The death throes of the biggest star known to science have been observed by Europe's new space telescope, Herschel.

The observatory, launched in May, has subjected VY Canis Majoris, to a detailed spectroscopic analysis.

It has allowed Herschel to identify the different types of molecules and atoms that swirl away from the star which is 30-40 times as massive as our Sun.

VY Canis Majoris is some 4,500 light-years from Earth and could explode as a supernova at any time.

It is colossal. If VY Canis Majoris were sited at the centre of our Solar System, its surface would extend to the orbit of Saturn.

The star, in the constellation Canis Major, has been recorded by astronomers for at least 200 years.

It is what is called a red hypergiant – a highly evolved object that is exhausting its nuclear fuel.

Its end days see it spew vast quantities of gas and dust into interstellar space, including elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – the raw materials that will go into the production of future planets, and, who knows, perhaps life elsewhere in the galaxy.

Herschel has trained the spectrometers in its Pacs and Spire instruments on the extensive cloud of material billowing away from the object.

Spectrometers capture and split light into its constituent wavelengths, creating a kind of “fingerprint” that will reveal information on the chemistry of a light source. …

via BBC News – Herschel telescope ‘fingerprints’ colossal star.

Prized for their impressive antlers, red deer have been caught in the hunters’ sights for generations. But a deer’s antlers are much more than decorative. They are lethal weapons that stags crash together when duelling. John Currey, from The University of York, UK, has been intrigued by the mechanical properties of bone for over half a century and has become fascinated by the mechanical properties of antler through a long-standing collaboration with Tomas Landete-Castillejos at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.

‘Antlers look as if they are dry,’ says Currey, ‘but no one knew if they really are dry when used in contests’. Curious to find out whether red deer antlers are used wet or dry when duelling, and how this affects the antlers’ mechanical properties, Currey headed south to La Mancha to test the mechanical properties of red deer antlers and publishes the discovery that dry antler is stiff and tough on 27 November 2009 in the Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org.

But before the team could begin testing the antler’s strength, they needed to find out how dry the bones were. Collecting freshly cut antlers from the university farm and a local game estate just after stags had shed the antler’s protective velvet, Currey, Landete-Castillejos, José Estevez and their colleagues weighed the antlers each week to find out how much they dried. Amazingly, over the first 2 weeks, the antlers lost a colossal 8% of their weight, compared with 1% weight loss if they were cut at other times of the year. Eventually the weight loss stabilised and the antler’s humidity was in balance with that of the surrounding air. It was clear that the antlers were dry when the stags began duelling.

But how did this water loss affect the bone’s material properties in comparison with those of normal bones, which function internally and are always wet? Would the dry antler make a better weapon than wet bone?

The team prepared 40 mm long blocks of dry antler and wet deer femur and measured the amount of force needed to bend the blocks to find out how flexible the materials were. Even though most bones are relatively brittle and inflexible when dry, the team found that the dry antlers are almost as stiff as wet bone: which is ideal for weapons that have to survive a lengthy pushing contest after the initial clash.

But how ‘tough’ was the antler? How much energy could it absorb in the initial crash? Applying a force to the middle of the blocks of bone and gently increasing it until the bone broke, the team plotted a curve of the bending force against the amount that the bone bent. Calculating the amount of energy that the antler could absorb before shattering, Currey found that the tissue was incredibly tough: 2.4 times tougher than normal wet bone. And when Currey measured the amount of energy that the dry antler could absorb in an impact, he was surprised and pleased to see that it could survive impacts 6 times greater than the impacts that shattered wet femur. The dry antler was tougher than wet bone and ideally suited to survive the stags’ initial clash.

So dry deer antlers are simultaneously stiff, yet tough, making them perfectly suited to their role as a weapon. And the deer seem to have solved a problem that has puzzled engineers for decades. ‘It is very difficult to make anything that is both stiff and tough,’ says Currey, but it seems that duelling deer solved the problem eons ago.

via Tough yet stiff deer antler is materials scientist’s dream.

Update:  Nov 27:  Hear the songs that were submitted to NPR. (I’m on page 4… they posted the first version I sent instead of the updated version you can hear on the box.net on the left. Alphabetical order … perhaps I should change my name to “Aaahxeno”. )

LISTEN: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4.

Here is the entire group on one page. Hey, someone commented about my song! Woo!

Wow, some great stuff in there! I’m really enjoying listening to these songs and I’m definitely learning some new things about recording and mixing by listening to how others did what they did.

