Army: No plan to move sea-dumped munitions

Several thousand World War II-era chemical munitions have been found by deep-diving submersibles under a joint Army-University of Hawaii team.

So far, no large cache of weapons has been discovered.

The U.S. military dumped some 2,500 tons of weapons containing lethal mustard, cyanide, lewisite, cyanogens and chloride at three deep-sea sites several miles off Oahu. More than 16,000 individual bombs were dumped there.

Over 17 days, a $3 million effort involving remote devices and the university’s two submersibles found several thousand bombs at depths of 1,500 feet by using sonar. The examined area totaled 240 square miles.

Water and sediment samples also were taken near the bombs that were found. The Army has no plans to remove the munitions.

via Army: No plan to move sea-dumped munitions – Army News, news from Iraq, – Army Times.

Obama administration considers climate engineering : Nation & World : Abilene Reporter-News

The president’s new science adviser said today that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

“It’s got to be looked at,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”

Holdren outlined several “tipping points” involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of “really intolerable consequences,” he said.

Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being “in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog.”

At first, Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.

Holdren, a 65-year-old physicist, is far from alone in taking geoengineering more seriously. The National Academy of Science is making climate tinkering the subject of its first workshop in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The British parliament has also discussed the idea.

The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement on geoengineering that says “it is prudent to consider geoengineering’s potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment.”

Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.

But Holdren noted that shooting particles into the air — making an artificial volcano as one Nobel laureate has suggested — could have grave side effects and would not completely solve all the problems from soaring greenhouse gas emissions. So such actions could not be taken lightly, he said.

Still, “we might get desperate enough to want to use it,” he added.

via Obama administration considers climate engineering : Nation & World : Abilene Reporter-News.

Secrets of Alhambra revealed

One of Spain’s most enduring historical mysteries is close to being solved as experts undertake a project to decipher more than 10,000 Arabic inscriptions adorning the walls and ceilings of the Alhambra palace in Granada.

Researchers armed with digital cameras and 3D laser scanners are for the first time cataloging and translating the intricately carved words that have fascinated centuries of visitors at Spain’s most popular tourist attraction.

“There is probably no other place in the world where studying walls, columns and fountains is so similar to turning the pages of a book,” said Juan Castilla, of Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), who heads the team.

Many inscriptions consist of aphorisms, terse sayings embodying a general truth, such as “Be sparse in words and you will go in peace” and “Rejoice in good fortune, because Allah helps you.” What the researchers have found so far is that, contrary to popular belief, verses from the Koran and poetry represent only a tiny minority of the messages in classical Arabic that cover the Alhambra, Europe’s finest example of Muslim architecture. … Instead the elegant Arabic script contains a large amount of sloganeering, predominantly praise for the Nasrid dynasty who ruled Granada for two and half centuries. The Nasrid motto – “There is no victor but Allah” – is the most common inscription found so far. The next most common messages are isolated words like “happiness” and “blessing” that are thought to be expressions of divine wishes for the Muslim rulers of Granada.

via Secrets of Alhambra revealed – Telegraph.

Here is the wikipedia scoop on this place:

The Alhambra (from Arabic الْحَمْرَاء = Al-Ħamrā’, literally “the red one”; the complete name was الْقَلْعَةُ ٱلْحَمْرَاءُ = al-Qal’at al-Ħamrā’ = “the red fortress”) is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish rulers of Granada in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed during the mid 14th century), occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada. 37°10′37″N 3°35′24″W / 37.17686°N 3.589901°W / 37.17686; -3.589901

Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain’s major tourist attractions exhibiting the country’s most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th century and later interventions in buildings and gardens that marked its image as it can be seen today. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527.

The Coming of the Sky Dancers

Today’s auroras are a relatively peaceful phenomenon – whether they take the form of gently dancing curtains of light, a quiescent, reddish ‘cloud’, or spectacular rays of light, they are more likely to enthrall than terrorise the people watching from polar latitudes. Appearances can be misleading, as scientists are finding out in recent years.

Modern research on the potential effects of intense solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the earth and an ever-growing awareness of the possibility of extreme geomagnetic storms seem to rekindle interest in the so-called ‘Carrington Event’ of 1859, when “skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras”, causing severe damage to the telegraph networks of the time. Between then and 1958, altogether 6 well-documented auroras were strong enough to be visible within 30º or indeed 20º of the equator.

