Afghan President Karzai criticises US-Russia drugs raid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised the first joint operation by Russian and US agents to destroy drug laboratories in his country.

Mr Karzai said he had not been informed of Russia's participation - a sensitive issue in Afghanistan ever since the Soviet occupation ended 21 years ago.

He called it a violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law.

Russia said more than a tonne of heroin and opium, with a street value of $250m (£157m), was destroyed in the raid.

Officials in Moscow have in the past accused coalition forces in Afghanistan of doing little to tackle drugs, and thereby helping to sustain the estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia.

'No authorisation'

On Friday, the head of Russia's drug control agency said its agents had taken part in an operation on Thursday to destroy a "major hub" of drug production about 5km (three miles) from the Pakistani border, near the city of Jalalabad.

Viktor Ivanov said that along with 932kg (2,055lb) of high-grade heroin and 156kg (345lb) of opium, a large amount of technical equipment was destroyed.

But in a strongly worded statement on Saturday, President Karzai's office alleged that Russian military personnel had taken part in the "illegal" raid.

"While Afghanistan remains committed to its joint efforts with the international community against narcotics, it also makes it clear that no organisation or institution shall have the right to carry out such a military operation without prior authorisation and consent of the government of Afghanistan," it said. ...

A senior source in the delegation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently on a visit to Vietnam, told the AFP news agency on Sunday that Kabul's reaction to the anti-drug operation was "simply surprising and incomprehensible" because "the Afghan interior ministry participated in this operation".

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says Afghanistan's elite counter narcotics force did participate in the operation but it appears that the president's office was not informed of who would accompany them. ...

via BBC News - Afghan President Karzai criticises US-Russia drugs raid.

Raised eyebrow. A real Halloween scare. Russia calls a bluff. The empire, deprived of $250 million, will strike back.  And then? How far will this go?

Afghan President Karzai criticises US-Russia drugs raid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised the first joint operation by Russian and US agents to destroy drug laboratories in his country.

Mr Karzai said he had not been informed of Russia's participation - a sensitive issue in Afghanistan ever since the Soviet occupation ended 21 years ago.

He called it a violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law.

Russia said more than a tonne of heroin and opium, with a street value of $250m (£157m), was destroyed in the raid.

Officials in Moscow have in the past accused coalition forces in Afghanistan of doing little to tackle drugs, and thereby helping to sustain the estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia.

'No authorisation'

On Friday, the head of Russia's drug control agency said its agents had taken part in an operation on Thursday to destroy a "major hub" of drug production about 5km (three miles) from the Pakistani border, near the city of Jalalabad.

Viktor Ivanov said that along with 932kg (2,055lb) of high-grade heroin and 156kg (345lb) of opium, a large amount of technical equipment was destroyed.

But in a strongly worded statement on Saturday, President Karzai's office alleged that Russian military personnel had taken part in the "illegal" raid.

"While Afghanistan remains committed to its joint efforts with the international community against narcotics, it also makes it clear that no organisation or institution shall have the right to carry out such a military operation without prior authorisation and consent of the government of Afghanistan," it said. ...

A senior source in the delegation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently on a visit to Vietnam, told the AFP news agency on Sunday that Kabul's reaction to the anti-drug operation was "simply surprising and incomprehensible" because "the Afghan interior ministry participated in this operation".

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says Afghanistan's elite counter narcotics force did participate in the operation but it appears that the president's office was not informed of who would accompany them. ...

via BBC News - Afghan President Karzai criticises US-Russia drugs raid.

Raised eyebrow. A real Halloween scare. Russia calls a bluff. The empire, deprived of $250 million, will strike back.  And then? How far will this go?

Galaxy may have gobs of Earth-size planets

Marc Kaufman - Nobody has seen them yet, but scientists now think there are tens of billions of planets the general size and bulk of Earth in the Milky Way galaxy alone - a startling conclusion based on four years of viewing a small section of the nighttime sky.

The estimate, made by astronomers Andrew Howard and Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley, flows from the logic that the number of small but detectable exoplanets - planets outside Earth's solar system - is substantially larger than the number of big exoplanets in distant solar systems.

In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, the two report that based on this galactic preference for smaller planets, they think that almost one-quarter of the stars similar to our sun have Earth-size planets orbiting them.

"This is the first estimate based on actual measurements of the fraction of stars that have Earth-size planets," said Marcy, who did his observing with Howard at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Their observations and extrapolations say nothing about whether these Earth-size planets will have the characteristics of Earth: its density, a distance from the sun that is just right for liquid water, the fact that it is a rocky structure rather than a gaseous ball.

But Marcy said that with so many Earth-size planets now expected to be orbiting distant suns - something on the order of 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 across the universe - the likelihood is high that many are in "habitable zones" where life can theoretically exist. ...

via Galaxy may have gobs of Earth-size planets.

Galaxy may have gobs of Earth-size planets

Marc Kaufman - Nobody has seen them yet, but scientists now think there are tens of billions of planets the general size and bulk of Earth in the Milky Way galaxy alone - a startling conclusion based on four years of viewing a small section of the nighttime sky.

The estimate, made by astronomers Andrew Howard and Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley, flows from the logic that the number of small but detectable exoplanets - planets outside Earth's solar system - is substantially larger than the number of big exoplanets in distant solar systems.

In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, the two report that based on this galactic preference for smaller planets, they think that almost one-quarter of the stars similar to our sun have Earth-size planets orbiting them.

"This is the first estimate based on actual measurements of the fraction of stars that have Earth-size planets," said Marcy, who did his observing with Howard at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Their observations and extrapolations say nothing about whether these Earth-size planets will have the characteristics of Earth: its density, a distance from the sun that is just right for liquid water, the fact that it is a rocky structure rather than a gaseous ball.

But Marcy said that with so many Earth-size planets now expected to be orbiting distant suns - something on the order of 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 across the universe - the likelihood is high that many are in "habitable zones" where life can theoretically exist. ...

via Galaxy may have gobs of Earth-size planets.

Home Grown Terror: Foiled or Faked?

Home Grown Terror: Foiled or Faked?

Ponzi Scheme: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time

April Charney – a consumer lawyer with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid – and CNBC’s Dennis Kneale noted in February 2009 that courts have found that some mortgages have been sold again and again to different trusts, when they should have only been sold once.

Kneale explained that that is the reason that two different banks sometimes try to simultaneously foreclose on the same home.

"This is a three to seven trillion dollar Ponzi scheme."

via Guest Post: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time « naked capitalism.

 

1910 police mugshot of Charles Ponzi.

“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns (‘profits’) to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business.  It is named after Charles Ponzi...One reason that the scheme initially works so well is that early investors – those who actually got paid the large returns – quite commonly reinvest (keep) their money in the scheme (it does, after all, pay out much better than any alternative investment). Thus those running the scheme do not actually have to pay out very much (net) – they simply have to send statements to investors that show how much the investors have earned by keeping the money in what looks like a great place to get a high return. They also try to minimize withdrawals by offering new plans to investors, often where money is frozen for a longer period of time...The catch is that at some point one of three things will happen:

(1) the promoters will vanish, taking all the investment money (less payouts) with them;

(2) the scheme will collapse of its own weight, as investment slows and the promoters start having problems paying out the promised returns (and when they start having problems, the word spreads and more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run);

(3) the scheme is exposed, because when legal authorities begin examining accounting records of the so-called enterprise they find that many of the 'assets' that should exist do not."

via wikipedia

Ponzi Scheme: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time

April Charney – a consumer lawyer with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid – and CNBC’s Dennis Kneale noted in February 2009 that courts have found that some mortgages have been sold again and again to different trusts, when they should have only been sold once.

