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Arctic Ice Subject to Rapid Changes

by ThePete 8:14 pm 2008-09-14
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Here is a pic that shows how rapidly things are changing in the Arctic (source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/…g/PIA11086 ). Over the span of 2 days, a dramatic amount of new melting ice became visible to NASA’s QuikScat satellite scatterometer. Here’s what NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has to say about the above image:

"There has been considerable interest in the recent state of Arctic sea ice for scientific research and for operational applications especially along the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage. This pair of sea ice maps was derived from radar data from NASA’s QuikScat satellite scatterometer on September 2, 2008 (left panel) and September 5, 2008 (right panel).

QuikScat’s unique features make it a powerful tool for mapping sea ice and accurately identifying sea ice conditions. It can distinguish sea ice from open water, differentiate different classes of ice, and compensate for effects of strong winds on ocean surfaces and effects of melt on ice.

In the above images, red areas denote sea ice that was undergoing active melting on the ice surface, magenta areas show sea ice with reduced melt, cyan areas are refrozen sea ice that had some residual wetness from earlier melting, and white areas represent sea ice that had been refrozen for 10 or more days. Ocean areas with less than 15 percent ice cover on the surface are blue, while land surfaces are shown in brown and missing data are depicted in black."

They go onto explain that the red areas on the right are from "Warm air transported by northward winds" that caused: "extensive areas of active melt (red) over a larger region extending from the Barents Sea across the Kara Sea to the Laptev Sea on September 5. That melt event was so large that some parts of it reached as far north as the vicinity of the North Pole."

PLEASE NOTE: The original caption for the image also explains that: "The sea routes may be opened or closed rapidly by transient weather events. Such unstable sea ice conditions in the passages can cause a significant navigation risk."

So, I post this not as "The sky is falling and it’s because of Climate Change!" kind of post but rather a post that says: "Whoa, that’s some serious flux! A bit of warm air and voila, instant Arctic Sea Routes–that’s kinda scary that it can happen so quickly." Still a sign of Climate Change, but it’s not the sign you might expect.

I almost think it’s more important to note that instability is sometimes worse than stability regardless of the effect. In this case, we don’t know what’s going on up there. At least, that’s what it seems like to me.

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by ThePete 8:14 pm 2008-09-14 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience, TheWarnings | Tags , , , , , , | $ |

Cheney Edited Global Warming Testimony

by ThePete 8:23 pm 2008-07-10
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I grabbed this from Google News just after midnight on 7/9/8. It seems that somebody in the USG admitted that Cheney had edited the testimony a USG health official gave to Congress.

Isn’t that nice? A man with no experience or expertise in the field of environment-related health issues told a government expert in said issues what to tell another part of the government about the issue.

Will this absurd royalism ever stop?

I know, I know–it’ll stop January 20, 2009.

But to that I say this: I wonder if the Obama Administration (knock on simulated wood grain) would give into the temptation of getting all big-brothery on our asses. If the last guys did it, what’s to stop the new guys?

Of course, I still think Hillary will pull it out and win it. :P

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by ThePete 8:23 pm 2008-07-10 In TheNews, Politricks, TheBig Brother, ThePete.Com, TheScience | Tags , , , , | $ |

Amazing Creatures Found Off of Antarctica

by ThePete 1:21 am 2008-02-20

This is Jules Verne stuff right here–apparently, French, Japanese and Australian scientists have found all manner of bizarre life forms in the waters off of the Antarctican continent. It’s easily the least explored part of our planet, save for the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. From the article: "Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.

"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."

The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.

"Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages," said Graham Hosie, head of the census project."

OK, so a dinner-plate-sized underwater spider isn’t fully 20,000-Leagues-Under-the-Sea-esque, but for the real world, it’s still pretty damn cool. Scientists say they’re excited about planning another expedition in 10-15 years.

Gee, aim high, guys!

What’s with the delay? Why not sooner? I bet if the US government wasn’t spending so much money on wars, we could learn a lot about the underwater life around Antarctica with the same amount of scratch. Of course, it’s much more fun to kill than it is to learn.

