Will European Physicists Destroy The World?

A 1-in-1,000 Chance of Götterdämmerung -- Reason Online

Will the world come to an end on September 10? That fear is motivating two lawsuits—one American, another European—that aim to stop the physicists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) from switching on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on that day. The LHC is a $10 billion 17-mile long particle accelerator lying in a circular tunnel beneath the border of France and Switzerland. Its massive superconducting magnets cooled with liquid helium accelerate two beams of protons and lead nuclei to nearly the speed of light. These particle beams will eventually be crashed into each other to produce temperatures and particles not seen since microseconds after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

One of the chief goals of the LHC experiments is to find the elusive Higgs boson, the only fundamental particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics that has not been directly observed. The Higgs boson plays a key role in explaining the origins of mass in other elementary particles. Exciting, if esoteric research, to be sure, but why oppose it?

Read more ....

New Study Shows Solar System Is Unique

From The Future Of Things:

Research conducted by a team of North American scientist shows our solar system is special, contrary to the accepted theory that it is an average planetary system. Using computer simulations to follow the development of planets, it was shown that very specific conditions are needed for a proto-stellar disk to evolve into a solar system-like planetary system. The simulations show that in most cases either no planets are created, or planets are formed and then migrate towards the disk center and acquire highly elliptical orbits.

Read more ....

Another Article On Sunspots, But This One Provides A Good Roundup

Solar Cycle 24 Is Still Late, Perhaps Signalling
Cool Weather Ahead -- Fabius Maximus

Summary: Sunspot counts and other indicators of solar activity continue at low levels. The last month with zero sunspots was June 1913. August had zero spots, or one (there is some debate about this). How solar cycle 24 develops deserves to be on the list of things to watch for anyone interested in geopolitics. A “small” solar cycle — a period in which the global climate cools — would have substantial effects. Esp. with global grain inventories at such low levels. As always, links to more information are at the end of this post.

Read more ....

Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research

Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research -- Wired Magazine

After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab.

Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software.

The idea is to align the research work in the Lab closer to areas that the parent company is focusing on, says Peter Benedict, spokesperson for Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent Ventures.

"In the new innovation model, research needs to keep addressing the need of the mother company," he says.

That view is shortsighted and may drastically curtail the Labs' ability to come up with truly innovative discoveries, respond critics.

Read more ....

More Mysteries Answered From King Tut's Tomb

Foetuses Found In King Tutankhamun's Tomb 'Were His Twin Daughters', Says Expert -- Daily Mail

Two foetuses found in the tomb of Tutankhamun are very likely to have been twins and the children of the teenage Pharaoh, according to an expert.

Professor Robert Connolly is an anatomist working with the Egyptian authorities to analyse the mummified remains of Tutankhamun and the two stillborn children.

He will discuss his new findings at the Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt Conference at the University of Manchester today.

Read more ....

Now I Know Why I Am Always Stressed On Vacation

Psychologists have dubbed the high stress levels caused by internet dependency as 'discomgoogolation'.

Feel Stressed If You Can't Get Online? You Could Have 'Discomgoogolation' -- Daily Mail

Soaring numbers of internet addicts are suffering from extreme stress when they are unable to get their online 'hit', a new study has found.

Clinical monitoring of heavy web users revealed their brain activity and blood pressure increased markedly when they were cut off.

The stress of being disconnected was equivalent to that of running half an hour late for a key meeting, being about to sit an important exam or, in the worst cases, being sacked.

Read more ....

Why I Love YouTube

Jimi Hendrix at the Marquee Club, London in 1967. Photograph: Herbert P Oczeret/Rex Features

CSN Editor: This is more of a culture/entertainment/arts post than a science post. But we all deserve a break sometimes.

The 50 Greatest Arts Videos On YouTube -- The Guardian

YouTube is best known for its offbeat videos that become viral sensations. But among its millions of clips is a treasure trove of rare and fascinating arts footage, lovingly posted by fans. Ajesh Patalay selects 50 of the best - Joy Division's TV debut, readings by Jack Kerouac, a Marlene Dietrich screen test, Madonna's first performance... and much more

Read more ....

Are Hurricanes Getting More Violent?

(Click To Enlarge)

A Savage Force Of Nature – And Mounting Evidence They Are Becoming More Violent -- The Independent

Hurricanes are one of the most destructively powerful forces of nature and their existence depends on the surface temperature of the ocean reaching at least 26C. One obvious question is whether Gustav is the result of rising sea temperatures associated with global warming.

The simple answer is that it is virtually impossible to link any one weather event with climate change, yet there is mounting evidence that global warming could be causing hurricanes to increase in both frequency and intensity.