Kneale explained that that is the reason that two different banks sometimes try to simultaneously foreclose on the same home.

"This is a three to seven trillion dollar Ponzi scheme."

via Guest Post: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time « naked capitalism.

 

1910 police mugshot of Charles Ponzi.

“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns (‘profits’) to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business.  It is named after Charles Ponzi...One reason that the scheme initially works so well is that early investors – those who actually got paid the large returns – quite commonly reinvest (keep) their money in the scheme (it does, after all, pay out much better than any alternative investment). Thus those running the scheme do not actually have to pay out very much (net) – they simply have to send statements to investors that show how much the investors have earned by keeping the money in what looks like a great place to get a high return. They also try to minimize withdrawals by offering new plans to investors, often where money is frozen for a longer period of time...The catch is that at some point one of three things will happen:

(1) the promoters will vanish, taking all the investment money (less payouts) with them;

(2) the scheme will collapse of its own weight, as investment slows and the promoters start having problems paying out the promised returns (and when they start having problems, the word spreads and more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run);

(3) the scheme is exposed, because when legal authorities begin examining accounting records of the so-called enterprise they find that many of the 'assets' that should exist do not."

via wikipedia

Methuselah Foundation's New Organ Prize

Expediting the Solution to Organ Failure:

We challenge scientists to duplicate and successfully transplant a fully functioning new organ made from a patient's own cells by 2020.

NewOrgan Prize will be awarded to the first scientist to make regenerative organs a reality. The US Department of Health & Human Services has stated, "Regenerative medicine will be the standard of care for replacing organ systems in the body." This Prize will be the catalyst to speed up the process and make the vision a reality.

History shows us that prizes have proven to be the most powerful tool for inspiring radical scientific breakthroughs. The effort, interest and ingenuity that a prize generates are remarkable. Breakthroughs result along the way and, eventually, go above and beyond the original goal. New organ engineering will require the development of all tissues that build the organ including muscle, nerves, arteries and veins. The possibilities are extraordinary!

The challenges and limitations of the current system for organ replacement are well documented: the agony of waiting for a donor to die; lifelong limitations from immunosuppressant drugs; possible organ rejection. And the reality that many die without receiving a new organ or even qualifying to be considered.

A System for the Future: NewOrganomics

We envision a world where everyone who needs an organ gets an organ. And, in the Methuselah Foundation quest for everyone to live a long healthy life, we advocate a system that provides new organs and long-term health. We call that system NewOrganomics.

The promise of NewOrganomics is to provide a new organ to any patient in need, not from a donor or from the black market but rather built from their own cells. NewOrgan Prize was created to reach this ambitious goal. We need your support to make it happen. Be Organomical, donate today.

via Methuselah Foundation - Welcome to Methuselah Foundation.

Methuselah Foundation's New Organ Prize

Expediting the Solution to Organ Failure:

We challenge scientists to duplicate and successfully transplant a fully functioning new organ made from a patient's own cells by 2020.

NewOrgan Prize will be awarded to the first scientist to make regenerative organs a reality. The US Department of Health & Human Services has stated, "Regenerative medicine will be the standard of care for replacing organ systems in the body." This Prize will be the catalyst to speed up the process and make the vision a reality.

History shows us that prizes have proven to be the most powerful tool for inspiring radical scientific breakthroughs. The effort, interest and ingenuity that a prize generates are remarkable. Breakthroughs result along the way and, eventually, go above and beyond the original goal. New organ engineering will require the development of all tissues that build the organ including muscle, nerves, arteries and veins. The possibilities are extraordinary!

The challenges and limitations of the current system for organ replacement are well documented: the agony of waiting for a donor to die; lifelong limitations from immunosuppressant drugs; possible organ rejection. And the reality that many die without receiving a new organ or even qualifying to be considered.

A System for the Future: NewOrganomics

We envision a world where everyone who needs an organ gets an organ. And, in the Methuselah Foundation quest for everyone to live a long healthy life, we advocate a system that provides new organs and long-term health. We call that system NewOrganomics.

The promise of NewOrganomics is to provide a new organ to any patient in need, not from a donor or from the black market but rather built from their own cells. NewOrgan Prize was created to reach this ambitious goal. We need your support to make it happen. Be Organomical, donate today.

via Methuselah Foundation - Welcome to Methuselah Foundation.

Methuselah Foundation's New Organ Prize

Expediting the Solution to Organ Failure:

We challenge scientists to duplicate and successfully transplant a fully functioning new organ made from a patient's own cells by 2020.

NewOrgan Prize will be awarded to the first scientist to make regenerative organs a reality. The US Department of Health & Human Services has stated, "Regenerative medicine will be the standard of care for replacing organ systems in the body." This Prize will be the catalyst to speed up the process and make the vision a reality.

History shows us that prizes have proven to be the most powerful tool for inspiring radical scientific breakthroughs. The effort, interest and ingenuity that a prize generates are remarkable. Breakthroughs result along the way and, eventually, go above and beyond the original goal. New organ engineering will require the development of all tissues that build the organ including muscle, nerves, arteries and veins. The possibilities are extraordinary!

The challenges and limitations of the current system for organ replacement are well documented: the agony of waiting for a donor to die; lifelong limitations from immunosuppressant drugs; possible organ rejection. And the reality that many die without receiving a new organ or even qualifying to be considered.

A System for the Future: NewOrganomics

We envision a world where everyone who needs an organ gets an organ. And, in the Methuselah Foundation quest for everyone to live a long healthy life, we advocate a system that provides new organs and long-term health. We call that system NewOrganomics.

The promise of NewOrganomics is to provide a new organ to any patient in need, not from a donor or from the black market but rather built from their own cells. NewOrgan Prize was created to reach this ambitious goal. We need your support to make it happen. Be Organomical, donate today.

via Methuselah Foundation - Welcome to Methuselah Foundation.

China unveils powerful, 2.5-petaflop supercomputer

Agam Shah - China is unveiling a new supercomputer on Thursday that incorporates thousands of graphics chips and can reach a sustained performance of 2.5 petaflops, making it one of the fastest systems in the world. ...

Located at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, the Tianhe-1A supercomputer has 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs (graphics processing units), each with 448 processor cores. It also has 14,336 six-core Intel Xeon CPUs.

The supercomputer was built by China's National University of Defense Technology and is "the fastest system in China and in the world today," Nvidia claimed in a press release.

Besides a sustained performance of 2.5 petaflops measured by the Linpack benchmark, it has a theoretical performance of 4.669 petaflops when all the GPUs are operational, according to an Nvidia spokesman. The benchmarks were provided by the National Supercomputing Center in China, he said.

