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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

"Page One" Story of the Century? NASA May Announce Thursday to Have Found Life on Saturn's Moon Titan

"Page One" Story of the Century? NASA May Announce Thursday to Have Found Life on Saturn's Moon Titan: "NASA has called a 2 p.m. news conference for Thursday 'to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.' The group includes Pamela Conrad, author of a paper on geology and life on Mars; and James Elser, an Arizona State University professor involved in a NASA-funded program that emphasizes looking at the chemistry of environments where life evolves (and not just looking at water or carbon or oxygen); Felisa Wolfe-Simon (an oceanographer) has written extensively on photosynthesis using arsenic recently (she worked on the team mentioned in this article); Steven Benner (a biologist) is on the 'Titan Team' at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; they're looking at Titan (Saturn's largest moon) as an early-Earth-like chemical environment. This is likely related to the Cassini mission."

Evangelical Lutheran Theologian Advocates Transhumanism

Logos Apologia » Blog Archive » Evangelical Lutheran Theologian Advocates Transhumanism: "I recently read Tom Horn’s article Are Church leaders abdicating the future of man to the Luciferian dead hand of the great planners and conditioners? I’m afraid they are not merely abdicating, some are actually advocating transhumanism!

In my research through scholarly theological literature, I discovered a Lutheran based journal Dialog: A Journal of Theology which featured and article “The Animal that Aspires to be an Angel: The Challenge of Transhumanism” by Philip Hefner. In this article, Hefner actually advocates the transhumanist pursuit as a Christian duty. The author is an ordained pastor with the theologically liberal Evangelical Lutheran (ELCA) denomination and retired editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.[1] Accordingly, his writing exhibits a command of science. However, the article’s title referring to man as an animal compounded by his references to the Qur’an as a divine revelation[2] and Genesis as mythology[3] telegraph a freethinking worldview."

Experts to ‘redefine the future’ at Humanity+ @ CalTech | KurzweilAI

Experts to ‘redefine the future’ at Humanity+ @ CalTech | KurzweilAI: "On December 4 and 5, leading researchers, engineers, philosophers, physicians, designers, and others will meet at Caltech’s Beckman Institute to participate in Humanity+ @ CalTech and address the provocative and timely question: What are the radical technological changes that will redefine humanity?

Topics will include Re-Imagining Humans: Mind, Media, and Methods; Radically Increasing the Human Healthspan; Redefining Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence Enhancement and Substrate-Independent Minds; and Business and Economy in the Era of Radical Technomorphosis."

Thoughts aHumanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement

Thoughts about our species’ future: themes from Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement: "This paper summarizes a couple of the main arguments from my new book, Humanity’s End. In the book I argue against radical enhancement – the adjustment of human attributes and abilities to levels that greatly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. I’m curious to see what reaction this elicits in a journal whose readership includes some of radical enhancement’s most imaginative and committed advocates."

Transhumanism Stuff

Transhumanism: "'As the external world becomes more animate, we may find that we -- the so-called humans -- are becoming, and may to a great extent always have been, inanimate in the sense that we are led, directly by built-in tropisms, rather than leading. So we and our elaborately evolving computers may meet each other halfway.' --Philip K. Dick"

Eclipsing Cepheid Falsifies Stellar Evolution Theory

Eclipsing Cepheid Falsifies Stellar Evolution Theory: "An ESO (European Southern Observatory) press release boasts, “Pulsating Star Mystery Solved.” Cepheid variables are stars whose rates of pulsation vary with their luminosities: the brighter the star the longer it takes to complete a cycle of variability. It’s called the period–luminosity relationship.

By timing the period of pulsation, the absolute luminosity of the star can be calculated. By comparing that quantity with the star’s apparent brightness, the star’s distance can be determined. Edwin Hubble’s discovery of Cepheids in the Andromeda galaxy in 1924 was the key to proving that the “spiral nebulae,” formerly thought to lie inside the Milky Way, were actually independent galaxies far outside the Milky Way."

How To Exorcise Aliens: Possession of the Fourth Kind | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.

How To Exorcise Aliens: Possession of the Fourth Kind | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.: "Under the guise of technical testing, grey aliens create dithers and stress and impose raw anxiety, in abductee's daily lives to create the juices, the endocrine stress flavors that their nighttime palates crave.

This is a most unique relationship akin to vampires of the 3rd century myths of negative, bedroom, nighttime intruders who crave bodily juices.

And yes, oddly, garlic does indeed repel them when used as an herbal repellent.

Psychic vampires from techno space? Sounds like a bad B movie but most abductees are treated as though they were just alien food, ethereal and physical food. Energy is drained through implant drains and through alien controls that involve micro manipulations of almost all psychic functions.

The parallel between alien abductions and demonic possession is powerful as both show intrusive dark intentions to disrupt and control and all without any seeming conscience."

Monday, November 29, 2010

Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans | Science | The Guardian

Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans | Science | The Guardian: "Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs"

WikiLeaks Documents: China’s Google Hack, UN Spying, More Secrets - The Daily Beast

WikiLeaks Documents: China’s Google Hack, UN Spying, More Secrets - The Daily Beast: "The whistleblower’s latest document dump exposes Saudi Arabia’s plot against Iran, a corrupt Afghan’s $52 million payday, Putin and Berlusconi’s “bromance,” and more. See nine of the most startling details..."

Professor Proves Psychic Powers Exist

67 Not Out: "Psychic powers exist. Nope, that's not just my opinion or that of quite a few 67 Not Out readers. It's also the opinion of a Professor Daryl Bem who has carried out experiments to back this up. His findings have been published in the New Scientist magazine.

In one of his experiments the Professor's students were shown a list of words to memorise. Later they were asked to recall as many of these as they could and finally were given a random selection of the words to type out.

Obviously the students were better at remembering some words than others.

But here's the psychic bit. They tended to remember the words they would later be asked to type. This suggested a future event had affected their ability to remember."

Cosmic Rebirth Encoded in Background Radiation?

Cosmic Rebirth Encoded in Background Radiation? | Before It's News: "They say that fact is often stranger than fiction, and it would appear that fact and a science fiction storyline have just collided in a big way.

Scientists analyzing the ubiquitous cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) observed throughout the Universe have claimed they have discovered a pattern in its signal.

And having watched a recent episode of Stargate Universe (SGU) -- an awesome sci-fi series, and one of my favorites -- a storyline involving a pattern in the CMBR has just aired. Although the SGU CMBR pattern has a very different origin to what this most recent discovery is suggesting, it is a testament to how awesome accurate science fiction writing can be.

Before we can understand what this pattern is -- or why there's any kind of connection with SGU -- we first need to understand where this radiation came from."

World At A Boil With War And Economic Crisis | International Forecaster Weekly | Bob Chapman | The International Forecaster

World At A Boil With War And Economic Crisis | International Forecaster Weekly | Bob Chapman | The International Forecaster: "November 27 2010: Koreas prepare for war, Fed beyond point of no return, silver manipulation charges, Ireland in economic collapse, pondering foreclosuregate, more Madoff fallout, TSA patdowns despised, there is no question that the world is at a boil. Germany is drawing anger; N. Korea has attacked S. Korea; flaying about the FED’s Mr. Bernanke blames China for America’s sad economic and financial dilemma; five suits, class action and RICO, have been filed against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC for having manipulated silver prices and class actions are rumored to be in process for naked shorting, which has been rampant in the market for years, a felony hedge fund investigation of insider trading, which the SEC has absolutely refused to pursue. The US is still occupying Iraq and has a war raging in Afghanistan to protect the opium and marijuana crops, the largest in the world, which generate $300 billion in profits a year. Socialists, having recently relinquished power in the US House of Representatives are calling Republicans an axis of depression. The socialist, what they cannot control, they attempt to destroy. It reminds us of Italy’s communists."

