A Plan To Place An Asteroid In Earth Orbit - Technology Review
Their inspiration is a phenomenon that astronomers have noticed with Jupiter. Every now and again, the gas giant captures a nearby object, which hangs around for a few years and then wanders off into space.
A good example is the comet Oterma which went into orbit about Jupiter in1936 before heading off into the Solar System two years later.
Could a similar thing happen to Earth, ask Baoyin and co. Having studied the orbits of the 6000 known near Earth objects (NEO), they say the short answer is no. None of them will come close enough for Earth to capture.
Western Oil Majors Will Get the First Crack at Libyan Oil Production - Money Morning
Really? No way! What an unusual set of circumstances...
"Countries that supported the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime are likely to get first crack at post-war Libyan oil production, while those that sat on the sidelines are at risk of losing out.
"We don't have a problem with Western countries like the Italians, French and U.K. companies. But we may have some political issues with Russia, China andBrazil," Abdeljalil Mayouf, information manager at Libyan rebel oil firm AGOCO, told Reuters.
"
'via Blog this'
"We don't have a problem with Western countries like the Italians, French and U.K. companies. But we may have some political issues with Russia, China andBrazil," Abdeljalil Mayouf, information manager at Libyan rebel oil firm AGOCO, told Reuters.
"
'via Blog this'
Guatemalans infected with syphilis by US researchers -- GlobalPost
Unfreakingbelievable:
"The researchers infected hundreds of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases as part of research in the 1940s to study the effects of penicillin. They did so without telling the Guatemalans that it was being done or that they were participants in a study, BBC reports."
CERN - has found that cosmic rays affect cloud formation.
Cool! Not that I necessarily disagree with an anthropogenic mechanism of global warming but I do agree there must be other factors like this in play.
DHS Announces Racial Profiling Free-For-All This Sept. 11 | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"My advice to anyone with even the slightest amount of melanin in their skin is just to stay inside and wait it out, because we're going to be handing out pat-downs and full-on detentions like there's no tomorrow."
Tased From Above! New Robot Copter To Begin Patrolling Our Skies (video) | Singularity Hub
The ShadowHawk is the seven-foot, 50-lb copter that is the toy-sized dealer of destruction from Texas-based Vanguard Defense Industries. The copter is the result of three years of development. If being tased from above sounds frightening to you, I suggest you cease all criminal activities now (simply staying indoors is an option). There’s a good chance ShadowHawk’s spine tingling buzz could be heard approaching a city near you. As a sign of new law enforcement tactics to come, the Sheriff’s Office of Montgomery County, Texas wasrecently awarded a grant by the Department of Homeland Security for a squadron of ShadowHawks. Montgomery County’s Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel is psyched. “We are very excited about the funding and looking forward to placing the equipment into the field. Both my narcotics and SWAT units have been looking at numerous ways to deploy it and I absolutely believe it will become a critical component on all SWAT callouts and narcotics raids and emergency management operations.”
Police Raid Gun and Safe Store
The U.S. Air Force led a rare raid against a Las Vegas gun shop Friday afternoon. Investigators removed pieces of evidence and took several people into custody.
The initial raid lasted less than an hour.
"These guys were in full get-up, automatic weapons," said Bahama Mamas manager Joe Gold.
Armored SWAT tanks, officers carrying machine guns, K-9s, the FBI, ATF, and the U.S. Air Force made a grand entrance at the business park on Dean Martin Drive near Flamingo Road.
Heavy on action and light on information, investigators remained tight-lipped about the warrants served at the Citadel Gun and Safe store and an unoccupied building behind it.
Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards
Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards: We investigated the association between a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 applicant’s self-identified race or ethnicity and the probability of receiving an award by using data from the NIH IMPAC II grant database, the Thomson Reuters Web of Science, and other sources. Although proposals with strong priority scores were equally likely to be funded regardless of race, we find that Asians are 4 percentage points and black or African-American applicants are 13 percentage points less likely to receive NIH investigator-initiated research funding compared with whites. After controlling for the applicant’s educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record, and employer characteristics, we find that black applicants remain 10 percentage points less likely than whites to be awarded NIH research funding. Our results suggest some leverage points for policy intervention.
Legalize it!
Nature News Blog: Weed sequenced. No really - weed.
At last, the field of genomics has something to offer Cheech and Chong. DNA sequencing hit a new high last night with the midnight release of the Cannabis sativa genome. The raw sequence was posted on Amazon’s EC2 public cloud computing service by a young company called Medicinal Genomics, which aims to explore the genomes of therapeutic plants.
Parasite-infected rodents attracted to cat odor study finds
New research shows how a brain parasite can manipulate rodent fear responses for the parasite's own benefit. The study, authored by Patrick House and Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and released this week in PloS One, addressed how the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii makes infected rodents more likely to spend time near cat odors. The study finds Toxoplasma-infected male rats have altered activation in brain regions involved in fear and increased activation of brain regions involved in sexual attraction after exposure to cat odors. The findings may help explain the biological bases of innate fear and sexual attraction.
'Boozer' EV sets 1,000 miles-plus record on single charge
An experimental electric vehicle called "Schluckspecht" ("boozer," or "tippler" in German) has set the record for achieving the longest drive in a battery-powered vehicle on a single battery charge. Its record-breaking distance was 1,013.8 miles (1,631.5 km). The trip lasted 36 hours and 12 minutes. The Schluckspecht E, as the winning machine is called, was developed at Germany’s University of Applied Sciences, Offenburg, in collaboration with other academic groups. The test drive took place in Boxberg at the Bosch corporate test track, where a team of four drivers made the trip, as they took turns navigating over the long stretch of hours.
As Chavez Pulls Venezuela's Gold From JP Morgan, Is The Great Scramble For Physical Starting? | ZeroHedge
Interesting
Holy Jet Planes Batman!
US military to launch fastest-ever plane | World news | The Guardian
By the time you finish reading this sentence, the Falcon HTV-2, the fastest plane ever built, could have flown 18 miles. It would get from London to Sydney in less than an hour, while withstanding temperatures of almost 2,000C, hotter than the melting point of steel.
Thousands line up for free dental services in Woodstock
"The two-day clinic at First Baptist Church of Woodstock on Hwy. 92 is being sponsored by the Georgia Dental Association and its Foundation for Oral Health.
'The line went around the building, all the way through the parking lot and around a warehouse,' said Dr. Richard Smith, who practices in Atlanta. He estimated the line at 2,000 yards and said that at its peak, 4,000 people were in line."
NASA Researchers: DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space
"People have been discovering components of DNA in meteorites since the 1960's, but researchers were unsure whether they were really created in space or if instead they came from contamination by terrestrial life," said Dr. Michael Callahan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "For the first time, we have three lines of evidence that together give us confidence these DNA building blocks actually were created in space." Callahan is lead author of a paper on the discovery appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
School bans Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5, so Vonnegut Library gives copies to students for free
This is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The "f word" is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ.
Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.
haven't read the post at this blog, except for the quotation which is a good one.
'Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.'
Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’"
Breaking News
"Another bargoer confirmed Bernanke stood about 2 inches from her face and sprayed her with saliva, claiming inflation was going to 'totally screw' consumer confidence and then asking if he could bum a smoke."
Various matters
Glenn is by far my favorite commentator. Scroll down to part 5 for this story below but there are several other good points from Glenn.
One tribal sheik, Youseff Ahmad, spoke about the debate about the future role of United States forces here that has dominated Iraqi public life of late. 'We want them to leave, even before the end of this year,' Mr. Ahmad said. 'They’ve destroyed us. They’ve only brought killing and disaster.'"
