Shake, Rattle And Roll -- Why So Few Japanese Pagodas Have Ever Fallen Down

From The Economist:


YOUR correspondent is indebted to readers for their interesting comments about last week’s column on timber-framed buildings. He is especially grateful to Anjin-san, whose observations about Japanese pagodas reminded him of a day spent a dozen years ago with Shuzo Ishida, a structural engineer at Kyoto Institute of Technology. Mr Ishida, known to his students as “Professor Pagoda”, has a passion for the building’s unique dynamics.

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Galileo's Vision

Image: Galileo was the first to discover the moons of Jupiter. Michael Benson / Kinetikon Pictures / Corbis (Jupiter) / Scala / Art Resource, NY (Galileo)

From The Smithsonium:

Four hundred years ago, the Italian scientist looked into space and changed our view of the universe.

Inside a glass case sits a plain-looking tube, worn and scuffed. Lying in the street, it would look like a length of old pipe. But as I approach it, Derrick Pitts—only half in jest—commands: "Bow down!"

The unremarkable-looking object is in fact one of the most important artifacts in the history of science: it's one of only two surviving telescopes known to have been made by Galileo Galilei, the man who helped revolutionize our conception of the universe. The telescope is the centerpiece of "Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy," an exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (until September 7).

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Integral Disproves Dark Matter Origin For Mystery Radiation

Combining more than 4 years of observations, the inner Galaxy has been mapped in the 511 keV positron annihilation line with unprecedented detail as shown above using the SPI spectrometer. For the first time, positron annihilation is found to be asymmetric in the inner Galactic disk. Consistent with earlier findings, the annihilation emission is brightest around the Galactic centre. In the sky maps, the Galactic centre is at the origin and the Galactic disk runs along the equator. (Credit: ESA/ INTEGRAL/ MPE (G. Weidenspointner et al.))

From Space Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2009) — A team of researchers working with data from ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has disproved theories that some form of dark matter explains mysterious radiation in the Milky Way.

That this radiation exists has been known since the 1970s, and several theories have been proposed to explain it. Integral’s unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution showed that it strongly peaks towards the centre of the Galaxy, with an asymmetry along the Galactic disc.

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Experts Puzzled By Spot On Venus

From the BBC:

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft.

Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.

The bright spot has since started to expand, being spread by winds in Venus's thick atmosphere.

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Hacking Threat 'Exposes Every iPhone In The World' To Takeover By Criminals

'Vulnerable': Hackers could exploit a security flaw in the iPhone within two weeks and then take devices over in minutes, experts warn

From The Daily Mail:

Criminals could take control of every iPhone in the world via text message, owners are being warned.

Hackers could exploit a newly discovered flaw in Apple's handset to control its key functions - stealing data, making calls, surfing the internet and sending texts.

Security experts warn that hackers could soon hijack any of the world's 21million iPhones for identity theft and other crimes.

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Smoothing The Way For Light

Image: Guiding light: Silver films patterned with structures like this pyramid guide light along their surface and concentrate it at the tips. This structure’s surface is very smooth, which prevents scattering. Credit: Science/American Association for the Advancement of Science

From Technology Review:

A technique makes smooth metal films for optical computing and imaging.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a cheap way to repeatedly make very smooth nanopatterned thin films. The advance could have implications for making devices--such as more efficient solar cells, higher-resolution microscopes, and optical computers--that use light in an unconventional way.

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The U.S. Army's Solar Enewrgy Program

Acciona solar thermal plant in Nevada.
(Credit: Acciona)

Army Starts Solar Plant; Next Step: Care About Climate Change -- The Danger Room

The U.S. Army is about to start building a 500 megawatt solar thermal plant in the California desert. When it’s done, the facility will be one of the largest renewable energy plants in the world. Which is kind of ironic, since the Army doesn’t pay all that much attention to climate change. Turns out, sustainable energy is safer, said Dr. Kevin Geiss, the program director for the project.

