Homing Pigeon Faster Than Internet? In S. Africa, The Answer's Yes.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Frustrated by Africa's unreliable service, a business needing to send 4GB of data 50 miles put Winston the pigeon up against the Web – and Winston won.

This week, a South African call-center business, frustrated by persistently slow Internet speeds, decided to use a carrier pigeon named Winston to transfer 4 gigabytes of data between two of its offices, just 50 miles apart. At the same time, a computer geek pushed a button on his computer to send data the old-fashioned way, through the Internet.

Winston the pigeon won. It wasn't even close.

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Skeptic Reporter John Stossel Leaves ABC For Fox

From Watts Up With That?

I can understand how frustrating it must have been for Stossel at ABC, given that he’s on the other side of the global warming issue from the news department there, but moving to Fox will minimize the broader impact of what he has been saying about the subject of global warming.

It is worth a flashback though, to his report in 2007 on the issue.

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Why Your Nails Are Growing 25 Per Cent Faster Than Your Grandparents' Did

From The Daily Mail:

The speed of finger and toenail growth has surged by nearly a quarter over the past 70 years, a new study has revealed.

And the modern diet – rich in protein from readily available fish, meat, eggs and poultry – may be behind the spurt.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina compared results to a study of nail growth published by Oxford University in 1938 and another study from the Fifties.

The results revealed that big toenails now grow by more than 2mm a month, compared with 1.65mm in the Thirties.

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The Climate's Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic

CARIBOU CRISIS: Thanks to shifting seasons as a result of climate change, fewer caribou calves are surviving. Courtesy of Eric Post

From Scientific America:

A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic.

When the summer sea ice goes, the Arctic will lose the ivory gull, Pacific walrus, ringed seal, hooded seal, narwhal and polar bear—all animals that rely on the ice for foraging, reproduction or as refuge from predators. And the sea ice is going, faster and faster: In the past 30 years, minimum sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean has declined by 45,000 square kilometers annually*—an area twice the size of New Jersey is lost each year.

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Airborne Laser Ready For Flight Tests

The US military's missile-defence laser is taking to the air for its first full-power try-out (Image: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)

From The New Scientist:

IT SHOULD be the moment of truth for the Airborne Laser (ABL). In the coming months, the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customised Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds.

Don't expect instant reports of success, though. Instead, if all goes to plan, we're likely to hear about a series of incremental improvements.

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Aging Muscles: 'Hard To Build, Easy To Lose'

New research may explain the ongoing loss of muscle in older people, whose arms and legs become thinner as they age. (Credit: iStockphoto/Özgür Donmaz)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2009) — Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens — and what to do about it.

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Ancient Chinese Remedy May Work for Flu

From Live Science:

Scientists at the Kaohsiung Medial University in Taiwan have discovered that the roots of a plant used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic produces natural antiviral compounds that kill the swine flu virus, H1N1.

Ferula asafetida is commonly known as Dung of the Devil because of its foul-smelling sap and grows primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and mainland China. In their tests of a group of chemical compounds contained in extracts from the plant, scientists Fang-Rong Chang and Yang-Chan Wu discovered that some of them where more potent in killing the H1N1 virus than a prescription antiviral drug.

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Why NASA Should Bomb the Moon to Find Water: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is now traveling to the moon at 5592 mph and will crash-land on Oct. 9 in order to gather data from the 6-mile-high impact cloud it will create. Today, as NASA announced the crater where LCROSS will land (Cabeus-A), the mission continues to drum up controversy. Is crash-landing on the moon really necessary for science? Will it be worth the damage done to the moon? To both these questions, PM answers a resounding, Yes. Here's why we're rooting for NASA's October mission to bombard the moon.

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Robotics Rodeo: A Week In Review

The Howe & Howe 'Ripsaw' MS1 (front) is ready for its demo during the Robotics Rodeo at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas on Sept. 3.

Robotic Rodeo Displays Future Help for Soldiers -- Army.com

WASHINGTON (American Forces Press Service) – Two seemingly different U.S. Army organizations gathered robotics experts, technologists, academecs, soldiers and companies from across the country in search of solutions to help save soldiers’ lives.

The 3rd Corps and U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, based on Fort Hood, Texas, hosted the first Robotics Rodeo to showcase what’s new in the world of automation.

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More News On This Weeks Robotic Rodeo

Robotics Rodeo demos technology to save Soldiers' lives -- Army.mil
Robotic Rodeo Displays Future Help for Soldiers -- U.S. Department of Defense
Army's "Robotics Rodeo" Helps Find Next Generation of Unmanned Vehicles -- Daily Tech
Robots gear up for military duty in 'rodeo' -- Taiwan news
‘Robotics Rodeo' aims to save lives -- Houston Chronicle
Fort Hood shows off its robot army -- Temple Daily Telegram
Photos: Robots on the road to safer convoys -- CNET
Hood hosts ‘Robotics Rodeo’ -- ARMY Times
John Deere goes olive-drab at Robotics Rodeo -- CNET

UCSB Scientists Create Cancer-Stopping Nanoparticle-and-Laser Treatment

This Laser Cures Cancer, Brah: Gary Braun stands by the drug-activating laser courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara

From Popular Science:

Nanotechnology, lasers, genetics, and cancer? If there was also something about space, this story might have been a PopSci full house. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), have figured out a way to deliver cancer-stopping RNA directly into the nucleus of a diseased cell. To get into the nucleus, the RNA is wrapped in special gold nanoshells which are then selectively opened by a laser.

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How Soldiers Will See In The Dark Without Night Vision Goggles

Image: Dreamstime/Brightqube

Forget the Goggles: Chlorophyll Eye Drops Give Night Vision -- Discover Magazine

What the dragonfish discovered through evolution, the U.S. military wants to apply to the battlefield.