China has been moving up the supercomputing ranks in recent years. The last Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers, issued in June, lists the Nebulae supercomputer in Shenzhen as the world's second fastest. That system also combines Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

The fastest supercomputer in the world according to the June list is the Jaguar system at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which can deliver 1.76 petaflops of sustained performance.

The Tianhe-1A was announced two weeks before the release of the next Top500 list, so it is too early to say if it will be the fastest system on the list. ...

via China unveils powerful, 2.5-petaflop supercomputer.

China unveils powerful, 2.5-petaflop supercomputer

Agam Shah - China is unveiling a new supercomputer on Thursday that incorporates thousands of graphics chips and can reach a sustained performance of 2.5 petaflops, making it one of the fastest systems in the world. ...

Located at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, the Tianhe-1A supercomputer has 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs (graphics processing units), each with 448 processor cores. It also has 14,336 six-core Intel Xeon CPUs.

The supercomputer was built by China's National University of Defense Technology and is "the fastest system in China and in the world today," Nvidia claimed in a press release.

Besides a sustained performance of 2.5 petaflops measured by the Linpack benchmark, it has a theoretical performance of 4.669 petaflops when all the GPUs are operational, according to an Nvidia spokesman. The benchmarks were provided by the National Supercomputing Center in China, he said.

China has been moving up the supercomputing ranks in recent years. The last Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers, issued in June, lists the Nebulae supercomputer in Shenzhen as the world's second fastest. That system also combines Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

The fastest supercomputer in the world according to the June list is the Jaguar system at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which can deliver 1.76 petaflops of sustained performance.

The Tianhe-1A was announced two weeks before the release of the next Top500 list, so it is too early to say if it will be the fastest system on the list. ...

via China unveils powerful, 2.5-petaflop supercomputer.

Carter's weird science

Even with all of the press coverage of Jimmy Carter's latest book, "White House Diary," a strange and interesting nugget of history went ignored: Carter, as president, was enthralled by and impressed with the Central Intelligence Agency's use of parapsychology in intelligence gathering (the field and practice of parapsychology explores various psychic abilities).

Consider this entry in Carter's diary, from April 11, 1979:

"CIA briefing on unhappiness of King Hussein of Jordan [about agreements between Israel and Egypt], Idi Amin's government about to fall, and that a plane had crashed in Zambia. An American parapsychologist had been able to pinpoint the site of the crash. We've had several reports of this parapsychology working; one discovered the map coordinates of a site and accurately described a camouflaged missile test site. Both we and the Soviets use these parapsychologists on occasion to help us with sensitive intelligence matters, and the results are unbelievable."

(Carter alluded to another discussion about parapsychology in the White House situation room on May 8, 1980).

Writing in the present day, the former president reflected back on that entry in the book.

"The proven results of these exchanges between our intelligence services and parapsychologists raise some of the most intriguing and unanswerable questions of my presidency,” Carter notes in “Diary.” “They defy logic, but the facts are undeniable."

via Carter's weird science - PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK.

Because no one would lie to a president about methods....

Carter's weird science

Even with all of the press coverage of Jimmy Carter's latest book, "White House Diary," a strange and interesting nugget of history went ignored: Carter, as president, was enthralled by and impressed with the Central Intelligence Agency's use of parapsychology in intelligence gathering (the field and practice of parapsychology explores various psychic abilities).

Consider this entry in Carter's diary, from April 11, 1979:

"CIA briefing on unhappiness of King Hussein of Jordan [about agreements between Israel and Egypt], Idi Amin's government about to fall, and that a plane had crashed in Zambia. An American parapsychologist had been able to pinpoint the site of the crash. We've had several reports of this parapsychology working; one discovered the map coordinates of a site and accurately described a camouflaged missile test site. Both we and the Soviets use these parapsychologists on occasion to help us with sensitive intelligence matters, and the results are unbelievable."

(Carter alluded to another discussion about parapsychology in the White House situation room on May 8, 1980).

Writing in the present day, the former president reflected back on that entry in the book.

"The proven results of these exchanges between our intelligence services and parapsychologists raise some of the most intriguing and unanswerable questions of my presidency,” Carter notes in “Diary.” “They defy logic, but the facts are undeniable."

via Carter's weird science - PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK.

Because no one would lie to a president about methods....

One EMP burst and the world goes dark

Dan Vergano - .... There is talk of catastrophe ahead, depending on whom you believe, because of the threat of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by either a supersized solar storm or terrorist A-bomb, both capable of disabling the electric grid that powers modern life.

Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) are oversized outbursts of atmospheric electricity. Whether powered by geomagnetic storms or by nuclear blasts, their resultant intense magnetic fields can induce ground currents strong enough to burn out power lines and electrical equipment across state lines.

The threat has even become political fodder, drawing warnings from former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a likely presidential contender.

"We are not today hardened against this," he told a Heritage Foundation audience last year. "It is an enormous catastrophic threat."

Meanwhile, in Congress, a "Grid Act" bill aimed at the threat awaits Senate action, having passed in the House of Representatives.

Fear is evident. With the sun's 11-year solar cycle ramping up for its stormy maximum in 2012, and nuclear concerns swirling about Iran and North Korea, a drumbeat of reports and blue-ribbon panels center on electromagnetic pulse scenarios.

"We're taking this seriously," says Ed Legge of the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, which represents utilities. He points to a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) report in June, conducted with the Energy Department, that found pulse threats to the grid "may be much greater than anticipated."

There are "some important reasons for concern," says physicist Yousaf Butt of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "But there is also a lot of fluff."

At risk are the more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that cross North America, supplying 1,800 utilities the power for TVs, lights, refrigerators and air conditioners in homes, and for the businesses, hospitals and police stations that take care of us all.

"The electric grid's vulnerability to cyber and to other attacks is one of the single greatest threats to our national security," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in June as he introduced the bill to the House of Representatives.

via One EMP burst and the world goes dark - USATODAY.com.

When the big one hits, that's when you have to watch out for the invaders. Have a safe place where you can see the invaders (aliens, bunian, another country, the secret govt, who cares?) coming for miles,  two weeks of water on hand, food that won't spoil, lots of ice in the freezer, cash, decoys, a radio, personal protection, and a plan to contact your friends and relatives.  Drills are fun. Try living with zero gas and electricity for a three days.  It can be an eye-opener. When the lights go out, your EMP attack plan springs into action.

One EMP burst and the world goes dark

Dan Vergano - .... There is talk of catastrophe ahead, depending on whom you believe, because of the threat of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by either a supersized solar storm or terrorist A-bomb, both capable of disabling the electric grid that powers modern life.

Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) are oversized outbursts of atmospheric electricity. Whether powered by geomagnetic storms or by nuclear blasts, their resultant intense magnetic fields can induce ground currents strong enough to burn out power lines and electrical equipment across state lines.

The threat has even become political fodder, drawing warnings from former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a likely presidential contender.

"We are not today hardened against this," he told a Heritage Foundation audience last year. "It is an enormous catastrophic threat."

Meanwhile, in Congress, a "Grid Act" bill aimed at the threat awaits Senate action, having passed in the House of Representatives.

