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Post by fr33ksh0w2012 on Dec 30, 2009 2:20:41 GMT 4
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 2, 2010 16:31:23 GMT 4
'Lifeless' prion proteins are 'capable of evolution'Scrapie prion protein from hamster brain Abnormal prion proteins cause at least 20 fatal diseasesScientists have shown for the first time that "lifeless" prion proteins, devoid of all genetic material, can evolve just like higher forms of life.The Scripps Research Institute in the US says the prions can change to suit their environment and go on to develop drug resistance. Prions are associated with 20 different brain diseases in humans and animals. The scientists say their work suggests new approaches might be necessary to develop therapies for these diseases. In the study, published in the journal Science, the scientists transferred prion populations from brain cells to other cells in culture and observed the prions that adapted to the new cellular environment out-competed their brain-adapted counterparts. When returned to the brain cells, the brain-adapted prions again took over the population. Charles Weissmann, head of Scripps Florida's department of infectology who led the study, said: "On the face of it, you have exactly the same process of mutation and adaptive change in prions as you see in viruses. This is a timely reminder that prion concerns are not going away and that controls to stop abnormal prions being transmitted to humans through the food system or through blood transfusions must be vigorously maintained — Professor John Collinge, Medical Research Council Prion Unit "This means that this pattern of Darwinian evolution appears to be universally active. "In viruses, mutation is linked to changes in nucleic acid sequence that leads to resistance. "Now, this adaptability has moved one level down- to prions and protein folding - and it's clear that you do not need nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) for the process of evolution." Mammalian cells normally produce cellular prion protein or PrPC. During infections, such as the human form of mad cow disease known as vCJD, abnormal or misfolded proteins convert the normal host prion protein into its toxic form by changing its conformation or shape. "It was generally thought that once cellular prion protein was converted into the abnormal form, there was no further change", Mr Weissmann said. "But there have been hints that something was happening. "When you transmit prions from sheep to mice, they become more virulent over time. PRION DISEASES
Human prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) can arise sporadically, be acquired by infection or be inherited because of a mutant gene coding for the prion protein
They are relatively rare but have occurred in epidemic form in Papua New Guinea as a result of brain cannibalism
Animal prion diseases include scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and transmissible mink encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) first appeared in UK in mid-1980s It is estimated that more than two million UK cattle were infected
Variant CJD (vCJD) caused by the same prion strain as BSE was first recognised in the mid-1990s "Now we know that the abnormal prions replicate, and create variants, perhaps at a low level initially. "But once they are transferred to a new host, natural selection will eventually choose the more virulent and aggressive variants." Professor John Collinge, of the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Prion Unit, described the research as exciting confirmation of a hypothesis that he had proposed two years ago, that there could be a "cloud" or whole array of prion proteins in the body. He called it the cloud hypothesis. He said: "The prion protein is not a clone, it is a quasi-species that can create different protein strains even in the same animal. "The abnormal prion proteins multiply by converting normal prion proteins. "The implication of Charles Weissmann's work is that it would be better to cut off that supply of normal prion proteins rather than risk the abnormal prion adapting to a drug and evolving into a new more virulent form. "You would do this by trying to block the sites on the normal prion protein that the abnormal form locks on to to do its conversion. "We know there is an antibody that can do this in mice and the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit have managed to engineer a human antibody to do this. Chemical libraries"It is currently undergoing safety tests and we hope to move to clinical trials by the end of 2011" Professor Collinge said the MRC was also trying to find more conventional chemical compounds to do this and has been collaborating with the chemical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He said: "They have given us access to their chemical libraries, which contain millions of compounds, and we have already identified some that may work well. "This is a timely reminder that prion concerns are not going away and that controls to stop abnormal prions being transmitted to humans through the food system or through blood transfusions must be vigorously maintained." news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8435320.stm............................. Researchers Create an Artificial PrionBy SANDRA BLAKESLEE Published: July 29, 2004www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/science/29CND-PROTEIN.html?hp( ninathedog.livejournal.com/182711.html ) Scientists are reporting that, for the first time, they have made an artificial prion, or misfolded protein, that can, by itself, produce a deadly infectious disease in mice and may help explain the roots of mad cow disease. The findings, being reported on Friday in the journal Science, are strong evidence for the so-called "protein only hypothesis," the controversial idea that a protein, acting alone without the help of DNA or RNA, can cause certain kinds of infectious diseases. The concept was introduced in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurology professor at the University of California in San Francisco, and is still unsettling to many scientists who have been taught that only bacteria and viruses containing genetic information can spread infectious diseases. Over the years, the idea that a misfolded protein, because of its shape alone, could trigger an infectious disease, has been gaining acceptance but it has never been conclusively proven. In this study, Dr. Prusiner said researchers had successfully created a man-made prion and injected it into a mouse brain and produced disease. Then, they took tissue from the diseased mouse and injected it in another mouse, which also got the same disease. Dr. Prusiner said in a telephone interview that he was "flabbergasted" that it had taken 22 years to prove the hypothesis but that his lab was able to overcome earlier technical difficulties with a new set of experiments. "We have compelling evidence," he said. "We've done it all." "I am thrilled" by this new study, said Dr. Peter T. Lansbury, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and an expert on protein folding. "You can never really prove a hypothesis but only try to disprove it," he said. But with these findings, "we are about as close as you can ever get to proving it." Still, many said the evidence was insufficient. Dr. Bruce Chesebro, chief of the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, said that the experiment shows that the prion produced something in the mice. But he said that it remains unclear whether the prion is causing the infection or somehow just exposing an underlying infectious process. Dr. Laura Maneulidis, a neuropathologist at the Yale University Medical School, one of Dr. Prusiner's most vocal critics, said the prion strain that turned up in the experiment looks like a mouse prion frequently used in Dr. Prusiner's laboratory. "Basically I think the data look like contamination," she said, possibly stemming from "inadequately washed instruments." Dr. Prusiner, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his prion research, said some of his critics will never be satisfied. "They'll say we need to do 10 more years of experiments, using controls we didn't do," he said. "It's just silly." Dr. Prusiner predicted that the newly gleaned information will lead to more effective ways to diagnose and treat a family of deadly diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, believed to be caused by aberrant proteins. The stakes are enormous. Last week, a British citizen who died from other causes was found to have been infected by a human form of TSE from a routine blood transfusion. The human form, called variant Creutzfedlt Jakob disease, is contracted from eating cattle infected with mad cow disease. At least two people who died from the variant disease gave blood before falling ill, which means many more Britons could be infected. American agriculture officials are testing thousands of cattle in an effort to determine if mad cow disease is a problem in this country, but the tests are notoriously imperfect. A deeper understanding of protein diseases should lead to tests that can diagnose the disease even in cattle that show no symptoms. The biology of protein diseases is new and often difficult to grasp, Dr. Prusiner said. He said he believed that many proteins cause disease when they adopt an abnormal shape and form toxic fibrils that create havoc in the brain or body. Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type two diabetes and at least two dozen other human disorders may be caused by misshapen proteins, according to Dr. Pruisner. But as far as scientists have been able to determine only one protein, the prion, leads to infectious diseases. That is, infectious prions can be passed between and among species through the eating of nervous tissue, exchange of bodily fluids and by direct injection into the brain. When Dr. Prusiner introduced the protein-only hypothesis, he was greeted with skepticism. The test should be simple: create a prion in a laboratory dish or in a bacterial system far removed from animal cells that might harbor DNA. Then add chemicals or heat to fold the artificial prion into different shapes, including many sheet-like structures seen in virtually all TSEs. Inject the misfolded man-made prion into healthy animals. If such prions cause disease in and of themselves, the animals should get sick. The hallmark of a TSE is spongy holes and inflammation in the brain. Some of the diseases also feature clumps of fibrils called amyloid. Laboratories around the world have tried countless variations of this experiment for years, Dr. Prusiner said. They never worked. The mice never got sick. But this time, Dr. Prusiner says, the mice did get sick. In hindsight, the reasons are now clear, Dr. Prusiner said. In tinkering with artificial prions, researchers never knew what part of the full length protein was responsible for passing on the disease. They reasoned that an infectious core was the culprit. When that core — a fragment of misfolded protein — comes into contact with a similar fragment in a healthy prion, the healthy prion is fatally converted into the disease form. But what fragment? What shapes cause the conversion? If that core could be isolated, the experiments might work. Nature offered a solution, Dr. Prusiner said. A few TSEs produce huge amounts of amyloid composed of core prion fragments which are easy to see. Researchers synthesized healthy protein fragments similar to the amyloid. They subjected the fragments to agents such as urea and vinegar that alter protein shape and shook the solutions for 40 hours. Amyloids appeared. The man-made proteins were cleansed and injected into the brains of transgenic mice bred with prions that would recognize the fragments. "We waited," Dr. Prusiner said. "And waited. At 300 days, none of the animals got sick. We thought the experiment had not worked." But over the next 200 days, every animal developed spongiform degeneration, the scientist said. A brain extract from a sick animal was injected into normal mice with different prion structure. They too got sick.
