HAS THE CO2 SCARE BEEN USED TO MANIPULATE US INTO USING NUCLEAR POWER?

NUCLEAR ISSUES -

 Commentary.

 

Perhaps the worldwide campaign against CO2 has been secretly encouraged and manipulated by the nuclear energy lobby. 

Of course they were building nuclear plants before there was any talk of global warming. 

But perhaps the industry sensed that at some point the public would become aware of the deceit that had been perpetrated on them and demand an end to this dangerous source of electricity.

Conveniently, it is about this time when hysteria about global warming begins to pick up.  What best to counteract dirty fossil fuels than more nuclear power? 

Were scientists and the public dupes in a major manipulative process?

 

How else would anyone explain the ease with which well-educated and environmentally aware people could be persuaded into allowing - and even supporting - nuclear power plants, in spite of all their negative aspects from operational to waste disposal?

 

If you follow ENENEWS  and other anti-nuclear websites you will see that nuclear plants are anything but 'safe clean energy'.

On the contrary, they are monstrous nightmares with frequent accidents that are rarely covered by the media, and absolutely no safe way of disposing of their waste.

The most they can aspire to is to hide the waste from view inside some cave or mountain. Out of sight is out of mind. Let future generations deal with it.

 

But in the meantime we have disasters waiting to happen, not only from human mistakes, but from earthquakes, considering that so many plants are built on or close to geologic fault lines. 

 

We must also live with the fear of massive terrorism-caused or solar-originated electromagnetic pulses - EMPs- which could incapacitate safety features in nuclear plants and unleash Armageddon on the country. 

*****************************************************************************

 

HANFORD RADIOACTIVE LEAKS MAY BE AROUND 1000 GALLONS A YEAR

NO SOLUTION YET

 

Hanford radioactive waste tanks may be leaking about 1000 gallons a year. The key word here is "may".  Just a few days ago Hanford (Washington State) experts had to correct their estimate of ONE leaking tank to SIX - which gives us an idea of their level of attention, or most likely, their possible reluctance to disclose the whole truth at once.

 

Washington Governor Jay Inslee was careful to characterize the 1000 gallons as a "rough estimate," perhaps by releasing the figures gradually in preparation for the shock of the actual amount.  Stay tuned.

 

The governor's estimate is for one year. How much has it leaked over the years? How far has it reached? 

 

He also admitted that there is no technology available to plug the leaks.  Authorities and the public have allowed a large number of "clean-energy" nuclear power plants to be constructed all over the country, not knowing the details of how to SAFELY dispose of the waste, and if there were "accidents" and leakage of that waste, how they would deal with them, if at all. 

 

It is likely that the leaking radioactive contamination could make its way to the mighty Columbia River, which would affect the drinking water and environment in a much larger area.

Read more  http://enenews.com/governor-nuclear-waste-is-leaking-an-estimated-1000-gallons-a-year-no-available-technology-to-plug-the-leaks-at-Hanford

********************************************************************************

THE LOUISIANA SINKHOLE - THE MOST IGNORED CRISIS IN THE U.S.A

UPDATE - Response operations at the 8.6-acre sinkhole in Assumption Parish were halted Tuesday after seismic monitors noted an increase in underground tremors that have been linked with “burps” and edge collapses in the yawning slurry hole, state regulators and parish officials said.

 

The failure of a Texas Brine Co. LLC cavern, known as Oxy Geismar No. 3, is believed to be the cause of the sinkhole and other related developments, including gas becoming trapped underground in the vicinity of the sinkhole. About 350 residents remain under evacuation orders in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities.

 

Located near the edge of the salt dome, the Texas Brine cavern underwent a sidewall collapse at a depth of more than 5,000 feet that has allowed millions of cubic yards of rock to flow into the brine-filled cavity. This shift in the earth led to the formation of the sinkhole, found Aug. 3 in a swampy area of northern Assumption Parish.