6 Reasons To Start World War III If You Are A Globalist

6 Reasons To Start World War III If You Are A Globalist: "The average person can barely imagine why World War III would be anything but a civilization-ending event. And, yet, we have heard Neocons ramping up rhetoric that suggests a new world war would be a viable option to correct a dying dollar and economy. Or, perhaps it is simply a sound investment if you are a Globalist.

RAND Corporation documents point to a desire for total war abroad and at home. The recent reactivation of North and South Korea tensions could be a potential catalyst in an East-West World War scenario possibly involving nukes. However, the next World War doesn't necessarily need to be a conflagration; it could be a steady, slow, coldly calculated design to plunge the globe into austerity and totalitarian control through regulations such as those proposed by Codex Alimentarius and Agenda 21.

So, if one puts on the thinking cap of a sociopath, one might find the following 6 reasons are perfect to start World War III, by nukes or by stealth, and further the agenda of world governance."

Messenger Bacteria Could 'Tweet' Directions to Nanobots : Discovery News

Messenger Bacteria Could 'Tweet' Directions to Nanobots : Discovery News: "Okay, this one's a little complicated, but super cool. So, hang with me.

Doctors would really like to fight diseases such a cancer in precise, directed ways. That means delivering cancer-killing therapies to ugly cells, while leaving healthy cells alone. One way that could happen in the future is by using super tiny robots -- nanobots -- that work together inside the body like an infantry of warriors armed to battle cancer.

But there are some big challenges. Among them, communication. Like any battlefield army, soldiers need to coordinate their attacks. And nanobots, in theory, would have a difficult time. They can't use nano-sized cell phones, for example, because radio signals don't travel through liquids. (What about sonar? Has anyone looked into nano-sonar?) And chemical forms of communications only seem to work over long distances."

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Of Mice, Men and In-Between (washingtonpost.com)

This is from 2004....how much further along are things now?

Of Mice, Men and In-Between (washingtonpost.com): "In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins.

In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human.

These are not outcasts from 'The Island of Dr. Moreau,' the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research.

Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. They are the products of experiments in which human stem cells were added to developing animal fetuses."

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included | Danger Room | Wired.com

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included | Danger Room | Wired.com: "The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”"

Ancient UFO and Alien Carving Discovered in China

UFO & Paranormal News: "Just days after a film was released to a shocked public in China, taken from a remote control plane chasing a UFO that was clocked travelling 22,000 miles per hour, a government scientist has made an announcement that a carving showing what appears to be an ancient alien astronaut and a UFO has been found near a historical site between Guanxi and Guangdong.

The carving is said to be at least three thousand years old. It also depicts technological imagery such as antennae and a spacesuit. It is believed by many Chinese that aliens arriving in UFOs laid the foundations of Chinese civilisation in ancient times."


Transhumanism -- The Devil is in the Details

Thomas R. Horn -- Forbidden Gates, Part 22: "As transhumanist philosophy and Grin technology become integrated within society and national and private laboratories with their corporate allies provide increasingly sophisticated arguments for its widest adoption, those of us who treasure the meaning of life and human nature as defined by Judeo-Christian values will progressively find ourselves engaged in deepening spiritual conflicts over maintaining our humanity in the midst of what the authors believe is fundamentally a supernatural conflict."

AFP: Pakistan Muslims warn of anarchy over Christian

AFP: Pakistan Muslims warn of anarchy over Christian: "LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistani Muslims threatened protests and anarchy if the government pardons a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of demonstrators onto the streets on Friday.

Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore after the most influential Sunni Muslim alliance in Pakistan urged the government not to grant mother-of-five Aasia Bibi clemency.
A crowd of several hundred called for 'Jihad' and pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, an AFP reporter said.

The rally was organised by a subsidiary of banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the United Nations has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.

'We will hold nationwide protests if the government pardons the Christian woman,' the subsidiary's chief coordinator, Qari Yaqub, told participants.

Politicians and conservative clerics have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Bibi, who was sentenced on November 8 to hang under controversial blasphemy laws for defaming the Prophet Mohammed.

'The pardon would lead to anarchy in the country,' the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahibzada Fazal Kareem, told AFP.
'Our stand is very clear that this punishment cannot be waived.'"

Robots, the Military’s Newest Forces - NYTimes.com

Robots, the Military’s Newest Forces - NYTimes.com: "FORT BENNING, Ga. — War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots.

And while smart machines are already very much a part of modern warfare, the Army and its contractors are eager to add more. New robots — none of them particularly human-looking — are being designed to handle a broader range of tasks, from picking off snipers to serving as indefatigable night sentries."

Boeing Phantom Ray Completes Low-speed Taxi Tests. | Planenews Aviation News

Boeing Phantom Ray Completes Low-speed Taxi Tests. | Planenews Aviation News: "ST. LOUIS: The Boeing [NYSE: (BA)] Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system successfully completed low-speed taxi tests on Nov. 18 at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.

“Phantom Ray did exactly what it was supposed to do,” said Craig Brown, Phantom Ray program manager for Boeing. “It communicated with the ground control station, received its orders and made its way down the runway multiple times, allowing us to assess its performance and monitor the advanced systems on board.”"

30-Year Old "Spooky" UFO tapes released

30-Year Old "Spooky" UFO tapes released | Before It's News: "Tapes shed light on Forest’s UFO riddle

The East Anglian Daily Times and BBC Radio Suffolk want to find out what really happened and have joined forces in a bid to unearth the truth.

The tape recordings are a vivid account of what personnel from the nearby USAF Bentwaters air base discovered when they went to investigate in the dead of the night just after Christmas 1980.
The men were led by Colonel Charles Halt, who was second in command at the base, and it is clear they thought they were witnessing some type of phenomena – with descriptions of “strange” lights in sky and odd damage to pine trees 15-18ft off the ground.

The tape continues: “I hear very strange sounds of farmers’ barn yard animals. They’re very, very active, making a lot of noise.

“Straight ahead. There it is again. Straight ahead. What is it? A strange small red light. It looks maybe half a mile further ahead. Go back to the edge of the clearing, see if we can get a look at it… the animals have gone quiet now… It is deathly calm.

“There is no doubt about it – it is a strange flashing red light ahead. I saw a yellow tinge in it too. Weird. It’s coming this way. It’s definitely coming this way. There is no doubt about it. This is weird.”"

Ancient Mayan Space Vehicle Reverse Engineered

Ancient Mayan Space Vehicle Reverse Engineered ! | Before It's News: "This is truely amazing!! Two German aeronautical engineers, Algund Eenboom and Peter Belting, dug the Inca artifacts back into scene, built a propeller-powered scaled replica of one of the artifacts and performed a flight test in 1997, during the Ancient Astronaut Society World Conference in Orlando, Florida. They didn't any modification in their replica, keeping the exact aerodynamic characteristics of the Inca objects, that were proven actual replicas of 100% functional aircrafts, after the stunning successful test:"

Pics and videos included in the article above...

Loch Ness monster: new pictures and sighting of Nessie | Highlands & Islands | STV News

Loch Ness monster: new pictures and sighting of Nessie | Highlands & Islands | STV News: "Richard Preston, a landscape designer, has been the latest person to spot a mysterious shape that might be the Loch Ness monster and capture a series of images on camera.

While working on Aldourie Castle gardens on the banks of the Loch Ness, 27-year-old Mr Preston spotted a shape on the loch's surface out of the corner of his eye.

He told STV News: “I was just walking through the castle gardens and I spotted something in the distance. When I looked closer I could clearly see the four hump-like features. I thought I’d take a picture of it, to see if there was anything in it, to see what others thought.

“I was surprised that it stayed there as long as it did. I took various shots of it before it suddenly disappeared. I literally just turned my back and it was gone.”

