Category Archives: Of Interest

Pluto’s 4th Moon

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It may not be a planet any more, but it does have its share of moons:

Hubble spies fourth moon at Pluto

By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News

Pluto and moonsThe Hubble Space Telecope observations of P4 were made in June and July
Continue reading the main story

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified another moon around the dwarf planet Pluto.

It becomes the fourth object known to be circling the distant world after the long-recognised Charon and recently observed Nix and Hydra satellites.

Scientists are temporarily calling the new moon P4 and estimate its diameter to be 13 to 34 km (of 8 to 21 miles).

Pluto, controversially demoted from full planet status in 2006, will be the target of a big space mission in 2015.

Nasa’s New Horizons probe is due to fly past the icy world and should get a good look at the moons, also.

To read more, go to:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14220620

Magnetic Portals Between Earth & Sun

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Magnetic Portals Connect Sun And Earth

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2008) — During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn’t believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page

“It’s called a flux transfer event or ‘FTE,'” says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn’t exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible.”

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.

to read more, go to:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081101093713.htm

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Chopra Chakra Video Game

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Deepak Chopra is making a video game about your chakras

By Winda Benedetti

Many different kinds of stars have had video games made about them. Sports stars like Tiger Woods, exercise gurus like Jillian Michaels, and even the Black Eyed Peas have all had video games created around who they are and what they do.

And now Deepak Chopra — controversial spiritualist, alternative-medicine guru and self-help author — is getting in on the video game action too.

And no, he isn’t making a first-person shooter.

Chopra has joined forces (both metaphysical and real) with THQ to create the game “Leela” — which means “play” in Sanskrit and is due to launch Nov. 8 on the Xbox 360 and Wii. The game will use the Xbox 360 Kinect motion sensor or, in its Wii version, will have players hold a Wii Remote controller as it guides players through meditation exercises.

to read more, go to:http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/19/7114370-deepak-chopra-is-making-a-video-game-about-your-chakras

Kyrgyzstan Earthquake

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“Earthquake in Kyrgyzstan / Uzbekistan : 13 people killed, 86 injured and at least 800 houses damaged Last update: July 20, 2011 at 1:21 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell ”

“Earthquake overview : An extremely dangerous shallow earthquake occurred in the border area of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan at 01:35 AM. At least 13 people have been killed. Theoretical casualty calculations reported that there would be a moderate number of deaths & injuries.  Let us hope for the best! The epicenter is located near the Kyrgyzstan / Uzbekistan border.”

Read more about Earthquake in Kyrgyzstan / Uzbekistan : 13 people killed, 86 injured and at least 800 houses damaged on:
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/07/19/extemely-dangerous-earthquake-in-kyrgyzstan/?utm_source=INK&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=share&

Hey, Susana, Grin and BEAR it in NM

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Susana Martinez, New Mexico Governor, Visited By Bear In Santa Fe (VIDEO)

Given the many issues that politicians must face, a bear is probably not high on their list of concerns. But this past weekend, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez was confronted by this very challenge.

The Associated Press reports that surveillance video near the governor’s mansion caught a bearoverturning trash cans over the weekend, looking for food.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, a news release from the Governor’s Office stated that earlier this month, residents of the Los Alamos area were warned that bears had been displaced by the wildfire, and wandered in the community.

Fire officials reported that the Los Alamos fireerupted in late June after a tree fell onto power lines.The fire was fueled by an noticeably dry season accompanied by erratic winds, according to The Associated Press.

to read more, go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/19/susana-martinez-new-mexico-governor_n_902485.html

Bodacious Religion Articles fr/THE ONION

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The Onion‘s World Peace-Inducing Religion Reporting (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

HuffPost Religion would like to pay homage to America’s finest Pulitzer-deserving news source: The Onion.

With a finger on the pulse of American and global (dis)belief, The Onion consistently churns out the hard-hittingest, holier-than-thou religion reporting and commentary.

Inspired by the lead story in this week’s print edition (“Vatican Reverses Stance On Gay Marriage After Meeting Tony And Craig“), we decided to compile the best of this paper’s God-centric gab.