 

Texas Brine now has 17 vent wells flaring off methane gas trapped under the area. Two more wells were added Tuesday

Read more -  http://theadvocate.com/news/ascension/5291883-123/tremors-detected-sinkhole-work-suspended

Hat tip to ENENEWS

Smithsonian Magazine VIDEO :  Giant Sinkhole Is Swallowing Up a Louisiana Bayou Community

*******************************************************************************

CHILD WITH GEIGER COUNTER MADE HUGE DISCOVERY

Child with Geiger counter discovered massive rise in Gamma ray radiation in March of 2011. 

 

Once this became known officers from several law enforcement agencies pounced on the residence suspecting the worst.

 

But it was only a thirteen-year-old boy and his Geiger counter detecting a gamma ray burst originating in a black hole 3.8 billion light years away.

 

He scooped NASA and other agencies with billions-of-dollars budgets and scientists with two or three university degrees to their names.  

 

The Draco Kill Shot, as this burst was named, is considered to be the longest lasting Gamma Ray burst ever observed.

 

Read more  http://enenews.com/bizarre-radiation-incident-as-fukushima-plumes-hit-u-s-in-march-2011-law-enforcement-divisions-descended-on-home-of-teenager-with-geiger-counter

*******************************************************************************

A CONSCIOUS SEA?

GAIA NEWS

U.S. researchers have discovered communities of infinitesimal creatures in our oceans react in unison to changes in their environment. They rely on each other to almost the same extent as the different cells in a human body.

 

As an example, if one set of the microbes were, say, creating energy through photosynthesis, which would then produce carbon dioxide, another set of microbes would somehow know and react - perhaps preparing to absorb the carbon dioxide. 

 

Non-photosynthetic, carbon-eating microbes of very different species displayed synchronised, rapidly varying metabolic gene expression - despite the fact that they came from groups as different as humans and fungi.

Read more at   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2278137/Could-sea-conscious-Research-reveals-tiny-plankton-behave-like-marine-microbial-megamind.html

******************************************************************************

NO DALMATIAN DOG FOR THESE FIREMEN - THEY LOVE THEIR PIG

Homeless pig is adopted by firemen as a mascot. 

 

Dominic the Pig, or Fireman Ham - a serial-escape artist -  is used to train firemen on how to handle escaped animals.  Dominic loves the attention.

Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2282163/Fireman-ham-Meet-Dominic-pig-teaching-firefighters-thing-escapology.html


******************************************************************************

ELEPHANT SEALS ACT AS SCIENCE ASSISTANTS IN THE STUDY OF OCEAN CURRENTS

Elephant seals equipped with electronic sensors help oceanographers study ocean currents under Antarctic ice.

 

They can swim to a coastline area inaccessible to ships.

 

The Antarctic Bottom Water is a dense, deep layer near the ocean floor that drives ocean circulation.

Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2284722/Elephant-seals-wearing-head-sensors-help-scientists-uncover-mystery-ocean-engine-the-Antarctic.html


*******************************************************************************

COW THINKS SHE IS A HORSE

A case of confused animal identity.

Cow raised with horses thinks she is a horse.  Orphan Hettie Moo has now joined a Scotland pony display team and she is a star performer. She sees nothing unusual in being attached to a cart just as her horse brothers and sisters. She lives happily with them in the same stable.

See cute pictures here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284696/Did-hear-the-cow-thinks-shes-horse-Meet-orphan-Hettie-Moo-whos-joined-pony-display-team.html


******************************************************************************

ANCIENT CONTINENT TRACES DISCOVERED UNDER INDIAN OCEAN

The Indian Ocean and some of its islands may lie on top of the remains of an ancient continent pulled apart by plate tectonics between 50 million and 100 million years ago.

They may be the remnants of a prehistoric land mass named Mauritia.

 

In fact, the Indian Ocean could be “littered” with such continental fragments, now obscured by lava erupted by underwater volcanoes.

 

Read more here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/lost-continent-indian-ocean/


*********************************************************************************

YES, SPIDERMAN COULD STOP A RUNAWAY TRAIN

If Spiderman was indeed bit by a Darwin's Back Spider, her thread is strong enough to stop trains!