He showed one of his friends who was also convinced there was certainly some mystery in the pictures.

When asked whether or not he believed in the monster, Mr Preston said: “Well there’s definitely something in the myth.There were no ripples in the water, no boats, nothing around. I have no idea what it was, but it undoubtedly looks like Nessie.”"

Saturday, November 27, 2010

After Revelation of Taliban Negotiation Imposter, Taliban Commanders Laughs at U.S. - The Daily Beast

After Revelation of Taliban Negotiation Imposter, Taliban Commanders Laughs at U.S. - The Daily Beast: "In exclusive interviews, high-ranking Taliban commanders in Afghanistan respond to recent revelations that NATO officials were negotiating with an impostor. Taliban commanders in Afghanistan reacted with amusement this weekend to news of an impostor who, by claiming he was a senior Taliban leader, managed to fool NATO officials and get invited to high-level peace talks. The man pretending to be insurgent leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was in fact a shopkeeper from Quetta in Western Pakistan, they said. “Imagine,” Mohammad Hafiz, a senior Taliban commander, told The Daily Beast, “if a shopkeeper from Quetta can make a fool of them and keep them engaged in talks for months, how do they believe they can defeat the Taliban?”"

U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More | TorrentFreak

U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More | TorrentFreak: "Following on the heels of this week’s domain seizure of a large hiphop file-sharing links forum, it’s clear today that the U.S. Government has been very busy. Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain of a BitTorrent meta-search engine along with those belonging to other music linking sites and several others which appear to be connected to physical counterfeit goods."

Hubble's Latest Photographs | Before It's News

Hubble's Latest Photographs | Before It's News: "Hubble's Latest Photographs"

Click link above for pics...

The Ancient Alien Visitors From Other Stars : Discovery News

The Ancient Alien Visitors From Other Stars : Discovery News: "At the opening of his legendary 1960s TV anthology 'The Twilight Zone,' writer Rod Serling spoke of an eerie place between 'light and shadow.' The dim outer periphery of our solar system is a gravitational twilight zone when drifters from other stars mingle with lost solar system debris, according to a recent study.

SLIDE SHOW: 5 Intimate Comet Encounters"

Tiny Supercomputers The Size of a Sugarcube : Discovery News

Tiny Supercomputers The Size of a Sugarcube : Discovery News: "The world's most powerful supercomputer could be the size of a sugar cube and more energy efficient than you might ever imagine.

Researchers at IBM's Zurich Labs have developed a prototype supercomputer called the Aquasar that uses a water-cooling principle to keep the system from overheating. The Aquasar is a normal-sized computer; there's nothing tiny about it. But IBM thinks that the water-cooling technology that's proven effective in this supercomputer could work just as well in a vastly smaller machine.

The processors in today's computers get very hot, and they have to be cooled off, usually by air. IBM found that using water to cool off a computer's processors is 4,000 times more efficient than using air.

In fact, up to 50 percent of an average air-cooled data center's energy consumption and carbon footprint today is just from powering the necessary cooling systems to keep the processors from overheating.

Dimos Poulikakos is the head of the Laboratory of Thermodynamics in New Technologies, ETH Zurich. His team of researchers worked with IBM to help develop Aquasar."

Pentagon to test 2nd near-space strike craft - Washington Times

Pentagon to test 2nd near-space strike craft - Washington Times: "Defense Department scientists are set to conduct a second test launch next year of the Falcon HTV-2 experimental superweapon after the first flight this year ended when the autopilot deliberately crashed the unmanned glider into the ocean as a safety measure.

The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle is designed to skim the top of the atmosphere just below space, and is a key element of the Pentagon's Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) capability — a program to build non-nuclear strategic weapons that can strike conventionally anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

In a statement last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) revealed for the first time that the first test flight April 20 ended when the autonomous onboard control system — the computer autopilot flying the futuristic superweapon — 'commanded flight termination.'"

Currency Crisis! So What Happens If The Dollar And The Euro Both Collapse? - BlackListed News

Currency Crisis! So What Happens If The Dollar And The Euro Both Collapse? - BlackListed News: "Some analysts are warning that the U.S. dollar is in danger of collapse because of the exploding U.S. government debt, the horrific U.S. trade deficit and the new round of quantitative easing recently announced by the Federal Reserve. Other analysts are warning the the euro is in danger of collapse because of the very serious sovereign debt crisis that is affecting nations such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Spain. So what happens if the dollar and the euro both collapse? Well, it would certainly throw the current world financial order into a state of chaos, but what would emerge from the ashes? Would the nations of the world go back to using dozens of different national currencies or would we see a truly global currency emerge for the very first time?"

Saturn Moon Has Oxygen Atmosphere

Saturn Moon Has Oxygen Atmosphere: "An oxygen atmosphere has been found on Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea, astronomers announced Thursday—but don't hold your breath for colonization opportunities.

For one thing, the 932-mile-wide (1,500-kilometer-wide), ice-covered moon is more than 932 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. For another, the average surface temperature is -292 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius).

And at less than 62 miles (100 kilometers) thick, the newfound oxygen layer is so thin that, at Earthlike temperatures and pressure, Rhea's entire atmosphere would fit in a single midsize building.

Still, the discovery implies that worlds with oxygen-filled air may not be so unusual in the cosmos. (Related: 'Potentially Habitable Planets Are Common, Study Says.')

At about 327,000 miles (527,000 kilometers) from Saturn, Rhea orbits inside the planet's magnetic field. Rhea's oxygen atmosphere is believed to be maintained by the ongoing chemical breakdown of water ice on the moon's surface, driven by radiation from Saturn's magnetosphere.

The Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Galileo probe found in 1995 that a similar process creates tenuous oxygen atmospheres on Jupiter's ice moons Europa and Ganymede."

Brute force: Huge 1,000 ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano | Mail Online

Brute force: Huge 1,000 ton boulder carried down mountainside by power of Icelandic volcano | Mail Online: "Towering above the landscape that surrounds it, this huge boulder is a graphic display of the awesome force created by an erupting volcano.

The 1,000-ton rock, which stands more than 50 feet high, tumbled to the valley floor after the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland earlier this year.

The giant stone was released by ice in a glacier that melted thanks to the fantastic heat produced by the erupting volcano. The melting glacier caused a meltwater flood, which swept the rock down the mountainside with it."

How trees that glow like fireflies could one day replace our streetlights | Mail Online

How trees that glow like fireflies could one day replace our streetlights | Mail Online: "Scientists are developing ways of making trees glow so they can be used as natural streetlights without the need for electricity.

A team of researchers are experimenting with genes to allow the trait that causes fireflies to glow -bioluminescence - to be implanted into a variety of different organisms.

As well as replacing traditional streetlights, bioluminescent plants would be useful for people who are not hooked up to the electricity grid.

And if more lights were ever required, they could simply be grown."

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sightings and theories abound in UFO riddle

FOLLOWING last week's article on a UFO spotted flying over Sutton on the eve of Bonfire Night, the Observer has been inundated with sightings and possible explanations.: "FOLLOWING last week's article on a UFO spotted flying over Sutton on the eve of Bonfire Night, the Observer has been inundated with sightings and possible explanations.

We reported a black triangular object, some five times the size of a commercial airliner, had been seen over the streets of Boldmere by Matt Somerton and David Allen headed in the direction of Wylde Green shortly after 6.30pm. The silent craft sported three main lights and smaller blinking lights and was seen over Jockey Road and at the back of the Spar in Boldmere Road before disappearing in the direction of Pype Hayes Park in Erdington.

A request for further sightings led to more than a dozen responses with six responses from the United States and several closer encounters in Sutton.

Josephine and Roger Bridgewater from Erdington spotted a craft over Hurstwood Road in Erdington and Josephine recalled saying 'My god that is big for an aeroplane'."