Read more ....

People Who Lose Jobs Become Hermits

From Live Science:

Layoffs can turn social butterflies into near hermits who shun such outlets as book clubs and even church groups, finds a new study.

Workers who experienced just one layoff or involuntary loss of a job were 35 percent less likely to be involved in their communities than their always-employed counterparts, according to the survey that will be published in the September issue of the journal Social Forces.

The researchers suggest the reason could come down to tit for tat, or an attitude of "you don't scratch my back, why should I scratch yours?"

"Social engagement often involves an element of social trust and a sense that things are reciprocal — that you give some support if you get some support, and you benefit from society if society benefits from you," said lead researcher Jennie Brand, a sociologist at UCLA. "When workers are displaced, the tendency is to feel as though the social contract has been violated, and we found that they are less likely to reciprocate."

Read more ....

Zero Sunspots For The Month Of August -- First Time Since 1913

Sun Has First Spotless Calendar Month
Since June 1913 -- Watts Up With That

Many have been keeping a watchful eye on solar activity recently. The most popular thing to watch has been sunspots. While not a direct indication of solar activity, they are a proxy for the sun’s internal magnetic dynamo. There have been a number of indicators recently that it has been slowing down.

August 2008 has made solar history. As of 00 UTC (5PM PST) we just posted the first spotless calendar month since June 1913. Solar time is measured by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) so it is now September 1st in UTC time. I’ve determined this to be the first spotless calendar month according to sunspot data from NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center, which goes back to 1749. In the 95 years since 1913, we’ve had quite an active sun. But that has been changing in the last few years. The sun today is a nearly featureless sphere and has been for many days:

Read more ....

More News On This Milestone

Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century -- Daily Tech
Sunspots May Vanish by 2015 -- Canadian Free Press
Activity is quiet on the sunspot front ... -- Online Opinion

Is The End Of Unlimited Internet Near?

Comcast To Place A Cap On Internet Downloads -- New York Times

Comcast, one of the country’s largest Internet providers, said this week that it would place limits on customers’ broadband usage.

Beginning Oct. 1, Comcast will put a 250 gigabyte-a-month cap on residential users. The limit will not affect most users, at least not in the short-term, but is certain to create tension as some technologies gain traction.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Jennifer Khoury, said 250 gigabytes was about 100 times the typical usage; the average customer uses two to three gigabytes a month. Less than 1 percent of customers exceed the cap, she said.

Many Internet providers reserve the right to cancel the service of the most excessive users. The 250-gigabyte cap is Comcast’s way of specifying a longstanding policy of placing a limit on Internet consumption, and it comes after customer pushed for a definition of excessive use.

Read more ....

More News On Limiting Internet Usage

Critics Question Comcast Broadband Caps -- PC World
More tidbits on the new Comcast cap (updated) -- CNET
Comcast Opens Up About Monthly Internet Usage Cap -- eFluxMedia
Comcast sets 250GB ceiling -- Zdnet
Comcast Sets Bandwidth Threshold For Residential Customers -- Information Week
Comcast Limits Download Volume -- Wall Street Journal

Evolution And Human Nature

David Friedman On Evolution And Human Nature -- Future Pundit

David Friedman says that while Leftists generally accept that evolution occurred they reject all implications evolution has for human nature.

People who say they are against teaching the theory of evolution are very likely to be Christian fundamentalists. But people who are against taking seriously the implications of evolution, strongly enough to want to attack those who disagree, including those who teach those implications, are quite likely to be on the left.

Read more ....

Hurrican Gustav -- News, Blogs, And Up To Date Reports

HURRICANE BLOGS, NEWS, AND LINKS

News

National Hurricane Center -- Home Site
National Hurricane Center -- Satellite Shots
National Hurricane Center -- Sign Up For Email Advisories
Weather.com -- Hurricane Central News Center
Weather.com -- Hurricane Central News Center Updates
NOLA -- New Orleans, Louisiana news
Houston Chronicle -- Hurricane News
NOAA Satellite And Information Service -- Home Page
Crown Weather Services -- Weather Aggregator

Blogs

Weather Underground
Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog
Weather Nerd
Hurricane Track
Miami Hurricane

Blogs For Gustav

Twitter search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Google Blog Search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Technorati search for “Hurricane Gustav”
BlogPulse search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Flickr photo/video search for “Hurricane Gustav”
YouTube video search for “Hurricane Gustav”
HurricanePreparedness.org

