World population projected to reach 7 billion next year

Greetings from my vacation. I'm posting this from the Grand Canyon. Yes, there are places to get free WiFi here.

The world's population is forecast to hit 7 billion next year, the vast majority of its growth coming in developing and, in many cases, the poorest nations, a report released Wednesday said.

A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet.

"The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth -- nearly 90 percent -- are in developing countries," said Carl Haub, a co-author of the report. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia.

"During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care," Haub continued, calling it one of the major social questions of the next few decades.

In the developed world, the United States and Canada will account for most of the growth -- half from immigration and half from a natural increase in the population -- births minus deaths, according to the report.

High fertility rates and a young population base in the developing world will fuel most of the growth, especially in Africa, where women often give birth to six or seven children over a lifetime, the report says. The number is about two in the United States and 1.5 in Canada.

A stark contrast can be drawn between Uganda and Canada, which currently have about 34 million and 31 million residents, respectively. By 2050, Canada's population is projected to be 42 million, while Uganda's is expected to soar to 96 million, more than tripling.

via World population projected to reach 7 billion next year - CNN.com.

Although I sometimes think about how great it would be to be a father, I have not reproduced because there are already too many of us. (And yes, I may adopt someday.) Unfortunately, my attempt to assist humanity had not made much of a dent.

Visting Roswell, NM

This is my first entry from Roswell, New Mexico. After spending several hours in what must be worlds largest public UFO library, I believe a person could come here and read every day for a month and just scratch the surface. However, focusing on just the declassified military documents available, I'm getting an interesting picture.

A local resident, Sam Salcido, born in May 1947, two months before the famous crash happened, was working at the "Not of this world" Internet Cafe when I met him today. He told me a story that in 1950's his 20 year old (or so) aunt woke up and saw a light fill her bedroom. She pulled back the curtain, looked out a window and saw a "plate shaped" craft and little people. He figures she must have seen them through some kind of windows in the craft. Knowing her, he's certain she was not joking about it. He was a teenager when she told him the story. She probably didn't tell anyone but him and immediate family. His uncle was in the room but slept through it. She is still alive but Sam said on some days she is "here and some days not." Her sighting was in the "village" of Greenfield, south of Dexter, NM.

Perhaps the aliens were checking out our weapons. It is quite a coincidence that Roswell Army Airforce Base was the only place in the world with a nuclear bomb at the time of the famous UFO crash.

Brain radiotherapy affects mind

Radiotherapy used to treat brain tumours may lead to a decline in mental function many years down the line, say Dutch researchers.

A study of 65 patients, 12 years after they were treated, found those who had radiotherapy were more likely to have problems with memory and attention.

Writing in The Lancet Neurology, the researchers said doctors should hold off using radiotherapy where possible.

One UK expert said doctors were cautious about using radiotherapy.

The patients in the study all had a form of brain tumour called a low-grade glioma - one of the most common types of brain tumour.

In these cases radiotherapy is commonly given after initial surgery to remove the tumour, but there is some debate about whether this should be done immediately or used only if the cancer returns.

It is known that radiation treatment in the brain causes some damage to normal tissue and the study's researchers suspected it could lead to decline in mental function.

A previous study in the same patients done six years after treatment found no difference in aspects like memory, attention and the speed at which people could process information, in those who had received radiotherapy.

But the latest research, carried out more than a decade after original treatment, did find significant variation in the results of several mental tests between those who had had radiotherapy and those who had not.

In all, 53% of patients who had radiotherapy showed decline in brain function compared with 27% of patients who only had surgery.

via BBC NEWS | Health | Brain radiotherapy affects mind.

How do the radio waves used to treat cancer differ from those which come from the cell phones we hold next to our heads?  What about WiFi?

Roswell Crash notes

The debris field on the former Foster Ranch that was located by ranch-hand Mac Brazel is centered near 33º56.35’N, 105º18.41’W.

The alleged Ragsdale crash site is located at 33º37.38’N, 105º13.60’W.

