'Buffing' Your Brain

Buff Your Brain -- Daily Beast/Newsweek

Read more. Learn a language. Get some sleep! Sharon Begley reports getting a bigger brain is easier—and more fun—than you think.

Brain training to sharpen memory. Aerobic exercise to preserve gray matter. Meditation to hone connections between reason and emotion.

It all sounds great, but there’s something that has long bothered us about the growing number of studies pinpointing ways to buff your brain: they don’t go far enough. Sure, exercises to improve memory are better for your brain than, say, watching reality TV, but the most you’re going to gain is more reliable access to knowledge already scattered around your cerebral cortex. If the information isn’t in there, no amount of brain training will tell you how the Federal Reserve system functions, why the Confederacy lost the Civil War, the significance of Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, or why Word just crashed.

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Is A Super-Volcano In The Heart Of Europe About To Erupt?

If the Laacher See eruption is as powerful as the last one, volcanic material could land over 600 miles away

Is A Super-Volcano Just 390 Miles From London About To Erupt? -- Daily Mail

* It's similar in size to Mount Pinatubo, which in 1991 gave us the biggest eruption of the 20th century
* Billions of tons of ash and magma would be ejected
* Southern England would be covered in ash

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up.

It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma.

This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago, so it could blow at any time.

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My Comment: The awesome power of mother nature always gives me pause.

Four Industries Being Targeted By Apple

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt In The Near Future -- Time Techland

Tim Bajarin is the president of Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market intelligence firm in Silicon Valley.

Over the last 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries. By my account, it has dramatically impacted the PC, tablet, consumer electronics, telecom, music and TV industries in a big way. And I believe that Apple is on the cusp of disrupting at least four more major industries in the next three to five years.

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My Comment: Only 4?

Is This The Year of Cold Fusion?

2012: The Year of Cold Fusion? -- Forbes

Well, there goes 2011, a year that was, to say the least, a mixed bag.

In the tech world it has been an interesting year. The Large Hadron Collider has, so far, failed to find evidence of the Higgs Boson (boo!) but at least it didn’t, as some people had feared, create a black hole that swallowed the earth (hooray!). Biological research produced promising results regarding antiviral drugs that may cure the common cold (hooray!) but a cure for cancer and HIV stills seems a long way away (boo!).

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My Comment: Unfortunately .... we are still a long way off.

How Can I Track My Stolen Gadget?

Laptop LoJack Nigel Buchanan

Ask a Geek: How Can I Track My Stolen Gadget? -- Popular Science

Thieves make off with millions of dollars’ worth of laptops and mobile devices every year. Most stolen gadgets go unrecovered, but tracking software can help. The software runs in the background of the operating system or, with some services, the boot-level layer, which makes detecting the tracker much more difficult. Services like Prey provide free software for up to three laptops or Android devices. BlackBerry, iPhone or iPad owners can use GadgetTrak (from $4).

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Great White Sharks Hunting Cape Fur Sseals Off The Coast Of Cape Town, South Africa

A seal tries to outmanoeuvre a great white shark, seconds before it becomes lunch. The tiny Cape fur seal is dwarfed by the enormous shark as it hunts off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. These images taken by wildlife photographer David Jenkins show the constant struggle for survival for the animals that live on Seal Island in False Bay where around 12,000 seal pups are born each November and December. Taken over three years, the photos illustrate exactly why great whites are considered one of the world's most efficient predators. Picture: Specialist Stock / Barcroft Media

CSN Editor: A cool gallery of pictures. The link is here.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World

101. Duct Tape
NASA astronauts have used it to make repairs on the moon and in space. The MythBusters built a boat and held a car together with the stuff. Brookhaven National Laboratory fixed their particle accelerator with it. And enthusiasts have used it to make prom dresses and wallets. You might say it's a material, not a gadget, but trust us: Duct tape is the ultimate multitool.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World -- Popular Mechanics

The alarm clock. The personal computer. The smartphone. The radio. You know the greatest gadgets of all time (and you’ve probably owned most of them), but which has changed the world more than any other? To make our list of 101, a gadget had to be something you could hold in your hands, mechanical or electronic, and a mass-produced personal item. The rest was up to the judges. Check out our selections, and watch the 101 Gadgets TV special on History, premiering June 15. Then, let the debate begin.

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My Comment: They are all indispensable in today's world.

A Helicopter Drone For The U.S. Army

(Credit: U.S. Army)

US Army Unveils 1.8 Gigapixel Camera Helicopter Drone -- BBC

New helicopter-style drones with 1.8 gigapixel colour cameras are being developed by the US Army.

The army said the technology promised "an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground".

A statement added that three of the sensor-equipped drones were due to go into service in Afghanistan in either May or June.

Boeing built the first drones, but other firms can bid to manufacture others.

"These aircraft will deploy for up to one full year as a way to harness lessons learned and funnel them into a program of record," said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Munster, product manager at the US Army's Unmanned Aerial System Modernization unit.

Read more ....