Fear is evident. With the sun's 11-year solar cycle ramping up for its stormy maximum in 2012, and nuclear concerns swirling about Iran and North Korea, a drumbeat of reports and blue-ribbon panels center on electromagnetic pulse scenarios.

"We're taking this seriously," says Ed Legge of the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, which represents utilities. He points to a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) report in June, conducted with the Energy Department, that found pulse threats to the grid "may be much greater than anticipated."

There are "some important reasons for concern," says physicist Yousaf Butt of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "But there is also a lot of fluff."

At risk are the more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that cross North America, supplying 1,800 utilities the power for TVs, lights, refrigerators and air conditioners in homes, and for the businesses, hospitals and police stations that take care of us all.

"The electric grid's vulnerability to cyber and to other attacks is one of the single greatest threats to our national security," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in June as he introduced the bill to the House of Representatives.

via One EMP burst and the world goes dark - USATODAY.com.

When the big one hits, that's when you have to watch out for the invaders. Have a safe place where you can see the invaders (aliens, bunian, another country, the secret govt, who cares?) coming for miles,  two weeks of water on hand, food that won't spoil, lots of ice in the freezer, cash, decoys, a radio, personal protection, and a plan to contact your friends and relatives.  Drills are fun. Try living with zero gas and electricity for a three days.  It can be an eye-opener. When the lights go out, your EMP attack plan springs into action.

Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims

Pallab Ghosh - A US researcher has said he plans to electronically record and interpret dreams.

Writing in the journal Nature, researchers said they have developed a system capable of recording higher-level brain activity.

"We would like to read people's dreams," says the lead scientist Dr Moran Cerf.

The aim is not to interlope, but to extend our understanding of how and why people dream.

For centuries, people have been fascinated by dreams and what they might mean; in ancient Egypt for example, they were thought to be messages from the gods.

More recently, dream analysis has been used by psychologists as a tool to understand the unconscious mind. But the only way to interpret dreams was to ask people about the subject of their dreams after they had woken up.

The eventual aim of Dr Cerf's project is to develop a system that would enable psychologists to corroborate people's recollections of their dream with an electronic visualisation of their brain activity.

"There's no clear answer as to why humans dream," according to Dr Cerf. "And one of the questions we would like to answer is when do we actually create this dream?"

Dr Cerf makes his bold claim based on an initial study that he says suggests that the activity of individual brain cells, or neurons, are associated with specific objects or concepts.

He found, for example, that when a volunteer was thinking of Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron lit up.

By showing volunteers a series of images, Dr Cerf and his colleagues were able to identify neurons for a wide range of objects and concepts - which they used to build up a database for each patient. These included Bill and Hilary Clinton, the Eiffel Tower and celebrities. ...

via BBC News - Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims.

What happens if you completely knock out someone's Marilyn Monroe neuron?

Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims

Pallab Ghosh - A US researcher has said he plans to electronically record and interpret dreams.

Writing in the journal Nature, researchers said they have developed a system capable of recording higher-level brain activity.

"We would like to read people's dreams," says the lead scientist Dr Moran Cerf.

The aim is not to interlope, but to extend our understanding of how and why people dream.

For centuries, people have been fascinated by dreams and what they might mean; in ancient Egypt for example, they were thought to be messages from the gods.

More recently, dream analysis has been used by psychologists as a tool to understand the unconscious mind. But the only way to interpret dreams was to ask people about the subject of their dreams after they had woken up.

The eventual aim of Dr Cerf's project is to develop a system that would enable psychologists to corroborate people's recollections of their dream with an electronic visualisation of their brain activity.

"There's no clear answer as to why humans dream," according to Dr Cerf. "And one of the questions we would like to answer is when do we actually create this dream?"

Dr Cerf makes his bold claim based on an initial study that he says suggests that the activity of individual brain cells, or neurons, are associated with specific objects or concepts.

He found, for example, that when a volunteer was thinking of Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron lit up.

By showing volunteers a series of images, Dr Cerf and his colleagues were able to identify neurons for a wide range of objects and concepts - which they used to build up a database for each patient. These included Bill and Hilary Clinton, the Eiffel Tower and celebrities. ...

via BBC News - Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims.

What happens if you completely knock out someone's Marilyn Monroe neuron?

US navy completes successful test on boat powered by algae

Suzanne Goldenberg - It looked like a pretty ordinary day on the water at the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia: a few short bursts of speed, a nice tail wind, some test manoeuvres against an enemy boat.

But the 49ft gunboat had algae-based fuel in the tank in a test hailed by the navy yesterday as a milestone in its creation of a new, energy-saving strike force.

The experimental boat, intended for use in rivers and marshes and eventually destined for oil installations in the Middle East, operated on a 50/50 mix of algae-based fuel and diesel. "It ran just fine," said Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, who directs the navy's sustainability division.

The tests, conducted on Friday, are part of a broader drive within the navy to run 50% of its fleet on a mix of renewable fuels and nuclear power by 2020. The navy currently meets about 16% of its energy and fuel needs from nuclear power, with the rest from conventional sources.

The navy plans to roll out its first green strike force, a group of about 10 ships, submarines and planes running on a mix of biofuels and nuclear power, in 2012, with deployment in the field scheduled for 2016.

The green trend runs across all military services. The air force has been testing jet engines on a mix of conventional fuels and camelina, a crop similar to flax, and the Marine Corps recently sent a company to Afghanistan's Helmand province equipped with portable solar panels and solar chargers for their radio equipment.

Fuels made from algae oil burn more cleanly than fossil fuel, but preventing climate change is not a major factor in the Pentagon's calculations. "Our programme to go green is about combat capability, first and foremost," Cullom said. "We no longer want to be held hostage by one form of energy such as petroleum."

Over the last year, the Pentagon has become increasingly vocal about the burden of running oil convoys in battle zones. Fossil fuel is the number one import to US troops in Afghanistan, and the slow and lumbering convoys of oil tankers are an obvious target for enemy combatants. ...

via US navy completes successful test on boat powered by algae | Environment | The Guardian.

US navy completes successful test on boat powered by algae

Suzanne Goldenberg - It looked like a pretty ordinary day on the water at the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia: a few short bursts of speed, a nice tail wind, some test manoeuvres against an enemy boat.

But the 49ft gunboat had algae-based fuel in the tank in a test hailed by the navy yesterday as a milestone in its creation of a new, energy-saving strike force.

The experimental boat, intended for use in rivers and marshes and eventually destined for oil installations in the Middle East, operated on a 50/50 mix of algae-based fuel and diesel. "It ran just fine," said Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, who directs the navy's sustainability division.

The tests, conducted on Friday, are part of a broader drive within the navy to run 50% of its fleet on a mix of renewable fuels and nuclear power by 2020. The navy currently meets about 16% of its energy and fuel needs from nuclear power, with the rest from conventional sources.

The navy plans to roll out its first green strike force, a group of about 10 ships, submarines and planes running on a mix of biofuels and nuclear power, in 2012, with deployment in the field scheduled for 2016.

The green trend runs across all military services. The air force has been testing jet engines on a mix of conventional fuels and camelina, a crop similar to flax, and the Marine Corps recently sent a company to Afghanistan's Helmand province equipped with portable solar panels and solar chargers for their radio equipment.

