BS: Random Traces From All Over

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: bobad
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 04:58 PM

"As a matter of curiousity, does anyone read this thread?"

I too, do.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: bobad
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 05:01 PM

"Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it."

Great quote from his Bobness.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 07:05 PM

Algae is widely touted as the next best source for fueling the world's energy needs. But one of the greatest challenges in creating biofuels from algae is that when you extract the oil from the algae, it kills the organisms, dramatically raising production costs. Now researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University have developed groundbreaking "nanofarming" technology that safely harvests oil from the algae so the pond-based "crop" can keep on producing.

Commercialization of this new technology is at the center of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the Ames Laboratory and Catilin, a nano-technology-based company that specializes in biofuel production. The agreement targets development of this novel approach to reduce the cost and energy consumption of the industrial processing of non- food source biofuel feedstock. The three-year project is being funded with $885,000 from DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and $216,000 from Catilin and $16,000 from Iowa State University in matching funds.

The so-called "nanofarming" technology uses sponge-like mesoporous nanoparticles to extract oil from the algae. The process doesn't harm the algae like other methods being developed, which helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle. Once the algal oil is extracted, a separate and proven solid catalyst from Catilin will be used to produce ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN certified biodiesel.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 08:59 PM

"Sponge Like Mesoporous nanoparticles " _ awkward, how about
SLIMe for short

If these were stored in Leaking Underground storage tanks they would be slime sluts


Another algae energy process uses a catalyst and small electric currents that actually produces a profit of energy at the end.
as heard on Science Fridays npr.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 10:03 AM

but seriously folks ...

the next reformation of our advanced industrial revolution is going to grow out of the virus battery develped by Andrea Belcher at MIT.

A prototype bio engineered virus is now designed to cut and splice molecules in such a way as to produce a lithium like rechargable battery currently capable of 100 full recharges for computers or all electric cars. The processes of the virus can also be applied to manufacturing materials great and small be it computer chips or side panels for cars. The organic nature of the product makes it a greener alternative to other batteries.

Michiu Kaku calls this breakthrough a keystone to the next generation of an industrial revolution.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 11:25 AM

The scientific study of probability is a modern development. Gambling shows that there has been an interest in quantifying the ideas of probability for millennia, but exact mathematical descriptions of use in those problems only arose much later.

According to Richard Jeffrey, "Before the middle of the seventeenth century, the term 'probable' (Latin probabilis) meant approvable, and was applied in that sense, univocally, to opinion and to action. A probable action or opinion was one such as sensible people would undertake or hold, in the circumstances."[4]

Aside from some elementary considerations made by Girolamo Cardano in the 16th century, the doctrine of probabilities dates to the correspondence of Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654). Christiaan Huygens (1657) gave the earliest known scientific treatment of the subject. Jakob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi (posthumous, 1713) and Abraham de Moivre's Doctrine of Chances (1718) treated the subject as a branch of mathematics. See Ian Hacking's The Emergence of Probability for a history of the early development of the very concept of mathematical probability.

The theory of errors may be traced back to Roger Cotes's Opera Miscellanea (posthumous, 1722), but a memoir prepared by Thomas Simpson in 1755 (printed 1756) first applied the theory to the discussion of errors of observation. The reprint (1757) of this memoir lays down the axioms that positive and negative errors are equally probable, and that there are certain assignable limits within which all errors may be supposed to fall; continuous errors are discussed and a probability curve is given.

Pierre-Simon Laplace (1774) made the first attempt to deduce a rule for the combination of observations from the principles of the theory of probabilities. He represented the law of probability of errors by a curve y = φ(x), x being any error and y its probability, and laid down three properties of this curve:

   1. it is symmetric as to the y-axis;
   2. the x-axis is an asymptote, the probability of the error \infty being 0;
   3. the area enclosed is 1, it being certain that an error exists.

He also gave (1781) a formula for the law of facility of error (a term due to Lagrange, 1774), but one which led to unmanageable equations. Daniel Bernoulli (1778) introduced the principle of the maximum product of the probabilities of a system of concurrent errors.

The method of least squares is due to Adrien-Marie Legendre (1805), who introduced it in his Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes (New Methods for Determining the Orbits of Comets). In ignorance of Legendre's contribution, an Irish-American writer, Robert Adrain, editor of "The Analyst" (1808), first deduced the law of facility of error,

    \phi(x) = ce^{-h^2 x^2},

h being a constant depending on precision of observation, and c a scale factor ensuring that the area under the curve equals 1. He gave two proofs, the second being essentially the same as John Herschel's (1850). Gauss gave the first proof which seems to have been known in Europe (the third after Adrain's) in 1809. Further proofs were given by Laplace (1810, 1812), Gauss (1823), James Ivory (1825, 1826), Hagen (1837), Friedrich Bessel (1838), W. F. Donkin (1844, 1856), and Morgan Crofton (1870). Other contributors were Ellis (1844), De Morgan (1864), Glaisher (1872), and Giovanni Schiaparelli (1875). Peters's (1856) formula for r, the probable error of a single observation, is well known.