Previous Post:

This is my attempt at writing and recording a song in one day (Saturday Nov 14) start to finish for NPR: PLAY or DOWNLOAD: My Dog, Japan (mix 2).mp3. Here is the NPR request for songs written and recorded in one day using certain key words.

…. I think we’d all be willing to admit that technology has made making music a whole lot easier, cheaper and more accessible. We can be more agile, impulsive, nimble, reactionary and spontaneous than ever before. Right? Well, that’s the idea anyway.

So let’s try!

Here at NPR Music, we could have given you a mere 24 hours to do this, but we’ll be generous and allow you the entire weekend in which to record an original song.

Here are the rules:

Your song needs to include one of the following words:  dog, firecracker, lamp shade, Japan, NPR

Your song can be any genre or length.

Please include the name of the song and how you’d like to be credited. Send your songs to:

monitormix@npr.org

All songs are due by this Sunday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. ET. We’ll feature the songs next week as part of our continuing Decade In Music coverage.

Thanks, and have fun!

via Record A Song This Weekend! – Monitor Mix Blog : NPR.

Okay, Done.   I’m looking forward to hearing the other songs!

Hear him once, you’ll be a fan.
I’ve got a dog I call Japan
He howls in tune with Beethoven.
The dog’s going to be a star

My cat named Italy is so cool.
Plays piano from the stool.
Paws of gold no feline fool, he’s been on NPR

La la la

My bird named Russia? I can’t say.
The window cracked, he flew away
The rat, however, plays the drums and I
Let him out when company comes

I am the manager, the financial backer
I light the proverbial firecracker
Underneath the band to get them going somewhere
If you don’t believe my story’s true
Some countries want to have a word with you
Japan knows he’s going somewhere

He said, “Don’t be afraid, put a smile not a lamp shade on.”
Dream what you will, you deserve it
You deserve what you’d love to be.

I‘ve got a dog I named Japan
He’s the genius in the band
I don’t know how he does it, man
He writes these songs that make me want to cry

And he tells me, “If someone’s messing
with your dignity, you can talk to me.
You deserve to be, what you want to be.
So be.

My Dog, Japan. My Dog, Japan…”

The prototype device can kill off bacteria, viruses, and fungi in just seconds… You can even make it battery operated so you can use small devices – I have one in my hand right now – Gregor Morfill
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA.

The device works by creating something called a plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin.

A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds.

Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the authors say plasmas could help solve gum disease or even body odour.

Plasmas are known as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas. They are a soup of atoms that have had their electrons stripped off by, for example, a high voltage.

Plasmas are common elsewhere in the cosmos, where high-energy processes produce them, and they are even posited as a potential source of fusion energy. Their properties have recently been harvested for use in plasma televisions.

Deadly cocktail

But the new research focuses on so-called cold atmospheric plasmas.

Rather than turning a whole group of atoms into plasma, a more delicate approach strips the electrons off just a few, sending them flying.

Collisions with nearby, unchanged atoms slows down the electrons and charged atoms or ions they leave behind.

It has been known for some time that the resulting plasma is harmful to bacteria, viruses, and fungi – the approach is already used to disinfect surgical tools.

“It’s actually similar to what our own immune system does,” said Gregor Morfill, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, who led the research.

“The plasma produces a series of over 200 chemical reactions that involve the oxygen and nitrogen in air plus water vapour – there is a whole concotion of chemical species that can be lethal to bacteria,” he told BBC News. …

“To produce plasmas efficiently at low cost so you can really mass produce these things for hospitals, that’s the big breakthrough of the last year,” Professor Morfill said.

The team says that an exposure to the plasma of only about 12 seconds reduces the incidence of bacteria, viruses, and fungi on hands by a factor of a million – a number that stands in sharp contrast to the several minutes hospital staff can take to wash using traditional soap and water.

More applications

Professor Morfill said that the approach can be used to kill the bacteria that lead to everything from gum disease to body odour.

via BBC News – Device spells doom for superbugs.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Straphylococcus Aureus) and other drug-resistant bacteria could face annihilation as low-temperature plasma prototype devices have been developed to offer safe, quick, easy and unfailing bactericidal cocktails.

//
Two prototype devices have been developed: one for efficient disinfection of healthy skin (e.g. hands and feet) in hospitals and public spaces where bacteria can pose a lethal threat; and another to shoot bacteria-killing agents into infested chronic wounds and enable a quicker healing process.

