ANIMAL STORIES -

 

RUSSIAN MUSEUM HIRES CATS TO GUARD ARTWORK

 

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersbourg hires cat guards to protect artwork against rodents - Cats have been on duty since 1764

The museum administration has been employing these highly skillful guards even though nowadays rats and mice can easily be exterminated using chemicals.  The museum cannot do without cats who have become its living legend and mascot.

Hermitage-employed cats survived the October Revolution and continued their service under the Soviet government. However, they didn’t survive the siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. After starving people ate all the cats, the city was infested by rats. But as soon as the blockade was over, two carriages with cats arrived in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg) from Russia’s central regions making the backbone of a new squadron of rat-eating cats.

Each so-called “hermit” carries a passport with a photo certifying that he is qualified to pursue the difficult task of protecting the museum basements against rodents. The cats are well looked after, fed properly, attended to if ill and respected for their hard work. Museum employees know all male and female cats by their names, and the name for each cat is picked carefully, to suit his or her character.

The team of tailed guards consists mainly of alley cats, and like in the imperial times, the cat community hinges on strict hierarchy. The cats fall into aristocrats, the middle caste, and the low caste. Each group operates within a certain designated part of the building.

The cat staff cannot exceed 50-60 cats, not because they’ll be difficult to look after in terms of cat food. If the number of cats exceeds 60, they start cat fights and neglect their duties. For this reason, from time to time, the museum has to look for people who would adopt extra cats.

Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/2249159/75927890/

TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

 

USING YOUR CELL PHONE TO SEE THROUGH WALLS

 

New WiVi app built-in to your cell phone would let you see behind walls - this is truly the end of privacy

 

MIT professor Dina Katabi and graduate student Fadel Adib have announced Wi­Vi, a demonstration of a technology that uses Wi­Fi to allow a viewer to "see" a person moving behind a wall. (Wi­Vi stands for "Wi­Fi" and "vision.")

 

The trick is canceling out all interfering signals – Wi-Fi doesn't just bounce off humans, but also walls, floors, and furniture. And those signals are 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than the reflections off a human body. 

 

Katabi's wi­vi sends out two wireless signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. In what Katabi calls "interference nulling," the two signals cancel each other out unless they hit a moving target – such as a human.  "To silence the noise, we change the structure of the Wi-Fi signal so all the undesired reflections cancel," she said.

 

The device is meant to be portable so, for example, a person worried that someone was hiding in the bushes could do a quick scan for her personal safety.

 

Read more:  http://www.livescience.com/37837-researchers-see-through-walls-with-wi-vi.html
More on WiVi - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421218,00.asp

Related:
Wi-See detects your gestures using WiFi  -     http://www.technewsdaily.com/18262-gesture-detection-system-uses-wifi.html

MIND NEWS -

THEORY - MIND AS A QUANTUM PHENOMENON

 

 

Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona propose that the brain acts as a quantum computer — a computational machine that makes use of quantum mechanical phenomena (like the ability of particles to be in two places at once) to perform complex calculations.

In the brain, fibers inside neurons could form the basic units of quantum computation, Penrose and Hameroff explained at the Global Future 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference held here June 15-16.

The idea is appealing, because neuroscience, so far, has no satisfactory explanation for consciousness — the state of being self-aware and having sensory experiences and thoughts. But many scientists are skeptical, citing a lack of experimental evidence for the idea.

Penrose's work rests on an interpretation of the mathematician Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem, which states that certain results cannot be proven by a computer algorithm. Penrose argues that human mathematicians are capable of proving so-called "Godel-unprovable" results, and therefore human brains cannot be described as typical computers. Instead, he says, to achieve these higher abilities, brain processes must rely on quantum mechanics.

Hameroff read Penrose's work and suggested small fibrous structures that give cells their structural support — known as microtubules — might be capable of carrying out quantum computations.

Microtubules are made up of units of the protein tubulin, which contains regions where electrons are swirling around very close to each other. Hameroff proposed that these electrons could become "quantum entangled," a state in which two particles retain a connection, and an action performed on one affects the other, even when the two are separated by a distance.

Read more:  http://www.nbcnews.com/science/intriguing-consciousness-theory-skeptics-want-evidence-6C10486211
The above theory in depth, with diagrams: Quantum computation in brain microtubules? The Penrose-Hameroff "Orch OR" model of consciousness
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/penrose-hameroff/quantumcomputation.html
A skeptic's view:  http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/09/q-is-the-brain-and-consciousness-quantum-mechanical-in-nature/
Brain entanglement could explain memories - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18371-brain-entanglement-could-explain-memories.html#.Uc-QTGFrbMw
Related:
Articles on the brain on this blog - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Brain
Articles on the mind on this blog -  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Mind

PHYSICS NEWS -

 

THE NEW ANTIMATTER GUN

 

 Sounds militaristic but it's only a tabletop gun - a physicist's toy so far

PHYS.ORG - An international team of physicists working at the University of Michigan has succeeded in building a tabletop antimatter "gun" capable of spewing short bursts of positrons.
 

Positrons are anti-particles, the opposite twin of electrons. Besides being created in physics labs, they are also found in jets emitted by black holes and pulsars.

To date, the creation of positrons for study has involved very big and expensive machines. One of those is the particle accelerator at CERN. Another is a device built by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that created positrons by firing a hugely powerful laser at a tiny disc made of gold.