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 2, 2010 17:41:33 GMT 4
Have Scientists Discovered a Way of Peering Into the Future?By Danny Penman | newsmonster.co.uk 2008 02 22Deep in the basement of a dusty old library in Edinburgh lies a small black box that churns out random numbers. At first glance the box looks profoundly dull, but it is, in fact, the ‘eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future. The machine apparently sensed the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened, and appeared to forewarn of the Asian Tsunami. "It's Earth shattering stuff," says Dr Roger Nelson, Emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the USA. "But unfortunately we don't have a box for predicting the future that we can sell to the CIA. We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's going on here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark." Dr Nelson's Global Consciousness Project - originally hosted by Princeton University - is one of the most extraordinary experiments of all time. It aims to ‘sense' whether all of humanity shares a single unconscious mind that we all tap into without realising it. Some might refer to it as the mind of God. But the machine has also thrown up another tantalising possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of predicting the future. Although many would consider the project's aims to be little more than fools' gold, it has still attracted a roster of 75 respected scientists from 41 different nations. Researchers from Princeton - where Einstein spent much of his career - work alongside scientists from universities in Britain, Holland, Switzerland and Germany. The project is also the most rigorous and longest running investigation ever into the paranormal. "Very often paranormal phenomena evaporate if you study them for long enough," says physicist Dick Bierman of the University of Amsterdam. "But this is not happening with the Global Consciousness Project. The effect is real. The only dispute is about what it means." The project has its roots in the extraordinary work of Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton University during the late 1970s. Professor Jahn was one of the first modern scientists to take paranormal phenomena seriously. Intrigued by such things as telepathy, telekinesis and ESP, he was determined to study the phenomena using the most up to date technology available. One of these new technologies was a humble looking black box known was a Random Event Generator. This used sophisticated technology to generate two numbers - a one and a zero - in a totally random sequence, rather like an electronic coin-flipper. The pattern of ones and noughts - ‘heads' and ‘tails' as it were - can then be printed out as a graph. Pure chance dictates that the generators should churn out equal numbers of ones and zeros which produces a more or less flat line on a graph. Any deviation from this shows up as a gently rising curve. During the late 1970s, Professor Jahn hauled strangers off the street and asked them to concentrate their minds on a number generator. In effect, he was asking them to try to make it flip more heads than tails. It was a preposterous idea at the time, and to many it still is. The results, however, were stunning and have never been satisfactorily explained. Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machines and produce significant fluctuations on the graph. According to all of the known laws of science, this should not have happened - but it did. And it kept on happening. Dr Roger Nelson, also working at Princeton University, then extended Professor Jahn's work by taking the machines to group meditations, which were very popular in America at the time. Again, the results were shocking. The meditators somehow caused dramatic shifts in the numbers. From then on, Dr Nelson was hooked. Using the Internet, he connected up 40 random event generators from all over the world to his laboratory computer in Princeton. These ran day in day out, generating millions of different pieces of data. Most of the time, the resulting graph on his computer looked more or less like a flat line. But during the funeral of Princess Diana something extraordinary happened: the graph shot upwards and reached for the sky. It was clear that they'd detected a totally new phenomena. The concentrated mental effort of millions of people appeared to be influencing the output of random event generators around the world. But how? Dr Nelson was still at a loss to explain it. In 1998 he gathered together scientists from all over the world to try and understand the phenomena. They, too, were stumped and resolved to extend and deepen Jahn and Nelson's work. The Global Consciousness Project was born. Since then, the project has expanded massively. A total of 65 Eggs (as the generators have been named) in 41 countries have now been recruited to act as the ‘eyes' of the project. And the results have been startling and inexplicable in equal measure. The Eggs not only ‘sensed' the moment that Princess Diana was buried, but also the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Kursk tragedy and America's hung election of 2000. The Eggs also regularly detect huge global celebrations such as New Year's Eve. Even more bizarrely, they sense the celebrations as they sweep through the Earth's different time zones. The project threw up its greatest enigma on September 11th 2001. As the world stood still and watched the horror of the terrorist attacks unfold across New York, something strange was happening to the Eggs. Not only did they register the event as it happened, but the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers began four hours before the two planes hit the Twin Towers. "I knew then that we had a great deal of work ahead of us," says Dr Nelson. The same happened with the Asian Tsunami. Twenty four hours before the tragedy unfolded, the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers began. Curiously, it was at around this time that animals in the path of the tsunami began fleeing for their lives. Very few animals were killed in the tragedy, as you may remember, leading some to ask whether they had somehow foreseen the disaster. So does the Global Consciousness Project really forecast the future? After all, cynics will quite rightly say that if you look at enough data then you will find correlations with something. After all, our world is full of wars, disasters and terrorist outrages, as well as the occasional global celebration. The team behind the project say that they've thought of this. Using rigorous scientific techniques and powerful mathematics it is possible to exclude these chance connections. And they believe they have done so. "Good scientists will ask what mistakes we've made," says Dr Nelson. "We're perfectly willing to discover that we've made mistakes. But we haven't been able to find any, and neither has anyone else. "Our data shows clearly that the chances of getting these results by chance are one million to one against. That's hugely significant." The Global Consciousness Project may have generated an incredible amount of compelling evidence, and garnered the support of eminent scientists, but many remain sceptical. Professor Chris French, a psychologist and noted sceptic at Goldsmiths College in London, says: "The project has generated some very intriguing results that cannot be readily dismissed. I'm involved in similar work to see if we get the same results. We haven't managed to do so yet but it's only an early experiment. The jury's still out." Strange as it may seem, there's nothing in the laws of physics that precludes the possibility of foreseeing the future. Time may not just move forwards - but backwards too. And if time ebbs and flows like the tides in the sea, it might just be possible to foretell the future. "There's plenty of evidence that time may run backwards," says Professor Dick Bierman, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam. "And if it's possible for it to happen in physics then it can happen inside our heads too." As a consequence says Professor Bierman, forecasting the future may not just be possible - it's something we do routinely without even realising it. Dr John Hartwell, working at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, was the first to uncover evidence that people could sense the future. In the mid 1970s he hooked people up to hospital EEG machines so that he could study their brainwave patterns. When these people were shown emotionally charged cartoons, characteristic patterns flickered through their brainwaves. Strangely, these patterns began to emerge a few seconds before they actually saw the pictures. But it was to be another 15 years before anyone else took this work further. Dean Radin, working in America, connected people up to a machine that measured their skin's resistance to electricity. This is known to fluctuate in tandem with our moods, indeed, it's this principle that underlies many lie detectors. Radin repeated Dr Hall's work whilst measuring skin resistance. Again, people began reacting a few seconds before they were shown the pictures. This was clearly impossible, or so he thought, so he kept on repeating the experiments and getting the same results. "I didn't believe it," says Professor Bierman. "So I repeated the experiment myself and got the same results. I was shocked. After this I started to think more deeply about the nature of time." Bierman then devised an experiment to settle his mind once and for all. He decided to use a hospital brain scanner to peer inside people's minds as they were shown a series of photographs. Each person was randomly shown erotic or violent pictures, or neutral images of white fluffy clouds. Each of these pictures produced unique patterns in the patient's brainwaves. In effect, you could see inside the mind as it reacted to each picture. What is remarkable is that the patients began reacting 1-2 seconds before they saw the images. This is clearly impossible, or so we're taught to believe. And yet it happened time and time again. Obviously sceptics would love to demolish Bierman's work but have so far failed to do so. Nor is his research a one off that can be casually dismissed. To make matters even more intriguing, Bierman says that other mainstream labs have produced similar results but they are too frightened to go public. "They don't want to be ridiculed so they won't release their findings, says Professor Bierman. "So I'm trying to persuade all of them to release their results together. That would at least spread the ridicule a little more thinly!" jokes the Professor. If Bierman is right, then sensing the future may help explain such things as deja vu, intuition and a host of other paranormal phenomena. It may also open up a far more interesting possibility - enhancing psychic powers using machines. Just as we have built machines to replace muscle power, may we one day build a device to enhance psychic abilities? Dr Nelson is optimistic - but not for the short term: "We may be able to predict that something is going to happen. But we won't know exactly what will happen or where it's going to happen," he says. But for Dr Nelson, talk of psychic machines is of far less importance than the implications of his work for ordinary people. We may all be individuals, he says, but we are also part of something far, far greater. "We're taught to be individualistic monsters," he says. "We're driven by society to separate ourselves from each other. That's not right. We may be connected together far more intimately than we realise." Article from: www.newsmonster.co.uk/paranormal-unexplained/ have-scientists-discovered-a-way-of-peering-into-the-future.html