In the nineteenth century authors on the general theory included Laplace, Sylvestre Lacroix (1816), Littrow (1833), Adolphe Quetelet (1853), Richard Dedekind (1860), Helmert (1872), Hermann Laurent (1873), Liagre, Didion, and Karl Pearson. Augustus De Morgan and George Boole improved the exposition of the theory.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 11:50 AM

Physicists Ho-Tsang Ng and Sougato Bose of the University College London have recently proposed a method to generate entangled light using a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in an optical cavity. If the system works, it would enable researchers to control the degree of entanglement. Entangled light, which is regarded as the ideal entity for sharing entanglement between distant parties, has many future applications in quantum communications. Ng and Bose's study is published in the New Journal of Physics.
"I would say that the significance of the work is two-fold: firstly, it provides an immediate application of a novel setup (namely the BEC in a cavity) that has been recently realized in experiments," Bose told PhysOrg.com. "Secondly, it is the application of a mesoscopic system to do something which is normally done using a macroscopic system such as a crystal."
A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a group of atoms that are cooled to near absolute zero, which causes the atoms' wavelengths to increase and overlap so that the group acts like a single atom. Although the atomic cluster has a relatively large size, it's considered to be a single quantum state and it obeys quantum laws.

(PhysOrg)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 11:56 AM

Opposition parties inside Georgia are planning mass protests for April 9, mainly in the capital city of Tbilisi but also across the country. The protests are against President Mikhail Saakashvili and are expected to demand his resignation. This is not the first set of rallies against Saakashvili, who has had a rocky presidency since taking power in the pro-Western "Rose Revolution" of 2003. Anti-government protests have been held constantly over the past six years. But the upcoming rally is different: This is the first time all 17 opposition parties have consolidated enough to organize a mass movement in the country. Furthermore, many members of the government are joining the cause, and foreign powers — namely Russia — are known to be encouraging plans to oust Saakashvili.

The planned protests in Georgia have been scheduled to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Soviet crackdown on independence demonstrators in Tbilisi. The opposition movement claims that more than 100,000 people will take to the streets — an ambitious number, as the protests of the past six years have not drawn more than 15,000 people. But this time around, the Georgian people's discontent is greatly intensified because of the blame placed on Saakashvili after the Russo-Georgian war in August 2008. Most Georgians believe Saakashvili pushed the country into a war, knowing the repercussions, and into a serious financial crisis in which unemployment has reached nearly 9 percent....

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 08:49 PM

"Biomimetic adhesives aren't new, but a PhD graduate in British Columbia has developed a new method of creating microscopic, mushroom-like plastic structures in order to produce a dry adhesive that mimics the stickiness of gecko feet—and is prepping his glue-free innovation for outer space. A research group at his university, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is engineering a spider-like, sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars, and it is also developing reusable attaching systems for astronauts to use where magnetic and suction systems generally fail. In the future, he says, single-use versions could be used in any number of medical applications as well as for replacements for everyday sticky needs, such as Post-It notes and Scotch tape.".." (Slashdot)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 10:21 AM

It is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason." Charles Darwin in "The Descent of Man."

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: bobad
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 10:28 AM

Scientists have long been interested in the ability of gecko lizards to scurry up walls and cling to ceilings by their toes. The creatures owe this amazing ability to microscopic branched elastic hairs in their toes that take advantage of atomic-scale attractive forces to grip surfaces and support surprisingly heavy loads. Several research groups have attempted to mimic those hairs with structures made of polymers or carbon nanotubes.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 11:29 PM

Speaking of stick-to-it-ivity:

"Adam Engler, a bioengineering assistant professor from UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, is the first author of the Review article entitled "Multiscale Modeling of Form and Function" published in the April 10 issue of the journal Science. According to Engler, there is something inherent in the nature of the ever-present tasks of sticking together and responding to forces that causes common form and function to emerge. For example, even though the cells within bacteria, fungi, sponges, nematodes and humans do not use exactly the same proteins to stick together, all of these organisms rely on fundamental components of cell-cell adhesions for survival. For this reason, the capacity to form complex multilayer organisms through cell-cell interactions is likely based on the evolutionary advantage to adhere to new environments and survive in potentially hostile environments, the authors say.
The team also described a universal need for cells, tissues, organs and organisms to respond to forces. Two examples of very different biological structures that nevertheless rely on responsiveness to forces for proper function are leg bones and breast acini. Breast acini are hollow spherical objects at the ends of breast ducts that are made of a layer of cells that secrete milk proteins. Breast acini form hollow spheres, according to Engler, because this form maximizes the surface to volume ratio. When pressure builds up, acini can hold more and more volume until they need to push the milk proteins down the duct.
"This kind of structure is conserved in a variety of dissimilar systems that respond to forces in a manner similar," said Engler. The long bones of the human skeleton are another example, where their elongated and cylindrical form optimizes the distribution of body weight while remaining very light.
Thinking Wide
Engler hopes that the observations and connections he and his coauthors make regarding the ubiquitous need for vastly different cells, tissues, organs and organisms to use common biological modules will encourage other scientists and engineers to think beyond their specific areas of specialization."

(PhysOrg.com:)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 01:32 AM

Evolution at the Vatican
"Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories," held in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University (above), March 3-7, 2009.

In the Catholic world, all roads still lead to Rome, particularly when it comes to the vexed relationship between science and faith. In 2003, the Pontifical Council for Culture, with major grant support from the Templeton Foundation, began a project at the Vatican called Science, Theology, and the Ontological Quest (STOQ). As a result, six of the pontifical universities in Rome, where most Cardinals and other Church leaders receive training, have incorporated more science into their curricula and have initiated extensive dialogues on how Catholic theology should approach modern science. Courses have been designed on such topics as evolution, the philosophy of quantum mechanics, technology, and medicine.

