Clipmarks | tabsey's clips

Scientists tip 2010 as hottest yet

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:29:51 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

THE past six months have been Australia's warmest winter-spring period on record and it is likely next year will set global temperature records.

Scientists predict that, whatever the outcome at Copenhagen, Australia must adapt to unprecedented heatwaves.

David Jones, the head of climate analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology, said yesterday that claims by sceptics the planet was cooling were wrong.

Every decade in Australia for the past 70 years had been getting warmer, and this decade has been the globe's warmest so far.

''Clearly global warming hasn't stopped, and it's warming in our backyard,'' said Dr Jones, who was speaking in Melbourne after the release of the World Meteorological Organisation's annual climate statement on Tuesday night.

Apart from temperature records, which have been criticised by sceptics amid the stolen email affair, heating was evident from sea-level rises, disappearing snow and shrinking sea ice, he said. ''The climate system's having the final say.''

Tags: weather

"100 Billion" The Most Profound Image in Human History - Hubble's New View of the Universe (VIDEO)

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:31:58 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: 100 billion is the number of galaxies in the observable universe.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

[Video]

In 2004, Hubble created the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the deepest visible-light image of the Universe

The new Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the deepest image yet of the Universe in near-infrared light

The faintest and reddest objects in the image are likely the oldest galaxies ever identified, having formed between only 600–900 million years after the Big Bang

The image shows thousands of galaxies, some more than 12 billion years old

The field view of this image would fit behind a grain of sand held at arm's length against the sky

Almost every dot in this photo is an entire galaxy of stars and who knows what fascinating undiscovered mysteries

Astronomers use this photo to estimate the number of galaxies in the known universe by counting the visible galaxies shown and multiplying the number of such photos it would take to make a composite of the entire sky

Their calculations estimate that the observable universe contains about 100 billion galax

Tags: astronomy

Faces of the Amazon - 3

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:07:56 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: blogs.aljazeera.net

Name: Mariane Lima and her daughter Isrraelly Ferreira Paes

Age: Mariane, 18; Isrraelly, 7 months

Where from: Novo Aripuanã, Amazonas state

Population: About 20,000

"I like living in Novo Aripuanã because it’s very relaxed. What does the Amazon mean to me? It’s without words. I like to look at the river. It’s beautiful. Sometimes I just stare at it for hours. We don’t have a movie theatre really, so people go to the river, especially at night.

"Novo Aripuanã is not a wealthy municipality. There are only a couple of really rich people, but they don’t actually live here. Many of my friends want to leave, but I don’t. I have a husband. He lives two hours away, but we visit each other and we support each other. We hope to build a house together some day.

"I am studying right now, because I want a good future for my daughter. I am studying math and geology and Spanish.

"I have dreams. I want to be a doctor. If God allows that for me.”

Tags: people

Smokers value looks over life

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:01:12 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Can't bring themselves to ban it because of job loss mainly, I suppose. Smokers I know are more likely to joke about death, whatever they think deep down.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Cigarette pack warnings that remind smokers of the fatal consequences of their habit may actually make them smoke more, according to researchers.

A study by psychologists from the United States, Switzerland and Germany showed that warnings unrelated to death, such as "smoking makes you unattractive", were more effective in changing smokers' attitudes towards their habit.

This was especially the case in people who smoked to boost their self-esteem, such as youth who took up the habit to impress or fit in with their peers and others who thought smoking increased their social value, the researchers said.

"In general, when smokers are faced with death-related anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs, they produce active coping attempts as reflected in their willingness to continue the risky smoking behaviour," the study said.

"To succeed with anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs, one has to take into account that considering their death may make people smoke."

Tags: health

Giant iceberg headed for WA

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:56:54 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Western Australia is just about out of drinking water. Could be handy if the scientists can work on getting it ashore. We used to joke about dragging icebergs to Australia during droughts. Seems nature is giving it a go.
There was an iceberg party being organised for one of these icebergs, but it melted.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A giant iceberg is drifting towards Western Australia, impressing scientists with its capacity to travel so far north and stay largely intact.

Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young says the iceberg, named B17B, is 1,700 kilometres south-south-west of the Western Australian coast and moving north with the ocean current and prevailing wind.

Mr Young says B17B is 140 square kilometres in area, 19 kilometres long by eight kilometres wide, and calved from the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf about 10 years ago.

"As the water warms up, the iceberg is slowly breaking up, resulting in hundreds more smaller icebergs in the area," he said.

