How Much Can You Sweat

Never Stop Sweating Jetportal is Jeffrey Montes on Flickr

FYI: How Much Can A Human Body Sweat Before It Runs Out? -- Popular Science

It all depends on the size, physical fitness and hydration of the person in question, but it’s possible to sweat buckets before heatstroke sets in and we pass out. After all, there are about three million sweat glands on the human body (the highest concentration is on our palms), and the average person aggressively working out perspires about 0.7 to 1.5 liters per hour. Theoretically, if we were attached to a treadmill and pumped full of liquids, it’s possible to keep sweating forever.

Read more ....

My Comment: The sentence that caught my attention was the following .....

.... During the Ironman Hawaii, competitors perspire some 15 liters (about four gallons) throughout the combined marathon run, 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike ride.

That's a lot of sweat.

Will Astronaut Mark E. Kelly Fly Or Not?

Mark E. Kelly at a news conference in Tucson this month, joined by Dr. Peter Rhee, one of Gabrielle Giffords’s doctors. Joshua Lott/Reuters

Giffords’s Husband Faces Decision on Shuttle Flight -- New York Times

As Representative Gabrielle Giffords settles into a rehabilitation hospital in Houston, a major question remains for her husband, the astronaut Mark E. Kelly: Will he fly or not?

Captain Kelly, a Navy officer who flew 39 combat missions in the Persian Gulf war, is scheduled to fly the shuttle Endeavour on a two-week mission to the International Space Station in April.

With his wife at the beginning of a long and arduous rehabilitation program to recover from a gunshot wound to the head, Captain Kelly and his bosses at NASA will have to determine whether he can maintain the training regimen in the weeks leading up to the launching and command the mission.

Read more ....

Update: Giffords husband to decide on space trip in mid-Feb -- Reuters

My Comment: I do not envy the decisions that he has to make.

Commander Of International Space Station Gets A Birthday Present

Expedition 26 crew: (from left to right) Engineers Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli, Catherine Coleman and Commander Scott Kelly

Happy Birthday! Commander Of International Space Station Crew Has Present Delivered By Unmanned Rocket -- The Daily Mail

The commander of a six-person crew who are currently on the International Space Station (ISS) has had a special delivery today, Russian Mission Control have confirmed.

The unmanned rocket delivered food, fuel, oxygen, scientific equipment and packages for the U.S.-Russian-Italian crew, who are part of Nasa's Expedition 26.

And commander Scott Kelly, leading the trip which began in November, found a surprise package to help him celebrate when he turns 47 on February 21.

Read more ....

Who Will Be On Top .... Google Or Facebook?

Will Google Survive Facebook? -- Wall Street Journal

"How can we not be happy?" Google CFO Patrick Pichette asked rhetorically last week as the Internet search giant unveiled stellar earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter and full year 2010.

He got his answer: a swift $25 drop in Google's stock price. Shares closed Friday at $600.99.

On the face of it, Google management and shareholders had plenty to celebrate. In the fourth quarter, sales surged 26%, while profits rose 29%—both above Wall Street's expectations. Growth in Google's core search business accelerated, and Mr. Pichette stressed that newer businesses in display and mobile search were "another growth engine" for the company. Analysts rushed to increase their one-year stock-price targets, with some going as high as $800.

So why the tepid response?

Read more ....

My Comment: Search will be around forever .... but social networking is where the growth is.

New Material To Revolutionize Electronics?

This is a digital model showing how molybdenite can be integrated into a transistor. (Credit: Credit: EPFL)

New Transistors: An Alternative to Silicon and Better Than Graphene -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2011) — Smaller and more energy-efficient electronic chips could be made using molybdenite. In an article appearing online January 30 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, EPFL's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) publishes a study showing that this material has distinct advantages over traditional silicon or graphene for use in electronics applications.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is the next electronic revolution.

King Tut Artifacts Damaged In Egypt

Looters Damage King Tut Artifacts in Egypt -- Live Science

As chaos reportedly ensues on the streets of Cairo, the Egyptian Museum became a piece of property for looters to exploit, according to Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

About 1,000 people jumped over the wall on the eastern side of the museum on Friday (Jan. 28) when the protests began. They raided the gift shop, thinking it was the museum, according to Hawass's blog. Ten of the individuals made their way into the museum.

Read more ....

My Comment: It could have been far worse .... correction .... much worse.

Will The U.S. Get An "Internet Kill Switch"?

After Egypt, Will U.S. Get 'Internet Kill Switch'? -- PC Magazine

With reports of Egypt's government completing shutting down the Internet in the country, talk about an "Internet kill switch" bill in the U.S. has reemerged. Could it happen here?

The bill in question is the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, a cyber-security measure introduced in June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. It was an over-arching cyber-security measure that, among other things, would create an office of cyberspace policy within the White House and a new cyber-security center within the Homeland Security Department.

Read more ....