 

On Spiderman 2 he shoots strands of spider web at nearby buildings to stop a runaway train.  Is this possible? Or the usual Hollywood bunk?

 

Well, a group of British students did a study that proves that the strength of a particular spider is proportionally strong enough to stop a train going full speed.

Read more here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2284273/Spiderman-really-COULD-stopped-train-web-say-physics-students-have.html

*****************************************************************************

TOO MANY PARTICLES! - LET'S LOOK FOR UNPARTICLES NOW

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/physics-too-many-particles-lets-look.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There may be a still undetermined force between two particle spins over long distances. New study will try to find such UNPARTICLES in magnetized iron under the Earth's surface.

 

Evidence of a minuscule force that could exist between two particle spins over long distances could be lurking in magnetized iron under the Earth's surface.

That is the conclusion of a new study by physicists in the US, who have used our planet's vast stores of polarized spin to place exacting limits on the existence of interactions mediated by unusual entities such as "unparticles".

 

The intrinsic angular momentum, or "spin", of a particle gives that particle a magnetic moment, and the interaction between spins generates magnetism.

 

A ferromagnet, such as iron, becomes magnetized when the spins of some of the electrons in its constituent atoms line up, while quantum mechanics tells us that the magnetic force between spins results from the electrons exchanging "virtual" photons.

 

Some theoretical physicists have suggested that other, as-yet-undiscovered particles might be exchanged virtually and so give rise to new types of spin–spin interaction.

 

 

 

 

Read more - http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/feb/21/search-for-unparticles-focuses-on-earths-crust

****************************************************************************

WHY NOT ENOUGH EFFORTS TO PROTECT US FROM BIG ASTEROID IMPACTS?

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. 
Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/disaster-news-why-not-enough-efforts-to.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While authorities micromanage your life telling you what to eat, and in what amounts, they seem oblivious to REAL DANGERS to life on Earth.  Aside from rampant toxic pollution, we also have to worry about the odd asteroid or mega-meteor headed for us that could obliterate life.  Our fearless leaders still haven't figured out how to spot them on time - let alone how to divert them from Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In 1992, a congressional study named the Spaceguard Survey Report recommended that NASA find 90 percent of all near-Earth asteroids more than 1 kilometer in size within 10 years, a goal mandated by Congress six years later.

In 2005, the target was redefined to spotting 90 percent of objects 140 meters or larger. Perennially underfunded, the project last year received less than half of the money it needed to complete its task.

But since the Chelyabinsk event, members of Congress from both parties have written statements and op-eds rallying greater support for these efforts.  Unfortunately, U.S. legislators are preoccupied with other issues for the time being.

Budgetary squabbles may lead the country to gut a significant portion of national spending as part of the sequester, including NASA funding.  WIRED.COM

Trail left by meteor in Russia, February 15, 2013

Wired magazine:  In the wake of Earth’s largest meteor strike in more than a century, the world’s attention has turned skyward.

 

The 17-meter bolide exploded in the air over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia on Feb. 15, shattering windows and injuring around 1,000 people. But had the meteor come in at a slightly different angle, the space rock could have impacted the ground and the fallout could have been much worse.

 

More money is already flowing toward future asteroid detection and mitigation strategies, but we may never be able to fully protect ourselves.

 

There are plenty of programs already in place for monitoring relatively large near-Earth objects, and more will be coming online soon, both from government space agencies and the private sector.

 

However, even the best efforts will not be able to catch objects the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor — rocks that are small enough to evade detection by current technology until they are streaking through Earth’s atmosphere, but large enough to be dangerous.

 

The technology to actually stop any killer asteroids that we do manage to detect is also far in the future. Many techniques have been proposed, including using nuclear missiles, laser beams, or even spray paint, but none are proven or anywhere near becoming reality. A lot more research and development as well as an unprecedented international effort will be needed before we can even begin to be protected.

But we’re working on it.

Certain scientists and members of the spaceflight community have long and vocally advocated for better methods to track potentially dangerous objects and more funding for mitigation research.

