Wind Power’s Dirty Little Secret

From The Infrastructurist:

There’s a wonderful article in the current issue of Insight, the energy journal published by Platts, called “The Unbearable Lightness of Wind.”

The author, Ross McCracken, tackles the question that nobody has posed yet – what are the economic consequences going to be of putting up all these wind turbines with government subsidies, mandates and “feed-in tariffs” that tell the utilities, “Buy it whatever it costs”?

“The conundrum,” McCracken writes, “lies in the fact that wind does not directly displace fossil fuel generating capacity, but will make this capacity less profitable to maintain.”

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Illness Raises Alarm Among U.S. Officials

World health officials worry the swine flu outbreak in Mexico could unleash a global flu epidemic. (Guillermo Gutierrez/Associated Press)

Swine Flu Found In Mexican Outbreak -- The Washington Post

An unusual strain of swine flu has been detected among victims of a large outbreak of a severe respiratory illness in Mexico, prompting global health officials, fearful of a potential flu pandemic, to scramble yesterday to try to contain the virus.

At least 1,004 people have been sickened and at least 68 have died, primarily in the sprawling capital of Mexico City, triggering officials to close all schools and universities, museums and libraries and to begin screening air travelers for symptoms before they leave the country.

Officials warned millions of residents to stay home, avoid public places and take other protective measures, such as resisting greeting people with handshakes or kisses. Drugstores reported being inundated with customers seeking face masks, and some subway riders were spotted wearing rubber gloves.

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The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It

From Wired Science:

For scary speculation about the end of civilization in 2012, people usually turn to followers of cryptic Mayan prophecy, not scientists. But that's exactly what a group of NASA-assembled researchers described in a chilling report issued earlier this year on the destructive potential of solar storms.

Entitled "Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts," it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth's magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States "$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year," concluded the panel, and "full recovery could take four to 10 years." That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages.

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CDC SWINE FLU INFECTION-CONTROL GUIDELINES.

Interim Guidance on Antiviral Recommendations for Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection and Close Contacts

Objective: To provide interim guidance on the use of antiviral agents for treatment and chemoprophylaxis of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. This includes patients with confirmed or suspected swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection and their close contacts.

Case definitions
A confirmed case of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is defined as a person with an acute respiratory illness with laboratory confirmed swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection at CDC by one or more of the following tests:

1. real-time RT-PCR
2. viral culture

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Antarctica’s Bipolar Disorder

From Watts Up With That?

Two days ago I questioned how Antarctic ice could be both “melting faster than expected” and “expanding” at the same time. Yet (as WUWT has noted before) the answer is obvious - according to NASA, most of Antarctica is both cooling rapidly and heating rapidly at the same time.

Since nearly the entire continent is both cooling and heating simultaneously, it makes perfect sense (using AGW logic) that the ice would be rapidly expanding and rapidly retreating simultaneously. In 2004, NASA thought that Antarctica was cooling by as much as 15 degrees C per century. But after three more years of cooling, they changed the map to show a warming trend in 2007.

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The Story Of X: Evolution Of A Sex Chromosome

The neo-X (top) and neo-Y chromosomes of the fruit fly Drosophila miranda, showing how the Y has shrunken slightly through loss of genes. The X has remained about the same size as the fly's other chromosomes, though its genes are in the process of adapting to the Y's degeneration. (Credit: Doris Bachtrog/UC Berkeley)

From Science Daily:

In the first evolutionary study of the chromosome associated with being female, University of California, Berkeley, biologist Doris Bachtrog and her colleagues show that the history of the X chromosome is every bit as interesting as the much-studied, male-determining Y chromosome, and offers important clues to the origins and benefits of sexual reproduction.

"Contrary to the traditional view of being a passive player, the X chromosome has a very active role in the evolutionary process of sex chromosome differentiation," said Bachtrog, an assistant professor of integrative biology and a member of UC Berkeley's Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics.

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Nicotine Takes Edge Off Anger

From Live Science:

Smoking to relieve stress is nothing new, but now a brain imaging study shows just how nicotine can blunt our anger response.

People who received half a nicotine patch dose proved less likely to rise to provocation, compared to when they took a placebo. This may support the idea that angry or stressed-out individuals can more easily become addicted to cigarettes, researchers say.