Wait a minute–no it’s not! Learning kicks ass! I’d do it all day long if I didn’t have to pay my bills!

Find the original AP.org article the above screencap came from at Google News here: ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIiwv2nRo-eUt2NgxGLnrD-Fnr0gD8UTL23O0

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by ThePete 1:21 am 2008-02-20 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience | Tags , | $ |

Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit

by ThePete 1:41 am 2008-01-27

Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit (AP.org)

A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday.

The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

Just something to think about in a month or two…

 

KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! 

by ThePete 1:41 am 2008-01-27 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com, TheScience, TheWarnings | Tags , , | $ |

WEB COMIC MAKES PERFECT POINT REGARDING AMERICANS AND GLOBAL WARMING

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-12-05

I can’t remember where I stumbled across this cartoon, but it’s pretty awesome:

Check out more dry wit in comic form at xkcd.com or click the comic above to check out the original page.

Which reminds me, I’ve got to start posting my comics again one of these days…

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-12-05 In TheNews, TheCultureJam, ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

Smart Car crash video

by ThePete 11:58 am 2007-10-22

With all the chatter about the Smart Car in the Utterverz this morning I thought people might enjoy seeing what a high-speed crash looks like in one.

It’s a little scary, but I still want one eventually. It’s supposed to get like 60mpg.
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by ThePete 11:58 am 2007-10-22 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches Help Save the Earth

by ThePete 6:00 am 2007-09-26

Man, that is one hippie-libbie-BS-glib-pithy-ass headline I’ve got there. Ah well, it’s the truth. How do I know? Because I read this post over at 21st-Century-Citizen.com (here: urltea.com/174v) about cool the PB&J sandy is. Check out a cutting:

One of the daily decisions we all face is what to eat. How do we eat well and in a way that’s good for the environment — and at the same time have meals that are easy to fix and taste good?

One food that fits all this is the simple Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. According to the PB&J Campaign website:

* Eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich instead of a grilled cheese or chicken sandwich saves 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s almost half of what you’d save if you switched to a Hybrid car.
* The same sandwich will save 280 gallons of water since growing peanuts takes less water than livestock.
* Growing peanuts also takes less land than animals — so your sandwich could help preserve 12-50 square feet of land from being used for cultivation.

I bet you didn’t realize that eating three Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches could have the same environmental impact as switching your showers to a low-flow shower head.

Uh, yeah, I didn’t actually know that last bit about swapping my “showers to a low-flow shower head.” Not sure why I should know that (or how many showers I’m supposed to have), but still pretty amazing how efficient a PB & J sandy is. The funny thing about the 21-c-c.c post is that it tries to suggest that there’s no difference between mainstream corporate peanut butter and all-natural stuff that is simply made of peanuts. There is so much extra crap in, say, Jiff or Skippy that it scares me. When I switched my diet around back in 2003 to consume as much natural food as possible, one of the first things I did was change PB brands.

If you don’t believe me, try all natural PB just once to compare what real food looks and tastes like compared to the corporate crap. If memory serves, if you take a jar of corporate PB, unscrew the cap and hold it upside down nothing spills out.

That’s really not supposed to happen. The natural stuff, especially before you stir it up, is almost a syrup. That’s because it’s (say it with me) natural.

Sure, according to some government sponsored scientists the crappy corporate stuff isn’t always worse for you than the all-natural stuff. However, see the real thing for yourself and make up your mind. It’s not like those government guys aren’t listening to the will of big business, or anything.

FYI, I use Trader Joe’s Creamy Unsalted Peanut Butter (just peanuts in it!), TJ’s organic fruit spread (the only thing added in the raspberry flavored is vitamin C & citric acid), and TJ’s LOOK PA! NO FLOUR! Sprouted Wheat Berry bread.

By the way, when I switched to all natural foods, I lost 20 pounds in a month, though I gained a bit of it back by eating too much healthy food.

Hey, healthy doesn’t mean it won’t make you heavy.