The most notable recent instance of these activities was a five-day conference held last month in Rome under the auspices of STOQ and the Pontifical Gregorian University. "Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories" drew some 200 attendees from around the world. Speakers included such prominent figures in the field of evolutionary biology as Francisco Ayala (University of California, Irvine), Simon Conway Morris (Cambridge University), Jeffrey Feder (University of Notre Dame), Douglas Futuyma (Stony Brook University), Scott Gilbert (Swarthmore College), Stuart Kauffman (University of Calgary), Lynn Margulis (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), and David Sloan Wilson (Binghamton University), as well as the historians of science Ronald Numbers (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Philip Sloan (University of Notre Dame), philosopher David Depew (University of Iowa), and the archeologist Colin Renfrew (Cambridge University).
Clockwise from upper left: Francisco Ayala, Stuart Kauffman, Colin Renfrew, and Ronald Numbers.

Gennaro Auletta, a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the scientific coordinator for STOQ, was pleased by the number of high-ranking Church officials who attended the conference, including Cardinal Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Such interest, Auletta said, is a clear sign of the Church's eagerness to see clergy "play a major role in the context of modern society." As he continued, "The STOQ project is facing what we think is the most relevant challenge the Church has today: continuing to play a guiding role in our society as it is becoming more dependent on scientific developments. This requires the Church to open and pursue a real dialogue with the natural sciences. This does not mean renouncing its own strong and well-grounded philosophical and theological background but, rather, enriching and deepening it thanks to that dialogue."

(Report from the Templeton Foundation)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 11:36 AM

'Girls Gone Wild' ad disrupts religious program

Glitch caused by required test of the Emergency Alert System, says Comcast.

The Associated Press
updated 5:05 p.m. CT, Sat., April 11, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia cable network's early morning broadcast of a Good Friday service at the Vatican abruptly changed to something wildly different — a 30-second "Girls Gone Wild" ad.

Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander says the 2 a.m. Friday programming glitch was due to a required test of the Emergency Alert System. He says such tests are usually done in the overnight hours.

The test automatically tunes viewers to a preselected channel that would provide information in the event of an emergency. But during tests, the channel airs regular programming, which in this case included a paid advertisement for the racy videos.

Alexander says the problem affected the network's entire local area, but only one person called to complain.

(In my area, the "preselected station," which also participates in the test, broadcasts a "dead carrier" with only an audio announcement that the test is being conducted. The "test transmission" must appear on all channels. Philadelphia Comcast must lack the technology to do this, so they probably flunked the test - which is of more interest than the "bit of skin" that the one faithful believer may have seen at 02:00 in the morning.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 12:44 PM

Proof of massive sea monster


Apr 3 - Just 800 miles (1287 km) from the North Pole, paleontologists believe they have found the fossilized remains of a massive sea monster that lived 150 million years ago.

Predator X -- a new species of a Pliosaur -- is said to have been the most dangerous creature to have lived under water.

The creature was about 50 feet (15 meters) long, weighed approximately 45 tonnes (40,823,000 kg), had a head ten feet (3 meters) long and jaws armed with teeth the size of cucumbers.

Dr. Jorn Hurum, and his team of paleontologists discovered Predator X in northern Norway last October and says the new species of a Pliosaur was more fearsome in power than the land-based Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 06:06 PM

The Science of Generosity
How do children learn to be generous? Why do some countries have higher rates of philanthropy than others? What effect does faith have on people's charitable giving? These are some of the questions that will be tackled by the Science of Generosity project at the University of Notre Dame, which was announced in January. With a four-year, $5-million grant from the Templeton Foundation, scholars will be studying the "sources, origins, and causes of generosity; the variety of manifestations and expressions of generosity; and the consequences of generosity for both the givers and receivers involved." The grant is the largest ever received by a faculty member in Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters.

The principal investigator on the project will be Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and director of the university's Center for the Study of Religion and Society. "The goal of the project is to mobilize top-quality research across various disciplines on the origins, expressions, and effects of generosity," Smith said, noting that the project defines generosity as the spirit and practice of giving good things to others freely and abundantly. "This includes time, aid, attention, blood, possessions, encouragement, emotional investment, and more. In countless ways, the world wants for significant growth in the virtue of giving."

See this curious RFP.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 09:46 PM

NEW YORK - Sinners, take heed: There's a product available now in parts of New York that will leave you with that "almost baptized feeling."

It's called SoulWow — with the cleansing power of confession.

In a YouTube parody of the popular ads for ShamWow absorbent towels, a priestly pitchman named Father Vic calls on Roman Catholics in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island to partake. As Father Vic says, "Nothing soothes the soul like a true confession."

The ad campaign was launched before Palm Sunday by the dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre in an effort to increase the number of people who confess during Holy Week.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 09:54 AM

"...On the same day that the three Pittsburgh cops were murdered, a 34-year-old man in Graham, Wash., James Harrison, shot his five children to death and then killed himself. The children were identified by police as Maxine, 16, Samantha, 14, Jamie, 11, Heather, 8, and James, 7.

Just a day earlier, a man in Binghamton, N.Y., invaded a civic association and shot 17 people, 13 of them fatally, and then killed himself. On April 7, three days after the shootings in Pittsburgh and Graham, Wash., a man with a handgun in Priceville, Ala., murdered his wife, their 16-year-old daughter, his sister, and his sister's 11-year-old son, before killing himself.

More? There's always more. Four police officers in Oakland, Calif. — Dan Sakai, 35, Mark Dunakin, 40, John Hege, 41, and Ervin Romans, 43 — were shot to death last month by a 27-year-old parolee who was then shot to death by the police.

This is the American way. Since Sept. 11, 2001, when the country's attention understandably turned to terrorism, nearly 120,000 Americans have been killed in nonterror homicides, most of them committed with guns. Think about it — 120,000 dead. That's nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the most part, we pay no attention to this relentless carnage. The idea of doing something meaningful about the insane number of guns in circulation is a nonstarter. So what if eight kids are shot to death every day in America. So what if someone is killed by a gun every 17 minutes.

