Why Twitter Went Offline Yesterday

Twitter Down: It's an Online Attack on One Political Blogger -- ABC News

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Hit By Attack on Activist in Former Soviet Republic

Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Google Blogger and other Web sites were hobbled Thursday -- Twitter was completely down for many users -- and it all appears to have been because of a coordinated online attack on one political blogger in the Republic of Georgia.

The man called himself "Cyxymu." ABC News tracked him down in Tblisi, Georgia, and spoke to him by phone.

Read more ....

My Comment: I guess someone in Russia does not like the message that is coming out of Georgia.

DOE Energy Hubs On The Brink

Photo: Bell's Nobels: Steven Chu, speaking at MIT on the subject of energy innovation hubs, cited the success of Bell Laboratories at spurring invention. The inset is a slide from his talk, picturing the inventors of the transistor and the first of many Nobel Prize winners, including Chu, from Bell Labs. Credit: MIT World/Technology Review

From Technology Review:

Research centers conceived to speed energy-related research are facing a tough battle in Congress.

A major effort to revamp research and development at the Department of Energy, which Energy Secretary Steven Chu says is critical to solving energy-related challenges, hangs in the balance as the Obama administration attempts to make its case to a skeptical Congress.

Last month, the House and Senate committees responsible for appropriating money to the Department of Energy shot down Chu's proposed "Energy Innovation Hubs," with the House killing funding for all but one of the eight proposed hubs and the Senate provisionally funding only three. The House committee called the hubs redundant and criticized the Department of Energy for a lack of planning and clear communication about them. Since then, the department has issued much more detailed accounts of the hubs, and the Obama administration has said it "strongly opposes" the committee's decision to cut the requested funds.

Read more ....

Martian Methane Mystery Deepens

The Martian surface is very hostile to organics say scientists

From The BBC:

Methane on Mars is being produced and destroyed far faster than on Earth, according to analysis of recent data.

Scientists in Paris used a computer climate model for the Red Planet to simulate observations made from Earth.

It shows the gas is unevenly distributed in the Martian atmosphere and changes with the seasons.

The presence of methane on Mars is intriguing because its origin could either be life or geological activity - including volcanism.

Read more ....

New Planet-finder Shows Its Power: Kepler Orbiting Telescope Should Soon Find Alien Earths

Artist concept of Kepler in space. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2009) — The first results are in from the Kepler orbiting observatory, the world's most powerful planet-searching telescope, and according to MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager they show that the instrument should have no trouble detecting "alien Earths" -- planets that are about the size of our own.

After its launch on March 6, Kepler began taking test data for engineering purposes. It was this engineering data, before the official inauguration of science operations, that produced the observatory's first published results, appearing this week in the journal Science. Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Planetary Science and Associate Professor of Physics, is part of the Kepler science team but was not personally involved in this initial paper. She appeared at a NASA press conference on Thursday, Aug. 6, to comment on the significance of the results.

Read more ....

Ganges Delta: Gorgeous, Wild And Deadly

This Envisat image highlights the Ganges Delta, the world’s largest delta, in the south Asia area of Bangladesh (visible) and India. This image was created by combining three Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar acquisitions taken over the same area. The colours in the image result from variations in the surface that occurred between acquisitions. Credit: ESA

From Live Science:

Satellites have captured a snapshot of the Ganges delta, the world’s largest river delta and one of the most geographically turbulent spots in the world.

The interweaving network of streams that make up the Ganges Delta in South Asia is formed by the joining of three rivers – the Padma, Jamuna, and Meghna rivers. More than 100 million people (mostly Bangladeshi) call the delta home, relying mostly on rice, tea and other crops for subsistence. The region is also inhabited by around 1,000 endangered Bengal tigers.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider To Restart At Half Its Designed Energy

A technician inspects the site of a faulty electrical connection that damaged the LHC in September 2008 (Image: CERN)

From The New Scientist:

The world's most powerful particle smasher will restart in November at just half the energy the machine was designed to reach. But even at this level, the Large Hadron Collider has the potential to uncover exotic new physics, such as signs of hidden extra dimensions, physicists say.

The LHC is a new particle accelerator at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, designed to answer fundamental questions, such as what gives elementary particles their mass, by colliding particles at higher energies than ever achieved in a laboratory before.

Read more ....