Fuels made from algae oil burn more cleanly than fossil fuel, but preventing climate change is not a major factor in the Pentagon's calculations. "Our programme to go green is about combat capability, first and foremost," Cullom said. "We no longer want to be held hostage by one form of energy such as petroleum."

Over the last year, the Pentagon has become increasingly vocal about the burden of running oil convoys in battle zones. Fossil fuel is the number one import to US troops in Afghanistan, and the slow and lumbering convoys of oil tankers are an obvious target for enemy combatants. ...

via US navy completes successful test on boat powered by algae | Environment | The Guardian.

Hexed: Radio morning show hires witch to curse LeBron James

Rover, host of the syndicated Rover's Morning Glory program hired a witch to place a curse on Miami Heat star LeBron James the morning of the Heat's season opener, Tuesday, October 26. Rover says the curse is payback for the insensitive, pompous way James abandoned the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The witch, Samhain and assistant witch Lady Magick used bones, blood, and James' Miami Heat jersey to place a hex on the star live on the air. Rover asked all Cleveland-area listeners of the show, which is based at 100.7 WMMS-FM, to simultaneously focus all their negative energy towards James during the ceremony.

"A broken leg, hand or other debilitating injury would be the best outcome," says Rover. "At the very least a sordid sexual misconduct accusation against LeBron would be alright I suppose."

LeBron James was widely criticized for the way in which he declared his departure from the Cavaliers, announcing it on a live television broadcast on ESPN titled The Decision.

"The city of Cleveland has been cursed for decades with losing sports franchises," notes Rover. "Now we're going on the offensive to curse others. It may not help our teams win, but it will sure make us feel better."

The last time a major league Cleveland sports team won a championship was in 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship. In 2004 ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city in America.

via Hexed: Radio morning show hires witch to curse LeBron James - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|Breaking News, Weather, Exclusives.

 

Now that he knows, he can just get a counter-hex.  One simple protection spell by any competent witch would do the trick.  These things only work if you don't publicize them.

Hexed: Radio morning show hires witch to curse LeBron James

Rover, host of the syndicated Rover's Morning Glory program hired a witch to place a curse on Miami Heat star LeBron James the morning of the Heat's season opener, Tuesday, October 26. Rover says the curse is payback for the insensitive, pompous way James abandoned the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The witch, Samhain and assistant witch Lady Magick used bones, blood, and James' Miami Heat jersey to place a hex on the star live on the air. Rover asked all Cleveland-area listeners of the show, which is based at 100.7 WMMS-FM, to simultaneously focus all their negative energy towards James during the ceremony.

"A broken leg, hand or other debilitating injury would be the best outcome," says Rover. "At the very least a sordid sexual misconduct accusation against LeBron would be alright I suppose."

LeBron James was widely criticized for the way in which he declared his departure from the Cavaliers, announcing it on a live television broadcast on ESPN titled The Decision.

"The city of Cleveland has been cursed for decades with losing sports franchises," notes Rover. "Now we're going on the offensive to curse others. It may not help our teams win, but it will sure make us feel better."

The last time a major league Cleveland sports team won a championship was in 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship. In 2004 ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city in America.

via Hexed: Radio morning show hires witch to curse LeBron James - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|Breaking News, Weather, Exclusives.

 

Now that he knows, he can just get a counter-hex.  One simple protection spell by any competent witch would do the trick.  These things only work if you don't publicize them.

90% of Alaska's untapped oil reserves vanish

The U.S. Geological Survey says a revised estimate for the amount of conventional, undiscovered oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is a fraction of a previous estimate.

The group estimates about 896 million barrels of such oil are in the reserve, about 90 percent less than a 2002 estimate of 10.6 billion barrels.

The new estimate is mainly due to the incorporation of new data from recent exploration drilling revealing gas occurrence rather than oil in much of the area, the geological survey said.

via Alaska's untapped oil reserves estimate lowered 90 percent – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs.

My thought was you use a TBM and get the oil before anyone else can notice that it is missing. Would something like that be detected? You'd have to cover your tracks by filling in the tunnels you make... but oil rigs could be hidden in a number of ways.

 

See despite it's reputation for being not in Texas, L.A. has been an oil town from the time black gold was discovered there in 1892 right up until today. As the city's hippie clogged arteries began to expand out over the reserve, oil companies got creative. After refining a new urban design in the 1930s, the wells were all but soundproofed; an innovation that allowed oil companies to start playing "hide the pumping station."

Where are they hiding?

On street corners, on school grounds, tucked away behind shopping malls--hidden rigs are literally everywhere in Los Angeles. There's an unmarked building on Pico Boulevard in West Hollywood which houses one of the biggest hidden oil operations in the city. From the site, 58 wells have been directionally drilled up into the Beverley Hills area. Here's what 58 oil wells looks like everywhere else in the world.

- ats

90% of Alaska's untapped oil reserves vanish

The U.S. Geological Survey says a revised estimate for the amount of conventional, undiscovered oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is a fraction of a previous estimate.

The group estimates about 896 million barrels of such oil are in the reserve, about 90 percent less than a 2002 estimate of 10.6 billion barrels.

The new estimate is mainly due to the incorporation of new data from recent exploration drilling revealing gas occurrence rather than oil in much of the area, the geological survey said.

via Alaska's untapped oil reserves estimate lowered 90 percent – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs.

My thought was you use a TBM and get the oil before anyone else can notice that it is missing. Would something like that be detected? You'd have to cover your tracks by filling in the tunnels you make... but oil rigs could be hidden in a number of ways.

 

See despite it's reputation for being not in Texas, L.A. has been an oil town from the time black gold was discovered there in 1892 right up until today. As the city's hippie clogged arteries began to expand out over the reserve, oil companies got creative. After refining a new urban design in the 1930s, the wells were all but soundproofed; an innovation that allowed oil companies to start playing "hide the pumping station."

Where are they hiding?

On street corners, on school grounds, tucked away behind shopping malls--hidden rigs are literally everywhere in Los Angeles. There's an unmarked building on Pico Boulevard in West Hollywood which houses one of the biggest hidden oil operations in the city. From the site, 58 wells have been directionally drilled up into the Beverley Hills area. Here's what 58 oil wells looks like everywhere else in the world.

- ats

Russian bears treat graveyards as 'giant refrigerators'

From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when the two women in the Russian village of Vezhnya Tchova came closer they realised there was a bear in the cemetery eating a body.

Russian bears have grown so desperate after a scorching summer they have started digging up and eating corpses in municipal cemetries, alarmed officials said today. Bears' traditional food – mushrooms, berries and the odd frog – has disappeared, they added.

The Vezhnya Tchova incident took place on Saturday in the northern republic of Komi, near the Arctic Circle. The shocked women cried in panic, frightening the bear back into the woods, before they discovered a ghoulish scene with the clothes of the bear's already-dead victim chucked over adjacent tombstones, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomelets reported.