The goal of the National Rifle Association and a host of so-called conservative lawmakers is to get ever more guns into the hands of ever more people. Texas is one of a number of states considering bills to allow concealed guns on college campuses.

Supporters argue, among other things, that it will enable students and professors to defend themselves against mass murderers, like the deranged gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech two years ago.

They'd like guns to be as ubiquitous as laptops or cellphones. One Texas lawmaker referred to unarmed people on campuses as "sitting ducks."

The police department in Pittsburgh has been convulsed with grief over the loss of the three officers. Hardened detectives walked around with stunned looks on their faces and tears in their eyes.

"They all had families," said Detective Antonio Ciummo, a father of four. "It's hard to describe the kind of pain their families are going through. And the rest of our families. They're upset. They're sad. They're scared. They know it could happen to anyone."

The front page of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review carried a large photo of Officer Mayhle's sad and frightened 6-year-old daughter, Jennifer. She was clutching a rose and a teddy bear in a police officer's uniform. There was also a photo of Officer Kelly's widow, Marena, her eyes looking skyward, as if searching.

Murderous gunfire claims many more victims than those who are actually felled by the bullets. But all the expressions of horror at the violence and pity for the dead and those who loved them ring hollow in a society that is neither mature nor civilized enough to do anything about it. "

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 07:19 PM

(PhysOrg.com) -- By controlling the collective spin state of highly mobile electrons in semiconductors, researchers in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have taken a major step forward in the technology of spintronics. At the same time they have discovered a new conservation law, an important advance in fundamental physics.

Details of this interesting story can be found on this page.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 07:22 PM

And in other important developments:

We've heard it before: "Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen." We may roll our eyes and think that's easier said than done, but in a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams from Washington University suggest that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals.

A group of students searched visual displays for specific letters (which were scattered among other letters serving as distractors) and identified them as quickly as possible by pressing a button. While performing this task, the students were asked to either imagine themselves holding the display monitor with both hands or with their hands behind their backs (it was emphasized that they were not to assume those poses, but just imagine them).

The results showed that simply imagining a posture may have effects that are similar to actually assuming the pose. The participants spent more time searching the display when they imagined themselves holding the monitor, compared to when they imagined themselves with their hands behind their backs. The researchers suggest that the slower rate of searching indicates a more thorough analysis of items closer to the hands. Previous research has shown that we spend more time looking at items close to our hands (items close to us are usually more important than those further away), but this is the first study suggesting that merely imagining something close to our hands will cause us to pay more attention to it.

The researchers suggest these findings indicate that our "peripersonal space" (the space around our body) can be extended into a space where an imagined posture would take us. They note there may be advantages to having this ability, such as determining if an action is realistic (e.g., "Can I reach the top shelf?") and helping us to avoid collisions. The authors conclude that the present study confirms "an idea that has long been espoused by motivational speakers, sports psychologists, and John Lennon alike: The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality."

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: GUEST,Donuel
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 07:01 PM

That last one was the foundation to my hypnosis practice.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 07:42 PM

PhysOrg.com) -- In the near future, a solar power satellite may be supplying electricity to 250,000 homes around Fresno County, California. Unlike ground-based solar arrays, satellites would be unaffected by cloudy weather or night, and could generate power 24 hours a day. If successful and affordable, the project could mark the beginning of space-based solar power in other locations, as well.

Solaren Corp., a solar power start-up, has convinced Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California's largest utility company, to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity when its system is in place, which is expected to be 2016. According to Solaren, the system could generate 1.2 to 4.8 gigawatts of power at a price comparable to that of other renewable energy sources.
\
In Solaren's proposal, solar power satellites would be positioned in stationary orbit about 22,000 miles above the equator. The satellites - whose arrays of mirrors could be several miles across - would collect the sun's rays on photoelectric cells and convert them into radio waves. The radio waves would then be beamed to a receiving station on the ground, where they would be converted into electricity and delivered to PG&E's power grid. Because the radio beam is spread out over a wide area, it would not be dangerous to people, airplanes, or wildlife.

The plan requires a large area of land to host the ground receiving station's antenna array, and several square miles of scrubland in western Fresno County could provide an ideal location. In addition to being sparsely populated, the region is also near transmission lines and a load center. While many of today's land-based solar stations are located far out in the desert, a station closer to customers could offer greater convenience and economic advantages....(physorg)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 07:54 PM

This is something that any LSD-head in the Sixties knew intuitively: as above, so velow.

"PhysOrg.com) -- A Duke University professor and his graduate student have discovered a universal principle that unites the curious interplay of light and shadow on the surface of your morning coffee with the way gravity magnifies and distorts light from distant galaxies.

They think scientists will be able to use violations of this principle to map unseen clumps of dark matter in the universe.

Light rays naturally reflect off a curve like the inside surface of a coffee cup in a curving, ivy leaf pattern that comes to a point in the center and is brightest along its edge.
Mathematicians and physicists call that shape a "cusp curve," and they call the bright edge a "caustic," based on an alternative dictionary definition meaning "burning bright," explains Arlie Petters, a Duke professor of mathematics, physics and business administration. "It happens because a lot of light rays can pile up along curves."
Drawn by the mathematically-inclined artist Leonardo da Vinci in the early 16th century, caustics can be seen elsewhere in everyday life, including sunlight reflecting across a swimming pool's surface and choppy wave-light patterns reflecting off a boat hull.
Caustics also show up in gravitational lensing, a phenomenon caused by galaxies so massive that their gravity bends and distorts light from more distant galaxies. "It turns out that their gravity is so powerful that some light rays are also going to pile up along curves," said Petters, a gravitational lensing expert.