Horse mutilations near Denver blamed on ‘UFOs’ by paranormal investigator, Sheriff disagrees - Paranormal Old Pueblo

Horse mutilations near Denver blamed on ‘UFOs’ by paranormal investigator, Sheriff disagrees - Paranormal Old Pueblo: "The Schneider family in El Paso County, Colorado found two of their horses dead and badly mutilated on their ranch. After the discovery, the family filed a report with the El Paso County Sheriff’s department and called in a paranormal investigator to search for answers.

The horses were discovered with their throats slit and chests cut open. The genitals, tongues, and eyes of the horses were removed. The family stated that there were no footprints around the horses and no blood evident. Since El Chupacabra, humans, predators and satanic cults would leave footprints, the paranormal investigator on the case blamed UFOs, according to a report by Fox31 news in Denver.

News reports make no mention of how long the horses were missing prior to the discovery of the carcasses.

The paranormal investigator on the case, Chuck Zukowski, examined the horses and determined that UFOs were to blame. With 8 animal mutilations in Colorado this year, Zukowski said that the evidence points to the horses being mutilated in a manner that would support his assertion.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t agree with the conclusion of Zukowski’s investigation."

10 Questions for Ray Kurzweil - TIME

10 Questions for Ray Kurzweil - TIME: "Is it a mistake to use the events of the recent past as a method of predicting the future?

Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion.

You predict we'll reach a point with artificial intelligence that you call the singularity. How will that affect us?

By the time we get to the 2040s, we'll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold. That will be a profound change that's singular in nature. Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter. We'll be online all the time. Search engines won't wait to be asked."

Iran Court: 'Pastor To Be Executed By Hanging'

Iran Court: Pastor To Be Executed By Hanging: "TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)-- A detained pastor of a major network of Christian house churches in Iran will be executed by hanging for 'apostasy', or abandoning Islam, according to translated court documents seen by Worthy News Wednesday, November 24.

The 11th Chamber of The Assize Court of the province of Gilan said Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani had proved his 'apostasy' by 'organizing evangelistic meetings and inviting others to Christianity, establishing a house church, baptizing people, expressing his faith to others and, denying Islamic values.'"

Fed-Ex Searching For Missing Radioactive Package | Before It's News

Fed-Ex Searching For Missing Radioactive Package | Before It's News: "Knoxville, TN, United States (AHN) - FedEx officials are searching for a package containing radioactive material that went missing on Thursday.

Although company officials put all FedEx facilities on alert, they are focusing the main search in the Tennessee area. FedEx reassured the public that as long as the protective packaging is intact there is no danger.

The package containing radioactive rods was enroute from a supplier in North Dakota to a person in Knoxville who uses the material in medical equipment. The radioactive rods were in cylinders that are used in hospital machinery for quality control calibration.

Two FedEx employees who handled the shipment return to work on Friday and company officials hope to learn more from them.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission notified the other appropriate government agencies, including the FBI, CDC, EPA and Department of Homeland Security."

Britain's FSA Declares Cloned Meat, Milk Safe

Britain's FSA Declares Cloned Meat, Milk Safe | Before It's News: "London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) - An independent study by the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes found that there was no difference between regularly raised and cloned cattle. The finding, announced Thursday by Britain's Food Standards Agency, may pave the way for cloned meat and milk to be sold soon in British shops.

The think tank's assessment includes possible allergies, toxins and side effects of ingesting cloned meat. The finding covered as well meat and milk from offspring of cloned animals.

The FSA will discuss the study at a board meeting in December. The agency commissioned the study following an incident in summer when it was discovered that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow was unwittingly sold in butchers' stores in Britain.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration declared in 2008 after a five-year study that cloned meat and milk were similar to meat and dairy products from animals raised traditionally. As a result of the FDA declaration, food sourced from cloned animals is legal to sell in the U.S.

There is, however, a recent European Commission proposal to ban cloned meat and milk in the bloc."

The Food Safety Modernization Act: The US Government's Assault on "Food Freedom"

The Food Safety Modernization Act: The US Government's Assault on "Food Freedom" - BlackListed News:

"► It does not address the real causes of food safety issues stemming from the centralized, industrialized food supply chain;

► It ensures that international trade agreements have supremacy over local laws;

► It destroys States’ rights to define a culturally-appropriate legal platform under which food is produced and distributed;

► It transfers authority over food regulation enforcement from the FDA to the Department of Homeland Security, which brought us the liberty-killing, child-molesting TSA, which disastrously handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which has genocidally turned its eyes away from the ongoing BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico;

► It extends a failed and destructive HACCP to all food, thus threatening to do to local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – it eliminated small and medium-sized meat packers; and

► It significantly increases FDA’s power, an agency which has stated on public record that the American people have no “fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health” and “do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”"

Astronauts to be sent to the far side of the moon for first time in 40 years in pre-Mars mission | Mail Online

Astronauts to be sent to the far side of the moon for first time in 40 years in pre-Mars mission | Mail Online: "Scientists are planning to explore the far side of the Moon using a manned spacecraft for the first since since the Apollo landings of 1968.

Engineers with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin want to send up astronauts into stationary orbit above Earth's best-known natural satellite to study it further.

The firm hopes to use remote controlled robots dispatched from their spacecraft to collect samples and explore the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon, one of the oldest craters in the solar system.

Crucially they also hope it will serve as a test for a future possible mission to Mars - the six month trip would see if the equipment and the astronauts - most likely from the US - were capable of enduring long-term space travel."

BBC News - Dark energy and flat Universe exposed by simple method

BBC News - Dark energy and flat Universe exposed by simple method: "Researchers have developed a simple technique that adds evidence to the theory that the Universe is flat.

Moreover, the method - developed by revisiting a 30-year-old idea - confirms that 'dark energy' makes up nearly three-quarters of the Universe.

The research, published in Nature, uses existing data and relies on fewer assumptions than current approaches.

Author Christian Marinoni says the idea turns estimating the Universe's shape into 'primary school' geometry.

While the idea of the Earth being flat preoccupied the first philosophers millennia ago, the question of whether the Universe itself is flat remains a debatable topic.

The degree to which the Universe is curved has an effect on what astronomers see when they look into the cosmos.

A telescope on or near Earth may see an image of a celestial object differently from how the object actually looks, because the very fabric of space and time bends the light coming from it."

Andromeda 'born in a collision'

BBC News - Andromeda 'born in a collision': "The researcher explained that his team's findings had 'the potential to revise all our knowledge about the Local Group - and this may have also an impact regarding the amount of dark matter in galaxies'.

Using a computer simulation, the astronomers were able to reproduce most of the peculiar properties of the Andromeda galaxy: the large thin disk including its giant ring of gas and dust, the massive central bulge, the gigantic thick galactic 'disc', and the giant stream of old stars."

U.F.O.’s Welcome in Hooper, Colo. - NYTimes.com

U.F.O.’s Welcome in Hooper, Colo. - NYTimes.com: "HOOPER, Colo. — “I like humans, they’re fun,” Judy Messoline said as she showed a visitor through her vortex garden, which psychics have said contains not just one, but two separate portals to a parallel universe.

Many of the humans who come to Ms. Messoline’s U.F.O. Watchtower, hard by the dueling vortexes, may be fun, but they are also wounded. About 95 percent, by her estimate — and she makes a point of asking — have experienced something, a shudder in the fabric of the ordinary, the sighting of an unidentified flying object that to one degree or another has haunted them and drawn them to this otherwise empty spot in south-central Colorado. Having fun in thinking about extraterrestrials, she said, is usually bound up with something deeper right here on the home planet."