Resource Links For Hurricane Gustav

Real Time Satellite Imagery Of Hurricane Gustav -- Cool Science News
Wind Map -- Crown Weather
Gustave Hurricane Tracker -- MSNBC
Maps: Storm Surge Risk from Tropical Storm Gustav: Storm Surge Possibilities -- Wired News
Wireless Carriers Prepare for Hurricane Gustav -- Daily Wireless
Hurricane Gustav Resources
Hurricane Gustav -- Wikipedia

News Links For Hurricane Gustav

Global Storm Tracker -- Yahoo News
Weather News -- Yahoo News
Hurricane Gustav -- Yahoo News (Recent Stories on Gustav)
Hurricane Gustav -- Google News (Stories For The Past 24 Hours)
News and Newspaper Websites in Louisiana -- ABYZ News Directory
News And Newspaper Websites In Mississippi -- ABYZ News Directory

Real Time Satellite Imagery Of Hurricane Gustav

For near real time satellite imagery of Hurricane Gustav and its deadly progress, click here.

This updates every 30 minutes. Kudos to the blog Watt's Up With That for doing this.

Previous Post: Hurricane News, Blogs, And Useful Links

Are We Prepared For Hurricane Gustav?

A television monitor near the floor of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota shows a radar image of Hurricane Gustav as it bears down on the Louisiana coastline August 31, 2008. Planners have changed the convention agenda as the powerful storm approaches the U.S. with some Louisiana delegates returning to their home state. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Opportunities Missed In Preparing For Gustav -- SciTech Blog (CNN)

If there were a Nobel Prize for “I told you so” it might go to Louisiana State University Professor Ivor van Heerden. He warned of the catastrophic consequences a major hurricane would have on New Orleans long before Hurricane Katrina.

And as Hurricane Gustav approaches, he says there were many lost opportunities to strengthen the region’s defenses in the three years since Katrina and Rita.

Among them:
*state and federal officials could have done a lot more to assess the weak links in the levee system, from New Orleans to Morgan City, Louisiana.
*more of an effort should have been made to repair damaged areas on levees. In many places, he said, there is bare soil, no grass at all on the levees.
*both before and after Katrina, he said the Army Corps of Engineers has not allowed enough outside experts to work with them to make improvements

Read more ....

Google Earth Is About To Get Better

Google is getting a new eye in the sky -- and as a bonus, its rainbow-colored
logo will be getting a ride on a rocket.

Google Earth To License New Satellite Imagery -- Zdnet

Google has agreed to license imagery for their mapping products from a satellite due to launch on September 4th. This new satellite can take detailed imagery for an area the size of New Mexico in one day. What does that mean? Well, you could get high resolution pan-sharpened imagery for the entire country in around 30 days. Impressive.

The level of detail will be approximately 50cm per pixel — that’s just under 20 inches. If you want to see what that looks like, take a look at this. Imagine having a Google Maps/Earth content that is this detailed, 100% complete and updated once a month — that’s powerful stuff.

Read more ....

More News On Google Earth

Google to buy GeoEye satellite imagery -- CNET
Google Maps to get better satellite imagery from GeoEye -- Beta News
Google Teams Up With GeoEye-1 To Improve Its Services -- eFluxMedia
Google Launches Super-Spycam Into Space; Logo Goes Along for a Ride -- Wired Blogs

Ten Myths In America

(CSN Editor): One of my favorite sites is "The Futurist". He does not blog much, but each post is always a delight to read. His latest post is a list that analysis the "Ten Myths in America". I agree with his ten myths .... for those who do not, I recommend that you contribute in his comments section.

The 10 Myths that he lists are the following:

1) School Teachers are Underpaid in America
2) Women Earn Less than Men in America
3) Whites Prevent 'Minorities' from Achieving Economic Parity
4) Healthy Foods are Expensive, and Unhealthy Foods are Cheap
5) America's Foreign Policy is the Reason for the 9/11 Attacks
6) Leftists are 'Liberal' and 'Progressive'
7) Republicans are Less Intelligent than Democrats
8) Democrats Have a Better Record on Racism than Republicans
9) Houses Always Rise in Value
10) High Oil Prices Will Create Permanent Long-Term Poverty

The link to these ten myths and an explanation for each is here.

New Ways To Sift Data

Above shows occurrences of names in the New Testament.

Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways
to Sift Data -- New York Times

PEOPLE share their videos on YouTube and their photos at Flickr. Now they can share more technical types of displays: graphs, charts and other visuals they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables or text.

At an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (www.many-eyes.com), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The site was created by scientists at the Watson Research Center of I.B.M. in Cambridge, Mass., to help people publish and discuss graphics in a group. Those who register at the site can comment on one another’s work, perhaps visualizing the same information with different tools and discovering unexpected patterns in the data.