( www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=3016 )
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 3, 2010 5:12:20 GMT 4
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 7, 2010 13:55:10 GMT 4
Scientists Concerned Over 1,100 Pounds of Dead Octopus Washing Ashore in PortugalVILA NOVA DE GAIA, Portugal, Jan. 6 (UPI) — More than 1,200 pounds of dead octopus have washed ashore on a 1.8-mile stretch of beach in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, concerned scientists say. “It’s very strange that so many should be killed, and in such a confined area,” said Nuno Oliveira, head of the Gaia Biological Park. “There’s nothing in the scientific literature for this kind of mass mortality among octopus.” An estimated 1,100 pounds of octopus all ages and sizes washed up dead Saturday and another 110 pounds Sunday, said Mike Weber, head of the Aguda coastal station in Gaia. “That suggests that it wiped out the entire local population,” Weber told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday. Firefighters gathered up the dead animals, with many sent for testing at a laboratory in Lisbon. Biologists have ruled out pollution as the cause of death because no other species were affected. The cause is likely some form of disease-causing parasite or bacteria, Oliveira said. Copyright 2010 by United Press International
www.ecoworld.com/ideas/literature/massive-octopus-kill-mystery.html
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 7, 2010 21:39:32 GMT 4
comparison being drawn between "Norway Blue Spiral"www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fgn7-AoQtIand the following:posted on Freemantv.com along with a lot of other interesting stuff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb45uBaj2McNASA Black Brant XII / CARE Mission Launched 9-19-2009 from Wallops Island, Va.
For more info about the science mission, read: wpdp.colorado.edu/Files/Presen... For more info about the launch, go to: www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/C... A video showing the actual rocket being launched is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqdPKb...
Videotaped from Eldersburg, Md. (approx. 130 miles NW of Wallops Island)
Launch and Cloud Dispersal videotaped using "Color Slow Shutter" mode (1/2 second binning), daylight color balance, manual focus set to infinity. Sony digital camcorder DCR-TRV22, processed with Windows Movie Maker. The apparent "slow-motion" appearance at normal speed is an artifact of the slow-speed "shutter" of the low-light mode for this camcorder. Each frame is about a 1/3 to 1/2 second exposure, letting the CCD accumulate more photons so faint objects can be imaged. The rocket launch (first scene) is shown at normal speed. Then the cloud (rocket exhaust) release is shown at 8X normal speed first, as it is easier to see how the cloud was generated and dispersed when sped up. This repeats 2 more times without subtitles; finally, the cloud release is shown at normal speed.
The object moving from left-to-right near the bottom, is just a passenger jet on approach to BWI airport, 20 miles to the SW. Except for editing out the ~6 minutes between launch and dispersal, and speeding up playback of the dispersal (the first 3 playbacks), no processing (contrast, brightness, sharpening etc.) was done to the video. Category: Science & Technology Tags: NASA Wallops Island Black Brant XII CARE Mission Rocket Launch Noctilucent Cloud Lights Cone East Coast New Jersey Maryland Pennsylvania York Delaware Virginia Carolina Massachusetts Connecticut Rhode Kentucky Ohio Estes
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 7, 2010 23:35:34 GMT 4
Activists pursue Japanese whalers by helicopterBy ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago SYDNEY – Japanese whalers and conservationists squared off Thursday for more hostilities in the Antarctic, a day after the hunters crushed one of the activists' boats in a clash each side blamed on the other but all agreed endangered lives. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society searched Antarctic waters by helicopter for a key Japanese whaling ship on Thursday, renewing its attempts to find and harass the whalers into giving up their hunt, the group's founder Paul Watson said. The escalating Antarctic confrontations were broadly condemned, but no plan was immediately hatched to prevent future confrontations. Legal uncertainties about jurisdiction and the remoteness of the area make policing the international waters at the bottom of the world extremely difficult, experts say. Japan kills about 1,200 whales a year in Antarctica under what it says is a scientific program allowed by the International Whaling Commission despite a broader moratorium on killing the mammals. Critics say the program is a front for illegal commercial whaling, and Sea Shepherd sends ships to Antarctica each season to try to stop the hunt — an effort portrayed on the Animal Planet TV series "Whale Wars." On Wednesday, the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru plowed into Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil, knocking the bow off the wave-piercing trimaran speedboat that is one of the group's trio of vessels trying to harass the hunters out of business. Australia and New Zealand, the closest nations to the latest confrontation, announced investigations Thursday into the crash. The whaling is conducted in international waters, but usually within the huge patch of ocean that is designated as Australia's maritime rescue zone and that Canberra considers a whale sanctuary. But rules governing Antarctica are not clear cut. The frozen continent and the oceans around it are administered by agreement between nations, and there are conflicting claims about sovereignty. "There is very little ability for a sort of police force to just turn up on the scene to separate the two sides" when then is a dispute such as Wednesday's clash, said Don Rothwell, a professor in international law at the Australian National University who wrote a recent report for the government on Antarctic whaling. It was possible Sea Shepherd could try to sue the whaling ship's master for negligence in Wednesday's clash, he said. But the whalers could also try to have the Ady Gil charged with terrorism at sea for trying to foul its propellers with rope — a tactic Sea Shepherd openly says it uses. Japan said it had asked countries that let the conservationists register their ships or use their ports to help curtail the group's aggressive acts. Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said Australia should send its navy or a customs vessel to stop what he calls illegal poaching. But Wednesday's clash was unlikely to produce any useful change in policy, and had actually raised the chances of a further escalation in the whaling face-off, said Rothwell. "This is the great fear at the moment," he said. "Sea Shepherd is using very strong language, talking about a war with the Japanese," he said. "Increasingly, the Japanese have become more aggressive in their responses — we can expect that there will be more clashes." Sea Shepherd says the Ady Gil was sitting idle and the whaler deliberately rammed it. Japan says the activists' boat was moving toward its ship and a miscalculation on their part caused the collision. Neither side's version — which happened near Commonwealth Bay about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) south of Australia — could be independently verified. Two cracked ribs to a Sea Shepherd volunteer were the only injuries reported. "I've never been so close to death in my life," Laurens de Groot, a 29-year-old Dutch member of the Ady Gil's crew who was not injured, told The Associated Press by satellite telephone on Thursday. "While I was standing on the roof and that harthingy ship was coming in at full speed, you think: `This can't be real, it's not really happening.'" Neither side showed signs Thursday of backing down. "The series of sabotage acts by the Sea Shepherd were very dangerous and risked the life and safety of the Japanese crew members," Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Yasuhisa Kawamura told reporters in Tokyo. Watson vowed his group would not step back, saying "We now have a real whale war on our hands." He said a helicopter the group's main ship, Steve Irwin, was launched Thursday to try to find the Japanese fleet's whale processing ship and resume attempts to disrupt the whalers. Meanwhile, crew were removing fuel, the boat's engines and other items from the Ady Gil, which was being attended to by the group's third vessel, the Bob Barker — named for the former U.S. "Price is Right" TV host who recently gave Sea Shepherd $5 million. Watson said he expected the Ady Gil to sink, though de Groot, the crewman, said plans were afoot to have it towed to Dumont d'Urville Station, a French scientific base, for salvage or repairs. "Our priority right now (is) to make sure there is no pollution from that vessel," Watson told AP. Acting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there were no immediate plans to send a government vessel to the region. She said Canberra's ability to act was hampered because Japan did not recognize Australia's jurisdiction in the region. "This is an issue where emotions run high," Gillard told reporters. "I am saying to everyone out in these dangerous and inhospitable waters that this is a time for calm judgments. We do not want to see people taking risks that result in a loss of life." ___ Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Eric Talmadge and Malcolm Foster in Tokyo contributed to this report.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100107/ap_on_re_as/as_antarctica_whaling