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Responding to the Rise of Techno-Gods | Lincoln Cannon

Responding to the Rise of Techno-Gods | Lincoln Cannon: "Carl Teichrib, editor of the 'Forcing Change' journal, drove for two days to attend the recent Transhumanism and Spirituality conference sponsored by the Mormon Transhumanist Association in Salt Lake City UT. Afterward, he wrote a review of the conference in his journal and discussed his experience in an interview on the 'View from the Bunker' radio show hosted by Derek Bilbert. In both the written review and the radio interview, Carl demonstrates himself to be thoughtful and articulate. Most of the information he provides is accurate, even if he occasionally demonstrates an inclination toward sensationalism over completeness. Some of the observations he makes are also quite insightful, making for an interesting read. Below are some brief thoughts in response to portions of his review and interview.

Carl identifies a drive among transhumanists to become masters of their own future. This is generally accurate. However, there are some important nuances to this idea among some transhumanists, recognizing that our technology is possible only within a context that we didn't make for ourselves. From a more religious perspective, this can be articulated as acknowledgement that it's only within a context of God's grace that our works have any efficacy -- from Mormon scripture, it is by grace we are saved after all we can do."

Probe into alien life forms picks up steam - USATODAY.com

Probe into alien life forms picks up steam - USATODAY.com: "Bryan Fains still thinks the blue object he saw skittering across the sky above Centreville, Va., on Nov. 3 might have been a UFO. Although the object that Fains captured on cellphone video was later identified as a remote-controlled glider plane outfitted with LED lights, he's just not sure. 'It seems impossible that we're the only ones in this universe,' says Fains, 29, a warehouse worker. 'Whatever it was, I've never seen anything like it before.'

Recent sightings have revived a debate that has stirred skepticism and research for generations. Were lights over El Paso in October skydivers with flares or extraterrestrial aircraft? Were objects over New York City this fall balloons or alien visitors? Was the California mystery plume really a jet contrail?"

Scary Science Could Cause Human Extinction | The Mark

Scary Science Could Cause Human Extinction | The Mark: "Being an incurable optimist, I do not believe the human race will end, but, if it were to, I think it would most likely come about through human intervention in human life with avant garde technoscience. Such interventions could either intentionally wipe out the species, as in the case of the transhumanists, or unintentionally, as could happen with xenotransplantation.

Transhumanism is a movement supporting the belief that humans, and the human experience as we know and treasure it, should become obsolete. Transhumanists are working towards a future in which humans are redesigned through technology, especially robotics and artificial intelligence, to become cyborgs – human machines. The physical, mental, emotional, and even moral capacities of cyborgs, transhumanists say, will far outstrip those of “unmodified humans.”. In this techno-utopian vision – one I, and others, see as dystopian – of a post-human future, people like us – “unmodified humans” – are obsolete models."

Gallery: Happy Genetically Modified Thanksgiving | Popular Science

Gallery: Happy Genetically Modified Thanksgiving | Popular Science: "This year, your bread dishes are probably not genetically modified — consumer and food industry opposition has so far prevented any GM wheat from making it to your table. So your biscuits, thickened gravy and turkey stuffing are made with flour from traditionally bred wheat. But several seed companies, including Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF and others, are working on transgenic wheat. U.S. Wheat Associates, an industry group, said in early 2010 that GM wheat is still several years away, but efforts are ongoing to improve its acceptance among international consumers.
Monsanto Co., the world’s largest producer of genetically modified seed, backed off commercialization of “Roundup Ready” wheat several years ago, amid concerns it could hurt the U.S. wheat market. But earlier this month, the firm said it's the 'right time' to pursue development of drought-resistant and high-yielding wheat."

Click above for pics...

How Science Is Changing Your Thanksgiving Feast | Popular Science

How Science Is Changing Your Thanksgiving Feast | Popular Science: "Since they were introduced 15 years ago, genetically modified foods have taken astonishing hold in North America. This time of year, the result is a Thanksgiving menu that may, on the surface, look much the same as the one your grandma cooked 20 years ago. But at the genetic level, it is very different, and it's a far cry from the fabled feast shared by the pilgrims and American Indians in the 17th century. In celebration of Thanksgiving, the most food-focused day of the year, here's a look at how biotechnology is changing the way we eat. Before it reached the grocery store — even before it reached the farm — your turkey, turducken or tofurkey likely started out in a lab, with scientists in white coats peering at PCR data and tinkering with plant genomes to produce traits that nature never intended."

5 Dark Scenarios of Transhumanity | h+ Magazine

5 Dark Scenarios of Transhumanity | h+ Magazine: "Emergent technologies often inspire great excitement attended by utopic visions of how they will transform our lives for the better. Yet all innovations introduce risk and the likelihood of unforeseen consequences. The transhumanity stack of technologies - life extension, medical & genetic modification, brain-computer & brain-machine interface, and virtual & augmented realities - offer great opportunities for human enhancement but pose profound risks for all aspects of humanity & civilization. It is critical to confront these dangers and temper the enthusiasm of tranhumanism with diligent risk assessment and thorough scenario modeling for possible outcomes."

5 Famous Scientists Dismissed as Morons in Their Time | Cracked.com

5 Famous Scientists Dismissed as Morons in Their Time | Cracked.com: "Every nutjob in the world with some out-there theory thinks he's Galileo, rejected for daring to think different. Virtually all of them are, in fact, simply insane.

Yet, there have been brilliant rebels who put their own world-changing ideas on the line, only to end up like Doc Brown in his alternate timeline: humiliated, ridiculed, ignored and/or straight driven to insanity."

Surprise link between weird quantum phenomena: Heisenberg uncertainty principle sets limits on Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'

Surprise link between weird quantum phenomena: Heisenberg uncertainty principle sets limits on Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance': "ScienceDaily — Researchers have uncovered a fundamental link between the two defining properties of quantum physics. The result is being heralded as a dramatic breakthrough in our basic understanding of quantum mechanics and provides new clues to researchers seeking to understand the foundations of quantum theory. The result addresses the question of why quantum behaviour is as weird as it is -- but no weirder."

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Image of the Day: Stunning Burst of Star Creation Beams as Much Light as an Entire Galaxy

Image of the Day: Stunning Burst of Star Creation Beams as Much Light as an Entire Galaxy: "Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have found a stunning burst of star formation that beams out as much infrared light as an entire galaxy triggered by the collision of two spiral galaxies. The stars are cloaked by dust that renders them nearly invisible in other wavelengths of light."

Officials concerned about al-Qaida use of exotic explosive powder | Seattle Times Newspaper

Travel | Officials concerned about al-Qaida use of exotic explosive powder | Seattle Times Newspaper: "WASHINGTON — New airport security procedures that have stirred the emotions of air travelers — full-body scans and aggressive pat-downs — were largely designed to detect an exotic explosive powder called PETN, which has been a staple of al-Qaida bomb makers for nearly a decade.

It was PETN that was molded into the sole of Richard Reid's sneaker when he walked onto American Airlines Flight 63 bound for Miami in December 2001.

It was PETN that was sewn into the underwear of Umar Abdulmutallab when he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

And it was PETN that al-Qaida operatives in Yemen packed inside printer cartridges that were shipped on Oct. 28, intending to blow up planes en route to Chicago."

Analysis of the Occult Symbols Found on the Bank of America Murals | The Vigilant Citizen

Analysis of the Occult Symbols Found on the Bank of America Murals | The Vigilant Citizen: "Prominently displayed in the lobby of the Bank of America’s Corporate Center are “creepy” frescoes, filled with occult symbols. Even more unsettling is the fact that those images seem to predict events of a radical world change in the not-so-distant future. Are those murals predicting the coming of an occult New World Order? We will look at the occult meaning of the symbols found on the Bank of America frescoes."