Two papers published today, Thursday 26 November, as part of a selection of papers on Plasma Medicine in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society), demonstrate how far the design of equipment to harness the bacteria-killing power of low-temperature plasma has come.

Plasma, oft called the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid and gas, is defined by its ionized state. In space, stars are made up of high-energy plasma and, on Earth, it is researchers in high-energy plasma that are making significant strides towards limitless energy from nuclear fusion. The high energy of plasma stems from some atoms or molecules in a gas being stripped of their electrons, resulting in a mix of ionized and neutral species.

- via http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=110768500

Related links:  Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

Could alien life exist in the form of DNA-shaped dust?

Complex and Dusty Plasmas: From Laboratory to Space

Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” – history.com

Hale was influential, but there is more to the story…

Myth: The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and the pilgrims celebrated it every year thereafter.

Fact: The first feast wasn’t repeated, so it wasn’t the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn’t even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast–dancing, singing secular songs, playing games–wouldn’t have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.

Myth: The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the fourth Thursday of November.

Fact: The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. After that first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Indians. In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest.

During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, which he may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941) – history.com

The Secret Service says it’s looking into its own security procedures after determining that two people crashed Tuesday night’s state dinner at the White House.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says that President Barack Obama was never in any danger. Donovan says the party crashers went through the same security screening as the 300-plus people actually invited to the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Donovan says the Secret Service first learned about the security breach Wednesday morning after media inquiries prompted by the crashers’ online boasts about having attended the private event.

The Washington Post reports that photos from the state dinner appear on the Facebook page of one of the dinner crashers.

via Couple slips though security to crash state dinner – Yahoo! News.

The hottest ticket in the free world is to the first White House State Dinner of the Obama presidency.

The Obamas are honoring visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but in their own way — unlike prior state dinners in the high-ceilinged State Dining Room, the Obamas will gather a few hundred VIPs in a heated tent on the South Lawn. …  – nbc

Here are all of the several hundred attendees who should have been there. After seeing 2010 this is sort of like the list of people who might be invited to survive the apocalypse. Nice to see Steven Spielberg made it.  I added some links. Kind of fun to research who these people are.