I don't have the exact numbers for the alleged Hub Corn Ranch crash site, but it is located about 20 miles north of Roswell on HWY 285, then about 4 miles west on a dirt road that is marked where it leaves the highway with a sign indicating that it is the way to the UFO crash site. This site is on private land, so you need to check with someone at the International UFO Museum in Roswell to find out how to get permission to visit that site.

Why are we different from apes? Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes

Comment from TDG:

Elaine Morgan, almost 90 years old (!), and she can still kick Richard Dawkins' ass when discussing her 'aquatic ape' theory.

Cloud ships could cancel out effects of global warming this century for £5.3bn

Special ships that create clouds by spraying seawater into the air could be the most cost effective way of tackling climate change, new research has found.

The technique, known as marine cloud whitening, would create clouds above the Pacific Ocean that would have a cooling effect by reflecting sunlight away from Earth.

A wind-powered fleet of nearly 2,000 ships would criss-cross the sea, sucking up sea water and spraying it upwards through tall funnels.

'When you spray saltwater into the air, you create nuclei that cloud condenses around, creating bigger and whiter clouds, thus bouncing more sunlight back into space,' said David Young from the think-tank that commissioned the study.

via Cloud ships could cancel out effects of global warming this century for £5.3bn | Mail Online.

Jesse Ventura a man of mystery in new TV series

Jesse Ventura, the former Navy SEAL, wrestler and Minnesota governor, will explore the mysteries behind modern-day conspiracies in a new cable TV series.

TruTV, formerly Court TV, has ordered seven episodes of "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," which will premiere in late 2009.

Additionally, truTV has teamed with "Conspiracy" producer A. Smith & Co. ("Hell's Kitchen") for a pair of new shows "Full Throttle Saloon" and "Surprise Inspection," both of which are slated for 2010.

The four-part "Full Throttle" will provide an inside look at the world's largest biker bar, Mike Ballard's Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, S.D.

The two-parter "Surprise Inspection" will follow public health inspectors in Providence, R.I., as they visit some of the city's dirtiest places, including restaurants, hotels, convenience stores, gas stations, stadium concession stands, public swimming pools and health clubs.

via Jesse Ventura a man of mystery in new TV series | Entertainment | People | Reuters.

Why some information 'goes viral'

Marketers dream of finding ways to get something to "go viral" on the Internet. Indeed, viral marketing, whether it be through email, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, has become the Holy Grail of online marketing campaigns. With viral marketing, it is possible for the message to reach millions in a matter of hours. Marketers and scientists alike have been studying this phenomenon in the hopes that it will yield information about human dynamics....

“Most models of information diffusion through social media are based on the idea of homogeneity in human response,” Moro explains. According to Moro, most models are based around the average time that it takes for a person to respond to a request and then to pass it on. This model, while it might be useful in predicting some aspects of online marketing campaigns, does not adequately account for the reasons that some rumors, advertisements, content and even viruses suddenly explode worldwide in what is known as “going viral.”

“Humans respond differently,” Moro continues. “We performed a viral marketing experiment and used the response to build a different model, based on the heterogeneity of human response.” The experiment consisted of seeding a campaign over the Internet that rewarded participants for passing it along via email to friends and colleagues. The email messages reached more than 30,000 individuals in 11 European countries, and Moro and Iribarren were able to track the spread of the piece of information through social networks. “Collectively, most information moves at a slower pace through networks than expected,” Moro says.

But, if information moves slower than expected through social networks, how does one explain some information that “goes viral” quickly? Moro says that there is a tipping point of information spreading through social networks. The ability to surpass that tipping point and reach most of the collectivity is determined by those who are more actively involved in social media. “Some people respond to email within a couple of minutes. They are more active on social networks. If these people find something compelling, they respond quickly and propagate the information through their social neighborhood,” Moro says. “It’s about a difference in the way we schedule priorities, and differences in the way humans send information.”
//

On the other hand, if information does not reach the tipping point needed to “go viral,” it is because that information is at the mercy of those who take longer to respond. Instead of capturing the interest of the fastest responders, some information merely moves slowly through social networks, sometimes lasting months or years as it continues to be pushed through social media channels as people get around to it after days or weeks. “Even though our experiment lasted only a couple of months,” Moro says, “we were still receiving responses after finishing it. People were still responding. It was just taking them longer to get around to it.”