 

But the odds have always been small and attention to this potential natural disaster has mostly been on the back burner. The probability remains the same — Chelyabinsk-like events tend to occur between once every 10 years to once every century — yet now people’s attention has been refocused.

 

Simply looking for potentially hazardous asteroids is one of the most important parts of this effort, said physicist and former astronaut Ed Lu, who helped found the B612 Foundation, a private non-profit dedicated to spotting dangerous objects from space.

 

Asteroid orbits can be easily estimated once they’re spotted, potentially giving years or even decades of advanced warning to civilization. Astronomers already know of more than 400,000 asteroids, of which 6,500 pass near the Earth, but there are many gaps and uncharted objects that could still pose a danger.

 

“How stupid if we got hit because we weren’t looking?” said Lu. “That seems crazy to me.”

 

In 1992, a congressional study named the Spaceguard Survey Report recommended that NASA find 90 percent of all near-Earth asteroids more than 1 kilometer in size within 10 years, a goal mandated by Congress six years later. In 2005, the target was redefined to spotting 90 percent of objects 140 meters or larger.

 

Perennially underfunded, the project last year received less than half of the money it needed to complete its task. But since the Chelyabinsk event, members of Congress from both parties have written statements and op-eds rallying greater support for these efforts.

 

Unfortunately, U.S. legislators are preoccupied with other issues for the time being. Budgetary squabbles may lead the country to gut a significant portion of national spending as part of the sequester, including NASA funding.

 

While no new money is likely to be coming to asteroid-spotting activities, the Russian strike may cause “a shift in priorities to looking at this more than we have at the past,” said space policy expert Henry Hertzfeld of George Washington University.

 

Many ground-based telescopes are already actively watching the heavens, most coordinated through NASA’s Spaceguard program. These include the Catalina Sky Survey, the U.K. Spaceguard Centre, and the Japanese Spaceguard Association. A similar undertaking from the European Space Agency, the Space Situational Awareness program, works with amateur astronomers to monitor dangers from above, including near-Earth asteroids.

 

A new endeavor coming online in 2015 named the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System Project (ATLAS) will provide an early warning system that could provide one week’s notice for city-destroying 45-meter asteroids and three week’s notice for potentially devastating 140-meter objects.

 

But the next and most important frontier is watching from space. By sheer coincidence, a Canadian Space Agency project that started in 2008 is scheduled to launch on Feb. 25. Named the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat), this suitcase-sized spacecraft will circle the planet every 100 minutes, scanning space for asteroids that may someday pass near the Earth.

 

Being in space means that NEOSSat will solve one of the main problems with current asteroid-watching techniques: You can’t do them during the day. A telescope aimed at the sky when the sun is up will see nothing other than bright sunlight. This is the reason the Chelyabinsk meteor went unnoticed — it came in from the dayside of our planet. The NEOSSat project will begin operation shortly after launch and look for some of the most dangerous objects larger than half a kilometer.

 

Even more robust space-based telescopes are now being readied by the private sector. Planetary Resources, Inc., a company that aims to mine asteroids, intends to launch a small telescope named the Arkyd-100 that will sit in low-Earth orbit and scan for nearby space rocks.

 

Though its primary goal will be to find valuable asteroids, the spacecraft will be able to watch for possibly dangerous objects coming from the sunlit side of Earth. Arkyd-100 is expected to launch in 18 to 20 months.

 

A more targeted effort comes from the B612 Foundation, which plans to launch the Sentinel telescope in late 2016. This spacecraft would sit inside the orbit of Venus and constantly be on the lookout for killer asteroids, whichever direction they come from. Sentinel will spot nearly all asteroids 150 meters or larger and identify a significant portion of those down to 30 meters in diameter.

 

With a price tag of several hundreds of millions, the project is comparable to a large municipal undertaking like a new highway overpass. But it is still much more than anything accomplished by a private non-profit in space and so there has been some doubt whether or not B612 could wrangle enough people into backing their idea. Since Chelyabinsk, their telescope is on surer footing.

