My World Politics in a Nutshell

For those new to this site, here is what I believe.

I believe the world is running out of major oil deposits. Food prices are already going up, because making food requires oil. We face mass starvation when the oil runs out and as we try to turn food into energy. Knowing this before 9/11/2001, they first tried to tell people the truth, then Cheney had Bush take a long vacation where, based on PNAC recommendations, they planned the attacks 9/11 as a pretext to invade Afghanistan to build a pipeline to get the oil and natural gas out of the Caspian Sea basin and as a reason to invade Iraq to control its oil. Iraq has the 2nd largest proven oil reserves in the world. I believe they had to lie to the world because telling the truth would set off World War III for the last remaining oil. This is why they believe they will be vindicated by history and why they invented the terrorism deception. Obesity is more deadly than terrorism.

I do not agree with these decisions, but I believe they see themselves as heroes, saving many millions of Americans from starvation in a few years by their actions now. I see a better way, which is why I marched in the largest anti-war protest in the history of the country years ago. We should have spent the 3 trillion dollars this war is costing on developing alternative energy and converting to a new way of life. I’ve read that solar panels across the Sahara could provide the Earth with clean energy. Bacteria can produce hydrogen. And there are technologies to turn landfills into energy. Let’s do that now.

Is it interesting to me in 2008 to go back and see what I was thinking in 2003 about the war.

As always, if you are certain I am wrong about any of this, let me know why.

Defense Chief Advises Cadets on Disagreeing with Leaders

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday urged the next generation of commanders to “tell blunt truths” to their military and civilian leaders — but he also cautioned them to air their “respectful dissent” only through official channels.

Addressing one of the most sensitive issues in the tradition of civilian control of the military, Mr. Gates said differing opinions among officers should be viewed as a sign of health in the armed forces and that young officers must be able to trust that their military and civilian bosses would not penalize those who offered honest disagreements.

But in speeches to cadets here and to the Air War College in Alabama earlier in the day, Mr. Gates coupled his invitation to be candid with an equally clear warning. He said the armed services must not try “end runs” around the Pentagon or the White House by lobbying Congress when they disagreed with decisions to curtail or cancel high-cost weapons. Mr. Gates referred only obliquely to the fact that some senior military advisers to President Bush and the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, have been criticized as being overly compliant in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Instead, Mr. Gates took a longer view, saying tension in civilian-military relations had arisen from Korea to Vietnam to Somalia to Iraq today — all conflicts that he said were “frustrating, controversial efforts for the American public and for the U.S. armed forces.”

“Each conflict prompted debates over whether senior military officers were being too deferential or not deferential enough to civilians, and whether civilians in turn were either too receptive, or not receptive enough to military advice,” Mr. Gates told West Point cadets. “Then, as now, the American people relied on the candor and credibility of military leaders in order to judge how well a campaign is going, and whether the effort should continue.”

Mr. Gates left his Pentagon office overlooking the Potomac River for the commanding view of the Hudson River offered by the United States Military Academy, where he answered questions in a class on advanced national security issues and delivered an evening address to more than 4,000 cadets.

“If as an officer you don’t tell blunt truths — or create an environment where candor is encouraged — then you’ve done yourself and the institution a disservice,” Mr. Gates said. - nytimes

5.2 Earthquake Rocks Midwest, 16 States

from www.msnbc.msn.com posted with vodpod

Florida woman survives gunshot between the eyes

April 18: A woman who survived a gunshot between the eyes fired by an irate driver in Tampa, Fla., says it’s a “miracle” that she only needed stitches for her injury. NBC’s Martin Savidge reports.

Emergency room doctors apologized to the 42-year-old woman who had come in for treatment for staring at her in disbelief. It wasn’t every day — in fact, it was never — that they saw somebody with a large-caliber gunshot wound between the eyes who not only was alive, but wasn’t even unconscious or seriously injured.

Call it Marie’s Miracle. As reported for TODAY by NBC’s Martin Savidge, it happened late last Saturday night, when Marie, who does not want to reveal her last name for fear of retaliation, her boyfriend and her 22-year-old daughter were driving through Tampa on their way home to Riverview, Fla., after a night out.

“We had a nice night out to the movies, got something to eat, were just rolling down the road,” she said.

As they were driving on 50th Street in Tampa, a white Nissan Sentra with two people inside and a gray Nissan Altima carrying four people pulled up alongside the truck in which the trio were driving. When they stopped at a traffic light, the occupants of the two cars started yelling at them, shouting obscenities and gesturing with their hands. Then a man got out of the Sentra and another left the Altima and started yelling at Marie’s boyfriend, who had rolled down his window to find out what the problem was.