"Mother Nature has to be creating these things," Petters said. "It's amazing how what we can see in a coffee cup extends into a mathematical theorem with effects in the cosmos."
From the vantage point of Earth, the entire cosmos looks like a vast interplay of gravity and light that can extend far back into spacetime. "As with any illumination pattern, some areas will be brighter than others," Petters said. "And the brightest parts will be along these caustic curves.""

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 10:30 PM

THIS is a tale of two spacecraft. Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972; Pioneer 11 a year later. By now both craft should be drifting off into deep space with no one watching. However, their trajectories have proved far too fascinating to ignore.

That's because something has been pulling - or pushing - on them, causing them to speed up. The resulting acceleration is tiny, less than a nanometre per second per second. That's equivalent to just one ten-billionth of the gravity at Earth's surface, but it is enough to have shifted Pioneer 10 some 400,000 kilometres off track. NASA lost touch with Pioneer 11 in 1995, but up to that point it was experiencing exactly the same deviation as its sister probe. So what is causing it?

Nobody knows. Some possible explanations have already been ruled out, including software errors, the solar wind or a fuel leak. If the cause is some gravitational effect, it is not one we know anything about. In fact, physicists are so completely at a loss that some have resorted to linking this mystery with other inexplicable phenomena. (New Scientist)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 01:15 AM

The current hpothesis regarding the acceleration of the spacecraft is that now that they are outside the heliosphere, the minute effects of dark energy's subtle antigravitational effect can now be seen.

Its like inside an aquarium the breeze of air in the room can not be felt but once outside, it can be.

IT may also be the effect of spacial expansion that was once called the great attractor 20 years ago when it was nociticed that galaxies in our group as well as the great Megallanic clould are all being pulled in the same direction.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:53 AM

In Baghdad:

" At the Ahalan Wasahalan Club on Al Nidhal Street one recent night, the owner, Tiba Jamal, was holding court, as she usually does, on the dais at the front of a room with a mostly empty dance floor and lots of tables.

Ms. Jamal calls herself the Sheikha — a confection she uses to mean female sheik, which does not actually exist in Arab culture. She dresses in a head-to-toe, skin-tight black chador, and she is adorned with several pounds of solid gold bracelets, pendants, necklaces, earrings and rings, her response to the financial crisis.

The female workers in the nightclub wore rather less clothing, but nothing that would be considered risqué on a street in Europe — in August. At one point in the evening they outnumbered the men, as they sat in a big group until being summoned to one of the men's tables.

"It's nice to see people having fun again," Ms. Jamal said.

One regular customer said, "You can have any of those girls to spend the night with you later, only $100." First, though, patrons are expected to spend a few hours buying $20 beers or even more costly whiskey.

A young woman who said she was 28 but looked 18 sat smoking, and downing soft drinks while her "date" drank Scotch. A university student, she would give her name only as Baida, but she was frank about her nighttime profession. Had something happened to force her into this? "No," she said. "I go out with men so I can get money." To support her family? She seemed stunned by the question. "No, for myself."

One police detective said he would not dream of enforcing the law against prostitutes. "They're the best sources we have," said the detective, whose name is being withheld for his safety. "They know everything about JAM and Al Qaeda members," he said, using the acronym for Jaish al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.

The detective added that the only problem his men had was that neighbors got the wrong idea when detectives visited the houses where prostitutes were known to live. They really do just want to talk, he said.

"If I had my way, I'd destroy all the mosques and spread the whores around a little more," the detective said. "At least they're not sectarian.""... NYT

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 11:31 AM

The ancient Persians developed a gruesome practice called scaphism, which involved force-feeding a person milk and honey, lashing him to a boat or hollow tree trunk, and then allowing flies to infest the victim's anus and increasingly gangrenous flesh. Siberian tribes simply tied a naked prisoner to a tree and allowed mosquitoes and other biting flies to deliver as many as 9,000 bites per minute — a rate sufficient to drain a person's blood by half in about two hours. And the stories of Apaches staking captives on anthills to ensure lingering and painful deaths are not merely the stuff of Hollywood westerns.

The epitome of insectan torture was developed by a 19th-century emir of Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan. He threw political enemies into a bug pit, a deep hole covered with an iron grille and stocked with sheep ticks and assassin bugs. The bite of the latter has been compared to being pierced with a hot needle, and the injected saliva digested the victims' tissues until, in the words of the emir's jailer, "masses of their flesh had been gnawed off their bones." (NYT)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 05:40 PM

eading automotive and energy companies have reached agreement on a common "plug" to recharge electric cars, a spokeswoman for German energy company RWE said Sunday.
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The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, is set to be unveiled Monday at the world's biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.
"A car must be able to be recharged in Italy in exactly the same way as in Denmark, Germany or France," an RWE spokeswoman, Caroline Reichert, was quoted as saying in an edition of Die Welt to appear Monday.
She gave no timeframe for the introduction of the plug, saying that talks between the companies were ongoing.
The agreement on a common standard for the plug comprises several major automakers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.
Energy firms signed up to the accord include Eon, Vattenfall, EDF, Npower, Endesa and Enel.
Berlin hopes that one million electric cars will be on the road by 2020. RWE and Daimler launched a pilot project in Berlin in September.
The development of a common plug is a major step towards the mass production of electric cars, Reichert told Die Welt.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 05:50 PM

Is technology undermining the evolutionary mandate? Hmmmmm:

"A New York woman has won a race-against-the-clock legal bid to harvest her dead fiance's sperm.

