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Asteroid impact caused huge scar on Jupiter
A massive scar that appeared in Jupiter’s atmosphere last summer was caused by an asteroid ‘the size of the Titanic’, says NASA.
By examining the signatures of the gases and dark debris produced by the impact shockwaves, the team deduced that the object was more likely a rocky asteroid than an icy comet.
“Both the fact that the impact itself happened at all and the implication that it may well have been an asteroid rather than a comet shows us that the outer solar system is a complex, violent and dynamic place, and that many surprises may be out there waiting for us,” said NASA astronomer Glenn Orton. “There is still a lot to sort out in the outer solar system.”
Before this collision, scientists had thought that the only objects that hit Jupiter were icy comets whose unstable orbits took them close enough to be sucked in by gravitational attraction. It was believed that Jupiter had already cleared most other objects, such as asteroids, from its sphere of influence.
The July 19, 2009 object likely hit Jupiter between 9 am and 11 am UTC.
As it fell through Jupiter’s atmosphere, the object created a Read more…
Birds vanishing in the Philippines
By Cecil Morella (AFP)
CANDABA, Philippines — The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.
Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent, said Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.
“The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline,” Jensen, who advises the Philippine government on species conservation, told AFP.
“Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed, hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways.”
Candaba, a swamp two hours’ drive north of Manila that has long been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia, appears emblematic of the downfall.
Jensen said that bird watchers routinely counted 100,000 ducks at Candaba in the 1980s as they stopped there for a rest while traversing the East Asian-Australasian flyway.
But volunteers recorded just Read more…
Deadly Fluoride in Baby Food, Beer, Large Number of Food Products
Infowars.com
I was looking for a picture for this story and ran into this story:Here is the link> Why is Fluoride Bad for You?
Fluoride isn’t just in your drinking water. It is in a variety of food and beverage products, including baby food and beer.
Here is an excerpt from a USDA database:
2004 USDA National Fluoride Database of
Selected Beverages and Foods
For Full Report on USDA Website
CLICK HERE
Intended goal of fluoridation: Delivery of 1 milligram of fluoride per day
1 milligram/liter = 1ppm (parts per million)
Mutant mosquitoes: Malaysia release of genetically modified insects sparks fears of uncontrollable new species
Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a forest in the first experiment of its kind in Asia aimed at curbing dengue fever.
The field test is meant to pave the way for the official use of genetically engineered Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to mate with females and produce offspring with shorter lives, thus curtailing the population.
Only female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread dengue fever, which killed 134 people in Malaysia last year.
Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes into a forest in a bid to curb rates of dengue fever
However, the plan has sparked criticism by some Malaysian environmentalists, who fear it might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes.
Critics also say such plans could leave a vacuum in the ecosystem that is then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases.
A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year – the first time genetically modified mosquitoes Read more…
Thousands rally against government in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen – Tens of thousands of people are calling for the Yemeni president’s ouster in protests across the capital inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia.
The demonstrations led by opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising, which also inspired Egypt’s largest protests in a generation. They pose a new threat to the stability of the Arab world’s most impoverished nation, which has become the focus of increased Western concern about a resurgent al-Qaida branch, a northern rebellion and a secessionist movement in the south.
Crowds in four parts of Sanaa have shut down streets and are chanting calls for an end to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years.
“We will not accept anything less than the president leaving,” said independent parliamentarian Ahmed Hashid.
Opposition leaders called for more demonstrations on Friday.
“We’ll only be happy when we hear the words ‘I understand you’ from the president,” Hashid said, invoking a statement issued by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before he fled the country. Read more…
South Africa and China a match made in heaven
Trade between China and South Africa is gaining momentum and for those companies who may have ignored this growing trade relationship in the past, are now forced to recognize the potential for doing business with China.
According to The China Inc meets SA Inc Business Forum, not only is there room for growth in trade between South Africa and China, but China is viewing the well-developed infrastructure South Africa provides as the key to unlocking the gateway into the rest of Africa.
In 2009, China surpassed the United States, to become South Africa’s largest export destination, whith trade between China and South Africa reached USD 16 billion in 2009.
With the signing of various cooperation deals in August 2010, by President Zuma during his State visit to China, this figure is expected to grow as China looks to export raw materials to fuel its booming economy.