The model offers interesting insight into human dynamics. “Our work shows that there is no such thing as a typical time scale in human dynamics, and the impact of this fact in information diffusion,” Moro insists. “This sharply contrasts with current information diffusion models that base information spread on homogenous response time.” He also points out that this work could also be helpful in tracking the spread of fads, hoaxes, opinions or rumors.

Moro says that IBM has a patent to detail a model for viral marketing campaigns. “Our model allows us to predict how many people get the campaign message the first day, and how long it will take the message to go through social networks. The model provides a mathematical framework for modeling efficiency in social networks.”

via New model for social marketing campaigns details why some information 'goes viral'.

Touchable Hologram Becomes Reality (w/ Video)

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed 3D holograms that can be touched with bare hands. Generally, holograms can't be felt because they're made only of light. But the new technology adds tactile feedback to holograms hovering in 3D space.

Called the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, the hologram projector uses an ultrasound phenomenon called acoustic radiation pressure to create a pressure sensation on a user's hands, which are tracked with two Nintendo Wiimotes. As the researchers explain, the method doesn't use any direct contact and so doesn't dilute the quality of the hologram. The researchers, led by Hiroyuki Shinoda, currently have the technology on display at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans.

... In the video, the researchers demonstrate how a user can dribble a virtual bouncing ball, feel virtual raindrops bouncing off their hand, and feel a small virtual creature crawling on their palm. The researchers hope that the technology will have applications in video games, 3D CADs, and other uses.



More information: Shinoda Lab

via Touchable Hologram Becomes Reality (w/ Video).

"Cheap" Fusion within a decade?

General Fusion, a startup in Vancouver, Canada, says it can build a prototype fusion power plant within the next decade and do it for less than a billion dollars. So far, it has raised $13.5 million from public and private investors to help kick-start its ambitious effort.

Unlike the $14 billion ITER project under way in France, General Fusion's approach doesn't rely on expensive superconducting magnets--called tokamaks--to contain the superheated plasma necessary to achieve and sustain a fusion reaction. Nor does the company require powerful lasers, such as those within the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to confine a plasma target and compress it to extreme temperatures until fusion occurs.

Instead, General Fusion says it can achieve "net gain"--that is, create a fusion reaction that gives off more energy than is needed to trigger it--using relatively low-tech, mechanical brute force and advanced digital control technologies that scientists could only dream of 30 years ago.

It may seem implausible, but some top U.S. fusion experts say General Fusion's approach, which is a variation on what the industry calls magnetized target fusion, is scientifically sound and could actually work. It's a long shot, they say, but well worth a try.

"I'm rooting for them," says Ken Fowler, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering and plasma physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading authority on fusion-reactor designs. He's analyzed the approach and found no technical showstoppers. "Maybe these guys can do it. It's really luck of the draw."

via Technology Review: A New Approach to Fusion.

Obama: 'Worst May Be Behind Us'

The worst of the U.S. recession may be over, President Barack Obama said Friday.

"Today, we're pointed in the right direction," Mr. Obama said in brief remarks from the Rose Garden. "We're losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when I took office. We've pulled the financial system back from the brink and the rising market is restoring value to 401Ks that are the foundation of a secure retirement."

Earlier Friday, the Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls declined by 247,000 in July, the best performance since last August. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, slid unexpectedly from 9.5% to 9.4%.

Mr. Obama said the figures, along with second-quarter growth data released last week, suggest "the worst may be behind us." But he added that the economy isn't out of the woods.