Gisela Marrero told a Bronx court her partner had spoken about having another child with her only the day before his death from a suspected heart attack.
She had only 36 hours to collect 31-year-old Johnny Quintana's semen before it would have become unusable.

As the couple were unmarried she needed a court order, which was granted just four hours before the deadline.
After the Bronx State Supreme Court approved her request, sperm bank employees raced to a local medical centre, where the body of the dead mechanic, who died on Thursday, was stored.

'Last wish'

Ms Marrero, who has a two-year-old son by Mr Quintana, said: "The day before he passed away, we talked about planning for our future, buying an apartment and having another child," reported the New York Daily News.

"This was his wish. It's the last thing I can do for him."

There were emotional scenes in the court as Ms Marrero and her dead fiance's family celebrated Friday afternoon's decision.

Earlier this month, a mother in Texas won a legal bid to have her dead son's sperm harvested after he died in a fight outside a bar, so she could have the option of carrying out his wish to have children."

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 05:32 PM

Lake Webster

The Associated Press
updated 4:02 p.m. CT, Mon., April 20, 2009
WEBSTER, Mass

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster (Massachusetts) has one of the world's longest place names. It's been spelled many different ways over the years. Some locals have given up and simply call it Lake Webster.

But after researching historical spelling combinations, the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester said local Chamber of Commerce officials agreed that some signs were wrong. There was an "o" at letter 20 where a "u" should have been, and an "h" at letter 38 where an "n" should go.

Officials have agreed to correct spelling errors in road signs pointing to ... (the lake).

There are many stories and legends about the origin of the Indian name. One popular myth — later debunked — holds that the name translates roughly to 'You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fish in the middle.'

%@!%@*!! Pedants!

John

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 03:52 PM

John,
My mother in law is from there so my wife knows the indian name well enough to show off from time to time for the kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 08:14 PM

After more than four years of observations using the most successful low-mass-exoplanet hunter in the world, the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6m ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile, astronomers have discovered in this system the lightest exoplanet found so far: Gliese 581-e (foreground) is only about twice the mass of our Earth.

The Gliese 581 planetary system now has four known planets, with masses of about 1.9 (planet e, left in the foreground), 16 (planet b, nearest to the star), 5 (planet c, center), and 7 Earth-masses (planet d, with the bluish color). The planet furthest out, Gliese 581 d, orbits its host star in 66.8 days, while Gliese 581 e completes its orbit in 3.15 days. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

(PhysOrg.com) -- Exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor announces the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, "e," in the system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth. The team also refined the orbit of the planet Gliese 581-d, first discovered in 2007, placing it well within the habitable zone, where liquid water oceans could exist. These amazing discoveries are the outcome of observations using the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6m ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 08:18 PM

Thinking your memory will get worse as you get older may actually be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that senior citizens who think older people should perform poorly on tests of memory actually score much worse than seniors who do not buy in to negative stereotypes about aging and memory loss.

In a study published earlier this month, psychology professor Dr. Tom Hess and a team of researchers from NC State show that older adults' ability to remember suffers when negative stereotypes are "activated" in a given situation. "For example, older adults will perform more poorly on a memory test if they are told that older folks do poorly on that particular type of memory test," Hess says. Memory also suffers if senior citizens believe they are being "stigmatized," meaning that others are looking down on them because of their age.

"Such situations may be a part of older adults' everyday experience," Hess says, "such as being concerned about what others think of them at work having a negative effect on their performance - and thus potentially reinforcing the negative stereotypes." However, Hess adds, "The positive flip side of this is that those who do not feel stigmatized, or those in situations where more positive views of aging are activated, exhibit significantly higher levels of memory performance." In other words, if you are confident that aging will not ravage your memory, you are more likely to perform well on memory-related tasks.

The study also found a couple of factors that influenced the extent to which negative stereotypes influence older adults. For example, the researchers found that adults between the ages of 60 and 70 suffered more when these negative stereotypes were activated than seniors who were between the ages of 71 and 82. However, the 71-82 age group performed worse when they felt stigmatized.

Finally, the study found that negative effects were strongest for those older adults with the highest levels of education. "We interpret this as being consistent with the idea that those who value their ability to remember things most are the most likely to be sensitive to the negative implications of stereotypes, and thus are most likely to exhibit the problems associated with the stereotype." "The take-home message," Hess says, "is that social factors may have a negative effect on older adults' memory performance." (PhysOrg.com)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 09 - 08:52 PM

A sign on a building at Durham University in the UK says "No smoking outside these doors". Martin Dehnel observes that since smoking is banned inside, too, the university is claiming jurisdiction over the universe...

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 04:51 PM

The bovine genome for one particular cow has now ben completely mapped. A large step for mankind a small step for bovinity.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 05:33 PM

Interesting graphs comparing China to USA
click here


economy


military

people

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 08:09 PM

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at McGill University have found for the first time that novelty seeking personality types enjoy a stronger "placebo response," or pain relief caused by the administration of a sham treatment, than people with reserved personalities. The study hypothesizes that the anticipation of pain relief, in this case triggered by the administration of a placebo, is a special case of reward anticipation. Since dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in reward processing, personality traits linked to dopamine, such as novelty seeking, were studied.

Their study is published in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Petra Schweinhardt, a researcher at the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill Faculty of Dentistry, and Faculty of Medicine, (Neurology and Neurosurgery), and colleagues tested a group of 22 healthy males, injecting them with a pain-inducing saline solution into their left and right legs for twenty minutes.

