Science Special News

[jsmith]

iin doroste ke alan elm be ye jaiii reside ke ye jooor remote control sakhtan ke mitooni zendegito pass forward ya back forward bekoni????....lol.....jk...

[Rasputin]

Asteroid in near miss with Earth

An asteroid up to half a mile wide is expected to brush past the Earth on Monday, approaching almost as close as the Moon. In astronomical terms, that counts as a near miss. But scientists who had been tracking the path of asteroid 2004 XP14 are not worried. They know that the space rock, travelling at 17km per second, would not hit the Earth. Nevertheless, 2004 XP14 has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) along with 782 known others. The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of "Apollo" asteroids whose orbits cross that of the Earth. Initially there were concerns that the asteroid might collide with the Earth later this century. However, further analysis of its orbit has ruled this out - at least for the foreseeable future. If XP14 did hit the Earth the effects would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.

Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the 230ft diameter Goldstone dish in California's Mojave desert. Although the object's size is not precisely known, it is thought to range between 1,345ft and 3,018ft - between a quarter and just over a half-mile wide. Another asteroid due to make an even closer fly-by on April 13, 2029, will be easy to see with the naked eye. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, which measures about 1,000ft across, will be visible from Asia and North Africa as it passes within 20,000 miles of the Earth.

[jsmith]

awesome....

[Rasputin]

On the trail of the ninki-nanka

As you read this, a small group of intrepid, pink-nosed Brits are creeping through the Gambian jungle, dodging crocodiles and cobras, in the hope of spotting the legendary "ninki-nanka". This fabulously named creature is said by locals to resemble a giant reptile, up to 30 feet long and dwelling in the murk of the mangrove swamps. The "dragon" is rumoured to look rather like a game of zoological "consequences", possessing the body of a crocodile, the neck of a giraffe and the head of a horse with three horns. Less fantastically, the team's leader, Richard Freeman of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, suspects the ninki-nanka of being a species of colossal monitor lizard. "Whatever the truth," he says, "this is the first dedicated expedition to search for this animal."So far, the explorers' blog hasn't revealed any sightings. At a slaughterhouse, they were ceremonially presented with some ninki-nanka scales, which turned out to be pieces of rotted film - "certainly not biological", says Freeman.

"However, we have acquired a sample to test when we get back to the UK, as it would be bad science not to investigate every claim."More encouraging are the witnesses. A compelling chap called Papa Jinda had described a scene of devastation at a pumping station where, the blog gushes, "a ninki-nanka had destroyed several pipes". It continues: "The mention of a ninki-nanka had caused a panic among the workers, and they had asked for a mirror as it was thought that the only way to get rid of the animal was to show it its reflection.

[Rasputin]

Virginia witch given informal pardon

The Witch of Pungo is no longer a witch. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday gave an informal pardon to Grace Sherwood, who 300 years ago became Virginia's only person convicted as a witch tried by water."I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," Kaine wrote in a letter Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf read aloud before a re-enactment of Sherwood's being dropped into the river."With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice," Kaine wrote. "We also can celebrate the fact that a woman's equality is constitutionally protected today, and women have the freedom to pursue their hopes and dreams." Sherwood, a midwife who at times wore men's clothes, lived in what today is the rural Pungo neighborhood, and she later became known as "The Witch of Pungo."Her neighbors thought she was a witch who ruined crops, killed livestock and conjured storms, and she went to court a dozen times, either to fight witchcraft charges or to sue her accusers for slander.She was 46 when she was accused in her final case of using her powers to cause a neighbor to miscarry.

On July 10, 1706, Sherwood was dropped into the Lynnhaven River and floated _ which was considered proof she was guilty because the pure water cast out her evil spirit, according to the belief system of the time. The theory behind the ducking test was that if she sank, she was innocent, although she would also drown.Sherwood may have been jailed until 1714, when records show she paid back taxes and with the help of then-Gov. Alexander Spotswood she was able to reclaim her property. She then lived quietly until her death at 80.Belinda Nash, 59, has been researching Sherwood for years and asked for the governor to exonerate the woman. A group annually remembers Sherwood with a re-enactment in the river.