"The findings suggest that people in anger provoking situations may be more susceptible to the effects of nicotine," said Jean Gehricke, a psychiatry researcher at the University of California in Irvine.

This also represents the first study to identify a brain system that is most reactive to nicotine and has the strongest connection with anger response, Gehricke told LiveScience.

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My Comment: I need a cigarette.

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

From Scientific American:

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse

One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis.

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2009 Space Oddity: 'Blob' 12.9Billion Light Years Away Baffles Astronomers

Unknown entity: The size and substance of the Lyman-alpha
blob 'Himiko' are a mystery to astronomers.

From The Daily Mail:

You'd think that astronomers would have a more scientific term for such a discovery, but the 'blob' in this image is so far away that its contents remain a mystery.

One of the most distant objects in our universe, the blob is 12.9billion light years away, and 55,000 light years wide, making it nearly ten times the mass of galaxies of a similar age.

The Lyman-alpha blob, named 'Himiko', after an ancient Japanese queen, is believed to have been formed when the universe was relatively young.

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World First For Strange Molecule

From The BBC:

A molecule that until now existed only in theory has finally been made.

Known as a Rydberg molecule, it is formed through an elusive and extremely weak chemical bond between two atoms.

The new type of bonding, reported in Nature, occurs because one of the two atoms in the molecule has an electron very far from its nucleus or centre.

It reinforces fundamental quantum theories, developed by Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, about how electrons behave and interact.

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Who Discovered The North Pole?

Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed they discovered the North Pole. AGIP / Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection, New York

From The Smithsonian:

A century ago, explorer Robert Peary earned fame for discovering the North Pole, but did Frederick Cook get there first?

On September 7, 1909, readers of the New York Times awakened to a stunning front-page headline: "Peary Discovers the North Pole After Eight Trials in 23 Years." The North Pole was one of the last remaining laurels of earthly exploration, a prize for which countless explorers from many nations had suffered and died for 300 years. And here was the American explorer Robert E. Peary sending word from Indian Harbour, Labrador, that he had reached the pole in April 1909, one hundred years ago this month. The Times story alone would have been astounding. But it wasn't alone.

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Why You May Lose That Loving Feeling After Tying The Knot

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they'll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new Northwestern University study suggests.

Will the partner who supports your hopes and aspirations while you are dating also help you fulfill important responsibilities and obligations that come with marriage? The answer to that question could make a difference in how satisfied you are after tying the knot.

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Getting Real On Wind And Solar

A General Electric wind turbine in Ohio.
(Asssociated Press/general Electric Via Cleveland Plain Dealer)

From The Washington Post:

Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn't always shine and that the wind doesn't always blow. That means that solar cells and wind energy systems don't always provide electric power. Nevertheless, solar and wind energy seem to have captured the public's support as potentially being the primary or total answer to our electric power needs.

Solar cells and wind turbines are appealing because they are "renewables" with promising implications and because they emit no carbon dioxide during operation, which is certainly a plus. But because both are intermittent electric power generators, they cannot produce electricity "on demand," something that the public requires. We expect the lights to go on when we flip a switch, and we do not expect our computers to shut down as nature dictates.

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BREAKING!!!!! Mexico City Closes Schools And Public Events Amid Swine Flu Outbreak: 61 Known Dead, Many Sick -- No Plans To Close U.S./Mexico Border

People wear surgical masks as a precaution against infection inside a subway in Mexico City, Friday, April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

From Reuters:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where eight people have been infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday.

Mexico's government said at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.

The World Health Organization said tests showed the virus in 12 of the Mexican patients had the same genetic structure as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas.

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More News On This Epidemic

Mexico City Closes Schools Amid Swine Flu Outbreak -- Wall Street Journal
Swine flu could infect U.S. trade and travel -- Reuters
CDC says too late to contain U.S. flu outbreak -- Alertnet
New, deadly swine flu hits Mexico, U.S. -- Reuters
Swine Flu, Mexico Lung Illness Heighten Pandemic Risk -- Bloomberg
Will Swine Flu Panic Spread Beyond Mexico? -- Time Magazine
Experts Debate Pandemic Potential of Swine Flu -- ABC News
Most Mexico fatal flu victims aged between 25-45 -- Reuters
FACTBOX-Some facts about pandemic flu from the WHO -- Reuters
Q+A - Mexico hit by deadly new flu virus -- Reuters
Questions, answers about swine flu -- AP

My Comment: When I heard this story today .... two things went through my mind. (1) Is terrorism involved? For Mexico this is a very unique event, they have not suffered serious flu epidemics before .... and rumors have always circulated that Al Qaeda was interested in developing biological weapons for terrorism attacks. Was Mexico targeted because of its proximity to the U.S.?

