“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
— Hermann Hesse
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
— Hermann Hesse
Carbonized figs found in an archaeological site in the Jordan Valley may represent one of the earliest forms of agriculture, scientists report. The figs are a variety that could have only been grown with human intervention, and date between 11,200 and 11,400 years old.
The small asteroid Itokawa is just a loosely packed pile of rubble that collected after a collision between asteroids, according to a slew of new studies based on data from Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft. The asteroid appears to be plagued by recurring impacts and tremors today, making its continued survival a mystery.
Ecosystems containing many different plant species are not only more productive, they are also better able to withstand and recover from climate extremes, pests and disease over long periods of time. For more than 50 years, scientists have debated the hypothesis that biodiversity stabilizes ecosystems. The University of Minnesota study is the first to provide enough data — gathered over a sufficient time period in an experiment that controlled biodiversity – to confirm the theory.
A clue to the mystery of how nature selected left-handed amino acids rather right-handed ones may lie in the way the substances behave as they dissolve in water. Amino acids can appear in left-handed (L) and right-handed (D) mirror-image forms. When made from scratch in the lab the two versions are equally likely to appear, but in nature, L amino acids dominate. Researchers dissolved a mixture of solid L and D versions of the amino acid serine in water. They found that a small difference in the initial proportion of one version gets amplified in the resulting solution. So a 100:1 mixture of L- and D-serine produces a solution made up almost entirely of L-serine, but so does a 100:99 mixture (Nature, vol 441, p 621). The team has found a similar effect with other amino acids. This effect could have amplified a slight excess of L-amino acids in nature. Why there was a slight excess to start with is another question.
Scientists say some electric fish in Africa might be living examples of a species diverging into separate species. Researchers say the fish look alike and have the same genetic makeup, but have very different electrical signals and will only mate with fish that produce the same signals. The neurobiologists say they believe the different electrical signals are the fishes’ first step in diverging into separate species.
Variations in the strength of the sun have played a major role in glacial fluctuations in the tropical Andes for hundreds of years, and combined with current greenhouse gases generated by humans, paint an alarming picture for tropical glaciers in the near future. And researchers from MIT and Penn State contend that the microscopic aerosol particles, which reflect sunlight and cool the atmosphere, have been masking the effect of global warming on Atlantic Ocean hurricanes for several decades. The researchers say that it is only in recent decades, as aerosol emissions from North America and Europe have declined due to clean air standards, that the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions on hurricane strength has been realized.
Evidence of a meteor impact much larger than the one believed responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs has been found in Antarctica. The 300-mile-wide crater lies more than a mile beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and might date to about 250 million years ago — the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when nearly all animal life on Earth became extinct. Its size and location — in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia — suggest it could have begun the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward.
The conventional dry-milling process that’s used to make ethanol doesn’t convert all the starch in corn kernels into the simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Iowa State researchers has demonstrated that pre-treating milled corn with ultrasound can break the corn pieces into even finer particles. That exposes more of the corn’s starch to the enzymes that convert starch to simple sugars. The research team also plans to see if ultrasonics releases some sugars from the fibrous, cellulosic material in corn. Ultrasonic treatment in laboratory experiments has increased corn’s release rates of sugars by nearly 30 percent. And that could mean each bushel of corn that goes into an ethanol plant could more efficiently produce ethanol for your car’s fuel tank.
Okay, I’m reaaallly slow today…I’m still trying to decide on a quote, and you’ve already got it up. Thanks! 🙂
Back with news in a minute…
For a good analysis in more detail of how aerosol particulates have been masking the effects of global warming (one of the stories listed above) check out DarkSyde’s front-paged diary over at Big Orange. The graph alone will scare you.
from being taken over by religion: NYT
Elsewhere in the story, there’s a description of the special jerseys the players wear with bible verses on them for the evening. Unreal.
When you see faith night at the hockey game you’ll know Christianity has become totally spent as a spiritual force and is useful only for those trying to enforce groupthink. Do you think there might be fewer fights on “church night” at the hockey game? Me neither.
And those bible-quotin’ uniforms sound like ground for a lawsuit to me. Aren’t there any Jews, Moslems, or Atheists playing who take offense? Oh, how silly of me, such 20th century thinking, back before the days of political revelation and righteousness in America.
Where did I put the phone number of that Canadian technical recruiting firm?
I just kept picturing the outrage we would hear on FOX news if Christian players were forced to wear jerseys with verses from the Koran or Hebrew lettering on them…
U.N. Urged to Host World Summit on Nukes
You too, Canada?
Republican Über-Strategist Takes Canada for a Spin
Here’s hoping that the Canadian media doesn’t lay down and roll over like the US media has done since 2001. Here’s hoping that the Canadian people, having watched Bush’s antics for 6 years, know bullshit when they see it and hear it.
I wish I could have found some lite happy little news story for your Friday. sigh.
Link
The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.
The video appears to challenge the US military’s account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.
The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.
A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way.
[snip]
The video pictures obtained by the BBC appear to contradict the US account of the events in Ishaqi, about 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on 15 March 2006.
The US authorities said they were involved in a firefight after a tip-off that an al-Qaeda supporter was visiting the house.
According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people – a suspect, two women and a child.
But a report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.
The video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.
Link
“A new BBC report which purports to show images from a second unprovoked slaughter by American military forces in Iraq also asserts that the US military is investigating as many as two more such incidents, RAW STORY can report.”
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Link
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 1 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military on Thursday, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians.
As outrage over reports that American marines killed 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha last year continued to shake the new government, the country’s senior leaders said that they would demand that American officials turn over their investigative files on the killings and that the Iraqi government would conduct its own inquiry.
In his comments, Mr. Maliki said violence against civilians had become a “daily phenomenon” by many troops in the American-led coalition who “do not respect the Iraqi people.”
“They crush them with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion,” he said. “This is completely unacceptable.” Attacks on civilians will play a role in future decisions on how long to ask American forces to remain in Iraq, the prime minister added.
The deffecation is hitting the oscillating circulator, wouldn’t you say?
I’ve watched the BBC report, and I no longer know who to believe. Americans are already off the hook for Ishaqi:
I really hope they weren’t guilty, but I’m really afraid all coalition troops are at dramatically increased risk because of these things.
Link
DETROIT –A federal judge will go ahead with hearings in a legal challenge to a warrantless domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor also criticized the Justice Department for failing to respond to the legal challenge, The Detroit News reported Friday.
The NSA and the Justice Department declined immediate comment. The Bush administration has said that hearings would reveal state secrets that affect national security.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Detroit and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York filed lawsuits against the program in January, saying it violates Americans’ rights to free speech and to privacy.
Up until now, Gonzales has effectively blocked all NSA lawsuits. This judge will give the plaintiffs a June 12 hearing BEFORE hearing the government’s objections. She’d be smart not to go out alone at night and lock her doors.