If it's not Canadian geese then it's turtles delaying flights at JFK

Hey, kid, need a job? Photo: Tony the Misfit

"First, it was Canadian geese that caused transportation problems at New York City’s JFK Airport. Today, it was… turtles.

It was a beautifully sunny day here in New York City, so it came as somewhat of a surprise when I heard the alert that flights were delayed at JFK… until I learned the reason.

Seems like dozens of turtles–diamond black terrapins, to be specific–were feeling randy, and their runway love fest caused delays of up to 1.5 hours. Wonder how pilots notified their passengers about that news.

JFK, which is bounded by a bay on one side, actually seems to be a haven for wildlife. According to the New York Times‘ City Room blog, 78 turtles were ultimately removed from the runway safely and returned to a safe place."

text and photo via MatadorPulse

White House among targets of sweeping cyber attack!

Experts are saying the North Koreans are behind cyber attacks against South Korea and the United States. It looks like they are doing everything in their power to provoke a war. It's scary to think they hit the White House, the Pentagon, and the New York Stock Exchange.

I think President Obama should be devoting a lot more time to the building crisis posed by North Korea. It's nice to go abroad and glad hand some countries, maybe sign a treaty or two, but I think he should be paying more attention to what's happening with the openly belligerent communist regime.

A show down may come sooner than anyone thinks...

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, AP Writer Lolita C. Baldor, AP Writer – 25 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than initially realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.

Other targets of the attack included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained computer assaults.

The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were. South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces. Click here to read the rest.

photo via Google Images

Would you like to remember everything you see forever?

I wonder what it would be like to remember every little thing you see everyday forever? Would there be drawbacks? Would our brain overload with so much stored memory? And what about bad memories? Who wants to retain them? This drug, if ever passed out to humans, could pose some interesting situations.

By Annalee Newitz

Imagine if you could look at something once and remember it forever. You would never have to ask for directions again. Now a group of scientists has isolated a protein that mega-boosts your ability to remember what you see.

A group of Spanish researchers reported today in Science that they may have stumbled upon a substance that could become the ultimate memory-enhancer. The group was studying a poorly-understood region of the visual cortex. They found that if they boosted production of a protein called RGS-14 (pictured) in that area of the visual cortex in mice, it dramatically affected the animals' ability to remember objects they had seen.

Mice with the RGS-14 boost could remember objects they had seen for up to two months. Ordinarily the same mice would only be able to remember these objects for about an hour.

The researchers concluded that this region of the visual cortex, known as layer six of region V2, is responsible for creating visual memories. When the region is removed, mice can no longer remember any object they see.

If this protein boosts visual memory in humans, the implications are staggering. In their paper, the researchers say that it could be used as a memory-enhancer – which seems like an understatement. What's particularly intriguing is the fact that this protein works on visual memory only. So as I mentioned earlier, it would be perfect for mapping. It would also be useful for engineers and architects who need to hold a lot of visual images in their minds at once. And it would also be a great drug for detectives and spies.

Could it also be a way to gain photographic memory? For example, if I look at a page of text will I remember the words perfectly? Or will I simply remember how the page looked?

I can't see much of a downside for this potential drug, unless the act of not forgetting what you see causes problems or trauma.

image and text via io9

Robert McNamara: The man who gave us the Vietnam War

A lot of people will never forgive McNamara for his roll in starting the Vietnam War. At one time I was one of those people.

But as I watched what he did in his later years, I realized he regretted his actions. He said so in his book. With age, I've learned to forgive a lot of people. I feel sorry for the man who thought he was doing the right thing, and the tortured soul he became because of his decisions. He's gone now, but his troubled legacy lives on.

As Secretary of Defense he became the driving force for our involvement in Vietnam...

Although he was a prime architect of the Vietnam War and repeatedly overruled the Joint Chiefs of Staff on strategic matters, McNamara gradually became skeptical about whether the war could be won by deploying more troops to South Vietnam and intensifying the bombing of North Vietnam, a claim he would publish in a book years later. He also stated later that his support of the Vietnam war was given out of loyalty to administration policy

He was born on June 9, 1916 – and died on July 6, 2009. He was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense.

McNamara served as Defense Secretary for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968. Following that he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 until 1981. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.

image via Truth Dig via caglecartoons.com

The Disappearing Male: From Virility to Sterility

"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects." Dr. Herbert Needleman.

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.

The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.
At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.
Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called "hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

            Factsheet: Male Infertility
* There are more than 20 heavily industrialized nations where the birth of baby boys has declined every year for the past 30 years - amounting to 3 million fewer baby boys.
* The number of boys born with penis abnormalities and genital defects has increased by 200% in the past two decades.
* Boys have a higher incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, Tourett's syndrome, cerebral palsy and dyslexia.
* Boys are four times as likely to be autistic.
* The average sperm count of a North American college student today is less than half of what it was 50 years ago.
* The quality of sperm is declining. Eighty-five per cent of the sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged.
* Damaged sperm have been linked to a 300% increase in testicular cancer - a form of cancer that affects young men in their 20s and 30s.
* The chemical industry has developed more than 90,000 man-made chemicals in the last sixty years. Eighty-five percent of them have never undergone testing for their impact on the human body.
> Backgrounder: Endocrine 101
> Backgrounder: The Chemicals
> Profiles: Scientists

photo and text via Information Liberation

Pee Powered Cars: Producing hydrogen from urine

Nothing like starting off your Monday with weird, but educational, news while you sip that first cup of coffee. I never would have guessed that the term "pissed off" would take on a new meaning...  