HOW IT'S DONE: To achieve this feat, the team fired a petawatt laser at a sample of inert helium gas. Doing so caused the creation of a stream of electrons moving at very high speed. Those electrons were directed at a very thin sheet of metal foil which caused them to smash into individual metal atoms. Those collisions resulted in a stream of electron and positron emissions—the two were then separated using magnets.

The researchers report that each blast of their gun lasts just 30 femtoseconds, but each firing results in the production of quadrillions of positrons—a density level comparable to those produced at CERN.

The researchers suggest their device could be used to mimic the jet streams from black holes and/or pulsars, hopefully offering some answers to questions such as, what sort of proportion of particles are present in such streams, how much energy is in them, and in what ways do the particles in them interact with the environment into which they are spewed.

Read more: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-physicists-tabletop-antimatter-gun.html

THE REAL ANGRY BIRDS - OWL AND WOODPECKER BATTLE IT OUT

ANIMAL PICTURES - 

THE REAL ANGRY BIRDS 

Owl and woodpecker battle it out 

 

The parental instinct kicked in for both birds as they fought for territory and food for their babies.

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2349911/The-claws-A-tiny-owl-angry-woodpecker-clash-food-young-dramatic-battle-birds.html

CONDORS BESIEGING CALIFORNIA TOWN

ANIMAL NEWS -

 

CONDORS BESIEGING CALIFORNIA TOWN

 

Maybe these angry birds have reasons to be angry 

Flocks of California condors have descended upon Bear Valley Springs. Residents, who are allowed to do little to chase them away, say the huge birds peck off roof shingles, damage air conditioners and leave porches coated in droppings. And although the majestic birds, with a wingspan of nine feet, are widely admired, the gated community of about 5,200 about 80 miles north of Los Angeles has seen enough of them.

 

Unfortunately for the residents, the birds are protected by both federal and state law, leaving them almost powerless to take action. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 66 of the remaining 417 condors live in Southern California.

 

The condors caused significant damage on the outside of a rental property of Hall's, leaving her with big repair bills. The worst of it took place on her deck after one of the birds opened and spilled a can of white paint. Other condors tracked the paint all around on the deck, Hall said.

 

According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife the species has become endangered in large part to human activities over the past two centuries. Poison bait, environmental pollutants, and contamination from lead fragments have been major causes of death. Their eggs have also been threatened by growing numbers of ravens that follow the condor’s nesting range.

 

Read more:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/13/intruder-endangered-bird-species-damages-california-community-homes/

Related:

Birds attack tourists - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/animal-news-bird-swarms-attack-tourists.html
 

ANIMAL VIDEOS -

 

BATTLE BETWEEN SQUIRREL AND SNAKE

 

It went on for half an hour, it ended in a draw when firefighters separated them

Normally snakes attack and eat squirrels, but this fearless squirrel may have been protecting her babies nearby, so she took on a snake much larger than herself that was wrapped around a deck chair.  The snake was bitten repeatedly but they thought it would be OK. 

Read more and watch video - http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/26/caught-on-video-squirrel-vs-snake-in-backyard-brawl/

ANIMAL PICTURES -

 

BEAUTIFUL STORY IN PICTURES OF WOMAN WHO SAVED HER HORSE

 

 A dramatic rescue as the horse was weakening after several hours stuck in the mud, with the tide approaching, but with his owner by his side holding his head so he could breathe.  Her love and determination saved his life.

A friend e-mailed me a photo gallery with pictures of animals.  Among them was one about a woman who stayed with her horse when he got stuck in the mud, and held his head for three hours to keep him from drowning.  It was thanks to her efforts that the horse managed to survive until help arrived to free him from the mud. 

 

I found the story quite moving so I googled it, and here it is for you.  It is from February 2012.  The images are very dramatic and beautiful at the same time.  They show how strong the bond of love between people and animals can be. 

 

Our admiration and gratitude for Nicole Graham of Australia, for her loving loyalty to her horse Astro.

See pictures and more details on the story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107521/Nicole-Graham-Astro-Mother-stayed-horses-3-hours-getting-trapped.html

Reactions to the story: 
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/02/28/309971_news.html

ARCHITECTURE NEWS -

THE GIANT HANGING GARDENS OF DUSSELDORF

 

This super cool interactive architecture is a playground for the imagination - just climb up and play spider games 

Hanging 80 feet in the air this huge installation has turned art lovers into 'spiders' by recreating their intricate webs with 2500-square metres of mesh.  The three storey structure built in Dusseldorf, Germany, allows up to ten people to float on gigantic air-filled PVC balls, as well as play spider by stalking people below. 

 

The three-tonnes of netting took three-years to compose into the impressive structure, called 'In Orbit' by engineers under the direction of Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno.

Read more, see picture and video:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2348740/The-hanging-gardens-Dusseldorf-80ft-art-installation-creates-giant-human-spiderweb-2500-square-metres-mesh.html

BOTANY NEWS -

CRAB GRASS  MAKES ITS OWN HERBICIDE TO KILL OTHER PLANTS

 

There's an all-out chemical warfare in that peaceful lawn 

Contrary to popular belief, crabgrass does not thrive in lawns, gardens and farm fields by simply crowding out other plants. A new study in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that the much-despised weed actually produces its own herbicides that kill nearby plants.

