How Many X-37Bs Are There?

Just How Many X-37Bs Are There? -- Defense Tech

So Air Force Space Command boss Gen. William Shelton gave us a tiny bit more insight into the service’s super secret space spycraft, the X-37B, when he said that it’s doing its super secret — and year-long — mission excellently and that there’s no need for a bigger version of it or to increase the size of the X-37B fleet.

What was really interesting about his comments, was the fact that he wouldn’t say just how big the fleet is. Keep in mind that the service has said that it’s got two of the mini-shuttles for a while now, but Shelton’s response to a question about the size of the fleet raised more questions than it answered.

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Update: Air Force Will Continue to Launch Mysterious X-37B Space Plane (Updated) -- National Defense

My Comment: There are only two, but if the Air Force had the budget .... hmmmm .....

James Cameron Heading To The Bottom Of The Mariana Trench

James Cameron emerges from the hatch of Deepsea Challenger during testing of the submersible in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, Australia in 2012. Photo: AFP

James Cameron Descends To The Bottom Of The Mariana Trench -- The Telegraph

James Cameron, the multi-millionaire Hollywood film director behind Titanic and Avatar, is heading to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in person armed with hi-tech 3D cameras and lights that will capture the moment for cinemagoers.

Fewer people have reached the deepest point in the world's oceans than have walked on the moon, but the obscure worms and tiny crustaceans that reside there are receiving an unlikely visitor.

Cameron set out from the tiny Pacific island of Guam for the Mariana Trench, and is descending more than seven miles straight down in a lime green reinforced submersible, the first ever solo mission to the lowest point on Earth.

Cameron’s 24ft long vertical capsule, The Deepsea Challenger, weighs 11 tons and was built amid great secrecy in Australia over the last eight years.

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My Comment: Good luck.

Red Meat Halves Risk Of Depression

The Australian government recommends eating 65 -100g of lean, red meat three to four times a week Photo: ALAMY

Red Meat Halves Risk Of Depression -- The Telegraph

Women who reduce lamb and beef in their diets are more likely to suffer depression, according to the new study.

Experts admitted surprise at the findings because so many other studies have linked red meat to physical health risks.

The team made the link after a study of 1000 Australian women.

Professor Felice Jacka, who led the research by Deakin University, Victoria, said: "We had originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health but it turns out that it actually may be quite important.

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My Comment: As one who enjoys a good steak .... I agree.

Why Taking A Vacation Is Good For You

The Benefits Of Taking Time Off -- US News And World Report/Inside Science

Taking a vacation may not only make you happy, but increase your job performance.

(ISNS)—Rae and Bruce Hostetler not only work very hard, they also relax just as well. Numerous vacations help the suburban Indianapolis couple to maintain their health and emotional well-being—and it's no surprise to health care professionals.

"Rest, relaxation, and stress reduction are very important for people's well-being and health. This can be accomplished through daily activities, such as exercise and meditation, but vacation is an important part of this as well," said primary care physician Natasha Withers from One Medical Group in New York. Withers lists a decreased risk of heart disease and improved reaction times as some of the benefits from taking some time off.

"We also know that the mind is very powerful and can help with healing, so a rested, relaxed mind is able to help the body heal better," said Withers.

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My Comment: How can I disagree with that.

NSA Chief Denies To Congress That They Are Conducting Domestic Spying

NSA Chief Denies Domestic Spying But Whistleblowers Say Otherwise -- Threat Level

In a rare break from the NSA’s tradition of listening but not speaking, NSA chief General Keith Alexander was grilled Tuesday on the topic of eavesdropping on Americans in front of a House subcommittee.

The questioning from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) was prompted by Wired’s cover story this month on the NSA’s growing reach and capabilities, but leaves Americans with as many questions about the reach of spy agency’s powers as they had before Alexander spoke.

Alexander denied, in carefully parsed words, that the NSA has the power to monitor Americans’ communications without getting a court warrant.

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My Comment: The NSA chief is very careful with his words .... it appears that he has his own definition of spying and eavesdropping.

The Titanic As You've Never Seen It Before

Mapping out the wreck: The ship was four days into its journey from Southampton to New York when it sunk in the middle of the night on April 14, 1912

The Titanic As You've Never Seen It Before: A Century After It Sank, Stunning New Hi-Tech Images Reveal Doomed Ship On Ocean Floor -- Daily Mail

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the 20th century's great dramas, a mystery that has confounded scientists and historians for decades.

There is still an aura of mysticism that remains around that fateful ship and new photos that will be published in the April 2012 edition of National Geographic Magazine provides for the first time a sense of what the wreck looks like today.

These new photographs, shot using state-of-the-art technology by independent research group Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, provide a greater understanding of what happened on that fateful April 15, 1912.

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My Comment: A hundred years anniversary coming up .... I can imagine the parties that will be breaking out around the world on that day.