Come on, it’s your body and it’s made to eat natural food, not chemicals.

by ThePete 6:00 am 2007-09-26 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

HEALTH NEWS: DARK CHOCOLATE IS GOOD FOR YOU

by ThePete 6:07 pm 2007-09-21

Just listening to the podcast from TheNakedScientists.com and they did a story on how doctors have found that the things that make a glass of wine a day good for your health are also found in dark chocolate. They say a glass of wine and 30 grams of dark chocolate per day actually helps you be more healthy. Of course, they left out the part where you should also exercise regularly to work off the pounds you are likely to put on by consuming 30 grams of dark chocolate and a glass of wine a day. So, be sure and do that, too.

Incidentally, one of the scientists they interviewed also mentioned that a cup of coffee per day lowers your chances of becoming diabetic. I’m guessing he meant that statistics show that a cup of coffee a day lowers your chances of becoming diabetic. I’ve never heard of any tangible link between coffee consumption and diabetes prevention.

As far as how chocolate (and wine) make(s) you healthier, studies have shown that eating it regularly lowers your risk for heart disease. Some how the stuff that makes up the chocolate (which is very similar to the stuff that makes up wine) effect blood vessels in a way that improves heart health. To be even more specific, I found a transcript of the interview at TheNakedScientists.com (read it entirely here: urltea.com/1jxk) and here’s the important cutting:

We’ve done our own research in this area and shown that the potent effects, modifying the function of endothelial cells, which are the cells that line blood vessels, and these effects could definitely be associated with reduced risk of heart disease. Exactly the same molecules we’re looking at when we’re looking at red wine and there’s so much similarity between the effects we’re observing and the molecules that we’re studying that there’s a parallel between consumers of highly tannic red wine and those who like to eat dark chocolate, in terms of the effects observed.

Those were the words of one Roger Corder from the Royal London Medical School. So, there you have it!

I’m going to head down to Trader Joe’s and pick me up a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and a slab of the dark brown stuff!

Oh, damn… I just remembered that I don’t drink and don’t touch refined sugar…NO FAIR!

by ThePete 6:07 pm 2007-09-21 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

ALL ABOUT RFID CHIPS

by ThePete 6:00 am 2007-09-16

Back on September 9, 2007, I stumbled across a post at Engadget.com (here: urltea.com/1hpx) that reports on those fun little things called “RFID chips.” What are “RFID chips”? Well, they are Radio Frequence IDentification chips and they allow all sorts of stuff to be tracked wirelessly. Companies put them in their products to help track inventory. As I understand it, RFID chips are used in those “Fast Pass” gas-paying key chains some gas companies offer so you can pump your gas and not have to “bother” with swiping your credit card. Some want RFID chips implanted into people as a way to replace Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, credit cards and medical records. In theory all of this information (and more) could be stored in one of those tiny little chips.

This would allow people implanted with them to walk into a supermarket and roll out a cart-full of groceries without having to stand in line to pay. The RFID chips in the products you bought would let sensors in the door know what you have and the RFID chip in your ass would tell those same sensors what bank account to take the money out of.

Sounds neat, sure–but machines make mistakes. Register scanners make mistakes already (always check your receipts!!). And what happens if you buy something, like a pack of gum and you go back inside the store later? Wouldn’t the store charge you twice? Also, someone with a fairly inexpensive RFID chip reader could walk around outside your home and pick up the signals those little RFID chips give off and, in theory, compile a complete list of the items in your home. That way he’d know whether your home would be worth breaking into or not.

I won’t even go into how the RFID chip in your ass could be scanned and copied. The point here is that the there are as many reasons not to embrace RFID technology as there are to embrace it. In fact, there’s one more in the “cons” column as reported on in that Engadget post I mentioned earlier–cancer.

Yep, the C-word of diseases is apparently a side effect of implanting RFID chips into your flesh. Here’s a cutting from that post:

a number of studies over the past decade have amassed which link the chips to malignant tumors in animal tests. Besides the potential foul play going on at the FDA and VeriChip Corp. that got the chips approved for human use in 2004, studies showing as little as 1% cancer rates in lab animals led researchers to note that the aggressive tumors which immediately encased RFID implants with cancerous cells were “clearly due to the implanted microchips”, and not random occurrences.

