similar updates issued in February made machines infected with the Alureon rootkit crash endlessly.

The latest updates can spot if a system is compromised by the Alureon rootkit and halt installation.

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Iceland Eruption: New Satellite Image of Volcanic Ash Cloud

This image, acquired on 15 April 2010 by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth. (Credit: ESA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — A vast cloud of volcanic ash has been sweeping across parts of northern Europe from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite has imaged the ash cloud, showing for example the extent over the UK, more than 1,000 kilometers away.

Carried by winds high up in the atmosphere, the cloud of ash from the eruption of the volcano near the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in southwest Iceland has led to the closure of airports throughout the UK and Scandinavia, with further disruption in northern Europe expected later.

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What Was Different About China's Quake?

From Live Science:

The earthquake that struck China in the early hours of the morning was different than some of the major temblors that have struck around the world so far this year in that it occurred in the middle of one of Earth's tectonic plates, instead of at the junction between them.

The 6.9-magnitude quake, according to estimates by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), struck at 7:49 a.m. local time (2349 GMT, 7:49 p.m. EDT) near the area of Yushu in Qinghai province. This area is part of the Tibetan Plateau, which stands over 3 miles (5 kilometers) above sea level.

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Icelandic Volcano’s Ash Plume As Seen From Space

From Wired Science:

A NASA satellite captured an image of the ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano’s Wednesday eruption. We can see the ash plume from the event sweeping east just north of the United Kingdom en route to Norway.

The plume has disrupted air travel in western Europe, The New York Times reports, because of (well-founded) fears that the silicates in the ash could turn into molten glass inside planes’ jet engines.

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Viacom: Google Used Piracy To Coerce Content Owners

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

From CNET:

Viacom says newly released documents in its copyright fight with Google over its YouTube subsidiary help prove its case against the search engine.

We've heard these kinds of sweeping declarations from both sides throughout the legal standoff, which began when Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google in 2007. A review of the documents filed with the court on Thursday shows that much of the material, such as Google employees making critical statements about YouTube's "rogue" business model before buying it in October 2006 for $1.65 billion, have been well covered.

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Video: Swoop Through the Real New York as Google Earth Meets Google Street View

From The Popular Science:

Google Earth has long allowed users to zoom in on textured, three-dimensional representations of cities, but the view was more or less limited to one angle: straight down. But the search giant has now mashed up its wealth of high-res Street View data with some existing city textures, making it possible to zoom right down to street level and take in a pedestrian's view in 3-D.

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Icelandic Volcanologists Carefully Watching Eyjafjallajokull’s Big Sister

From Times Online:

The erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano may be causing its fair share of havoc but scientists say we may have seen nothing yet.

All eyes in the volcanology community are focused on Eyjafjallajökull’s far larger sister, called Katla, which could cause disruption on a far larger scale. Katla is about eight miles to the west under the Myrdalsjökull ice cap. An eruption could cause widespread flooding and disrupt air traffic between Europe and North America.

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Get Ready For Decades Of Icelandic Fireworks

Ready for more of the same? (Image: Icelandic Coast Guard)

From New Scientist:

We're not quite back to the pre-plane era, but air travel over and around the north Atlantic might get a lot more disrupted in the coming years.

Volcanologists say the fireworks exploding from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland, which is responsible for the ash cloud that is grounding all commercial flights across northern Europe, may become a familiar sight. Increased rumblings under Iceland over the past decade suggest that the area is entering a more active phase, with more eruptions and the potential for some very large bangs.

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Allergies Worse Than Ever? Blame Global Warming

Blend Images / Getty Images

From Time Magazine:

Allergy sufferers like to claim — in between sniffles — that each spring's allergy season is worse than the last. But this year, they might actually be right.

Thanks to an unusually cold and snowy winter, followed by an early and warm spring, pollen counts are through the roof in much of the U.S., especially in the Southeast, which is already home to some of the most allergenic cities in the country. A pollen count — the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air — of 120 is considered high, but in Atlanta last week the number hit 5,733, the second highest level ever recorded in the city.

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Widening Gullies On Mars Point To Liquid Water

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the
edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Changes in gullies on Mars suggest that there is flowing water on the red planet, scientists said.

Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. On Earth, gullies usually form through the action of liquid water – long thought to be absent on the Martian surface because the temperature and atmospheric pressure were believed to be too low.

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Whaling Peace Plan To Go Forward This Year

From The BBC:

A proposal aimed at bridging the split between whaling nations and their opponents will almost certainly come to governments for decision this year.

Sources say it could involve Japan accepting quotas below current levels; but Iceland is opposing proposed catch limits and an international trade ban.

Some anti-whaling countries see such a "peace package" as the only way to constrain whale hunting.

