Lights out in SF

Lights out in SF, originally uploaded by xeno735.

Lights out Saturday night!

Remember when you could see stars? Have your kids ever seen the Milky Way? For some reason we have, as a society, decided we need to keep the bulbs burning in our stores and offices when they’re empty, and illuminate things that don’t really need to be seen at night – like tall buildings.  Too many of our outdoor lights waste energy lighting up dust in the air and the underside of the clouds. That’s what causes the skyglow captured in the photo at left, and it erases the stars. It is costing us billions in wasted energy, contributing to climate change and divorcing us from our heritage in the night sky (right).

For one hour beginning at 8:30 local time Saturday night, from Baltimore’s City Hall to the Pyramids of Egypt, the lights will go out in a global expression of concern for our planet.

via Maryland Weather: Lights out Saturday night! – Sun reporter Frank Roylance blogs on meteorology – marylandweather.com.

Join in the fun and kill those lights tonight for one hour. Got candles? Birth control? I’m headed to San Francisco tonight to watch lights out. Seems like the best place, the place with the most lights visible. Hopefully I’ll post some before and after pics here from my cell phone in real time as it happens. (Check this site 8:30 PM tonight, west coast time).

UFO Examiner: UFOs near ground level in TX, NC

Three UFO low fly reports over Texas and North Carolina were recently reported to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

A man and his daughter at Medina Lake near San Antonio on March 25 watched as a silent, semi-circular craft with no lights or windows, hovered just 30 feet off of the ground at a distance of about 100 yards. The craft measured about 12 to 15 feet across, and 5 to 6 feet in height. The object tilted slightly before disappearing.

Four witnesses driving home from a restaurant watched a donut-shaped object at the rooftop level of nearby homes hover at a distance of 600 to 1,000 yards in Driftwood, Texas, on March 14. A peculiar sound from the object seemed to change pitch depending on the brightness of the object.

A man stopped his tractor trailer after observing a hovering object as he was driving east on U.S. Route 64 near the first exit for Nashville, Norh Carolina, on March 10. He said the object was between 75 and 100 feet off of the ground. He described it as a silent, triangular-shape, 40 to 50 feet wide, with two red lights at the rear and a bright white light in front. It was between 200 and 300 yards away. The object hovered, then moved above a shopping center for 5 to 7 minutes, and then moved away in a southerly direction. …

via UFO Examiner: UFOs near ground level in TX, NC – new reports.

Whom, do you suppose, is flying it?

What Perfumes Did Ancient Egyptians Use? Researchers Aim To Recreate 3,500-year-old Scent

In X-rays, a liquid residue can be clearly seen in the ancient Egyptian perfume bottle. (Credit: Frank Luerweg, University of Bonn)

The Ancient Egyptians cherished their fragrant scents, too, as perfume flacons from this period indicate. In its permanent exhibition, Bonn University’s Egyptian Museum has a particularly well preserved example on display. Screening this 3,500-year-old flacon with a computer tomograph, scientists at the university detected the desiccated residues of a fluid, which they now want to submit to further analysis. They might even succeed in reconstructing this scent.

via What Perfumes Did Ancient Egyptians Use? Researchers Aim To Recreate 3,500-year-old Scent.

I’d like to smell what they create from this, just out of curiosity.

Awareness Of Darwin Not Evolving

What has the public learned from the Darwin 200 celebrations?

A survey carried out by students on the newly created MSc in Science, Communication and Society at the University of Kent has revealed a disappointing level of knowledge regarding the life and works of one of Britain’s best-known scientists, Charles Darwin.

A simple survey composed of four questions was carried out on the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus and in Canterbury city centre, with surveyors approaching people at random.

Despite the fact that his portrait is on the back of a ten pound note, less than half of those surveyed were able to select Darwin’s picture from a selection of five bearded Victorians.