U.S. Navy Opens A 'Hunger Games' Arena For Military Robots

The Tropical High Bay, part of the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, is a 60' by 40' greenhouse that contains a re-creation of a southeast Asian rain forest. In the Tropical High Bay, temperatures average 80 degrees with 80 percent humidity year round. CREDIT: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

Navy Opens 'Hunger Games' Arena For Military Robots -- Live Science

A new U.S. Navy lab can track every movement of battlefield robots as they struggle to survive arenas built to resemble scorching deserts, wave-pounded shores and tropical rain forests.

The lab's biggest environment has high-speed video cameras that automatically swivel to follow up to 50 ground robots, flying drones and even human soldiers. Such intense surveillance of man-made survival settings may remind science fiction readers of "The Hunger Games" — a popular book series turned Hollywood film(s) where "game makers" construct huge, naturalistic arenas to feature reality television displays of battles to the death.

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Update: The Navy's New Autonomous Research Lab is a 'Hunger Games' Arena for Robots -- Popular Science

My Comment: Hmmmm .... so The "Hunger Games" may not be so sci-fi afterall.

How Quake-Prone Is The Mexico?

Mexico Earthquake: How Quake-Prone Is The Region? -- Christian Science Monitor

Mexico earthquake history shows that the same faults that caused Tuesday's Mexico earthquake can produce even bigger events, like one that struck in 1985.

Authorities in Mexico are surveying that damage following a magnitude 7.4 quake that struck the country just after noon on Tuesday local time.

The quake was centered some 31 miles north-northeast of the city of Ometepec, in a mountainous region dotted with villages. The rupture occurred at a depth of about 12 miles, according to estimates from the US Geological Survey's Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

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Here Comes The U.S. Navy's Robot Jellyfish

Robotic Jellyfish Fuelled By Hydrogen Invented -- BBC

Engineers in the US say they have invented a hydrogen-powered robot that moves through water like a jellyfish.

Development of the robot, nicknamed Robojelly, is in the early stages but researchers hope it could eventually be used in underwater rescue operations.

Writing in Smart Materials and Structures, Yonas Tadesse said the jellyfish's simple swimming action made it an ideal model for a vehicle.

Being fuelled by hydrogen means, in theory, it will not run out of energy.

Mr Tadesse, the lead author of the study, said: "To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source."

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More News On The US Navy's Development Of The Robot Jellyfish

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: American scientists unleash robotic jellyfish -- Daily Mail
Jellyfish-Inspired Robot Runs on Hydrogen -- Discovery News
Robotic jellyfish may never run out of energy -- MSNBC
Ocean-powered robotic jellyfish could theoretically run forever -- Gizmag
Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot -- e! Science News
Robot jellyfish fuelled by hydrogen -- Physics World
Robot jellyfish sucks up power from the water -- New Scientist
Robojelly is a robot jellyfish -- UberGizmo
When the Earth is uninhabited, this robotic jellyfish will still be roaming the seas -- io9

Illegal Logging Makes Billions

Brazil's deforestation rate has risen and fallen in recent years, as enforcement has changed

Illegal Logging Makes Billions For Gangs, Report Says -- BBC

Illegal logging generates $10-15bn (£7.5-11bn) around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank.

Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organised crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials.

Countries affected include Indonesia, Madagascar and several in West Africa.

The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a major impact in some nations, and urges others to do the same.

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My Comment: Make a few makes .... and then spend more to repair the damage. That's the problem with uncontrollable logging.

China Bans The F-Word

Rumours circulated online that the driver of the Ferrari 458 Italia, which can cost as much as £169,545, was the son of a high-ranking government official

China Bans The F-word: Censors Block Ferrari From Social Networks To Suppress Rumours Party Official’s Son Was Involved In An Accident -- Daily Mail

Censors in China have banned internet users from searching the word Ferrari to suppress rumours the son of a senior party official was killed in high-speed car crash.

All references to the Italian supercar company were mysteriously removed from China's online search engines in the early hours this morning.

The ban came after speculation that a young man killed on Sunday when the Ferrari 458 he was driving split in two near Baofusi Bridge, in Beijing, was in fact the son of senior Communist party official.

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More News On China Censoring The 'Ferrari' Word

Why Chinese Censors Banned ‘Ferrari’ From Internet Search -- Jalopnik
‘Ferrari’ banned from internet search in China after 458 Italia crash -- In Auto News
Online restrictions after China Ferrari crash - media -- BBC
Secrecy of mysterious Ferrari crash fuels speculation in Beijing -- Globe And Mail
Ferrari Crash Cover Up and China’s Filthy Rich Kids -- ABC News
China hopes to drive traffic away from Ferrari users -- The Guardian

Females Achieve Sexual Pleasure And Orgasm By Working Out

Females Achieve Orgasm and Sexual Pleasure By Working Out -- Sci-Tech Daily

It looks like time at the gym may be more satisfying for women than a hot date. A new study from the University of Indiana confirms that women can achieve an orgasm, often called “coregasm,” simply by working out.

