Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy

There is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before.

“We don’t know what it is,” says co-discoverer Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics near Macclesfield, UK.

The thing appeared in May last year, while Muxlow and his colleagues were monitoring an unrelated stellar explosion in M82 using the MERLIN network of radio telescopes in the UK. A bright spot of radio emission emerged over only a few days, quite rapidly in astronomical terms. Since then it has done very little except baffle astrophysicists.

It certainly does not fit the pattern of radio emissions from supernovae: they usually get brighter over a few weeks and then fade away over months, with the spectrum of the radiation changing all the while. The new source has hardly changed in brightness over the course of a year, and its spectrum is steady.

Warp speed

Yet it does seem to be moving – and fast: its apparent sideways velocity is four times the speed of light. Such apparent “superluminal” motion has been seen before in high-speed jets of material squirted out by some black holes. The stuff in these jets is moving towards us at a slight angle and travelling at a fair fraction of the speed of light, and the effects of relativity produce a kind of optical illusion that makes the motion appear superluminal.

Could the object be a black hole? It is not quite in the middle of M82, where astronomers would expect to find the kind of supermassive central black hole that most other galaxies have. Which leaves the possibility that it could be a smaller-scale “microquasar”.

A microquasar is formed after a very massive star explodes, leaving behind a black hole around 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun, which then starts feeding on gas from a surviving companion star. Microquasars do emit radio waves – but none seen in our galaxy is as bright as the new source in M82. Microquasars also produce plenty of X-rays, whereas no X-rays have been seen from the mystery object. “So that’s not right either”, Muxlow told New Scientist. …

via Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy – space – 14 April 2010 – New Scientist.

Mustache advocacy group seeks tax break

It’s time that mustached Americans got in on the stimulus money. At least that’s the proposal being pushed by tax policy professor John Yeutter and the St. Louis-based American Mustache Institute. The tongue-in-cheek group dubs itself “the world’s only facial hair advocacy and research organization.”

On the eve of the deadline to file income tax returns, the professor and the AMI are pushing for a $250 annual tax incentive for people with mustaches. The funds would be used for mustache grooming supplies.

The AMI said the current system “provides a disincentive for the clean-shaven to enjoy the mustached American lifestyle.”

The AMI said the stimulus money could be used not only for trimming instruments but for wax, combs and mirrors.

via Mustache advocacy group seeks tax break – Weird News – SanLuisObispo.com.

They may have more luck if they make it a religion.

New species of nose-dwelling leech discovered

A new species of leech, discovered by an international team of scientists, has a preference for living up noses.

Researchers say the leech can enter the body orifices of people and animals to attach itself to mucous membranes.

They have called the new blood-sucking species Tyrannobdella rex which means tyrant leech king.

The creature was first discovered in 2007 in Peru when a specimen was plucked from the nose of a girl who had been bathing in a river.

The creature lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon and has a “particularly unpleasant habit of infesting humans”, the scientists say.

Studies also revealed that it had “a preference for living up noses”. The research published their findings in the online scientific journal PLoS One .

Dr. Renzo Arauco-Brown, from the School of Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, was the medical doctor who extracted the leech and preserved sent it a zoologist in the US.

The zoologist, Dr Mark Siddall, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was quick to recognise it as a new species. He said it had some very unusual features, including just one single jaw, eight very large teeth and extremely small genitalia. …

via BBC News – New species of nose-dwelling leech discovered.

Dead man elected as US mayor

Carl Geary died a month ago from a heart attack as he campaigned to be selected for the small country town. Despite his sudden death he still polled over three times as many votes as his rival in the election in Tracy City, Tennessee.

His widow, Susan Geary, said his election “was not a surprise at all to me.”

“The day he passed away, people were calling with condolences and saying, ‘We’re still voting for him,’” she said.

Geary, 55, was known for his straight talking and served on the local council. He polled 285 votes to his rival’s 85.

Local business owners said the vote to elect Geary was as a protest against the current mayor, Barbara Brock.

“I knew he was deceased. I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her,” said Chris Rogers, owner of the town’s Lunch Box restaurant.

“If he were to run again next week I’d vote for him again.”

Town officials said four councillors will now decide who becomes mayor.

Barbara Brock, who lost out to the dead rival, had campaigned on her efforts to beautify the Tracy City which has a population of 1600 and is 80 miles from Nashville.

She said she was shocked that the town would vote for someone who is “pushing up the daisies” rather than planting them.

via Dead man elected as US mayor – Telegraph.

People with fewer teeth prone to die of heart disease: study

People with dented smiles run a far greater risk of dying of heart disease than those who still have all their pearly whites, a Swedish researcher said Monday.

“Cardiovascular disease and in particular coronary heart disease is closely related to the number of teeth” that a person has left, Anders Holmlund told AFP, explaining the results of a Swedish study to be published in the Journal of Periodontology.

“A person with fewer than 10 of their own teeth has a seven times higher risk for death by coronary heart disease than a person of the same age and of the same sex with more than 25 teeth left,” Holmlund said.

Although many studies published in the past 15 years have showed a link between oral health and cardiovascular disease, Holmlund’s study shows a direct relationship between cardiovascular disease and the number of teeth in a person’s mouth.

The study, conducted with colleagues Gunnar Holm and Lars Lind, surveyed 7,674 women and men, most suffering from periodontal disease, for an average of 12 years, and examined the cause of death of the 629 people who died during the period.