[Rasputin]

The return of the Phoenix Lights

Hundreds of Phoenix residents watched a huge triangular-shaped something apparently cruising over the valley on July 4. KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported last week that the bizarre sight was witnessed by people all over town who were outside watching firework shows.Local UFO hunter Jeff Woolwine videotaped the strange lights just after 9 p.m. on Independence Day.The video appears to show a large dark triangle with lights on each point. The thing seems to bank slowly and then the lights blink out, one after another."After seeing this video you will see that the object is massive, and is slowing down and tilting downward on its nose. The object is apparently a triangle and looks as though it is descending. This video is going under review by the world at this time. But I can tell you that after running this video clip through my computer software that the object, whatever it is, IS there," Dark Matters Radio reported."Nothing has been inserted into this video clip and the time-line on the audio is in sync with the video portion of the file. There is no masking and frame rate is consistent."

It's hardly the first time such massive mystery craft have been reported in the Phoenix skies.The biggest mass UFO sighting in modern history took place on the night of March 13, 1997 -- when eyewitnesses from Las Vegas to Tucson reportedly tracked the progress of several huge triangle-shaped craft as they flew southeast across the entire state of Arizona."The Phoenix Lights" mystery has never been solved, despite claims by skeptics and believers.

[Rasputin]

The 'rain' man

When pop star Avril Lavigne and the late Pope John Paul II visited Indonesia, a Javanese mystic was called in to work his magic and ensure a rain-free event. INDONESIAN mystic Haryobintoro Tjakra enters a small hut and kneels before the tools of his trade: incense, a bowl of dirt, two black umbrellas and a ceramic burner on which he piles chunks of wood. Bowing his head, he lights the burner, sending fragrant fumes swirling up to the hut’s exhaust fan, and prays in Javanese: the rain must stay away. “I pray to the gods via the medium of smoke,” the 69-year-old says, dressed in black pants and matching high-necked traditional shirt. Tjakra seeks blessings from the local spirits inhabiting Java long before Buddhism and Hinduism, and later Islam, arrived. Most Javanese are Muslim but many practise kejawen, a syncretic belief that incorporates the original animist belief system here. But to keep all the deities he can on his side, this Javanese shaman always makes his offerings facing west.

Tjakra conducts the simple but well-practised ritual not in a temple or religious building but in a white, pre-fabricated hut in the bustling hub of modern Jakarta, surrounded by gleaming glass skyscrapers. He has been hired to keep the clouds at bay for three afternoons and evenings by a multi-national cigarette company holding an art exhibition and promotion event in the grounds of a major sports stadium.

[Rasputin]

Cargo cults: Are you a member?

If you are a computer programmer, a faithful church goer, or a real estate developer, a lot of your practice may be based on sheer nonsense, and you may not know it. You may have fallen prey to a Cargo Cult. The story of the origin of Cargo Cult culture is fascinating, and sheds light on how perhaps all religions originate, but also on how superstitious beliefs infect even our highly technical and scientific society.Today on the South Sea island of Tanna, Britain's Prince Philip is worshipped as a god. Prince Philip recently sent 300 autographed pictures of himself to the Tannan cult members, who treasure his image. In the picture, Prince Philip holds a traditional war club, although to make it totally authentic, he should have been naked. Even though the Prince is fully clothed, the Tannan Cargo Cult members prize the pictures as holy icons with magical powers.Why do they worship the British Price? To understand, we must consider the Cargo Cult. The phenomenon goes back more than 80 years, but really flourished during World War II. Natives on many south Pacific islands had never before seen airplanes, modern war ships and other strange sights -- such as tanks, Jeeps and men wearing godlike clothing. Very often, cargo planes would parachute crates of clothing, canned food, tents, weapons and other useful stuff for the amazing new visitors -- who often shared the goodies with the natives.But when the war ended, the soldiers left and all the stuff stopped dropping from the sky.