Prior to testing, participants were told that the research team was testing an experimental analgesic cream, which was really just skin lotion. The researchers then told participants that they would test one leg with the treatment and one leg with a non-medicated lotion.
The researchers asked the participants to rate their pain across both trials, and the difference amounted to the placebo response. Not everyone reported pain relief from the placebo, but those who did scored higher on tests that gauged novelty-seeking personalities.

The other component of the research looked at the ventral striatum, an important brain region for the processing of reward. An MRI was taken of all subjects and a three-way relationship was found between the placebo response, the personality traits and the amounts of gray matter in this particular brain region.

"Our study links clearly these personality traits with the placebo analgesic effect. It will potentially help us one day to exploit the placebo effect clinically - more than we are doing today," says Schweinhardt. "The more knowledge we have about the placebo effect, the more it will be accepted - this is important, because we know that it is a true physiological phenomenon. My aim is to raise the acceptance of the placebo effect as a therapeutic tool".

---

Ain't that a piece of work, though? Here you take the results of the test and you place them into a highly prejudicial framework and they come out looking a bit wonky!!

Here's another way of writing the same results:

"Scientists have discovered that individuals who were able to anticipate the future better were also more able to impose healing on their own bodies using mental suggestion alone, while those who thought mostly about the past, or at best the present, were more likely not to be healed by mental abilities."

Anyway, it is certainly an interesting experiment no matter how oddly-worded the results were.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 08:23 PM

Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego
An international collaborative of scientists led by Peter Niiler, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and Nikolai Maximenko, a researcher at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, has detected the presence of crisscrossing patterns of currents running throughout the world's oceans. The new data could help scientists significantly improve high-resolution models that help them understand trends in climate and marine ecosystems.

The basic dimensions of these steady patterns called striations have slowly been revealed over the course of several research papers by Niiler, Maximenko and colleagues. An analysis by Maximenko, Niiler and colleagues appearing today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters has produced the clearest representation of these striated patterns in the eastern Pacific Ocean to date and revealed that these complex patterns of currents extend from the surface to at least depths of 700 meters (2,300 feet). The discovery of similarly detailed patterns around the world is expected to emerge from future research.


Scripps physical oceanographer Peter Niiler
Niiler credits the long-term and comprehensive ocean current measurements made over more than 20 years by the Global Drifter Program, now a network of more than 1,300 drifting buoys designed by him and administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for detecting these new current patterns on a global basis. Niiler added that the foresight of the University of California to provide long-term support to scientists was crucial to the discovery.

"I'm most grateful to the University of California for helping to support the invention and the 20-year maintenance of a comprehensive program of ocean circulation measurements," he said. "Scripps Institution of Oceanography is unique because of its commitment to long-term observations of the climate. Instrumental measurements of the ocean are fundamental to the definition of the state of the climate today and improvement of its prediction into the future."

In portions of the Southern Ocean, these striations-also known as ocean fronts-produce alternating eastward and westward accelerations of circulation and portions of them nearly circumnavigate Antarctica. These striations also delineate the ocean regions where uptake of carbon dioxide is greatest. In the Atlantic Ocean, these flows bear a strong association to the Azores Current along which water flowing south from the North Atlantic circulation is being subducted. The spatial high-resolution view of the linkage between the striations and the larger scale patterns of currents could improve predictions of ocean temperatures and hurricane paths.

In addition, the striations are connected to important ecosystems like the California and Peru-Chile current systems. Off California, the striations are linked to the steady east-west displacements, or meanders, of the California Current, a major flow that runs from the border of Washington and Oregon to the southern tip of Baja California. The striations run nearly perpendicular to the California Current and continue southwestward to the Hawaiian Islands. (Scripps newsletter. Apologies for late entry).

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 10:58 AM

The southern Asian continent was an area rich in developed civilizations thousands of years ago, which spoke numerous languages and dialects and left behind impressive monuments to attest for their worth. At this point, however, the archaeological and linguistic remains are so scarce, that experts can't even figure out if they are dealing with a language or with a pretty picture. Such a circumstance applies to a script that belonged to an Indus Valley civilization, which was used between 2,600 and 1,900 B.C.

Ever since it was first discovered, linguists and archaeologists have been having a hard time seeing past the seemingly simple composition of the drawings. In addition, discussions over the origins and the evolution of the language, coupled with the lack of archaeological evidence, means that the experts have remained divided as regards the issue until the present day. Their "salvation" has come from an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine, which has managed to break the code that has been underlying the symbols found on most artifacts. ...
From this page

---

THere is something quite poignant about an artificial intelligence device cracking thecode of a lost human language, is there not?

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 12:19 PM

I noticed that people who made the best hypnotic subjects indeed had certain traits in common.



***********************************
As science research requests pour in to apply for stimulous money there are political pit falls that are being avoided. Since the religious right are constantly looking for words to twist the Obama adminstration with, one can't be too careful.
For example when one scientist wanted to know if women who have drunk alcohol on the very day of conception, would there be any health hazards to the fetus... but the study would have to be done with primates. When giving a title to this experimental research one can't be too litteral. "Effects on Babies from Drunk Monkey Sex"
was dropped in lieu of "Alcohol related health abberations on primate blastospores"

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 01:46 PM

Beneath an Antarctic glacier in a cold, airless pool that never sees the sun seems like an unusual place to search for life.

But under the Taylor Glacier on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, near a place called Blood Falls, scientists have discovered a time capsule of bacterial activity.