Read more ....

Pollution From Asia Is Reaching North America -- A Problem That Could Quadruple In The Next 15 Years

In this Nov. 30, 2007 file photo, backdropped by cooling towers of a power plant and chemical factory, miners shovel coal at a mine in Xiahuayuan county, north China's Hebei province. China has raised wholesale electricity prices for the second time in two months to offset soaring coal prices blamed for shortages that threaten to disrupt the economy. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Scientists Fear Impact Of Asian Pollutants On U.S.
-- Yahoo News/McClatchy

WASHINGTON — From 500 miles in space, satellites track brown clouds of dust, soot and other toxic pollutants from China and elsewhere in Asia as they stream across the Pacific and take dead aim at the western U.S.

A fleet of tiny, specially equipped unmanned aerial vehicles, launched from an island in the East China Sea 700 or so miles downwind of Beijing , are flying through the projected paths of the pollution taking chemical samples and recording temperatures, humidity levels and sunlight intensity in the clouds of smog.

On the summit of 9,000-foot Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon and near sea level at Cheeka Peak on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula , monitors track the pollution as it arrives in America.

Read more ....

How Do Hurricanes Energize Themselves

In order to preserve pool furniture from the potential winds of Hurricane Gustav, lawn chairs and tables were placed in the pool at Huntington Park in Beaumont, Texas. Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/The Enterprise, Guiseppe Barranco)

Gustav Headed For Current That Fuels
Big Storms -- Yahoo News/AP

WASHINGTON - The difference between a monster and a wimp for Gulf of Mexico hurricanes often comes down to a small patch of warm deep water that's easy to miss. It's called the Loop Current, and hurricane trackers say Gustav is headed right for it, reminiscent of Katrina.

Gustav is likely to reach this current late Saturday, experts say. What happens next will be crucial, maybe deadly.

If Gustav hits the Loop Current and lingers in that hot spot, watch out. If the storm misses it or zips through the current, then Gustav probably won't be much of a name to remember.

The meandering Loop Current, located in the southeastern gulf, provides loads of hurricane fuel. It was a key stopover for nearly all the Gulf Coast killers of the past, including Katrina and Camille, said Florida International University professor Hugh Willoughby, former director of the government's hurricane research division.

Read more ....

The World Is Now Flowing Around The U.S.

Internet Traffic Begins To Bypass The U.S. -- New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The era of the American Internet is ending.

Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe. During the network’s first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the United States.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

Read more ....

How Strong Can A Hurricane Get?

Image of Category 5 Hurricane Katrina taken by NASA’s Terra satellite at 1:00 p.m. EDT on August 28, 2005, the day before it flooded New Orleans. NASA image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center.

From Live Science:

Hurricane Gustav, churning toward the Gulf Coast now, has a small chance of becoming a Category 5 storm before it makes landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center. That would put its winds at 156 mph or stronger. Such winds would devastate most buildings and trees in the storms path. Little would be left standing.

There is no such thing as a Category 6 storm, in part because once winds reach Category 5 status, it doesn't matter what you call it, it's really, really bad.

Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale has no upper bound, on paper. But in theory, winds from a powerful hurricane could blow the scale out of the water, scientists say.

Read more ....

Oil Companies Getting Ready For Hurricane Gustav

Schematic of typical Gulf of Mexico offshore oil or gas platform.

Katrina Lessons in Mind, Oil Companies Prep
Platforms for Gustav -- Popular Mechanics

HOUSTON — When Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf of Mexico three years ago, it ripped the drilling rig atop Royal Dutch Shell's Mars platform from its clamps and slammed it back onto the top deck in a crumpled pile of steel.

But the company's Ursa platform, just 7 miles to the east, emerged unscathed as 80-foot waves and 175-mph winds hammered the region.

A storm doesn't necessarily wreak havoc on all installations it touches, said Peter Marshall, a retired Shell engineer and consultant, as operators continued preparations Thursday for Tropical Storm Gustav's expected move into the energy-rich gulf.

Some structures may get the brunt while others don't, or a storm may expose an unanticipated weakness.

In the case of the two Shell structures, the platforms themselves withstood the storm, Marshall said. The damage at Mars stemmed from clamps and bolts that failed to hold its drilling rig to beams. The repaired rig now has stronger clamps.

Read more ....

Hurricane News, Blogs, And Links

Hurricane Gustav has been buffeting the Caribbean. The Caymans felt its force on
Friday night though there were no reports of injuries.

