Oil will run dry 90 years before substitutes roll out

At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out 90 years before replacement technologies are ready, says a new University of California, Davis, study based on stock market expectations.

The forecast was published online Monday (Nov. 8) in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. It is based on the theory that long-term investors are good predictors of whether and when new energy technologies will become commonplace.

“Our results suggest it will take a long time before renewable replacement fuels can be self-sustaining, at least from a market perspective,” said study author Debbie Niemeier, a UC Davis professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Niemeier and co-author Nataliya Malyshkina, a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher, set out to create a new tool that would help policymakers set realistic targets for environmental sustainability and evaluate the progress made toward those goals.

Two key elements of the new theory are market capitalizations (based on stock share prices) and dividends of publicly owned oil companies and alternative-energy companies. Other analysts have previously used similar equations to predict events in finance, politics and sports.

“Sophisticated investors tend to put considerable effort into collecting, processing and understanding information relevant to the future cash flows paid by securities,” said Malyshkina. “As a result, market forecasts of future events, representing consensus predictions of a large number of investors, tend to be relatively accurate.”

Niemeier said the new study’s findings are a warning that current renewable-fuel targets are not ambitious enough to prevent harm to society, economic development and natural ecosystems.

“We need stronger policy impetus to push the development of these alternative replacement technologies along,” she said.

via Oil will run dry before substitutes roll out.

DNA reveals origins of first European farmers

Professor Alan Cooper – A team of international researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has resolved the longstanding issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago.

A detailed genetic study of one of the first farming communities in Europe, from central Germany, reveals marked similarities with populations living in the Ancient Near East (modern-day Turkey, Iraq and other countries) rather than those from Europe.

Project leader Professor Alan Cooper, Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide, says: “This overturns current thinking, which accepts that the first European farming populations were constructed largely from existing populations of hunter-gatherers, who had either rapidly learned to farm or interbred with the invaders.”

The results of the study have been published today in the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS Biology.

“We have finally resolved the question of who the first farmers in Europe were – invaders with revolutionary new ideas, rather than populations of Stone Age hunter-gatherers who already existed in the area,” says lead author Dr Wolfgang Haak, Senior Research Associate with ACAD at the University of Adelaide.

“We’ve been able to apply new, high-precision ancient DNA methods to create a detailed genetic picture of this ancient farming population, and reveal that it was radically different to the nomadic populations already present in Europe.

“We have also been able to use genetic signatures to identify a potential route from the Near East and Anatolia, where farming evolved around 11,000 years ago, via south-eastern Europe and the Carpathian Basin (today’s Hungary) into Central Europe,” Dr Haak says.

via DNA reveals origins of first European farmers.

Astronomers discover the Giant Purple Eggs of the Milky Way Galaxy

From end to end, the newly discovered gamma-ray bubbles extend 50,000 light-years, or roughly half of the Milky Way’s diameter, as shown in this illustration. Hints of the bubbles’ edges were first observed in X-rays (blue) by ROSAT, a Germany-led mission operating in the 1990s. The gamma rays mapped by Fermi (magenta) extend much farther from the galaxy’s plane.

David A. Aguilar – NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way — a finding likened in terms of scale to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The feature, which spans 50,000 light-years, may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.

“What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center,” said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. “We don’t fully understand their nature or origin.”

At more than 100 degrees across, the structure spans more than half of the sky, from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus. It may be millions of years old.

A paper on the findings will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Finkbeiner and Harvard graduate students Meng Su and Tracy Slatyer revealed the bubbles by processing publicly available data from the satellite’s Large Area Telescope (LAT). Their work expanded on previous studies led by Greg Dobler at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Fermi’s Large Area Telescope is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever orbited. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light.

The structures eluded previous astronomers studying gamma rays due in part to the so-called diffuse emission — a fog of gamma rays that appears all over the sky. The emissions are caused by particles moving near the speed of light interacting with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. …

via CfA Press Room.

Nasa to develop ‘hypersonic’ jets that travel at 5 times the speed of sound

Daniel Bates - NASA is planning to build hypersonic jets that will fly through the Earth’s atmosphere and slash flight times around the world to a few hours at most.

The US space agency wants to manufacture a craft that would travel at five times the speed of sound and bring in a new age of aircraft akin to a turbo-charged Concorde.