Long Debate Ended Over Cause, Demise Of Ice Ages – Solar And Earth Wobble – CO2 Not Main Driver

The above image shows how much the Earth’s orbit can vary in shape. This process in a slow one, taking roughly 100,000 to cycle. (Credit: Texas A&M University)

From Watts Up With That:

Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages – may also help predict future.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A team of researchers says it has largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years – they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused by predictable changes in Earth’s rotation and axis.

Read more ....

Roman Emperor Vespasian's Villa Found

An archaeologist works on the site of Roman Emperor Vespasian's summer villa. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the emperor who ordered the construction of the Colosseum, ascended to the throne at the ripe old age of 60 and remained emperor until his death at age 69.

From Discovery News:

Aug. 6, 2009 -- The summer villa of Roman Emperor Vespasian has been found in the Sabine hill country northeast of Rome, Italian archaeologists announced today.

Titus Flavius Vespasianus is known for rebuilding the Roman Empire following the tumultuous reign of Emporer Nero. Vespasian changed the face of Rome by launching a major public works program, which included the construction of the Colosseum, the structure that arguably defines the glory of ancient Rome.

Read more ....

First U.S. "Power Tower" Lights Up California

POWER TOWER: By focusing sunlight with mirrors onto central towers, such concentrating solar power plants turn the sun's heat into electricity. Courtesy of eSolar

From Scientific American:

Turning the sun's heat into electricity--by concentrating it with thousands of mirrors onto a tower.

In southern California's Antelope Valley, 24,000 silver-bright mirrors have been positioned to reflect light on two 50-meter-tall towers. And at 11:08 A.M. local time Wednesday, this concentrated light heated steam in those towers to turn a turbine—the first "power towers" in the U.S. to convert the sun's heat into electricity for commercial use.

Read more ....

Swine Flu Vaccine 'By September'

From the BBC:

The first swine flu vaccines are likely to be licensed for use in the general population in September, the World Health Organization has announced.

Several manufacturers have produced initial batches of a H1N1 vaccine and some clinical trials are already underway.

WHO director of vaccine research Dr Marie-Paule Kieny also sought to calm fears about safety of new vaccines.

She said the vaccines were based on "old and proven technology".

Figures show continuing rises in cases in the southern hemisphere in the past seven days.

Argentina has particularly seen a large increase and deaths now stand at 337.

And there has been a rise in cases of 25% in Australia.

Read more ....

Micro Flying Robots Can Fly More Effectively Than Flies

RoboFly a robot model of fruit fly wings that is 100 times larger than a fruit fly. It is submerged in oil to simulate the viscosity of the sticky air around the wing of a real fruit fly. (Credit: Dickinson lab)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 6, 2009) — Engineers have long been stymied in their attempts to fabricate micro aerial robots that can match the amazing flight capabilities of nature’s most advanced flying insects ¾flies. Such robot flies -- if they could be made efficient enough for long missions -- could be used for a variety of tasks, from spying, to mine detection to search and rescue missions in collapsed buildings.

Read more ....

Discovery Really Scratches An Itch

A neuron found in the spinal cords of mice could be responsible for sending itch messages to the brain. It likely works the same in humans. The finding could lead to treatments for serious human itches. Image credit: stockxpert

From Live Science:

The urge to scratch a mosquito bite or skin rash can be maddening. Now, scientists have pinpointed a group of neurons that signal it's time to relieve the itch.

Disabling the neurons eliminated itching in mice, which are thought to be a good analogue to humans for neurobiology studies.

The work could pave the way for treatment of serious human itches, such as psoriasis and eczema, said study scientist Zhou-Feng Chen of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Read more ....

Spying For Science: Military Satellites Aid Civilian Research

From Popular Mechanics:

American spy satellites have captured an exhaustive array of images of the Earth. After all, they have been taking photographs since the early days of the space race. In the 1990s, when climate change and other earth science issues came to the forefront, researchers began to realize that the government's unparalleled data could be a huge boon—if scientists were allowed access to classified images. Jeff Dozier was one of the first permitted behind the veil of secrecy. In the early 1990s Dozier, then a prof at the University of California, Santa Barbara, briefed Al Gore, then a Senator from Tennessee, about the opportunities that intelligence satellite photos could present to science. Gore wrote a letter to then-CIA director Robert Gates (now the Secretary of Defense), and this effort gave birth to the Medea program. A few dozen scientists, Dozier included, gained clearance to view spy satellite photos for their research, and shortly thereafter Pres. Bill Clinton declassified all spy satellite photos taken before 1972. Here are five times spy photos contributed to science, even when the photos themselves remained classified.

Read more ....