WHOOPS! Well, 1 percent isn’t too bad, is it?

Unless, you’re the one percent.

by ThePete 6:00 am 2007-09-16 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience, TheTech.ThePete.Com, TheWarnings | Tags , | $ |

SCIENTISTS CAN TEST ENTIRE CITIES FOR DRUG USE

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-08-23

Just thought this was kind of neat. Check out this cutting from an August 21, 2007 article (urltea.com/1afx) from AP.org and MyWay.com that details an interesting way to get drug-use statistics:

Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city’s sewer plant.

The test wouldn’t be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.

Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking.

“It’s a community urinalysis,” said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team. The scientists presented their results Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

This is pretty ingenious, actually. The only thing that would worry me is if they manage to work out a way to track you down based on the stuff in your fecal-matter or urine. You know, the way someone can go to a garbage dump, dig around and find your credit card receipts and know what you spent money on? What if genetic material ends up in your crap somehow? Hm… this is all very interesting to me. I might have the beginnings of a scifi story here! ^_^

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-08-23 In TheNews, ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

SEE WHAT 200 CALORIES LOOKS LIKE!

by ThePete 4:39 pm 2007-08-16

Haha, this one’s funny.

So, I’m checking out my feeds on Google Reader the other day and I found a sort of chain of blogs or a blogchain that led me to an interesting post at WiseGeek.com. Here’s how the blogchain went:

1) google.com/reader (I start many blogchains here)

2) “Geeky” section: Lifehacker.com (great site)

3) lifehacker.com/software/health/the-200-calorie-gallery-226444.php (the actual post which referenced the original post below)

4) www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm

That WiseGeek.Com post is really cool–it features more than twenty photographs of foods arranged in 200-calorie piles. This is great because, if you’re like me, you have a hard time equating what abstract measurements equate to in reality. So, what the hell does 200 calories of peanut butter look like? Well, now you’ve got a reference. According to the WiseGeek post, the US Government says we should consume between 2000 and 2500 calories a day and knowing what that actually looks like means overeating will be much harder to do.

Pretty cool, huh? .

by ThePete 4:39 pm 2007-08-16 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

BEND YOUR BRAIN! READ ABOUT SCIENCE!

by ThePete 8:14 pm 2007-08-15

If it weren’t for the world being so screwed up and governments (specifically mine) weren’t so corrupt and dishonest, I’d be writing about scifi right now. Or I might be writing actual scifi. However, the “sci” in the “scifi” is short for science and you can’t usually do good, realistic scifi without researching the “sci” part. I was reminded of this when I stumbled across from the July 30, 2007 issue of Newsweek over at MSNBC.com that talks about quantum physics and how scientists are slowly coming around to accepting the weirdness that is physics at the smaller-than-microscopic level.

In a nutshell, shit gets crazy down there, man.

Here’s a bit from the above mentioned article to explain what I mean:

Since experiments keep proving quantum ideas right, physicists are forced to take them seriously. It isn’t easy. They have to admit that a particle can be in two places at once. They have to accept that subatomic systems can become so “entangled” that measuring one affects the other even if the two are light-years apart, which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” But even as quantum weirdness provides fodder for such drivel as the best-selling book “The Secret,” it also fuels debate on subjects as lofty as the nature of reality. Last week a conference at Oxford University explored the idea that every time a subatomic system reaches a decision point—to undergo radioactive decay or not, say—it chooses both possibilities: in this world the particle decays, while in a parallel world it does not. Some physicists buy this “many worlds” interpretation because the alternative is even more unpalatable: that quantum systems choose one possibility or another only when an observer looks. Einstein loathed the idea that reality is created by observers.

That last part is just what more and more people are thinking.

Personally, I believe that the universe doesn’t know our definition of “positive” and “negative”. As in, “good” and “evil.” All it knows are the laws the universe lives by–the Infinite Commandments–the Physical Laws of the Universe. The obvious ones are gravity, the speed of light, and other such yawn-inducing concepts. However, on a quantum level, things get crazy, as mentioned above. This is where the new-age types come in.