NASA finds new evidence of liquid water on Mars - Yahoo! News
NASA finds new evidence of liquid water on Mars - Yahoo! News: "NASA scientists believe that if there is liquid water on Mars, it would be highly salty and lie beneath the surface. That would explain why it would not freeze in the planet's frigid surface temperatures, which can fall to around 200 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 128 degrees Celsius), or evaporate in its low air pressure.
'It is more like a syrup, maybe, in how it flows,' said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator in charge of a special camera on the Mars orbiter called a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment."
'It is more like a syrup, maybe, in how it flows,' said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator in charge of a special camera on the Mars orbiter called a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment."
Wafting poison makes fertile ground for suit in Stearns County
"Improperly applied pesticides repeatedly drift over from neighboring farms, often with dire consequences for Johnson. But now, thanks to a new court ruling, he and other farmers can sue to recover their losses.
Letting damaging chemicals cross property lines is trespassing, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Monday. Moreover, since those pesticides made his crop unsalable in the organic market, Johnson is entitled to damages from the company that applied it, the Paynesville Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Co., the court said."
Letting damaging chemicals cross property lines is trespassing, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Monday. Moreover, since those pesticides made his crop unsalable in the organic market, Johnson is entitled to damages from the company that applied it, the Paynesville Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Co., the court said."
8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance
Scary but true...
"The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class. In the 1880s and 1890s, American farmers with little or no schooling created a Populist movement that organized America’s largest-scale working people’s cooperative, formed a People’s Party that received 8 percent of the vote in 1892 presidential election, designed a “subtreasury” plan (that had it been implemented would have allowed easier credit for farmers and broke the power of large banks) and sent 40,000 lecturers across America to articulate it, and evidenced all kinds of sophisticated political ideas, strategies and tactics absent today from America’s well-schooled population. Today, Americans who lack college degrees are increasingly shamed as “losers”; however, Gore Vidal and George Carlin, two of America’s most astute and articulate critics of the corporatocracy, never went to college, and Carlin dropped out of school in the ninth grade. "
"The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class. In the 1880s and 1890s, American farmers with little or no schooling created a Populist movement that organized America’s largest-scale working people’s cooperative, formed a People’s Party that received 8 percent of the vote in 1892 presidential election, designed a “subtreasury” plan (that had it been implemented would have allowed easier credit for farmers and broke the power of large banks) and sent 40,000 lecturers across America to articulate it, and evidenced all kinds of sophisticated political ideas, strategies and tactics absent today from America’s well-schooled population. Today, Americans who lack college degrees are increasingly shamed as “losers”; however, Gore Vidal and George Carlin, two of America’s most astute and articulate critics of the corporatocracy, never went to college, and Carlin dropped out of school in the ninth grade. "
USCENTCOM buys software to impersonate social networkers & bloggers; blogosphere shows tell-tale signs amid war on Libya
Mr Anderson......
"In an ominous development in March this year (in the lead-up to the war on Libya and the destabilisation of Syria), US Central Command – USCENTCOM – purchased a piece of software allowing US government employees to assume multiple fake online identities, complete with false backgrounds, supporting details, and IP address masking functionality. On top of the universal deception that takes place in the corporate media, it is evident that the goal of this venture is to spread propaganda and disinformation. These fake identities with a full portfolio of background information and supporting details, will carry a sheen of authenticity otherwise reserved for the likes of Wikileaks."
Greek protester who resisted Nazi rule turns fire on EU
Greek protester who resisted Nazi rule turns fire on EU | World news | The Guardian:
"Seventy years ago Manolis Glezos scaled the walls of the Acropolis to tear down the swastika, hoisted over the monument that Hitler had triumphantly described as a symbol of 'human culture'. This single act of defiance – the first direct action against Nazi rule in Greece – would go on to cast the headstrong young man as one of the country's greatest defenders of democracy.