1. The President & First Lady Michelle Obama
2. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India & Ms. Gursharan Kaur
3. The Honorable (Rep) Gary Ackerman, United States Representative Mr. Sant Singh Chatwal (Guest)
4. His Excellency Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
5. Mr. Mukesh D Ambani
6. Mr. Tim Dutta (Spouse of Ms. Pia Awal)
7. The Honorable (Mr.) David Axelrod, White House Communications Mrs. Susan Axelrod
8. Ms. Preeta Bansal, OMB – General Counsel
9. The Honorable (Ms.) Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council Mr. Marland E. Buckner
10. The Honorable (Rep.) Howard Berman, United States Representative (D/California) Mrs. Jane Berman, Spouse of United States Representative (D/California)
11. Mr. Om Prakash Bhatt
12. Mr. Hunter Biden Mrs. Kathleen Biden
13. The Honorable (Vice President) Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President of the United States Dr. Jill Biden
14. Mr. Robert O Blake, Jr., Assistant Sec for South and Central Asian Affairs, State Department Mrs. Sofia Blake
15. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York, NY Ms. Diana Taylor
16. The Honorable (Mr.) John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism, Homeland Security Council Mrs. Katherine Brennan
17. The Honorable (Ms.) Lisa Brown, Office of Staff Secretary Mr. Kevin Cullen
18. Mr. Donald Browne Ms. Maria Junqera
19. The Honorable (Ms.) Carol Browner, Energy and Climate Change The Honorable (Mr.) Tom Downey
20. Mr. William Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Department of State Ms. Lisa Cart
21. General James E Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mrs. Sandee Cartwright
22. The Honorable (Senator) Bob Casey, United States Senator (D/Pennsylvania) Mrs. Terese Casey, United States Senate Spouse (D/Pennsylvania)
23. Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekaran Mrs. Julie Chandrasekaran
24. Mr. I.S. Chaturvedi, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
25. Senator Satveer Chaudhry, State Senator Colonel Ravi Chaudhry (Guest)
26. Ms. Rohini Chopra
27. Mr. Deepak Chopra Mrs. Rita Chopra
28. The Honorable (Secretary) Steven Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy Mrs. Jean Chu
29. The Honorable (Secretary) Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State
30. The Honorable (Rep.) James E. Clyburn, United States Representative (D/South Carolina) Mrs. Emily Clyburn
31. The Honorable (Senator) Kent Conrad, United States Senator (D/North Dakota) Ms. Lucy Calutti, United States Senate Spouse (D/North Dakota)
32. Mr. David Cote
33. Ms. Katie Couric Mr. Brooks L Perlin
34. Mr. Greg Craig, Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President Mrs. Margaret D Craig
35. Mrs. Paula Crown Mr. Jim Crown
36. The Honorable (Rep.) Elijah Cummings, United States Representative (D/Maryland) Mrs. Maya Rockeymoore
37. Senator Swati Dandekar, State Senator Mr. Arvind Dandekar
38. Mr. Rajesh De, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
39. Nancy Ann DeParle, Office of Health Reform Mr. Jason P DeParle
40. Ms. Bhairavi Desai Javaid Tari
41. Dr. Vishakha N. Desai Robert Oxman
42. The Honorable (Senator) Chris Dodd, United States Senator (D/Connecticut) Mrs. Jackie Clegg Dodd
43. Mr. John Doerr
44. The Honorable (Mr.) Thomas Donilon, Assistant to the President, Deputy National Security Advisor, NSC Ms. Cathy Russell
45. The Honorable Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director Mr. Bob Bauer
46. Mr. Ari Emanuel Mrs. Sarah Emanuel
47. The Honorable (Mr.) Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to the President Ms. Amy Rule
48. The Honorable (Mr.) Jon Favreau, Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting
49. Ms. Sarah Feinberg, Office of the Chief of Staff
50. The Honorable (Mayor) Adrian Fenty, Mayor of the District of Columbia Mrs. Michelle Fenty
51. Ms. Michelle Flournoy ( Under Secretary of Defense for Policy of the United States.)
52. Mr. Thomas Friedman Mrs. Ann Friedman
53. The Honorable (Mr.) Mike Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, NSC
54. Dr. Ashok S Ganguly
55. The Honorable (Mr.) Patrick Gaspard, Office of Political Affairs Mrs. Raina Washington
56. The Honorable Robert Gates
57. Ms. Charlene Gaynor Mr. Richard Heiss
58. Mr. David Geffen Mr. Jeremy Lingvall
59. The Honorable (Secretary) Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury Ms. Carole Sonnenfeld
60. The Honorable (Mr.) Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretar
61. Mr. Anish Goel, Acting Senior Director, South Asia Affairs, NSC
62. Mr. Senapathy Gopalakrishnan
63. Mr. Mark Gorenberg Ms. Wendy Wanderman