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More News On the Army's Solar Program

Sun power: Army unveils giant solar project -- CNET
Army Green: Ft. Irwin Has Builders for 500 MW Solar Project -- Wall Street Journal
Clark Energy hired for Defense Department solar job -- Business Journal
Army Plans 500 MW of Solar Power at Fort Irwin by 2022 -- Treehugger

Giant Pencil Traces Achaeological Finds Fast

Photo: Less pain, less staking (Image: Felix Ordonez/Reuters)

From New Scientist:

EVERY object unearthed by an archaeological dig must have its exact position recorded. This is normally a painstaking process involving measuring rods and string, but a device that uses technology originally developed to guide robots could speed up the process.

Gran Dolina in central Spain is a Palaeolithic site that contains important hominin remains which date from between 780,000 and 300,000 years ago. Thousands of fossils are discovered there every year, but registering them all by hand makes progress frustratingly slow. So archaeologists working on the site contacted Angélica de Antonio Jiménez and Fernando Seco at the Institute of Industrial Automation in Madrid, to see if they could come up with a better way.

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New HIV Strain Leapt To Humans From Gorillas: Study

A gorilla at a park in Rwanda in 2004

From AFP:

PARIS — French virologists on Sunday said they had found a new subtype of the AIDS virus that appears to have jumped the species barrier to humans from gorillas.

The new strain, found in a woman from Cameroon, West Africa, is part of the HIV-1 family of microbes that account for the vast majority of cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), they said.

Until now, all have been linked to the chimpanzee.

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Update: New HIV strain discovered in woman from Cameroon --AP

Evidence Of Liquid Water In Comets Reveals Possible Origin Of Life

Comet Hale-Bopp. The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply, experts argue. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kenneth C. Zirkel)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 31, 2009) — Comets have contained vast amounts of liquid water in their interiors during the first million years of their formation, a new study claims.

The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply. So argue Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology in a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology

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Caught On Video: Immune Cell Destroys Bacteria

Confocal microscope image showing insect immune cells (green) containing fluorescently labeled E.coli (red). Credit: University of Bath

From Live Science:

In a starring role for E. coli, researchers have developed a new technique to make movies of bacteria as they infect their victims and are consumed by the host's immune cells.

The movies mark the first time that scientists have been able to look at bacteria infecting living organisms in real time, according to the researchers. Most studies of bacterial infections are preformed after the host has died.

The scientists, from the University of Bath and the University of Exeter in the UK, tested out their movie-making method on developing fruit fly embryos. They injected fluorescently tagged bacteria into the embryos and observed how the microbes interacted with the insect's immune cells, called hemocytes, using time-lapse confocal microscopy, an imaging technique. They used two types of bacteria for the study Escherichia coli and Photorhabdus asymbiotica.

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Britain's Dirty Money: How theLloose Change In Our Pockets Is Costing The Earth

Escondida in Chile, the world's largest copper mine. A vast amount of water is being drained every day from what is already one of the driest places on earth. These mines are causing significant damage to the planet and its people. Yet the Government-owned Royal Mint continues to buy metal from them

From The Daily Mail:

This vast hole in the ground, visible from space, is the world's biggest copper mine. It supplies the Royal Mint, but is also responsible for inflicting shocking environmental damage and poisoning the local population...

Escondida in Chile, the world's largest copper mine. A vast amount of water is being drained every day from what is already one of the driest places on earth. These mines are causing significant damage to the planet and its people. Yet the Government-owned Royal Mint continues to buy metal from them

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The Secret Life Of Sperm Is Unlocked

Some 15 per cent of couples have trouble conceiving,
about half of them because the man has a problem. SPL

From The Independent:

Infertile couples may be spared years of fruitless treatment with the discovery that the human egg can read the father's genetic key and screen out failures.

Thousands of infertile couples could be spared the pain, anguish and expense of fruitless IVF treatments, thanks to the discovery of a lock-and-key mechanism between sperm and egg cells.