................. .................. Much of the meat from whales killed by Japan's scientific programs ends up...in up-scale restaurants
Group rejects Japanese plans for coastal whale huntwww.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=8871245 By Jon Herskovitz posted by ninathedog @ 2005-06-23 10:19:00ULSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Japan suffered yet another setback on Thursday in its bid for more whaling when an international commission rejected a plea to allow Japanese coastal communities to hunt whales. An annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Ulsan voted against Japan's proposal to change commission rules and allow it to catch 150 minke whales a year off its northern Pacific coast. On Wednesday, the IWC chastised Tokyo for its scientific whaling program, which anti-whaling states say is actually a commercial hunt in the guise of science. A day earlier Japan was also voted down by anti-whaling states in two other ballots. Twenty-nine member states voted against Japan's proposal on Thursday to allow its local communities to hunt whales, to 26 in favor. The plan needed a three-quarters majority to be implemented. Many conservationists and anti-whaling nations said they supported whaling for aboriginal communities as a form of subsistence. But they saw the measure brought by Japan — the world's second-largest economy — as a way to skirt rules to benefit coastal communities that are neither impoverished nor in need of whale meat to support a slim diet. "We don't campaign against legitimate subsistence whaling, but Japan is trying to create a new category — cultural whaling," said Patrick Ramage, spokesman for the conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare. Japan said a ban on commercial whaling that went into effect in 1986 has hurt some of its communities that have relied on whaling and who need the whale trade to support their local economies and diet. "This proposal was about human rights, equity, fairness and justice," said Joji Morinutsa, a commissioner for Japan, said after the vote. CULTURE, LAWThe commission allows aboriginal communities to hunt whales for subsistence, as long as the catch is not used commercially. Anti-whaling states such as New Zealand are willing to allow this type of whale hunt. The United States, which many see as a moderating force within the commission, also stood against Japan's proposal. "The proposal always troubles us because it deals with culture and the law," said Rolland Schmitten, commissioner for the U.S. delegation. "But this is outside the convention." Japan said it was willing to talk with neutral parties to develop a management scheme that would place strict regulations on its commercial whaling in order to end the whaling moratorium, but it does not think it will ever find a compromise with anti-whaling states such as Australia and New Zealand. "With extreme, anti-whaling counties, we don't have any middle ground," Morinutsa said later at a press conference. Japan's whaling ambitions were dealt a symbolic blow on Wednesday when the commission voted to urge Tokyo to cut its scientific whale hunt. Although the vote puts more political pressure on Japan, it will still be able to expand its scientific whaling as the project is not regulated by commission rules. Resolutions, such as Wednesday's vote, are non-binding. Japan's well-flagged plan to expand its research work made public at the start of the annual meeting on Monday includes nearly doubling its annual catch of minke whales to about 900 and eventually hunting 50 fin and humpback whales a year — two types of whales conservationists say are threatened. Much of the meat from whales killed by Japan's scientific programs ends up on store shelves or in up-scale restaurants, rather than in laboratories. Japan maintains that killing whales helps them study what they eat, among other things. ninathedog.livejournal.com/419702.html.............................. EAGLES DISOBEY UPDATE!abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9431869125 Pilot Whales Die on NZ Beaches, 43 Saved125 pilot whales die, 43 saved by volunteers in New Zealand's first summer beach stranding WELLINGTON, New Zealand December 28, 2009 (AP) The Associated Press Some 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after stranding on beaches over the weekend — but vacationers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea. Rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away from Colville Beach on North Island's Coromandel peninsula, and by Monday morning they were reported well out to sea. Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped re-float the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded mammals in sheets and kept them wet through the day. "Some 63 pilot whales stranded ... but it looks pretty good, we've got 43 live ones," Department of Conservation ranger Steve Bolten said as the pod swam out to sea. Bolten said one of the whales may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbor and they couldn't find their way out again. Meanwhile on South Island, 105 long-finned pilot whales that stranded died Saturday, conservation officials said Monday. Golden Bay biodiversity program manager Hans Stoffregen said they were discovered by a tourist plane pilot and only 30 were alive when conservation workers arrived. "They were in bad shape. By the time we got there two-thirds of them had already died. We had to euthanize the rest," he said. The whales had been out of the water for a long time. "It has been quite hot and they were very distressed. You could see the pain and suffering in their eyes," he was quoted telling the Southland Times newspaper Because the site is part of a nature reserve, the 105 whale carcasses were left to decompose where they stranded, Stoffregen said. Large numbers of whales become stranded on New Zealand's beaches each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters. Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales become stranded. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. Eagles, specifically Dan, was asked by Nodstar* to look into the recent strandings. Unfortunately he has had limited time, due to contracts and intervening circumstances. He requested that the Eagles Team download the last and the current data.
We were able to find this for him, while he was working other subjects, including readying for the January 11, corporate symposium:
soho.esac.esa.int/data/LATEST/current_c3.mpg
A few moments after he viewed the video, he cut several images, and requested we get the original hi-res versions of those images.
His only quote about it sent to the EaglesTeam over IM:
"Just because we have passed the time of the great catastrophe of the ages, doesn't mean that our stewardship of the earth and her creatures has ceased. It also doesn't mean that the Earth and the Cosmos is not aware, and that the Eternal has ceased watching. Please get the High Resolution images from this timeframe for me. Thank you."
The writer of this post suggests people also look here:
www.eaglesdisobey.net/dolphin.htm
Thank you, Nodstar*, for suggesting where to look. Hiya Eagles ... WOW .. It was just a hunch .. Thanks for looking in into this for me .. The following article is relevant to this www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6973994.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084SCIENTISTS SAY DOLPHINS SHOULD BE TREATED AS 'NON-HUMAN PERSONS'[/SIZE] Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
“Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size,” said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.
“The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions,” she added.
Dolphins have long been recognised as among the most intelligent of animals but many researchers had placed them below chimps, which some studies have found can reach the intelligence levels of three-year-old children. Recently, however, a series of behavioural studies has suggested that dolphins, especially species such as the bottlenose, could be the brighter of the two. The studies show how dolphins have distinct personalities, a strong sense of self and can think about the future.
It has also become clear that they are “cultural” animals, meaning that new types of behaviour can quickly be picked up by one dolphin from another.
In one study, Diana Reiss, professor of psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, showed that bottlenose dolphins could recognise themselves in a mirror and use it to inspect various parts of their bodies, an ability that had been thought limited to humans and great apes.
In another, she found that captive animals also had the ability to learn a rudimentary symbol-based language.
Other research has shown dolphins can solve difficult problems, while those living in the wild co-operate in ways that imply complex social structures and a high level of emotional sophistication.
In one recent case, a dolphin rescued from the wild was taught to tail-walk while recuperating for three weeks in a dolphinarium in Australia.
After she was released, scientists were astonished to see the trick spreading among wild dolphins who had learnt it from the former captive.
There are many similar examples, such as the way dolphins living off Western Australia learnt to hold sponges over their snouts to protect themselves when searching for spiny fish on the ocean floor.
Such observations, along with others showing, for example, how dolphins could co-operate with military precision to round up shoals of fish to eat, have prompted questions about the brain structures that must underlie them.
Size is only one factor. Researchers have found that brain size varies hugely from around 7oz for smaller cetacean species such as the Ganges River dolphin to more than 19lb for sperm whales, whose brains are the largest on the planet. Human brains, by contrast, range from 2lb-4lb, while a chimp’s brain is about 12oz.
When it comes to intelligence, however, brain size is less important than its size relative to the body.
What Marino and her colleagues found was that the cerebral cortex and neocortex of bottlenose dolphins were so large that “the anatomical ratios that assess cognitive capacity place it second only to the human brain”. They also found that the brain cortex of dolphins such as the bottlenose had the same convoluted folds that are strongly linked with human intelligence.