The natives assumed that all they had to do was imitate the practices they had seen the soldiers performing to make the “sky gods” come back with all the neat stuff. Thus, they carved headphones from wood, and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers, or airplanes made of bamboo. They waved landing signals while standing on the old runways. The cultists thought that the foreigners had some special connection to their own gods, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.Of course, every once in a while, a plane or visitor would return - and the cult priests took credit for it. Before long, the new Cargo Cults became established religions, many which have lasted ever since. Cargo Cult thinking was blended with indigenous religious practices, and before long, intricate and elaborate belief systems -- religions -- arose based on origins that Cargo Culters of today don’t understand. Modern Cargo Culters accept the rules, dogma and tenets of their religion “on faith” and based on the way their parents raised them ito believe. Sound familiar? Think off all the rules, rituals and ceremonies of modern day religions. How much of it might have originally produced by a Cargo Cult mentality?Cargo Cult thinking is very much alive today, and particularly susceptible to it are computer programmers. Cargo cult programming is characterized by the ritual inclusion of code structures that serve no real purpose.

Those who write Cargo cult programs explain their useless code as a way of working around a certain computer bug, whose origins they know nothing about. A classic example are programmers who think that using commenting code is good, and then produce every line with comments such as "increment i by 1". The result is a lot of bad, problematic computer coding that can screw up a lot of things. Those who fall prey to cargo cult programming do so because of the same thought process displayed by primitive peoples on remote islands -- they saw other, advanced computer programmers doing it, so they assumed it was affective and good.But it’s not just computer geeks who are unwitting members of Cargo Cults. In the world of business, all kinds of economic distress results from Cargo Cult mentality. A classic example are the many failed shopping malls in many cities. Because some shopping malls become successful and lucrative, other developers assume that all they have to do is build their own shopping mall to achieve the same success. But any shopping mall is successful for a wide variety of complex economic variables, demographic trends, market demands -- not just the building itself. Cargo Cult thinking prevents people from thinking critically and scientifically about what they are doing. The result is often disaster.Today, we laugh at primitive cultures on remote islands when they build a replica of a Cessna airplane out of bamboo and fern fronds, and then sit inside it while wearing a couple of coconut shells over their ears to imitate modern headphones. We think it’s weird that anyone worship the image of Prince Philip. Yet, you can find the same phenomenon every day in our modern world, from computer programming to real estate ventures -- not to mention mainstream religion -- which are almost certainly deeply embedded with hidden, forgotten Cargo Cult rituals and rationales of all kinds.Even brilliant scientists can fall into the Cargo Cult trap.

The great physicist Richard Feynman said he saw examples of Cargo Cult thinking all the time. He said that many scientists often produce studies with all the trappings of real science, but which are nonetheless pseudoscience and unworthy of either respect or support. The cure, for Cargo Cult thinking, he said, was strict adherence to scientific method, and rigorous peer review of all practice, theory and results.Yet, Cargo Cult mentality is insidious, often invisible and extremely difficult to detect. How much of your life, your beliefs, your work, your practices are the result of the Cargo Cult phenomenon? Think about it.

Please visit Ken’s Web site: www.starcopywriter.com

[Rasputin]

Trees in Antarctica within 100 years ?

Trees could be growing in the Antarctic within a century because of global warming, an international scientific conference heard. With carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere set to double in the next 100 years, the icy continent could revert to how it looked about 40 million years ago, said Professor Robert Dunbar of Stanford University."It was warm and there were bushes and there were trees," he told some 850 delegates in the Tasmanian capital Hobart, the national AAP news agency reported.The delegates are attending the combined meetings of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs.Dunbar said climate experts were predicting a doubling of the levels of carbon dioxide by 2100, "but it actually looks like it's going to come sooner unfortunately."

Scientists blame greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, for causing rising temperatures worldwide.