The power of Positive Thinking is being applauded as the way to change your life and they point to quantum physics for evidence. Remember the above mentioned stuff about reality being created by its observers? Well, these folks think that thinking positive while, uh, observing, I guess, will allow the universe to move in a positive way, as opposed to a negative one.

It’s a nice idea, and I wish I could agree with it, but I see too many things that lean toward the common concept of negative to believe that positive thinking helps. Every time I walk into a supermarket I think to myself “I’m going to bump into Steven Spielberg!”

And I never do.

So much for positive thinking!

But seriously, these and other amazingly mind-bending theories are all being debated in the world of quantum physics.

Quantum physics. Think about it, won’t you?

Check out I mentioned for more… .

by ThePete 8:14 pm 2007-08-15 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

GENETIC “OFF-SWITCH” FOR CANCER FOUND BY CANADIANS

by ThePete 1:21 pm 2007-08-15

This is some serious news, actually, and I’m sure it won’t get major play in the mainstream news if it gets play at all. See, cancer is a MUCH bigger threat to American lives (as well as other humans) than terrorism. Terrorism, even in Iraq, only kills tens of thousands of people each year (if that), where as cancer kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year–that number is even higher when you consider the rest of the world.

Yet what do we spend a trillion dollars on? Fighting terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s really sad is that just a fraction of that trillion dollars would go a long way towards finding a cure for cancer–an even longer way now that the cure may have just gotten a lot closer. TheGlobeAndMail.Com is reporting (urltea.com/189n) that Canadian doctors have found a gene that turns off cancer cell production. Seriously.

Here’s, well, the whole article (it’s very short):

A unique gene that can stop cancerous cells from multiplying into tumours has been discovered by a team of scientists at the B.C. Cancer Agency in Vancouver.

The team, led by Dr. Poul Sorensen, says the gene has the power to suppress the growth of human tumours in multiple cancers, including breast, lung and liver.

The gene, HACE 1, helps cells fight off stress that, left unchecked, opens the door to formation of multiple tumours.

Dr. Sorensen’s team found cancerous cells form tumours when HACE 1 is inactive, but when additional stress such as radiation is added, tumour growth is rampant.

Kick-starting HACE 1 prevented those cells from forming tumours.

The study appears in the advance online publication of Nature Medicine.

I just hope this can be implemented into a cure fast because people die of cancer every day. Of course, the way the world seems to work, it won’t get turned into a cure at all because it’s more profitable to have us suffer and die than it is to cure us.

by ThePete 1:21 pm 2007-08-15 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

INTERNET ROBBERS STEAL $1 MILLION

by ThePete 6:24 am 2007-07-26

I think I remember blogging a couple years ago about the Federal Reserve System going onto the Internet. Well, this bank in Sweden sure wishes it had stayed off because it got ripped off majorly as covered in at TheInquirer.Net reported:

SWEDISH BANK Nordea suffered the biggest Internet heist in history as cyber crooks filleted some eight million kronor (around £576,000) from its coffers.

As many as 250 customers at Sweden’s largest bank seem to have downloaded files containing the ‘haxdoor.ki’ Trojan over the past three months. This fellow turned himself on when users tried to log in to their online account at the bank.

The software stole users’ information before displaying an error message asking the client to resend the data. The hackers, believed to be based in Russia, then had the two access codes needed to transfer money from the account.

Why is it that people are surprised when this sort of thing happens?

It’s like the whole bootlegging movies and mp3s from DVDs and CDs. Like those media discs, the bank’s digital services were designed to allow for easier access. So, no one should be surprised when said digitization makes access easier for everyone. .

by ThePete 6:24 am 2007-07-26 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

DIET SODAS BAD FOR YOU DIFFERENTLY

by ThePete 4:42 pm 2007-07-24

One thing I always thought about growing up was how diet sodas are used as a shield against eating poorly. The old joke has the fat guy ordering a huge dinner and a giant piece of cake for desert but then, to drink, he orders a diet soda.

Ha.