More News On The Possibility Of The U.S. Developing And Installing An "Internet Kill Switch"

Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Legislation Back in Play -- Threat Level
Zombie internet 'kill switch' bill back to haunt the Senate -- Washington Examiner
How Governments Flip the Internet’s Kill Switch -- New York Magazine
So how do you shut off a whole nation's Internet? -- MSNBC
Could Egypt Happen Here? Obama's Internet "Kill Switch" -- Fast Company
Internet Kill Switch: Should the United States Emulate Egypt? -- Aol News
What Could Possibly Go Wrong: An Internet "Off" Switch -- Popular Science
Tunisia, Egypt, Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points -- The Atlantic
Egypt's 'Net Shutdown a Wakeup Call for Companies -- PC World

Hidden Chambers In The Great Pyramids

One theory suggests that the Great Pyramid had been built inside-out using an internal spiral ramp, as opposed to an external ramp as had long been suggested. Corbis

Great Pyramid May Hold Two Hidden Chambers -- Discovery News

A 3-D simulation of the 4,500-year-old structure suggests an ancient secret lies beneath the desert sand.

* Two secret chamber housing funereal furniture were discovered at the Great Pyramid of Giza.
* The furniture was intended for use in the afterlife by the pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops in Greek.

Read more ....

My Comment: If true .... I could only imagine the treasures inside.

The Future Of Wine

Grapes on the Vine in Mendocino, Calif. Hot Ash via Wikimedia

The Future Of Wine: We Need New Breeds Of Grape -- Popular Science

When news broke last week that archaeologist had unearthed a 6,000-year-old winemaking operation in an Armenian cave, many took it as occasion to pat ourselves on the backs—after all, it’s proof that early humans were more civilized than previously thought, evolved creatures that we are. Unfortunately, in the intervening years our grapes haven’t evolved much at all, leaving our winemaking varieties—most of which have been developed from a single species—extremely susceptible to disease and pathogens.

Read more ....

When Did The Dinosaurs Exactly Die Off?

U of A researcher Larry Heaman with the actual fossil that now throws into questions the KT paradigm. He is sitting in front the laser ablation machine. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alberta)

Dinosaurs Survived Mass Extinction by 700,000 Years, Fossil Find Suggests -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) — University of Alberta researchers determined that a fossilized dinosaur bone found in New Mexico confounds the long established paradigm that the age of dinosaurs ended between 65.5 and 66 million years ago.

The U of A team, led by Larry Heaman from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, determined the femur bone of a hadrosaur as being only 64.8 million years old. That means this particular plant eater was alive about 700,000 years after the mass extinction event many paleontologists believe wiped all non-avian dinosaurs off the face of earth, forever.

Read more ....

My Comment: More evidence is needed .... but it raises a lot of questions.

Drinking In Ancient Greece

Photo: This terra cotta cup was a "designer knock off" with a pattern meant to emulate silver work. This type of cup appeared as people sought escape from harsh economic and social realities, according to Kathleen Lynch, an archeologist with the University of Cincinnati. Courtesy of the excavations of the Athenian Agora

In Vino Veritas: Wine Cups Tell History of Athenian Life -- Live Science

Over centuries, the ancient Athenian cocktail parties went full circle, from a practice reserved for the elite to one open to everyone and then, by the fourth century B.C., back to a luxurious display of consumption most could not afford.

The wine cups used during these gatherings, called symposia, reflect this story, according to Kathleen Lynch, a University of Cincinnati professor of classics.

Read more ....

My Comment: Drink and merry .... what more can I say.

Lack Of Diversity In Grapes Raises Concerns

(Click on Image To Enlarge)

Lack Of Sex Among Grapes Tangles A Family Vine -- New York Times

For the last 8,000 years, the wine grape has had very little sex. This unnatural abstinence threatens to sap the grape’s genetic health and the future pleasure of millions of oenophiles.

The lack of sex has been discovered by Sean Myles, a geneticist at Cornell University. He developed a gene chip that tests for the genetic variation commonly found in grapes. He then scanned the genomes of the thousand or so grape varieties in the Department of Agriculture’s extensive collection.

Much to his surprise he found that 75 percent of the varieties were as closely related as parent and child or brother and sister. “Previously people thought there were several different families of grape,” Dr. Myles said. “Now we’ve found that all those families are interconnected and in essence there’s just one large family.”

Read more ....

My Comment: Yup .... I need a drink.

Another Look At Thunderstorms

Here the terrestrial gamma ray flash (pink) is 1.98 milliseconds old, and its electron(yellow) /positron(green) beam is reaching altitudes where it may intercept spacecraft, such as NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

Thunderstorms Create Beams Of Antimatter -- Cosmos

SYDNEY: A space-based telescope has detected beams of antimatter shooting out the top of thunderstorms, in what has been described as an “amazing curiousity of nature”.

