Archive for the 'Journalism' Category
Human brain has more switches than all computers on Earth
• March, 2011The human brain is truly awesome. A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies. These synapses are, of course, so tiny (less than a thousandth of a millimeter…
A Visual Reminder Of US Social Stratification
• February, 2011While many watch the revolutions starting virtually on a daily basis in the “developing world”, few are concerned that these have any chance of occurring in the United States: “our society is far more cohesive and far less stratified” the rebuttal logic goes. Is it? Over the past two years, the one social class that has received the most voluminous amount of opprobrium is the ubiquitously derogatory “bankster” which represents far more a wealth and income qualification, that a job description. Americans it appears are…
Hitler’s secret flying saucers
• January, 2011Article:: Did the Führer plan to attack London and New York in UFOs? As Hitler’s armies began to crumble on fronts as far apart as Stalingrad and North Africa, he turned in increasing desperation to his scientists to create a war-winning super-weapon. Some, like the V2 rockets and the first jet fighters, saw action but came too late to halt defeat. Others were so outrageously ambitious that they never got past the drawing board. The idea of building flying saucers to bomb London and even…
Ancient rock art alive with bacteria
• January, 2011Researchers say the ancient ‘Bradshaw art’ rock in Western Australia has maintained its vivid colors because it is colonized by living bacteria and fungi. Studies conducted by Jack Pettigrew and his colleagues at the University of Queensland showed that the rock art has kept its colors after at least 40,000 years. The team studied 80 of Bradshaw rock artworks in 16 locations within Western Australia’s Kimberley region, concentrating on Tassel and Sash, two of the oldest known styles of Bradshaw art. Analyses showed that many…
Company digging mine in Afghanistan unearths Buddhist monastery
• December, 2010A Chinese company digging an unexploited copper mine in Afghanistan has unearthed ancient statues of Buddha in a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. Archaeologists are rushing to salvage what they can from a major 7th century B.C. religious site along the famed Silk Road connecting Asia and the Middle East. The ruins, including the monastery and domed shrines known as ‘stupas,’ will likely be largely destroyed once work at the mine begins. The ruins were discovered as labourers excavated the site on behalf of the Chinese…
Island of mud appears near Balochistan
• December, 2010KARACHI: A soft muddy island appeared a few kilometers from the seashore in Hingol area of Balochistan. According to Pakistan Fisher Folk (PFF), the island is 90 meters (m) high with a span of approximately three kilometers (km). PFF spokesman, Sami Memon told Dawn.com that the fishermen of Ibrahim Hyderi area described the occurrence after returning from Hingol. Fishermen observed white, slippery hot sand erupting from water, three km away from the beach. Before the upsurge of sludge, fishermen also observed high tides near the…
Germany pledges millions for Taliban
• November, 2010Germany’s foreign ministry says it has signed an agreement with Afghanistan to give 14 million dollars to Taliban militants, who choose to lay down their arms, every year. Berlin says the contract will be valid for five years and the cash will only be paid to militants who lay down their weapons. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Wednesday that reintegrating former militants into the Afghan social and political fabric is crucial to stabilizing Afghanistan, DPA reported.
U.N. urged to freeze climate geo-engineering projects
• November, 2010* Cloud whitening, solar reflectors, ocean seeding studied * Environmentalists say such schemes are unproven, risky * Advocates say projects could help fight global warming The United Nations should impose a moratorium on “geo-engineering” projects such as artificial volcanoes and vast cloud-seeding schemes to fight climate change, green groups say, fearing they could harm nature and mankind. The risks were too great because the impacts of manipulating nature on a vast scale were not fully known, the groups said at a major U.N. meeting in…
Comet impact did not cause mammoths to die out.
• November, 2010Comet impact did not cause mammoths to die out, scientists say A mass extinction that caused the death of giant species of mammal including mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers and giant beavers was not caused by a comet impact, scientists have concluded. Researchers have previously suggested that the last mass extinction of animals on Earth was triggered by a comet colliding with the planet and sparking a sudden drop in temperature around 13,000 years ago. This sudden change in climate, known as the Younger-Dryas climate reversal, saw…
Mixed Feelings – technology induced synaesthesia.
• November, 2010See with your tongue. Navigate with your skin. Fly by the seat of your pants (literally). How researchers can tap the plasticity of the brain to hack our 5 senses — and build a few new ones. By Sunny Bains For six weird weeks in the fall of 2004, Udo Wächter had an unerring sense of direction. Every morning after he got out of the shower, Wächter, a sysadmin at the University of Osnabrück in Germany, put on a wide beige belt lined with 13…
Microbes May Consume Far More Oil-Spill Waste Than Earlier Thought
• October, 2010Microbes living at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico may consume far more of the gaseous waste from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill than previously thought, according to research carried out within 100 miles of the spill site. A paper on that research, conducted before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded six months ago, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Deep-Sea Research II. It describes the anaerobic oxidation of methane, a key component of the Gulf oil spill, by microbes living in…
The Correlation Between Corexit and Klondike Bars
• October, 2010BP Is Teaching Kids The Correlation Between Corexit and Klondike Bars BP and the federal government are working together to brainwash our kids into believing that Corexit is perfectly safe and the gulf is recovering right on schedule. They literally are teaching our school children that Corexit is in numerous items that we eat and poses absolutely no problem. As we reported days ago, BP plans on “dispelling” the myths of the dispersant in schools throughout the gulf. Why is the government letting BP brainwash…
Full-Body Scan Technology In Street-Roving Vans
• October, 2010As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it’s worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren’t the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets. American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their…