Read more:  http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/56160
Plants and trees communicate with each other:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/botany-news-plants-and-trees.html
More on plants and trees on this blog: 
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Plants%20and%20Trees

GOVERNMENT CONTROL NEWS -

THE COMPLETE ANNOTATED HISTORY OF US GOVERNMENT SPYING ON CITIZENS

 

 It's a clear diagram reminiscent of a centipede, each leg identified in chronological order. It's worth keeping for your children to tell them some day, This is how it all started...

Presented with little comment - via the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the full timeline of legislation, rulings, and events related to domestic surveillance in the United States (based on credible accounts and information found in the media, congressional testimony, books, and court actions).

 

See diagram here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-25/complete-annotated-history-spying-ourselves
 

ARCHITECTURE NEWS -

 

BUILDINGS DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE BARCODES

 

 The result is mixed - to put it kindly

See a surprisingly large collection of buildings inspired by the ubiquitous barcode.

Click here: http://io9.com/buildings-designed-to-look-like-barcodes-569396673

PET CAPYBARA LOOKS LIKE A GIANT GUINEA PIG - AND IS JUST AS CUTE

 This unusual rodent, as large as a big dog, has established a loving bond with his human family

CAPYBARAS can weigh up to 65 kilograms (150 pounds) and are the biggest rodents in the world. 

GARY THE CAPYBARA comes when he is called, loves to swim in the pool, and sleeps with his human family, who adopted him during their holiday in Venezuela.  

 

He is as affectionate as a puppy and gets along great with other pets. He can wear a leash when he goes out, and rides in the family car. Although Gary is a sweetheart, capybaras in general can become aggressive, so be careful if you want to befriend one in the wild.

 

See picture of Gary nuzzling against a kitten, and giving kisses to people and animals around him. It's impossible not to adore him.
 

More info, pictures and video here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345934/The-Texas-couple-share-home-EIGHT-STONE-capybara-named-Gary.html


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

You too love capybaras so here is an update:

UPDATE 

SEE MORE CAPYBARA STORIES ON THIS BLOG HERE:

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/capybaras-those-adorable-giant-rodents.html


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

TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

SMART LUGGAGE THAT AIRLINES CAN'T LOSE

 

 It's got its own built-in GPS tracker

Intelligent suitcase is embedded with a satellite tracker and a barcode.  Bag2Go app allows you to check that your suitcase is in the airplane.

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2341600/The-luggage-GPS-tracking-device-makes-impossible-lost.html

COMMENTARY -

SOMETIMES IT'S HARD TO CARE FOR HUMANKIND'S FATE

 

 Brother of German Universal Circus Rentz's owner turns the drowning of an elephant into a clowning show - Crowd in Estonia watch in amusement for forty minutes. 

By Tracy W.
I try to keep a rather upbeat tone on this blog. But it's hard. As I surf the web too often I encounter reports that anger me and make me wonder whether the human race deserves to be saved at all.

 

It is not only governments that are behaving badly, but people everywhere, even from countries we regard as "advanced" - that is, mostly free from the pressures that are blamed for human brutality.

 

Animal abuse is occurring with alarming frequency.  For no reason at all, since anyone unable or unwilling to take care of an animal can always take him to an animal shelter or give it away. 

 

I don't cry easily. Sometimes years pass without me shedding a tear. I'm tough. But not when it comes to animal suffering.  Last night I read about a circus elephant in Europe who collapsed while bathing in a river, and while it was drowning, the brother of the circus owner put on "a clowning show" repeatedly jumping on the elephant while the crowd watched and laughed - entertained, I suppose - for forty long minutes, as the animal drowned in agony. 

 

I was so distressed by this story that I cried.  I could not watch the video, the pictures were heartbreaking enough.

 

This is not the kind of story that I like to post on my blog, but today I can't get it out of my mind.  It makes me angry and it hurts. 

 

DAILY MAIL:  Horrifying moment a circus worker DANCED on the body of a dying elephant after it collapsed while bathing in a river.  A shocking video was filmed by horrified bystanders in Estonia.   (How horrified were they if they did not attempt to assist the elephant?)

The film shows Madi, a 48-year-old Indian elephant slowly drowning.  She was on tour as part of Germany's Universal Circus Renz.  As Madi - clearly frail and in distress - stumbles onto her side into the water, the zoo owner's brother Rene Renz leaps onto her back and begins clowning around for spectators. (Obviously the crowd were amused!)
 

Read more here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2347337/Horrifying-moment-circus-worker-dances-body-dying-elephant-collapsed-bathing-river.html

Humans have inflicted untold cruelty to animals ever since the first archaic humans emerged, with their rudimentary weapons. The megafauna (mammoths and other large animals) of Europe, Asia and the Americas were all wiped out by humans. Humans continue to inflict devastation on land and oceans, destroying both animals and their environment. 

Humans have no useful role to play in the web of life. We appear to be nothing but  destructful parasites on this beautiful planet, making it sick instead of honoring it by making it a better place. 

No Mozart or Michelangelo is worth what we're doing to our Earth.  Even our much vaunted ventures into space have left a trail of garbage on the Moon and in orbit around our planet.  If Earth is a living entity, as many of us believe (Gaia theory), she will find a way of healing herself of the human presence someday, somehow.