The research could explain why so many couples with no apparent reproductive problems are unable to conceive. Although more than 40,000 in vitro fertilisation cycles are prescribed in Britain each year, only 10,000 births result.

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The World's 18 Strangest Buildings—And Why We Love Them

St. Mary Axe. City: London

From Popular Mechanics:

This July, the American Institute of Architects forecasted steep declines in nonresidential construction spending through 2010. Spending is projected to decrease by 16 percent this year and another 12 percent in 2010. With less money flowing through the industry, high-end design projects are likely to be scaled back; architects, builders and regular folk are opting for retrofits with more practical design. While the demand may be turning to minimal and frugal architecture, unusual design still holds a place for museums and other prominent locations, primarily because it is so effective at turning heads. Here are some of our favorite unusual designs for museums, offices, homes and libraries—and why they are so effective at drawing attention.

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A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels

Image: Solar farming: A photobioreactor houses photosynthetic microorganisms that use the energy in sunlight to make fuel and other chemicals from carbon dioxide and water. Credit: Joule Biotechnologies

From Technology Review:

A startup unveils a high-yield process for making fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight.

A startup based in Cambridge, MA--Joule Biotechnologies--today revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. If this yield proves realistic, it could make it practical to replace all fossil fuels used for transportation with biofuels. The company also claims that the fuel can be sold for prices competitive with fossil fuels.

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Sahara Desert Greening Due to Climate Change?

Villagers herd goats near windblown sand dunes in the Sahel region of Niger, North Africa. Vast swaths of North Africa are getting noticeably lusher due to warming temperatures, new satellite images show, suggesting a possible boon for people living in the driest part of the continent. Photograph by Pascal Maitre/NGS

From National Geographic:

Desertification, drought, and despair—that's what global warming has in store for much of Africa. Or so we hear.

Emerging evidence is painting a very different scenario, one in which rising temperatures could benefit millions of Africans in the driest parts of the continent.

Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall.

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Honeybees Warn Of Risky Flowers

From The BBC:

Honeybees warn each other to steer clear of dangerous flowers where they might get killed by lurking predators.

Scientists made the discovery by placing dead bees upon flowers and then watching how newly arriving bees react to the danger.

Not only do the bees avoid the flowers, they then communicate the threat when they return to the hive via their well known waggle dance.

The discovery is published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

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Scientists Drill a Mile Into Active Deep Sea Fault Zone

From Wired Science:

In the first deep sea drilling expedition designed to gather seismic data, scientists have successfully drilled nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor into one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

Researchers aboard the drilling vessel Chikyu — meaning “planet Earth” in Japanese — used a special technology called riser drilling to penetrate the upper portion of the Nankai Trough, an earthquake zone located about 36 miles southeast of Japan. By collecting rock samples and installing long-term monitoring devices, the geologists hope to understand how stress builds up in subduction zones like Nankai, where the Philippine Sea plate plate is sliding beneath the island of Japan.

Riser drilling involves encasing a deep sea drill in a giant metal tube, called a riser, that extends from the ship down to the drilling site, effectively bolting the ship to the sea floor. The researchers circulate lightly pressurized mud down through the drilling tube and back up through the riser.

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Large Hadron Collider 'Atom Smasher' Restart Delayed Yet Again

A large dipole magnet is lowered ito the tunnel in April last year marking the end of a crucial phase of the installation of the LHC. CERN/AFP/Getty Images

From The Independent:

Repairs to two small helium leaks in the world's largest atom smasher will delay the restart of the giant machine another month until November, a spokesman for the operator said.

James Gillies said an additional setback to the timing could result if some other problem is found, but the European Organisation for Nuclear Research is taking pains to make sure it avoids another major shutdown like the electrical failure of Sept. 19.

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Web Use Flattens As Behaviors Change

From CBS News/CNET:

The amount of time people spend online has not increased since last year, according to a report released by Forrester on Monday. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the reason for the trend: people's online behavior has changed.