64. Mr. John Gorman Mrs. Tamra Gorman
65. Representative Jay Goyal, State Representative Kiran Goyal
66. Representative Raj Goyle, State Representative Mrs. Monica Arora
67. The Honorable (Governor) Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan (D) Mr. Daniel Mulhern, First Gentleman of Michigan
68. Mr. Earl G. Graves Mrs. Barbara Graves
69. Ms. Geeta Rao Gupta Mr. Arvind Gupta
70. Mr. Raj Gupta
71. Mr. Rajat Gupta Mrs. Anita M Gupta
72. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Mrs. Rebecca Olson Gupta
73. Mr. Lee Hamilton Mrs. Nancy Hamilton
74. The Honorable (Ms.) Kamala Harris Ms. Maya Harris
75. Mr. Kamil Hassan Mrs. Talat Hassan
76. Mr. George Haywood Mrs. Cheryl J Haywood
77. The Honorable Fred Hochberg, Export-Import Bank Thomas P Healy
78. The Honorable (Rep.) Paul Hodes, United States Representative (D/New Hampshire) Mrs. Margaret Hodes
79. The Honorable (Attorney General) Eric Holder, United States Attorney General, Department of Justice Dr. Sharon Malone, MD
80. Dr. John P. Holdren Dr. Cheryl E Holdren
81. The Honorable (Rep.) Eleanor Holmes-Norton, United States of Representative (D/DC) Mr. John Norton
82. Mr. Robert D Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, State Department Ms. Camille Massey
83. The Honorable (Rep) Steny Hoyer, United States Representative (D/Maryland) Ms. Kathleen May
84. Mr. Chris Hughes Mr. Sean S Eldridge
85. Mr. Jeff Immelt
86. The Honorable (Senator) Daniel Inouye, United States Senator (D/Hawaii) Ms. Irene Hirano, United States Senate Spouse (D/Hawaii)
87. Mrs. Deepa Iyer Mr. Parag Khandhar Mr. Vasudeva Iyer
88. The Honorable (Administrator) Lisa Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency Mr. Kenneth Jackson
89. The Honorable (Ms.) Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor
90. The Honorable (Governor) Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana Mrs. Supriya Jindal, First Lady of Louisiana
91. The Honorable (General) James Jones, Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor Mrs. Diane Jones
92. Mrs. Ann Jordan Mr. Vernon Jordan
93. Mr. Anil Kakani
94. Mr. Farooq Kathwari Mrs. Farida Kathwari
95. Mr. Neal Katyal, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Office of the Solicitor General
96. Mr. Jeffrey Katzenberg Mrs. Marilyn Katzenberg
97. Ms. Maneesha Kelkar, Manavi Vinay Vaishampayan
98. The Honorable (Senator) John Kerry, United States Senator (D/Massachusetts)
99. Dr. Harish Khare, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Indian Delegation
100. The Honorable (Mr.) Bradley Kiley, Office of Management and Administration Mr. James Coley, Jr
101. Ms. Gayle King
102. The Honorable (Ambassador) Ron Kirk, USTR Mrs. Matrice Ellis-Kirk
103. The Honorable (Mr.) Ronald Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Office of the Vice President
104. Mrs. Chanda D Kochhar
105. His Excellency S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
106. Ms. Gaitri Kumar, Joint Secretary (Americas), Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
107. Mr. Vivek Kundra
108. Mrs. Jhumpa Lahiri Mr. Alberto Vourvoulias
109. Mr. Marc Lasry Cathy Lasry
110. Mr. Jacob Lew, Deputy Secretary, Department of State
111. The Honorable Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce Mrs. Mona Locke
112. The Honorable (Mr.) Christopher Lu, Cabinet Affairs Ms. Kathryn Thomson
113. The Honorable (Senator) Richard Lugar, United States Senator (R/Indiana) Mrs. Char Lugar, United States Senate Spouse (R/Indiana)
114. Mr. Michael Lynton Ms. Elizabeth Jamie Alter
115. Mr. Surinder Malhotra
116. The Honorable (Chief of Protocol) Capricia Marshall
117. The Honorable (Ms.) Alyssa Mastromonaco, White House Office of Scheduling
118. Mr. Brian Mathis Mrs. Tracey Kemble
119. Ms. Kiran Mazumda-Shaw
120. The Honorable (Senator) Claire McCaskill, United States Senator (D/Missouri) Mr. Joseph Shepard, United States Senate Spous
121. The Honorable (Rep) Jim McDermott, United States Representative (D/Washington) Mrs. Therese Marie Hansen
122. Mr. Zarin Mehta Ms. Carmen Lasky
123. The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Messina, Office of Chief of Staff
124. Mr. Judd Miner Mrs. Linda Miner
125. Mr. Newt Minow Mrs. Josephine Minow
126. Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal
127. Kalpen Modi, Associate Director, Office of Public Engagement
128. Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mrs. Deborah Mullen
129. The Honorable (Secretary) Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
130. His Excellency M.K. Narayanan, National Security Adviser of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