Researchers Tag Eggs and Embryos With Bar Codes, For Easy In-Vitro Fertilization | Popular Science

Researchers Tag Eggs and Embryos With Bar Codes, For Easy In-Vitro Fertilization | Popular Science: "Critics of the selection that's often involved in assisted reproductive technology – picking a 5’10”, blond-haired, Ivy League grad egg donor, for example – say it turns conceiving a baby into a shopping exercise. It’s probably safe to venture, however, that none of the critics envisioned a day when we’d be bar-coding embryos. That is precisely what researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona have done, reports New Scientist. Using cells from mouse embryos and eggs, the scientists developed a procedure that involves inserting microscopic silicon bar codes into a gap between the cell membrane and an outer membrane called the zona pellucida. The next step is to try the technique on human embryos and eggs. That will happen soon; the Government of Catalonia health department has already approved the method for use on genetic material provided by Spanish fertility clinics. The technique could help fertility doctors avoid mix-ups during in-vitro fertilization – such as a 2002 case in which a white couple gave birth to black twins."

ArchNews - The LatestThe purpose of Aztec blood rituals part 1

ArchNews - The Latest Archaeology News & Articles - The purpose of Aztec blood rituals part 1: "The Aztec's were a violent people who practised human sacrifice and cannibalism (Tompkins 1990: 190). They were also highly ritualistic people who appeared to have had a fatalistic behaviour or view towards life (Tompkins 1990: 130). The Aztecs lifestyles were governed by a need to supply fresh-blooded sacrificial victims to the sun god who required the hearts of men to give life to the world and assist the souls of dead warriors to the Aztecs version of heaven (Tompkins 1990: 130; Townsend 2003: 117- 129; McIntosh & Twist 2003: 222)."

NYT: Clues to the secret in CIA's backyard - U.S. news - The New York Times - msnbc.com

NYT: Clues to the secret in CIA's backyard - U.S. news - The New York Times - msnbc.com: "It is perhaps one of the C.I.A.’s most mischievous secrets. “Kryptos,” the sculpture nestled in a courtyard of the agency’s Virginia headquarters since 1990, is a work of art with a secret code embedded in the letters that are punched into its four panels of curving copper. “Our work is about discovery — discovering secrets,” said Toni Hiley, director of the C.I.A. Museum. “And this sculpture is full of them, and it still hasn’t given up the last of its secrets.” Not for lack of trying. For many thousands of would-be code crackers worldwide, “Kryptos” has become an object of obsession. Dan Brown has even referred to it in his novels."

China, Russia quit dollar

China, Russia quit dollar: "St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.


'About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies,' Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

'That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries,' he said."

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

NASA worker brings a scientific eye to his hobby: Talking to the dead

NASA worker brings a scientific eye to his hobby: Talking to the dead: "Rob Gutro was driving to the wake of a co-worker's stepfather when a ghost began to speak.

'I kept hearing the name Cindy Lou,' Gutro recalled. 'I had no idea what that meant.' But he knew this: Once again, somebody who'd died had something to say.

By day, Gutro is a meteorologist who works as deputy news chief at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, communicating the nation's scientific work to the public.

By night (and whenever else the entities get in touch), he talks to the dead.

'I have an ability to communicate with and understand ghosts and spirits,' Gutro said."

BBC News - North Korean artillery hits South Korean island‎

BBC News - North Korean artillery hits South Korean island‎: "South Korea says it has returned fire after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at one of its border islands, killing two marines.

The South's military was placed on its highest non-wartime alert after the shells landed on Yeonpyeong island.

Pyongyang accused the South of firing first. The Southern military said it had conducted exercises but shelling was directed away from the North.

This is one of the worst clashes since the Korean War ended, analysts say.

There have been occasional cross-border incidents since the conflict ended without a peace treaty in 1953, but the latest comes at a time of rising regional tension."

U.S. Military War Gaming for Large Scale Economic Breakdown and Civil Unrest :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website

U.S. Military War Gaming for Large Scale Economic Breakdown and Civil Unrest :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website: "The majority of Americans believe that recent government intervention into financial markets, the economy and corporate insolvency has reversed the economic downturn which was described by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as being “on the brink” in 2008. The stimulus, bailouts and unrelenting quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve have thus far been perceived as having averted the further erosion of the U.S. real estate and equities markets. And though the Federal Reserve and economic analysts have recently readjusted their economic growth forecasts downward for the next six months, Americans no longer have to worry about, as Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said on the house floor in October of 2008, the sky falling, multi-thousand point drops in stock markets and martial law in America."

Breakthrough could lead to disposable e-readers

Breakthrough could lead to disposable e-readers: "(PhysOrg.com) -- A breakthrough in a University of Cincinnati engineering lab that could clear the way for a low-cost, even disposable, e-reader is gaining considerable attention.

Electrical Engineering Professor Andrew Steckl's research into an affordable, yet high-performance, paper-based display technology is being featured this week as the November cover story of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, one of the scientific journals for the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

In the research, Steckl and UC doctoral student Duk Young Kim demonstrated that paper could be used as a flexible host material for an electrowetting device. Electrowetting (EW) involves applying an electric field to colored droplets within a display in order to reveal content such as type, photographs and video. Steckl's discovery that paper could be used as the host material has far-reaching implications considering other popular e-readers on the market such as the Kindle and iPad rely on complex circuitry printed over a rigid glass substrate."

Diagrams that changed the world

BBC News - Diagrams that changed the world: "A picture, the old adage goes, is worth 1,000 words. But in science a diagram can describe things that transcend the written word. A single image can convey the simple underlying pattern hidden by words or equations, says Marcus du Sautoy.

Draw the right picture and you can literally transform the way we see the world. But a diagram is more than just a physical representation of what we see with our eyes.

The power of a diagram is to crystallise a new way of seeing the world.

Often it requires throwing away information, focusing on what is essential. Other times it changes a scientific idea into a visual language providing a new map where the mathematics of geometry takes over and helps us to navigate the science at hand."

"Creepy" Prophetic Art in Bank of America | Before It's News

"Creepy" Prophetic Art in Bank of America | Before It's News: "Below are three paintings prominently featured in the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, NC along with interpretations sent to us by a listener. This fresco was created by artist Benjamin F. Long.

Benjamin F. Long’s first secular fresco, and his largest work to date, consists of three panels composed for the dedication of the Bank of America Corporate Center dominating the lobby as no other artwork could, the panels present the themes of making/building, chaos/creativity, and planning/knowledge in an daring blend of abstract and realism, set off with touches of gold."

Full Spectrum Dominance: 8 Examples Of How The Government Is Attempting To Take Total Control Of Our Food, Our Health, Our Money And Even Our Dignity - BlackListed News

Full Spectrum Dominance: 8 Examples Of How The Government Is Attempting To Take Total Control Of Our Food, Our Health, Our Money And Even Our Dignity - BlackListed News: "Over the past several decades, no matter which political party has been in power the government has continued to become a larger part of our lives. These days many people are speaking of the 'nanny state' that we have created, but the reality is far worse than that. The truth is that the government has become a gluttonous, out of control behemoth that is gobbling up everything in sight and that is attempting to exert full spectrum dominance over our lives. Today, the government seems to have an insatiable hunger to watch us, track us and control us. Now they even want to feel our private parts before we get on an airplane. No matter what politicians we send to Washington D.C., it just seems to get worse and worse. Anyone who still believes that we live in 'the land of the free' is completely and totally delusional."

Whatever happened to the Sun's missing siblings?

Whatever happened to the Sun's missing siblings?: "The Sun was born 4.6 billion years ago inside a nebula that likely gave birth to a thousand other stars. So what happened to the Sun's siblings? The search continues, but they could be practically anywhere in the Milky Way.

A thousand stars seems like an easy enough thing to find, but the Milky Way is actually home to somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars. Even if all the Sun's sibling stars were clumped together in a single cluster, they'd still be phenomenally difficult to find, and that task is only complicated because they've likely spread themselves throughout the entire galaxy."

