Author Archives: marcia

Ahhh, the Weirdness of Space

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This is quite interesting and fun and informative for those of you who are planning a trip to Outer Space:

6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space

Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Date: 19 March 2011 Time: 11:53 AM ET
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Intro123456
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Welcome to Weightlessness
The crews of the International Space Station (Expedition 26) and the shuttle Discovery (STS-133) pose for a photo inside the newly attached Leonardo storage module, known as the Permanent Multipurpose Module, on March 1, 2011.

Credit: NASA

Watched pots, as they say, never boil. Besides, even if they did, why watch them? You know exactly what boiling water looks like.

But I bet you don’t know what it looks like in outer space.

Here are six everyday occurrences — including the boiling of water — that happen very differently in microgravity, plus explanations as to why.

Weak San Francisco Quake

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Weak very shallow earthquake frightens downtown San Fransisco

Last update: August 30, 2011 at 8:47 am by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell

Earthquake overview : A weak but very shallow earthquake has frightened a lot of people living in downtown San Francisco.

 

Update : The fault line where the quake occurred is the Peninsula Section of the San Andreas Fault line.

Update : The current epicenter area has no historic earthquakes greater than 1.0 the last 7 days or NO quakes greater than 3.0 the last 40 years.

Update : The earthquake has been felt as far as Burlingame to the south,  Martinez to the East and San Anselmo to the North.

to read more, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/08/30/weak-very-shallow-earthquake-frightens-downtown-san-fransisco/

Comet Elenin—Who Knows?

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Comet Elenin is breaking apart, according to observations

Published on August 29, 2011 10:45 pm PT
– By Jim Duran – Writer
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller


No larger image

(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Observations are in, Comet Elenin is breaking up!

A new report is in at TheWeatherSpace.com and the report states that Comet Elenin is dimming and falling apart.

“I can confirm with many other astronomers that Elenin will not make perihelion this Fall,” Art Powell from Florida says. “Elenin’s coma is becoming elongated and this means it is falling apart.”

Comets are fragile ice rocks that can; and do break apart.

“I call BS!” yelled Jill Costner of Arizona. “They want to take it off the mainstream and it is still coming!”

fr/http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-08_29_2011_elenin.html

Body Image/Body Size

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Why staying fat could be more healthy than constant dieting

Jessica Laurence

By Jessica Laurence, Aug 16, 2011

f you’re tired of the battle with the scales and the misery of refusing a slice of cake, here’s some encouraging news.

Scientists in Canada have made the controversial suggestion that being overweight could actually be healthier than constant dieting.

The researchers said over a third of the obese men and women they studied were healthy or had only minor health problems.

People who kept dieting and then regaining the weight they lost were found to be less healthy overall than the overweight group.

The team, from York University in Toronto, kept tabs on the health of 6,000 male and female participants for 16 years.

The participants were given physical and medical tests, and the researchers then compared that group’s data with people of normal weights.

The team found that people were heavier did not have more danger of dying than someone who was a normal weight.

“This concept of healthy obesity just recently came to light,” lead author Jennifer Kuk, assistant professor at York University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science, explained.

Wine & Waistlines

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How a glass of wine a day could help you lose weight

Jessica Laurence

By Jessica Laurence, Aug 18, 2011

How a glass of wine a day could help you lose weight

Giving up alcohol in order to lose weight is one of the most annoying parts of being on a diet.

Dieters are usually advised to cut out wine, cocktails and beer, all of which are high in sugar and empty calories.

However the results of a new study have suggested that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol every day could actually stop us putting on weight.

According to scientists at the Navarro University in Spain, people who drink wine and diet could lose weight more easily than people who abstain, or those who drink other types of alcohol.

A spokesperson for the researchers explained: “Light-to-moderate alcohol intake, especially of wine, may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.”

“As positive associations between alcohol and weight gain were mainly found in studies with data on higher levels of drinking, it is possible an effect on weight gain or abdominal adiposity [fat around the middle] may only be experienced by heavy drinkers.”

The researchers said they analysed the results of 31 studies and did not find a link between moderate drinking and weight gain.

Ab-Fab…. What Else Can I Say… Bring on the Bubbly

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‘Absolutely Fabulous’ To Make Anniversary Return To BBC

Absolutely Fabulous

First Posted: 29/8/11 15:00 GMT Updated: 29/8/11 20:54 GMT

RESS ASSOCIATION — International PR “guru” Eddy Monsoon and inebriated magazine editor Patsy Stone are to return to our screens in three new episodes of Absolutely Fabulous, the BBC has confirmed.

The award-winning comedy series will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the trio of 30-minute specials.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will reprise their celebrated roles as Edina and Patsy, and will be joined by other original cast members. Julia Sawalha will resume the role of Edina’s daughter Saffy, June Whitfield as her mother and Jane Horrocks as Bubble.

The original series aired from 1992 to 2003 with a special in 2004. The new collection of specials picks up in the present day, with fashion follower Eddy still working in PR and sex-mad Patsy still employed in the magazine industry.

In the first episode, fans will rejoin the ensemble in the midst of a life-changing experience for one – which affects them all, while in the concluding episode Eddy and Patsy play their own very special part in the London 2012 Olympics.