Travelling at such speed would reduce the flight time from New York to Sydney to around two-and-a-half hours, from the 21 hours it is now.

The project is thought to be aimed at making a reusable aircraft that could fly to Mars but, as with previous space technology, it could have a huge impact upon passenger transport too.

Under the NASA Aeronautics 2010 proposal, the space agency will allocate $5million per year for the next three years to make the new aircraft a reality.

The aim is to create something which can carry passengers through the atmosphere, descend and land safely before being reused. …

According to the proposal, engineers will look into ‘entry, descent and landing of high-mass vehicles entering into planetary atmospheres’ and ‘airbreathing access to space’

via Nasa to develop ‘hypersonic’ jets that travel at 5 times the speed of sound | Mail Online.

Why birds fly into power lines

Scientists have revealed that birds fly into power lines because they have ‘blind spots’ in their field of vision.

Experts discovered that cranes, bustards and storks were unable to see obstacles straight ahead when they tilted their heads downwards in flight, reports the BBC.

Birds often look down during flight to find fellow birds as well as nesting and feeding areas, according to the researchers.

The new evidence has suggested that altering the appearance of power lines cannot prevent the problem.

via Why birds fly into power lines.

Cancer patients to get transfusions of blood made from their own skin

Richard Alleyne- Patients could soon be transfused with blood made from their own skin in a breakthrough that could revolutionise cancer treatments and solve the blood donor shortage.

Scientists have shown that ordinary skin cells can effectively be converted into adult blood cells in the laboratory.

They believe that a two inch square patch of skin – taken from anywhere on the body – could be enough to make enough blood for a full transfusion.

What is more because the blood is made from the patient’s own cells, there is no danger of the body rejecting it.

The Canadian team say that the process has been so successful that they could try the treatment in patient within two years.

“There is incredible need here,” said Dr Mick Bhatia, who headed the team at McMaster University in Ontario.

“For patients with disease this will be an alternative source of blood that will not be rejected.

“People will effectively become their own donors. We are very excited and very enthusiastic about it.

“There is a lot of work to be done but I would be disappointed if we were not trying it on patients by 2012.”

The research, published in Nature, is part of ongoing attempts across the world to revert adult cells back to their original stem cell form.

Stem cells are “master cells” which can be manipulated in a laboratory to become any other cell in the body.

The McMaster team have managed to misses out the “in-between” stage of turning the cells back to stem cells and then converting to blood cells.

Instead the process – which uses various proteins to re-programme the cells and takes a month – converts skin cells straight to blood.

Leukaemia patients are likely to be the first to receive transfusions of perfectly matched blood generated from their own skin. …

Professor John Hunt, a leading stem cell scientist from the University of Liverpool, said: “I think it’s fantastic research, but it’s not yet in the clinic and we don’t know if these red blood cells are going to carry oxygen. The quantum leap for us all is going to be to get these kind of bench experiments into the patient. ,,,

via Cancer patients to get transfusions of blood made from their own skin – Telegraph. | link

… The discovery began as Dr. Bhatia’s team were trying to create iPS cells from skin. Eva Szabo, a post-doctoral student, noticed one day what looked like blood cells in the dish of skin cells, an observation soon borne out by testing.

The team then manipulated three different types of “factors” – proteins that turn on or off genes within cells – until they could intentionally convert the skin into blood “progenitors” or precursors, which in turn become blood cells. …

via montrealgazette

Grad Student Alexandra Pajak Composes ‘Sounds of HIV,’ Songs Using DNA of AIDS Virus

We’re always hearing sobering news about the widespread AIDS epidemic, but, until now, you’ve probably never “heard” about HIV quite like this.

Alexandra Pajak, a graduate student at the University of Georgia, has just created a whole new way of looking at the complexities of HIV by combining the biology of the disease with music.

For months, Pajak carefully studied the different types of DNA that make up the AIDS virus and assigned musical pitches to each individual strand.

What resulted was a 17-track, 52-minute album of transcribed “DNA music,” appropriately dubbed “Sounds of HIV.”"I wanted to show all of the properties that the DNA in HIV contains. Hopefully it’s a whole new way for people to learn about the science behind the disease,” Pajak told AOL News.