Crucially, various peoples have preserved memories of the potential intensity of the polar lights. Motifs that specialists in folklore and religions routinely dismiss as quaint curiosities of a superstitious past can equally be read as cultural adaptations of genuine and reliable recollections of natural events. Such motifs typically postulate an intimate connection of the auroras with divine beings or ‘ancestors’ and times when the world passed through a phase of destruction and renewed creation. …

Francis Eagle Heart Cree (1920/1921-2007), elder and song keeper of the Ojibwe, North Dakota, often used to tell about the northern lights – that his people referred to them as the ‘ancestors’; that our day corresponds to their night and vice versa; and that many ancestors had been literally drawn up into the sky in order to live on in the lights.

In June 2003, during the preparations for the so-called ‘Thirsty Dance’ performed in the Turtle Mountains, Francis revealed that there had been a time when the northern lights were all over, much larger and all-encompassing, and would come closer to the ground, touching it frequently. According to him, today’s thunders, lightning and northern lights are what remain from a time “when the Thunderbirds hovered overhead and carried away the ancestors if you threatened or got too close to them. … the earliest songs came from them, not the animals. The pulsing, reverberant, humming, chanting Ooowwwmmm, hiii, heyyy, . . . is the sound the Thunderbird auroras made.”

During this era, the whole atmosphere was active and animate, and the few plasma phenomena we see today are mere remnants of the “Sky Dancers” of olden times. Coming from a man who was never exposed to formal western education and stood in an age-old, unbroken lineage of cultural continuity, this testimony forms a striking parallel to the Australian belief that the polar lights used to be much more powerful in the past.

via The Coming of the Sky Dancers.

Teenager who fell unconscious in bath is saved by twin sister’s ’sixth sense’

It is common for twins to tell stories that suggest they share a bond so close it is almost telepathic. But not many can say their apparent sixth sense helped them save their sibling’s life.

When Gemma Houghton got a feeling that her sister Leanne was in trouble she burst in on the 15-year-old and found her unconscious underwater in the bath.

She dragged her out and managed to revive her using skills she picked up on a first-aid course. Yesterday Gemma told of how she feels dizzy when her epileptic twin sister suffers a fit.

She believes this subconscious link let her know that Leanne was in danger.

‘I just got this feeling to check on her,’ said Gemma. ‘I went up to the bathroom and she was under the water. At first I thought she was washing her hair or playing a trick.

‘But when I lifted her head out of the water she had turned blue. I knew she had had a fit.’

After Gemma hauled her sister out of the water – ‘She weighed a ton’ – she called an ambulance and, remembering her first-aid training, began trying to resuscitate Leanne.

‘She started making some horrible noises, like a truck, and I knew she was coming round,’ she said.

via Teenager who fell unconscious in bath is saved by twin sister’s ’sixth sense’ | Mail Online.

Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover

A bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover – by boosting the level of amines which clear the head, scientists have found.

Researchers claim food also speeds up the metabolism helping the body get rid of the booze more quickly.

Elin Roberts, of Newcastle University’s Centre for Life said: “Food doesn’t soak up the alcohol but it does increase your metabolism helping you deal with the after-effects of over indulgence. So food will often help you feel better.

“Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good.”

via Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover – Telegraph.

Not drinking works even better.

Pentagon Airship UAVs

A story in last month’s L.A. Times reports on efforts to build lighter-than-air platforms that will hover over areas of the Earth for months or years at a time, gathering intelligence data with cameras and sensors. Some of the proposed airships are shaped like huge boomerangs and (it is rumored) triangles. That fact may ring a bell with some readers.

An article in the September, 2004 issue of Popular Communications entitled “Monitoring the Military’s ‘UFO’ Sky Spies” apparently scooped the LAT by almost five years. Author Steve Douglass uncovered that giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to develop such a system:

In 2001, the Missile Defense Agency awarded Lockheed Martin a $40 million contract to work on the High Altitude Airship, a 500-foot-long (152-meter-long) blimp, 25 times larger than the Goodyear blimp and much more capable than the Ascender and could loiter at altitudes above 65,000 feet for as long as a year.

The “Ascender” is a V-shaped airship developed by a small Texas company called JP Aerospace. A company called General Orbital is also working on a high altitude airship, according to information at its website.

via UFOMystic » Pentagon Plans Airship UAVs.

Fishermen in the Philippines accidentally catch and eat rare megamouth shark

Fishermen in the Philippines accidentally caught and later ate a megamouth shark, one of the rarest fishes in the world with only 40 others recorded to have been encountered, the World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday. The 1,100-pound, 13-foot megamouth died while struggling in the fishermen’s net on March 30 off Burias island in the central Philippines. It was taken to nearby Donsol in Sorsogon province, where it was butchered and eaten, said Gregg Yan, spokesman for WWF-Philippines.