Saunders said: “Its great that we are able to celebrate our 20th birthday with all the original cast. Like a good bottle of champagne we hope that we have got better with time without losing any of our sparkle.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/29/absolutely-fabulous-return_n_940199.html?ir=Culture

Abortion Rights Threatened in Virginia

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Virginia Abortion Clinics Threatened By New Regulations

Abortion

First Posted: 8/29/11 05:41 PM ET Updated: 8/29/11 06:03 PM ET

 There are 22 facilities that provide first-trimester abortions in Virginia, and all of them may have to close their doors over the next two years if they can’t meet the state government’s rigorous new health clinic regulations.

Virginia lawmakers passed legislation in the spring that required the Department of Health to release a set of “emergency” draft regulations for abortion clinics that were to go into effect by December 31.

The rules, released late on Friday, borrow a number of very specific physical plant requirements from a rulebook intended for the construction of new hospitals. For instance, a clinic must have 5-foot-wide hallways, 8-foot-wide areas outside of procedure rooms, specific numbers of toilets and types of sinks and all the latest requirements for air circulation flow and electrical wiring.

“On the first read, it seems hard to imagine that many facilities will be able to comply,” Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told HuffPost. “We can fairly say that the regulations as drafted are the most severe, onerous and restrictive that have been proposed anywhere. They’re intended to apply to facilities that don’t yet exist.”

If the Board of Health passes the new standards on September 15, abortion clinics have until January to show the state a plan for the extensive and expensive renovations they’ll have to undergo in order to meet the new requirements.

The Virginia League of Planned Parenthood said none of its five clinics are currently in compliance with the draft regulations. The renovations required to meet the new rules would cost millions of dollars, and abortion clinics would have to foot the cost themselves and try to recoup the money in patient fees down the road.

“We recently spent $4.6 million on renovations for the building I’m in, and we still don’t meet these requirements,” said Paulette McElwain, president and CEO of VLPP. “I think it’s highly likely that most facilities in Virginia that provide abortions wont be able to meet them either.”

to read more, go to:   http://www.chromographicsinstitute.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=post

Denisovan-Neanderthal Link — Immune Boost?

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Did sex with Neanderthals and Denisovans shape our immune systems? The jury’s still out

 

 
Neanderthals may be extinct, but they live on inside us. Last year, two landmark studies from Svante Paabo and David Reich showed that everyone outside of Africa can trace 1-4 percent of their genomes to Neanderthal ancestors. On top of that, people from the Pacific Islands of Melanesia owe 5-7 percent of their genomes to another group of extinct humans – the Denisovans, known only from a finger bone and a tooth. These ancient groups stand among our ancestors, their legacy embedded in our DNA.

Paabo and Reich’s studies clearly showed that early modern humans must have bred with other ancient groups as they left Africa and swept around the world. But while they proved that Neanderthal and Denisovan genes are still around, they said little about what these genes are doing. Are they random stowaways or did they bestow important adaptations?

When I spoke to Reich about this earlier this year, he was starting to sift through the data. “To a first approximation, they are random,” he said. “It’s possible that modern humans could have used the Neanderthal or Denisovan material to adapt to their environment, but we don’t have evidence for that.” However, palaeontologist Chris Stringer offered an intriguing suggestion: “If Denisovans were in South-East Asia long-term, they would have evolved immunities and defences to some of the diseases there, like different forms of malaria. That’s something modern humans could have picked up that would’ve been useful.”

He might have been right. Laurent Abi-Rached from Stanford University has just published a new study suggesting that our immune system owes a debt to our ancestors’ trysts with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

to read more, go to:    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/25/did-sex-with-neanderthals-and-denisovans-shape-our-imm

Enter Hurricane Katia

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Future Hurricane Katia track likely further north and east than Irene

Published on August 29, 2011 11:15 am PT
– By Kevin Martin – Senior Meteorologist
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller


Click to view the long range track

(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Tropical Depression 12 has formed and should become Tropical Storm Katia within the next 12 or 24 hours.

Katia will be a very strong Hurricane within then next five or six days as it heads west-northwest through the Atlantic Ocean. There are factors to put this into perspective and one of those is the troughing expected along the Eastern U.S. as Katia moves into the Western Atlantic Ocean this weekend.

Right now this far out is a long shot, however looking at where I think the storm will be in five to six days time; including the intensity, have decided on a track similar to Hurricane Igor in 2010.

Igor moved northwest and then eventually northward into Bermuda Island. My reasoning would leave the Gulf of Mexico as the least probability in the forecast, giving the strongest one for Cape Cod to Bermuda Island and then into Nova Scotia.

Hurricane Katia will be about the size of Texas, much smaller than Irene was.

There are key factors such as a low out ahead of the system, and a low behind the system at the current time. This will help establish a healthy upper level outflow signature over the next couple of days and this will rapidly become a Hurricane, reaching Category Two in a couple days and shooting to Category Three and Four fast after day five.

fr/http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-08_29_2011_longrangekatia.html

Burning Man Begins

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fr/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desertin northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before, and ends on the day of, the American Labor Day holiday (August 29 to September 4, 2011). It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance.

Burning Man is organized by Black Rock City, LLC. In 2010, 51,515 people attended Burning Man.[5] 2011 attendance was capped at 50,000 participants and the event sold out  on July 24th.

 

fr/http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles.html

The Ten Principles:

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.