Monday, November 22, 2010

US launches giant eavesdropping satellite | Raw Story

US launches giant eavesdropping satellite | Raw Story: "The United States has placed in orbit a vast reconnaissance satellite reputed to be the largest eavesdropping device ever launched into space.

The largest unmanned American launch vehicle, the Delta-4 Heavy rocket, roared into the the night sky in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday carrying the mysterious satellite on a mission dubbed NROL-32.

The National Reconnaissance Office did not disclose the purpose of the satellite but widespread reports in the US media suggest it is for eavesdropping on enemy communications."

DNA Can Act Like Velcro For Nanoparticles, Basis for New Fuels, Plastics and Electronics

DNA Can Act Like Velcro For Nanoparticles, Basis for New Fuels, Plastics and Electronics | Before It's News: "DNA can do more than direct how bodies our made — it can also direct the composition of many kinds of materials, according to a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

Argonne researcher Byeongdu Lee and his colleagues at Northwestern University discovered that strands of DNA can act as a kind of nanoscopic 'Velcro' that binds different nanoparticles together. 'It’s generally difficult to precisely control the assembly of these types of nanostructures,' Lee said. 'By using DNA, we’re borrowing nature’s power.'

Argonne researcher Byeongdu Lee has determined that different shapes of gold nanoparticles, above, will self-assemble into different configurations when attached to single strands of DNA."

A Look to the Heavens

A Look to the Heavens | Before It's News: "'Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. "

£2.2bn superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth | Mail Online

£2.2bn superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth | Mail Online: "It may look like any average building but behind closed doors could lie the answer to safe renewable energy of the future.

Here at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore California, scientists are aiming to build the world's first sustainable fusion reactor by 'creating a miniature star on Earth'.

Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the £2.2 billion project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a workable fusion reaction by 2012."

BBC News - 1,000mph car project 'on track'

BBC News - 1,000mph car project 'on track': "The British project to develop a 1,000mph car is on target to meet its goals, says director Richard Noble.

Construction will start on the rear of the Bloodhound vehicle in January, with an attempt on the World Land Speed record expected in 2012.

'We've got companies all over the world wanting to sponsor the car,' Mr Noble told BBC News.

'We've actually got more people who want to financially back this thing than we've got space for them.'

Mr Noble has made an appeal for people to help prepare the vehicle's race track."

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Revealed: The flocks of clone Dolly the Sheep

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Revealed: The flocks of clone Dolly the Sheep: "A FLOCK of Dolly the Sheep clones has been secretly created by the scientist behind the original breakthrough 14 years ago, the Scottish Sunday Express can reveal.
Professorcloned the four new animals in his laboratory in England using stored cells and the techniques he devised while part of the team at the successful Roslin Institute.

Their existence only emerged at a stormy conference on animal welfare held at the European Parliament in Brussels last week, hosted by Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson.

And, as our exclusive pictures show, the four have already grown into healthy adult sheep.

Dolly, the world’s first cloned mammal, was put down suffering from advanced lung disease and arthritis aged six, raising fears about the long-term health of the animals.

But Prof Campbell said that the new Dollies are living proof that problems have been resolved and that EU restrictions on cloning are based on “misleading and out of date” figures."

Unleashing the plague? > SundayPaper.com > The Sunday Paper :: All you need to know.

Unleashing the plague? > SundayPaper.com > The Sunday Paper :: All you need to know.: "In layman’s terms, synthetic biology, or 'syn bio,' as hipsters like to call it, is recreating life from its most basic building blocks. Not human beings, but certainly organisms, and that ability alone has made regulating the new science the focus of President Barack Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which met at Emory University last week.

According to the Federal Register, the commission’s job is to “develop and finalize recommendations concerning any actions that the federal government should take to ensure that America reaps the benefits of this developing field of science while identifying appropriate ethical boundaries and minimizing risks.”

Syn bio’s potential use is both awesomely beneficial and horrifically destructive. It can be used to create organisms that produce biofuel or eat oil spills, for example. But it may also be used to create a plague. Not yet, but, given the widespread practice of syn bio, perhaps sooner than one would think."

Scientist: NKorea built uranium enriching facility - Yahoo! News

Scientist: NKorea built uranium enriching facility - Yahoo! News: "SEOUL, South Korea – In secret and with remarkable speed, North Korea has built a new, highly sophisticated facility to enrich uranium, according to an American nuclear scientist, raising fears that the North is ramping up its atomic program despite international pressure.
The scientist, Siegfried Hecker, said in a report posted Saturday that he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently completed centrifuges, he said, and the North told him it was producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor. He described his first glimpse of the new centrifuges as 'stunning.'
Hecker, a former director of the U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who is regularly given rare glimpses of the North's secretive nuclear program, acknowledged that it was not clear what North Korea stood to gain by showing him the formerly secret area."

WANSTEAD: 'Bright white' UFO lights up the skies (From This Is Local London)

WANSTEAD: 'Bright white' UFO lights up the skies (From This Is Local London): "THE LATEST in a long line of UFO sightings in the skies over the borough has been reported by a resident in Wanstead.

The sighting, posted on the UFO-UK website, was made by Ann Davenport, who claimed to have witnessed the rapidly-moving, bright white object at around 6:20pm yesterday evening (Thursday, November 18).

The report said: “I was just looking out of the bedroom window when I saw a very bright white light and a sound that I did not recognise.

“I kept my eyes fixed on the object and it came closer overhead at great speed. The sound was uniform unlike a plane when flying. It was a disc shape and was huge."

GM mosquito wild release takes campaigners by surprise - SciDev.Net

GM mosquito wild release takes campaigners by surprise - SciDev.Net: "Experts in the safety of genetically modified (GM) organisms have expressed concern over the release of GM mosquitoes into the wild on the Cayman Islands, which was publicised internationally only last month — a year after their initial release.

The trial of the OX513A strain of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, developed by UK biotechnology company Oxitec, was carried out on Grand Cayman island by the Cayman Islands' Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) in 2009, followed by a bigger release between May and October this year. Together they represent the first known release of GM mosquitoes anywhere in the world.

Unpublished results of the trials, showing that the GM male mosquitoes competed with wild males, were presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in the United States, last week (4 November)."

Study warns against US rush to approve gene-altered salmon - Yahoo! News

Study warns against US rush to approve gene-altered salmon - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (AFP) – With the US government close to approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption, a study out Thursday warned that key risks to society could be missed in the rush to the market.
If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the quick-growing salmon would be the first so-called 'Frankenfood' animal approved for consumption by the American public.
But experts said not enough is known about the wider impacts on society of bringing such foods on the market, including a potentially major shift in dietary habits, buying practices and environmental hazards.
The current FDA process involves comparing modified salmon to the regular fish, analyzing the nutritional profile and screening for toxins, said the study by American and Norwegian researchers published in the journal Science.
'A more useful approach would be to evaluate whether society is better off overall with the new product than without it,' said Duke University law professor Jonathan Wiener."

Your world is being radically shaped...

Home: "…and over the years this transformation has been given a variety of labels: Global Governance, the New World Order, Internationalism, World Federalism, International Management, World Law, and Global Democracy have all been used to describe the political side of these phenomena.

In the realm of religion and society, phrases such as United Religions, Interfaithism, Religious Pluralism, Unity in Diversity, Global Citizenship, and International Solidarity express the global change of culture, thought, and faith.

Economics, too, has its lexicon of transformation: the New Economic Order, Monetary Unions, Global Free Trade, Regional Currency Areas, the International Monetary System, and a Single Global Currency all speak to the re-shuffling of economic might.Yet all of these phrases, and more, are wrapped up and represented in one word: globalization.

Forcing Change is an extraordinary intelligence source, providing a unique world-view window with a panoramic sweep of globalization."

