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POPSScientists Discover An Earth-Sized Planet Possibly With An Ocean Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said. He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science. Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean. "It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.
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POPSAt age 140, lobster to regain his freedom He said a lobster's age can be worked out from how much it weighs, with each pound (453.6 grams) counting for 7 to 10 years. Mr Valenti said it was not uncommon for lobsters to live for more than 100 years but it was rare for them to be caught because they were generally too big for the baskets. The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it found out that the old lobster was in the restaurant's tank when a diner called them. "We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said PETA's Ingrid Newkirk.
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POPSDorothea Lange - Artist With Vision Beyond The Lens Of Any Camera (Errata Clog)
In response to my clog post entitled, "Strong Support For Health Care Reform With Public Option," I have participated in some discussions about the stunning work of Dorothea Lange. As many of you may know, Dorothea Lange is the photographer/artist who took the famous picture, "Migrant Mother," which is featured in my clog. I entitled this picture incorrectly as "The Dust Bowl," so please accept my apologies for this error. If any of my clogs ever contain incorrect information of this nature, I ask that my readers let me know right away. Aside from correcting errata, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight Dorothea Lange's work further in the clips below. I clipped these bits from the My Hero website. Dorothea Lange is an interesting individual who, in my opinion, captured the class struggles in this country better than any artist of her day with a medium that was not then fully realized. Dorothea Lange died on October 16, 1965. If you are not familiar with the life
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POPSGreat Whites Hang Out in 'Shark Cafe' It had long been assumed shark species at the top of the ocean food chain that roam the high seas looking for food and mates did so almost randomly. But using satellite tagging, acoustic monitoring of shark "hot spots" and genetic samples, a research team led by Professor Barbara Block of Stanford University found to their surprise that the eastern Pacific's great whites are real homebodies. Over an eight year period, nearly 100 sharks were electronically tagged, and even more had tissue samples taken by scientists working from a ship. Sticking to a schedule They found that the sharks consistently migrate along the same paths and stick to a schedule. Between August and December, the great whites, which can grow up to six metres and weigh three tonnes, stalk waters off the coast of central and northern California, feasting on seals and sea lions. Their preferred hunting grounds in this area are known as the "red triangle", notes the study.
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POPSGiant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean The thinking is that the Red Sea will eventually pour into the new sea in a million years or so. The new ocean would connect to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, an arm of the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in eastern Africa.
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POPSGreat White Sharks Have Their Own Cafe
"Over an eight year period, nearly 100 sharks were electronically tagged, and even more had tissue samples taken by scientists working from a ship. Not only do the sharks consistently migrate along the same paths, they stick to a schedule too. Between August and December, the Great Whites -- which can grow up to six metres (20 feet) and three tonnes -- stalk waters off the coast of central and northern California, feasting on seals and sea lions. Their preferred hunting grounds in this area are known as the "red triangle", notes the study, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Starting in January, they head for the deep blue around Hawaii some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) to the west, where they are found in largest numbers between April and July. But some -- especially males -- loiter at a halfway point known as the "White Shark Cafe", with females coming and going for what scientists presume is a bit of shark intimacy. The new findi
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POPSAn Open Letter to the Council of the American Physical Society Studies of a variety of natural processes, including ocean cycles and solar variability, indicate that they can account for variations in the Earth’s climate on the time scale of decades and centuries. Current climate models appear insufficiently reliable to properly account for natural and anthropogenic contributions to past climate change, much less project future climate. The APS supports an objective scientific effort to understand the effects of all processes – natural and human --on the Earth’s climate and the biosphere’s response to climate change, and promotes technological options for meeting challenges of future climate changes, regardless of cause. List of 160 signers of the APS petition available
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POPSGIANT crack in Africa will create a new ocean
"We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this," said Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study. The result shows that highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of in bits, as the leading theory held. And such sudden large-scale events on land pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events, Ebinger said. "The whole point of this study is to learn whether what is happening in Ethiopia is like what is happening at the bottom of the ocean where it's almost impossible for us to go," says Ebinger. "We knew that if we could establish that, then Ethiopia would essentially be a unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory for us. Because of the unprecedent
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POPSThe terrorists at Club Gitmo don't want to leave Obvious. What else more could they want? They have personal chefs, TVs, remote controls, beach volleyball, a library overlooking the ocean, scenic views, free laundry service, new prayer rugs to pray to Allah.....and they're getting the H1N1 vaccine before you. The libs want them out of Cuban Clown College as long as they're nowhere near their Manhattan penthouses or vacation spots in the Vineyard. As if splashing water on their damn faces is going to scare them off.....PUH-LEASE. Gitmo should be rebranded so that liberals wouldn’t reflexively scream “TORTURE!” every time they heard it’s name. How about "Misfired Martyrs Motel" or "Viva la Incarceracion!"?
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POPSSperm Whale Classified Carbon Neutral Prior analysis of whale carbon dioxide emissions attributes 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions total to the animals in the Southern Ocean region. Subsequent computation lowers the whales’ carbon dioxide emissions estimate to 0.3 percent, which is equivalent to 17 million tons of carbon a year. Lavery and team explain that there are low levels of iron in the Southern Ocean, and the sperm whales each contribute about 10 grams of iron to the surface. Since the iron comes from the whales’ waste material, it takes the form of liquid plumes, effectively acting as a fertilizer and encouraging growth of plankton. Depending on the exact values and environmental conditions, sperm whales can then be classified “either a net carbon sink or as carbon-neutral,” Discovery writes.
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POPSAmelia Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found According to Gillespie, who is set to embark on a new $500,000 Nikumaroro expedition next summer, the two became castaways and eventually died there. "We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost," Gillespie said. The archival record by Gallagher suggests that the bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search. A woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Noonan were all found near the site where the bones were discovered. "The reason why they found a partial skeleton is that many of the bones had been carried off by giant coconut crabs. There is a remote chance that some of the bones might still survive deep in crab burrows," Gillespie said.