Category Archives: Of Interest

Correlation-Roundup & Birth Defects

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by Lucia Graves

Roundup Birth Defects: Regulators Knew World’s Best-Selling Herbicide Causes Problems, New Report Finds

Roundup Ready

WASHINGTON — Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto, causes birth defects, according to a new reportreleased Tuesday.

The report, “Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?” found regulators knew as long ago as 1980 that glyphosate, the chemical on which Roundup is based, can cause birth defects in laboratory animals.

But despite such warnings, and although the European Commission has known that glyphosate causes malformations since at least 2002, the information was not made public

to read more go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/roundup-birth-defects-herbicide-regulators_n_872862.html

 

Ayahuascan Experience

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Peru: Hell and Back—Video Exclusive
Deep in the Amazon jungle, writer Kira Salak tests ayahuasca, a shamanistic medicinal ritual, and finds a terrifying—but enlightening—world within.
Photo: An ayahuasca ceremony in Peru
INTO THE LIGHT: Shamans (from left) Hamilton Souther, Julio Gerena Pinedo, and Alberto Torres Davila preside over an ayahuasca ceremony in the Peruvian Amazon. Drawn by the prospect of life-changing visions, visitors come from around the world to take part.
For centuries, Amazonian shamans have used ayahuasca as a window into the soul. The sacrament, they claim, can cure any illness. The author joins in this ancient ritual and finds the worlds within more terrifying—and enlightening—than ever imagined.

I will never forget what it was like. The overwhelming misery. The certainty of never-ending suffering. No one to help you, no way to escape. Everywhere I looked: darkness so thick that the idea of light seemed inconceivable.

to read more and see the video, go to:    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html

New Info on Sunspots Due Tuesday

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‘Major Result’ on Sunspot Cycle to be Announced Tuesday

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 10 June 2011 Time: 05:00 PM ET
A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in te
A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in terms of spatial resolution.
CREDIT: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, V.M.J. Henriques (sunspot), NASA Apollo 17 (Earth)

Astronomers will unveil a “major result” on Tuesday (June 14) regarding the sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle.

The announcement will be made at a solar physics conference in New Mexico, according to an alert released today (June 10) by the American Astronomical Society. The discussion will begin at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT).

Sunspots are blotches on the sun that appear dark because they are significantly cooler than the rest of the solar surface. While they look small from our vantage point on Earth, these enigmatic structures can be huge — up to 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers) across, or as wide as the planet Neptune. Sunspots last for a few days or weeks before dissipating. [Photos: Sunspots on Earth’s Star]

to read more, go to: http://www.space.com/11936-sun-weather-sunspot-cycle-announcement-preview.html

Tiny Satellite Spies

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U.S. Army Wants Tiny Satellites as Orbital Spies

Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 25 May 2011 Time: 07:00 AM ET
The SMDC-ONE is a 10-inch long, 10-pound satellite that is the first in a family of Army nanosatellites that SMDC/ARSTRAT engineers hope to launch as a new capability for the war fighter.

The SMDC-ONE is a 10-inch long, 10-pound satellite that is the first in a family of Army nanosatellites that SMDC/ARSTRAT engineers hope to launch as a new capability for the war fighter.
CREDIT: Kari Hawkins/USAG Redstone

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The United States Army is making a serious push to launch swarms of tiny, inexpensive spy satellites, which would serve as eyes and ears for soldiers on the ground.

The move is an attempt to adapt to the changing nature of warfare, which increasingly requires small bands of American soldiers to hunt down elusive targets in rough, isolated terrain, such as the craggy hills of Afghanistan. The new satellites could help reduce the difficulty and danger of such operations.

to read more go to:

http://www.space.com/11771-military-space-army-tiny-spy-satellites.html

The first of these nanosatellites launched in December 2010, marking the first time an Army-built satellite made it to orbit since 1960. And many more could be coming soon, Army officials said. [Video: Defense Satellites to Watch Entire World – All the Time]

 


Solar Prominences

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fr/spaceweather.com

SOLAR ACTIVITY: The chance of strong solar flares today is low, but the chance of giant prominences is 100%. Mike Borman photographed this one from his backyard observatory in Evansville, Indiana:

“A number of giant prominences are dancing around the limb of the sun,” he reports. “They have beautifully intricate shapes.”