 

More on this blog: 

 

Do Humans have a Purpose, or are they Nature's Mistake? - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/science-questions-do-humans-have.html

 Elephants face extinction in ten years unless ivory trade is banned -

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/animal-news-elephants-face-extinction.html 

Ivory buyers, shame on you!

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/animal-news-ivory-buyers-shame-on-you_1.html

 

PLEASE - teach your children to be kind to all animals, not just the cute ones, and do what you can to help stop the use of animals in circuses,  movies, commercials and other forms of entertainment. What you don't see is the extreme cruelty with which these enslaved animals are often treated - in spite of reassurances to the contrary.  And also please demand tougher sentences for all animal abusers.

 

PICTURES -

 

AWESOME PICTURES FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO CONTEST

 

 Animals, exotic landscapes - images that seem more a dream than reality

Click to see pictures here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2347731/Take-look-mirror-The-awesome-diversity-Earth-captured-National-Geographic-Contest.html

TWO DISASTERS IN ALBERTA, CANADA

ENVIRONMENT NEWS -

 

TWO DISASTERS IN ALBERTA, CANADA

 

The Tar Sands wreak havoc on the environment in the north, while the Bow river floods Oil Town Calgary in the south 

By Tracy W.

The province of Alberta was in the news this past week as raging waters from the Bow River innundated the city of Calgary and other southern Alberta localities.  It's a major disaster, as downtown businesses and residences all over town were completely flooded. The material loss is enormous.

 

The resulting emotional trauma is incalculable.  Many people have literally lost everything they owned.  The water in many basements reached eight feet.  Houses were wrenched from their foundations and carried away by the waters.  Power outages could last for months.  The number of fatalities was small, but each one is a major tragedy for their loved ones.

 

Calgary is also known as Oil Town, the hub where deals are made and fortunes are built. 

 

Higher up north is the region known as the TAR SANDS.  A huge scar in the earth where oversized machinery and oversized trucks and oversized greed extract oil.  - Where once there was pristine nature full of living things, today there is an ever expanding ecological disaster zone - all in the name of economic development. 

 

Precious water is being wasted and contaminated in the process of oil extraction.  The soil is forever toxic, lifeless. The air is foul.  This is a disaster of such magnitude that it is visible from the Space Station.  Tens of thousands of migratory birds have perished in the Tar Sands poisonous tailings ponds sludge.

 

See  pictures of Tar Sands muddy moonscape on articles below. 

 

National Geographic article :  The giant dump trucks that rumble around the mine, hauling 400-ton loads from the shovels to a rock crusher, burn 50 gallons of diesel fuel an hour each. And every day in the Athabasca Valley, more than a million tons of sand emerges from such crushers and is mixed with more than 200,000 tons of water that must be heated to wash out the gluey bitumen.

 

At the upgraders, the bitumen gets heated again, to about 900°F, and compressed to more than 100 atmospheres—that's what it takes to crack the complex molecules and either subtract carbon or add back the hydrogen the bacteria removed ages ago. That's what it takes to make the light hydrocarbons we need to fill our gas tanks.  

 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text

 

Canadian Geographic picture and article on Tar Sands:  it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the Athabasca oil sands were launched on today’s bitumen mega-arc - bitumen being the thick, tarlike hydrocarbon extracted from the sands and refined into synthetic crude oil.

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jun08/feature_tar_sands.asp

 

Nature lashes out:

 

National Post  photos of an enraged Bow river as it devastates the city of Calgary just this past week:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/20/pictures-and-videos-of-massive-flooding-in-canmore-and-southern-alberta/

 

Globe and Mail more photos of the Alberta flood of June, 2013:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/incredible-videos-and-photos-of-calgary-flooding-shared-on-social-media/article12739881/

ARCHITECTURE NEWS -

WOODEN RESIDENTIAL SKYSCRAPER PLANNED IN SWEDEN

 

 Now, what could go wrong?  But it's green.

Cost-wise, they say wood is cheaper to build and better for the environment than using steel-and-concrete for buildings. Wood costs less to transport due to its lightness, too. While the building is made mostly of wood, it would have a concrete core.

 

Wooden pillars, beams, walls, and ceilings in the plan are encased within a glass façade, with the walls, ceilings and window frames visible from the exterior through the large windows.

 

Each apartment will have this glass-covered veranda, while the building itself will be powered by solar panels on the roof.

Read more, see pictures and diagram here:  http://phys.org/news/2013-06-timbers-architects-wood-skyscraper-resident.html

PICTURES -

SUPERMOON BEST PICTURES

 

 The effect goes from the eerie to the romantic to the mysterious - Ordinary objects captured next to the Supermoon

The supermoon will appear 14 percent larger and 30 per cent brighter than normal this year - the outcome of a cosmic quirk as the moon orbits within about 222,000 miles (357,000 kilometers) of our planet. 

Some viewers may think the shining orb looks more dazzling, but it's actually an optical illusion.  The glowing disc is simply larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.

See pictures here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346857/Supermoon-June-2013-Amazing-pictures-solar-systems-best-lunar-weekend.html
Supermoon explained:  http://www.space.com/21676-supermoon-science-full-moon-2013.html

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS -

 

EGYPTIAN STATUE MOVES ON ITS OWN

 

 UK MUSEUM SCIENTISTS BAFFLED - IS THIS THE PHARAOHS CURSE? CAMERAS SHOW ACTUAL MOVEMENT OF STATUE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY FOUND WITH MUMMY.