Well, it turns out that joke may be funnier than you might think thanks to a new study. The following cutting comes from article at CNN.com. It reports:

People who drink one or more soft drinks a day have a more than 50 percent higher risk of developing the heart disease precursor metabolic syndrome than people who drink less than one soda a day, a new study has found. And it didn’t matter if it was a regular soda or a diet soda.

Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of health problems — high waist circumference, high blood pressure, low levels of “good” cholesterol,” and other health problems — that have been strongly linked to developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

In a nutshell? It looks like diet soda is just about as bad for you as regular soda, only it’s bad for you in slightly different ways. In the end, any kind of soda is just plain unhealthy. I’ve been staying generally away from sodas for about four years now and I haven’t missed them, really. Of course, it helps that I actually do drink a non-diet soda once a month (or less) but that tiny amount of soda isn’t likely enough to harm me.

So, don’t think it’s about going cold turkey–it’s about going mostly cold turkey. We’re all humans, after all ^_^ .

by ThePete 4:42 pm 2007-07-24 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

WATER FOUND OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

by ThePete 3:00 pm 2007-07-18

This is kind of a big deal, but because we’ve got all of these other manufactured Earth-bound threats (like terrorism) this hasn’t made as big of a splash on the headlines as it should have. Soooo:

WE FOUND WATER OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM!!

Why is this important?

Well, DUH, water is probably the most important building block for LIFE.

If it exists out there, then it’s that much more plausible to assume life as we know it lives out there.

This should be huge news! Seriously–who cares about some terrorists when you consider life outside of our immediate sphere?

It’s so ridiculous that we can spend a trillion USD on destruction but waaaay less on progression.

Ah well, you should go read more about this whole story in a July 11, 2007 article at Reuters.com.

It’s LIFE, MAN!!

by ThePete 3:00 pm 2007-07-18 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

ICED BABY MAMMOTH DISCOVERED IN SIBERIA

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-07-11

The following cutting comes from from Reuters.com available at CNN.com:

Scientists unveiled the discovery Wednesday of a baby mammoth found in the permafrost of north-west Siberia.

The remains of the six-month-old female mammoth were discovered in a remarkable state of preservation on the Yamal peninsula of Russia in May, a Reuters report said. The specimen is believed to be the best of its kind to date.

…

The animal is thought to have died 10,000 years ago and experts say the approximately four foot tall, 50kg Siberian specimen dates to the end of the last Ice Age, when the great beasts were vanishing off the face of the planet.

Scientists hope the animal might yield DNA samples that could be used to clone and effectively resurrect the extinct members of the elephant family.

Science. Remember that? It’s how we learn stuff about the universe. It’s cool.

Sure wish we could spend more on science. Maybe we could snag some of that $1 trillion from World War III in the Middle East and spend it on something that will actually allow humanity to progress.

Ah well, I’ve got to have hope, right?

by ThePete 6:00 pm 2007-07-11 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

SCIENTISTS PLAY GOD, CREATE LIFE, IT’S COOL!

by ThePete 11:34 am 2007-07-08

Haha, OK, well, it’s cool for now, but once those new artificial lifeforms start demanding rights–well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Turns out scientists have created a new lifeform by transplanting the DNA from one lifeform and jamming it into another. Once the new DNA takes, that second lifeform literally becomes the first.

This is basically like Michael Bay claiming he did something good by ripping off an old premise and characters and jamming them in a movie called Transformers. Too bad, the scientists, like Bay, fail to admit what a rip-off both acts are. :) The good news, is that, unlike Bay, the scientists are interested in creating 100% new life now. I’ll let a cutting from at telegraph.co.uk explain:

In a development that has triggered unease and excitement in equal measure, scientists in the US took the whole genetic makeup - or genome - of a bacterial cell and transplanted it into a closely related species.

This then began to grow and multiply in the lab, turning into the first species in the process.

The team that carried out the first “species transplant” says it plans within months to do the same thing with a synthetic genome made from scratch in the laboratory.

If that experiment worked, it would mark the creation of a synthetic lifeform.

Of course, the joke is ultimately on the scientists as we’ve already created an artificial form of life.

