Archive for June, 2009
Definitive Evidence Of Lake On Mars
A University of Colorado at Boulder research team has discovered the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars, an indication of a deep, ancient lake there and a finding with implications for the discovery of past life on the Red Planet.
Estimated to be more than 3 billion years old, the lake appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep — roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said CU-Boulder Research Associate Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study. The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, included a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits.
“This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars,” said Di Achille. “The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the…
Witness the Media Blame Game (Or, There Can Be Only One!)
The Daily Show: The media’s arguments over who is to blame for James von Brunn’s hate crime devolve into their lowest form. Jon Stewart rightly conveys in this montage, There can be only one! (Two man enter, one man leave…)
Now Your DNA Can Be Used For Machine Parts
Annalee Newitz, io9.com: We’re closer than ever to turning our bodies into computers. A study published this week in Science demonstrates how to turn DNA into a simple counter. That means your DNA could eventually be reprogrammed with a shut down command.
One of the many features of DNA is that it responds to signals over time. It interacts with molecules and enzymes in the cell which often tell it to do something later, after it has received several other chemical signals — or to react instantly when in the presence of certain proteins. The fact that DNA responds predictably to certain signals means that it could be turned into a counter that measures time via regularly delivered molecular signals. So if you built a biological machine that needed to count particulate matter in the air, DNA would be the perfect mechanism to use.
Just a re-engineer it to emit a particular…
Breastfeeding May Boost Grades
DENVER (UPI) — Breastfeeding was associated with an increase in high school grade point average and an increase in the odds of attending college, U.S. researchers said.
The study, published in the Journal of Human Capital, looked at the academic achievement of siblings — one of whom was breast fed as an infant and one of whom was not — found that an additional month of breastfeeding was associated with an increase in high school GPA of 0.019 points and an increase in the probability of college attendance of 0.014.
American University professor Joseph Sabia and University of Colorado Denver professor Daniel Rees used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They said more than one-half of the estimated effect on high school grades of being breast fed, and approximately one-fifth of the estimated effect on college attendance, can be linked to improvements in cognitive ability and health.
The researchers examined the…
Sun Spot Problem Finally Solved
You’d think the return of blemishes on your face would be an unwelcome thing. But if the face is that of the Sun, and the blemish is actually a planet-sized knot of tangled magnetic fields, then it’s actually most welcome indeed. Because now we’re starting to understand why they’re coming back.
After nearly two years of an acne-free surface, the first sunspots are starting to pop up on the Sun. Sunspots are regions on the Sun where the magnetic field lines of our nearest star erupt through its surface, and are an indicator of the amount of magnetic activity going on inside the Sun. Unlike a simple bar magnet, the solar magnetic field activity increases and decreases on a roughly 11-year cycle, and the number of sunspots follows in response. When the magnetic activity starts to rise after the cycle bottoms out, sunspots start to appear at a solar latitude of…
A Rash of Bizarre UFO Abductions in Australia
Annalee Newitz, io9.com: The inter-webs are buzzing with reports that countless people in Australia are claiming aliens abducted them and took them to some kind of medical facility over the Blue Mountains.
George, a bank manager in Sydney, Australia, told a reporter:
“I had the window wide open and was lying in my bed next to it trying to get a cool breeze happening. I was drowsy but definitely not asleep. Then I began floating out my window and over Sydney. I wasn’t nervous but felt a bit surprised, like what the hell was happening. It was as if I had been sedated, thinking back. I saw the city pass by under or at least felt as if it was and then thought I might have been going over some bush or mountains.
“I was on a platform and then on some kind of operating table in a chamber within a UFO, I…
Sun Spot Problem Finally Solved
You’d think the return of blemishes on your face would be an unwelcome thing.
But if the face is that of the Sun, and the blemish is actually a planet-sized knot of tangled magnetic fields, then it’s actually most welcome indeed. Because now we’re starting to understand why they’re coming back.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/MDI_quiet.jpg
After nearly two years of an acne-free surface, the first sunspots are starting to pop up on the Sun. Sunspots are regions on the Sun where the magnetic field lines of our nearest star erupt through its surface, and are an indicator of the amount of magnetic activity going on inside the Sun. Unlike a simple bar magnet, the solar magnetic field activity increases and decreases on a roughly 11-year cycle, and the number of sunspots follows in response. When the magnetic activity starts to rise after the cycle bottoms out, sunspots start to appear at a solar latitude of 22…
45 Famous Last Meals
1. Adolf Eichmann: He declined a special meal, preferring a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He drank about half of it.
2. Aileen Wuornos: She declined a special meal, but had a hamburger and other snack food from the prison’s canteen. Later, she drank a cup of coffee.
3. Allen Lee Davis: 350-pound “Tiny” Davis had the following last meal: one lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.
4. Ángel Nieves Díaz: He declined a special meal. He was then served the regular prison meal for that day, but he declined that as well.
5. Bruno Richard Hauptmann: Celery, olives, chicken, French fries, buttered peas, cherries, and a slice of cake.
6. Dennis Wayne Bagwell: Medium rare steak with A1 Steak Sauce, fried chicken breasts and thighs, BBQ ribs, French fries, onion…
Photoshopped Rallies In Iran
Over the past few days, we have seen much footage of angry anti-government rallies in Tehran as young Iranians lash out over perceived voter fraud in their presidential election. But, there also have been pro-Ahmadinejad counter rallies as well. Just maybe not ones that were quite as large as Iran’s newspapers want people to believe.
The Story of the Beatles in Two Minutes
Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo: I don’t care about Rock Band. Or Beatles Rock Band. Not even Lego Rock Band. But I do care about The Beatles, and the game’s opening cinematic is just a perfect, beautiful summary of their history.