Seeing in the dark could soon be as easy as popping a pill or squeezing some drops into your eyes, thanks to some new science, an unusual deep-sea fish, and a plant pigment.

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My Comment: If this becomes possible .... how war is conducted will certainly change.

Keeping Google Out Of libraries

From The BBC:

The proposed settlement between Google and US publishers must be resisted, argues Bill Thompson

Google is in the middle of a massive project to scan and digitise every book it can get its hands on, whether old or new, and if it gets its way then the US courts will soon endorse an agreement between the search engine giant and the US book industry that will allow it to do this without fear of prosecution for copyright infringement.

Authors and publishers will get some money in return, and we will all benefit from the improved access to digitised books that Google will provide.

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The Hugh Hefner Syndrome – How A Good-looking Partner Makes You More Attractive

Hugh Hefner with bunnies Holly Madison, left, and Bridget Marquardt Photo: AP

From The Telegraph:

Having an attractive mate on your arm makes you look more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex, claim scientists in research that could explain the continuing appeal of Hugh Hefner.

However going out with a better looking friend of the same sex can have the opposite effect.

Researchers have found that we bask in the reflective glory of our more attractive partners because others assume we must have hidden talents away from our looks.

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Amazing Pictures: Space Shuttle Discovery Soars Through The Clouds Before Landing Safely (After A 2,000 Mile Diversion)

The space shuttle Discovery, lands on runway 22 at
Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California.

From the Daily Mail:

The space shuttle Discovery landed safely in California early today after bad weather forced a switch of its touchdown site at the end of a two-week mission to the International Space Station.

NASA diverted the spaceship to Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert after waiting in vain for two days for rain and clouds to clear over the shuttle's home port in Florida, the originally scheduled landing location.

Under partly cloudy desert skies, the shuttle landed at 0053 GMT.

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White Dwarf "Close" To Exploding As Supernova

From Universe Today:

ESA’s XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered the first close-up of a white dwarf star that could explode into a type Ia supernova within a few million years. That's relatively soon in cosmic time frames, and although this white dwarf that is orbiting its companion star HD 49798, is far enough away to pose no danger to Earth, it is close enough to become an extraordinarily spectacular celestial sight. Calculations suggest that it will blaze initially with the intensity of the full Moon and be so bright that it will be seen in the daytime sky with the naked eye. But don't worry, it will be awhile!

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Evolution Coup: Study Reveals How Plants Protect Their Genes

Researchers have discovered a new pathway that plants use to protect their genes against dangerous alterations that could also allow some useful mutations to occur. (Credit: iStockphoto/Duncan Walker)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2009) — Unlike animals and humans, plants can't run and hide when exposed to stressful environmental conditions. So how do plants survive? A new Université de Montréal study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found a key mechanism that enables plants to keep dangerous gene alterations in check to ensure their continued existence.

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Predicting Extraterrestrial Weather

Two Hubble Space Telescope storm watch images from late June and early September offer dramatically contrasting views of the martian surface. At left, the onset of smaller "seed" storms can be seen near the Hellas basin (lower right edge of Mars) and the northern polar cap. A similar surface view at right, taken over two months later, shows the fully developed extent of the obscuring global dust storm. Credit: J. Bell (Cornell), M. Wolff (Space Science Inst.), Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), NASA

From Live Science:

Maybe even more than average citizens, the world's space agencies rely on daily and seasonal reports to better understand weather on Earth and other planets. Space-mission success ties directly to effective anticipation and navigation of inclement surface and atmospheric conditions.

Mission-design engineers at NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and similar organizations need to know what environmental issues a Mars Lander or Rover might face to ensure that heat shields, parachutes and other on-board mechanisms survive the trip through the atmosphere to the surface.

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The Coming Battle Over Fresh Water

Hustle and Flow -- Audubon Magazine

As water becomes increasingly scarce, we may have to charge for every drop.

In a now-famous interview with The New York Times in 1995, Ismail Serageldin, the World Bank’s vice president for environmentally sustainable development, said, “Many of the wars in this century were about oil, but wars of the next century will be over water.” While the situation is currently considerably less dire in the United States than in many other places around the world, an escalating fight over water in the coming years is in the making. We are “entering an era of water reallocation, when water for new uses will come from existing users who have incentives to use less,” says Robert Glennon, the Morris K. Udall professor of law and public policy at the University of Arizona, in his new book Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It. Those reallocations can take place through contentious politicking and in the courts, or, Glennon argues, more peaceably, through market forces.

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Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug Dies At 95

From CNN:

(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95.

Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said.

A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university.

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More News On The Passing Of Norman Borlaug

'Green Revolution' pioneer Borlaug dies: report -- AFP
Nobel-winning agricultural scientist Borlaug dies -- Reuters
Agriculture pioneer Borlaug dies -- BBC
Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Passes Away -- Ag Wired
Norman Borlaug -- The Examiner
Norman Borlaug, RIP -- Power Line
Norman Borlaug: The Man Who Saved More Human Lives Than Any Other Has Died -- Reason
A look at honors bestowed on Norman Borlaug -- AP

Why The DOJ Wants More On Yahoo Search Deal

From CNET:

The long road toward Microsoft and Yahoo's search deal could be set to get a little longer, or fall off a cliff.

Both companies have long expected the U.S. Department of Justice to scrutinize the deal to install Microsoft as the exclusive search provider for Yahoo's Web pages, which would also see Yahoo end its time as a search company. Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed Friday that the Justice Department has asked the two companies for more information about their deal, which is a step beyond taking a mere interest in the proceedings.

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