Radio Telescopes Turn The Moon Into World's Largest Neutrino Detector

Neutrino Detector? courtesy of NASA

From Popular Science:

Neutrinos, the infinitesimally small particles so faint physicists used to call them "the ghost particle," have driven scientists to construct immense underground facilities simply to catch a glimpse of a single one. Now, with even the most massive detectors failing to trap certain high-energy neutrinos, astronomers have turned to a larger filter: the Moon.

Teams of scientists on the supercomputer-linked LOFAR radio telescope in Holland, and on the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in the U.S. have both turned their attention to the Moon in hopes of recording rare neutrino interactions.

Read more ....

5 Tips For Raising Your Girl Geek

From Geekdad/Wired:

As geek parents, we often have rosy colored notions about our children growing up. We actually want them to be geeks. From the earliest of ages we dress them in WoW gear, teach them to quote Star Wars and wonder when is too early to start reading The Hobbit. We nurture them in the way of the Geek, hoping that, when the time comes for them to choose their path, they won’t stray far.

But being a geek kid isn’t easy; and being a geek girl might even be harder. Here are some things to keep in mind if you are raising a geek girl that might help her–and you–get through the school years.

Read more ....

Oldest Map In Western Europe Found Engraved On 14,000-Year-Old Chunk Of Rock

The Journal of Human Evolution has released pictures of what Spanish scientists say is a map etched in stone dating back some 13,660 years

From The Daily Mail:

We all rely on maps, be they the sat nav in your car or a traditional A-Z, and archaeologists have found our ancient ancestors were no different.
They have unearthed what they believe to be the oldest map in Western Europe, in a Spanish cave steeped in legend.

The complex etchings were engraved on a hand-sized rock 13,660 years ago, probably by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers.

Read more ....

Bird Experiment Shows Aesop's Fable May Be True

An undated photo released by The University of Cambridge shows a rook, a member of the crow family, as it drops stones into a tube to raise the water level and bring a worm into reach, at the Sub-department of Animal Behaviour at University of Cambridge. In Aesop's fable 'The crow and the pitcher' a thirsty crow uses stones to raise the level of water in a pitcher to quench its thirst. A new study published online Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 in the journal Current Biology demonstrates that rooks, birds belonging to the corvid, or crow family, are able to solve complex problems using tools and can easily master the same technique demonstrated in Aesop's fable. (AP Photo/The University of Cambridge)

From Yahoo News/AP:

NEW YORK – From the goose that laid the golden egg to the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop's fables are known for teaching moral lessons rather than literally being true. But a new study says at least one such tale might really have happened.

It's the fable about a thirsty crow. The bird comes across a pitcher with the water level too low for him to reach. The crow raises the water level by dropping stones into the pitcher. (Moral: Little by little does the trick, or in other retellings, necessity is the mother of invention.)

Read more ....

Kepler Spacecraft Sees Its First Exoplanets

Kepler's computer has mysteriously entered a standby, or "safe", mode twice since launch - possibly because it was hit by charged particles from space called cosmic rays (Illustration: NASA)

From New Scientist:

The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found its first extrasolar planets: three alien worlds that had been previously discovered with ground-based telescopes. The finds confirm that Kepler's instruments are sensitive enough to detect Earth-like planets around sun-like stars – but they might also be unexpectedly sensitive to charged particles in space that can zap circuitry.

Kepler launched on 6 March with a simple charge: Stare at a swatch of sky for three and a half years, and look for Earths. The telescope will hunt transiting exoplanets, planets that pass in front of their stars and dim their brightness at regular intervals.

Read more ....

Growing Evidence Of Marijuana Smoke's Potential Dangers

Smoking marijuana causes more damage to cells and DNA than smoking tobacco, scientists say. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — In a finding that challenges the increasingly popular belief that smoking marijuana is less harmful to health than smoking tobacco, researchers in Canada are reporting that smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, has toxic effects on cells.

Rebecca Maertens and colleagues note that people often view marijuana as a "natural" product and less harmful than tobacco. As public attitudes toward marijuana change and legal restrictions ease in some countries, use of marijuana is increasing.

Read more ....

10 Profound Innovations Ahead

From Live Science:

Today's world looks increasingly like the future. Robots work factory assembly lines and fight alongside human warriors on the battlefield, while tiny computers assist in everything from driving cars to flying airplanes. Surgeons use the latest technological tools to accomplish incredible feats, and researchers push the frontiers of medicine with bioengineering. Science fiction stories about cloning and resurrecting extinct animals look increasingly like relevant cautionary tales.

Read more ....