(PhysOrg.com) -- You do two things at motorway services: fill up one tank and empty another. US chemists have combined refueling your car and relieving yourself by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine.

Chemistry World reports that the catalyst could not only fuel the hydrogen-powered cars of the future, but could also help clean up municipal wastewater.

Gerardine Botte of Ohio University uses an electrolytic approach to produce hydrogen from urine - the most abundant waste on Earth - at a fraction of the cost of producing hydrogen from water.

Urine's major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule - importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules.

Botte uses electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive new nickel-based electrode to selectively and efficiently oxidise the urea. To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell - much less than the 1.23V needed to split water.

Her work is described in the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal Chemical Communications.

“During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrode surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,” Botte told Chemistry World.

Botte believes the technology could be easily scaled-up to generate hydrogen while cleaning up the effluent from sewage plants. “We do not need to reinvent the wheel as there are already electrolysers being used in different applications.”

More information: B K Boggs, R L King and G G Botte, Chem. Commun., 2009, DOI: 10.1039/b905974a

Text provided by the Royal Society of Chemistry

 

To see why the bear crossed the road, read this column

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/05/2009 01:27:19 AM PDT

I nearly hit a black bear crossing the road on Central Avenue in McKinleyville the other day. The bruin darted out in front of my car and I had to swerve to keep from plowing into him!

My wife thought I was having a seizure or something until she saw the brown blur loping into an empty lot on the far side of the street.

We quickly agreed it was the first time we ever had to dodge a bear -- either on foot or in a car -- despite countless trips to national and state parks over the years. I suspect the bear was foraging through someone's trash when he realized (for whatever reason) it was time to beat paws to a safer place.

I wondered if there might be a more sinister reason why that bear was running around town. Lately, there have been numerous reports of rabid foxes, and a few attacks on humans, during the day.

I checked out The International Association for Bear Research and Management, also known as the International Bear Association (IBA), Web site and discovered it wasn't unusual for a bear to forage for food during the day. That was nice to know.

It's likely the bear we saw was a young male (the full-grown ones can weigh from 350 to 500 pounds and our busy bear didn't look half that size). Relieved, I scanned the Web site and discovered there are eight different bear species. Click here to read the rest.

image via Google Images

American's celebrate freedom and independence today

ON THE SUBJECT OF FREEDOM FOR THIS 4th OF JULY...

Voltaire quotes (French Philosopher and Writer. One of the greatest of all French authors, 1694-1778) : “Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”

 

 

Mahatma Gandhi quotes (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948) : “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

 

 

 

Bertrand Russell quotes (English Logician and Philosopher 1872-1970) : “Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires”

 

 

 

Albert Camus quotes (French Novelist, Essayist and Playwright, 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature : “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

 

 

photos and text via Think Exist

Racism debate after Russian and Nigerian gas companies combine to form 'Nigaz'

By Mail Foreign Service

When a $2.5billion international venture is being planned you might expect there to be hours of debate over what to call it.

Yet branding is not the forte of some companies, it seems.

Russian Energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into a racism row with the announcement of its joint venture in Nigeria - Nigaz.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua last week agreed the deal to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Africa's most populous nation.

The name is meant to be an amalgamation of 'Nigeria' and 'Gazprom', pronounced 'nye-gaz', but it can be read phonetically as an offensive term for those of black African origin.

'How more derogatory can it be. Let's join forces in making our government rename this,' said the creator of 'Nigerians No Nigaz', a group on Facebook.

Many comments on the blunder were from white bloggers.

But others mocked the mistake - one African-American suggested a playlist of songs from U.S. hip-hop artists for the Nigaz launch party.

One Nigerian in Lagos said: 'White people are making too much of this.

'As long as the Russians pay us, they can call it what they like.'

image via Daily Mail

Joke of the Day: Tight Skirt, Bus Stop

One day, at a bus stop there was a girl who was wearing a skintight miniskirt. When the bus arrived and it was her turn to get on, she realized that her skirt was so tight she couldn't get her foot high enough to reach to step.

Thinking it would give her enough slack to raise her leg, she reached back and unzipped her skirt a little. She still could not reach the step. Embarrassed, she reached back once again to unzip it a little more. Still, she couldn't reach the step.

So, with her skirt zipper halfway down, she reached back and unzipped her skirt all the way. Thinking that she could get on the step now, she lifted up her leg only to realize that she still couldn't reach the step.

So, seeing how embarrassed the girl was, the man standing behind her put his hands around her waist and lifted her up on to the first step of the bus. The girl turned around furiously and said, "How dare you touch my body that way, I don't even know you!"

Shocked, the man says, "Well, ma'am, after you reached around and unzipped my fly three times, I kinda figured that we were friends!"

 text from Joke Of The Day