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10 Rare Cloud Formations

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:42:38 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007

Clip Source: listverse.com

10 Rare Cloud Formations

Clip Source: listverse.com

1. Nacreous Clouds

2. Mammatus Clouds

3. Altocumulus Castelanus

4. Noctilucent Clouds

5. Mushroom Clouds

6. Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz

7. Lenticular Clouds

8. Roll Clouds

9. Shelf Clouds

10. Stratocumulus Clouds

Tags: clouds

The fish that can survive for months in a tree

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:26:25 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

t's one of the golden rules of the natural world – birds live in trees, fish live in water.

The trouble is, no one bothered to tell the mangrove killifish.

Scientists have discovered that it spends several months of every year out of the water and living inside trees

Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air.

Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat.

The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man.

Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean.

The latest discovery was made by biologists wading through swamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out of the water

Tags: fish, animals, fauna

Growing More Rice With Less Water

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:28:28 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

A new method to grow rice could save hundreds of billions of cubic metres of water while increasing food security, according to a study by World Wildlife Foundation.

With a focus on India – a country which faces a major water crisis, yet has the world’s largest rice cultivated area – the study found that the system of rice intensification (SRI) method has helped increase yields by over 30% — four to five tonnes per hectare instead of three tonnes per hectare, while using 40% less water than conventional methods.

The system is based on eight principles which are different to conventional rice cultivation. They include developing nutrient-rich and un-flooded nurseries instead of flooded ones; ensuring wider spacing between rice seedlings; preferring composts or manure to synthetic fertilizers; and managing water carefully to avoid that the plants’ roots are not saturated.

Tags: agriculture, rice, india, science

Slow motion bullet photography

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:41:00 GMT

clipped by: djimenez539

Clip Source: m3.bestpicever.com

" Slow Motion Bullet Photography "

Tags: bullet, gun, photo, cool, amazing, pictures, speed

Are you really too busy to cook?

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:22:44 GMT

clipped by: apple white
clipper's remarks: Just one clip from the second page of an interview with Michael Pollen ("The Omnivore's Dilemma")... as I sit here at my computer with a can of pop.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The advice to "eat food, not much, mostly plants" is deceptively simple -- how do you apply that in a society that's become addicted to convenience food?

I think that there's some brainwashing going on with this idea that we don't have time to cook anymore. We have made cooking seem much more complicated than it is, and part of that comes from watching cooking shows on television -- we've turned cooking into a spectator sport. We're terrified to play tackle football too when we watch how it's played on TV -- we'd get killed. But cooking's a whole lot easier than it appears on Iron Chef.

My wife and I both work, and we can get a very nice dinner on the table in a half hour. It would not take any less time for us to drive to a fast-food outlet and order

They kind of flatter us by telling us we're too busy and that we have such rushed lives, but in the end we find time for what matters. In just the last 10 years we've found, what, two or three hours a day to deal with the internet?

Tags: food, cooking, nutrition

Explosion Kills Several in Manila Mall

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:25:03 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: That mall is near our office. HR did a headcount when news of the explosion came. Our office is located at the center of the business district so we're used to rallies being staged in the vicinity every few months... Disasters like this don't happen everyday though. I hope those who were hurt are being treated well.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A powerful blast rocked a crowded shopping mall in Manila's financial district Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens. Police in the capital declared the highest state of alert and did not rule out a bomb.

An initial report suggested the blast was caused by a cooking gas tank in a mall restaurant, but Metropolitan Manila police chief Geary Barias later said the explosion was at the entrance of the mall and its cause was under investigation.

The explosion extensively damaged the Glorietta 2 shopping complex in Makati, toppling roofs, destroying walls, and sending debris crashing onto cars outside.

At least eight people died and as many as 70 others were hurt, Barias said.

Manila has been a target of Al-Qaida-linked militants, who have waged a yearslong bloody bombing campaign in the southern Philippines.

months ago, authorities were alerted to an alleged terror plot to plant bombs in Manila's business districts of Makati and Ortigas

Tags: news, manila, bombing, explosion, makati, glorietta, mall

Did Someone Get to Mukasey?

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:50:56 GMT

clipped by: zasel
clipper's remarks: On Wednesday, during Michael Mukasey's first confirmation hearing, he stated that torture is always wrong and never excusable. Then, mysteriously, the very next day, during his second hearing he was asked if waterboarding is torture, he refused to respond coherently. I have suspicions that the white house was NOT happy with his comments on day one about torture, and gently explained the facts of life to him.

Clip Source: rawstory.com

AG nominee won't say if waterboarding is torture

Attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey left open the possibility that a controversial technique alleged to be used by CIA interrogators could be considered Constitutional, when he refused to say one way or another whether water boarding is torture.

"If water boarding is torture, torture is not constitutional," Mukasey said, claiming that he was not familiar with the specifics of the process.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called that answer a "massive hedge," and he explained the specifics of the practice -- strapping down a detainee and pouring water over his face to simulate drowning. He asked if that practice would be considered constitutional.

"If it amounts to torture it is not constitutional," is all Mukasey would say.

Whitehouse scolded Mukasey, saying he was "very disappointed" in his "very semantic answer."

"Sorry," Mukasey mumbled.

Tags: attorney general, mukasey, congress, confirmation, hearings

US New Nuclear Warhead: No One Watching

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:12:19 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: 82% of Americans back total elimination or reduction of nuclear weapons.

Clip Source: www.zmag.org

Although Congress has been dealing with the Bush administration's proposal to develop the reliable replacement warhead (RRW) for much of 2007, it's remarkable that the new weapon, a hydrogen bomb, has attracted little public protest or even public attention.

the general public hasn't noticed RRW. Why?

A key reason is that peace groups and the public are preoccupied by the Iraq War and by the looming war with Iran. T

the mass communications media have done a good deal to distort and/or bury nuclear issues since the end of the Cold War. Yes, at the behest of the Bush administration they trumpeted the supreme dangers of Iraqi nuclear weapons, even when those weapons didn't exist. But they did a terrible job of educating the U.S. public about nuclear realities.

A July 2007 poll by the Simons Foundation of Canada found that 82.3 percent of Americans backed either the total elimination or a reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. Only 3 percent favored developing new nuclear weapons.

Tags: media distraction, nuclear war, us