The graduate student — who studied music as an undergrad at Agnes Scott College — said the project took her more than three painstaking months to complete because she wanted to compose the most accurate musical translation possible of the genetic code of HIV.

“I stayed very loyal to the DNA. Every segment of the virus was assigned music pitches that correspond to the segment’s scientific properties. The sounds literally reflect the nature of the virus,” she explained.

Pajak said she first broke down the basic nucleotides in the DNA — scientifically abbreviated A,C,T and G — and assigned tones to those. Luckily, A, C and G are also already musical pitches in the scale, so she said matching up that part was easy.

“There was a lot of logic involved in this. I also broke down 20 amino acids and proteins and assigned pitches to those. I used the A-minor scale for the amino acids based on their level of attraction to water. So, when you hear this CD, you’re literally hearing the entire genome of the HIV virus. It’s pretty cool,” she added. …

Pajak said she has no plans to add lyrics to her songs because that would interfere with the accuracy of the DNA music.

Out of respect for science, and those who have HIV, she said she won’t be singing on the album anytime soon.

via Grad Student Alexandra Pajak Composes ‘Sounds of HIV,’ Songs Using DNA of AIDS Virus.

I heard some DNA music at the Exploratorium in San Francisco years ago and loved it. Listen to the HIV DNA translated into music here.

Bacteria can lead to evolution of new species

gp – A new study has suggested that bacteria that live on the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster can affect their host’s choice of mate by altering the fly’s pheromones.

This in turn could lead to the evolution of new fly species — suggesting that bacteria can indirectly change the species of their hosts, reports Nature.

Eugene Rosenberg, a microbiologist at Tel-Aviv University, suspected that a change in diet acts on symbiotic bacteria living on the flies, rather than directly on the flies themselves.

The find is consistent with ”hologenome” theory – which suggests that natural selection, which drives evolution, acts on a host and its symbiotic partners as a single unit rather than on each species in isolation.

The fruitflies developed a mating preference just a single generation after they were introduced to a new diet.

… Rosenberg says the next step is to investigate whether this mechanism is occurring in natural fruitfly populations, and to pin down how the bacteria are passed from one generation to the next.

via Bacteria can lead to evolution of new species.

Merry Mithras and a happy Saturnalia to all

Jansen – Mithras, oddly enough, has the same birthdate as Jesus, but some 600 years earlier! Not only that, but he was also born of a virgin, with a few shepherds present. Mithras, a traveling teacher and master, had 12 disciples as he performed miracles. Just like Jesus, Mithras was buried in a tomb, died, and after three days was resurrected and rose again! (It must be the way gods did things back then.)

Known as “the way,” “the Truth,” “the Light,” “the Redeemer,” “the Messiah,” “the Savior,” “the word,” “the Son of God,” and ”the Good Shepherd,” Mithras was sometimes pictured carrying a lamb on his shoulders. Sunday was sacred to the followers of Mithras and called it “the Lord’s Day”.

Mithraism hit Rome in the first century BC as the Mithraic cult fled Persia. Here it flourished as the Sun God Natalis Solis Invicti. The leader of this religion ruled from what is now Vatican hill, which is a place previously sacred to Mithras. This male leader was called Papa (which is how we get the word “Pope”). Books in honor of Mithras were called “Helio Biblia,” which translates to us as either “Sun Book” or “Holy Bible.”

… Horus was known as “the Way,” “the Fisher,” “the Truth,” “the Light,” “God’s Anointed Son,”  “the Son of Man,” “the Good Shepherd,” “the Lamb of God,” and “the Word.” He was also was called “the KRST,” or “Anointed One.” (It is worth noting here that Christos means anointed in Greek.) There was a trinity with Horus: Atum the Father and Ra the Holy Spirit. Add Horus and we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the later years of Horus, he had 12 disciples known as Har-Khuttie. Horus had an enemy (originally this was also the dark side of Horus, or his other face). This evil enemy was “Set” or “Sata.”

via Merry Mithras one and all.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that ”The traditional customs connected with Christmas have developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan agricultural and solar observations at midwinter. In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchange of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness.”