The recent deals signed by Zuma focus on the mineral resources sector, railway development, construction industry as well as the mining sector and finally power transmission and nuclear power.
So for South Africa, doing business with China is good business my china. Far better than doing business with the US and Europe who are only looking for new markets for their goods without offering the same for our goods. This attitude by the developed world, the US in particular, is the reason the Doha negotiations are still deadlocked since 2001.
Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which allows countries to increase trade globally. Talks have stalled over a divide on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers, services, and trade remedies.
The most significant differences are between developed nations led by the European Union (EU), the United States (USA), and Japan and the major developing countries led and represented mainly by Brazil, China, India, South Korea, and South Africa. There is also considerable contention against and between the EU and the USA over their maintenance of agricultural subsidies—seen to operate effectively as trade barriers.
To think that it was the US that first proposed the removal of agricultural subsidies in the first place. Developing countries were first to foolishly remove the subsidies to their detriment.
So more trade between developing countries make better sense as they trade on an equal footing and there is very little chance of blackmail or brinksmanship.
Record U.S. deficit projected this year
The still-fragile economy and fresh tax cuts approved by Congress last month will drive the federal deficit to nearly $1.5 trillion this year, the biggest budget gap in U.S. history, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday.
The grim forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office came hours after President Obama called in his State of the Union address for Republicans and Democrats to work together to rein in record deficits that are pushing the national debt into uncharted territory. At $1.5 trillion, the deficit would equal 9.8 percent of the economy, the CBO said, making it one of the largest by that measure since the end of World War II.
Lawmakers scrambled on Wednesday to respond to the darkening budget picture, with Republicans pressing their call for sharp and immediate cuts in domestic spending. Twenty-one Senate Republicans, meanwhile, unveiled a plan to amend the Constitution to require balanced budgets, a top priority of the tea party movement.
Democrats resisted both initiatives, arguing that amending the Constitution, a lengthy process that requires a vote in all 50 state legislatures, would do little to address the current problem. They dismissed as “drastic” a proposal by House Republicans to slash $100 billion from the current budget, arguing that cuts of that magnitude would endanger a million jobs on public- and private-sector payrolls at a time when the unemployment rate already stands at 9.4 percent.
“We have to cut government, but Republicans are going at this with meat ax when what is needed is a Read more…
Himalayan glaciers not melting because of climate change, report find
Himalayan glaciers are actually advancing rather than retreating, claims the first major study since a controversial UN report said they would be melted within quarter of a century.
Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.
The discovery adds a new twist to the row over whether global warming is causing the world’s highest mountain range to lose its ice cover.
It further challenges claims made in a 2007 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the glaciers would be gone by 2035.
Although the head of the panel Dr Rajendra Pachauri later admitted the claim was an error gleaned from unchecked research, he maintained that global warming was melting the glaciers at “a rapid rate”, threatening floods throughout north India.
The new study by scientists at the Universities of California and Potsdam has found that Read more…
ElBaradei returns to Egypt calling for democracy
Self-exiled opposition leader publishes manifesto for toppling Mubarak regime: “It is time for a change; the only option is a new beginning.”
Democracy activist, Mohamed ElBaradei, is expected to return from Vienna to Egypt on Thursday following this week’s protests, laying out his manifesto for change in Newsweek.
“I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets because, really, there is no choice,” ElBaradei wrote. “So far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message.”
RELATED:
Thousands of Egyptians protest against Mubarak
“The Egyptian people broke the barrier of fear, and once that is broken, there is no stopping them,” he explained.
“Each day it gets harder to work with Mubarak’s government, even for a transition,” ElBaradei wrote. “He has been there 30 years, he is 83 years old, and it is time for a change…The only option is a new beginning.”
“I have hoped to find a way toward change through peaceful means,” he added. “In a country like Egypt, it’s not easy to get people to put down their names and government ID numbers on a document calling for fundamental democratic reforms, yet a million people have done just that.”
“The regime, like the monkey that sees nothing and hears nothing, simply ignored us,” ElBaradei explained.
ElBaradei also laments media censorship in Egypt, explaining that he has “been out of Egypt because that is the only way I can be heard. I have been totally cut off from the local media when I am there.” Read more…
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