At chilling temperatures, with no oxygen or sunlight, these newly found microbes have survived for the past 1.5 million years using an "iron-breathing" technique, which may show how life could exist on other planets.

For years the reddish waterfall-like feature on the side of Taylor Glacier captured the attention of explorers and scientists. Earlier research indicates the color of Blood Falls is due to oxidized iron, but how the iron got to the surface of the glacier remained a mystery.

"When I saw iron, I thought, 'Wow -- that's an energy source for microbes. There has got to be microbes associated with that,' " said Jill Mikucki, lead author of a study about the strange bacteria, published this week in the journal Science. Video Watch Mikucki talk about the discovery »

Scientists found these isolated microorganisms use iron leached from the glacial bedrock in a series of energy-producing metabolic reactions. With the help of sulfate, the iron is transformed and eventually deposited on the surface of the glacier. Air oxidizes the iron, giving Blood Falls its redish hue.

"We don't fully understand the extremities of life: What cuts off life? What are the upper and lower temperatures limits? What are the parameters that life can handle?" said Mikucki, a geomicrobiologist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

"Microbes really defy those limits and can get into the extreme environments and tell us a little bit about the natural history of our earth." (CNN)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 08:08 PM

the missing sun activity

The disappearance of sunspots happens every few years, but this time it's gone on far longer than anyone expected – and there is no sign of the Sun waking up. "This is the lowest we've ever seen. We thought we'd be out of it by now, but we're not," says Marc Hairston of the University of Texas. And it's not just the sunspots that are causing concern. There is also the so-called solar wind – streams of particles the Sun pours out – that is at its weakest since records began. In addition, the Sun's magnetic axis is tilted to an unusual degree. "This is the quietest Sun we've seen in almost a century," says NASA solar scientist David Hathaway. But this is not just a scientific curiosity. It could affect everyone on Earth and force what for many is the unthinkable: a reappraisal of the science behind recent global warming.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Apr 09 - 05:30 PM

The last time a human ate Mastadon meat was


in 1926.

Amazingly some explorers in the Artic found a Mastadon that had emerged from the ice. They cooked and ate the meat and took pictures. When one man was later asked what it talted like he said it tasted like half rotted meat but being that it had been frozen for tens of thousands of years it was still decidedly edible.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Amos
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 10:15 AM

"A fossilized skeleton of what researchers are calling a walking seal has been uncovered in the Canadian Arctic. The remains of this previously unknown mammal could shed light on the evolution of pinnipeds, the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses, researchers report in the April 23 Nature.

The animal, named Puijila darwini, had a long tail and an otterlike body with webbed feet and legs like a terrestrial animal, the researchers report. But P. darwini also had a pinniped-like skull.

"We realized there was no way this was an otter," says study coauthor Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The walking seal probably lived about 20 million years ago and was adept at moving both on land and in water, the team reports.


LResearchers describe Puijila darwini (illustration shown) as a walking seal, with the legs of a terrestrial animal, a seal-like skull and webbed feet. Illustrations by Stefan Thompson

Scientists had theorized that pinnipeds evolved from land-dwelling ancestors but had little fossil evidence to support that claim. The new finding could be the missing link in pinniped evolution, the researchers report.

"This is a fantastic discovery," comments evolutionary biologist Annalisa Berta of San Diego State University.

The finding may also indicate that the Arctic was a geographic center for pinniped evolution, the researchers speculate." LAT

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 05:34 PM

I thought this bit about the "walking seal" discovery was fun:

(from ScienceNow)

"It took a balky, all-terrain vehicle with a broken gas gauge to help reveal the missing piece. In 2007, vertebrate paleontologist Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and her colleagues were returning to their camp from a long day of fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic when they ran out of fuel. While Rybczynski left to get more gas, her graduate student, who was supposed to make sure that the vehicle was refueled, scuffed the ground in irritation and uncovered part of a shin bone. By the time Rybczynski returned, her colleagues' hands were filled with little black bones, and they were doing what Rybczynski refers to as "the fossil dance." Within a few days, the team had recovered most of the skeleton."

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Donuel
Date: 01 May 09 - 10:10 AM

Seals are so much like aquatic dogs its amazing. They tag along with humans just like a dog, except a dog would find it difficult to sit on your kayak. I wonder if thier is an evolutionary link.

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: bobad
Date: 06 May 09 - 04:48 PM

Hobbits 'are a separate species'

Scientists have found more evidence that the Indonesian "Hobbit" skeletons belong to a new species of human - and not modern pygmies.

The 3ft (one metre) tall, 30kg (65lbs) humans roamed the Indonesian island of Flores, perhaps up to 8,000 years ago.

Since the discovery, researchers have argued vehemently as to the identity of these diminutive people.

Two papers in the journal Nature now support the idea they were an entirely new species of human.

The team, which discovered the tiny remains in Liang Bua cave on Flores, contends that the population belongs to the species Homo floresiensis - separate from our own grouping Homo sapiens .

They argue that the "Hobbits" are descended from a prehistoric species of human - perhaps Homo erectus - which reached island South-East Asia more than a million years ago.

Over many years, their bodies most likely evolved to be smaller in size, through a natural selection process called island dwarfing, claim the discoverers, and many other scientists.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8036396.stm

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 09 - 10:32 AM

Keeping Amos' thread afloat (so to speak). :)

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: heric
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:53 PM

A thing about the hobbit is - did they get to the island (which apparently has always required water transportation) more than a million years ago as homo erectus, or did they arrive much later as homo sapiens (~100,000 years ago)?

Subject: RE: BS: Random Traces From All Over
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 09 - 01:09 PM

800!