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POPS'It's the culture, stupid!' Europe “All that has made European culture and civilization great – the Europe of the thousand cathedrals, the Europe of the custodians of the artistic treasures, of literature and Christian music, the Europe that expressed real solidarity and service to the poor through the emphatic force of Christian charity – found their origins in the Bible,” Oceania Putney, 62, noted the striking cultural contracts in his region, from the highly Western and secular ambience of urban Australia and New Zealand to the staggering variety of indigenous tribal groups in more rural areas and across the islands of Oceania. In Papua New Guinea alone, he noted, there are 847 distinct languages, and overall there are as many as 1,200 different tongues in Oceania.
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POPS Invisibility cloaks could take sting out of tsunamis "I think that this is a great idea with much potential," says Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews, UK. "One could really imagine protecting coastlines by arrays of cleverly designed concrete poles." Such structures act like metamaterials, materials whose properties result from their structure not composition, and can be used to make invisibility cloaks for light, he says. But Guenneau cautions that large structures like islands and coastlines are unlikely to become invisible anytime soon, because building the many small islands needed to protect one is such a big job. "It's crazy – maybe only people in Dubai could do this," he adds, referring to the spectacular artificial islands built there. Smaller structures such as offshore oil platforms would be easier to protect, he says.
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POPSSay It Ain't So Pat Pat Robertson, that Nostradamus of the 21st century, has done it again. Although his previous predictions haven't fared all that well there's always a first time. And if his prognostications fail to materialize, there's always the "God works in mysterious ways" get out of jail free card. In conclusion, I'd like to offer my own Elixir of Health and Life Extender. Just send $4.98 to ...
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POPSSimple Low-Tech Home Wins Prize For Sustainability
Woodruff's house uses just 25% of the energy of a conventional house of the same size. His winter power costs are a $30 electricity bill each month and a cord of wood. In the summer, power is needed only for the hot water heater and appliances. Yet the little 1,100-sq.-ft. house is as straightforward as you can get. No high-tech gizmos. No elaborate contortions. The house relies on simple architectural principles -- windows oriented for sunlight, cross breezes for ventilation, overhangs for shade -- basics that were much lauded in the 1940s and '50s, but less emphasized since. They included large doors that can be opened for cross-breezes. They designed the heating so energy is used and reused within rooms. The living/ dining/kitchen area is one big room heated by a wood stove on rainy days, and the sun on sunny days. "The public rooms face east, the logic being you want those to heat up with the sun first in the winter and in the summer, you want to avoid the hot western sun.
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POPSArtificial Meteorite Shows Martian Impactors Could Carry Traces Of Life Unfortunately the heat of reentry was so high, even with a protective two centimetre-thick rock coating, that the organisms were carbonised. They died but their cells still remain as "pompeified" forms. if martian sedimentary meteorites carry traces of past life, these traces could be safely transported to Earth. However, the results are more problematic when applied to Panspermia, a theory that proposes living cells could be transported between planets. STONE-6 showed at least two centimetres of rock is not sufficient to protect the organisms during entry."
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POPSGet Yourself One A few of these are hardly bigger than the island they sit on. The first one is by far the largest house and the island is the biggest, small island of the lot.
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POPSBooks you should read before you die Most of the books on the list I have not heard of. Like most lists, and most people, they have different perspectives. I'm glad to see that Haruki Murakami has several books on the list. Though i do believe that his new novel After Dark and his short stories are better that his popular Kafka Currently I'm reading a Robert Ludlum (The Matarese Countdown), cant say that I'm that impressed. What are you reading? And is it worth reading.
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POPSCaribbean tax haven for the rich The scandal with Rep. Charles Rangel, D.-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, reminded me of a report about tax havens for the rich in the Caribbean.
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POPSAlaska's anti environmentalism could sink Florida Open water now stretches all the way round the Arctic, making it possible for the first time in human history to circumnavigate the North Pole… the most important geographical landmark to date to signal the unexpectedly rapid progress of global warming. The resulting opening of Arctic sea lanes will affect American foreign and energy policy for years, implying that the economy in Alaska will boom while Florida sinks.
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POPSgado gado - Indonesian steamed vegetable salad with peanut sauce Sudar hopes to open his own Indonesian restaurant some day. Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands, each with its distinctive flavor profile. Sumatra is spicy; Java is sweet. He believes the complexity of the cuisine has yet to be fully explored in this country. "I think the cuisine has a lot of potential here," Sudar says with a smile. "There are no famous Indonesian chefs here yet. I'd like to be the first one."
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POPSA satellite eye on the Earth last 2 pictures: a) Kasatochi volcano, Aleutian Islands, August 8: Dormant for 200 years this small volcano in the Pacific erupted without warning on August 7. The volcano’s plume is seen here as a brown streak in the cloud b) Phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea, Norway, August 12 2008. Phytoplankton are tiny plant-like organisms that are the foundation of the ocean food web. Like plants, they contain chlorophyll that they use to harvest sunlight for photosynthesis. In northern waters, these organisms are starved for sunlight much of the year, but during the summer months, they explode in colourful blooms such as this one
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POPSOil Bubbles Point to Eco Disaster in Paradise Collapse danger "What is frightening is that the Hoyo appears to be leaking from an area where oil was stored," Jeffery told New Scientist. Nor is the Hoyo Maru the only ship to be leaking oil – although for now, it is the only tanker which has been seen to leak. Jeffery and his colleagues are now seeking Japanese historians and shipping experts who could remotely assess the contents of the Hoyo's oil storage tanks. If the ship is found to contain large amounts of diesel, this will need to be pumped out in order to avoid severe damage to the local biodiversity and economy. The situation is likely to repeat itself around the Pacific over coming years. "A lot of these wrecks are in areas where the communities just don't have the resources to deal with oil pollution," warns Jeffery. In 2003, the US government pumped 10 million litres of fuel from the sunken hull of the USS Mississinewa, a US tanker that was destroyed by the Japanese in 1944 in the Western Pacific.
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