"We have a lot further to go. As far as I'm concerned, we will not have a true recovery as long as we're losing jobs," Mr. Obama said. "We have a steep mountain to climb and we started in a very deep valley."

Though he said the tough times aren't over for the economy, Mr. Obama said it is time to look ahead to what the country will look like after the recession, repeating his call for health-care and education reform and clean energy.

"As we begin to put an end to this recession, we have to consider what comes next," he said. "We cannot turn back to the failed policies of the past, nor can we stand still."

- via wsj

 

Alien sightings reported in North Port

Family members are scared to go outside at night because of what they say is lurking in the woods. They claim more than five alien encounters in the last four months have taken place. Now, an international UFO organization wants to crack the real-life X-file.

Michael Rowley and his son Shane moved to their North Port home in April.

"Well, I'm retired and I thought this was where you're supposed to go," Michael said. "The only bad part is the aliens around here." Shane, 16, says he's had several extra-terrestrial encounters - most of which have been through his bedroom window. "They kind of show up when they want. You get used to them, but it is weird to see them walking around the woods with those big eyes," he said.

"I haven't seen the wings but we know he flies," added Michael. The Rowleys' twilight story has the attention of MUFON - Mutual UFO Network. The group is investigating and wants to setup surveillance. But Michael believes they won't show up if cameras are around.

He says the plaster cast of a foot-print is his key evidence. While it may be hard to see, Michael believes the creature has a cloven hoof.

"[It's] about this big with pure deep red eyes. It just looked at me for a second," Michael said.



Michael admits to rarely going out at night. But he says he believes they come in peace and that they're here for a reason. "I'm a combat Vietnam vet and I don't wake up until something good is going on," he said. "This is something big and good going on."

The family expects another alien encounter during the next full moon. "And the neighbor, I showed a sample of the foot print and he goes, 'nah.' No one believes me," he said. To the skeptical, Michael says just come to his house for a visit.

"I didn't believe it at first," he said.

via Alien sightings reported in North Port - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida.

Since these aliens can fly, I took a look at the bird's eye view of this home (image above).  There are dense tree clusters where aliens could hide out around all of the nearby homes. From how close the homes are, unless someone is messing with these people specifically as some kind of game, one would expect sightings by the neighbors as well.

From the MUFON report:

May 26, 2009
Reference: Initial Field Investigation
MUFON Case# 17015
North Port Florida Encounter

The Mutual UFO Network of Florida performed an initial assessment of suspected extraterrestrial entity activity at the Rowley residence located at 2556 Holland St, North Port, Florida. Two witnesses gave testimony and accounts, Shane Rowley and father of Shane, Michael Rowley. Suspect evidence was collected. The evidence consists of video, photographs of footprint and associated negatives and a footprint plaster cast made by the witnesses.

Based on the analysis of the witness accounts, photographs, video evidence and foot print plaster cast, it is our opinion that the events as accounted by the witnesses is unexplainable and the unusual occurrences which took places at the aforementioned address warrants further investigation.

2 Tampa area divers die while hunting lobsters in Keys

Authorities say two Tampa Bay area men died in separate diving accidents in the Florida Keys while hunting for lobster Thursday.

Monroe County sheriff's deputies said that Brian Harlin, 25, of Brandon was diving in the Indian Key Channel with his family about 8 a.m. Thursday. He was in the water with his father, and they were using a third-lung device, also known as a hookah rig, when an air hose dislodged during the dive.

Both men made it to the surface, but as the boat approached to pick them up, Harlin began to struggle in a strong current and slipped underwater. When he was pulled aboard the vessel, relatives tried to revive him, but couldn't.

Harlin was brought ashore at a boat ramp, where paramedics were waiting. They took him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, deputies said.

About 60 miles south of Islamorada on Summerland Key, 32-year-old Courtney Spikes of Trinity dove for lobster in a canal around noon Thursday.

He was in the water about five minutes when he surfaced and yelled that he was drowning.