More News On The U.S. Army`s Newest Helicopter Drone

US deploys 1.8 gigapixel helicopter surveillance drones to Afghanistan -- The Register
Hummingbird robo-drone gets 1.8-gigapixel camera -- CNet
New spy drone has 1.8 gigapixel camera -- Extreme Tech
US Army's A160 Hummingbird drone-copter to don 1.8 gigapixel camera -- Endgadget
Army to deploy vertical take-off UAS -- www.Army.mil

Massive Solar Storm Heading Our Way

It's coming this way: The CME, seen by Nasa's STEREO-B spacecraft, can be seen blasting out from the Sun on the right-hand side (circled)

Massive Solar Storm 'Could Knock Out Radio Signals' Over Next Three Days, Warn Scientists -- Daily Mail

Skywatchers will be hoping for clear skies from today because particles from a recent solar storm will slam into Earth and produce amazing Northern Lights, or auroras.

On the downside, experts expect radio blackouts for a few days, caused by the radiation from the flare – or coronal mass ejection (CME) – causing magnetic storms.

The flare is part of a larger increase in activity in the Sun, which runs in 11-year cycles. It is expected to peak around 2013.

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Where Science And The Search For Understanding Can Produce Mankind's Worst Nightmare

This transmission electron micrograph taken at a magnification of 150,000x, reveals the ultrastructural details of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virion, pictured by the United States government's Centre for Disease Control.

Studies Of Deadly H5N1 Bird Flu Mutations Test Scientific Ethics -- L.A. Times

Dutch scientists have created a version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu that's easily transmitted. In an unprecedented move, a U.S. board asks that some details of the research not be published.

In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.

It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.

Their noxious creation could help prevent catastrophe in the battle against the deadly H5N1 bird flu that has ravaged duck and chicken flocks across Asia and elsewhere since the mid-1990s but has mostly left our species alone — for one crucial reason. Though H5N1 kills with brutality when it takes hold in a human, it infects extremely rarely and doesn't go on to easily spread between people.

Public health officials have long fretted that the virus may one day find a way to do so.

Read more ....

Previous Post: A Bioterror Weapon That Can Easily Kill Billions

My Comment: From what I have been reading, this genetically engineered virus is incredibly lethal (60%). And while the desire is to now limit it`s findings, the sad fact is that we are now faced with a situation in which "Pandora`s Box" has been opened, and there are now too many people who are aware of its findings.

Should We Scour The Moon For Ancient Traces Of Aliens

A pit in Mare Ingenii, possibly the result of a collapsed lava tube. Natural tunnels like this would be ideal sites for an alien moon base. Photograph: Nasa

We Should Scour The Moon For Ancient Traces Of Aliens, Say Scientists -- The Guardian

Online volunteers could be set task of spotting alien technology, evidence of mining and rubbish heaps in moon images.

Hundreds of thousands of pictures of the moon will be examined for telltale signs that aliens once visited our cosmic neighbourhood if plans put forward by scientists go ahead.

Passing extraterrestrials might have left messages, scientific instruments, heaps of rubbish or evidence of mining on the dusty lunar surface that could be spotted by human telescopes and orbiting spacecraft.

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My Comment: The moon is one hell of a big place.

Every Bioterrorism Expert's Worse Nightmare: Recent Man-Made Super-Flu Could Kill Half Humanity

This transmission electron micrograph taken at a magnification of 150,000x, reveals the ultrastructural details of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virion, pictured by the United States government's Centre for Disease Control.

Armageddon Super Virus Recipe: Keep Secret Or Publish? -- Sydney Morning Herald

To publish or not to publish?

That is the question gripping scientists after virologists said they had developed a bird flu virus - with a 60 per cent human mortality rate - that could spread as easily as the common cold.

Some fear the virus, if it fell into the wrong hands, could be modified by bioterrorists into a weapon that kills billions of people.

Read more ....

More News On The H5N1

'Anthrax isn't scary at all compared to this': Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab -- Daily Mail
Man-made super-flu could kill half humanity -- RT
Super Virus Report Might Make or Break Biosecurity -- Top News
New manmade super virus? New bird flu has 60% human lethality -- Digital Journal
Canberra Vaccine Expert Urges Censorship on Bird Flu Strain Mutant Research -- IBTimes
“Bird Flu” Virus Experiment Sparks Controversy and a Biosecurity Review -- Decoded Science
US fears Dutch research could be biological weapon -- Radio Netherlands
Deadly man-made strain of H5N1 bird flu virus raises controversy -- Digital Journal
Should a New Recipe for Engineered Bird Flu, Potent Enough to Kill Millions, Be Published? -- Popular Science
Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies -- Science Insider
Deadly Man-Made Flu Won’t Kill Everyone Unless It Escapes From the Lab -- Gawker

The Beauty Of Pollination (Video)

Can You Crack It? Britain's Spy Agency Looking To Hire Top Cyber Hackers

Can You Solve This Code? Then This U.K. Spy Agency Might Want To Hire You -- National Post/AFP

LONDON — No longer content with simply approaching the brightest from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ has launched a code-cracking competition to attract new talent.

The electronic surveillance organisation, the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters, is asking potential applicants to solve a code posted on a website.

It will direct potential candidates to the competition, hosted on an anonymous website, via sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Read more ....