UK DAILY MAIL reports:  It sounds like something from the script of a Hollywood action adventure. But the 'mystery of the moving mummy' - which has seen an Egyptian statue mysteriously start to spin round in a display case - has spooked museum bosses.

 

The 10-inch tall relic, an offering to the Egyptian God Osiris, was found in a mummy's tomb and has been at the Manchester Museum for 80 years. But in recent weeks, curators have been left scratching their heads after they kept finding it facing the wrong way.

 

They now believe there could be a 'spiritual explanation' for the turning statue. It is believed that there is a curse of the pharaohs which strikes anyone who dares to take relics from a pyramid tomb.  Experts decided to monitor the room on time-lapse video and were astonished to see it clearly show the statuette spinning 180 degrees - with nobody going near it.

 

Read more, see pictures and video: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346758/Ancient-Egyptian-statue-started-MOVING-sparking-fears-struck-curse-Pharaohs.html
More on the Curse of the Pharaohs:  http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/tutcurse.html

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

A HOAX?  There are many ways of remotely moving an object.  Personally, I think there is a physical explanation for the spinning Egyptian statue.  Stay tuned. 
Tracy. 

NUCLEAR NEWS -

HANFORD, THE MOST RADIOACTIVE PLACE ON EARTH

 

 It tops the list of Ten Most Radioactive Places on Earth - Its contamination of surrounding environment is now out of control, with government experts clueless on what to do.

Although decommissioned, the Hanford nuclear storage site in Washington state still holds two thirds of the volume of the country’s high-level radioactive waste, about 53 million gallons of liquid waste, 25 million cubic feet of solid waste and 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater underneath the area.  Hanford manufactured plutonium for the United States first nuclear bomb and the subsequent building up of a nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

 

The other 9 more radioactive sites are in the former Soviet Union, except for Sellafield in the UK, the Somalia coast, and the entire Mediterranean, where it is alleged the Mafia has been disposing of radioactive and other toxic waste by scuttling vessels containing such waste.  Fukushima has now joined this Ten Most Radioactive Places in the World with their ongoing nuclear plant disaster.  Sellafield releases some 8 million liters of contaminated waste into the sea on a daily basis!

Read more:  http://brainz.org/ten-most-radioactive-places-earth/
More on Hanford:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Hanford
Up-to-date news on Hanford:  Enenews - http://enenews.com/category/location/u-s-canada

ANIMAL STORIES -

 

MOTHER CAT NURSES PIT BULL ORPHAN

 

 One-week old Noland was left at a dog shelter. Lurleen Cat loved him from the start. She nurses him and grooms him, as if he were her own baby

Lurleen Cat is nursing a one-week old Noland after he was left at a dog shelter.  Since Noland is a bit larger than Lurleen's kittens, the staff are supplementing his feedings with formula.  Noland spends about nine hours a day with his cat family, and goes home with a staff member in the evening, who bottle-feeds him and monitors him overnight. 

Before he was adopted by Lurleen, his chances of survival had been iffy.  But feline motherly love and nursing have saved his life. 

See pictures and video of mom and her adorable kittens and puppy: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2345234/Now-thats-puppy-love-The-mother-cat-nursing-week-old-pit-bull-left-orphaned-animal-shelter.html

PICTURES -

FARMING IN BIZARRE PLACES

 

 Click to see pictures of farming in unexpected places

High above a city or deep below ground, in caves or on a boat, these farms offer some spectacular views and intriguing agricultural methods, and their imaginative approaches may well serve as blueprints for ensuring a sustainable, food-secure future.

Read more and see many photographs here: 
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/essential-guide-farms-in-unexpected-places

TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

TV COMPANIES WANT TO WATCH YOU - WHILE YOU WATCH THEM

 

We used to take the privacy of our own home for granted. No more.  Anyway, our gadgets are already spying on us. 

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano has introduced a bill, the We Are Watching You Act Bill, to prohibit the technology on boxes and collection of information absent consumer permission.

 

The bill would also require companies that do use the data to show “we are watching you” messages on the screen and to explain just what kinds of information is being captured and for what reasons.  (Well, that's great comfort to know.)

 

The technology includes cameras and microphones that are installed on DVRs or cable boxes and analyzes viewers’ responses, behaviors and statements to various ads — and then provides advertisements that are targeted to the particular household.

 

Specifically, the technology can monitor sleeping, eating, exercising, reading and more.

“This may sound preposterous, but it’s neither a joke nor an exaggeration,” said Mr. Capuano in a statement,  “These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy.”

Read more:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/17/big-brother-alert-cameras-cable-box-monitor-tv-vie/

Source:  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/cameras-your-cable-box-150374

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FORGET THE NSA - YOUR GADGETS ARE ALREADY SPYING ON YOU

A security firm has discovered a glitch in Samsung's Smart TV that "can give hackers access to the device's built-in camera and microphones, allowing them to watch everything you do," RT.com reported recently.

