Archive for November, 2009
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Making Massive Progress
The BBC reports:
Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they are delighted with the progress made since the machine restarted on Friday.
One official said the collider had done more in a few hours than it did in five days of operations last year.
The LHC is being used to smash together beams of protons in a bid to shed light on the nature of the Universe.
Housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the Franco-Swiss border, it is the world’s largest machine.
During the experiment, scientists will search for signs of the Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is crucial to our current understanding of physics. Although it is predicted to exist, scientists have never found it.
[continues at the BBC]
New Map Suggests Mars Was Wet And Humid
A new detailed map of Mars shows what was likely a vast ocean in the north and valleys around the equator, suggesting that the planet once had a humid, rainy climate, according to research published Monday.
The computer-generated map, based on topographic data from NASA satellites, also shows that the network of valleys on the red planet is at least twice as extensive as previously estimated.
“The relatively high values over extended regions indicate the valleys originated by means of precipitation-fed runoff erosion — the same process that is responsible for formation of the bulk of valleys on our planet,” said Wei Luo, geography professor at Northern Illinois University who co-authored the report.
“A single ocean in the northern hemisphere would explain why there is a southern limit to the presence of valley networks,” Luo said.
“The southernmost regions of Mars, located farthest from the water reservoir, would get little rainfall and would…
Could Nanotech Create Paper-Thin Solar Cells?
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs have “found a simple and yet powerful way to induce nanoparticles to assemble themselves into complex arrays,” and are now working on paper-thin printable solar cells!
Led by Ting Xu (one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10″ young researchers), their technique also “promises to revolutionize the data storage industry, eventually leading to the contents of hundreds of DVDs fitting into a space the size of a thumbnail,” and could also create ultra-small electronic devices.
Tuesday Morning Nightmare News Roundup
From Black Sun Gazette
Hey kids. Sorry I’ve been a little incommunicado as of late. I had to move Fort Black Sun Gazette and it was really time consuming. I’ve also ended my life as a jizz-mopper to be a full-time freelance writer. All in all, it’s going really well. But you aren’t here to hear about my personal life. You’re here to get information that gets you pissed. To welcome myself back to the site, I’d like to give you this morning’s nightmare roundup of news you can’t use. Read this and get pissed. Then take action.
Joseph Moshe Arrested For Predicting Baxter Bioweapon Outbreak
The mystery and disinformation surrounding H1N1 and the Ukraine nightmare are put in focus. Something about this story just doesn’t add up and there have been inexplicable developments right from day one.
It’s got so bad that no-one may now trust government sources or even the WHO.
Some have speculated that mass genocide is the ultimate aim. Nothing in this story contradicts that possibility. There have been accusations that Baxter has released deliberately virulent organisms, designed to reduce the Earth’s population. Nothing said or done by Baxter gives any reassurance that this could not be true!
The specter of a scientist who criticized Baxter being gassed, tazed and dragged from his vehicle on the streets of Los Angeles is hard to accept, in any terms. The US is under marshal law in all but name.
[Click on Read More for part two of the video]
Palin Fan Responds to O’Donnell Interview
Posted by Michael Calderone at politico.com
MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell has taken heat from conservatives for her interview of a Sarah Palin supporter waiting in line at a Barnes & Noble yesterday.
While speaking with people in the line, O’Donnell pointed out the inconsistency of Jackie, a Palin supporter, wearing a shirt against the bailout, which Palin actually supported during the campaign.
Several conservative hosts and bloggers quickly took issue with O’Donnell’s questions for the young woman…
Mystery ‘Dark Flow’ Extends Towards Edge of Universe
From New Scientist:
SOMETHING big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That’s the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called “dark flow” is a sign that other universes nestle next door.
Last year, Sasha Kashlinsky of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues identified an unusual pattern in the motion of around 800 galaxy clusters. They studied the clusters’ motion in the “afterglow” of the big bang, as measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The photons of this afterglow collide with electrons in galaxy clusters as they travel across space to the Earth, and this subtly changes the afterglow’s temperature.
The team combined the WMAP data with X-ray observations and found the clusters were streaming at up to 1000 kilometres per second towards one particular part of the…
How 16 Ships Create as much Pollution as All the Cars in the World
From the Daily Mail:
Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen.
But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use.
We’ve all noticed it. The filthy black smoke kicked out by funnels on cross-Channel ferries, cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and even tugboats.
It looks foul, and leaves a brown haze across ports and shipping lanes. But what hasn’t been clear until now is that it is also a major killer, probably causing thousands of deaths in Britain alone.
As ships get…
Students Held in Jail Overnight without Food in Tuition Hike Protest
From The Raw Story:
Police arrested 52 students protesting a tuition hike Thursday at the University of California-Davis and held them in jail overnight without food. One was reportedly beaten by police, a source close to the incident tells Raw Story.
The incident took place in the midst of widespread protests at several University of California campuses, in response to the Board of Regents’ decision this week to hike tuition fees by 32 percent starting next academic year.
The protesters held a sit-in in Mrak Hall, an administration building on the UC-Davis campus near Sacramento that the authorities told protesters to vacate by 5 p.m. Thursday evening. Officers from the Yolo County sheriff’s office moved in and arrested those who didn’t comply with the order.
[Read more at The Raw Story]
Researcher: Faint Writing Seen on Shroud of Turin
From Yahoo News:
ROME – A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery.
Barbara Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, says in a new book that she used computer-enhanced images of the shroud to decipher faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the cloth.