Such folds increase the volume of the cortex and the ability of brain cells to interconnect with each other. “Despite evolving along a different neuroanatomical trajectory to humans, cetacean brains have several features that are correlated with complex intelligence,” Marino said.
Marino and Reiss will present their findings at a conference in San Diego, California, next month, concluding that the new evidence about dolphin intelligence makes it morally repugnant to mistreat them.
Thomas White, professor of ethics at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, who has written a series of academic studies suggesting dolphins should have rights, will speak at the same conference.
“The scientific research . . . suggests that dolphins are ‘non-human persons’ who qualify for moral standing as individuals,” he said.[/size] [/quote] "There are many similar examples, such as the way dolphins living off Western Australia learnt to hold sponges over their snouts to protect themselves when searching for spiny fish on the ocean floor."Dolphins Protect Their Snouts With Spongesnews.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050606/ap_on_sc/dolphin_learning By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 41 minutes ago posted by ninathedog @ 2005-06-06 19:29:00WASHINGTON - A group of dolphins living off the coast of Australia apparently teach their offspring to protect their snouts with sponges while foraging for food in the sea floor. Researchers say it appears to be a cultural behavior passed on from mother to daughter, a first for animals of this type, although such learning has been seen in other species. The dolphins, living in Shark Bay, Western Australia, use conically shaped whole sponges that they tear off the bottom, said Michael Kruetzen, lead author of a report on the dolphins in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. "Cultural evolution, including tool use, is not only found in humans and our closest relatives, the primates, but also in animals that are evolutionally quite distant from us. This convergent evolution is what is so fascinating," said Kruetzen. Researchers suspect the sponges help the foraging dolphins avoid getting stung by stonefish and other critters that hide in the sandy sea bottom, just as a gardener might wear gloves to protect the hands. Kruetzen and colleagues analyzed 13 "spongers" and 172 "non-spongers" and concluded that the practice seems to be passed along family lines, primarily from mothers to daughters. "Teaching requires close observation by the pupil," Kruetzen said. "Offspring spend up to four years before they are weaned, so they would have ample time to observe their mum doing it — if she is a sponger." "This study provides convincing evidence that the behavior is transmitted via social learning," commented Laela Sayigh of the University of North Carolina Center for Marine Science. "Such social learning appears to be widespread among the Shark Bay dolphins," said Sayigh, who was not part of Kruetzen's team. Only one male was observed using a sponge. Kruetzen noted that, as adults, male and female dolphins have very different lifestyles. Adult males form small groups of two or three individuals that chase females in reproductive condition, he explained. "I would think that they do not have time to engage in such a time-consuming foraging activity as adults, as they are busy herding females." Currently at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, Kruetzen was at the University of New South Wales, Australia, when the research was conducted. The work was funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Geographic Society, the W.V. Scott Foundation and the Linnaean Society of New South Wales. ninathedog.livejournal.com/403295.html
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 16, 2010 0:52:21 GMT 4
Scientists turn stem cells into porkAssociated Press By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer January 15, 2010LONDON – Call it pork in a petri dish — a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that scientists say could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock, help alleviate world hunger, and save some pigs their bacon. Dutch scientists have been growing pork in the laboratory since 2006, and while they admit they haven't gotten the texture quite right or even tasted the engineered meat, they say the technology promises to have widespread implications for our food supply. "If we took the stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a factor of a million, we would need one million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat," said Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, a network of publicly funded Dutch research institutions that is carrying out the experiments. Post describes the texture of the meat as sort of like scallop, firm but a little squishy and moist. That's because the lab meat has less protein content than conventional meat. Several other groups in the U.S., Scandinavia and Japan are also researching ways to make meat in the laboratory, but the Dutch project is the most advanced, said Jason Matheny, who has studied alternatives to conventional meat at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and is not involved in the Dutch research. In the U.S., similar research was funded by NASA, which hoped astronauts would be able to grow their own meat in space. But after growing disappointingly thin sheets of tissue, NASA gave up and decided it would be better for its astronauts to simply eat vegetarian. To make pork in the lab, Post and colleagues isolate stem cells from pigs' muscle cells. They then put those cells into a nutrient-based soup that helps the cells replicate to the desired number. So far the scientists have only succeeded in creating strips of meat about 1 centimeter (a half inch) long; to make a small pork chop, Post estimates it would take about 30 days of cell replication in the lab. There are tantalizing health possibilities in the technology. Fish stem cells could be used to produce healthy omega 3 fatty acids, which could be mixed with the lab-produced pork instead of the usual artery-clogging fats found in livestock meat. "You could possibly design a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them," Matheny said. Post said the strips they've made so far could be used as processed meat in sausages or hamburgers. Their main problem is reproducing the protein content in regular meat: In livestock meat, protein makes up about 99 percent of the product; the lab meat is only about 80 percent protein. The rest is mostly water and nucleic acids. None of the researchers have actually eaten the lab-made meat yet, but Post said the lower protein content means it probably wouldn't taste anything like pork. The Dutch researchers started working with pork stem cells because they had the most experience with pigs, but said the technology should be transferable to other meats, like chicken, beef and lamb. Some experts warn lab-made meats might have potential dangers for human health. "With any new technology, there could be subtle impacts that need to be monitored," said Emma Hockridge, policy manager at Soil Association, Britain's leading organic organization. As with genetically modified foods, Hockridge said it might take some time to prove the new technology doesn't harm humans. She also said organic farming relies on crop and livestock rotation, and that taking animals out of the equation could damage the ecosystem. Some experts doubted lab-produced meat could ever match the taste of real meat. "What meat tastes like depends not just on the genetics, but what you feed the animals at particular times," said Peter Ellis, a biochemistry expert at King's College London. "Part of our enjoyment of eating meat depends on the very complicated muscle and fat structure...whether that can be replicated is still a question." If it proves possible, experts say growing meat in laboratories instead of raising animals on farmland would do wonders for the environment. Hanna Tuomisto, who studies the environmental impact of food production at Oxford University said that switching to lab-produced meat could theoretically lower greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95 percent. Both land and water use would also drop by about 95 percent, she said. "In theory, if all the meat was replaced by cultured meat, it would be huge for the environment," she said. "One animal could produce many thousands of kilograms of meat." In addition, lab meat can be nurtured with relatively few nutrients like amino acids, fats and natural sugars, whereas livestock must be fed huge amounts of traditional crops. Tuomisto said the technology could potentially increase the world's meat supply and help fight global hunger, but that would depend on how many factories there are producing the lab-made meat. Post and colleagues haven't worked out how much the meat would cost to produce commercially, but because there would be much less land, water and energy required, he guessed that once production reached an industrial level, the cost would be equivalent to or lower than that of conventionally produced meat. One of the biggest obstacles will be scaling up laboratory meat production to satisfy skyrocketing global demand. By 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization predicts meat consumption will double from current levels as growing middle classes in developing nations eat more meat. "To produce meat at an industrial scale, we will need very large bioreactors, like those used to make vaccines or pasteurized milk," said Matheny. He thought lab-produced meat might be on the market within the next few years, while Post said it could take about a decade. For the moment, the only types of meat they are proposing to make this way are processed meats like minced meat, hamburgers or hot dogs. "As long as it's cheap enough and has been proven to be scientifically valid, I can't see any reason people wouldn't eat it," said Stig Omholt, a genetics expert at the University of Life Sciences in Norway. "If you look at the sausages and other things people are willing to eat these days, this should not be a big problem." news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100115/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_petri_pork
