Archive for June, 2011
Canadian Meteorite Has All the Building Blocks for Life
Interesting article from Tim Barribeau on io9.com:
The argument that life on Earth may have been seeded from the stars just received a major boost, as scientists have found the building blocks of life inside a meteorite that landed in British Columbia in 2000.
The Tagish Lake meteorite landed in January of that year, a streaking fireball that burst into more than 500 fragments which rained down on the lake. In its trip from the outer reaches of the asteroid belt it burned down from 56 tonnes to 1.3, and deep inside the fragments there are the basic building blocks of life, including the amino acids, sugars and hydrocarbons that could have jump started life on our planet.
This meteorite is the only uncontaminated example we’ve ever found, thanks to the quick actions of the people who spotted it. What the researchers have found is that the organic compounds in the rock date back to…
Why Google Earth Can’t Show You Israel
Hamed Aleaziz writes in Mother Jones:
Since Google launched its Google Earth feature in 2005, the company has become a worldwide leader in providing high-resolution satellite imagery. In 2010, Google Earth allowed the world to see the extent of the destruction in post-earthquake Haiti. This year, Google released similar images after Japan’s deadly tsunami and earthquake. With just one click, Google can bring the world—and a better understanding of far-away events—to your computer.
There is one entire country, however, that Google Earth won’t show you: Israel.
That’s because, in 1997, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, one section of which is titled, “Prohibition on collection and release of detailed satellite imagery relating to Israel.” The amendment, known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, calls for a federal agency, the NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, to regulate the dissemination of zoomed-in images of Israel.
President Obama Claims War Powers Act Does Not Apply to Libya
WTF, Obama … Charlie Savage and Mark Landler report in the NY Times:
The White House, pushing hard against criticism in Congress over the deepening air war in Libya, asserted Wednesday that President Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without Congressional approval because American involvement fell short of full-blown hostilities.
In a 38-page report sent to lawmakers describing and defending the NATO-led operation, the White House said the mission was prying loose Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s grip on power.
In contending that the limited American role did not oblige the administration to ask for authorization under the War Powers Resolution, the report asserted that “U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops.” Still, the White House acknowledged, the operation has cost the Pentagon $716 million in its first two months and will have cost $1.1 billion by…
New Che Guevera Diary Published
Via The Guardian:
A previously unpublished diary kept by Ernesto “Che” Guevara during the guerilla campaign he fought alongside Fidel Castro has been released in Cuba.
Diary of a Combatant covers the period from 1956 until late 1958, beginning with Guevara’s arrival in Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with Fidel and Raúl Castro and going on to cover his march from the east of the island to Havana.
The book was unveiled in the Cuban capital on Tuesday on what would have been the Argentine-born revolutionary’s 83rd birthday. His widow, Aleida March, was on hand with one of his daughters to sign copies and said that the purpose of publishing the diary was “to acknowledge his thoughts, life and work”.
The book was edited by the Che Guevara Studies centre, which is directed by March, and published by Australian firm Ocean Press/Ocean Sur.
One reason why the publication of the diaries had been put off was…
Lawmakers Debate The Mass Killing Of Sea Lions In The Pacific Northwest
Photo: Oregongirlmary (CC)
Kill the sea lions to save the salmon? The Raw Story reports:
A House Natural Resources Committee panel is holding a hearing this morning about the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act (HR 946), which, under its tame-sounding official name, would authorize tribal members in the Pacific Northwest to kill sea lions to allow the endangered wild salmon to replenish in the Columbia River.
“As Northwest residents spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to protect salmon, California sea lions camp out at Bonneville Dam and other areas along the Columbia River and gorge themselves on endangered fish,” Natural Resources Committee chairman Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) explained in a statement last month.
The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration in May authorized “lethal” removal of sea lions on the 140-mile stretch of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington below the dam.
“This is not an easy decision for our agency to make, but…
Brave New Films Invites You To Edit Sarah Palin’s Movie
The last thing anyone wants to do is give Sarah Palin more media press. More attention isn’t going to make her go away, however. Brave New Films is inviting you to help edit her new film by adding comments she forgot mention.