131. Mr. Shantanu Narayen Mrs. Reni Narayen
132. Mr. Raju Narisetti Durga Raghunath
133. Mr. Martin Nesbitt Ms. Anita Blanchard
134. Mr. Konrad Ng Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng
135. Ms. Indra Nooyi
136. The Honorable (Rep) David Obey, United States Representative (D/Wisconsin) Mrs. Joan Obey
137. The Honorable (Mr.) Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management & Budget
138. Mr. Jim Owens Ms. Katie Owens
139. Mr. Deepak Parekh
140. Mr. Eboo Patel Ms. Shehnez Mansuri
141. Mrs. Diane Patrick, First Lady of Massachusetts
142. The Honorable (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, United States Representative (D/California) and Speaker of the House Mr. Paul Pelosi
143. Mr. Dan Pfeiffer, White House Office of Communications
144. Mr. Sam Pitroda Mrs. Anjana Pitroda
145. General Colin Powell Ms. Alma Powell
146. Dr. Rachakonda D Prabhu Dr. Lata Shete Prabhu
147. Mrs. Penny Pritzker Dr. Brian Traubert
148. Ms. Kavita Ramdas
149. Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
150. Ms. Preetha Reddy
151. The Honorable (Governor) Edward Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania (D) The Honorable (Judge) Marjorie Rendell, First Lady of Pennsylvania
152. Mr. Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting
153. The Honorable (Ambassador) Susan Rice, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mr. Ian Cameron
154. The Honorable (Governor) Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico (D)
155. Mrs. Barbara Richardson, First Lady of New Mexico
156. Ms. Robin Roberts
157. Mrs. Marian Robinson
158. Ambassador Timothy Roemer, US Ambassador to India Mrs. Mary Johnston
159. Ms. Desiree Rogers, Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary
160. Mr. John Rogers
161. The Honorable (Dr.) Christina Romer, Chair, Council of Economic Advisers
162. Mr. Dennis Ross, NSC
163. The Honorable (Rep) Edward Randall Royce, United States Representative Marie Therese Royce
164. Mr. Michael Sacks Mrs. Cari Sacks
165. The Honorable (Rep.) Linda Sanchez, United States Representative (D/California) Mr. James Sullivan, Guest of Then Honorable Linda Sanchez
166. Mr. Pankaj Saran, Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
167. His Excellency Shyam Saran, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Indian Delegation
168. Mr. Jaideep Sarkar, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
169. Mr. Parag Saxena
170. The Honorable (Rep.) Jan Schakowsky, United States Representative (D/Illinois) Mr. Robert Creamer
171. The Honorable (Mr.) Phil Schiliro, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Mrs. Jody Schiliro
172. Ms. Annetta Seecharran Seema Agnani
173. Mr. Stuart Seldowitz, Acting Director for South Asia, NSC
174. Dr. Amartya Sen Ms. Emma Georgina Rothschild
175. Under Secretary Rajiv J Shah, Under Secretary for Research, Education & Economics, Department of Agriculture
176. The Honorable Sonal Shah, Deputy Assist to the President, Director Office of SICP, Domestic Policy Council
177. Mr. Vinod Shah
178. Her Excellency Meera SHANKAR, Ambassador, India
179. The Honorable Susan Sher, Assistant to the President/Chief of Staff to the First Lady The Honorable (Mr.) Neil Cohen
180. Mr. M. Night Shyamalan Mrs. Bhavna Shyamala
181. Ms. Amrit Singh Mr. Analjit Singh
182. Mr. Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
183. Mr. Balvinder Singh Mr. Mohinder Singh
184. Mr. Lakhwinder Singh Mrs. Sukhbir Kaur
185. Ms. Upinder Singh
186. Mr. Steven Spielberg
187. Mr. Sri Srinivasan Ms. Carla Garrett
188. Ms. Srinija Srinivasan
189. The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State Ms. Sherburne Bradstreet
190. Mrs. Semonti Stephens, Deputy Press Secretary, Office of the First Lady
191. Mr. Andy Stern Ms. Anna Burger
192. Mrs. Jane Stetson Mr. Bill Stetson
193. Honorable (Dr.) Larry Summers, Director, National Economic Council Dr. Elisa New
194. The Honorable (Ms.) Mona Sutphen, Office of Chief of Staff Mr. Clyde Williams
195. Mr. Ratan Tata
196. The Honorable (Ms.) Tina Tchen, Office of Public Liaison
197. Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, Ambassador, Embassy of Belize Mrs. Barbara Thummalapally
198. Mr. Jim Torrey Ms. Rose P Lynch
199. Mr. Richard Trumka Mr. Paul H Lemmon
200. Ms. Urvashi Vaid Ms. Kate Clinton
201. Mr. Kirk Wagar Ms. Crystal Connor
202. Dr. Eric E. Whitaker Dr. Cheryl Whitaker
203. Mr. Brian Williams Mrs. Jane Williams
204. Mr. Wellington Wilson Mrs. Wilson
205. Mr. Neal Wolin, Deputy Secretary, Department of Treasury
206. Ms. Alfre Woodard Mr. Blair E Underwood
207. Mr. Fareed Zakaria Ms. Paula Throckmorton Zakaria