Local people said that bears had resorted to scavenging in towns and villages - rummaging through bins, stealing garden carrots and raiding tips. A young man had been mauled in the centre of Syktyvkar, Komi's capital. "They are really hungry this year. It's a big problem. Many of them are not going to survive," said Simion Razmislov, the vice-president of Komi's hunting and fishing society.

World Wildlife Fund Russia said there had been a similar case two years ago in the town of Kandalaksha, in the northern Karelia republic. "You have to remember that bears are natural scavengers. In the US and Canada you can't leave any food in tents in national parks," said Masha Vorontsova, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Russia.

"In Karelia one bear learned how to do it [open a coffin]. He then taught the others," she added, suggesting: "They are pretty quick learners."

The only way to get rid of the bears would be to frighten them with something noisy like a firework or shoot them, she said.

According to Vorontsova, the omnivorous bears had "plenty to eat" this autumn, with foods such as fish and ants at normal levels. The bears raided graveyards because they offered a supply of easy food, she said, a bit like a giant refrigerator. "The story is horrible. Nobody wants to think about having a much loved member of their family eaten by a bear." ...

via Russian bears treat graveyards as 'giant refrigerators' | World news | The Guardian.

 

Russian bears treat graveyards as 'giant refrigerators'

From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when the two women in the Russian village of Vezhnya Tchova came closer they realised there was a bear in the cemetery eating a body.

Russian bears have grown so desperate after a scorching summer they have started digging up and eating corpses in municipal cemetries, alarmed officials said today. Bears' traditional food – mushrooms, berries and the odd frog – has disappeared, they added.

The Vezhnya Tchova incident took place on Saturday in the northern republic of Komi, near the Arctic Circle. The shocked women cried in panic, frightening the bear back into the woods, before they discovered a ghoulish scene with the clothes of the bear's already-dead victim chucked over adjacent tombstones, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomelets reported.

Local people said that bears had resorted to scavenging in towns and villages - rummaging through bins, stealing garden carrots and raiding tips. A young man had been mauled in the centre of Syktyvkar, Komi's capital. "They are really hungry this year. It's a big problem. Many of them are not going to survive," said Simion Razmislov, the vice-president of Komi's hunting and fishing society.

World Wildlife Fund Russia said there had been a similar case two years ago in the town of Kandalaksha, in the northern Karelia republic. "You have to remember that bears are natural scavengers. In the US and Canada you can't leave any food in tents in national parks," said Masha Vorontsova, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Russia.

"In Karelia one bear learned how to do it [open a coffin]. He then taught the others," she added, suggesting: "They are pretty quick learners."

The only way to get rid of the bears would be to frighten them with something noisy like a firework or shoot them, she said.

According to Vorontsova, the omnivorous bears had "plenty to eat" this autumn, with foods such as fish and ants at normal levels. The bears raided graveyards because they offered a supply of easy food, she said, a bit like a giant refrigerator. "The story is horrible. Nobody wants to think about having a much loved member of their family eaten by a bear." ...

via Russian bears treat graveyards as 'giant refrigerators' | World news | The Guardian.

 

City's 'Most Tattooed Man' Injects Ink Into Eyes

Tattoo enthusiast Matt Gone has become known around Portland as a man with checkerboard tattoos that cover much of his body.

"I picked the the checker pattern because nobody had done it," Gone said.

Now he's done something else that few have tried: He injected ink into both of this eyes -- by himself.

"I picked different colors cause I like mutations because I have birth defects," Gone said.

Gone said birth defects that left some of his muscles underdeveloped inspired him to start tattooing his body nearly 20 years ago as a means to disguise his deformities. He estimates more than 98 percent of his skin is covered with ink.

"I never really knew how far I would ever go, and [tattooing my eyes] is about as far as you can go," Gone said.

But some doctors believe Gone has gone too far with his latest design. Dr. Douglas Meier, an ophthalmologist with the Portland Clinic in Beaverton, said Gone is at risk for infection that could lead to blindness or could even cause him to lose his eyes.

"The risk of putting a needle near your eye is grave," said Meier. "Someone at home does not have access to the equipment nor the expertise."

Gone said he knew the risks and he proceeded with caution.

"I patch tested it and was successful. I had to take the risk; I've done that a lot of times before," said Gone. "I'm not crazy. I'm trained. I have a lot of experience."

Gone has shared that experience in cyberspace. One of his videos posted on the Internet details how he tattooed his tongue. But Gone said his most recent lesson is for his eyes only.

"I'm glad I [tattooed my eyes] - I got lucky - but it's your risk and I'm not going to help you," said Gone. "I did this for me, this is my project, my body."

Meier said the state of Oklahoma has banned the practice of tattooing the white portion of the eye. He also said the Board of Medical Examiners in Oregon is reviewing the practice.

via City's 'Most Tattooed Man' Injects Ink Into Eyes - Health News Story - KPTV Portland.

City's 'Most Tattooed Man' Injects Ink Into Eyes

Tattoo enthusiast Matt Gone has become known around Portland as a man with checkerboard tattoos that cover much of his body.

"I picked the the checker pattern because nobody had done it," Gone said.

Now he's done something else that few have tried: He injected ink into both of this eyes -- by himself.

"I picked different colors cause I like mutations because I have birth defects," Gone said.

Gone said birth defects that left some of his muscles underdeveloped inspired him to start tattooing his body nearly 20 years ago as a means to disguise his deformities. He estimates more than 98 percent of his skin is covered with ink.

"I never really knew how far I would ever go, and [tattooing my eyes] is about as far as you can go," Gone said.

But some doctors believe Gone has gone too far with his latest design. Dr. Douglas Meier, an ophthalmologist with the Portland Clinic in Beaverton, said Gone is at risk for infection that could lead to blindness or could even cause him to lose his eyes.

"The risk of putting a needle near your eye is grave," said Meier. "Someone at home does not have access to the equipment nor the expertise."

Gone said he knew the risks and he proceeded with caution.

"I patch tested it and was successful. I had to take the risk; I've done that a lot of times before," said Gone. "I'm not crazy. I'm trained. I have a lot of experience."

Gone has shared that experience in cyberspace. One of his videos posted on the Internet details how he tattooed his tongue. But Gone said his most recent lesson is for his eyes only.

"I'm glad I [tattooed my eyes] - I got lucky - but it's your risk and I'm not going to help you," said Gone. "I did this for me, this is my project, my body."

Meier said the state of Oklahoma has banned the practice of tattooing the white portion of the eye. He also said the Board of Medical Examiners in Oregon is reviewing the practice.

via City's 'Most Tattooed Man' Injects Ink Into Eyes - Health News Story - KPTV Portland.

The Human Connectome, A Map of Brain Connectivity

A connectome is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain. The production and study of connectomes, known as connectomics, may range in scale from a detailed map of the full set of neurons and synapses within part or all of the nervous system of an organism to a macro scale description of the functional and structural connectivity between all cortical areas and subcortical structures. The term "connectome" is used primarily in scientific efforts to capture, map, and understand the organization of neural interactions within the brain. One such effort is the Human Connectome Project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, whose focus is to build a network map of the human brain in healthy, living adults. Another was the successful reconstruction of all neural and synaptic connections in C. elegans (White et al., 1986).

via wiki

Researchers at EPFL Signal Processing Laboratory 5 (http://lts5www.epfl.ch/) in collaboration with the University of Lausanne and partners in the US have studied how the brain makes connections between its different parts.