[Rasputin]

Meet 'Adam the healer'

Submitted by Kratos: Adam Dreamhealer is not your average 19-year-old. This Canadian college student makes more than most doctors do. He says he can heal people with just his hands. ABC News estimates that Adam will make more than $1 million this year, and that doesn't include the income from his books, DVDs and $150 healing sessions he offers over the Internet. The $1.2 million does include his seminar work in darkened rooms, with 600 people gathered before him. That's when Adam goes into a trancelike state and begins to work what some say is magic.It was at the age of 15, Adam says, that he began manifesting bizarre powers. "All these strange telekinetic things [started] happening around me. Just little things like pencils flying out of my hands, erasers flying out of my hands," he said.Now Adam says he channels that power into healing cancers and infections.Linda Peterson, a fourth-grade teacher from Minnesota, says she experienced the healing benefits of Adam's hands.Linda was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in 2004. She went to one of Adam's workshops; then, two weeks later, when doctors took a look at her tumor, they discovered there was no tumor."There was nothing there. Gone," says Peterson.Two years later, Peterson's cancer came back. So she returned to Vancouver to see if Adam could heal her for a second time.

The Healing Process Adam says when he is trying to heal a person he sees a "quantum hologram" — a representation of the combined energy of everyone in the room."I'm not actually sure what it is I do. I go into this trance," says Adam. "I don't see anything else around me except for this person in front of me. And then I'm just changing these things, this image in front of me."He says he uses his hands to fix breaks in the energy flow, which allows the healing to begin.But Adam can't guarantee the success of his work.

[Rasputin]

Russian cameraman records flight of UFO

Submitted by Jennifer: An unidentified flying object has appeared over the Yeysk Spit (Krasnodar region of Russia). According to the Russian Center TV station, inexplicable phenomena have occurred in Krasnodar Territory before, for instance, circles in fields that were allegedly not made by humans. But now the channel claims it has irrefutable evidence of non-human activity as a professional cameraman has recorded the appearance of a UFO over Yeysk.Local cameraman Aleksey Khoroshaylo visits the shore of the Taganrogskiy Bay regularly. The Yeysk Spit is a traditional location for weddings. On that day Aleksey arrived to film the visit of a newlywed couple.“We came here to film the newlyweds as they drove in. Our driver then says to me: Look, there is a hovercraft. I took my camera, looked at it in a close-up and saw that this could not be a hovercraft because it was too high above the horizon,” Aleksey said.The video recording made by Center TV lasts for 53 seconds. The tape shows a disc-shaped object moving above the sea at a distance of about four kilometers from the shore.

Then a flash appears in the centre and a point of light separates and moves into the skies along a bow-shaped trajectory.Experts have viewed the tape dozens of times trying to compare the object with a ship or a plane. They have even called the military with inquiries and have recieved the definite reply that no tests had been held in the bay on that day.Yuriy Stroganov, head of a local TV company, and a member of the international organization MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) carefully examined the video and concluded that “the object itself, its movements, especially those mimicking a falling leaf — the shaking from side to side — are internationally known UFO characteristics”. Stroganov plans to send this footage the U.S. He expressed his hope that an American specialist would try to determine the origin of the object.

[Rasputin]

Rare rainbow/lightning photographed

When a rainbow formed in the sky people stopped and stared at the natural wonder. But then lightning sparked across the evening panorama as two of nature's most spectacular phenomenon created an unusual alliance. The clash of weather was seen above the affluent city of Fort Smith, in the Southern state Arkansas. One onlooker said: "It was awe inspiring. The lightning made a huge rumbling sound and when you looked up there was also this incredible rainbow forming on the horizon." The intracloud lightning, known as an anvil crawler, is the most common form of lightning, with the electrical charge contained within a single cumulonimbus cloud. Lightning often occurs during heavy storms while rainbows are generally formed after the rain has stopped, making an appearance of both simultaneously relatively rare. The actual electric charge in a flash of lightning comes from particles from the sun sent out in the solar wind which gather in the outer atmospheric layers before creating a strike.

Scientists are still divided by what actually causes lightning, with one theory suggesting falling droplets of ice and rain become electrically polarised as they fall through the natural electric field in the Earth's atmosphere. This would explain why lightning often accompanies storms and heavy rain. The same droplets also cause the rainbow, when light from the sun is refracted by the water to cause a spectrum.