Colliers Encyclopedia agrees. Quote: “After the triumph of Constantine, the church at Rome assigned December 25 as the date for the celebration of the feast, possibly about A.D. 320 or 353. By the end of the fourth century the whole Christian world was celebrating Christmas on that day, with the exception of the Eastern churches, where it was celebrated on January 6. The choice of December 25 was probably influenced by the fact that on this day the Romans celebrated the Mithraic feast of the Sun-god (natalis solis invicti), and that the Saturnalia also came at this time.”

Both encyclopedias plainly reveal that the source of the celebration of December 25 is the birthday of Mithra, the pagan sun god.

via toolong.com

Mithras had twelve disciples. This appears to be derived from some iconography in the mithraea where the twelve symbols of the zodiac are arrayed around the scene of Mithras killing the bull. The connection between twelve disciples and twelve signs of the zodiac is made in the book The Jesus Mysteries and by Acharya S (D.Murdock)

via skepticwiki

Also see: Religoustolerance.org, todayperhaps.com, simpletoremember.com, associatedcontent.com, truthbeknown,  vexen.co.uk, etc. Christianity absorbed the beliefs, customs and rituals of other tribes in order to gain followers.

I’ve been thinking about the word KRST. What is the deal with anointing back in the day?

It seems that holy stones were frequently anointed with oil. Weird. This is from “Folk-lore in the Old Testament: studies in comparative religion …, Volume 2, By Sir James George Frazer:

The theology of Mithraism was centred upon the dying/rising Mithra, emerging fully grown from the ‘virgin dawn’ or rock. The association of gods with rocks or stones is not surprising: fiery rocks falling from the sky (meteorites) and even sparks released by colliding stones would equally strike the simple mind as ‘evidence’ of a godly presence. Holy stones were anointed with oil. … – jesusneverexisted

How did being born from a rock get mingled with birth from a  ‘virgin dawn’ ? People were really confused back then, about a great many things. 

Christ was born of a Virgin; there is nothing to prove that the same was believed of Mithra born from the rock. – newadvent.org

Yeah but… Christ means “anointed one”. And holy rocks were anointed with oil. And Mithras was born from a holy virgin rock cave.

Parallel: “Sipapu, a Hopi word, is a small hole or indentation in the floor of kivas used by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples and modern-day Puebloans. It symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world.”

Perhaps we have the words “O God”, for God who is in the shape of an “O” or… as we like to call it these days, the Sun. ( see Psalm 84:9.)

 

3,400-year-old double statue of Pharaoh discovered in Egypt

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said Thursday that archeologists had discovered a 3,400-year-old statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III together with a falcon-headed sun god in south Egypt’s Luxor.

SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawwas said the statue was one of the most beautiful statues ever found recently in Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, who had a large quantity of statues featuring him with many different ancient gods.

Amenhotep III, who was believed to be the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled in the 14th century B.C. in one of the most prosperous period of Egypt’s New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

Earlier this month, Egyptian archeologists found the upper part of a double statue of the Pharaoh sitting on his throne, with chief deity Amun.

via 3,400-year-old double statue of Pharaoh discovered in Egypt.

Two things to notice, one, WordPress now destroys the quality of images uploaded. The originals are much sharper. And two, there is one article about these statues that completely ignores the attached headless twin (including cropping the twin out entirely):

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed part a 3,000-year-old statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamun, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Saturday.

“The statue was found near the northern entrance of Amenhotep III’s temple and depicts the king sitting down on a throne with Amun,” the chief deity, Hawass said.

The red-granite top half of the statue was discovered at the site of the Amenhotep III’s funerary temple in the southern city of Luxor, Hawass said.

The newly-discovered artifact which measures 130 cm (51 inches) in height and 95 cm (37 inches) in width is “fantastic… because of the details of the facial features,” Hawass said.

Archaeologists believe the full statue is around three metres (nearly 10 feet) tall.

In recent years, a large quantity of red-granite statue pieces have been uncovered at Amenhotep III’s funerary temple at Kom al-Hitan on Luxor’s west bank.

Amenhotep III ruled Egypt between 1390 and 1352 BC.

He was almost certainly the grandfather of Tutankhamun, according to the results of DNA tests and computerised tomography (CT) scans on the famed boy king’s mummy announced by scientists on February 17.

via DiscoveryOn