New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram--including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection--of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia. ... Only one organism's wiring diagram currently exists: that of the microscopic worm C. elegans. Despite containing a mere 302 neurons, the C. elegans mapping effort took more than a decade to complete, in the 1970s. It has been an invaluable research resource and earned its creators a Nobel Prize.

via TechReview (2007)

"In the cerebral cortex, it's believed that one neuron is connected to 10,000 others," said Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at MIT. Now Seung is heading a collaborative effort to speed up the mapping of the wiring diagrams, known as connectomes. He and other researchers want to train computers to imitate human tracing, so that computers can eventually create their own neuron-tracing algorithms and tackle any image of neuronal wiring,  no matter how tangled or complex.

via LiveScience (2010)

An unprecedented five-year, $30-million effort to generate a first-of-its kind map of all the major circuits in the human brain is being led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR).Thirty-three researchers at nine institutions will contribute to the Human Connectome Project (http://www.humanconnectome.org/consortia). Using powerful, custom-built brain scanners, a supercomputer, new brain analysis techniques and other state-of-the-art resources, they will trace the anatomical 'wires' that interconnect thousands of different regions of the human brain's gray matter. ... The project is funded by 16 components of the National Institutes of Health via its Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).

via MedicalDaily (Sept 2010)

Once you know exactly how you are wired, could you upload your mind into a super computer?

The Human Connectome, A Map of Brain Connectivity

A connectome is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain. The production and study of connectomes, known as connectomics, may range in scale from a detailed map of the full set of neurons and synapses within part or all of the nervous system of an organism to a macro scale description of the functional and structural connectivity between all cortical areas and subcortical structures. The term "connectome" is used primarily in scientific efforts to capture, map, and understand the organization of neural interactions within the brain. One such effort is the Human Connectome Project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, whose focus is to build a network map of the human brain in healthy, living adults. Another was the successful reconstruction of all neural and synaptic connections in C. elegans (White et al., 1986).

via wiki

Researchers at EPFL Signal Processing Laboratory 5 (http://lts5www.epfl.ch/) in collaboration with the University of Lausanne and partners in the US have studied how the brain makes connections between its different parts.



New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram--including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection--of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia. ... Only one organism's wiring diagram currently exists: that of the microscopic worm C. elegans. Despite containing a mere 302 neurons, the C. elegans mapping effort took more than a decade to complete, in the 1970s. It has been an invaluable research resource and earned its creators a Nobel Prize.

via TechReview (2007)

"In the cerebral cortex, it's believed that one neuron is connected to 10,000 others," said Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at MIT. Now Seung is heading a collaborative effort to speed up the mapping of the wiring diagrams, known as connectomes. He and other researchers want to train computers to imitate human tracing, so that computers can eventually create their own neuron-tracing algorithms and tackle any image of neuronal wiring,  no matter how tangled or complex.

via LiveScience (2010)

An unprecedented five-year, $30-million effort to generate a first-of-its kind map of all the major circuits in the human brain is being led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR).Thirty-three researchers at nine institutions will contribute to the Human Connectome Project (http://www.humanconnectome.org/consortia). Using powerful, custom-built brain scanners, a supercomputer, new brain analysis techniques and other state-of-the-art resources, they will trace the anatomical 'wires' that interconnect thousands of different regions of the human brain's gray matter. ... The project is funded by 16 components of the National Institutes of Health via its Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).

via MedicalDaily (Sept 2010)

Once you know exactly how you are wired, could you upload your mind into a super computer?

Six New Isotopes of the Superheavy Elements Discovered

A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has detected six isotopes, never seen before, of the superheavy elements 104 through 114. Starting with the creation of a new isotope of the yet-to-be-named element 114, the researchers observed successive emissions of alpha particles that yielded new isotopes of copernicium (element 112), darmstadtium (element 110), hassium (element 108), seaborgium (element 106), and rutherfordium (element 104). Rutherfordium ended the chain when it decayed by spontaneous fission.

Information gained from the new isotopes will contribute to a better understanding of the theory of nuclear shell structure, which underlies predictions of an “Island of Stability,” a group of long-lasting isotopes thought to exist amidst a sea of much shorter-lived, intrinsically unstable isotopes of the superheavy elements.

The group that found the new isotopes is led by Heino Nitsche, head of the Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD) and professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. Ken Gregorich, a senior staff scientist in NSD, is responsible for the group’s day-to-day research operation at the 88-inch Cyclotron and the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator, the instrument used to isolate and identify the new isotopes.  ...

via Six New Isotopes of the Superheavy Elements Discovered « Berkeley Lab News Center.

 

I like to keep checking back on the Bob Lazar story each time there is some breakthrough like this...

 

Bob Lazar stated that the “Sport Model” Flying Disc amplified the “Strong Nuclear Force” of Element 115 (UnUnPentium or UUP) to generate the gravity field for “Space-Time Compression.”  Bob also stated that the U.S. Government had 500 pounds of Element 115 in their possession.  The raw Element 115 was given to the U.S. Goverment at S4 by the Reticulan EBEs in the form of discs.  ...

Bob Lazar stated that the ... fuel and gravity source in the “Sport Model” Flying Disc was stable.  On February 2, 2004, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR), announced that they discovered two new super-heavy elements, Element 113 and Element 115.  The Isotope of Element 115, produced by bombarding an Americium-243 (₉₅Am²⁴³) nucleus with a Calcium-48 (₂₀Ca⁴⁸) nucleus, rapidly decayed to Element 113. then continued to decay until a meta-stable isotope was obtained. ...

The following reactions are the actual reactions that took place in the laboratory by bombarding Americium-243 with Calcium-48, which resulted in the two Isotopes of Element 115, indicated below, being identified.


₉₅Am²⁴³ + ₂₀Ca⁴⁸ → ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ + 3₀n¹ ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ → ₁₁₃UUT²⁸⁴ + ₂He⁴ →  ...



₉₅Am²⁴³ + ₂₀Ca⁴⁸ → ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ + 4₀n¹ ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ → ₁₁₃UUT²⁸³ + ₂He⁴ →  ...

The maximum theoretical atomic mass isotope of Element 115 that could be produced in the reaction, above, ₁₁₅UUP²⁹¹, would only have 176 neutrons in its nucleus.  This isotope of Element 115 is shy 8 neutrons from containing the magic number of 184 neutrons.  The two actual isotopes of Element 115 produced by this reaction, ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ and ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ contain 173 neutrons, shy 11 neutrons from the magic number of 184, and 172 neutrons, shy 12 neutrons from the magic number of 184, respectively.