The data was collected from NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray SpaceTelescope. In some cases the thunderstorms were thousands of kilometres away, and the beams were detected only after they had travelled along the Earth’s magnetic field and collided with the spacecraft.

Read more ....

Ten Endangered-Species Battles

10 Critical Endangered-Species Battles -- Wired Science

In theory, decisions about flora and fauna habitat are purely scientific. In practice, they're political. And that, in a nutshell, is the reality of the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973 as part of a historic wave of legislation that both protects America's environmental heritage and provides a framework for settling conflicts.

Some say it does too little; others, that it intrudes too much. The arguments go 'round and 'round, and underscore a fundamental truth: In the Anthropocene Era, people decide nature's fate.

Read more ....

A Cybermap Of The Scientific World

(Image: Computed by Olivier H. Beauchesne @ Science-Metrix, inc. Data from Scopus, using books, trade journals and peer-reviewed journals)

Info-Streams Create Cybermap Of The Scientific World -- New Scientist:

Inspired by an earlier image showing connections among Facebook friends, Olivier Beauchesne of the consulting firm Science-Metrix has now created this global map of scientific collaborations.

Read more ....

My Comment: Impressive map.

Food Inflation Expected To Reach 50% For Some Countries This Year

The world is facing a commodities crisis that could leave millions unable to afford the rising costs of food as population levels soar

Food Prices To Rocket By 50% As Global Hunger Epidemic Causes Riots And Famines -- The Daily Mail

* 'Perfect storm' of issues will bring widespread starvation if nothing is done
* Food prices to rise by 50 per cent over the next decade
* GM crops will be needed to feed the world
* Global population to grow to 9billion by 2050

The cost of food will soar by 50 per cent over the next few decades as the world becomes racked by famine, mass migrations and riots, experts have warned.

The increase will be triggered by the exploding world population, rising cost of fuel and increased competition for water, according to a leading Government think-tank.

Spiralling food prices will push hundreds of millions of people into hunger, trigger mass migration and spark civil unrest, the report warned.

Read more ....

My Comment: A perfect storm of drought, floods, and failing crops is probably going to give many countries a lot of grief this year when it comes to the price of food supplies.

Amazon Sells More E-Books Than Paperbacks

Amazon.com Touts More E-Book Sales Than Paperbacks -- Computer World

Third-gen Kindle sold millions in fourth quarter, CEO Bezos says.

Computerworld - Amazon.com said it is selling more Kindle e-books than paperback books.

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos said in a fourth-quarter earnings statement Thursday that the e-book-selling milestone "has come even sooner than we expected."

The company said that in all of 2010, it sold 15% more Kindle e-books than paperbacks. In July, Amazon.com reported that it had sold more Kindle e-books than hardcover books. For all of 2010, it sold three times as many Kindle e-books as hardcovers. Free Kindle books are excluded from those figures.

Read more ....

Early Humans Left the Trees 4.2 Million Years Ago

A reconstructed head of Australopithecus afarensis for an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. John Gurche/Smithsonian

Humans Left Trees 4.2 Million Years Ago -- Discovery News

Wrist bones of human ancestors reveal when humans switched from living in trees to on the ground.

* Fossilized wrist bones suggest humans switched from trees to a terrestrial lifestyle between 4.2 and 3.5 million years ago.
* Tree dwellers experience more stress on the pinky side of their hands while terrestrial species tend to load more stress on the thumb side.
* The timing of the switch coincides with climate and habitat changes and a shift in diet.

Read more ....

My Comment: We've gone a long way in 4.2 million years.

Remembering Space Shuttle Challenger

From CBS News:

(CBS) Friday marks 25 years since the space shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after takeoff.

"Early Show" co-anchor Jeff Glor took a look back at the tragedy on the broadcast Friday morning.

On Jan. 28, 1986, June Scobee watched the shuttle's 25th liftoff first-hand. Her husband, Dick Scobee was the commander. Scobee was among the six astronauts -- and one teacher -- aboard the shuttle.

Read more ....

My Comment: I cannot believe that it is 25 years already. Where did the time go.

Marines In Afghanistan Are Getting Use To Using Solar Panels

Marines With ExFOB Marines and sailors of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment pose with their Afghan national army counterparts in front of a solar power generator at Patrol Base Sparks, in Sangin District, Afghanistan. Photo by Gunnery Sgt. William Price/USMC

Marines in Afghanistan Find That Solar Panels Save Soldiers' Lives -- Popular Science

A battalion of Marines in Afghanistan is going green, using solar panels to reduce their energy consumption and thereby reduce the things they carry — and even save lives.

The Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment arrived last October at Forward Operating Base Jackson, outside Sangin, Afghanistan, with an array of solar equipment. The battalion’s generators typically use more than 20 gallons of fuel a day, but the Marines have cut that to 2.5 gallons a day, according to Staff Sgt. David Doty, who maintains the gear.

Read more ....

My Comment: I just hope that they do not get cloudy days for a long period of time.