"Engagement with the online channel has deepened," writes Forrester analyst Jackie Anderson. "Web users are becoming savvier and are better multi-taskers. Many know exactly where they want to go when they log in."

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From Sand to Silicon: the Making of a Chip

From Intel:

Illustrations - Making of a Chip

View this graphic presentation offering a high-level demonstration of the process for manufacturing a central processing unit (CPU), which operates in every PC today. Here you can catch a glimpse of some of the amazingly sophisticated work going on daily inside Intel's cutting-edge silicon manufacturing fabs.

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Actions Taken Over Next Decade To Demonstrate And Deploy Key Technologies Will Determine US Energy Future

From Science Digest:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2009) — With a sustained national commitment, the United States could obtain substantial energy-efficiency improvements, new sources of energy, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through the accelerated deployment of existing and emerging energy technologies, according to America's Energy Future: Technology And Transformation, the capstone report of the America's Energy Future project of the National Research Council.

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Mammals Beat Reptiles in Battle of Evolution

Crocodiles, and their cousins, alligators, were shown to be less diversified than certain groups of mammals, birds and fish. Credit: Michael Alfaro

From Live Science:

Mammals, birds and fish are among evolution’s "winners," while crocodiles and other reptiles have ended up on the losing end, a new study suggests.

"Our results indicate that mammals are special," said study leader Michael Alfaro of UCLA.

The research allowed scientists to calculate for the first time which animal lineages have exceptional rates of success. The so-called "winners" have more species in their group, which means they have successfully evolved and diversified into many types of environments. The losers have diversified less, even over the course of millions of years.

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Can the World's Fisheries Survive Our Appetites?

Photo: Scottish fisherman Mike Nichol on board the trawler Carina in the North Atlantic helps haul in the catch. Chris Furlong / Getty

From Time Magazine:

Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Canada, made a startling prediction in the pages of Science in 2006: if overfishing continued at then-current rates, he said, the world would essentially run out of seafood by 2048. Worm's bold analysis whipped up controversy in the usually pacific world of marine science — one colleague, Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, called the Science study "mindbogglingly stupid." But Worm held fast to his predictions: that the oceans had limits, and that marine species were declining so fast that they would eventually disappear.

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Firefox Surpasses 1 Billion Downloads

From The L.A. Times:

The free, open-source browser gets high marks for speed, efficiency, adaptability and user-friendliness. It is an achievement for a browser backed not by a corporation but a small nonprofit group.

The popular Firefox Web browser, developed by a grass-roots group, reached a major milestone Friday -- its billionth download.

The download counter rolled over the 1-billion mark early Friday, marking a feat for a browser that, unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Apple's Safari, is run by a nonprofit organization, Mozilla, with fewer than 250 employees.

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Update: Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads -- So What's Next? -- PC World

This Year's Mild Season In Tornado Alley Frustrates Scientists

From Yahoo News/AP:

DES MOINES, Iowa – This has been an unusually mild year in Tornado Alley, which is good news, of course, for the people who live here, but a little frustrating to scientists who planned to chase twisters as part of a $10 million research project.

"You're out there to do the experiment and you're geared up every day and ready. And when there isn't anything happening, that is frustrating," said Don Burgess, a scientist at the University of Oklahoma. But he was quick to add that he is pleased the relative quiet has meant fewer injuries and less damage.

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Swiss Boat Aims To Be First To Circumnavigate The Globe Under Solar Power

Planet Solar courtesy Planet Solar, via CNN

From Popular Science:

In 2007, the first solar electric boat crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Now a Swiss group wants to cover that distance and keep going, circling the globe on nothing but the sun's power for the first time.

The team of engineers and scientists has embarked on the building of its 98-foot long vessel, dubbed Planet Solar, in Kiel, Germany. The boat's power will come from the 5,000 square feet of solar panels, about the size of two tennis courts, covering its broad deck. When the sun is shining bright above, they will convert 23 percent of the sun's rays to energy -- six percent more than average solar panels.