Knowledge of Darwin’s work was even more disappointing. The general public and university members alike scored lower than they should have done by simply guessing on questions relating to the content of his book.

For example, when asked to identify the type of animal most prominently featured in On The Origin Of Species, only 14% were able to correctly select birds from a list of five options. The most popular answer was ‘monkeys’.

via Awareness Of Darwin Not Evolving.

Read about Darwin’s finches on wikipedia. The Galapagos Islands might be fun to visit some day. Here is some BBC footage:

Vacuum sex act draws 90-day sentence

A man police caught performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum has been sentenced to 90 days in prison.

Jason Leroy Savage must also submit to drug testing.

The 29-year-old from Michigan, was sentenced Wednesday at Saginaw County Circuit Court. Savage pleaded no contest to indecent exposure last month.

via Vacuum sex act draws 90-day sentence – Criminal weirdness- msnbc.com.

Jail? Complete waste of taxpayer money. Are you telling me any homeless guy can go get 90 days free room and board at the county jail by pulling a stunt like this? If he was serious about getting hot over a max-vac, check him in to a mental hospital and get him some therapy.

The origin of life on Earth, explained

This video is amazing! It explains how life could begin on Earth, spontaneously. For me, seeing this, and having it fit with everything else I’ve learned about self organizing systems–snowflakes, for example–was very convincing.

This video explains how life can appear on Earth with no magic, just basic chemistry. But in watching this with a friend, I realize you do have to understand some beyond high school level science concepts for this to really click.

Anyway, one of the two groups, evolutionists and creationists, is wrong. (Both could be wrong if aliens are involved, but that’s another story…) If this explains life on Earth, there is still an opening for the job of Prime Mover, I believe, and perhaps that is a place to seek God.

How soon until life is re-created this way in a laboratory?

Comment on Youtube by cdk007:

… Abiogenesis is the leading scientific theory based on experiments conducted in the fields of biology, chemistry, geology, and astrophysics. It is based on a number of empirical observations, and is currently our best understanding for the origin of life.

Has it been directly observed? The evidence reviewed here from the Szostak lab is the closest we’ve come.

Update: Abiogenesis is the field of study of how life may have began from inanimate matter.

Check out the movies here showing more details from teh Szostak Lab’s work.

If you follow self organizing systems like the ones above, forces can eventually result in single celled organisms. How did Multicellular life evolve? Watch this:

Tinnitus cure ‘is a step closer’

I’ve had this crazy ringing in my right ear for months now. Just last night it moved into both ears.

Scientists believe they are a step closer to curing tinnitus after they have found what could be the root cause of ringing in the ears.

Studies show hearing loss can go hand-in-hand with over-excitable nerves within brain areas that process sound.

This uncontrolled nerve activity causes the noises that plague people with tinnitus and appears to be down to gene changes, Neuroscience reports.

And it raises the hope of treatment by silencing nerve activity, experts say. … Belgian neurosurgeon Dirk De Ridder has tried implanting electrodes directly into the brain of sufferers to permanently normalise the overactive neurons.

He has had some successful results, although one of his patients repeatedly reported an out-of-body experience as a side effect.

In the latest study, researchers at the University of Western Australia studied what was happening inside the brain and found increased activity in nerves in the auditory brainstem where sounds are processed.

And this was linked to changes in the genes involved in regulating the activity of the nerve cells.

Spontaneous firing

This meant pathways that normally keep a lid on nerve signal transmission were blocked and others were more excitable than usual.

Lead researcher Professor Don Robertson said: “Identifying genes associated with spontaneous nerve cell activity is crucial.

“It means that it may be possible to use drugs to block this activity and treat conditions such as tinnitus in the future.”

via BBC NEWS | Health | Tinnitus cure ‘is a step closer’.

Could taking 3 grams per day of un-buffered vitamin C lower my stomach acid and result in a B12 deficiency?