There’s nothing funny about Palin or her influence on our democracy, but together we can use satire to make an impact and undermine her aura of authenticity and altruism. Satire is an effective tool to take the conservative opposition’s perceived strengths and use it against them, which is what we’re doing here with Palin’s movie.
Submit what you think Palin has left out at palinundefeated.com and you could win her bobblehead.
Know Your Email Senders’ Political Donations
Creepy and cool — an add-on tool from the Sunlight Foundation that, with a single click, gives you the hidden political allegiances of both companies or institutions and family, friends, and coworkers. Perhaps someday when you apply for a job or an apartment, your boss or landlord will use it on you:
Inbox Influence provides details on both the sender of the email and the company from which it was sent. With it, you can even see how your friends and family have given to political campaigns. Perhaps Uncle Joe has more mainstream views after all?
Burundanga: The Drug Against Free Will
It turns out that ‘free will’ is a brain process that can be shut off. Wired UK explores the plant-derived drug — currently all the rage in the South American criminal underworld — that does this:
Burundanga is a scary drug. According to news reports from Ecuador, the last thing a motorist could recall, after waking up minus his car and possessions, was being approached by two women; in Venezuela, a girl came round in hospital to find she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. Each had been doped with burundanga, an extract of the brugmansia plant containing high levels of the psychoactive chemical scopolamine.
News reports allude to a sinister effect: that the drug removes free will, effectively turning victims into suggestible human puppets. Although not fully understood by neuroscience, free will is seen as a highly complex neurological ability and one of the most cherished of human characteristics. Clearly, if a…
Super-Long Lunar Eclipse Today!
Schematic diagram of the shadow cast by the Earth. Within the central umbra shadow, the Moon is totally shielded from direct illumination by the Sun. In contrast, within the penumbra shadow, only a portion of sunlight is blocked.
The longest lunar eclipse in a decade is going to happen later today, but unfortunately it won’t be visible in North America. If you’re in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, though, you can spend nearly two hours viewing it. National Geographic has the details:
Wednesday night the full moon will plunge into the longest and deepest total lunar eclipse in more than a decade.
Sky-watchers across most of the Eastern Hemisphere will be able to watch the lunar disc turn stunning shades of orange and red as the moon becomes engulfed within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow for almost two hours.
“The path that the moon is taking through Earth’s shadow is almost directly through [the…
Pentagon Admits $6 Billion In Cash Was Stolen In Iraq
They shouldn’t beat themselves up over it — just yesterday it took me twenty minutes to find my keys. The Los Angeles Times reports:
In the year after the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration flooded the conquered country with cash to pay for reconstruction — wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash. For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting…
Mexican Meat So Full Of Steroids That Athletes Fail Drug Tests
Wow – think twice before you eat that delicious taco/burrito/quesadilla south of the border. And one has to wonder if steroid and other drug use in farm animals is much better in the U.S. Tim Johnson reveals the ugly truth about the meat we eat, for McLatchy News via The Miami Herald:
CELAYA, Mexico — Positive drug tests for five standout members of Mexico’s national soccer team have forced Mexican officials to acknowledge a problem that goes far beyond sports: Much of Mexico’s beef is so tainted with the steroid clenbuterol that it sickens hundreds of people each year.
Use of the steroid is illegal. But it’s found a niche among ranchers, who marvel at the way it helps cattle build muscle mass before going to the slaughterhouse. The beef is pink and largely free of layers of fat, winning over unwitting consumers.
Ranchers call the powdery substance “miracle salts.” A few call…
Scientists Create Living Cells That Can Shoot Lasers
No, the above is not an exaggeration. I’m fine with nixing flying hovercars so long as we get this. Discovery writes:
The researchers report that they were able to create bright laser pulses that lasted a few nanoseconds with a single cell. Amazingly the cells were not damaged during the production of the laser light but were able to withstand hundreds of pulses.