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Sharpest Ever Images Of Betelgeuse reveal How Explosive Red Supergiant Loses Mass

Superstar: An artist's impression of red giant Betelgeuse based on combined images from the European Space Agency's Very Large Telescope

From The Daily Mail:

It looks like a catastrophic explosion in the latest sci-fi action thriller but this awe-inspiring image is actually based on the latest state-of-the-art space imaging.

The artist’s impression, inspired by the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse, reveals an enormous plume of gas almost as big as our own Solar System blasting outwards.

The discoveries, revealed by the latest techniques on the European Space Agency’s Very Large Telescope, could help unravel why the mammoth plasma ball spews out material at such an incredible speed.

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Comet Likely Culprit In Tunguska Blast

Tunguska Blast

From Science News:

Night-shining clouds created after space shuttle launches may offer clues into the cause of the Tunguska event, a mysterious blast which rocked southern Siberia more than a century ago.

Thin clouds have appeared at abnormally high altitudes over polar regions following space shuttle launches on several occasions in the past decade. These noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds typically occur in summer and lie at altitudes of about 85 kilometers, in a layer of the atmosphere called the thermosphere, says Michael C. Kelley, an atmospheric physicist at Cornell University. Kelley and his colleagues suggest in the July 28 Geophysical Research Letters that data gleaned from analyses of these high-flying clouds, as well as knowledge about the speed at which shuttle exhaust wafted to polar regions, now hint that the Tunguska blast of June 1908 (SN: 6/21/08, p. 5) resulted from a comet slamming into Earth’s atmosphere.

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Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine

From Space.com:

New laser propulsion experiments are throwing light on how to build future hypersonic aircraft and beam spacecraft into Earth orbit.

Indeed, a "Lightcraft revolution" could replace today's commercial jet travel. Passengers would be whisked from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour - just enough time to get those impenetrable bags of peanuts open. Furthermore, beamed energy propulsion can make flight to orbit easy, instead of tenuous and dangerous.

That's the belief of Leik Myrabo an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He's an expert in directed energy applications, aerospace systems, space prime power, and advanced propulsion.

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Collision Course: The Need for Better Space Junk Regulations

From Popular Mechanics:

With 3000 satellites and a growing arsenal of space junk, Earth’s orbit is a crowded area. If debris continues to accumulate, low Earth orbit could eventually become too congested for safe satellite use and space travel. Unfortunately, space junk is hard to regulate and even harder to clean up. Here’s an overview of existing space junk laws and some proposals for addressing the problems with debris in space.

Close calls in orbit happen all the time—scientists estimate that launch vehicles and other objects come within striking distance of one other over 1000 times a day. So when tracking reports on Feb. 10, 2009, predicted that Iridium 33, a 12-foot-long, 1200-pound communications satellite, and a 1-ton Russian military sat, Kosmos 2251, would pass within less than half a mile of each other, no one was alarmed. It wasn’t the closest call predicted for that day, or even the closest pass for any of the 66 Iridium satellites that coming week. But at the time of the predicted approach, Iridium 33 fell silent.

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Fermi Paradox Points to Fewer Than 10 Extraterrestrial Civilizations

From Technology Review:

The absence of alien probes visiting the solar system places severe limits on the number of advanced civilizations that could be exploring the galaxy.

The Fermi paradox focuses on the existence of advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy. If these civilizations are out there--and many analyses suggest the galaxy should be teeming with life--why haven't we seen evidence of them?

Today Carlos Cotta and Álvaro Morales from the University of Malaga in Spain add another angle to the discussion. One consideration is the speed at which a sufficiently advanced civilization could colonize the galaxy. Various analyses suggest that using spacecraft that travel at a tenth of the speed of light, a colonization wave could take some 50 million years to sweep the galaxy. Others have calculated that it may be closer to 13 billion years, which may explain why we have yet to spot extraterrestrials.

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Mercury Released By Dental Amalgam Fillings Are Not High Enough To Cause Harm, FDA Finds

The FDA has found that while elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 31, 2009) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation classifying dental amalgam and its component parts – elemental mercury and a powder alloy—used in dental fillings. While elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients.