More News On Britain's GCHQ Wanting To Hire Code Breakers

iSpy: Government intelligence agency launches online code-cracking puzzle to recruit future stars of cyber-savvy espionage -- Daily Mail
GCHQ: solve the online code, become a real-life spy -- The Telegraph
GCHQ challenges codebreakers via social networks -- BBC
GCHQ aims to recruit computer hackers with code-cracking website -- The Guardian
Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond -- The Register
GCHQ challenges codebreakers in online competition -- Digital Spy
GCHQ sets codebreaking challenge for wannabe spies -- Computer World
Crack an online code, get a job as a spy -- The Inquirer
GCHQ Launches Code-Breaking Competition Through Social Networking Sites -- Jobs and Hire
Crack This Code, and Become a British Spy -- The Danger Room
Intelligence agency recruits spies with online code -- New Scientist

CSN Editor: The GCHQ spy recruitment code problem has been solved (in a few hours after being posted online).

Oldest Evidence Of Violence Between Humans Unearthed In China

Maba "man" took a wallop from something, but lived to fight another day. BBC

Ancient Skull Found In China May Be Oldest Evidence Of Violence Between Humans -- The Telegraph

An ancient skull discovered in China may be the oldest evidence of violence between humans, according to researchers.

A fracture on the right temple of the skull is likely to have been caused by a blow to the side of the head some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago.

“There are older cases of bumps and bruises and cases of trauma,” said Erik Trinkaus from Washington University in St Louis, US, to the BBC.”

But this is the first one I am aware of where the most likely interpretation is getting whooped by someone else – to put it bluntly.”

The skull was unearthed in a cave near Maba in 1958 but its significance only came to light recently.

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More Evidence Of Archaeologists Uncovering Evidence Of Early Human Violence

'Earliest' evidence of human violence -- BBC
Evidence uncovered of world's oldest violent argument -- CBS
The Roots of Violence -- The Scientist
Archaeologists Uncover Evidence Of Early Human Violence -- And Caring -- Forbes
Bashed Skull Is Earliest Evidence of Human Aggression? -- National Geographic

Amazing Video: 'Jet Man' Stunts Alongside Fighter Jets Over Alps

WNU Editor: OK .... I am impressed.

U.S. Ranks 28th In Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy 2011 Estimates CIA World Factbook

What's Killing America? U.S. Ranks 28th In Life Expectancy (Lower Than Chile And Greece) While It Pays The MOST For Health Care -- Daily Mail

A new survey on health care is revealing that you may not be getting what you pay for if you check into a U.S. hospital.

The U.S. healthcare system is more effective at delivering high costs than quality care than other developed nations, according to the study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

It found first-rate treatment for cancer but insufficient primary care for other ailments.

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The Construction of NASA's Next Mars Rover

This artist's concept depicts the rover Curiosity, of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, as it uses its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface. ChemCam fires laser pulses at a target and views the resulting spark with a telescope and spectrometers to identify chemical elements. The laser is actually in an invisible infrared wavelength, but is shown here as visible red light for purposes of illustration. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Inside Look: The Construction of NASA's Next Mars Rover -- FOX News

In May 2011, SPACE.com reporter Mike Wall visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as scientists and engineers were wrapping up work on Curiosity, NASA's next Mars rover. This is his account.

It could be a scene from a James Bond film — a glimpse into the archvillain's lair.

Anonymous white-clad workers, their faces obscured by surgical masks, cross a cavernous, high-ceilinged room. They pause to adjust or inspect large pieces of mysterious equipment, some of which is spangled with bright gold foil. It's obvious that they're building something complicated and important.

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Power Source Unveiled For Cyborg Search-And-Rescue Insects

Image: The research team proposed putting two spiral energy harvesters on either side of a beetle's thorax.

Cyborg Search-And-Rescue Insects' Power Source Unveiled -- BBC

Efforts to create an army of cyborg insects are being pursued by a team of US-based engineers.

The group is investigating ways to harvest energy from the creatures to power sensors and other equipment fastened to their bodies.

The team has created an energy scavenging device that is attached close to the insects' wings.

It suggested the creatures might one day be used to aid search-and-rescue operations and surveillance.

The University of Michigan team of engineers published their study in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

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Emails Question The Impact Of Climate Change

Uh Oh, Global Warming Loons: Here Comes Climategate II! -- The Telegraph

Breaking news: two years after the Climategate, a further batch of emails has been leaked onto the internet by a person – or persons – unknown. And as before, they show the "scientists" at the heart of the Man-Made Global Warming industry in a most unflattering light. Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Ben Santer, Tom Wigley, Kevin Trenberth, Keith Briffa – all your favourite Climategate characters are here, once again caught red-handed in a series of emails exaggerating the extent of Anthropogenic Global Warming, while privately admitting to one another that the evidence is nowhere near as a strong as they'd like it to be.

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Update: 'New release' of climate emails -- BBC

My Comment: The BBC reporter in his post is clearly not amused with this additional release of emails .... not a surprise considering the embarrassing nature of its content and the BBC's agenda of promoting the science behind climate change.