She asserts that the words include the name “(J)esu(s) Nazarene” — or Jesus of Nazareth — in Greek. That, she said, proves the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have mentioned Jesus without referring to his divinity. Failing to do so would risk being branded a heretic.
“Even someone intent…
Did Harry Potter Really Say “I Love Weed”?
Did Daniel Radcliffe, the actor best known for playing Harry Potter on the silver screen, really say “I love weed” at a party in London? The British media are all over the story, as reported in the Telegraph:
Draco Malfoy has leapt into the drugs storm surrounding Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe defending his on-screen arch-enemy.
Actor Tom Felton, who plays the evil wizard in the movies spoke out about the rumours that co-star Radcliffe used cannabis.
Radcliffe was allegedly pictured inhaling from a rolled up cigarette at a party earlier this month.
A fellow reveller at the gathering said that he overheard the 20-year-old actor declare “I love weed” at a private house party in North London.
But Felton came to the defence of his wizard friend when he appeared at an NEC exhibition in Birmingham.
“Obviously Daniel and Emma Watson are under more pressure to keep a squeaky-clean image. When the media fabricates stories…
Obama’s Extra-judicial Killers
By Nat Hentoff from newtondailynews:
In “Capture or Kill? Lawyers eye options for terrorists” (National Public Radio, Oct. 11), exceptionally alert investigative reporter Ari Shapiro said: “Many national security experts interviewed for this story agree that it has become so hard for the U.S. to detain people that in many instances, the U.S. government is killing them instead.”
As I reported previously, CIA’s secret Predator drone attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan are already doing just that. But, wrote Jane Mayer in “The Predator War” (The New Yorker, Oct. 26):
“The embrace of the Predator program has occurred with remarkably little public discussion.
“That’s why I’m writing this series. Mayer continued: “(yet) it represents a radically new and geographically unbounded use of state-sanctioned lethal force. And, because of the C.I.A. program’s secrecy, there is no visible system of accountability in place, despite the fact that the agency has killed many civilians inside a politically…
Sarah Palin Meets Her Clones On Book Tour
At a Going Rogue book signing a couple days ago in Noblesville, IN, Sarah Palin bumps into her doppelganger. Apparently she is like a gremblin, multiplying at a frightening rate. (No word on how many more clones are out there.) From The Daily What:
Is The Next Bubble Going To Be Gold?
With everyone from Alex Jones to the elite investors on Wall Street loading up on gold or shares in gold mines and other related ventures, are we witnessing the same sort of stampede into the ‘must-have’ investment choice du jour that created the recent credit and housing bubbles, or is this really where the smart money is going? This Marketwatch report suggests the latter, but I wonder if we’ll know when the smart money gets out…
Gold has long been favored by a fringe of the investment world, but this year some of the world’s leading hedge-fund managers have loaded up on the precious metal amid concern government efforts to avoid another Great Depression that could undermine major currencies and fuel rampant inflation.
“I have never been a gold bug,” Paul Tudor Jones, chairman of hedge-fund giant Tudor Investment Corp., wrote in an Oct. 15 letter to investors. “It is just an asset…
Switzerland To Turn Over Secret Bank Account Names
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Swiss government will be revealing to the U.S. government the names of all U.S. taxpayers holding Swiss bank accounts with balances greater than 1 million Swiss francs ($993,000).
The IRS is chomping at the bit: for decades, rich Americans have hidden money tax-free in secret Swiss bank accounts. Up to October 15, the IRS briefly offered a “Voluntary Disclosure” Program for all offshore account holders with undeclared income, giving people a chance to come clean and face reduced penalties. The program experienced a tsunami of applicants towards the final deadline, receiving about 14,700 confessions, far greater than expected.
Now the amnesty period is up.
Concern at Magazine Over Sale to Scientologists
From the New York Times (see this earlier post on disinfo.com linking to the St. Petersburg Times expose and video referred to below):
Over the last several months, The St. Petersburg Times published a series of scathing articles on the Church of Scientology under the rubric “The Truth Rundown.” In 1980, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the church’s inner workings.
Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the organization’s headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla.
So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the newspaper’s management announced that it would sell one of its sibling publications to a California media company whose top management are Scientologists, The New York Times’s Tim Arango writes.
Governing magazine, which is based in Washington and for 23 years has covered the workings of local and state governments across the country, will…
Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages
Julia Angwin and Geoffrey Fowler report for the Wall Street Journal:
Wikipedia.org is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting.
That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet — the empowerment of the amateur.
Volunteers have been departing the project that bills itself as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” faster than new ones have been joining, and the net losses have accelerated over the past year. In the first three months of 2009, the English-language Wikipedia …
When Your Boss Wants Your DNA
Joseph Shapiro reports for NPR:
Last month, Matt Williams, an adjunct professor at the University of Akron, opened an e-mail from his bosses about the school’s new rules for hiring and was “absolutely blown away,” he says, “when I saw the reference to collecting DNA samples.”
The university was saying it could ask new workers for a DNA sample — to run background checks. But Williams knew his DNA could also be used to discover the most private of information about his health — like his genetic risk for cancer, heart disease or mental illness.
To Williams, who taught in the School of Communications, it was one more insult in the hard life of an adjunct professor. (He’s an officer in a national organization, New Faculty Majority, that advocates for adjunct professors.) He says adjuncts at the University of Akron sign new contracts from year to year, so he expected to be counted…