His wife was watching from shore and jumped in to help him, deputies said, but he had slipped below the surface, and she had trouble finding him because the water was murky. Two nearby divers nearby searched for Spikes and after 11 minutes found him and pulled him to shore, deputies said.

Spikes was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said this morning that foul play was not suspected and the men are scheduled for autopsies in Monroe County.

Lobster season began Thursday, she said, and tourists flock to the Keys at the beginning of the season. About 10 to 15 lobster divers drown each season, which lasts until March, Herrin said.

via 2 Tampa area divers die while hunting lobsters in Keys.

The rise of Japanese rice-field art

The digital age meets the stone age in these pictures "painted" with different coloured crops in Japanese rice fields. Making giant pictures on the earth is an ancient art form. The Nazca people in pre-conquest Peru long ago created vast drawings of animals, geometrical shapes and lines, which some have refused to credit them with, and instead attribute to alien visitors. Other archaic designs that turn the earth into a picture surface include chalk figures engraved in British hillsides and the Great Serpent Mound made by native Americans in Ohio. Japan's lovely new contribution to this ancient art is, however, unimaginable without modern technology.

I don't mean that the farmers of the village of Inakadate where the rice pictures started in 1993 – they are now spreading through Japan – have somehow cheated. The images are created by laborious handicraft: kodaimai rice, which has purple and yellow leaves, is planted among green-leaved tsugaru roman rice to create the patterns. This takes loving care and it's a real triumph of folk art, but computer imaging is used to work out how to plant such complex designs.

The reason ancient images engraved in deserts strike some people as being completely beyond the powers of "primitive" artists is not that it's hard to draw a bird, say, but that it's hard to survey the ground accurately enough to map your bird on a large scale on the ground. It makes us imagine they had help from above. In reality, the creators of the Nazca lines or Britain's stone circles were simply brilliant at maths. But no one could ever calculate the precise pictures these Japanese farmers have planted without the aid of technology.

That's what makes these images so lovely. Ancient and modern, folk and sophisticated, they draw on Japan's traditions of heroic iconography and iconic landscape art. A reproduction in rice of Hokusai's famous print The Great Wave is especially dazzling. Just as crop circles have become a modern folk tradition, so will these images blossom.

via The rise of Japanese rice-field art | Jonathan Jones | Art and design | The Guardian.

How does being "brilliant at maths" allow the makers of the Nazca lines to draw animals so large that they could not be seen except from the sky? Why would they do it if they could not see the result?

UFO or bizarre natural phenomenon?

An image of a boulder-like object that appears as if suspended mid-air has China’s paranormal researchers totally stumped.

Mr Gang Hao was taking photos of scenery near his house in the city of Gushan on the 19th of July. After he had the photos developed he noticed this most peculiar feature in one of the images (above and below). He contacted paranormal researchers but they haven’t been able to solve the puzzle. Is this some sort of UFO disguised as an earthly rock or is it the result of an unknown natural phenomenon?

Did some force send a rock into the sky at that particular moment or could this be a meteor? Mr Hao didn’t hear anything at the time. What do you think?

(Note: The image looks photoshopped to me but perhaps a reader is familiar with such phenomena)

via All News Web - UFO or bizarre natural phenomenon?.

Warning: The credibility of All News Web is, according to many is very low.  In other words, this is most likely a junk story. But I like the photo anyway. It would be fun to make rocks float. Yoda did it best, IMHO.

Surveillance By Flying Saucer

Above: The first Avrocar being readied at the Avro factory in 1958

Below: A flying saucer surveillance drone has been created by a British start-up company. Aesir has a prototype called Embler "that uses the "Coandă effect" which supposedly provides better lift for the device. Take a look at the well-controlled flying saucer drone in the video below.

Scale it up and we could fly around in it, right?

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Build a 3D model on line from your photos

There are some bugs  with account creation and the resulting 3d model I saw had some messed up areas, but this seems promising:  http://3dsee.net/