Mr Young spotted the iceberg using satellite images taken by NASA and the European Space Agency.

B17B is 19 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide. (AAP/Australian Antarctic Division)

Tags: strange, world

The ugly side of climate politics

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:51:11 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Why cannot people have a sane discussion about the facts as known?
The move to hate shows an inability to understand what is happening. This energy could be used for the benefit of the planet. That would benefit humans.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Do not shoot the messenger - well, that used to be the standard. Not any more, according to some climate scientists whose once quiet research careers seem to be giving way to an ugly maelstrom of break-ins, threats and hate mail.

The FBI is investigating death threats to two scientists named in thousands of hacked private emails stolen from East Anglia University's internationally respected Climate Research Unit.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is examining whether the emails show any data was suppressed or manipulated by climate scientists.

But the leading UN climate science body has also expressed concern about the organised nature of the theft, allegedly involving paid Russian hackers.

Adding to fears of an orchestrated campaign, there are also reports of break-ins at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Tags: people

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after document leak

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:01:25 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: "while attacking the European Union, Japan and the US for claiming they were acting on climate change while doing very little".
Nero fiddled while Rome burnt.
Human nature - one, survival - nil

Clip Source: www.smh.com.au

The UN climate talks in Copenhagen descended into acrimony overnight after the leaking of a draft "Copenhagen Agreement" that would require developing countries to take on targets as the world cut emissions in half by 2050.

Drafted by the Danish Government after talks with the so-called "circle of commitment", including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the document said global emissions should peak by the end of next decade but did not include any emissions targets for 2020 or specific proposals for the creation of a green fund to help the most vulnerable. Control of climate change finance would be passed to the World Bank.

Angry developing countries said the document was the work of rich nations who wanted to abandon the existing Kyoto Protocol, which is not mentioned in the draft, and its principle of only industrialised nations taking on emissions targets due to their historic responsibility for climate change.

Tags: the nothing

Swine flu less severe than feared

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:54:23 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Millions of dollars later they are still trying to get rid of the "shots". Add them to an alcohol base and sell it as a drink.
"Anti-flu beer", the craze that could sweep round the world like a plague.

Clip Source: www.northernstar.com.au

THE H1N1 flu outbreak appears to be less severe than earlier feared, according to a new study by US health experts who found fewer than expected admissions to hospital or severe complications from the virus.

The British- and US-funded study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), which appears online in the journal PLoS Medicine, said the swine flu pandemic appears far "milder" than anticipated.

"Our work shows that the severity of the H1N1 flu may be less than initially feared," Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at HSPH and the study's senior author.

"Early on, it was difficult to measure the flu's impact and it was crucial to plan for the full range of possible outcomes.

"Fortunately, the virus now appears to be near the milder end."

Lipsitch heads the Centre for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the HSPH, which focuses on mathematical modelling and analysis of data of pandemic and drug resistant infections.

Tags: panic, fear, scare them, laws, cut freedoms, rich

SA crop yields slashed by extreme weather

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:46:17 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Extreme weather back in November has cut the expected crop yields of some South Australian farms by half.

A record heatwave for the month wiped off between 40 and 60 per cent of yields in areas including the state's south-east and mid-north.

Farmers who were fortunate enough to begin harvesting earlier have had one of the best seasons in a long time.

President of the South Australian Farmers Federation Peter White says crops that were still green when the heatwave struck have been worst hit, but the full extent of damage will not be clear until the harvest is over.

"It's only part-way completed and until we get well into that we're not going to know but certainly some of the reports we're getting aren't all that wonderful," he said.

Heavy rain later in November is also likely to have have markedly reduced the quality of harvested grain.

Tags: weather

Antarctica ice core headed to Reno

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:43:31 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A piece of Antarctica is being sent from Hobart to a desert laboratory in the United States to help determine the extent of recent climate change.

The ice core sample was taken from a site about 100 kilometres from Casey Station last summer.

Tasmanian scientists say it would take them two years to analyse the ice, but the experts at Nevada's Desert Research Institute in Reno can do the same work in six months.

Dr Barbara Frankel from the Australian Antarctic Division says the science is vital.

"We can compare what the story is for the last 200 years with what's happened over the last millennium," she said.

Her colleague, Dr Tas Van Ommen, says the data can help predict changes in climate patterns.

"It's really important to actually get the best projections of future climate change," he said.