The project took place at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in Massachusetts. The key to this breakthrough involved the use of the widely studied protein known as green fluorescent protein. This protein, which was first discovered in jellyfish, has (as the name implies) the property of generating light.
Although there are no immediate plans to use this technology, the erosion of the barrier between optical technologies and biology could open many doors in therapy and research.
English Village Tormented By Inexplicable Hum
In a sense, we can all identify, as there is rarely a moment when we are not exposed to some sort of low-level aural drone. The Telegraph reports in ominous fashion:
Now a tiny English village is the latest community to claim to be being hit by the phenomenon known as “the hum.”
Residents of Woodland, in County Durham, claim that every night a noise permeates the air similar to the throb of a car engine. It is sometimes so strong that it even shakes the bed of one of the householders. But no matter how hard they look, the community cannot find the source of the problem and, at their wits end, have called in the council to investigate.
The 300-strong population is the latest around the world to be hit by the rumble which has in the past led to wild conspiracy theories blaming it on UFOs, government experiments and abandoned mine…
Harold Camping Suffers A Stroke
I knew that he was going to use age-related health issues to weasel out of responsibility for his updated October 21st rapture prediction — blast you, Harold Camping, for being so clever! Via the San Francisco Chronicle:
Harold Camping, 89, was at his Alameda home with his wife Thursday evening when he suffered the stroke, said Family Radio host Craig Hulsebos. The Oakland minister who incorrectly predicted the world would end May 21 was scheduled to be released from a local hospital after being treated, a talk show host at his radio station said Monday.
Employees at the office declined to talk about Camping’s condition in detail, instead referring to a release from his family. “Doctors are pleased with his progress,” the statement read. “Mr. Camping’s family appreciates your thoughts and prayers.”
Chewing Gum Art Found Sticking To England’s Streets
Photo: DisillusionedBitterandKnackered (CC)
One man’s flavorless gum becomes another man’s art, thanks to Ben Wilson. You can view some of his chewing gum art here. The New York Times reports:
When first exposed to the art of Ben Wilson, or to Mr. Wilson in the act of creating it, people tend to respond with some degree of puzzlement.
“When I first saw one, I thought it was a fruit sticker,” said Matt Brasier, who was walking through this north London suburb the other day.
A woman named Vassiliki, who was passing by, said that when she came upon Mr. Wilson, prone and seemingly inert on the sidewalk, “I thought he wasn’t very well.” She added: “I was like, ‘What is he doing?’ And they told me: ‘He’s painting the chewing gum.’ ”
That is exactly what he was doing. Mr. Wilson, 47, one of Britain’s best-known outsider artists, has for the last six years or so immersed…
Miracle-Gro Expands From Weed Killer To Killer Weed
I fear the worst … previously healthy cannabis plants being infused with chemicals that are then smoked and, well, you know the rest. Dana Mattioli reports for the Wall Street Journal:
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has long sold weed killer. Now, it’s hoping to help people grow killer weed.
In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scotts Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company.
“I want to target the pot market,” Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”
Eastern Mountain Lion Killed By SUV After Rumors Of Its Extinction
The critically endangered Eastern mountain lion has been on and off the extinct list. In Connecticut, it was thought that any population of these large cats no longer existed. Until one was hit by an SUV. The Gothamist reports:
The Eastern mountain lion was declared extinct in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but it looks like one hardy cat may have been keeping his species alive in the wilds of Connecticut. Or maybe it was just a different subspecies of mountain lion that escaped or was released by some sick bastard illegally keeping him as a pet. Either way, the kitty was killed by an SUV Saturday morning. But are there more out there?
Residents of fancy Greenwich, Connecticut and other towns have been reporting sighting mountain lions for weeks, and despite the death of this one, Greenwich police continue to receive reports of the ferocious felines. But authorities…
Playing For Change: Stand By Me? (Video)
Not a bad idea. Ain’t technology helpful? Check out these folks at Playing For Change:
