Sunspots Could Soon Disappear For Decades: Study

Photo Credit: NASA/TRACE

From Physorg.com:

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sunspot formation is triggered by a magnetic field, which scientists say is steadily declining. They predict that by 2016 there may be no remaining sunspots, and the sun may stay spotless for several decades. The last time the sunspots disappeared altogether was in the 17th and 18th century, and coincided with a lengthy cool period on the planet known as the Little Ice Age.

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US Assessment Of Terrorist Threats Poor, Says Panel

From New Scientist:

Only "low confidence" should be placed in most of the risk analyses of terrorist threats conducted by the US Department of Homeland Security, concludes a review by a National Research Council panel.

Created after the 9/11 attacks to cover national perils ranging from terrorism to natural disasters, the DHS got off to a rough start. Critics blasted its lack of attention to natural disasters after its bungled response to hurricane Katrina.

Yet the panel finds that DHS models for natural disaster risks are "near the state of the art" and well suited to assess the effects of earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.

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My Comment: The full report can be read here.

Around The Solar System (Photo Gallery)

A setting last quarter crescent moon and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere are photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member as the International Space Station passes over central Asia on Sept. 4th, 2010. (NASA)

From The Big Picture:

With dozens of spacecraft currently orbiting, roving or otherwise and traveling through our solar system, I thought it would be interesting to get a general snapshot in time, using images from NASA and ESA spacecraft near Mercury, Earth, the Moon, Mars, Saturn and a few in-transit to further destinations. Collected here are recent images gathered from around our solar system, at scales ranging from mere centimeters to millions of kilometers. (32 photos total)

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Fast Flip Of Earth's Poles

Possible evidence for the rapid reversal was in rocks formed from lava flows in Nevada's Sheep Creek Range. Credit: Scott Bogue

From New Science:

Volcanic rocks may record an unusually sudden magnetic field reversal.

Rocks may not talk, but they do tell tales. You just have to know how to read them.

A large rock formation near Battle Mountain, Nev., tells a dramatic story in the history of the Earth. You’d never guess if you saw the rocks because they look ordinary. But after studying minerals in those rocks, geologists report that 15 million years ago, the Earth’s magnetic field flipped: The north magnetic pole headed south, and it did so surprisingly quickly.

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‘Batman’ Prepares To Join The Air Force

From the Danger Room:

Grappling hooks attached to siphon electricity from low-hanging power lines. Computers mounted onto a commando’s chest plate. Communications gadgets small enough to fit into gear pouches worn around the waist. The Air Force is actually preparing its special operators to act (and outfit themselves) more like the Batman.

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My Comment: What I find interesting (and amusing) about the Air Force logo, is that it looks very similar to the logo from Russia's GRU (military intelligence).

Wireless Recharging For Mobile Phones By 2012

Messy wires and cables will soon be a thing of the past Photo: CORBIS

From The Telegraph:

Mobile phone users will be able to charge their devices wirelessly for the first time from 2012.

Fujitsu, the Japanese technology company, has created a system capable of simultaneously charging multiple portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop computers without the need for cable connections.

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Why Some Quakes Cause Killer Tsunamis

From Futurity:

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK)—Researchers have uncovered clues as to why some undersea earthquakes generate huge tsunamis. Their findings, published recently in the journal Science, may help explain why the 2004 Sumatra “Boxing Day Tsunami” was so devastating.

Early in the morning of December 26, 2004, a powerful undersea earthquake started close to Simeulue Island off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and extended more than 1,200 kilometers to the north.

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What's Black and White and Could Get Newspapers Out of the Red? Apple's iPad

Many newspapers have released their own iPad apps, such as ths one from the Wall Street Journal. According to rumors, Apple aims to supplement those apps with an iTunes-based newspaper subscription service. News Corp.

From FOX News:

Paper meets plastic? Apple may be set to announce a new subscription plan for newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The paper reports that Apple is in talks with major metropolitan newspapers in the hopes of creating a business model around the growing popularity of its tablet computer, the iPad.

Such a deal would come at a time when many traditional media companies are struggling with the transition from print to digital. Newspaper sales continue to erode and there seems no end in sight for the long-term decline in advertising revenues, experts say.

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The History Of The Devil

CSN Editor: Video from GUBA

Best Of Web Video – September 2010

From New Scientist:

A psychedelic approach to artificial life, cosmic collisions making colossal black holes, magnetic whirlpools, translucent filter-feeders and half a million asteroids… and all that's just the first half of our latest round-up of the web's most amazing science and technology videos, hosted by MacGregor Campbell. Watch the show to see all of these and find out what else made our top 10 (hint: the number 1 spot is truly electrifying).

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Sailor's Body found Inside Shark At Jaws Beach

The beach near where Mr Newton was last seen is located on the small island where the 1987 Jaws film was partially filmed Photo: ALAMY

From The Telegraph:

The body of a sailor who disappeared off Jaws Beach – on an island where one of the "Jaws" movies was filmed – has been found inside the stomach of a shark.

Police in the Bahamas used fingerprints to identify Judson Newton, although they are still waiting for DNA test results.