It was tough. The Onion‘s archives are an abundant treasure trove of divinely inspired investigation. From getting the scoop on Jesus’ conversion to Islam to exposing the Dalai Lama’s history of violence, there really is no rival to this institution of pristine journalistic integrity.

So without further delay, since the end times are oh so near, here are our favorite religion reports from The Onion.

to check them out, go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/19/the-onion-religion-coverage_n_903499.html#s311447&title=Biblical_Armageddon_Must

Health Benefits of Smoking????

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Guy smoking a cigarette

Who says smoking cigarettes is so bad … well, aside from the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every medical board and association on the face of the Earth?

But should smokers be fortunate enough to dodge all that cancer, heart disease, emphysema and the like, they will be uniquely protected — for reasons unexplained by science — against a handful of diseases and afflictions.

Call it a silver lining in their otherwise blackened lungs. Although long-term smokingis largely a ticket to early death, here are (gulp) five possible benefits from smoking. Breathe deep.

to read more, go to:    http://www.livescience.com/15115-5-health-benefits-smoking-disease.html

 

Knights in Shining Armor….Oh, My

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Heavy Metal: Armor Drained Medieval Knights’ Energy

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 19 July 2011 Time: 07:01 PM ET
Armor locomotion
At the gym: A modern re-enactor walks on a treadmill in a full suit of 15th century armor.
CREDIT: Graham Askew, University of Leeds

As if flying arrows and burning pitch weren’t enough to worry about, medieval knights also had to battle their own armor.

A new study that put armor-wearing volunteers on treadmills finds that wearing a full suit of armor (which might weigh up to 110 pounds, or 50 kilograms), takes more than twice the energy of walking around unencumbered. Even lugging around a backpack of equal weight is less energy-intensive than wearing armor, the study found, because wearing 17 pounds (8 kg) of steel plates on each leg requires no small amount of extra exertion.

On occasion, armor’s weight may have turned the tides of battles, said lead study researcher Graham Askew of the University of Leeds. In 1415, heavily armored French knights advanced across a muddy field toward a lightly armored English force in the Battle of Agincourt.

to read more, go to:    http://www.livescience.com/15128-armor-drained-medieval-knight-energy.html

Fewer Aphids Found in Organically Farmed Fields

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Fewer Aphids in Organic Crop Fields, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — Farmers who spray insecticides against aphids as a preventative measure only achieve a short-term effect with this method. In the long term, their fields will end up with even more aphids than untreated fields. This has been reported by researchers at the Biocenter of the University of Würzburg in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

What’s the status of the biodiversity in differently managed triticale fields? This is what the biologists at the Department of Animal Ecology & Tropical Biology wanted to find out. Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye. The cultivation of this crop is on the rise across the globe, because it delivers good yields even in poor soil conditions.

When comparing conventionally managed crop fields, which were either sprayed with insecticides or were left untreated, Jochen Krauss, Iris Gallenberger and Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter made a discovery, which should catch the attention of every farmer: “According to our results, the preventative application of insecticides against aphids does not produce any advantages even though it consumes a lot of time and money,” Jochen Krauss sums up.

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110713101944.htm

 

Episodic Memory Linking

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Neural Signature of ‘Mental Time Travel’: Memories Formed in the Same Context Become Linked, Evidence Shows

The research was conducted by professor Michael Kahana of the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences and graduate student Jeremy R. Manning, of the Neuroscience Graduate Group in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. They collaborated with Gordon Baltuch and Brian Litt of the departments of Neurology and Psychology at the medical school and Sean M. Polyn of Vanderbilt University.

Their research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Theories of episodic memory suggest that when I remember an event, I retrieve its earlier context and make it part of my present context,” Kahana said. “When I remember my grandmother, for example, I pull back all sorts of associations of a different time and place in my life; I’m also remembering living in Detroit and her Hungarian cooking. It’s like mental time travel. I jump back in time to the past, but I’m still grounded in the present.”

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110718171359.htm