HURRICANE BLOGS, NEWS, AND LINKS

News

National Hurricane Center -- Home Site
National Hurricane Center -- Satellite Shots
National Hurricane Center -- Sign Up For Email Advisories
Weather.com -- Hurricane Central News Center
Weather.com -- Hurricane Central News Center Updates
NOLA -- New Orleans, Louisiana news
Houston Chronicle -- Hurricane News
NOAA Satellite And Information Service -- Home Page

Blogs

Weather Underground
Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog
Weather Nerd
Hurricane Track
Miami Hurricane

Blogs For Gustav

Twitter search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Google Blog Search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Technorati search for “Hurricane Gustav”
BlogPulse search for “Hurricane Gustav”
Flickr photo/video search for “Hurricane Gustav”
YouTube video search for “Hurricane Gustav”
HurricanePreparedness.org

Resource Links For Hurricane Gustav

Gustave Hurricane Tracker -- MSNBC
Maps: Storm Surge Risk from Tropical Storm Gustav: Storm Surge Possibilities -- Wired News
Wireless Carriers Prepare for Hurricane Gustav -- Daily Wireless
Hurricane Gustav Resources
Hurricane Gustav -- Wikipedia

Converting One Cell Into Another

Going From One Cell Type to Another Without
Using Stem Cells -- Wired Science

In an unprecedented flourish of genetic alchemy, scientists used a virus to coax one type of cell to become another, without the intermediate stem cell step.

The research, conducted with cells from the pancreas, could soon be used to treat people with diabetes -- but its long-term impacts could be even greater.

"This represents a parallel approach for how to make cells in regenerative medicine," said Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "And now that it's shown that you can turn one of your cells into another, it makes you think of what other cells you'd like to convert."

Read more ....

Scientists Close In On Mass Killer Of Life On Earth

From McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — It was the greatest mass murder of all time — poison everywhere! billions slain! — but the killer or killers have never been positively identified.

An estimated 95 percent of all marine species and up to 85 percent of land creatures perished, according to Peter Ward, a paleobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Scientists call it "The Great Dying." Life took millions of years to recover.

Scientific sleuths, however, now think they're making progress toward pinning down what caused the extinction of most plants and animals on Earth some 251 million years ago.

Read more ....

Living Forever

Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh

Secrets Of Immortality Could Be Tantalisingly
Close -- The Telegraph

The most extensive survey of anti ageing research ever conducted has concluded that a longevity pill to "cure" ageing remains a possibility.
- Antiageing drug shows promise in first human test
- New target for longevity pills
- Scientists find elixir of eternal life - in a worm

However, the current state of knowledge is inadequate to be sure.

The inevitability of ageing and death has fascinated humanity for millennia and is at the heart of the most ancient known mythology, the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, where a Sumerian king tells of his desire to escape death and his ultimate realisation that only through lasting works of culture can he achieve immortality.

Many scientists work on mechanisms that determine lifespan in "model organisms" such as worms, flies and mice but there have been persistent doubts about whether this work is really relevant to humans and whether we may yet manipulate lifespan with drugs, genetic knowledge or fine-tuning diet.

Read more ....

This Pill Will Change Your Life

Magic Meds: Tomorrow's pills will cure everything from cancer to aging. Photo by iStockphoto

From Popsci.com:

A drug to cure cancer. Another to halt aging. In the not-so-distant future, these six drugs—already in the works—will change how we live, and even how we die

Along with flying cars and underwater bubble cities, pills curing every ill are a staple of science fiction. But while aero-autobahns and submerged metropolises have not moved any closer to reality, medical science has advanced to the point where pills once considering miraculous may soon be a reality. Popular Science has a rundown of the top future pills that may one day change your life. Launch it here.

Video: Oil Addiction And Biofuel Dangers Simplified

From Autobloggreen:

There's a new video from Good Magazine that explains the viewpoint of those who believe that using crops for biofuels isn't good for the environment with simple and clear language. The short clip references articles from newspapers such as the LA Times and the NY Times, as well as official agencies like the DOE. The video outlines the reasons as follows: if high demand and fear of the short of supply make oil prices rise, then biofuel producers use feedstock to make their biofuels. Then, the high oil prices and the shortage of feedstocks make food more expensive, giving us the global crisis we've seen recently. If you think that the light relief from recent cuts in oil prices is enough to keep us saved, keep this video in mind. Watch it after the jump.

GOOD: Oil Addiction
by goodmagazine

The Sad Truth About Wind Power

The Maple Ridge Wind farm near Lowville, N.Y. It has been forced to
shut down when regional electric lines become congested.

Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits -- New York Times

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.

That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

Read more ....

Arctic Sea Ice Nears Record Low

A chunk of ice drifts after it separated from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off the
north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada. Sam Soja / AP

From Times Magazine:

Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Sea ice melt recorded on Monday exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.

With several weeks left in the melt season, ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Environmental groups said the ice melt was another alarm bell warning of global warming.

"It's an unfortunate sign that climate change is coming rapidly to the Arctic and that we really need to address the issue of global warming on a national level," said Christopher Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana.

Read more ....

At Conference On The Risks To Earth, Few Are Optimistic

From The New York Times:

ERICE, Sicily — This ancient hilltop town, rife with Roman, Greek, Norman and other influences, is hosting a very modern gathering: a conference on global risks like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons and the world’s lagging energy supply.

More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30 countries were hunkered down here for the 40th annual conference on “planetary emergencies.” The term was coined by Dr. Antonino Zichichi, a native son and a theoretical physicist who has made Erice a hub for experts to discuss persistent, and potentially catastrophic, global challenges.

The participants were not particularly optimistic. They presented data showing that the boom in biofuels was depleting Southeast Asian rain forests, that “bot herders” — computer hackers for hire — were hijacking millions of computers, and that the lack of progress over handling nuclear waste was both hampering the revival of nuclear energy and adding to terrorism risks.

Read more ....

This Is So Cool

Solar Plane Makes Record Flight -- BBC News

A UK-built solar-powered plane has set an unofficial world endurance record for a flight by an unmanned aircraft.

The Zephyr-6, as it is known, stayed aloft for more than three days, running through the night on batteries it had recharged in sunlight.

The flight was a demonstration for the US military, which is looking for new types of technology to support its troops on the ground.

Craft like Zephyr might make ideal platforms for reconnaissance.

They could also be used to relay battlefield communications.

Chris Kelleher, from UK defence and research firm QinetiQ, said Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer advantages over traditional aircraft and even satellites.

Read more ....

Developments In Solar Power

Array: Parabolic mirrors used at the Nevada Solar One thermal power plant focus enough sunlight to power 14,000 Las Vegas homes. (NEWSCOM)

New Rays Of Hope For Solar Power’s
Future -- Christian Science Monitor

High cost of fossil fuel and advanced technology improve this energy source’s prospects.

From five miles away, the Nevada Solar One power plant seems a mirage, a silver lake amid waves of 110 degree F. desert heat. Driving nearer, the rippling image morphs into a sea of mirrors angled to the sun.

As the first commercial “concentrating solar power” or CSP plant built in 17 years, Nevada Solar One marks the reemergence and updating of a decades-old technology that could play a large new role in US power production, many observers say.

“Concentrating solar is pretty hot right now,” says Mark Mehos, program manager for CSP at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co. “Costs look pretty good compared to natural gas [power]. Public policy, climate concern, and new technology are driving it, too.”

Read more ....

Satellites Track Mexico Kidnap Victims With Chips

Chips are down: AGPS satellite like this one is used to pinpoint where potential hostages are

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

QUERETARO, Mexico (Reuters) - Affluent Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.

Kidnapping jumped almost 40 percent between 2004 and 2007 in Mexico, according to official statistics. Mexico ranks with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia as among the worst countries for abductions.

The recent kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, the son of a well-known businessman, sparked an outcry in a country already hardened to crime.

More people, including a growing number of middle-class Mexicans, are seeking out the tiny chip designed by Xega, a Mexican security firm whose sales jumped 13 percent this year. The company said it had more than 2,000 clients.

Read more ....

Update: Terrified Mexicans splash out on chip implants so satellites can trace them if they're kidnapped -- Daily Mail

My Comment: It is only a matter of time that soldiers, V.I.P.s, and persons of interest will be implanted with this technology. After that .... if you look far enough into the future .... it will be a matter of time before some countries start to have this done to all of their citizens.

Google Continued To Gain U.S. Search Share In July

From Information Week:

Google increased its share by a small amount, while Yahoo and Microsoft had small decreases, according to ComScore.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) continues to gain search market share in the United States at the expense of its rivals.

In July, according to Internet metrics firm ComScore, Americans conducted 11.8 billion searches at core search engines, a 2% increase from June.

Google sites accounted for 61.9% of July searches, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month. Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) sites accounted for 20.5%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points. And Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) sites accounted for 8.9%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points.

In numerical terms, Google handled almost 7.3 billion core searches (a 2% increase). Yahoo processed 2.4 billion, and Microsoft fielded 1 billion.