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Skype Could Be Cut Off For Good Over Dispute

(Paul Rogers/The Times)

From Times Online:

Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the internet telephone system work.

EBay, which paid $2.6 billion (£1.6 billion) for the voice-over-the-internet system in 2005, is facing a court battle with the original founders of the company who retained the rights to the technology at the heart of the system.

EBay admitted in a regulatory filing that it might have to close down the company. It said it was trying to develop alternative software but if that did not work, or if eBay lost the right to the original software: "Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible."

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Nap Time! One-Third Of Americans Do It

From Live Science:

A mid-day nap is more common than you might think in America.

One-third of U.S. adults nap on a typical day, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

Naps are more common among men than women, and more common among the poor than the rich.

Naps can be good for you. A study last year in the journal Nature Neuroscience found a 90-minute daytime nap helped test subjects remember things better.

And naps are natural. Humans are bi-phasic sleepers, experts say, which means we're meant to sleep in bouts, not long stretches.

The new survey of 1,488 adults was released this week.

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My Comment: I am one of the guilty nappers.

Why Does Coke From a Glass Bottle Taste Different?

The Usual Suspects: Various container materials might impart slight changes to Coke's flavor. Courtesy The Coca-Cola Company

From Popular Science:

It doesn’t. That’s what Coca-Cola’s spokespeople say, anyway. “The great taste of Coca-Cola is the same regardless of the package it comes in,” they insist. Rather, they say, “the particular way that people choose to enjoy their Coke can affect their perception of taste.” Sure, most people would agree that the cola is indeed delicious and refreshing, and pouring it into a glass or serving it over ice could influence the sensation of its flavor. But is it possible that the subtle variation in taste that some notice among aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles is more than just a psychological effect of their soda-consumption rituals?

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Space Shuttle Endeavour Successfully Lands Back At Florida -- News Roundups

This NASA image taken by the crew aboard the International Space Station shows the space shuttle Endeavour shortly after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking separation on July 28, 2009. Endeavor is scheduled to land Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-127 crew was on a 13-day service mission to the International Space Station. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)

Shuttle Back After 16-Day Mission -- New York Times

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The shuttle Endeavour closed out a grueling 16-day space station assembly mission with a smooth Florida landing on Friday, bringing Japan’s first long-duration astronaut back to Earth after four and one-half months in orbit.

Approaching from the south after a high-speed computer-orchestrated descent, the mission commander, Mark Polansky, took over manual control 50,000 feet above the Florida spaceport, banked to line up on runway 15 and guided the 110-ton shuttle to a picture-perfect touchdown at 10:48 a.m. Eastern time.

“Welcome home. Congratulations on a superb mission from beginning to end,” astronaut Alan Poindexter radioed from mission control in Houston. “Very well done.”

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Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center.
Photo AFP

More News On Today's Landing Of The Space Shuttle Endeavour

Space shuttle Endeavour lands safely after 16-day mission -- AFP
Shuttle Endeavour, 7 astronauts return to Earth -- AP
Space shuttle Endeavour returns home to Florida -- Reuters
Shuttle Endeavour Lands Safely -- FOX News
Space shuttle Endeavour returns home -- UPI
Space shuttle touches down safely -- BBC
Endeavour lands safely -- CBC
Cdn astronaut Julie Payette lands aboard shuttle Endeavour after 16-day mission -- Canadian Press
Astronaut Koichi Wakata didn't change underwear for a month -- Times Online

Italian Archaeologists Find Lost Roman City Of Altinum Near Venice

From Times Online:

The bustling harbour of Altinum near Venice was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire. But terrified by the impending invasion of the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun, its inhabitants cut their losses and fled in AD452, leaving behind a ghost town of theatres, temples and basilicas.

Altinum was never reoccupied and gradually sunk into the ground. The city lived on in Venetian folk tales and historical artefacts but its exact position, size and wealth gradually faded into obscurity.