Revolution, Flashmobs, And Brain Chips: A Grim Vision Of The Future
Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx’s proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe’s drops as fertility falls. “Flashmobs” – groups rapidly mobilized by criminal gangs or terrorists groups.
This is the world in 30 years’ time envisaged by a Ministry of Defense team responsible for painting a picture of the “future strategic context” likely to face Britain’s armed forces. It includes an “analysis of the key risks and shocks”. Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD’s Development, Concepts & Doctrine Center which drew up the report, describes the assessments as “probability-based, rather than predictive”.
The 90-page report comments on widely discussed issues such as the growing economic importance of India and China, the militarization of space, and even what it calls “declining news quality” with the rise of “internet-enabled, citizen-journalists”…
Temporary Restraining Order Issued in Salinger Case
In a precedent-setting ruling today, federal judge Deborah Batts ruled that J.D. Salinger’s most famous character, Holden Caulfield, is protected by copyright. She did not rule, however, on whether Swedish author Fredrik Colting’s use of Salinger’s iconic character in his book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye was allowable under fair use, and issued a temporary restraining order blocking its publication. Salinger’s lawyers have asked for a preliminary injunction permanently blocking publication of the book in the U.S., claiming it is tantamount to an unauthorized sequel. Batts now has 10 days under the order to decide whether to enjoin publication of 60 Years Later, though she can extend that period by another 10 days if necessary.
Batts’ ruling is the first time that the Second Circuit has explicitedly ruled that a single character from a single work is copyrightable. Colting’s attorneys argued that past cases have extended copyright to characters that…
The Bomb Iran Contingent’s Newfound Concern For The Iranian People
I’m going to leave the debate about whether Iran’s election was “stolen” and the domestic implications within Iran to people who actually know what they’re talking about (which is a very small subset of the class purporting to possess such knowledge). But there is one point I want to make about the vocal and dramatic expressions of solidarity with Iranians issuing from some quarters in the U.S.
During the presidential campaign, John McCain infamously sang about Bomb, Bomb, Bomb-ing Iran. The Wall St. Journal published a war screed from Commentary’s Norman Podhoretz entitled “The Case for Bombing Iran,” and following that, Podhoretz said in an interview that he “hopes and prays” that the U.S. “bombs the Iranians”.
Imagine how many of the people protesting this week would be dead if any of these bombing advocates had their way — just as those who paraded around (and still parade around) under the banner of…
The Taliban Will ‘Never Be Defeated’
THE Pakistani intelligence agent who trained Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, to fight has warned that Nato forces will never overpower their enemies in Afghanistan and should talk to them rather than sacrifice more lives.
A tall, bearded figure, whose real name is Amir Sultan Tarar, he trained at Fort Bragg, the US army base where America’s special forces are stationed. During the late 1970s and 1980s he controlled CIA-funded training camps for 95,000 Afghans and often accompanied his students on missions.
After the Soviet defeat and the collapse of communism, he was invited to the White House by the first President George Bush and was given a piece of the Berlin Wall with a brass plaque inscribed: “To the one who dealt the first blow.”
Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found Via “Crop Circles”
Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.
A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among “Britain’s first architecture,” according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.
For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is “completely amazing,” said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.
Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is “remarkable,” he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.
Bible-Centric Google Map
Wondering where the events described in Leviticus, Corinthians, Deuteronomy, or other sections of the bible took place? Biblemap.org is an interactive map shows you exactly where various biblically-significant happenings allegedly occurred, so that you can a grip on the geography of the bible. Sadly, there don’t seem to be any bible events set in America; I guess for that, you need the Book of Mormon.
Joan Walsh And Bill O’Reilly
Salon editor Joan Walsh appeared on The O’Reilly Factor a few days ago to discuss the murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller; she had criticized O’Reilly’s on-air foaming-at-the-mouth rhetoric as influencing right-wing extremists who go on to commit fatal shootings.
Who “has blood on their hands?” Regardless, Bill O’Reilly was reduced to a quivering, blathering mound of anger. Gawker analysed Walsh’s performance to create a list of ways guests can best Bill O’Reilly on his show:
* Remain calm.
* Finish your sentences, even if O’Reilly interrupts you.
* Don’t raise your voice higher than Bill’s, or get more emotional. This way, he looks like the crazy one, as nature intended.
* Leave no charge unanswered, even if it sounds absurd. Especially if it sounds absurd.
Girl Talk Deconstructs Samples
In the modern laptop era, any monkey with Pro Tools can make a mashup. But Pittsburgh-based computer maestro Girl Talk (known to the IRS as Gregg Gillis) has turned the cut-and-paste process into a jams-packed jigsaw puzzle. His latest album, Feed the Animals (released digitally in June with hard copies out September 23), brims with 300 song snippets in just over 50 minutes (compared to around 250 in his previous effort). “People want to see the bar raised,” Gillis says.
Cocaine Seized In Dead Sharks
Drug smugglers stashed more than a tonne of cocaine in the carcasses of frozen sharks. Mexican naval officers found slabs of cocaine inside more than 20 sharks aboard a freight ship.
X-ray machines and sniffer dogs helped to uncover the haul in the Gulf coast port of Progreso in Yucatan state. Mexican Navy Commander Eduardo Villa said: “We are talking about more than a tonne of cocaine that was inside the ship.
“Those in charge of the shipment said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine.” Drug barons are coming up with increasingly creative ways of smuggling drugs bound for the US. Shipments of cocaine have also been discovered hidden inside sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture.