Ask Network and AOL saw search market share increases of 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points respectively, giving them 4.5% and 4.2% of U.S. searches for the month of July.

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New Drug Approvals By The FDA At An All Time Low (Opinion)

Sick Patients Need Cutting-Edge Drugs
By Gregory Conko -- Wall Street Journal

Anna Tomalis was a bright, pretty, 13-year-old girl who liked horseback riding and soccer. During the last few years, she rarely had a chance to think about those things. Since September 2005, Anna battled cancer. And, instead of wringing all she could out of childhood, this courageous teenager tried to get members of Congress to act like adults.

Anna had embryonal sarcoma, a rare form of liver cancer. Surgery and chemotherapy seemed to work at first, but the tumors came back. In March of this year, doctors told her there was nothing more they could do.

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The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time

From PC World:

The Beatles. Citizen Kane. Muhammad Ali. Many have laid claim to being the "best ever" in their respective fields of work, but only one can top the list. And the same is true when it comes to technology.

So what's the best tech product to come out of the digital age? And what qualifies a product as being "best"? First and foremost, it must be a quality product. In many cases, that means a piece of hardware or software that has truly changed our lives and that we can't live without (or couldn't at the time it debuted). Beyond that, a product should have attained a certain level of popularity, had staying power, and perhaps made some sort of breakthrough, influencing the development of later products of its ilk.

So after considering hundreds of products and engaging in many hours of painstaking debate, PC World presents the 50 best tech products. Note that we're looking only at technology that has arisen since the dawn of the personal computer, so don't expect to see the cotton gin and the transistor radio on the list. Instead, you'll find gear that, in all likelihood, you used yourself at one point or another--and, in many cases, products you're still using today.

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My Comment: An article from last year, but still appropriate today.

A Prediction Of 1000-Year Life Spans

The Speculist:

Last week, after hearing a prediction of 1000-year life spans from Aubrey de Grey, Roger L. Simon expressed concern about the possibility of living too long.

112 years, say, of retirement doesn't sound exactly enthralling. That's a lot of checkers and parcheesi. One of the scientists interviewed in the article said people are living vigorous lives these days in their 70s. Ho-hum. What about in their 140s? Anybody for120 and over tennis?

I can understand why Roger Simon wouldn't want extra drooling years. The typical response to this concern from life extension advocates is to point out that it's not just life extension, but healthy life extension that is the goal. Bill Quick commented:

Roger. the biggest problem in talking - and thinking - about news like this is shaking the three-score-and-ten mindset. The question is not "120 and over tennis," but, "tennis for 120 year olds who are physically only twenty years old?"

We think of physical debility as the primary handicap of advanced age. The real problems will probably be for those raised to think of themselves as old at seventy who find themselves young at 100.

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A Flash Movie Of Planet Earth From the Space Station

Here is a cool flash presentation of Planet Earth from the Space Station. The link is here.

Jump In US Measles Cases Linked To Vaccine Fears

From Yahoo News/AP:

ATLANTA - Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported Thursday.

Worried doctors are troubled by the trend fueled by unfounded fears that vaccines may cause autism. The number of cases is still small, just 131, but that's only for the first seven months of the year. There were only 42 cases for all of last year.

"We're seeing a lot more spread. That is concerning to us," said Dr. Jane Seward, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pediatricians are frustrated, saying they are having to spend more time convincing parents the shot is safe.

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Top 5 Mad Scientists of All Time

From Popular Mechanics:

For millennia, legions of mad scientists have toiled in underground laboratories, trespassed on the territory of the gods and cackled madly into the night. This book honors the greatest mentally unstable geniuses of history in true mad science fashion—using the tenets of forensic psychology to mentally autopsy these savants. Beginning with child development and proceeding through adolescence and higher education, we will deconstruct the how and why of their abominable plans and heartless transgressions against man and nature. This is what happens when you coax a mad scientist out of his laboratory and onto the psychologist's couch. Put on your latex gloves, snap on a pair of goggles, and dig out a lab coat that isn't covered in bloodstains, because we're about to walk the corridors of ... The Mad Scientist Hall of Fame.

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Special Note: 3 of the 5 are fictional.

Get A Second Wife Or Girlfriend

Is this Guy Happy?

Polygamy Is The Key To A Long Life -- New Scientist

Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. New research suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.

After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Lummaa presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.

Rather than a call to polygamy, the research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long?

This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who - unlike nearly all other animals - live long past the menopause.

