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News Briefs 07-01-2011

“How undisturbed, the sleep of the foolish…”

  • Life on Mars detected in the 1970’s (without Bowie’s help).
  • That said, is Mars’ methane a myth?
  • Earth… 7 Billion served.
  • The Moon, the Sun… and the ISS. More here.
  • More eye candy from the Big Picture’s gallery of solar eclipse photos.
  • Mass animal die-offs are not apocalyptic. A google map of recent events.
  • Could re-awakening earthquake zones be a cause of the die-offs?
  • Bee populations plummet across the U.S.
  • Making holograms from electrons.
  • Journal’s publication of ESP paper sparks pre-publication outrage– Any psychic could’ve predicted that.
  • New neutrino observatory gets icy start.
  • The diet of Ammonites, revealed.
  • Mystery behind temperatures in Sun’s corona solved with plasma jets.
  • Underwater invisibility.
  • Life on Earth, from above.
  • NASA images vs. amateur photos… You be the judge.
  • 2011: The year we discover our twin?
  • Lice DNA suggests we wor clothing 170,000 years ago.
  • Ridley Scott prepares new sci-fi for the small screen: “Prophets of Science Fiction”.
  • The ‘Pacific Garbage Patch’ is an abomination, but it’s not as big as they thought.
  • Tenth Dr. Who to marry daughter of fifth Dr Who. That must break Gallifreyan incest laws… Exterminate!
  • Thirty-five years of microscope photography.
  • The ten most popular places of 2010, courtesy of of Atlas Obscura.
  • 13 surprising ways sci-fi has colided with D.C. politics.
  • Is Mona Lisa hiding literary references?
  • Women’s tears linked to loss of libido.
  • Gamma ray flares in the crab nebula thrills scientists.
  • This week’s evidence of the upcoming robot revolution.

A new year’s worth of thanks to Greg and RPJ!

Quote of the Day:

“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”

Philip K. Dick

  1. Mass people… er, bird die-offs are not apocalyptic

    Mass bird deaths rare, not apocalyptic: experts
    In Beebe, Arkansas, one theory is that fireworks spooked the birds to fly into buildings or other objects. Such birds roost in vast numbers, fly fast and have poor night eyesight, Nuttall said.
    The widely publicized deaths meant other incidents received far more attention than they otherwise would have. “This is a classic example of freak events coinciding,” said Petter Boeckman, a zoologist at the Norwegian Natural History Museum.
    He said mass deaths of birds were not unheard of, but they normally happened unnoticed at sea or in rural areas away from towns. Many birds are weak and die in winter when food is scarce.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70534T20110106

    Another case where public attention and awareness is being expertly hosed down.

    Of course, people too die each and everyday. Millions… even tens of millions die each year. But, if 4000+ people were to up and suddenly die all at once in a confined area or small town… we might have just enough time to think twice before our superhero, Expertman, would be there to explain our government-induced safety factors and prevent a mass-reasoning…

    ‘Nothing happening here good citizens. Birds die everyday. Go back to your homes, go to work, buy a new car, mow your lawn, raise your puppy, yell at your representatives, bicker poltics with your neighbors. All is well.’

    1. Kithra’s theory
      Nick Redfern linked to this interesting essay by Kithra.

      She proposes that these deaths are not the result of the Illuminati pew-pewing around with their HAARP facility. But rather, that they might have been caused by geomagnetic storms.

      Part of me thinks we might be in fact overreacting due to our recent ability to receive global updates about all kinds of weird uncorrelated events.

      But another does feel Kithra is on to something.

      1. quantity
        Mass deaths, sure.

        But what about the survivors? How large were the flocks, and what percentage are dead?

        And how would anyone know?

        The silent assumption seems to be that the 5000 or 500 dead birds (depending on which event) are the entire flock that died. There isn’t really any indication that this is true, or even close to it.

  2. Mystery solved
    I know why those animals are turning up dead. Weather Manipulation. Well, it’s a guess but they do keep mentioning weather as a possible cause. Or maybe invisible crafts that emit radiation? Either way I doubt this was caused by fireworks…

    Life on Earth, from above. —Amazing photos, first thought that came to mind “My God, it’s full of fractals” 😀

    Here’s a link for more strange mass animal deaths-
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/mass-animal-deaths-creepi_n_805311.html#s219955&title=Dogs%20Over%20The%20Bridge

      1. Or…
        Another simpler explanation is that Google Earth doesn’t seem to actually *use* satellite images on the oceans —apparently to make the processing more efficient.

  3. In Search of Earth II
    We’re getting pretty good with our telescopes and technology. There’s no reason at all why we won’t eventually arrive at a point where we simply will not need manned spaceships to go out searching for life in the nearby stars.

    There’s no doubt that Earth itself displays a very telling fingerprint that can be detected from pretty far away.

    I think that withing a decade or two, we will not only be able to detect and identify possible life-bearing worlds around other stars, we will be able to read the fingerprint and have a pretty good idea of exactly what kind of life exists there, along with the daily weather reports.

    It is also worthy of time to note that we may have already had our own world measured in this way from afar. There was never any need to send explorers… just researchers.

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