Why Do These Breathtaking Russian Images of Earth Look So Different from NASA’s?

April 1, 2011 Comments off

Gizmodo

While this morning’s orbital image of Mercury is historic, these two images are the ones that have truly left me in complete awe today. Even more so than the most accurate, highest resolution view of Earth to date.

But unlike Blue Marble, these images are not by NASA. In fact, they look a lot different from NASA’s Earth imagery. Much better and crisper, some may say. But are they really better? Are they more accurate? NASA has explained to us why they look so different compared to their own.

The russians are back in the space race

It was taken by a Russian spacecraft, a new weather satellite called Elektro-L. It’s now orbiting Earth on a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator, after being launched on January 20 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, on board a Zenit rocket.

This is the first major spacecraft fully developed in post-Soviet Russia, developed by NPO Lavochkin for the Russian Federal Space Agency. This is a major step in the country’s aerospace industry, after two decades of Read more…

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1,000 corpses from Japanese quake left uncollected because of fear of radiation

April 1, 2011 2 comments

www.dailymail.co.uk

The mother of one of the workers who are battling to stop a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant said today that they all expect to die from radiation sickness ‘within weeks’.

The so-called Fukushima 50 are all repeatedly being exposed to dangerously high radioactive levels as they attempt to restore vital cooling systems following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

And speaking tearfully through an interpreter by phone, the mother of a 32-year-old worker told Fox News: ‘My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation.

Too dangerous: This aerial photograph of the Fukushima plant shows the damaged reactors three and four at the which will now be entombed in concrete after the battle to contain radiation was lostToo dangerous: This aerial photograph of the Fukushima plant shows the damaged reactors three and four at the which will now be entombed in concrete after the battle to contain radiation was lost 

‘He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term.’

‘They have concluded between themselves that it is inevitable some of them may die within weeks or Read more…

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Census reveals that 17% of the world is Indian

April 1, 2011 1 comment

guardian

Uttar Pradesh, India
The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has a population of 199,500,000, just under that of Britain, France and Germany combined. Photograph: David Sutherland

 

The first results from India‘s latest census – the second biggest in the world – were released on Thursday, revealing that the country has added 181 million new citizens in the last decade, making it home to 17% of the world’s population.

China remains the most populous country on the planet, with 1.34 billion, but India is closing the gap with 1.21 billion. The additional Indians found by the census are roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world. One Indian state alone – Uttar Pradesh – now has a population of 199,500,000 people, just under that of Britain, France and Germany combined.

However C Chandramouli, the census commissioner, told reporters in Delhi that the new count showed Read more…

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Setbacks in Portugal and Ireland Renew Worry on Debt Crisis

April 1, 2011 Comments off

nytimes.com


 

Crispin Rodwell/Bloomberg News

Allied Irish Bank is one of several prominent financial institutions in Ireland in need of a rescue.

LONDON — A higher-than-expected budget deficit in Portugal and the need for more money to rescue Ireland’s failing banks have renewed fears that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening despite its sizable bailout fund.

Officials in Lisbon said Thursday that the country’s budget deficit last year was 8.6 percent of its gross domestic product, well above the goal of 7.3 percent. Although officials said the revision would not affect the government’s goal of reaching a deficit of 4.6 percent of domestic product in 2011, the news was a reminder that, even after the problems from Greece’s fraudulent deficit statistics, some numbers from the euro zone remain unreliable.

Also Thursday, Ireland’s central bank announced that four of the country’s most prominent financial institutions would need an additional 24 billion euros to cover sour real estate loans, a move that pushes the Read more…

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Letters Claim Al-CIAda Has Nuclear Bombs Hidden Across United States, Al Qaeda 100% Pentagon Run

March 31, 2011 Comments off

theintelhub.com

25 letters that claim nuclear bombs are hidden throughout the United States have been sent to multiple investigators and citizens in the Chicago area.

The letter inside said, “The Al-Qaeda organization has planted 160 nuclear bombs throughout the U.S. in schools, stadiums, churches, stores, financial institutions and government buildings.” It also said, “This is a suicide mission for us,” reported CBS Chicago.

While this news may be startling to many, it is no surprise to those in the alternative media. The idea of nukes in the United States has run rampant for years, with many believing rogue elements of our government will actually use these nukes within the United States to create enough chaos to initiate a world government.

In 2002 the right wing news organization World Net Daily reported that Bin Laden had snuck over 20 suitcase nukes into the United States,

A new book by an FBI consultant on international terrorism says Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network purchased 20 suitcase nuclear weapons from former KGB agents in 1998 for $30 million.