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Mummified Iceman's Ancient Job Determined

Methods used to crack the dress code of Oetzi, the iceman mummy, seen here in 1998, whose mummified remains turned up in an Alpine glacier almost two decades ago, could be a boon to the clothing industry, a new study showed Wednesday. (AFP/APA/File)

From Yahoo News/Live Science:

Before his body froze and mummified, a now-famous Neolithic guy dubbed the Iceman took his last steps while donned in a coat and leggings made of sheep's fur and moccasins made of cattle leather. That was more than 5,000 years ago.

The 45-year-old man apparently trekked up the Schnalstal glacier in the Italian Alps before dying, and a new study reveals more about how he lived.

The body of the Iceman (also called Ötzi, Frozen Fritz and Similaun Man) was discovered in 1991 by accident by German tourists and made headlines around the world. At first he was thought to have died recently.

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Where Is My Warp Ship?

Star Trek Warp Drive Is A Possibility,
Say Scientists -- The Telegraph

Two physicists have boldly gone where no reputable scientists should go and devised a new scheme to travel faster than the speed of light.

The advance could mean that Star Trek fantasies of interstellar civilisations and voyages powered by warp drive are now no longer the exclusive domain of science fiction writers.

In the long running television series created by Gene Roddenberry, the warp drive was invented by Zefram Cochrane, who began his epic project in 2053 in Bozeman, Montana.

Now Dr Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Richard Obousy have come up with a new twist on an existing idea to produce a warp drive that they believe can travel faster than the speed of light, without breaking the laws of physics.

In their scheme, in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, a starship could "warp" space so that it shrinks ahead of the vessel and expands behind it.

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Pandemic! 10 Of The Deadliest Diseases

Policemen in Seattle wearing masks made by the Red Cross, during the influenza epidemic. December 1918.

The Black Plague, Third Pandemic and Spanish Flu wiped out hundreds of millions; they have nothing on today's worst diseases
What makes a disease deadly in the twenty-first century? Medicine has never been more advanced; our understanding of spread and infection, never more sophisticated. And yet, we may be poised for the largest and most devastating pandemic the human race has ever encountered.

Diseases that could have been effectively eradicated decades ago continue to ravage developing nations. In the wake of natural and manmade disasters, cholera, tuberculosis and the like spread even more easily, aided by tenuous medical infrastructures and close living quarters for refugees. Meanwhile, wealthy nations are no less imperiled, their citizens endangered by a massively consolidated food supply and by antibiotics prescribed so indiscriminately as to potentially destroy their efficacy altogether.

But, if medical advancements may be our undoing, they also pose our only salvation. Launch the gallery here to see 10 of the world's deadliest diseases—the contagious monsters that threaten our very way of life—and to learn how science is holding them at bay.

A Cure For The Uncommon Flu

The H5N1 Virus

Scientists Have Succeed In Replicating Flu Pandemic
Antibodies From 90 Year Old Survivors

Ninety years ago the Spanish flu swept across the globe, killing between 50 and 100 million people in only a few months. Since then, the specter of another flu pandemic dealing death and woe around the world has periodically terrified the medical and popular communities. But scientists searching for ways to prevent a similar outbreak in the form of the H5N1 bird flu have found a cure for the deadliest flu in the most unlikely place: nonagenarian immune systems.

A new paper in the journal Nature confirms that a team of doctors has succeeded in isolating pandemic-flu killing antibodies from 90+ year old survivors of the Spanish flu outbreak. To test whether or not the antibodies still worked, the doctors injected the immune cells into mice, and then dosed the mice with preserved copies of the 1918 flu recovered from frozen victims of the Spanish flu that had been buried in Alaskan permafrost. Within those mice, the antibodies and the virus renewed a microscopic battle that had lain dormant for almost a century. The mice that received a high dose of the antibodies lived, while mice that received a low dose of antibody, or none at all, died as expected.

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Changes In the Earth's Magnetic Field

The innermost part of the earth. The outer core extends from 2500 to 3500 miles below the earth's surface and is liquid metal. The inner core is the central 500 miles and is solid metal. Credit: John Lahr, USGS Open-File Report 99-132

Sloshing Inside Earth Changes Protective
Magnetic Field -- Live Science

Something beneath the surface is changing Earth's protective magnetic field, which may leave satellites and other space assets vulnerable to high-energy radiation.

The gradual weakening of the overall magnetic field can take hundreds and even thousands of years. But smaller, more rapid fluctuations within months may leave satellites unprotected and catch scientists off guard, new research finds.

A new model uses satellite data from the past nine years to show how sudden fluid motions within the Earth's core can alter the magnetic envelope around our planet. This represents the first time that researchers have been able to detect such rapid magnetic field changes taking place over just a few months.

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