The light turned green, the men got back into their cars, and all three vehicles continued on their way. There are three lanes of traffic in each direction on the street, and the two cars got on either side of the truck.

“They were shifting lanes, and trying to box us in and trying to run into the side of the truck,” Marie said. They also continued yelling obscenities, and one man in the Sentra looked at Marie and told her he was going to kill her.

At the next light, the driver of the Sentra attempted to pay off on his promise. Horrified, Marie saw him stand up on the seat and rise through the car’s open sunroof.

“I seen him rise out of the sunroof like in the movies, and he pulled his gun up and turned it and I heard it fire,” she said.

The two cars sped away, and police are still attempting to track down the assailants.

Police investigators would theorize that the man fired three shots from a gun that they believe was a .44-caliber handgun. One of the bullets struck Marie directly between the eyes.

It should have killed her. Instead, the bullet shattered into three pieces against her skull. The fragments ran under her skin, exited through her cheek on one side of her head and near her ear on the other.

At first, she didn’t know she’d been hit. Then she realized blood was pouring from her head.

“I thought I was gonna, was gonna die, but I stayed conscious,” she said.

Her boyfriend pulled into a convenience store parking lot while her daughter called 911. An EMS crew quickly arrived to transport her to Tampa General Hospital, where Dr. Brad Peckler was one of the first to see her.

“I saw her being wheeled in, and was a little surprised that she was just sitting up and talking,” Peckler said.

When she was examined, doctors determined that all she needed was some stitches. When they were done sewing her up, they sent her on her way. She walked out of the hospital.

Said her boyfriend, “I was able to walk her out of the ER and tell her she should buy a lottery ticket.” - msnbc

Video here.

World’s smallest transistor is the size of a molecule

Scientists have created the world’s smallest transistor, one little bigger than a single molecule.

The feat marks a milestone in efforts to lay the foundations of the next generation of computers when conventional silicon based microchip technology runs out of steam.

A team in Manchester last year announced that it had created transistors that measured 50 atoms across. Now they have slashed the size of the transistors to just 10 atoms, marking the first true electronic nanocomponent, where a nanometre is one billionth of a metre, and a single human hair is 100,000 nanometres across.

The University of Manchester team led by Prof Andre Geim has been fashioning the transistors from the world’s thinnest material, called graphene, consisting of carbon atoms a single layer thick, arranged in a hexagonal pattern like that seen in chicken wire.

Working with Dr Kostya Novoselov, he believes that the world’s smallest transistor, described in the journal Science, could spark the development of super-fast computer chips.

In recent decades, manufacturers have crammed more components on to microchips, with the number of transistors per unit area doubling every two years. This has become known as Moore’s Law.

But the speed of cramming is now noticeably decreasing, and further miniaturisation of electronics is to experience its most fundamental challenge in the next 10 to 20 years, according to the semiconductor industry road map. The problem is that at the nanoscale, materials like silicon react with oxygen, changing their properties, moving (”like water droplets on a hot plate”, as Prof Geim puts it) and decomposing.

Graphene has unusual electrical properties and behaves as if the electrical current is not carried by normal electrons but by charged particles with no mass at all. Graphene brings scientists close to making so called ballistic transistors - ultimately faster than any current technology because electrons shoot through them without colliding with component atoms.

Transistors made of graphene start showing advantages at sizes below 10 nanometres - the miniaturisation limit at which traditional silicon based technology is predicted to fail.

Prof Geim does not expect graphene-based circuits to come of age before 2025 but argues this technology will probably be the only viable way to shrink microelectronics after the silicon era comes to an end. “It is too early to promise graphene supercomputers,” he says.

“In our work, we relied on chance when making such small transistors. Unfortunately, no existing technology allows the cutting of materials with true nanometre precision. But this is exactly the same challenge that all post-silicon electronics has to face. At least we now have a material that can meet such a challenge.”

“Graphene is an exciting new material with unusual properties that are promising for nanoelectronics”, comments Prof Bob Westervelt, of Harvard University. “The future should be very interesting”. - tel

Neanderthals speak again after 30,000 years, sound like frogs.

Neanderthals have spoken out for the first time in 30,000 years, with the help of scientists who have simulated their voices using fossil evidence and a computer synthesizer.

Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to work out how they would have sounded, NewScientist.com reported on Wednesday.