While not unheard of, reports of “coregasm” have circulated in the media for years, these are the first confirmed findings authored by Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation and J. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D., professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Center for Sexual Health Promotion affiliate. The findings are published in a special issue of Sexual and Relationship Therapy.

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My Comment: I guess this is a new spin on the term "I's going for a work-out".

Neuroscience: Ethics And National Security

(credit: MGM)

Neuroscience, Ethics, And National Security: The State Of The Art -- Kurzweilai

U.S. military and intelligence communities fund and utilize an array of neuroscience applications, generating profound ethical issues, say researchers from Wake Forest University and theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Neuroscience offers possibilities for cutting edge, deployable solutions for the needs of national security and defence, but are, or at least should be, tempered by questions of scientific validity, consequential ethical considerations, and concern for the relationship between science and security, according to the researchers.

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Check Out How You Are Being Tracked On The Web

Cool Science Editor: Check out how you are being tracked .... try this!.

Military Funding Of Brain Research Raises Ethical Issues

The Future Soldier Initiative. CREDIT: U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Design and Engineering Center in Massachusetts.

Military-Funded Brain Science Sparks Controversy -- Live Science

Brain research and associated advances such as brain-machine interfaces that are funded by the U.S. military and intelligence communities raise profound ethical concerns, caution researchers who cite the potentially lethal applications of such work and other consequences.

Rapid advances in neuroscience made over the last decade have many dual-use applications of both military and civilian interest. Researchers who receive military funding — with the U.S. Department of Defense spending more than $350 million on neuroscience in 2011 — may not fully realize how dangerous their work might be, say scientists in an essay published online today (March 20) in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.

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My Comment: You know that this research is important when the U.S. Department of Defense spends more than $350 million on neuroscience in 2011 alone.

60 Minutes Interview: Billionaire Entrepreneur Elon Musk And His Company SpaceX

Is Your TV Watching You?

The new Samsung HDTV has hard-wired camera and microphone, plus face recognition and other unprecedented features.

Is Your TV Watching You? Latest Models Raise Concerns -- MSNBC

Samsung’s 2012 top-of-the-line plasmas and LED HDTVs offer new features never before available within a television including a built-in, internally wired HD camera, twin microphones, face tracking and speech recognition. While these features give you unprecedented control over an HDTV, the devices themselves, more similar than ever to a personal computer, may allow hackers or even Samsung to see and hear you and your family, and collect extremely personal data.

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My Comment: I guess CIA Director Petraeus was onto something.

Is The iPad3 Overheating?

Selling like hot cakes: people wait on a street in front of an Apple store for the new iPad. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

New iPad Runs Hotter Than Skin Temperature, Say Reports -- The Guardian

Tests by Dutch technology site suggest 'iPad 3' can get hotter than 32C, as new iPad sales top 3m in three days.

The "new iPad" – AKA iPad 3 – operates at a higher temperature than its predecessor, according to tests. And it's got people complaining in support forums that it feels "hot" – which appears to be because when it starts running warm, it goes above normal skin temperature.

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My Comment: Oh oh.

Virgin Galactic Gets It`s 500th Customer

Actor Ashton Kutcher is set to go into orbit on board Richard Branson's pioneering space ship, the Virgin Galactic Photo: Reuters/EPA

Ashton Kutcher To Be Propelled Into Orbit Aboard Virgin Galactic -- The Telegraph

Actor Ashton Kutcher is set to go into orbit after becoming the 500th customer to sign up for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's pioneering space ship, the British tycoon said Monday.

The newly-single star, who split from actress Demi Moore in November, is "thrilled" to join the line for the Virgin Galactic service, which is in its "final stages" of flight tests, Branson wrote on his blog.

"I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him," wrote the multi-millionaire entrepreneur, known for his trademark publicity stunts.

"He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself."

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My Comment: If I had the money .... I would sign up.

How Satellites Are Locating Ancient Human Settlements

The MIT software looks for signs of ancient settlements including earth disturbed by collapsing mud huts, and lighter areas of earth created by disturbed soil

Satellites Identify Thousands Of Small Hills As Ancient Human Settlements -- Christian Science Monitor

Now, two scientists have figured out a more efficient way of locating these sites, via their footprints, from space.

Ancient humans have changed the landscape around their settlements in such ways that even today archaeologists can distinguish between "lived in" spots and those never occupied by humans.

Now, two scientists have figured out a more efficient way of locating these sites, via their footprints, from space.

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More News On How Satellites Are Locating Ancient Human Settlements

A missing chapter in history? New satellite technique finds 9,000 ancient settlements dotted across what is now Syria -- Daily Mail
Satellites expose 8,000 years of civilization -- Nature
Satellite Views Reveal Early Human Settlements -- Discovery News
Satellites spy 1000s of ancient human settlements -- CBS/Live Science
Ancient sites spotted from space, say archaeologists -- BBC
Researchers Discover Thousands Of Early Human Settlements In Syria -- IBTimes
Using Space Satellites to Spot Ancient Cities -- Smithsonian