Prominences are tendrils of hot plasma held aloft by solar magnetic fields. Today’s are big enough to see with ease using no more than backyard solar telescopes. Where should you point your optics? Targets of interest may be found in a full-disk photo taken by Borman.

 

Canine Connection

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Canine Connection: Study Explores How Dogs Think and Learn About Human Behavior

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) — Dog owners often attest to their canine companion’s seeming ability to read their minds. How do dogs they learn to beg for food or behave badly primarily when we’re not looking? According to Monique Udell and her team, from the University of Florida in the US, the way that dogs come to respond to the level of people’s attentiveness tells us something about the ways dogs think and learn about human behavior. Their research, published online in Springer’s journalLearning & Behavior, suggests it is down to a combination of specific cues, context and previous experience.

to read more, go to:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110609084808.htm

 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb & the Black Swan

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A book by Taleb, THE BLACK SWAN, sounds interesting and definitely thought (if not angst) provoking.

A few excerpts:

The Black Swan: Quotes & Warnings that the Imbeciles Chose to Ignore

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (April 2007)

For the last 12 years, I have been telling anyone who would listen to me that we are taking huge risks and massive exposure to rare events. I isolated some areas in which people make bogus claims –epistemologically unsound. The Black Swan is a philosophy book (epistemology, philosophy of history & philosophy of science), but I used banks as a particularly worrisome case of epistemic arrogance –and the use of “science” to measure the risk of rare events, making society dependent on very spurious measurements. To me a banking crisis –worse than what we have ever seen — was unavoidable and NOT A BLACK SWAN, just as a drunk and incompetent pilot would eventually crash the plane. And I kept receiving insults for 12 years!

Quotes From the Black Swan (written b. 2003-2006) that the IMBECILES did not want to hear

to read the quotes, go to:    http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/imbeciles.htm

 

 

Wheat Crops Threatened by Fungus

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Years of work loom to save world wheat from fungus

Posted 2011/06/09 at 8:07 pm EDT

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2011 (Reuters) — A devastating wheat fungus is active in 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to scientists striving to develop resistant varieties before the fungus can attack fields around the globe.

A farmer drives a combine to harvest wheat in Zouping county, Shandong province, May 30, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily

Up to 90 percent of the world’s wheat is susceptible to the strain of stem rust, called Ug99, first detected in Uganda in 1999. The oval, brick-red lesions of stem rust sap wheat plants and cut yields by 50 to 70 percent over wide areas and can destroy entire fields

to read more, go to:    http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre759011-us-wheat-fungus/

Wallow Fire Spreads to New Mexico

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Wallow Fire: Firefighters Brace for Winds as Fire Crosses Into New Mexico

PHOTO: Huge AZ Wildfire Spreads, Health Conditions Worsen

Arizona Wildfire 2011
AUTO START: ON | OFF

 

June 11, 2011

 

Firefighters are bracing for high winds today as they continue to battle anArizona wildfire that has spread over more than 600 square miles as it crossed the border into New Mexico, authorities said.

The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is still keeping nearly 10,000 people out of their homes. The blaze started late last month and is 6 percent contained.

to read more, go to:    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wallow-fire-firefighters-brace-winds-fire-crosses-mexico/story?id=13819115

Snow in Namibia Desert

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Snow falls in the desert of Namibia, Africa this week

Published on June 9, 2011 11:20 pm PT
– By Kevin Martin – Senior Meteorologist
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller


TheWeatherSpace.com) — I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it, snow has fallen in the African Desert of Namibia.
While snow in Namibia is not unheard of, it is a rare event. It snows on average in Namibia every 10 years.

It appears that the air mass over Central Namibia was cold enough to put the temperatures into the 30s. This combined with the drier low levels of the desert can cause snow to fall to the desert floor.

to read more, go to:    http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-06_10_2011_namibiasnow.html