"What we really want to do is actually improve our understanding of the details of the climate system, and that leads to a better ability to model the climate and better models give better predictions."

Tags: science

US makes $US1.4bn settlement with native Americans

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:39:06 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

The US government agreed to pay $US1.4 billion dollars to settle long-running claims it mismanaged land and money it held in trust for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

President Barack Obama praised the settlement as "an important step towards a sincere reconciliation" between the federal government and some 300,000 beneficiaries of the lawsuits.

The agreement must be approved by the US Congress and the US district court of the District of Columbia, but if confirmed it would conclude a bitter class action lawsuit first brought in 1996 by Elouise Cobell.

The suit claims the federal government mismanaged "acres of land and millions of dollars" under 19th century laws that divided up Indian lands into small parcels held in trust for individual native Americans.

"Between the accounting claims and the trust administration claims, the plaintiff class will receive approximately 1.4 billion dollars," Attorney-General Eric Holder said in a statement.

Tags: payback

New NASA Craft, With Infrared Power, Will Map the Unseen Sky

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:49:31 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: 4 million pixels

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SEEING STARS The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which contains a four-million-pixel camera, will photograph the entire sky every six months.

Most of the light from stars and other objects like planets in the universe is doubly invisible. It comes in the form of infrared, or heat radiation, with wavelengths too long for our eyes to pick up. Moreover, most infrared wavelengths do not penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere to get to our unseeing eyes.

So to take a proper inventory of cosmic shenanigans, astronomers have had to take to space. On Friday, they will get a little more help when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is scheduled to launch the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as early as 9:09 a.m., Eastern time.

Circling the Earth in a polar orbit 300 miles high, the spacecraft, equipped with a 16-inch telescope and infrared detectors, will photograph the entire sky every six months.

Tags: astronomy

Dip Ordinary Paper Into Ink Infused With Nanotubes and Nanowires to Create an Instant Battery

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:54:09 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Clever, but they don't sell nano particles at the local store.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2009) — Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper.

Simply coating a sheet of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires makes a highly conductive storage device, said Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering.

"Society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries and simple supercapacitors," he said.

Like batteries, capacitors hold an electric charge, but for a shorter period of time. However, capacitors can store and discharge electricity much more rapidly than a battery.

"These nanomaterials are special," Cui said. "They're a one-dimensional structure with very small diameters." The small diameter helps the nanomaterial ink stick strongly to the fibrous paper, making the battery and supercapacitor very durable

Tags: storage

Antimatter Supernova! The Largest Explosion Ever Recorded

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:42:26 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Good explanation with this article. Starting to understand anti matter, at a low level.
Suspect the pic was taken before the explosion, if it is not just a good pic that someone included.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

We've just seen the largest explosion ever recorded: a supergiant star two hundred times bigger than the sun utterly obliterated by runaway thermonuclear reactions triggered by gamma ray-driven antimatter production. The resulting blast was visible for months because it unleashed a cloud of radioactive material over fifty times the size of our own star, giving off a nuclear fission glow visible from galaxies away. Somebody find Michael Bay immediately - he's somehow gotten into God's chair and we have to stop him.

The super-supernova SN2007bi is an example of a "pair-instability" breakdown

At sizes of around four megayottagrams (that's thirty-two zeros) giant stars are supported against gravitational collapse by gamma ray pressure

The hotter the core, the higher the energy of these gamma rays - but if they get too energetic, these gamma rays can begin pair production: creating an electron-positron matter-antimatter pair out of pure energy as they pass an atom

Tags: astronomy

Hammerhead Sharks Have Stereo Visionnature,

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:07:14 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The vid is a bonus?

Clip Source: news.discovery.com

Ever since hammerhead sharks were first observed over 200 years ago, their distinctive heads have been scrutinized, leading to widespread speculation about their function.

Now, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology claims to have proven one of those theories: The hammer shape gives the sharks astounding eyesight.

WATCH VIDEO: Shark populations are declining worldwide. Kasey-Dee Gardner dives in for the answer.

Different hypotheses painted the shark's unusual lateral head extensions, or cephalofoils, as everything from fins for improved steering to antennae for increased electroreception, a trait that allows hammerheads to detect minute electrical currents generated by twitching fish muscles.

Shaped by evolution to allow for exceptional depth perception, the hammerhead's exceptional vision comes in handy during high-speed underwater pursuits.

Other theories surrounding the cephalofoils involved the shark's vision, sense of smell and even its ability to properly bite

Tags: nature