The Malta-based security company, ReVuln, posted a video demonstrating how a team of researchers were able to hack into the Smart TV and access its setting, widgets, channel lists, USB drives and configurations for its remote control. The flaw permits hackers to gain access to any and all personal data stored on the TV as well, said the firm.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038911_smart_TVs_television_surveillance.html 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Smartphones possess an arsenal of powerful features — including microphones, GPS receivers, accelerometers and Wi-Fi antennas — that are meant to help users communicate and access information, but those very same tools can also be used for spying.

 

An infected desktop computer might record all the conversations you have in your home office, but a smartphone can record all those top-secret meetings you attend at headquarters or next week's clandestine rendezvous.

Researchers with the U.S. military developed an Android app that creates a 3D map of a phone's surroundings by taking candid photos and collecting orientation data with the phone's accelerometer.

 

Last year, a group of German researchers demonstrated the inherent vulnerabilities in smart-meter systems by hacking into an electric company's wireless network and intercepting the supposedly private information of its users.

 

Equipped with a digital fingerprint of a home's power usage, the researchers could tell when residents were at home, away or asleep. They could even tell what movies people were watching in their living rooms.

Read more:  http://news.yahoo.com/forget-nsa-tech-gadgets-spying-170109659.html

EMP NEWS -

NEWT GINGRICH - STILL TRYING TO WAKE UP CONGRESS ABOUT EMP DANGER

 

 This could be the kind of catastrophe that ends civilization, and that's not an exaggeration - said Gingrich

Former Congressman and Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has spent decades trying to alert Congress about the consequences of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) event - whether natural or deliberate - to no avail. 

 

Newt Gingrich returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to raise the issue of the United States unpreparedness regarding the possibility of an EMP event.

 

Addressing members of the Electromagnetic Pulse Caucus, the former he said the fallout from a high-altitude nuclear blast known as an EMP — which could damage or destroy American power grids and electronics — could deal society a deathblow.

“The reason I began focusing on this a decade ago is there are very few events you can’t recover from. You can recover from 9/11, you can recover from Pearl Harbor. This is really different,” Gingrich said. “This creates such a collapse of our fundamental productive capacity that you could literally see a civilization crash and tear itself apart fighting … internally.”

Read more:  http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/electromagnetic-pulse-newt-gingrich-emp-attack-93002.html
 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

THEY HAVE WARNED US

Some years ago a group of nine distinguished scientists co-authored a report for the US Congress entitled Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. This was a laudable project, but unfortunately Congress decided to publish this report on the same day they released their 9/11 Commission Report. Public attention to the EMP report was minimal. 

 

The novel A Second After by William R. Forstchen tells in all its grim details what would happen to a small college community after an EMP event. 

 

The suffering, starvation and war that develops over a period of a year is nothing compared to the complete disaster and human degradation that befalls bigger cities.

The author estimates that the population of big cities would be reduced to a small fraction, and that up to 250 million Americans would lose their lives to starvation, sickness and violence. Bear in mind that if Europe is spared a simultaneous EMP attack, organizing, delivering and distributing their aid would take months, at best. Hungry people can't wait that long. 

Read more: http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/04/emp-issues-we-are-not-prepared-for.html

TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

3D HEADGEAR FOR MOBILE VIRTUAL REALITY

 

 Called Mixed Reality, it allows you to walk around an object of your choice and see it from all angles

This VR headgear can beam digital images into real life environments. It projects a 3D image from a computer screen into your surroundings.

 

You could choose to walk around the 3D projection as if it were real. It could be a giant ant, or an art sculpture, or landmark downloaded from Google and and see it from all angles.

 

As the wearer moves, the images on the display panels move so that they align with their point of view.  This changes the angle at which they are looking at the 3D projection.  This process is done almost simultaneously so that the virtual world lines up with the real one and includes scaling and resizing.

 

The system developed by Canon of Japan runs on Windows 7 and Windows XP.  Although the technology was first announced back in 2010, the company showed off the device at the Virtual Reality Expo in Tokyo this week and said it will start selling the platform from the end of this month.

 

Read more, see video, pictures and diagrams :  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2344489/The-3D-virtual-reality-headgear-projects-digital-image-real-life-environments.html

 

TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

 

STAR WARS HOLOGRAMS FROM YOUR LAPTOP

 

 Unlike a 3-D image, a holographic projection allows the viewer to move around and get different perspectives from all angles

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!  Remember that line on Star Wars, when Princess Leia sends a hologram message with droid Artoo Deeto?

 

Soon you may be able to send hologram messages to someone's laptop.   It will take some work but it's possible. 

Until now key elements of display size, viewing angle, frame rate, and depth of image are restricted.  But scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) think they can overcome most of those obstacles with a newly developed spatial light modulator.  They envision a holographic monitor that could be built with about $500. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2344562/Star-Wars-style-moving-holograms-longer-lightyears-away-breakthrough-3D-technology.html

Daniel Smalley, a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab and first author on the new paper, is building a prototype color holographic-video display whose resolution is roughly that of a standard-definition TV and which can update video images 30 times a second, fast enough to produce the illusion of motion. The heart of the display is an optical chip, resembling a microscope slide, that Smalley built, using only MIT facilities, for about $10.

 

Read more details on this fascinating project on the MIT news release:

http://web.mit.edu/press/2013/cheap-color-holographic-video.html 

ANIMAL PICTURES -

WORLD'S UGLIEST DOGS?