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Post by cosmicstar on Jan 18, 2010 2:01:39 GMT 4
I came across this explanation of the Norway blue spiral. The link has the images that were associated with article. I am interested what you all think about this possible explanation. cosmistar www.viewzone.com/spiralthing.htmlThe controversy continues... Share This Site By Dan Eden exclusively for viewzone January 15, 2010 About a decade ago, while I was working for viewzone, I was invited up to Fairbanks, Alaska to see a secret military installation. The people who invited me were two young men who had recently been discharged from the Navy. They were concerned about two tests that had been conducted with a powerful transmitter, capable of reflecting electrical and kinetic energy off the ionosphere -- a layer of Earth's atmosphere about 100 miles above sea level. While we have all heard of the HAARP installation in Gakona, Alaska [below], this facility was much larger and more powerful. It was located north of Fairbanks in an area known as "Poker Flats." I was told by these men that the Gakona facility was a decoy -- a "red herring." I was not allowed to take photographs nor reveal the identity of these two men, but I did publish their story. Over the years I have had infrequent contact with them. But one of the men wrote to me this week and expressed concern over the "spiral" that was photographed in the night sky over Norway. The man alleges that the spiral was not a Russian rocket gone bad. It was familiar to him from seeing a similar configuration in the sky when the secret transmitter was used, at very high power, in Fairbanks. The incident in Norway is certainly controversial. It was just a few miles from the famous, and supposedly the most powerful ionospheric heater in Tromso, Norway [below]. The official output is 1 Gigawatt. There is more reason to believe this man's story over the alleged malfunctioning Russian missile story that was widely published. For one, the spiral has been seen before -- in both Russia and China. In both of these incidents the spiral was linked to "atmospheric testing" of some type of a beam weapon. The facility in Russia [above], at Vasilsursk (called "SURA") is well known and reportedly has an output of 190 Million Watts. It can be found at 56 07'06.64"N / 46 02'05.38"E. The location and power of any units inside China are not disclosed; however, their operation signature might be expected to be similar. Without any further delay, here is what the man wrote to me, and asked that I print for you to read: I worked on the "heater" that's up in Fairbanks, specifically in Poker Flats. There were two of us who were around the same age at the time, so we became friends. My buddy worked inside the "Com" where all the computers and transmitters are located. It was my job to maintain the coax cables and towers -- the antennae. Back in 1998 we got concerned because the heater was a secret facility and the Navy was doing research that we thought was harmful to the people and the environment. They had the facility down in Gakona that everyone knows about, but while that drew the attention with very low wattage and excellent public relations, the facility where we worked was blasting holes in the ionosphere with a billion effective radiated watts. We witnessed two huge experiments that were done, as far as we knew, just to see what would happen. They were done during the winter months and ths is why I am wrting to you now. When I saw those photographs and movies of the spiral in the sky over Norway I knew right away what t was. Especially when I saw the blue spiral going up towards the huge white one. We saw that when they "tested" the heater on the flats. You [sic] got to understand how this thing works. It's kind of a two stage thing. The first stage is where they send increasing power through the antennae farm which is really a phased array. The antennae are all sending out a powerful signal on the same frequency but they are all slightly at a different phase. You know a radio signal has cycles or frequency. Like there are so many cycles per second. The cycles are made up of high and low, positive and negative electricity. Well in a phased array they figure a point out in space or in the atmosphere where they want all of the signals to converge so the high point of each cycle is synchronized and can combine. A computer figures this out and because the antennae are spaced apart the signals need to be slightly delayed, out of phase, when they are sent so that they can focus and combine on one spot somewhere high above the antenna farm. The phased array is like a laser for radio waves. They start by selecting an area in the ionosphere and they scan the signal to paint it with radio waves. The scan is in a spiral shape. This goes on for a while until the area becomes charged and heated -- that's why they call these installations "heaters." When the patch of ionosphere is heated and charged it becomes like a mirror to lower frequency radio waves and can reflect them with almost no loss or absorption. That's why the government loved this back in the cold war because it could be used to reflect radar signals over the horizon. Anyway the next phase is when they send up the very low frequency transmission. This is the blue spiral. You can actually see the individual waves, or spirals, because it is what is called an "extremely low frequency" bandwidth. A complete cycle at this low a frequency can be miles long. That's what you see. It makes the atmosphere glow blue. You can see it at night. My buddy witnessed the first test up in the flats and told me about it. I only got to see the second one. And it looked just like what was photographed in Norway. The spiral motion of the illuminated ionosphere is controlled by the computer. That's what it looks like when they paint the atmosphere. They have to keep painting it to maintain a specific shape so the low frequency transmission will be reflected where they want it to go. They don't use it for radar anymore. The heaters are now used for things like ground penetration tomography and blasts of electromagnetic waves. I've heard from some others who worked there that they can cause earthquakes and tidal waves. The energy accumulates up there in the ionosphere. Also something is added to it from space so it's even more powerful than what they put it to it. I don't have any personal experience with that. It's what was told to me when I was there. I am just telling you what I know to give everyone a head up. The missile story was lame. They use destructive explosives as soon as a missile goes off course. I've seen a few of those up at the flats also. I know what this spiral was and I hope people keep their eyes open. I can personally vouch for this man. I have known him on and off for over 10 years now. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by speaking out, as he did when he told me the story of the Alaskan "accidents" they called "tests." I don't have a dog in this race either. I was questioned and put under some stress when I first published the story about the secret installation. It's been a long time since then. I'm married now and like to keep a low profile. But I sense something is happening and I want to do my part in disclosing what I know. I also want to thank this man for writing to me and taking a risk in doing so. Why do we need HAARP anyway? Please keep reading... --CONTINUE-- Viewzone || Comments? Reader's Comments: Dan, Read your story and thanks for explaining the heaters to me. I also read the executive summary that you included on the HAARP pages and I noticed that it can produce earthquakes. Do you think that the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Venezuela have anything to do with the heaters? Curious how this happened just recently when the spiral was seen. Anyway, just curious. D. O'Meara Dan Eden: The heaters are capable of being used for deep tomography. They do this by vibrating the layers of earth and then receiving the reflections of this vibration - either through their own receivers (like a radar) or through satellite monitoring from above. What is important to note is that this technology is already developed and so, to answer your question, yes, it is possible. While we are aware of the heater facilities in places like Fairbanks, Gakona and Tromso, there are now dozens - perhaps hundreds - of heaters all over the globe. They can also be interconnected to function together. They have been developed in modular constructions and so can be installed quickly and with stealth. One possibility for developing these systems was proposed to me by a former employee of Raytheon. He suspected that they were to re-charge the ionosphere should it collapse from some kind of natural event - such as a powerful CME. This use seems well within the possible capabilities of a global grid of heaters. I have no reason to suspect that these systems are being used for such "evil" purposes but, sadly, since they are under the control of military contractors (i.e. Raytheon) anything is possible.