[Rasputin]

Inflatable spacecraft launched into orbit

An unmanned, inflatable spacecraft launched by a Las Vegas real estate mogul has beamed back the first images since it slipped into orbit and expanded itself. Genesis I sent back several photos Thursday taken by its dozen cameras showing sections of the craft, according to its builder Bigelow Aerospace. The company declined to publicly release the images.The experimental spacecraft rocketed into space Wednesday from Russia on a mission to test technology that could be used to build an inflatable commercial space station.Genesis I was healthy with functional onboard computers, solar panels, battery power and pressure systems, said company founder Robert Bigelow."All systems are operating," Bigelow said in a brief statement posted on his Web site.Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, has lofty dreams of building an expandable orbital outpost by 2015 to be made up of several Genesis-like satellites tied together.He has promised to invest $500 million to build a space habitat that could be used as a space hotel, science lab or sports arena.

But first, engineers must test the inflatable technology. Over the next five years, they will study how well Genesis I can withstand space radiation and micrometeoroids. Future missions will focus on docking between spacecraft — another key component to having a flexible commercial space station.Genesis I marked the first launch for Bigelow Aerospace. Because the flight was experimental, Bigelow had said he expected problems to arise. But the mission appeared to exceed expectations.

[Rasputin]

A mystery fit for a Pharaoh

Andrew Lawler: The first tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings since King Tut's is raising new questions for archaeologists about ancient Egypt's burial practices. It is barely 7:30 a.m. in the Valley of the Kings, and tourists are already milling just beyond the yellow police tape like passersby at a traffic accident. I step over the tape and show my pass to a guard, who motions for me to climb down a wooden ladder sticking out of a small, nearly square hole in the ground. Eighteen feet down a vertical shaft, the blazing Egyptian sun is gone, the crowd's hum is muted and the air is cool. In a small chamber lit by fluorescent lamps, a half-dozen archaeologists are measuring, drawing and gently probing relics in the first tomb to be found in the Valley of the Kings, more than 400 miles up the Nile from Cairo, since the resting place of King Tutankhamen was discovered here 84 years ago.A jumble of seven wooden coffins of various sizes fills one corner of the room. Termites have turned parts of some of them into powder, while others have suffered only a thin layer of dust. Edwin Brock, an Egyptologist formerly at the American University of Cairo, is on his knees, cataloging the contents of a coffin filled with a strange assortment of pottery, rocks, cloth and natron—the powdery substance used to dry mummies.

A couple of yards away, University of Chicago archaeological artist Susan Osgood intently sketches the serene yellow face painted on a partially intact coffin. It was likely built for a woman; men's faces were typically rendered a sunburned red. Deeper in the pile, a child-size casket is nestled between two full-sized ones. Something resembling a pillow seems to bulge out of another casket. The 17-foot-long space, which has plain limestone walls, also holds a number of knee-high ceramic storage jars, most still sealed.

[Rasputin]

Fresh investigation into Wilmslow UFO

A fresh investigation has begun into the sighting of an unidentified flying object over Wilmslow 30 years ago. Researchers are going through files from 1966 when the “craft” was spotted by a policeman behind Hoopers on Alderley Road.The close encounter was by PC Colin Perks who saw the image with his own eyes while on duty in the town centre.In his report afterwards he says he was checking the back door of a shop at 4.10am on January 7.At the time he heard a “high pitched whine” and when he turned to look over the car park behind he saw “a solid looking object, stationary, some 35 feet above the grass of the meadow beyond the car park and about 100 yards from where he stood.“The upper surfaces glowed steadily with a greenish grey colour, a glow that did not hide the definite shape of the object.”The policeman compared the image size with that of a bus estimating the UFO had a diameter of 30 feet for the base.He said after about five seconds it moved off in an east, south east direction with no change of sound and then disappeared.Nowhere could he see openings like portholes, he added.A full report was published in the Flying Saucer Review which is the leading and longest established international journal dealing with UFOs and similar encounters and a published case study tells of a “strikingly similar” sighting a year later in Streatham.

Now files are being updated and researchers want to interview PC Colin Perks for verbal evidence and to contact anyone who might have experienced mysterious goings on during the same night.Derrick Wood, 74, of Sale, a retired safety consultant, who says he has a keen interest in UFOs said another witness had come forward since the sighting.“There is to be a website set up so that people can give evidence about this and other sightings which have been recorded in the past.