Yan said a WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca took pictures of the megamouth and tried to dissuade the fishermen from eating it. Shark meat is the main ingredient in a local delicacy.

The first megamouth was discovered in Hawaii in 1976, prompting scientists to create an entirely new family and genus of sharks. The megamouths are docile filter-feeders with wide, blubbery mouths. Yan said the Burias megamouth’s stomach revealed it was feeding on shrimp larvae.

Yan said the fish was tagged “Megamouth 41″ – the 41st megamouth recorded in the world – by the Florida Museum of Natural History. It was the eighth reported encountered in Philippine seas.

He said the megamouth was caught in 660-foot deep waters

via News from The Associated Press.

Sad. I predict that humans will eat everything on Earth. Then they will eat the Earth itself and they will be left floating in space.

Ghostly figure at Croxteth Hall could be Grand National earl … or a bird.

Liverpool City Council has called in experts to study CCTV footage which appears to show a glowing white figure making its way through the grounds of 400 year old Croxteth Hall.

Jason Karl, presenter of Living TV’s Most Haunted, is among the ghost specialists drafted in to investigate, and described the CCTV evidence as “intriguing”.

He said: “Video footage of phantoms is very rare, and if this stands up to scrutiny it could be a very important piece of spectral evidence for the worldwide community of paranormal enthusiasts.”

Councillor Berni Turner, Liverpool city council’s executive member for the environment, said she was keeping an open mind about the investigation. “I’m a huge believer in the paranormal and think this footage is really interesting,” she added. “It’s great to think that we may have ghosts walking around these beautiful grounds.”

City bosses have suggested that the site could be haunted by the 7th Earl of Sefton, Hugh William Osbert Molyneux, who lived at the hall until his death in 1972.

via Ghostly figure could be Grand National earl – Telegraph.

I’d like to see the actual video. These things always turn out to be a moth walking around on the lens of the video camera or something else entirely non-ghostly. I’ve seen a ghost, but I still don’t believe in them.

Here is a video tour of Croxteth Hall in the daytime:

Ah, found it.

Interesting shape. Based on the shape, the direction of travel, and the fact that it is on the screen for about 8 seconds, I think this is most likely an out of focus humming bird with dark wings. I do not know if there are humming birds at Croxteth Hall, but there are birds:

The historic Hall and Country Park provide a great resource for days out and leisure activities for all ages. Formerly the home of the Earls of Sefton, it is now one of the stars of Liverpool’s fine cultural heritage.
At its simplest, the Park is a great place for a peaceful stroll on paths around the historic pastureland and woodland. It makes a good venue for bird-watching and generally enjoying the countryside on your doorstep. – liverpool

FDA: Recall of tainted pistachio nuts far from over

The recall last week of 2 million pounds of pistachios because of concerns about salmonella contamination has been expanded, and federal officials say more recalls of foods containing pistachios are on the horizon.

Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, the California company that is the nation’s second-largest processer of pistachios, originally had recalled all of its pistachios harvested since September.

The recall was expanded this week to cover Setton’s entire 2008 crop, except for raw in-shell pistachios. Most pistachios sold in stores are roasted.

Setton spokeswoman Fabia D’Arienzo said she did not know how many pounds of pistachios were involved in the expanded recall.

“This is going to resemble the peanut recall in that products are going to be added every day as companies discover they used Setton pistachios,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s going to take a while for the dust to settle.”

Products are still being recalled that contained peanuts or peanut paste produced by the Peanut Corp. of America, the processor tied to a salmonella outbreak this year that sickened almost 700 people.

No illnesses from pistachio consumption have been reported. The salmonella was detected in testing by an Illinois foodmaker that buys from Setton.

Setton had been processing raw and roasted pistachios on the same production lines without adequate cleaning between uses, says David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, adding: “Not a good idea.” A Setton official said earlier that roasted pistachios may have picked up salmonella from contact with raw nuts.

Federal and state inspectors have found salmonella in the plant, including on machines used to feed pistachios through the production line.

“There were a number of other factors that demonstrated a lack of microbiological control in the facility,” Acheson says.

The FDA is telling consumers and industry to not use any pistachios or foods with pistachios unless the agency can confirm that the products do not contain nuts recalled by Setton.

via FDA: Recall of tainted pistachio nuts far from over – USATODAY.com.

Ah nuts. I love pistachios!