The conclusion is that Neanderthals spoke, but sounded rather different to us. Specifically, the ancient humans lacked the “quantal vowel” sounds that underlie modern speech and which provide cues that help speakers understand one another. By modeling the sounds that a Neanderthal larynx would have made, McCarthy’s team engineered the sound of a Neanderthal saying “e.”

In contrast to a modern human “e,” the Neanderthal version lacks a quantal hallmark, which helps a listener distinguish the word “beat” from “bit,” for instance.

McCarthy, who based his reconstructions on 50,000-year-old fossils from France, aims eventually to simulate an entire Neanderthal sentence.

Neanderthals were a dead-end offshoot of the human line who inhabited Europe and parts of west and central Asia. Researchers believe they survived in Europe until the arrival of modern humans about 30,000 years ago. - msnbc

Here an “E” pronounced by a Neanderthal voicebox here.

Plants ‘thrive’ on Moon rock diet

Scientists with the European Space Agency (Esa) say the day when flowers bloom on the Moon has come closer.

An Esa-linked team has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food.

Some see growing plants on the Moon as a step towards human habitation.

But the concept is not an official aim of Esa, and one of the agency’s senior officials has dismissed the idea as “science fiction”.

The new research was presented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, the largest annual European gathering of scientists studying the Earth, its climate and its neighbours in space.

Bernard Foing, a senior scientist with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) in the Netherlands, believes growing plants on the Moon would be a useful tool to learn how life adapts to lunar conditions, and as a practical aid to establishing manned bases.

“We would bring a system of water circulation and recovery, which is also the type of system that in any case you want to develop when you are going to manufacture a primitive sort of life support system,” he told BBC News.

“So it is also a kind of `technological breadboard’ for maintaining a simple life form in an extreme environment.”

Microbe power

In principle, putting self-contained pieces of kit with seeds and nutrients on the Moon and giving them a supply of water and an artificial atmosphere would be little different from growing them on space stations, which has been done several times; although outside Earth’s protective magnetic field they would be subject to higher levels of radiation.

The new step, taken in the experiments reported at the EGU, is to remove the need for bringing nutrients and soil from Earth.

A team led by Natasha Kozyrovska and Iryna Zaetz from the National Academy of Sciences in Kiev planted marigolds in crushed anorthosite, a type of rock found on Earth which is very similar to much of the lunar surface.

In neat anorthosite, the plants fared very badly. But adding different types of bacteria made them thrive; the bacteria appeared to draw elements from the rock that the plants needed, such as potassium.

Dr Foing, who presented the study at the EGU meeting, said there was no reason in principle why the same idea could not bear fruit on the Moon itself. Tools could crush lunar rock and add bacteria and seeds.

But, he added, scientists could look to go further, by selecting plants or bacteria that are especially well adapted to lunar conditions, or even by genetically engineering new strains. - bbc

Drifting Star Discovered: Implications For Star And Planet Formation Theory

By studying in great detail the ‘ringing’ of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO’s 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way.

The yellow-orange star Iota Horologii, located 56 light-years away towards the southern Horologium (”The Clock”) constellation, belongs to the so-called “Hyades stream”, a large number of stars that move in the same direction.

Previously, astronomers using an ESO telescope had shown that the star harbours a planet, more than 2 times as large as Jupiter and orbiting in 320 days (ESO 12/99).

But until now, all studies were unable to pinpoint the exact characteristics of the star, and hence to understand its origin. A team of astronomers, led by Sylvie Vauclair from the University of Toulouse, France, therefore decided to use the technique of ‘asteroseismology’ to unlock the star’s secrets.

“In the same way as geologists monitor how seismic waves generated by earthquakes propagate through the Earth and learn about the inner structure of our planet, it is possible to study sound waves running through a star, which forms a sort of large, spherical bell,” says Vauclair.

The ‘ringing’ from this giant musical instrument provides astronomers with plenty of information about the physical conditions in the star’s interior.

And to ‘listen to the music’, the astronomers used one of the best instruments available. The observations were conducted in November 2006 during 8 consecutive nights with the state-of-the-art HARPS spectrograph mounted on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla.

Up to 25 ‘notes’ could be identified in the unique dataset, most of them corresponding to waves having a period of about 6.5 minutes.

These observations allowed the astronomers to obtain a very precise portrait of Iota Horologii: its temperature is 6150 K, its mass is 1.25 times that of the Sun, and its age is 625 million years. Moreover, the star is found to be more metal-rich than the Sun by about 50%. - sd

Inventor, 5, patents new broom

A five-year-old boy is thought to be the youngest to patent an idea in Britain after inventing a labour-saving broom.