 

“There’s been a crush of people contacting us,” said Lu. “Suddenly it’s on everyone’s mind.”

Online donations have increased tenfold, he added. While most of these are fairly small, generally around $100, many richer potential donors who were sitting on the fence have now fully signed on to the company’s plans. Entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, co-founder of Planetary Resources, reported a similar effect with investors who were previously hesitant but are now more willing to back in their venture.

 

Should one of these telescope projects one day spot a doomsday asteroid, there are already many proposals for how to deflect the object. The method most favored by the B612 Foundation is fairly simple – place a modest-size spaceship near the asteroid and have its gravitational pull slowly alter the object’s course, averting catastrophe. The technique is relatively low cost and would certainly work but would require several years or possibly decades of advanced notice.

 

For a large rock that’s headed right for us fairly quickly, B612 recommends smashing a giant projectile into the asteroid. This kinetic impactor would provide a strong kick to shuffle an asteroid off its current trajectory. Later, a gravity tractor could be used to make any more precise changes necessary.

 

It is still unknown exactly what the worldwide reaction will be to a known dangerous asteroid. Actual physical research into asteroid mitigation techniques has been pretty much nonexistent.

Most likely, asteroid mitigation efforts will be an international undertaking.

 

Any particular city or country has only a small chance of being hit, though the countries with some of the largest land area, the U.S. and Russia, are also those with the most advanced space programs. It would be in everyone’s best interest to ward off the attack, perhaps providing something akin to a common enemy, suggested Hertzfeld.

 

Source

http://www.wired.com/2013/02/asteroid-watching-mitigation/

 

RELATED

NORMALCY BIAS - The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.

It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. 

This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations.

The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias

*******************************************************************************
 

EARTH WITHOUT THE MOON?

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/questions-earth-without-moon-what-would.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

WHAT WOULD EARTH BE LIKE

 WITHOUT THE MOON? 

 

Would there still be life as we know it? Could humans have developed under those conditions? If so, what would we look like? Would there still be romance if we looked "short, squat and stout," and without moonlight to inspire us? 

I was just reading HERE ON EARTH by Tim Flannery.  On page 41 he tells how Earth was struck by a body the size of Mars early in its history, "liquefying it and ejecting from it a mass destined to become the Moon. The liquefied reminder then began to differenciate into a metallic core, a silicate mantle, and a thin crust".

The question is, what kind of planet would Earth be if it had never been struck by a giant object losing mass that became the Moon. Earth would be bigger, of course, but what else would be different?

Illustration above:  The libration of the Moon over a single lunar month. Also visible is the slight variation in the moon's visual size from Earth.

 

 Structure of the Moon

Deseret News - 2012

Life on Earth would be much different without the moon. In fact, it’s safe to say that the large diversity of life we find on Earth wouldn’t exist at all. Without the stabilizing effects of the moon, life on Earth would exist only in small, compact niches.

Life on Earth, without the moon, if it existed at all, would be confined to a narrow band along the equator.

All the plants would be short, deeply rooted and ground-hugging. And any land animal would be short, squat and stout. Birds and any flying insects would be impossible. Ice ages could potentially be 10 times as bad as they have been.

 

 

 The monthly changes of angle between the direction of illumination by the Sun and viewing from Earth, and the phases of the Moon that result

Charlotte Observer - 2013

Without the moon, Earth would spin faster, the day would be shorter, and the Coriolis force (which causes moving objects to be deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere, due to Earth’s spin) would be much stronger.

This would lead to air circulations in the atmosphere that might look more like Jupiter than what we see on Earth today – multiple east-west jet streams and likely more than one big gyre in the oceans. For example, the Gulf Stream would leave our coast far south of Cape Hatteras. 

Those circulations might be less effective at moving heat from the tropics to high latitudes, leading to warmer tropics and colder polar regions.

Without the moon, tides would be weaker, affecting the tidal ecosystems for which tidal mixing and flow are important sources of energy. But this seems more like a quantitative effect, not the huge qualitative effect we’d get from a much faster spin. More subtle effects would be on organisms that depend on moonlight and that synchronize their nocturnal activities to the phases of the moon.
 