Vitamin B12 deficiency has been linked to tinnitus in at least one study. ² I personally had nutrition testing done just prior to developing tinnitus and was found to be low in vitamin B12. (Click here for a list of foods high in vitamin B12.) In order to absorb vitamin B12, people need to have enough stomach acid. In my case I think I was low in vitamin B12 because I was eating too many alkaline foods that lowered my stomach acid (Read my personal story on ringing in my ears here.) Despite having a diet high in B12 rich foods, I think I became deficient because I wasn’t able to properly absorb what I was eating.

The berries and tomatoes every day might be getting me too.

It is established that drugs such as aspirin may cause tinnitus. However it is less well known that there are many common foods that contain salicylates, or aspirin like substances. As such, it may be prudent for chronic tinnitus sufferers to monitor what they eat to see if there are any correlations between their diets and their hearing problems. In Prescription for Herbal Healing ⁴, author Phyllis A. Balch recommends avoiding high salicylate foods including:

• Almonds
• Apples
• Apricots
• Berries
• Cherries
• Cucumbers
• Grapes
• Nectarines
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Pickles
• Plums
• Prunes
• Raisins
• Tomatoes
• Wine

Best to change our diets now and then. Variety is good. I’ll mix it up and see if the ears improve, take extra B12 and magnesium today and see if the ringing goes away. I have some Valarian root extract around too. I’ll try that to help me sleep tonight

The extract of valerian has been the treatment of choice for anxiety and insomnia throughout the world. It is a sedative and painkiller. Helpful in treating insomnia, Valerian is taken at bedtime to prevent panic attacks and is used as a replacement for tranquilizers.

… along with getting back to some real exercise. Beautiful day today here in sunny CA.

Mars domes may be ‘mud volcanoes’

Scientists say the possible discovery of mud volcanoes on Mars could boost the search for the planet’s past life.

If life ever existed on Mars, the evidence could be buried deep below the surface, where it may be warm enough for water to remain in a liquid state.

Mud volcanoes could transport rocks from depths of several kilometres up to the surface, where robotic explorers could reach them.

Details were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Mars domes may be ‘mud volcanoes’.

Forget about the face on Mars, this is the boob on Mars.

The Pueblo Chieftain Online :: Two more cows found mutilated

Two more Southern Colorado ranchers say they have discovered cows mutilated under strange circumstances.

A cow on a ranch near Walsenburg was found with its udders cut off and a calf on a ranch near Trinidad was found missing the entire center of its body as well as its ears.

A similar mutilation was discovered March 8 on a pasture near the Purgatoire River, just west of the small town of Weston. That cow was found dead by rancher Mike Duran with its udders and reproductive organs surgically removed from its body.

The most recent case happened on Jim Garren’s ranch.

Garren said Tuesday that he last saw his cow alive on Friday afternoon at his spread 12 miles southeast of Walsenburg in Las Animas County. Garren said the next day at around 2:30 p.m. his ranch manager was feeding the herd and noticed his cattle count was off by one. After looking around in areas where cows had grazed previously, Garren said his ranch hand spotted the animal dead under a cedar tree.

“The only thing that we could tell about her was that her udder had been surgically removed. There were no other injuries to that cow,” Garren said.

He said the ground around the cow was never disturbed and there was no trauma to the cow’s head or body.

“We searched and searched and we could not find blood on the ground or on the cow. I just can’t understand how anyone could surgically remove a part from an animal and not spill some blood,” he said.

via The Pueblo Chieftain Online :: Two more cows found mutilated.

Any military bases or UFOs around?

Since the first incident in 1967 some ten to twenty thousand domestic cattle have been found dead and mutilated, mainly in the United States. The animals have been found in fields with certain organs removed, cut open by a very sharp instrument or by laser. A rigorous investigation [JS90 p. 169-289] leads one to believe that the removal of the organs has taken place after the animal has been abducted by air: there are no traces of a struggle or of blood on the ground, animals are found in places inaccessible on foot, etc.