’Pillar of light’ reported west of Tennessee’s Roan Mountain - National ufo | Examiner.com

’Pillar of light’ reported west of Tennessee’s Roan Mountain - National ufo | Examiner.com: "A Tennessee witness reports a 'pillar of light standing vertically due west of Roan Mountain' at 4:50 a.m. on November 18, 2010, under 300 feet off of the ground where you could not tell if it was beaming up or down, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

'The thing looked as if someone had an airport spotlight shining straight up, but it ended abruptly, about 75 to 100 yards up and you could not tell if it was beaming upwards or down, just a standing pillar of light in the middle of nowhere,' the witness stated. 'It didn't look like Bear hunters. I cannot figure it out. It looked similar to the tail of a comet, but I've never seen a comet that large or bright.'"

AD calls for caution on Genetically Modified Organisms - Gozo News.Com

AD calls for caution on Genetically Modified Organisms - Gozo News.Com: "During a round table conference on the European Commissions’ proposals on Genetically Modified Organisms, Alternattiva Demokratika said it will be reaffrming its position on the subject. The conference will be taking place at Dar l-Ewropa, St Paul Street between 10am and 12 noon.
According to Simon Galea, AD Spokesperson for Agriculture and Animal Welfare, 'Cultivation of GMOs poses a threat to biodiversity particularly through cross pollination with other non GM plants since pollination knows no borders or frontiers. Such contamination include negative economic impact on non GMO farmers mainly those practicising organic methods. Following proposals brought forward by EU Commisioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli, AD urges for a legal framework which puts the protection of human/animal health plus the environment before any other interests including those of multi national companies involved in GMOs.'"

Experts: Mystery contrail was from Chinese missile

Experts: Mystery contrail was from Chinese missile: "Although the U.S. Defense Department and North American Aerospace Defense Command have speculated publicly that the unidentified contrail of a projectile soaring into the skies off the California coast – and recorded by a KCBS television crew – came from a jet and posed no security threat to the U.S., several experts are raising provocative and disturbing questions about the government's official response, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Two governmental military experts with extensive experience working with missiles and computer security systems have examined the television video and conclude the mysterious contrail originating some 30 miles off the coast near Los Angeles did not come from a jet – but rather, they say the exhaust and the billowing plume emanated from a single source nozzle of a missile, probably made in China.

They further suggest the missile was fired from a submerged Chinese nuclear submarine off America's coast, and point out that the timing of the alleged Chinese missile shot coincided with an increasing confrontation between the U.S. and China, and was likely meant to send a message to Washington."

Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Weekend Debate: Is It Possible a "Universe-In-Mass" Black Hole Exists?

The Weekend Debate: Is It Possible a "Universe-In-Mass" Black Hole Exists?: "The existence of a large void of some billion light-years in diameter in the Constellation Eridanus appears to be improbable given current cosmological models. A radical and controversial theory proposes that it is a 'universe-in-mass black hole' rather than dark matter that is responsible for the phenomenon described as the expanding-accelerating universe. This radical theory of cosmology suggests that stars at the edge of the Hubble length universe are being consumed by a universe-in-mass black hole."

Bill Gates: Register Every Birth by Cellphone To Ensure Vaccination, Control Population Growth

Bill Gates: Register Every Birth by Cellphone To Ensure Vaccination, Control Population Growth: "On the tails of a recent TED conference where Bill Gates stated that vaccines need to be used to reduce world population figures, he added more to this insanity last week with a keynote address at the mHealth Summit, an annual gathering whose supposedly focuses on improving health care through mobile technology.
Gates told an audience of more than 2,000 that if we could register every worldwide birth on a cell phone, we could ensure that children receive the proper vaccines. He also said the key to controlling population growth is to save the lives of children under 5; and the next big thing in technology is robots."

Singapore’s A*STAR participates in groundbreaking European Union (EU) project to jointly create a processor that is the size of a molecule > Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) > Press Releases

Singapore’s A*STAR participates in groundbreaking European Union (EU) project to jointly create a processor that is the size of a molecule > Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) > Press Releases: "A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) partners 10 EU research organisations to work on the groundbreaking €10 million ATMOL project that lays the foundation for creating and testing a molecular-sized processor chip.

A*STAR’s IMRE and 10 EU research organisations are working together to build what is essentially a single molecule processor chip. As a comparison, a thousand of such molecular chips could fit into one of today’s microchips, the core device that determines computational speed. The ambitious project, termed Atomic Scale and Single Molecule Logic Gate Technologies (ATMOL), will establish a new process for making a complete molecular chip. This means that computing power can be increased significantly but take up only a small fraction of the space that is required by today’s standards."

All viruses 'can be DNA stowaways'

All viruses 'can be DNA stowaways': "(PhysOrg.com) -- 'Fossil viruses' preserved inside the DNA of mammals and insects suggest that all viruses, including relatives of HIV and Ebola, could potentially be ‘stowaways’ transmitted from generation to generation for millions of years, according to new research."

5 Space Bloggers on When Humans Will Settle outside of Earth - I Look Forward To

5 Space Bloggers on When Humans Will Settle outside of Earth - I Look Forward To: "One world is not enough and humans won’t confine themselves to earth forever. At some point, we’ll begin to inhabit other parts of the universe. But how far away is that? I asked space bloggers Mike Simonsen, Irene Klotz, Ian O’Neill Chris Dann and Leonard David to answer this question, and here’s what they said."

Altamaha-ha: An American River Monster

Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena: "One of the largest rivers in the state of Georgia is the Altamaha River in the southeast portion of the state The river actually empties in to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast. It is said to be one of the largest river basins in the country, and as such, there are a lot of tributaries to this river.

According to legend, in the waters of the Altamaha, near the city of Darien, there is a strange creature. It appears ever so often and sightings of this creature go back to the times before whites settled the area. The Tama Indians from that area first told tales of a huge water serpent that hissed and bellowed. In the 1920s, timbermen who rode the river reported sighting something that fits the description of 'Altamaha-ha', also known as 'Altie'. Other sightings include a Boy Scout troop from the 1940s and two officials from the Reidsville State Prison from the 1950s."

Friday, November 19, 2010

Russian domed city would hold 100,000 people | DVICE

Russian domed city would hold 100,000 people | DVICE: "A Russian company has unveiled plans to build a gigantic domed city in an abandoned diamond mine in Siberia.

The city, named Eco-city 2020, would be constructed inside the Mir diamond mine, the second largest excavated hole on the planet. It's a quarter-mile wide at the top and over 1,700 feet deep, which is so big that air flowing into the hole can actually suck helicopters out of the sky. If the project gets going, the mine would be completely covered over with a glass dome to protect the city from the weather in Siberia (which is apparently lousy almost all the time), and solar cells embedded in the dome would provide power for the entire structure.

Eco-city would be constructed of multiple levels, with a huge central core. The main floor would hold parks and recreation areas, with residential areas terracing up around the walls of the mine. Underneath would be space for vertical farms and forests, subsiding on light piped down the central core. An estimated 100,000 people would be able to live in Eco-city, and architects are hoping that it would help to attract tourists to Eastern Siberia."

'Spacetime cloak' can make time travel possible

'Spacetime cloak' can make time travel possible: "A 'spacetime cloak' may be straight out of science fiction, but some day it might permit time travel or change history.

A 'cloaked' individual could, for instance, travel from one place to another while appearing to vanish and appear instantaneously in a new location.

The device would speed up and slow down light to give the illusion that events have just not happened, according to the Journal of Optics.

For instance, a scientifically-savvy thief with access to technology could open a safe, empty its contents, and escape right under the watchful eye of a surveillance camera, reports the Daily Mail.

The video footage would show that the safe door was closed all the time. Scientists at Imperial College London have proved it could work in theory by adapting standard fibreoptic technology."