Now, using aerial photography of the region, Italian archaeologists have not only located the city, but have produced a detailed map revealing its remarkably intact infrastructure and showing it to be slightly larger than Pompeii.

Read more ....

Panel Wants Deep Space, Not Landings as U.S. Goal

From The New York Times:

A panel examining the future of the United States’ human spaceflight program will suggest that the Obama administration may want to skip the part about landing on other worlds.

That could, panel members said Thursday, enable the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to send astronauts to more corners of the solar system more quickly while keeping within a limited budget. But it would also eliminate the possibility of astronauts leaving new iconic footprints on the Moon or Mars for a couple of decades.

At a public meeting in Cocoa Beach, Fla., the 10-member panel discussed at length the possibilities of where NASA might go next and how it might get there.

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Crew Inspects Shuttle And Preps For Landing Friday

From Space Daily:

Twin satellite deployments and a check of the systems that will control Endeavour's return home to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, are on tap today as the shuttle leads the International Space Station in orbit.

The crew was awakened at 1:03 a.m. CDT to the sounds of "I Got You Babe," performed by Sonny and Cher. The song was a special request for Koichi Wakata, the first Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut to serve as a long-duration resident of the station. Wakata spent 133 days as an Expedition 18, 19 and 20 crewmember, and will be returning home after 138 days in space.

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Human Activity Is Driving Earth's 'Sixth Great Extinction Event'

The leatherback turtle is endangered - but scientific reports expose worrying signs of mass extinctions among other wildlife species. Photograph: Frans Lemmens/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

Population growth, pollution and invasive species are having a disastrous effect on species in the southern hemisphere, a major review by conservationists warns.

Earth is experiencing its "sixth great extinction event" with disease and human activity taking a devastating toll on vulnerable species, according to a major review by conservationists.

Much of the southern hemisphere is suffering particularly badly, and Australia, New Zealand and neighbouring Pacific islands may become the extinction hot spots of the world, the report warns.

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Mysterious Bright Spot Found On Venus

A new, bright spot in the clouds of Venus was found by amateur astronomer Frank Melillo on 19 July (Illustration: Melillo/Maxson/ESA/University of Wisconsin-Madison/ALPO)

From New Scientist:

A strange spot emerged on Venus last week, and astronomers are not sure what caused it. They hope future observations will reveal whether volcanic activity, turbulence in the planet's atmosphere, or charged particles from the sun are to blame.

Amateur astronomer Frank Melillo of Holtsville, New York, first spotted the new feature, which is brighter than its surroundings at ultraviolet wavelengths, on the planet's southern hemisphere on 19 July. That same day, an amateur observer in Australia found a dark spot on Jupiter that had been caused by a meteoroid impact.

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Red Hot: Ferrari Previews F430 Successor

Ferrari 458 Italia Set for Frankfurt Debut this Fall: Ferrari today revealed its latest V8-powered sports car, the Pininfarina-designed 458 Italia. A successor to the current F430, the 458 gets a new, high-compression 4.5-liter V8 producing 570 horsepower and 398 pounds-feet of torque. Top Speed: 202 mph. Ferrari

From Popsci.com:

There's nothing like the curves of a new Ferrari to bring optimism back to the table. Ferrari today revealed its latest V8-powered sports car, the 458 Italia. The new model will succeed the current V8 hottie, the F430. Sporting a sexy new design by long-time Ferrari styling partner Pininfarina, the 458 Italia gets a new, high-compression 4.5-liter V8 producing 570 horsepower and 398 pounds-feet of torque. Top Speed: 202 mph. That makes it the first stock V8 Ferrari to break the 200-mph mark.

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Will Comets Wipe Out Life On Planet Earth? -- News Roundup

According to scientists Jupiter and Saturn have protected life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years by catching and batting away dangerous comets Photo: PA

Comet 'Unlikely To Wipe Out Earth' -- The Telegraph

The Earth is being protected from comets, thanks to the gravitational pulls of Saturn and Jupiter, according to new research

It is the plot of many a Hollywood science fiction thriller - a comet on a direct collision course with Earth destined to wipe out all known life.

