From R&D:
Image: Seismic imaging was used by University of Utah scientists to construct this 3-D picture of the Yellowstone hotspot plume of hot and molten rock that feeds the shallower magma chamber (not shown) beneath Yellowstone National Park, outlined in green at the surface, or top of the illustration. The Yellowstone caldera, or giant volcanic crater, is outlined in red. State boundaries are shown in black. The park, caldera and state boundaries also are projected to the bottom of the picture to better illustrate the plume's tilt. Researchers believe "blobs" of hot rock float off the top of the plume, then rise to recharge the magma chamber located 3.7 miles to 10 miles beneath the surface at Yellowstone. The illustration also shows a region of warm rock extending southwest from near the top of the plume. It represents the eastern Snake River Plain, where the Yellowstone hotspot triggered numerous cataclysmic caldera eruptions before the plume started feeding Yellowstone 2.05 million years ago.
From American Scientist:
Joseph Shoer is a Ph.D. candidate in aerospace engineering, studying how modular spacecraft could be assembled, and hoping that they will be the telescopes and human exploration vehicles of the future, and not for crushing the dreams of Martian colonists.
Blast: A plume of sulphur and molten lava erupts from the West Mata Volcano nearly 4,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, south of Samoa
Christmas can be an anxiety-inducing experience for many (Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty)
Overall, bourbon drinkers reported feeling worse than vodka drinkers, rating higher on scales that measure the severity of hangover malaise. Getty Images
Daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rasmus Rasmussen)
The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Sven Hagolani / Corbis
Changing courseNew research predicts the telltale radiation (orange) emitted by an electron as it moves along a trajectory (dotted line) through a perfect spherical cloak. Credit: B. Zhang and B.-I. Wu/PRL upcoming
This picture of the Nexus One was one of many that have
It's not their fault that they are incompetent (Image: David Seed/Taxi/Getty)
From Discovery News:
From Fabius Maximus:Summary: This is a hat trick. About effective propaganda. And climate science. And more evidence that Wikipedia cannot be relied upon as an information source regarding controversial matters — or any work of importance. (It’s always useful as a first place to look and source of links.)
Contents
Update: an email reply by Wikipedia Editor Pierre Grés to Dennis Kuzara’s complaint about bias of Wikipedia Administrator William Connolley, posted at Watts Up With That, 19 December 2009 (see the actual Wikipedia file on this here):
“In September 2009, the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee revoked Mr. Connolley’s administrator status after finding that he misused his administrative privileges while involved in a dispute unrelated to climate warming.”
We’ll learn much about Wikipedia’s honesty by what happens now to the dozens of articles seriously distorted or outright suppressed by Connolley. Is this a structural problem with Wikipedia, or just a bad apple in the barrel?
How Do The World's Most War-Torn Countries Always Seem To Have A Toyota Dealership? 
From The National Post:
The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. (Credit: NASA, ESA, F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee)
From Live Science:
From The Telegraph:
Learning to hear again (Image: Barnaby Hall/Photonica/Getty)
A simple illustration of the Gamburtsevs inferred from new gravity data
Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? (Credit: iStockphoto/Beth Jeppson).
Scientists believe this new insight into the genetics of cancer will eventually lead to new drugs that target the specific changes to the gene that helps to trigger the disease. ALAMY
From Yahoo News/Health Day:
We are being bombarded with increasing amounts of information, although scientists say the brain itself is not under threat. (Pete Saloutos)
Piccadilly Circus, London, UK: Researchers found the popularity of big cities such as London, New York and Los Angeles undermined their attractions by increasing congestion, house prices and air pollution Photo: GETTY 
A number of French publishers spent three years fighting
From Watts Up With That?
Photo: Immediate treatment can save lives.
This artist's conception shows a hypothetical gas giant planet with an Earth-like moon similar to the moon Pandora in the movie Avatar. New research shows that, if we find such an "exomoon" in the habitable zone of a nearby star, the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study its atmosphere and detect key gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water. The key is to find a planet that transits its star, and then find a moon orbiting that planet more than one stellar radius away, so that the moon can be studied independently of the planet. Moreover, an alien moon orbiting the gas giant planet of a red dwarf star may be more likely to be habitable than tidally locked Earth-sized planets or super-Earths. (Credit: David A. Aguilar, CfA)
The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky.
Remi Benali / Corbis
A segmented 76-foot airship during flight testing over Stuttgart, Germany.
Photo: West Coast Risk: Some 350,000 California residents are at risk if a tsunami strikes there. istockphoto
(Photograph by George Frey/Getty Images)
Actress Jessica Alba Photo: GETTY 
The bears fought each other in the middle of stunning Alaskan scenery for 15 minutes before wandering off to catch salmon in a nearby river.
A real possibility does exist for developing a new generation of foods that make people feel full by releasing anti-hunger aromas during chewing. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jan Couver)