 

 But adorable!  They will make you smile

There is no such thing as an ugly dog. Goofy, ridiculous, bizarre, yes. But ugly?  Absolutely not.

 

These dogs entered The World Ugliest Dog competition, and were judged according to four categories:  first impressions, unique features, personality, and audience reaction. 

The winner gets fame and recognition, often appearing in the talk show circuit and local dog events.  Many go on to become doggy ambassadors for the rescue dog movement, since many of the contestants are rescue dogs themselves.

See the very funny pictures here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342999/Who-calling-pug-ugly-Meet-ruff-contenders-battling-worlds-ugliest-dog-competition.html

UPDATE - Winner of Ugliest Dogs Contest - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346528/Is-really-worlds-ugliest-dog-Beagle-boxer-basset-hound-mix-called-Walle-wins-25th-annual-Worlds-Ugliest-Dog-Contest.html

ANIMAL NEWS -

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS A LION AND A TIGER?

 

 You get a cute LIGER

Three LILIGER tigers were born at a zoo in Novosibirsk, Russia.

 

The hybrid of a male lion and a tigress is called a LIGER.  Cubs are referred to as LILIGERS.  The liger is the biggest cat in the world.

 

Although the mother and her cubs look like tigers, she is a liger.  Zita, the mom, was born in the zoo in 2004.  The cubs' father is Sam, an African lion. 

See pictures of cute liliger cubs and watch videos here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2344461/Its-tiger-lion--liger-Mother-gives-birth-adorable-rare-cubs-grow-largest-cats-world.html

More information on ligers:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger

GEOLOGY NEWS -

NEW SUBDUCTION ZONE BRINGS EUROPE CLOSER TO AMERICA

 

Newly found subduction zone off the coast of Portugal.

 

Subduction zones are areas where one of the tectonic plates that cover the Earth's surface dives beneath another plate into the mantle - the layer just below the crust.  Tectonic plates movements are so powerful over time, that they can bring continents together into one Supercontinent.

 

Lead author Dr João Duarte said  his team mapped the ocean floor and found it was beginning to fracture, indicating tectonic activity around the apparently passive South West Iberia plate margin.

 

"What we have detected is the very beginnings of an active margin - it's like an embryonic subduction zone," Dr Duarte said.

 

Significant earthquake activity, including the 1755 quake which devastated Lisbon, suggested the existence of convergent tectonic movement in the area. Now it has been confirmed.

 

The incipient subduction in the Iberian zone could signal the start of a new phase of the Wilson Cycle - where plate movements break up supercontinents, like Pangaea, and open oceans, stabilise, and then form new subduction zones which close the oceans and bring the scattered continents back together.

 

This break-up and reformation of supercontinents has happened at least three times, over more than four billion years, on Earth. The Iberian subduction will gradually pull Iberia (Spain and Portugal) towards the United States over approximately 220 million years.

 
Read more: 
http://phys.org/news/2013-06-embryonic-subduction-zone.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/06/17/3783617.htm
Excellent article:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2345104/A-new-crack-discovered-ocean-floor-pull-North-America-Europe--cause-Atlantic-Ocean-disappear-completely.html

Tectonic activities tend to produce earthquakes.  Any earthquake on the other side of the Atlantic can result in a tsunami travelling towards the American east coast.  There is a very active volcano in the Canary Islands (El Hierro), off the African coast. If there is a major eruption, a tidal wave may also head this way

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/volcano-news-canary-islands-earthquake.html

 

RELATED:

SUBDUCTION ZONE explained, with illustration: 
http://www.universetoday.com/74588/what-is-a-subduction-zone/
 
Illustration showing the major fracture along the Atlantic Ocean:  
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130617104614.htm

MAP OF PANGEA with present political borders - Pangea was the last instance when all continents merged into one massive supercontinent. Pangea began breaking up 200 million years ago.

http://io9.com/heres-what-pangea-looks-like-mapped-with-modern-politi-509812695

Additional geology news on this blog: http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Geology
Volcano news: 
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Volcanoes

ANIMAL NEWS -

 

ELEPHANTS FACE EXTINCTION UNLESS IVORY TRADE IS BANNED

 

 THEY MAY DISAPPEAR IN TEN YEARS AT THIS RATE OF POACHING

China needs to act now on the country's illegal ivory trade to stop elephants becoming extinct, according to one conservationist.

 

Joyce Poole, co-director of Elephant Voices, said the creatures had experienced their worst year in history, with more than 7 per cent killed for their tusks in only a year.

 

She called for China to tackle the country's appetite for ivory to save the remaining 400,000 elephants from extinction, and said the species would be extinct within a decade if poaching continued at the current rate.

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2343137/Elephants-face-extinction-Beijing-does-ban-ivory-trade-China-accounts-nearly-half-40-000-killed-year-tusks.html

 

RELATED:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/animal-news-ivory-buyers-shame-on-you_1.html

BEE NEWS -

 

BEE SPERM BANK BEING DEVELOPED

 

 THE BEE DIE OFF SITUATION IS DESPERATE

 

Washington State University scientists are developing a sperm bank to capture the biodiversity of honey bees. The hope is to breed stronger pollinators, since populations keep declining.