Paris Hilton!

(Her “life” sure isn’t real!)

THANK YOU, I’LL BE HERE ALL YEAR! PLEASE TIP YOUR WEBMASTER!

by ThePete 11:34 am 2007-07-08 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

CHINA SUFFERS FROM MASSIVE POLUTION

by ThePete 7:08 am 2007-06-12

Don’t let it be said that I only bag on America. It seems that my theory about China being “America without the morals” isn’t the whole story–they’re “America without the morals nor the clean air” which is a little frightening seeing as the US of A isn’t exactly a poster child for pollution-free environment. from Reuters.com reports that:

Nearly two-thirds of Chinese cities suffered from air pollution last year and had no centralized sewage treatment facilities, state media reported on Tuesday.

Only 37.6 percent of 585 cities surveyed had air quality “indicating a clean and healthy environment,” down 7.3 percentage points from 2005, the China Daily said, citing a report by the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

Thirty-nine cities, many scattered across the northern coal-rich province of Shanxi and China’s northeastern rustbelt province of Liaoning, suffered “severe” air pollution, the paper said.

“The report also found that the ratio of quality water in the major urban areas, either for drinking or industrial use, had dropped by 7.24 percent,” the paper said.

Two hundred cities had no “centralized sewage management system” and 187 had no garbage disposal plants, it said.

…

The report comes as the capital Beijing on Tuesday was shrouded in thick smog, which local media said was exacerbated by smoke blown into the city from crop burning in neighboring provinces.

On Monday night, an index measuring air pollution from Beijing’s southern Daxing county read over 850 particles of “particulate matter” per square meter, which was eight times the norm, the Beijing News said.

Wow…

Then again, maybe the US can learn something since this quite negative news comes from China’s state-run media. A generally amoral government (think: legal prison labor, legal buying/selling human organs, etc.) essentially tells it’s people it’s done a rotten job of regulating against pollution. That’s a far cry from a government that lied to 911 rescue workers and told them that the air they were breathing was safe. That’s a far cry from a government that did virtually nothing for Louisiana during the build up and even much of the aftermath of Katrina.

Sure, I’m still damn glad to live in America, but our media and our government could be more upfront and honest like the, ugh, like the Chinese.

Mind you, I’ve got nothing against the Chinese people. Of course, I do wish they would exert more pull over their government to make some moral choices, but I don’t feel like I’m in a place to criticize the Chinese too much when my fellow Americans fail to lift an effective finger after two apparent fixed elections, our government fails to protect us against 911 and Katrina and getting us in to two wars that have only made the world more dangerous.

It’s less a problem I have with America or China as it is a problem I have with humanity.

by ThePete 7:08 am 2007-06-12 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |

EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT TO BE TESTED ON PEOPLE WITHOUT CONSENT

by ThePete 1:42 pm 2007-05-31

OK, so, there are these tests doctors want to do to determine better ways to resuscitate people after their hearts suddenly stop, due to shock, trauma, etc. The thing is, these doctors are idiots.

“Well, the only way to see if it works on humans is if we try it. But how can we get their permission first if we have to wait until their heart stops to ask them?” is what I imagine Dr. Moron asking Dr. Dipshitz.

“You’re right! Let’s subject them to a potentially fatal test and not give any further thought to it!” replies Dr. Dipshitz.

“LET’S!”

Of course, they don’t bother to even think about an alternative to violating human rights by publicizing that they need people to volunteer for the tests. And by “volunteering” I don’t mean they should volunteer to have their heart suddenly stopped. If you thought that you’re as dumb as Dr. Moron. What I mean is, publicize the hell out of this and get hundreds or even thousands of people to sign waivers saying “if I’m in a car accident, you can do the test on me.”

Car accidents happen all the time–it’s highly likely that the doctors would get “lucky.” I’d much prefer their research get delayed over them testing something that won’t work on me, thank you very much.

Read more about the specifics in from WashingtonPost.com but available at Chron.com.

by ThePete 1:42 pm 2007-05-31 ThePete.Com, TheScience | $ |