Today the enemy may have changed, but at nearly 89, Glezos is still fighting. For many Greeks he has become a symbol of resistance in another, very different sort of war: one that has pitted the near-bankrupt country against the forces of world capitalism and thrown it into an unprecedented struggle for its economic survival."
Today the enemy may have changed, but at nearly 89, Glezos is still fighting. For many Greeks he has become a symbol of resistance in another, very different sort of war: one that has pitted the near-bankrupt country against the forces of world capitalism and thrown it into an unprecedented struggle for its economic survival."
Senate Panel Keeps ‘Secret Patriot Act’ Under Wraps
Business as usual.
African crested rat uses poison trick to foil predators
Fatal Radiation Levels At Fukushima Now 'Off The Scale'
A guy I work with is moving to within 50km of Fukushima. Go figure.
"Plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said radiation greater than 10 sieverts per hour was found at the foot of a ventilation chimney between two reactors, Reuters reports. According to the World Nuclear Association, a single dose of 10 sieverts is fatal, while just half that would kill 50 per cent of people exposed to it."
"Plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said radiation greater than 10 sieverts per hour was found at the foot of a ventilation chimney between two reactors, Reuters reports. According to the World Nuclear Association, a single dose of 10 sieverts is fatal, while just half that would kill 50 per cent of people exposed to it."
Funky Tut
Half of European men share King Tut’s DNA:
"Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III, based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel."
NC works on compensation for sterilization victims
Sterilizing a 14 year old? Unbelievable what was done.
See the asteroid trapped in Earth’s orbit
Useless Pharmaceutical Studies, Real Harm
"One reason is that the study was not quite what it seemed. It looked like a clinical trial, but as litigation documents have shown, it was actually a marketing device known as a “seeding trial.” The purpose of seeding trials is not to advance research but to make doctors familiar with a new drug...
In an age of for-profit clinical research, this is the new face of scandal. Pharmaceutical companies promote their drugs with pseudo-studies that have little if any scientific merit, and patients naïvely sign up, unaware of the ways in which they are being used. Nobody really knows how often companies conduct such trials, but they appear with alarming regularity in pharmaceutical marketing documents.
In an age of for-profit clinical research, this is the new face of scandal. Pharmaceutical companies promote their drugs with pseudo-studies that have little if any scientific merit, and patients naïvely sign up, unaware of the ways in which they are being used. Nobody really knows how often companies conduct such trials, but they appear with alarming regularity in pharmaceutical marketing documents.
Japanese monitor radiation on their own - Times Union
Japanese monitor radiation on their own - Times Union: "Local officials kept telling her that their remote village was safe, even though it was less than 20 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But her daughter remained dubious.
So starting in April, Okoshi began using her dosimeter to check nearby forest roads and rice paddies. What she found was startling. Near one sewage ditch, the meter beeped wildly, and the screen read 67 microsieverts per hour, a potentially harmful level. Okoshi and a cousin who lives nearby worked up the courage to confront elected officials, who did not respond, confirming their worry that the government was not doing its job."
So starting in April, Okoshi began using her dosimeter to check nearby forest roads and rice paddies. What she found was startling. Near one sewage ditch, the meter beeped wildly, and the screen read 67 microsieverts per hour, a potentially harmful level. Okoshi and a cousin who lives nearby worked up the courage to confront elected officials, who did not respond, confirming their worry that the government was not doing its job."
You are a den of vipers and thieves
OpEdNews - Quotation: Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long:
"Quotation by Andrew Jackson:
Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.'
-- Andrew Jackson"
Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.'
-- Andrew Jackson"
Enough Water for Over 100 Trillion Oceans
Enough Water for Over 100 Trillion Oceans « It's Interesting:
and another post from It's Interesting.
"A team of international scientists analyzing a quasar 12 billion light-years from Earth say there is water vapor in the object – which they call “a voraciously feeding black hole” – equivalent to 34 billion times the mass of our planet. They say it’s the largest mass of water ever found."
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