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Why Iceland's Volcano Is A Hazard For Air Travel

From Time Magazine:

Passengers sitting in planes on the runways of Heathrow Airport outside London on Thursday morning must have wondered what the problem was.

The sky above was clear and blue, yet the British government had closed the country's entire airspace, grounding all flights at five airports and disrupting the itineraries of tens of thousands of travelers — including those whose journeys originated elsewhere in Europe, North America and beyond and who would have only passed through Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport and a major international hub that handles more than 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day.

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Biggest Comet Measured to Date: Comet McNaught

Comet McNaught viewed over the Pacific in 2007. (Credit: Sebastian Deiries/ESO)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) — British scientists have identified a new candidate for the biggest comet measured to date. Dr Geraint Jones of UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory presented the results at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Glasgow on April 13. Instead of using the length of the tail to measure the scale of the comet, the group used data from the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft to gauge the size of the region of space disturbed by the comet's presence.

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Why We Can't Do 3 Things At Once

When humans pursue two goals A and B concurrently, the two frontal lobes divide for representing the two goals and related actions simultaneously. The anterior most part of the frontal lobes enables to switch back and forth between the two goals, i.e. executing one goal while maintaining the other one on hold. This inter-hemispheric division of labor explains why humans appear unable to accurately carry out more than two tasks at one time. Credit: Etienne Koechlin, INSERM-ENS, Paris, France, 2010.

From Live Science:

For those who find it tough to juggle more than a couple things at once, don't despair. The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests.

That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled.

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Apollo 13: Australia's Untold Story

This view of the severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) was photographed from the Lunar Module/Command Module (LM/CM) following SM jettisoning. An entire panel on the SM was blown away by the explosion of oxygen tank. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

MELBOURNE: Forty years ago, on 13 April 1970, NASA's worst nightmare became reality when there was an explosion aboard Apollo 13.

And in Australia, scientists and engineers at the Parkes radiotelescope - celebrated in the 2000 movie The Dish - had to find a way to stay in contact with the stranded astronauts.

"The expertise and skills of Australian scientists proved vital in the tracking of the spacecraft - without which the rescue would not have succeeded," said John Sarkissian, the operations scientist at Parkes.

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April 16, 1943: Setting The Stage for World’s First Acid Trip

1943: Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the psychedelic properties of LSD.

From Wired:

Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, was researching the synthesis of a lysergic acid compound, LSD-25, when he inadvertently absorbed a bit through his fingertips. Intrigued by the stimulating effects on his perception, Hofmann decided further exploration was warranted. Three days later he ingested 250 micrograms of LSD, embarking on the first full-fledged acid trip.

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Google's Q1 Earnings Show Continued Ad Growth

From CNET:

Google continues to demonstrate that an online advertising recovery is well under way, at least when it comes to search advertising.

For its fiscal first quarter, which ended March 31, Google on Thursday reported revenue of $6.77 billion, up 23 percent from the same period last year. Financial analysts evaluate Google's revenue performance by excluding traffic-acquisition costs paid to Google's partners, which totaled $1.71 billion. That puts net revenue at $5.06 billion, slightly ahead of analyst estimates of $4.95 billion for the quarter.

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DARPA Spills Details On Its Plans For The Transformer TX Flying Car

Transformer Car Oh hi DARPA, you called?

From Popular Science:

DARPA didn't reveal much at first about its "Transformer TX" program aimed at developing a flying car for the military. But now the full proposal has been published, and shows that the Pentagon agency hopes to get a prototype airborne by 2015, The Register reports.

The mad scientists want a vertical-takeoff vehicle that handles like an off-road-capable SUV on the ground, and can cruise like a light single-engine aircraft at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet.

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My Comment: Someone has been watching wayyyy too many movies.

Facebook Attacked Over Refusal To Install Panic Button

From Times Online:

Britain's online child protection agency attacked Facebook yesterday for its continued refusal to install a panic button on its site.

Richard Allan, head of policy for the social networking site in Europe, said it had agreed a series of measures allowing users in the UK to report concerns about child safety directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop).

The new system flags up Ceop after users have already gone through Facebook's own reporting procedure.

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Google 'Suicide' Search Feature Offers Lifeline

From ABC News:

Suicide-Related Searches Trigger Information for Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Google may be in the business of search, but one of its newest features could save lives.

Starting last week, Google searches related to suicide started appearing with a message guiding users to the toll-free number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The number is 1-800-273-8255.

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For Prom, Teens Let YouTube Do The Asking

From ABC News:

High School Students Woo Would-Be Prom Dates With Online Creativity.

Sweaty-palmed, tongue-tied teens take note: If you want to score a date to the prom, asking the simple question just might not cut it anymore.

Hallway conversations and handwritten notes might have worked for previous generations, but with prom season under way, high school students across the country are turning to YouTube to give an age-old rite of passage a new media moment of fame.

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