(2) This epidemic is occurring at the end of the flu season. Like the Great Pandemic of 1918, that influenza outbreak started late spring, quieted down during the summer months, and then hit with a ferocity that killed millions in the Fall and Winter seasons of 1918. Are we in for a repeat?

April 24, 1990: Hubble Becomes Big Eye Above Sky

The Hubble Telescope's wide-field planetary camera took this image in 2007 of the "last hurrah" of a star like our sun. The white dwarf is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which form a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Blue corresponds to helium, blue-green to oxygen, and red to nitrogen and hydrogen. Ultraviolet light makes the material glow. Image: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI)

From Wired Science:

1990: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched, beginning a new era of deep space observation that opens up the universe to prying eyes as never before.

NASA's telescope, named for American astronomer Edwin Hubble, was placed into Earth orbit by the space shuttle Discovery. Despite some early teething problems and more recent, well-publicized maintenance issues, Hubble remains a crown jewel in NASA's tiara.

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Artificial Intelligence Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery

From Wired News:

An ancient script that's defied generations of archaeologists has yielded some of its secrets to artificially intelligent computers.

Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures.

"The underlying grammatical structure seems similar to what's found in many languages," said University of Washington computer scientist Rajesh Rao.

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'Dark Gulping' Could Explain Black Holes

From Space.com:

No, it's not the next soft-drink campaign. "Dark gulping" is a new hypothesis about how giant black holes might have formed from collapsing dark matter.

Supermassive black holes are a mystery. These behemoths can pack the mass of billions of suns, and often lurk in the centers of big galaxies like the Milky Way. But scientists don't know how they got started nor how they grew so massive.

A new computer model suggests dark gulping is one possible route to forming these monsters. The idea involves invisible dark matter, which is stuff of unknown nature that astronomers know exists because they see its gravitational effects on galaxies.

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Mystery Of Horse Domestication Solved?

Wild horses running in the desert mountains of Kazakhstan.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Maxim Petrichuk)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 24, 2009) — Wild horses were domesticated in the Ponto-Caspian steppe region (today Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania) in the 3rd millennium B.C. Despite the pivotal role horses have played in the history of human societies, the process of their domestication is not well understood.

In a new study published in the scientific journal Science, an analysis by German researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, the German Archaeological Institute, the Humboldt University Berlin, the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, in cooperation with American and Spanish scientists, has unravelled the mystery about the domestication of the horse.

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The Lost Forests of America

White fir trees died in in a 2002 drought in the Santa Rosa Mountains, while neighboring Jeffrey pines survived at this elevation. Climate changes is raising temperatures and lengthening dry spells in the region. Credit: University of California, Irvine

From Live Science:

You could plant any old tree to celebrate Arbor Day April 24. But consider instead a sugar maple, or another of the native trees that once abounded in this country.

The forests that once dominated this nation were full of trees such as chestnuts, hemlocks and white pines on the East Coast and conifers such as redwoods and Douglas firs on the West Coast.

Around the arrival of Columbus, "it's said that squirrels could travel from tree to tree from the Northeast to the Mississippi without ever having to touch the ground," said Chris Roddick, chief arborist at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York. "In the old growth forests in the Northeast, you had hemlock that were six or seven feet in diameter, chestnut trees 200 feet tall."

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Another Step Closer To The Medical Tricorder.

William D. Richard (left) takes an ultrasound probe of colleague David Zar's carotid artery with a low-power imaging device he designed. David Kilper/WUSTL Photo

Cell Phones Display Ultrasound Images -- Future Pundit

Another step closer to the medical tricorder.

Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that fits in the palm of a hand.

I see this as part of a trend that amounts to a sort of democratization of medical testing. While this instrument at its current stage of development still requires an expert to wield it that won't always be the case. Small stuff costs less. It just has to become more powerful and more able to analyze images to discern what they mean without human expertise.

One way ultrasound for the masses could work is for the images to be sent via 4G and other faster wireless networks to a server. Then the server could do the computational heavy lifting to explain the medical significance of the stream of images.

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