We not only hear with our ears, but also through our skin, according to a new study.

The finding, based on experiments in which participants listened to certain syllables while puffs of air hit their skin, suggests our brains take in and integrate information from various senses to build a picture of our surroundings.

Along with other recent work, the research flips the traditional view of how we perceive the world on its head.

“[That's] very different from the more traditional ideas, based on the fact that we have eyes so we think of ourselves as seeing visible information, and we have ears so we think of ourselves as hearing auditory information. That’s a little bit misleading,” study researcher Bryan Gick of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told LiveScience.

“A more likely explanation is that we have brains that perceive rather than we have eyes that see and ears that hear.”

With such abilities, Gick views humans as “whole-body perceiving machines.”

The research, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and the National Institutes of Health, is detailed in the Nov. 26 issue of the journal Nature.

How we perceive

Gick’s work builds on past studies showing, for instance, that we can see sound and hear light, even if we don’t consciously realize it. Other studies show if you observe another person’s lips moving and think that other is speaking, your brain’s auditory regions would light up, Gick said.

Scientists had explained such sensing prowess as the result of experience, as we see and hear people speaking all the time and so it’d be only natural to learn how to integrate what we see with what we hear.

The alternative would be an innate ability. And so Gick and his colleague Donald Derrick, also of the University of British Columbia, studied two senses that aren’t generally paired – auditory and tactile – to figure out the root of perception.

How skin hears

The team focused on aspirated sounds, such as “pa” and “ta” that involve an inaudible burst of air when spoken, as well as unaspirated sounds, such as “ba” and “da.”

Blind-folded participants listened to recordings of a male voice saying each of the four syllables and had to press a button to indicate which sound they heard (pa, ta, ba or da). Participants were divided into three groups of 22, with one group hearing the syllables while a puff of air was blown onto their hand, the other had air blown onto the neck, and the control group heard the sounds with no air.

About 10 percent of the time when air was puffed onto the skin, participants mistakenly perceived the unaspirated syllables as being their aspirated equivalents. So when the guy said “ba,” such participants would indicate they heard “pa.” The control group didn’t show such mistaken perceptions.

A follow-up experiment in which participants got a tap on the skin rather than a puff of air showed no such mix-up between aspirated and unaspirated sounds.

Next, Gick is working with scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, to figure out how the brain allows such multi-sense integration.

- via Yahoo

The public can assist in analyzing the plethora of Mars data available from missions like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA and Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., have collaborated to create a Web site where Internet users can have fun while advancing their knowledge of Mars.

Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, the “Be a Martian” Web site will enable the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Martian maps, take part in research tasks, and assist Mars science teams studying data about the Red Planet.

“We’re at a point in history where everyone can be an explorer,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With so much data coming back from Mars missions that are accessible by all, exploring Mars has become a shared human endeavor. People worldwide can expand the specialized efforts of a few hundred Mars mission team members and make authentic contributions of their own.”

Participants will be able to explore details of the solar system’s grandest canyon, which resides on Mars. Users can call up images in the Valles Marineris canyon before moving on to chart the entire Red Planet. The collaboration of thousands of participants could assist scientists in producing far better maps, smoother zoom-in views, and make for easier interpretation of Martian surface changes.

By counting craters, the public also may help scientists determine the relative ages of small regions on Mars. In the past, counting Martian craters has posed a challenge because of the vast numbers involved. By contributing, Web site users will win game points assigned to a robotic animal avatar they select.

With a common goal of inspiring digital-age workforce development and life-long learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, NASA and Microsoft unveiled the Web site at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week. The site also beckons software developers to win prizes for creating tools that provide access to and analysis of hundreds of thousands of Mars images for online, classroom and Mars mission team use.

“Industry leaders like NASA and Microsoft have a social responsibility as well as a vested interest in advancing science and technology education,” said Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft. “We are excited to be working with NASA to provide new opportunities to engage with Mars mission data, and to help spark interest and excitement among the next generation of scientists and technologists.”

To encourage more public participation, the site also provides a virtual town hall forum where users can expand their knowledge by proposing Mars questions and voting on which are the most interesting to the community. Online talks by Mars experts will address some of the submitted questions. Other features include interactive tools for viewing Martian regions and movies about people who study Mars in diverse ways….

To enroll as a virtual Martian citizen and start exploring, visit: http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov

via Become a Martian.

The full extent of how Tony Blair misled the public about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction before and after the Iraq War was laid bare yesterday.

The Chilcot Inquiry heard that just ten days before the invasion of Iraq Mr Blair was told Saddam had no way of using weapons of mass destruction.

And weapons experts revealed that the former Prime Minister took Britain to war based on intelligence that his own spies rated just ‘four out of ten’ for accuracy.