 

Researchers are preparing to use liquid nitrogen to create a frozen semen bank. They’re also trying to come up with a new super-bee subspecies that could thwart the phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.

 

The project is financed by agribusiness, and will be collecting bees in the European Alps and the United States.

Read more:  http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-wsu-researchers-to-create-sperm-bank-for-honey-bees/

The desperate situation resulting from a world-wide bee die off is already resulting in failed harvests, such as the case with California almond trees.  Bees are top pollinators, and many food items we consume daily would disappear from supermarkets without bee pollination.

 

Although bees are displaying health problems causing their demise, pesticides and GMOs are believed to be the main culprits for fatal damage done to the bees organs and immune system. 

Pesticides and government inaction behind bees disappearance -
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/bees-issues-pesticides-and-government.html

Colony Collapse Disorder on the rise as researchers point to Pesticides -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/bee-deaths-colony-collapse_n_2979959.html

See pictures of what your supermarket would look like with gaps for missing items due to bees disappearance:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342069/What-supermarket-look-like-bees-die-Empty-shelves-scant-produce-options.html

Government ilegally seizes Monsanto-resistant bees from bee researcher Terrence Ingram.
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/government-control-news-monsanto.html

ARCHITECTURE NEWS -

 

BERLIN PALACE- A GHOST FROM THE PAST TO BE RECONSTRUCTED

 

By Tracy W.

 

In a city full of ghosts, one demolished building will come back to life.  Berlin plans to reconstruct the Stadtschloss - the Kaiser's Palace or Berlin Palace.

For those outside Germany the Stadtschloss - the old Emperor's palace in Berlin - may not mean anything at all.  But that unattractive building once had high emotional meaning for those who held the empire in high esteem, and for its detractors for its symbolic association with the emperors, their Prussian-style autocratic regime, and their wars. 

 

Books have given me vivid images of that palace:  I see the revolutionaries after the First World War gathering outside the palace.  I see Communists and Nationalists clashing with each other. And I see the iconic moment in November of 1918, when Karl Liebknecht, the Communist leader, proclaimed the end of the empire and the birth of the republic from one of the palace balconies.  The Emperor would soon be on the run, and Liebknecht would be murdered by police.  The democratic Weimar Republic would hold on for a while, and eventually the Nazis would rule from 1933 to 1945.  

 

But before that, at the end of the First World War in 1918, soldiers were returning defeated, hungry and enraged against the regime.  More than 1,700,000 German soldiers were killed in that war, more than four million were wounded or crippled.  They were shot during battle, or fell due to the effects of poison gas, cold and starvation.  They had been led into that brutal war by Kaiser Wilhelm II, and now the population wanted him out.

 

Passions ran high in Berlin then, as they would for many years until the end of the Second World War. The palace survived heavy bombardment by the Allies during World War Two, only to succumb to the wrecking ball in September of 1950, under orders from the East German Communist regime. 

 

Curiously, that government decided to preserve the balcony from which Liebknecht had proclaimed the republic.  The rest of the palace was demolished.  The flat empty space was named Marx-Engels Platz, and years later, in the mid-Seventies, the government erected the hideous Palace of the Republic.  In 1989 the Communist regime collapsed, allowing the unification of East and West Germany.  Soon the Palace of the Republic would be torn down as well.

 

Roll forward to today:  Amidst much controversy, Berliners are ready to reconstruct the Kaiser's Palace.   

 

These processes of demolishing and constructing, and demolishing and reconstructing should not be taken lightly.  Modern Germany's history is tortuous and filled with emotional pitfalls.  The Kaiser's Palace - the Communist Palace of the Republic - the Berlin Palace saga reminds us of a family engaged in heavy remodeling and redecorating a house after some unpleasant relatives have moved out or passed on - wanting to exorcise their spirits, and remove vestiges of their presence and activities. 

 

Germany has plenty of ghosts, the Nazi and the Communist regimes being two of them - their most embarrassing and painful nightmares.   This process of exorcism is made all the more difficult due to the conflicted emotions those two periods elicit. 

For the Stadtschloss historical outline with pictures, read here:     
http://berliner-schloss.de/en/the-ancient-berlin-palace/short-architectural-history

DER SPIEGEL'S PERSPECTIVE:  The cornerstone was laid on the reconstruction of the Berlin palace that was once home to Prussian rulers. The need for such a structure is debatable, and funding looks shaky. It could become yet another addition to Germany's collection of cursed construction projects.

The new structure is supposed to look a lot like the old, the seat of Prussian power that was heavily damaged in World War II and completely demolished in 1950 to make way for the Palast der Republik, which housed communist East Germany's parliament.

The East German Palast der Republik was razed from 2006 to 2008 to make way for the Schloss, providing yet more proof in the eyes of former East Berliners that reunification was more of a Western takeover than a marriage between equals.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was not present, reportedly because she wanted to avoid it at all costs. After all, she faces re-election this fall, and the project is highly unpopular among Germans. A recent poll by the news magazine Stern found that almost two-thirds (65 percent) of Germans oppose the project.

For more on today's controversial and expensive plans for the palace's reconstruction, read here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/berlin-lays-cornerstone-on-controversial-palace-project-a-905366.html

For more information on Germany's worst architectural experiences in the last few years:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/de-meuron-von-gerkan-and-ingenhoven-on-german-construction-headaches-a-905472.html