But the producers of Deep Impact and other blockbusters might be wide of the mark, scientists have found, as new evidence suggests comets pose less of a threat to life on earth than previously imagined.

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More News On Comets And Striking The Earth

Comets probably won't destroy life on Earth, researchers say -- National Post
Comets probably won't cause the end of life as we know it: study -- AFP
Comets Not So Likely to Smash Into Earth and Kill Us All -- Discover Magazine
Comets From Edge of Solar System Unlikely to Hit Earth -- Space.com
Comet Collisions Won’t Spark The End Of The World -- Red Orbit
Doomsday Comet Less Likely, Calculations Show -- Discovery
Crashing Comets Not Likely The Cause Of Earth's Mass Extinctions -- Science Daily

White Roofs Catch On as Energy Cost Cutters

A Wal-Mart store in Chino, Calif., has both a cool roof and solar panels to cut its energy use. J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — Returning to their ranch-style house in Sacramento after a long summer workday, Jon and Kim Waldrep were routinely met by a wall of heat.

“We’d come home in the summer, and the house would be 115 degrees, stifling,” said Mr. Waldrep, a regional manager for a national company.

He or his wife would race to the thermostat and turn on the air-conditioning as their four small children, just picked up from day care, awaited relief.

All that changed last month. “Now we come home on days when it’s over 100 degrees outside, and the house is at 80 degrees,” Mr. Waldrep said.

Their solution was a new roof: a shiny plasticized white covering that experts say is not only an energy saver but also a way to help cool the planet.

Relying on the centuries-old principle that white objects absorb less heat than dark ones, homeowners like the Waldreps are in the vanguard of a movement embracing “cool roofs” as one of the most affordable weapons against climate change.

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Fiery Images As Killer Volcano That Claimed 36,000 Lives Stirs Once More

Ticking timebomb: Islanders thought they had avoided
another disaster after things went quiet last year

From The Telegraph:

An amateur photographer has captured new images of the re-awakening of the world's most famous volcano.

In a breathtaking series Marco Fulle, who specialises in shots of comets, has photographed the Anak Krakatoa against a backdrop of constellations such as the Big Dipper.

These stunning pictures show the latest activity during the rebirth of the infamous volcano which holds a long-standing record for causing the highest number of human deaths ever - a staggering 36,000 in 1883.

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Who Should Get the H1N1 Vaccine First?

A doctor at the Centers for Disease Control examines specimens in an effort to develop new influenza vaccines. James Gathany / CDC / Reuters

From Time Magazine:

World health officials are carefully watching the H1N1/09 swine flu virus as it makes it way through the Southern Hemisphere, which is currently in the thick of its flu season. They are particularly interested in seeing how severely the virus affects infected people in parts of Africa, South America and Australia, since their illnesses could be a good predictor of how aggressive the virus will be when flu season returns to the rest of the world in the fall.

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Adult Brain Can Change Within Seconds

The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity. (Credit: iStockphoto/Sebastian Kaulitzki)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 30, 2009) — The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity.

The brain’s tendency to call upon these connections could help explain the curious phenomenon of “referred sensations,” in which a person with an amputated arm “feels” sensations in the missing limb when he or she is touched on the face. Scientists believe this happens because the part of the brain that normally receives input from the arm begins “referring” to signals coming from a nearby brain region that receives information from the face.

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WD-40: Strange Facts and Myths

From Live Science:

John S. Barry, the man "who masterminded the spread of WD-40," as The New York Times puts it, has died at age 84. The product he promoted is more popular than an iPod.

WD-40 can be found in 4 out of 5 American households, the company claims. Its ingredients are a secret, and it has generated its share of myths and strange applications over the years.

Barry didn't invent the stuff. "Norm Larsen, founder of Rocket Chemical Company, is considered the original founder of WD-40," according to wd40.com.

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