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 20, 2010 21:34:01 GMT 4
Desert Spider Discovery on Jordan-Israel BorderBy HENRY FOUNTAIN Published: January 18, 2010One benefit of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, signed 15 years ago, was that it allowed for scientific cooperation and exchanges between the countries.Photo of spider by Roy Talbi / University of Haifa A new spider species, Cerbalus aravensis, lives in a small burrow in the sand in the Arava Valley of Jordan. Quarrying threatens its habitat.Among the more recent cooperative efforts is a cross-border study in the Arava Valley involving biologists at the University of Haifa and colleagues from Jordan. “We were very happy finally to be able to see what kind of diversity there is on the other side of the border,” said Uri Shanas, a biologist at the university’s Oranim campus. They are looking, in part, at ecological differences between the Israeli side, with its more Western-style agricultural economy, and the nomadic land management on the Jordanian side. But in the process, the researchers discovered something else: a new species of desert spider. The spider, Cerbalus aravensis, was collected in the Sands of Samar, a dune area on the Jordanian border. C. aravensis is large by spider standards — up to five inches across — and lives in a small burrow in the sand, reinforcing the walls with silk. The spider covers the burrow with a door of sorts, made of sand-encrusted silk. “It completely conceals the entrance,” Dr. Shanas said. The scientists have yet to learn much about the spider’s habits, though presumably it consumes insects and, given its size, perhaps small geckos. But Dr. Shanas said time might be running out as its habitat was endangered. The dunes are being quarried for construction material. “They’re really under great threat,” he said. “There’s almost nothing left.” www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19obspider.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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Post by ninathedog on Jan 21, 2010 23:47:56 GMT 4
I came across this explanation of the Norway blue spiral. The link has the images that were associated with article. I am interested what you all think about this possible explanation. cosmistar www.viewzone.com/spiralthing.htmlThe controversy continues... Share This Site By Dan Eden exclusively for viewzone January 15, 2010 About a decade ago, while I was working for viewzone, I was invited up to Fairbanks, Alaska to see a secret military installation. The people who invited me were two young men who had recently been discharged from the Navy. They were concerned about two tests that had been conducted with a powerful transmitter, capable of reflecting electrical and kinetic energy off the ionosphere -- a layer of Earth's atmosphere about 100 miles above sea level. While we have all heard of the HAARP installation in Gakona, Alaska [below], this facility was much larger and more powerful. It was located north of Fairbanks in an area known as "Poker Flats." I was told by these men that the Gakona facility was a decoy -- a "red herring." I was not allowed to take photographs nor reveal the identity of these two men, but I did publish their story. Over the years I have had infrequent contact with them. But one of the men wrote to me this week and expressed concern over the "spiral" that was photographed in the night sky over Norway. The man alleges that the spiral was not a Russian rocket gone bad. It was familiar to him from seeing a similar configuration in the sky when the secret transmitter was used, at very high power, in Fairbanks. The incident in Norway is certainly controversial. It was just a few miles from the famous, and supposedly the most powerful ionospheric heater in Tromso, Norway [below]. The official output is 1 Gigawatt. There is more reason to believe this man's story over the alleged malfunctioning Russian missile story that was widely published. For one, the spiral has been seen before -- in both Russia and China. In both of these incidents the spiral was linked to "atmospheric testing" of some type of a beam weapon. The facility in Russia [above], at Vasilsursk (called "SURA") is well known and reportedly has an output of 190 Million Watts. It can be found at 56 07'06.64"N / 46 02'05.38"E. The location and power of any units inside China are not disclosed; however, their operation signature might be expected to be similar. Without any further delay, here is what the man wrote to me, and asked that I print for you to read: I worked on the "heater" that's up in Fairbanks, specifically in Poker Flats. There were two of us who were around the same age at the time, so we became friends. My buddy worked inside the "Com" where all the computers and transmitters are located. It was my job to maintain the coax cables and towers -- the antennae. Back in 1998 we got concerned because the heater was a secret facility and the Navy was doing research that we thought was harmful to the people and the environment. They had the facility down in Gakona that everyone knows about, but while that drew the attention with very low wattage and excellent public relations, the facility where we worked was blasting holes in the ionosphere with a billion effective radiated watts. We witnessed two huge experiments that were done, as far as we knew, just to see what would happen. They were done during the winter months and ths is why I am wrting to you now. When I saw those photographs and movies of the spiral in the sky over Norway I knew right away what t was. Especially when I saw the blue spiral going up towards the huge white one. We saw that when they "tested" the heater on the flats. You [sic] got to understand how this thing works. It's kind of a two stage thing. The first stage is where they send increasing power through the antennae farm which is really a phased array. The antennae are all sending out a powerful signal on the same frequency but they are all slightly at a different phase. You know a radio signal has cycles or frequency. Like there are so many cycles per second. The cycles are made up of high and low, positive and negative electricity. Well in a phased array they figure a point out in space or in the atmosphere where they want all of the signals to converge so the high point of each cycle is synchronized and can combine. A computer figures this out and because the antennae are spaced apart the signals need to be slightly delayed, out of phase, when they are sent so that they can focus and combine on one spot somewhere high above the antenna farm. The phased array is like a laser for radio waves. They start by selecting an area in the ionosphere and they scan the signal to paint it with radio waves. The scan is in a spiral shape. This goes on for a while until the area becomes charged and heated -- that's why they call these installations "heaters." When the patch of ionosphere is heated and charged it becomes like a mirror to lower frequency radio waves and can reflect them with almost no loss or absorption. That's why the government loved this back in the cold war because it could be used to reflect radar signals over the horizon. Anyway the next phase is when they send up the very low frequency transmission. This is the blue spiral. You can actually see the individual waves, or spirals, because it is what is called an "extremely low frequency" bandwidth. A complete cycle at this low a frequency can be miles long. That's what you see. It makes the atmosphere glow blue. You can see it at night. My buddy witnessed the first test up in the flats and told me about it. I only got to see the second one. And it looked just like what was photographed in Norway. The spiral motion of the illuminated ionosphere is controlled by the computer. That's what it looks like when they paint the atmosphere. They have to keep painting it to maintain a specific shape so the low frequency transmission will be reflected where they want it to go. They don't use it for radar anymore. The heaters are now used for things like ground penetration tomography and blasts of electromagnetic waves. I've heard from some others who worked there that they can cause earthquakes and tidal waves. The energy accumulates up there in the ionosphere. Also something is added to it from space so it's even more powerful than what they put it to it. I don't have any personal experience with that. It's what was told to me when I was there. I am just telling you what I know to give everyone a head up. The missile story was lame. They use destructive explosives as soon as a missile goes off course. I've seen a few of those up at the flats also. I know what this spiral was and I hope people keep their eyes open. I can personally vouch for this man. I have known him on and off for over 10 years now. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by speaking out, as he did when he told me the story of the Alaskan "accidents" they called "tests." I don't have a dog in this race either. I was questioned and put under some stress when I first published the story about the secret installation. It's been a long time since then. I'm married now and like to keep a low profile. But I sense something is happening and I want to do my part in disclosing what I know. I also want to thank this man for writing to me and taking a risk in doing so. Why do we need HAARP anyway? Please keep reading... --CONTINUE-- Viewzone || Comments? Reader's Comments: Dan, Read your story and thanks for explaining the heaters to me. I also read the executive summary that you included on the HAARP pages and I noticed that it can produce earthquakes. Do you think that the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Venezuela have anything to do with the heaters? Curious how this happened just recently when the spiral was seen. Anyway, just curious. D. O'Meara Dan Eden: The heaters are capable of being used for deep tomography. They do this by vibrating the layers of earth and then receiving the reflections of this vibration - either through their own receivers (like a radar) or through satellite monitoring from above. What is important to note is that this technology is already developed and so, to answer your question, yes, it is possible. While we are aware of the heater facilities in places like Fairbanks, Gakona and Tromso, there are now dozens - perhaps hundreds - of heaters all over the globe. They can also be interconnected to function together. They have been developed in modular constructions and so can be installed quickly and with stealth. One possibility for developing these systems was proposed to me by a former employee of Raytheon. He suspected that they were to re-charge the ionosphere should it collapse from some kind of natural event - such as a powerful CME. This use seems well within the possible capabilities of a global grid of heaters. I have no reason to suspect that these systems are being used for such "evil" purposes but, sadly, since they are under the control of military contractors (i.e. Raytheon) anything is possible. Was Norway’s HAARP Facility EISCAT Responsible for the Norway Spiral?By Henrik Palmgren | redicecreations.com 2010 01 21Link to article -- redicecreations.com/article.php?id=9557
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Post by nodstar on Jan 22, 2010 4:27:40 GMT 4
Hidden symmetry observed for the first time in solid state matter[/size] Public release date: 7-Jan-2010 www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/haog-grd010510.phpResearchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB), in cooperation with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol Universities, as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. They have measured the signatures of a symmetry showing the same attributes as the golden ratio famous from art and architecture. The research team is publishing these findings in Science on the 8. January. On the atomic scale particles do not behave as we know it in the macro-atomic world. New properties emerge which are the result of an effect known as the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In order to study these nanoscale quantum effects the researchers have focused on the magnetic material cobalt niobate. It consists of linked magnetic atoms, which form chains just like a very thin bar magnet, but only one atom wide and are a useful model for describing ferromagnetism on the nanoscale in solid state matter. When applying a magnetic field at right angles to an aligned spin the magnetic chain will transform into a new state called quantum critical, which can be thought of as a quantum version of a fractal pattern. Prof. Alan Tennant, the leader of the Berlin group, explains "The system reaches a quantum uncertain – or a Schrödinger cat state. This is what we did in our experiments with cobalt niobate. We have tuned the system exactly in order to turn it quantum critical." By tuning the system and artificially introducing more quantum uncertainty the researchers observed that the chain of atoms acts like a nanoscale guitar string. Dr. Radu Coldea from Oxford University, who is the principal author of the paper and drove the international project from its inception a decade ago until the present, explains: "Here the tension comes from the interaction between spins causing them to magnetically resonate. For these interactions we found a series (scale) of resonant notes: The first two notes show a perfect relationship with each other. Their frequencies (pitch) are in the ratio of 1.618…, which is the golden ratio famous from art and architecture." Radu Coldea is convinced that this is no coincidence. "It reflects a beautiful property of the quantum system – a hidden symmetry. Actually quite a special one called E8 by mathematicians, and this is its first observation in a material", he explains. The observed resonant states in cobalt niobate are a dramatic laboratory illustration of the way in which mathematical theories developed for particle physics may find application in nanoscale science and ultimately in future technology. Prof. Tennant remarks on the perfect harmony found in quantum uncertainty instead of disorder. "Such discoveries are leading physicists to speculate that the quantum, atomic scale world may have its own underlying order. Similar surprises may await researchers in other materials in the quantum critical state." The researchers achieved these results by using a special probe - neutron scattering. It allows physicists to see the actual atomic scale vibrations of a system. Dr. Elisa Wheeler, who has worked at both Oxford University and Berlin on the project, explains "using neutron scattering gives us unrivalled insight into how different the quantum world can be from the every day". However, "the conflicting difficulties of a highly complex neutron experiment integrated with low temperature equipment and precision high field apparatus make this a very challenging undertaking indeed." In order to achieve success "in such challenging experiments under extreme conditions" the HZB in Berlin has brought together world leaders in this field. By combining the special expertise in Berlin whilst taking advantage of the pulsed neutrons at ISIS, near Oxford, permitted a perfect combination of measurements to be made.