Moon's North Pole

Moon's South Pole

 

ASTRONOMY CAFE - 1997

On a daily basis, we would still have large breakers on the continental west coasts because of the rotation speed of the Earth, storms out at sea, and sloping beaches. 

We would still have high and low tides due to the Sun, but these would be half as tall as the lunar high and low tides. There would, however, be no Neap or Spring Tides which occur when the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth, or on the same side.

No impacts on the issue of life on the Earth because, if ocean tides were important in getting life started by, for example, mixing up the so-called 'primordial soup', the solar tides ought to have been more than adequate to have done the same thing 3.5 - 4.0 billion years ago.  It is possible that the Earth would have been slightly less geologically active.

All Illustrations from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

****************************************************************************

 

OOPS! IT ISN'T ONE TANK LEAKING RADIOACTIVE WASTE, BUT SIX

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/nuclear-news-oops-it-isnt-one-tank.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six tanks are leaking dangerous amounts of radioactive and other toxic waste at the Hanford storage facility in Washington State. Washington Governor Jay Inslee called this "disturbing" but he reassured citizens that this incident does not present "immediate risk".

 

What is really much more disturbing is the fact that Hanford scientists and technicians have trouble counting to six.

Just the other day they reported that only one tank was leaking. It took days to correct that figure.  And those math-challenged people are in charge of the storage and "disposal" of countless barrels of radioactive waste.  T

he word "disposal" is rather inaccurate, considering that this waste will last for millions of years and there is no way to dispose of it - only to hide it, and let future generations deal with it. 

Read more - http://enenews.com/governor-we-received-very-disturbing-news-today-radioactive-leak-at-u-s-nuclear-site-much-larger-than-first-reported-no-immediate-health-risks

RELATED

The Perfect Radioactive Storm 

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/news-perfect-radioactive-storm-those.html

Physicians for Social Responsibility:  Hanford is the most contaminated site in the Western World.
http://www.psr.org/chapters/washington/hanford/hanford-history.html

************************************************************************

 

MYSTERY BARRELS OOZING IN LAKE SUPERIOR

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. 
Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/environment-news-mystery-barrels-oozing.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.

Purple ooze contaminating drinking water.  Cleanup done under complete news blackout. 

Another case of toxic disposal by hiding it - Never a good idea.

Back in the 1950s the Department of Defense dumped 1,400 barrels into Lake Superior, not far from the Duluth-Superior Harbor. The barrels allegedly contained scrap metal. However, purple ooze eventually began to leak. 

The DOD contracted a local Indian band to recover some of those barrels, but it was done under strict news blackout. There were reports of "bouncing Geiger counters" in the area, which led to speculation as to their actual contents. 

In January the band issued a statement saying there was no immediate threat from those barrels. Which can also mean that the effects on human and animal health may take months or years to appear.
 

More info: ENENEWS
and : http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/259440/

************************************************************************

SWARMS OF ARMED DRONES SOON IN A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. 
Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/military-tech-news-swarms-of-armed.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is that a swarm of tiny armed drones chasing you?  Did you offend a highly placed government official?  Or did you fail to pay your parking tickets?

Reality is quickly catching up with very recent science fiction.  While it took many decades to catch up with Jules Verne's fantasies, now last year's daring and imaginative science fiction surprises us from today's technology news. Or from the skies above you. 

Death from a swarm of tiny drones: U.S. Air Force releases terrifying video of tiny flybots that can can hover, stalk and even kill targets

Air Vehicles Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, is already developing prototypes of tiny drones that can hover

The Micro Air Vehicles will work in swarms to provide complex surveillance of a battlefield

They can also be armed with incapacitating chemicals, combustible payloads or even explosives 'for precision targeting capability'

The US Airforce has proudly released a video with their latest publicly known drone technology. I say "publicly known" because there are other even more amazing technologies still in an early and secret development stage.

MAVs (Micro Air Vehicles) are tiny drones that can fly in swarms, hover above their targets, and even crawl on them and execute them.