This latest scientific breakthrough, however, provides significant credibility to Bob Lazar’s claims rather than discrediting his claims.  Bob Lazar’s Element 115 discs used to make the wedge for the “Sport Model” Flying Disc Anti-Matter Reactor would have to have been the isotope of Element 115 containing the magic number of 184 neutrons, therefore, having an atomic mass of 299.  The nuclear configuration of this isotope of Element 115 would be identical to the nuclear configuration of the only known stable isotope of Element 83, Bismuth, ₈₃Bi²⁰⁹, containing the magic number of 126 neutrons, except that the Element 115 isotope would have one more energy level completely filled with protons and neutrons.  82 protons and 114 protons are magic numbers for protons because 82 protons completely fill 6 proton energy levels and 114 protons completely fill 7 proton energy levels.  The 83rd proton for Bismuth is a lone proton in the 7th proton energy level and the 115th proton for Element 115 is the lone proton in the 8th proton energy level.  126 neutrons completely fill 7 neutron energy levels and 184 neutrons completely fill 8 neutron energy levels.  Refer to the Nucleon Energy Level Table for Bismuth and Element 115, below, for the nuclear configurations of Bismuth and Element 115.  This stable isotope of Bismuth, Element 83, has very unique gravitational characteristics.  Refer to the Henry William Wallace Patent:  U.S. Patent 3,626,605, “Method and Apparatus for Generating a Secondary Gravitational Force Field.”

via GravityWarpDrive

Six New Isotopes of the Superheavy Elements Discovered

A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has detected six isotopes, never seen before, of the superheavy elements 104 through 114. Starting with the creation of a new isotope of the yet-to-be-named element 114, the researchers observed successive emissions of alpha particles that yielded new isotopes of copernicium (element 112), darmstadtium (element 110), hassium (element 108), seaborgium (element 106), and rutherfordium (element 104). Rutherfordium ended the chain when it decayed by spontaneous fission.

Information gained from the new isotopes will contribute to a better understanding of the theory of nuclear shell structure, which underlies predictions of an “Island of Stability,” a group of long-lasting isotopes thought to exist amidst a sea of much shorter-lived, intrinsically unstable isotopes of the superheavy elements.

The group that found the new isotopes is led by Heino Nitsche, head of the Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD) and professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. Ken Gregorich, a senior staff scientist in NSD, is responsible for the group’s day-to-day research operation at the 88-inch Cyclotron and the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator, the instrument used to isolate and identify the new isotopes.  ...

via Six New Isotopes of the Superheavy Elements Discovered « Berkeley Lab News Center.

 

I like to keep checking back on the Bob Lazar story each time there is some breakthrough like this...

 

Bob Lazar stated that the “Sport Model” Flying Disc amplified the “Strong Nuclear Force” of Element 115 (UnUnPentium or UUP) to generate the gravity field for “Space-Time Compression.”  Bob also stated that the U.S. Government had 500 pounds of Element 115 in their possession.  The raw Element 115 was given to the U.S. Goverment at S4 by the Reticulan EBEs in the form of discs.  ...

Bob Lazar stated that the ... fuel and gravity source in the “Sport Model” Flying Disc was stable.  On February 2, 2004, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR), announced that they discovered two new super-heavy elements, Element 113 and Element 115.  The Isotope of Element 115, produced by bombarding an Americium-243 (₉₅Am²⁴³) nucleus with a Calcium-48 (₂₀Ca⁴⁸) nucleus, rapidly decayed to Element 113. then continued to decay until a meta-stable isotope was obtained. ...

The following reactions are the actual reactions that took place in the laboratory by bombarding Americium-243 with Calcium-48, which resulted in the two Isotopes of Element 115, indicated below, being identified.


₉₅Am²⁴³ + ₂₀Ca⁴⁸ → ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ + 3₀n¹ ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ → ₁₁₃UUT²⁸⁴ + ₂He⁴ →  ...



₉₅Am²⁴³ + ₂₀Ca⁴⁸ → ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ + 4₀n¹ ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ → ₁₁₃UUT²⁸³ + ₂He⁴ →  ...

The maximum theoretical atomic mass isotope of Element 115 that could be produced in the reaction, above, ₁₁₅UUP²⁹¹, would only have 176 neutrons in its nucleus.  This isotope of Element 115 is shy 8 neutrons from containing the magic number of 184 neutrons.  The two actual isotopes of Element 115 produced by this reaction, ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁸ and ₁₁₅UUP²⁸⁷ contain 173 neutrons, shy 11 neutrons from the magic number of 184, and 172 neutrons, shy 12 neutrons from the magic number of 184, respectively.

This latest scientific breakthrough, however, provides significant credibility to Bob Lazar’s claims rather than discrediting his claims.  Bob Lazar’s Element 115 discs used to make the wedge for the “Sport Model” Flying Disc Anti-Matter Reactor would have to have been the isotope of Element 115 containing the magic number of 184 neutrons, therefore, having an atomic mass of 299.  The nuclear configuration of this isotope of Element 115 would be identical to the nuclear configuration of the only known stable isotope of Element 83, Bismuth, ₈₃Bi²⁰⁹, containing the magic number of 126 neutrons, except that the Element 115 isotope would have one more energy level completely filled with protons and neutrons.  82 protons and 114 protons are magic numbers for protons because 82 protons completely fill 6 proton energy levels and 114 protons completely fill 7 proton energy levels.  The 83rd proton for Bismuth is a lone proton in the 7th proton energy level and the 115th proton for Element 115 is the lone proton in the 8th proton energy level.  126 neutrons completely fill 7 neutron energy levels and 184 neutrons completely fill 8 neutron energy levels.  Refer to the Nucleon Energy Level Table for Bismuth and Element 115, below, for the nuclear configurations of Bismuth and Element 115.  This stable isotope of Bismuth, Element 83, has very unique gravitational characteristics.  Refer to the Henry William Wallace Patent:  U.S. Patent 3,626,605, “Method and Apparatus for Generating a Secondary Gravitational Force Field.”

via GravityWarpDrive

Study: Learning The Truth Not Effective In Battling Rumors

Evidence is no match against the belief in false rumors concerning the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, a new study finds.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that fewer than one-third of people who had previously heard and believed one of the many rumors about the proposed center changed their minds after reading overwhelming evidence rejecting the rumor.

The false rumor that researchers used in the study was that Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam backing the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque, is a terrorist sympathizer who has refused to condemn Islamic attacks on civilians.

There is no evidence that this statement is true, according to FactCheck.org, a fact-checking service run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Politifact, the Pulitzer-Prize winning service of the St. Petersburg Times. ...

While providing a definitive rebuttal helped dispel belief in this rumor under two conditions, researchers found that it was easy to neutralize the positive effects of the rebuttal, simply through the use of certain photos or the addition of unrelated text.

“We didn’t have much success in shaking people’s beliefs in false rumors,” said R. Kelly Garrett, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State.

Garrett conducted the study with Erik Nisbet, also an assistant professor of communication at Ohio State.

The researchers used Survey Sampling International to recruit 750 Americans and have them participate in the online survey....

Overall, only 35 percent of the participants who previously encountered and believed the rumor held more accurate beliefs after reading a rebuttal, and even fewer – about 28 percent – were moved to reject the rumor. ....

Recent studies by other researchers have suggested that when people are presented with facts that go against their beliefs, they may actually become even more confident in their false beliefs. ....

via Learning The Truth Not Effective In Battling Rumors About NYC Mosque, Study Finds.

 

Pride is an extreme stupidity drug:

... a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study.

...

via Boston