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Post by nodstar on Jan 22, 2010 4:45:17 GMT 4
Reptile so small it can fit on pencil top found[/size] The Daily Mail www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1243490/Spot-gecko-Reptile-small-fit-pencil-dozens-new-species-threatened-Ecuador-jungle.html2010-01-16 A gecko so small it can perch on top of a pencil has been discovered along with dozens of new animal species in Ecuador’s threatened rainforest. Scientists also found 30 new varieties of frog and a snail-sucking snake – all on the verge of becoming extinct. Their microhabitat – the Cerro Pata de Pájaro, meaning Bird Leg Hill in Spanish – has seen 95 per cent of its trees felled for farming. The unique conditions of the mountain slope – a rainforest capped in cloud forest – mean these animals are not seen on neighbouring hills in western Ecuador. ‘There is obviously a great concern that these species will disappear as soon as, or even before, they are formally described by science’, said expedition leader Dr Paul Hamilton of Explorers from Reptile & Amphibian Ecology International. ‘In this part of ¬Ecuador, if you go to one spot you can find 20 or 30 species of frog, and if you go to the next site over you will see a whole bunch of different ones.’ His team also found three species of lungless salamanders and bushmaster snake, which is the longest viper in the world yet is rarely recorded, having been hunted almost to extinction in many parts of its range. One of the discoveries which has most excited many of the scientists are the frogs which lay their eggs in trees rather than water. Instead of hatching into tadpoles, they hatch out into miniature versions of the adults, some barely larger than a pinhead. The snail-sucking snake, with striking red markings, has a blunt snout ‘made just perfectly for jamming into the hole of a snail shell and providing that suction to suck the snail right out of there,’ said Dr Hamilton, an American. But the animals’ habitat is being threatened by deforestation and climate change. The rise in temperatures and drought are forcing animals to move to higher elevation in search of cooler, wetter climates. Indeed, sites like Pata de Pájaro are under siege from countless ecological disturbances, from widespread deforestation for cattle grazing to timber harvesting and hunting. Climate change models actually predict that many of these mountaintop cloud forests – along with the animals that depend on them – will disappear altogether from global warming if something is not done to save them. The rain frogs just discovered are particularly susceptible to climate change since they rely on moist trees to lay their eggs which may dry up with temperature increases. Previous work by the scientists in the area yielded an amazing diversity of more than 140 reptiles and amphibians. ‘There are countless gaps in our knowledge about the status and distribution of tropical animals; this study just scratches the surface of what we know about this region alone, much less what is happening to global patterns of extinction’, said Dr Hamilton. ‘But to stem the pattern of current extinction rates, we all need to do our part, whether that be driving less, eating less meat, or simply educating ourselves and spreading the word.’ Dr Kerry Kriger, director of the Save the Frogs charity, said: ‘The good news is, the animals are still there and alive, so there is still time to save them from extinction. ‘But we need to take action now to make it happen.’
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Post by nodstar on Jan 22, 2010 5:40:27 GMT 4
Coral Can Recover from Climate Change Damage[/size] ScienceDaily www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100109002310.htm2010-01-11 A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming. Scientists and environmentalists have warned that coral reefs may not be able to recover from the damage caused by climate change and that these unique environments could soon be lost forever. Now, this research adds weight to the argument that reducing levels of fishing is a viable way of protecting the world's most delicate aquatic ecosystems. Increases in ocean surface water temperatures subject coral reefs to stresses that lead quickly to mass bleaching. The problem is intensified by ocean acidification, which is also caused by increased CO2. This decreases the ability of corals to produce calcium carbonate (chalk), which is the material that reefs are made of. Approximately 2% of the world's coral reefs are located within marine reserves, areas of the sea that are protected against potentially-damaging human activity, like dredging and fishing. The researchers conducted surveys of ten sites inside and outside marine reserves of the Bahamas over 2.5 years. These reefs have been severely damaged by bleaching and then by hurricane Frances in the summer of 2004. At the beginning of the study, the reefs had an average of 7% coral cover. By the end of the project, coral cover in marine protected areas had increased by an average of 19%, while reefs in non-reserve sites showed no recovery. Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter said: "Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth and are home to the highest biodiversity on the planet. As a result of climate change, the environment that has enabled coral reefs to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years is changing too quickly for reefs to adapt. "In order to protect reefs in the long-term we need radical action to reduce CO2 emissions. However, our research shows that local action to reduce the effects of fishing can contribute meaningfully to the fate of reefs. The reserve allowed the number of parrotfishes to increase and because parrotfish eat seaweeds, the corals could grow freely without being swamped by weeds. As a result, reefs inside the park were showing recovery whereas those with more seaweed were not. This sort of evidence may help persuade governments to reduce the fishing of key herbivores like parrotfishes and help reefs cope with the inevitable threats posed by climate change." Professor Mumby's research was funded by National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. Reef facts * A coral reef is made up of thin layers of calcium carbonate (limestone) secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps. * Coral reefs are the world's most diverse marine ecosystems and are home to twenty-five percent of known marine species, including 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals. * Coral reefs have been on the planet for over 400 million years. * The largest coral reef is the Great Barrier Reef, which stretches along the northeast coast of Australia, from the northern tip of Queensland, to just north of Bundaberg. At 2,300km long, it is the largest natural feature on Earth. * Coral reefs occupy less than one quarter of one percent of the Earth's marine environment, yet they are home to more than a quarter of all known fish species. * As well as supporting huge tourist industries, coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage. High quality reef videos by Professor Peter Mumby can be viewed at: www.reefvid.orgThe main funding for the research came from Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council.
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Post by galaxygirl on Feb 4, 2010 6:01:54 GMT 4
Hubble Sees Suspected Asteroid Collision02.02.2010science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010/02feb_asteroidcollision.htmNASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.
The object, called P/2010 A2, was discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey on Jan. 6. At first, astronomers thought it might be a so-called "main belt comet"--a rare case of a comet orbiting in the asteroid belt. Follow-up images taken by Hubble on Jan. 25 and 29, however, revealed a complex X-pattern of filamentary structures near the nucleus:"This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," says principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies."
Hubble shows the main nucleus of P/2010 A2 lies outside its own halo of dust. This has never been seen before in a comet-like object. The nucleus is estimated to be 460 feet in diameter.
Normal comets fall into the inner regions of the solar system from icy reservoirs in the distant Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. As comets approach the sun and warm up, ice near the surface vaporizes and ejects material from the solid comet nucleus via jets. But P/2010 A2 may have a different origin. It orbits in the warm, inner regions of the asteroid belt where its nearest neighbors are dry rocky bodies lacking volatile materials.
This leaves open the possibility that the complex debris tail is the result of an impact between two bodies, rather than ice simply melting from a parent body.
"If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight," Jewitt says.
"The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets, consistent with the action of a different process," Jewitt says. An impact origin also would be consistent with the absence of gas in spectra recorded using ground-based telescopes.The asteroid belt contains abundant evidence of ancient collisions that have shattered precursor bodies into fragments. The orbit of P/2010 A2 is consistent with membership in the Flora asteroid family, produced by collisional shattering more than 100 million years ago. One fragment of that ancient smashup may have struck Earth 65 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. But no such asteroid-asteroid collision has been caught "in the act"--until now. At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles from the sun and 90 million miles from Earth. The Hubble images were recorded with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
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