On the eve of the conflict, intelligence chiefs told Mr Blair that the Iraqi dictator had no warheads capable of delivering chemical weapons, dramatically undermining the Prime Minister’s case for war.

Yet Mr Blair gave the go-ahead for the invasion despite strong evidence that Iraq was no threat to Britain. Then, after the war, officials had to tell Mr Blair not to ‘declare success too rapidly’ in the quest to find WMD in Iraq as he continued to make misleading statements claiming that ‘massive evidence’ had been found.

The revelations reinforce the case that intelligence evidence that Saddam was no threat was ignored by Mr Blair to take Britain to war on a false prospectus. Sir William Ehrman, former Director General of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign Office, said that on March 10, 2003 – ten days before the start of the war – British spies reported that Iraq had ‘disassembled’ what chemical weapons it had.

He said: ‘On March 10 we got a report saying that the chemical weapons might have remained disassembled and that Saddam hadn’t yet ordered their re-assembly and he might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal of agents.’ The evidence was summarised in a Joint Intelligence Committee report circulated in Whitehall on March 19.

Sir William blamed ‘contradictory intelligence’ for the failure to put the brakes on. But Tim Dowse, Foreign Office head of counter-proliferation between 2000 and 2002, also revealed that a month earlier, in February 2003, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix had made clear that he did not believe the mythical weapons existed.

‘He raised it at a meeting with ministers,’ Mr Dowse said. The most damning testimony concerned Downing Street’s decision to write the now infamous dossier in September 2002 to make the case for war. Both WMD experts made clear that ‘huge gaps’ in intelligence on Iraq were flagged up to ministers, leaving them with no excuse when the caveats were removed from the final dossier.

Sir William said experts concluded that there never was ‘an imminent threat’ from Iraq, describing it only as a ‘clear and present threat’. …

Asked about suggestions that the 45-minute claim referred to WMDs which could be used by Iraq to strike another nation, Mr Dowse said: ‘I don’t think we ever said that it was for use in a ballistic missile in that way.’ Inquiry panel member Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman pointed out: ‘But you didn’t say it wasn’t.’ But Mr Dowse admitted that he had pushed for the inclusion of a paragraph on how some Iraqi missiles could hit British bases in Cyprus.

That became conflated with the 45 minute claim at the time, leaving many members of the public with the impression that weapons of mass destruction could be deployed on longrange missiles to hit British targets. The dossier eventually read that Saddam’s ‘military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. I am quite clear that Saddam will go to extreme lengths, indeed has already done so, to hide these weapons and avoid giving them up’.

In his foreword, Mr Blair wrote: ‘What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme.’via Iraq was only fourth on WMD risk list, inquiry hears | Mail Online.

Shouldn’t lies that get people killed be some kind of crime or something? Well, remember that all of this was after Dick Cheney’s secret energy meeting, which resulted in a final report on May 16, 2001. I guess if US and UK leaders knew about a coming disaster, they were trying to save their citizens from death and starvation which would result from a lack of Iraq’s oil when demand outstrips supply. … and see this … and now this:

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation’s latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

“Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources,” he added.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was “imperative not to anger the Americans” but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. “We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad,” he added.

The IEA acknowledges the importance of its own figures, boasting on its website: “The IEA governments and industry from all across the globe have come to rely on the World Energy Outlook to provide a consistent basis on which they can formulate policies and design business plans.”

The British government, among others, always uses the IEA statistics rather than any of its own to argue that there is little threat to long-term oil supplies.

The IEA said tonight that peak oil critics had often wrongly questioned the accuracy of its figures. A spokesman said it was unable to comment ahead of the 2009 report being released tomorrow.

John Hemming, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, said the revelations confirmed his suspicions that the IEA underplayed how quickly the world was running out and this had profound implications for British government energy policy.

He said he had also been contacted by some IEA officials unhappy with its lack of independent scepticism over predictions. “Reliance on IEA reports has been used to justify claims that oil and gas supplies will not peak before 2030. It is clear now that this will not be the case and the IEA figures cannot be relied on,” said Hemming. – guarduk

The responsible thing to do would be to tell the world the truth and have everyone cut back on energy use NOW. We should be using our last oil to find alternatives.  The path we are on, blindly using oil like it is unlimited, means we will hit a brick wall and face some serious problems in the next few years. Chaos, collapse of economies, starvation, dogs and cats sleeping together….