The book,“Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror,” by Paul L. Williams, also says this deal was one of at least three in the last decade in which al-Qaida purchased small nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear uranium. Read more…

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IAEA finds high radiation levels outside Japan evacuation zone

March 31, 2011 1 comment

cnn.com

Greenpeace members monitor radiation in Iitate on Sunday, 40 kilometers from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Greenpeace members monitor radiation in Iitate on Sunday, 40 kilometers from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Tokyo (CNN) — Radiation levels in a Japanese town outside a government-ordered evacuation zone have exceeded one of the criteria for evacuation, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday.

The agency said it advised Japan “to carefully assess the situation.”

The elevated levels were found in Iitate, a town of 7,000 residents about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the agency said. The evacuation zone covers a 20-kilometer (13-mile) radius around the plant.

The agency did not say what levels it found in Iitate, but the environmental group Greenpeace said Sunday it had found radiation levels in the town that were more than 50 times above normal.

Though that is far below the level that would cause radiation sickness, it does pose a risk of cancer to residents in the long term, Greenpeace said.

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Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels

March 31, 2011 Comments off

reuters

Main Image

An ammunition belt hangs over a car door painted in the colours of the rebel Kingdom of Libya flag near Brega in eastern Libya March 30, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Finbarr O’Reilly

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with the matter.

Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. This is a necessary legal step before such action can take place but does not mean that it will.

As is common practice for this and all administrations, I am not going to comment on intelligence matters,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “I will reiterate what the president said yesterday — no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya.”

The CIA declined comment. Read more…

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Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan

March 31, 2011 Comments off

dailymail

For scholars of faith and history, it is a treasure trove too precious for price.

This ancient collection of 70 tiny books, their lead pages bound with wire, could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of Christianity.

Academics are divided as to their authenticity but say that if verified, they could prove as pivotal as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.

Lines of inquiry: The metal tablets could change our understanding of the Bible
Lines of inquiry: The metal tablets could change our understanding of the Bible

 

On pages not much bigger than a credit card, are images, symbols and words that appear to refer to the Messiah and, possibly even, to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Adding to the intrigue, many of the books are sealed, prompting academics to speculate they are Read more…

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Warning of Recurring Food Crises

March 31, 2011 Comments off

voanews.com

Soaring and volatile food prices have experts warning of recurring food crises, putting poor people – especially women and children – at risk.

Similar conditions existed during the 2007/2008 food crisis, when high prices and shortages ignited unrest in many countries around the world.

IFPRI, the International Food Policy Research Institute, is calling for urgent action to prevent a repeat of the crisis. Director-General Shenggen Fen says, “Many food items have become more expensive…since last May or June. Wheat prices have almost doubled. The maize price has also increased substantially. Many meat products, dairy products have also increased substantially.”

While the situation is not as serious as the food crisis three years ago, Fen says, “If we don’t take urgent actions, food prices will continue to rise and the poor people will suffer.”

What’s triggering the price hikes? Read more…

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Blood Simple Circuitry For Cyborgs; Simplifying Cyborg Circuitry Using Human Blood

March 31, 2011 Comments off

nanopatentsandinnovations

Could electronic components made from human blood be the key to creating cyborg interfaces? Circuitry that links human tissues and nerve cells directly to an electronic device, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye might one day be possible thanks to the development of biological components.

A scanning electron microscope(SEM) image of a normal red blood cell, a platelet, and a white blood cell.

 

Credit: Wikipedia
Writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, a team in India describes how a “memristor” can be made using human blood. Memristors were a theoretical electronic component first suggested in 1971 by Berkeley electrical engineer Leon Chua and finally developed in the laboratory by scientists at Hewlett Packard using titanium dioxide in 2008. A memristor is a passive device, like a resistor, with two terminals but rather than having a fixed electrical resistance, its ability to carry a current changes depending on the voltage applied previously; it retains a memory of the current, in other words.
There are countless patents linking the development of memristors to applications in programmable logic circuits, as components of future transistors, in signal processing and in neural networks. S.P. Kosta of the Education Campus Changa in Gujarat and colleagues have now explored the possibility of creating a liquid memristor from human blood. In parallel work they are investigating diodes and capacitors composed of liquid human tissues.
They constructed the laboratory-based biological memristor using a 10 ml test tube filled with human blood held at 37 Celsius into which two electrodes are inserted; appropriate measuring instrumentation was attached. The experimental memristor shows that resistance varies with applied voltage polarity and magnitude and this memory effect is sustained for at least five minutes in the device.

Having demonstrated memristor behavior in blood, the next step was to test that the same behavior would be observed in a device through which blood is flowing. This step was also successful. The next stage will be to develop a micro-channel version of the flow memristor device and to integrate several to carry out particular logic functions. This research is still a long way from an electronic to biological interface, but bodes well for the development of such devices in the future.

Categories: Biotechnology Tags: , , , , ,