It is unclear if the 43-year-old Mr Newton was alive when he was eaten.

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Back To The Moon’s Future

POCKMARKSLava-smoothed areas, or maria, like Oceanus Procellarum (right) and more heavily cratered lunar highlands appear in stark contrast in new laser measurements of the lunar surface. NASA/LRO/LOLA/GSFC, MIT, Brown

From New Science:

Orbiter scouts oldest spots on the lunar surface for prospective landing sites.

The moon’s face can hide its age but not its past.

Data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter describe a moon with a more complex history than previously thought and highlight what could be its oldest regions, planetary scientists report in the Sept. 16 Science. Two papers present measurements of the chemical composition of the moon’s surface, and a third details the first comprehensive crater catalog. The results reveal promising targets for future missions and support previous theories about the moon’s past.

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How Mass Migration Might Have Evolved

From Wired Science:

Just a few small changes in the social behaviors of even solitary animals may set in motion an evolutionary cascade ending in massive, globe-spanning migrations, suggests a study of migration’s origins.

Such migrations — caribou across the Arctic and wildebeest across the Serengeti, birds and butterflies over oceans — are among nature’s most beautiful and mystifying phenomena. Many models suggest how migration works now, in terms of individual actions producing collective behavior; but how it could have started in the first place is far harder to explain.

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Young Adults Who Have Lived Their Whole Lives With HIV

LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff Photographer

From Philadelphia Inquirer:

Last spring, Lafayette Sanders got a call from a friend who was concerned about his reputation. The word on the street, she said, was that he and his girlfriend had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

It was true about Sanders, and he told her so because his friend was so supportive. But Sanders, then 23, also decided that he needed to tell all his friends that he had been HIV-positive - for his entire life.

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The Trials Of The Modern-Day Astronaut

A NASA Astronaut in space challenges earthlings to a chess match Photo: PHOTOSHOT/NASA

From The Telegraph:

Origami, 'non-sweat' underpants and nauseating sherry: in her new book, 'Packing for Mars', Mary Roach explains why today's astronauts have to be more than just heroes.

First you remove your shoes, as you would upon entering a Japanese home. You are given a pair of special isolation chamber slippers, light blue vinyl imprinted with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency logo, the letters JAXA leaning forward as though rushing into space at terrific speed.

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An 1,800 Year Old Murder Mystery

Unearthed: The remains of a child, thought to be aged between 8 and 10, have been found in a shallow pit in the corner of a barrack room floor at Vindolanda Roman Fort, Northumberland

The 1,800-Year-Old Murder Mystery: Archaeologists Unearth Body Of Young Girl Buried With Her Hands Tied -- Discovery News

She was no more than ten years old. Lying in a shallow grave, her tiny hands bound and with injuries to her head, it seemed she had met a most violent end.

But although all the clues point to the cruellest of murders, there is little chance of this ‘cold case’ ever being solved.

The mystery is puzzling not police, but archaeologists, as the gruesome events took place more than 1,800 years ago.

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Did the Greeks Spot Halley's Comet First?

From Discovery News:

Piecing together historic record and correlating it with the location of celestial objects nearly 2,500 years ago is an an epic task, but it can prove rather useful for interpreting ancient cosmic discoveries.

After some fascinating astronomical detective work, researchers have (possibly) found the first documented proof of a sighting of Halley's Comet two centuries earlier than when Chinese astronomers first described the famous 'dirty snowball' around 240 BC.

So, who beat the Chinese? The Greeks.

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Falling In Love Costs You Friends

From The BBC:

Falling in love comes at the cost of losing two close friends, a study says.

We probably all know that a passionate new relationship can leave you little time for others, but now science has put some numbers on the observation.

Oxford University researchers asked people about their inner core of friendships and how this number changed when romance entered the equation.

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Tsunamis Leave Ionosphere All Shook Up

Photo: Researchers hope measuring atmospheric waves will improve early warning of big tsunamis such as the one generated by a February earthquake in Chile.MARCELO HERNANDEZ/dpa/Corbis

From Nature News:

Progress of waves through open sea sends vibrations that magnify with height up the entire atmospheric column.

The signals of GPS satellites could be used to monitor tsunamis as they sweep across the ocean. In the most detailed study to date of the effect, scientists have shown that even though open ocean tsunami waves are only a few centimetres high, they are powerful enough to create atmospheric vibrations extending all the way to the ionosphere, 300 kilometres up in the atmosphere.

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Glacial Armour Lets Mountains Rise High

Ripe for the buzz saw (Image: Egner Photography/iStock)

From New Scientist:

Glaciers limit mountain height by stripping rock off the top – but not always. If conditions are right, glacial ice will protect the rocks beneath to let mountains grow.

The upper reaches of high mountains are covered with snow all year round, allowing glaciers to form. As these rivers of ice move slowly downhill, they wear away the rocks beneath them, meaning that mountains should not grow much beyond the height of their snowline: any rock that is pushed up above this altitude will eventually get worn away by the ice. This is called the buzz-saw hypothesis, because, like superhuman circular saws, the glaciers effectively cut the heads off mountains above a certain height.

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