Sam Houghton, of Buxton, Derbyshire, was just three when he came up with his double-headed broom, reports the BBC.

He had been watching his father sweeping up, swapping between a large broom, for leaves and twigs, and a small one, for finer particles, when he came up with his idea.

Sam, who was inspired by Wallace and Gromit, and Archie the Inventor from TV series Balamory, said: “I saw my Daddy brushing up and made it. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind.

“I don’t know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun.”

Mr Houghton, by chance a patents lawyer, was so impressed he decided to help Sam apply for a patent.

He said: “It was such a simple solution that only a child could have come up with it.

“He got a large elastic band from the shed and put it over the two brooms, holding them just the right way to use both together. He then called me and announced that had had made up an invention.”

Mr Houghton, who spent about £200 getting the patent approved, said it was more about letting Sam have some fun than about marketing the broom.

He said: “Perhaps Sam will take it on when he is a bit older, after all a patent can last up to 20 years.”

A five-year-old boy is thought to be the youngest to patent an idea in Britain after inventing a labour-saving broom.

Sam Houghton, of Buxton, Derbyshire, was just three when he came up with his double-headed broom, reports the BBC.

He had been watching his father sweeping up, swapping between a large broom, for leaves and twigs, and a small one, for finer particles, when he came up with his idea.

Sam, who was inspired by Wallace and Gromit, and Archie the Inventor from TV series Balamory, said: “I saw my Daddy brushing up and made it. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind.

“I don’t know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun.”

Mr Houghton, by chance a patents lawyer, was so impressed he decided to help Sam apply for a patent.

He said: “It was such a simple solution that only a child could have come up with it.

“He got a large elastic band from the shed and put it over the two brooms, holding them just the right way to use both together. He then called me and announced that had had made up an invention.”

Mr Houghton, who spent about £200 getting the patent approved, said it was more about letting Sam have some fun than about marketing the broom.

He said: “Perhaps Sam will take it on when he is a bit older, after all a patent can last up to 20 years.” - anan

Area UFO sighting under investigation

Local law enforcement officials are investigating several reports from individuals claiming to have observed an unidentified flying object hovering in various locations across Barron County.

According to Barron County Sheriff Tom Richie, the dispatch center received numerous calls from individuals at approximately 10 p.m. Monday reporting a possible UFO. Barron County deputies on duty that night reportedly observed the object.

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Kristina Hauser, 20, of Chetek, was traveling with her family near the Rice Lake airport at about 9:40 p.m. when they saw the object. Hauser explained that the object, which initially appeared yellow, was flying toward Rice Lake and was dipping very low and moved very fast, heading back and forth across the road. She stated the object was hovering around their car for about a mile before it headed back to the airport.

Hauser also reported that after she was dropped off in Rice Lake, her family witnessed the object again on the way back to Chetek, hovering about 20 feet above their vehicle. They described it to her as a triangular or teardrop-shaped object with purple and blue lights. They could hear no sound coming from the object, and a red laser like light was shining on one end of it to the ground. The object followed their vehicle another four miles before it just disappeared.

Hauser’s father, Glen, also spoke with various local police officers who had gotten calls on the object as well. While working at Wal-Mart, Kristina also spoke with a Rice Lake police officer who had talked with local hospitals and the Federal Aviation Administration. All confirmed helicopters were grounded and there did not appear to be any air traffic in the area.

“By the way it moved, having no sound, and th way it looked, I knew it was not from this planet,” said Julie Hauser, Kristina’s mother. “It was the scariest thing.”

In a brief interview, Rice Lake Air Center Manager Jerry Stites explained that there were employees of the airport in the Rice Lake area who observed what appeared to be aircraft landing between 9-9:30 p.m., but no employees were at the airport when the sightings were reported. After reviewing security tapes, Stites added that to their knowledge, no planes landed at the air center Monday night. The helicopter at the airport also remained grounded until about 3 a.m. He added that he monitored the aviation radio until abut 9 p.m., and there was no activity in the vicinity, but explained that did not mean there were no aircraft landing.

Calls to Cumberland Memorial Hospital and Sacred Heart in Eau Claire confirmed there were no airport runs to the Barron or Rice Lake area. Information on helicopter runs from Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake, Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, and Luther Midlefort Northland were not available at press time. - zwire