Among their non-lethal capabilities, they can do outdoor and indoor surveillance, and inject their human targets with incapacitating chemicals.  But they can also blow up the whole thing with explosives. 

If you get hysterical at the sight of a spider crawling on your leg, or a bee buzzing near your nose, it's hard to imagine what even the thought of these swarming and crawling drones will do to your mind.

Sweet dreams.

More information, video and pictures:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281403/U-S-Air-Force-developing-terrifying-swarms-tiny-unmanned-drones-hover-crawl-kill-targets.html

****************************************************************************

A TRILLION TONS OF METHANE INTO OUR ATMOSPHERE? A NEW STUDY

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. 
Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/climate-news-trillion-tons-of-methane.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New study on rising temperatures and

 the release of Siberian methane into the atmosphere

 

Study of Siberian permafrost caves shows global warming of just 1.5C 'would pump out a TRILLION tonnes of methane and CO2'

 

An ice hall in the Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave: Stalactites and stalagmites only grow in the presence of liquid water. By dating them researchers worked out when they last grew and what the global temperatures were

 

U.N. studies show global temperatures have already risen by 0.7C

Huge increase in levels of CO2 could accelerate global warming

Infrastructure built on top of permafrost across the world would collapse

Governments currently committed to no more than 2C climate change

A little increase in global temperatures could unleash catastrophe. The Earth warming process feeds on itself. A small increase past a certain point could release unimaginable amounts of methane, now frozen in Siberian permafrost. 

Methane in the atmosphere would then act as a trigger for more global warming, precipitating a catastrophe.

Climate change is a fact, and it has been so for four and a half billion years. Ours is a living planet, and so it evolves, it suffers from crises, it adapts, it changes constantly.

In spite of disagreements over planet cooling and warming aside, present conditions point to global warming. I live in Canada and Arctic ice IS MELTING. 

Maybe these conditions will reverse, maybe not. And if they do not,  even small increases in global temperatures could unleash a catastrophe, once stored methane evaporates into the atmosphere.

A temperature increase of only 1.5 C could accelerate melting of Siberian permafrost adding 1,000 gigatones of carbon dioxide and methane to our atmosphere.

PLEASE FEED THE POLAR BEARS SAY SCIENTISTS

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/animal-news-please-feed-polar-bears-say.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other choice would be to let polar bears starve and go extinct
 

Some years ago during a conversation with friends I suggested that polar bears may need feeding stations to help them survive. They resort to raiding garbage dumps in the Canadian north during the summer season anyway, so in principle they are already dependent on humans for survival.

It is heart-wrenching to consider that these magnificent and beautiful creatures may disappear within a few decades. They are not only suffering from the loss of ice due to climate change, but they are also legally hunted by aboriginals and tourists in Canada.

Now scientists are supporting the idea of feeding polar bears to save them from extinction.  

A new policy document published by a group of scientists examines options to deal with the extinction of polar bears.  One of the options is to feed them. Others are to do nothing. 

From a strictly practical point of view - if no other considerations move our policy makers - saving these animals would make a lot of sense. In the Canadian north polar bears are a tourist attraction in an area that has not much to offer to the average tourist other than rugged - although beautiful - terrain.
 

Read more -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/02/14/north-feeding-polar-bears.html

Photo:  Sylvain Cordier
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/polar-bear-waves-at-photographer-and.html

*****************************************************************************

BOUNTY ON ALASKAN OTTERS?

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post: http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/otter-news-bounty-on-alaskan-otters.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.

 

ALASKA SENATOR WANTS  TO PUT BOUNTY ON OTTERS

 TO PROTECT SEAFOOD INDUSTRY 

 

Even if the bill were to pass, it would be unenforceable under the federal law, said Bruce Woods, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. States cannot enforce laws or regulations related to the taking of any marine mammal under the law unless the Interior secretary transfers conservation and management authority to that state. That hasn't happened.

Read more -
http://www.adn.com/2013/02/21/2797134/alaska-state-senator-proposes.html

*****************************************************************************