For 299 of the subjects, the cause of death was cardiovascular disease.

The theory connecting teeth numbers and heart disease, Holmlund explained, maintains that “infections in the mouth and around the teeth can spill over to the systemic circulation system and cause a low graded chronic inflammation,” which is known to be a risk factor for heart attacks and other cardiovascular episodes.

The number of natural teeth a person had left “could reflect how much chronic inflammation one has been exposed to in a lifetime,” he added.

The study had been limited by the fact that it had not been possible to adjust the results for socio-economic factors and to fully adjust them according to other cardiovascular risk factors, he acknowledged.

Heart disease is the number one killer worldwide, claiming upward of 17 million lives every year according to the World Health Organisation.

via People with fewer teeth prone to die of heart disease: study – Yahoo! News UK.

Cook-book misprint costs Australian publishers dear

An Australian publisher has had to pulp and reprint a cook-book after one recipe listed “salt and freshly ground black people” instead of black pepper.

Penguin Group Australia had to reprint 7,000 copies of Pasta Bible last week, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.

The reprint cost A$20,000 ($18,000; £12,000), but stock in bookshops will not be recalled as it is “extremely hard” to do so, Penguin said.

The recipe was for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.

“We’re mortified that this has become an issue of any kind, and why anyone would be offended, we don’t know,” head of publishing Bob Sessions is quoted as saying by the Sydney newspaper.

Penguin said almost every one of the more than 150 recipes in the book listed salt and freshly ground black pepper, but a misprint occurred on just one page.

“When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cook-book is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable,” Mr Sessions said.

If anyone complains about the “silly mistake”, they will be given the new version, Penguin said.

via BBC News – Cook-book misprint costs Australian publishers dear.

Volcanic ash: Air travel ‘facing days of chaos’ + freak picture + how to pronounce Eyjafjallajokull

Researchers puzzle over how long Iceland volcano will erupt

Ash from Eyjafjallajokull, the Iceland volcano that erupted this week, has caused airlines to cancel thousands of flights. Scientists say the chemical makeup and shape of the ash cloud’s dust particles will tell them more.

Volcanic ash: Air travel ‘facing days of chaos’

Air travel across Europe could be disrupted for days by the effects of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, aviation officials say.

As the gritty formation slowly made its way south and east, a raft of countries from Britain to Russia closed their airspace in an unprecedented move.

Officials warned of significant disruption into at least Saturday, with normal services taking days to recover.

Hundreds of thousands of travellers have been hit by two days of chaos.

“Traffic will have to be reorganised and rerouted and flights replanned, all on a dynamic and quite unpredictable basis,” it said in a statement.

In a news conference on Friday afternoon, the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned travellers to expect “significant disruption” on Saturday, as airspaces across the continent were fully or partially closed.

A raft of countries and airlines have grounded fleets amid fears that the ash – a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles, drifting from 5,000ft (1500 metres) – could be catastrophic to aircraft.

In some of the biggest disruption in commercial aviation history, a swathe of northern European sky was empty of aircraft on Friday.

About two-thirds of the 28,000 daily flights in the affected zone were cancelled, while only half the usual number of flights between Europe and North America took place. …

via BBC News – Volcanic ash: Air travel ‘facing days of chaos’.

Airlines will lose at least $200m (£130m) per day in revenues as a result of the volcanic ash-linked disruption, the industry’s governing body has said.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said its members would also lose further money as a result of expensive contingency plans. – bbc

Check out this freaky radar shot. Whoa. That is one angry volcano god.

Radar observations at the Eyjafjallajökull eruption site 15 April 2010

No doubt this particular volcano god is angry at the frequent mispronunciation of his name. You could do much worse than to pronounce it “A va low-k”.

Results: Xeno’s “What’s Real” Quiz

Based on your quiz replies, here is the “consensus reality score” for each item. Thanks for your help!

100%			Bacteria
99%			Atoms
99%			Drugs that cause hallucinations
97%			Electrons
96%			Radio waves
96%			Genetic disorders
95%			X-rays
95%			Viruses
95%			Magnetic fields
94%			Molecules
90%			Photons
88%			Mental illness
88%			Gravity
84%			Dinosaurs
84%			Lucid dreams
79%			Free will
78%			Neanderthal man
75%			Apollo moon Landings
70%			UFOs (man made)
61%			Parallel universes
52%			Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)
52%			A historical Jesus
52%			Global warming (human caused)
51%			Synesthesia
51%			Pre-cognition (seeing the future)
45%			UFOs containg aliens
40%			Archaeopteryx
39%			Spirits
39%			Telepathy
38%			9/11 an “inside job”
35%			The Higgs Boson
34%			Reincarnation
32%			Telekinesis
32%			Ghosts
31%			God(s)
31%			Time travel
26%			Gilgamesh
25%			Bigfoot
25%			Atlantis
23%			Angels
23%			Demons
22%			Heaven
18%			Skyfish/rods
18%			Tiktaalik
17%			The devil
17%			Hell
13%			Loch Ness monster
12%			Ambulocetus
9%			Dragons
9%			Vampires
8%			Zombies
8%			El chupacabra
8%			The Mothman
6%			Werewolves
5%			Leprechauns
5%			Mermaids
3%			Centaurs