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POPSJapan Plans Solar Station in Space The next step, expected around 2020, would be to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10 megawatt power capacity, to be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype. JAXA says the transmission technology would be safe but concedes it would have to convince the public, which may harbour images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing up aircraft in mid-air.
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POPSIs There Global Warming on Other Planets in the Solar System? Martian climate is primarily driven by dust and albedo and there is little empirical evidence that Mars is showing long term warming. Neptune's orbit is 164 years so current brightening is a seasonal response (Neptune's southern hemisphere is heading into summer). Triton's warming is due to the moon approaching an extreme southern summer, a season that occurs every few hundred years. Jupiter's storms are fueled by the planet's own internal heat (the sun's energy is 4% the level of solar energy at Earth). When several storms merge into one large storm (eg - Red Spot Jr), the planet loses its ability to mix heat, causing warming at the equator and cooling at the poles.
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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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POPSChannels associated with impact craters discovered on Mars If a significant amount of water was released or mobilized by the formation of the Hale Crater impact, larger impacts that formed during the early days of the Solar System may have been able to bring even more water to the surface of Mars. If this is true, a long-term, stable, warm and wet climate may not be required to explain the presence of such channels in the ancient Martian landscapes.
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POPSLand Use Comparison - Solar Panels vs Feeding Pets I was quite amazed by this at first. Yet, when I thought about a bit longer, it did not particularly surprise me. It is just another one of those things that sits right under our noses, that we miss. "Can't see the forest through the trees" type of thing.
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POPSdistraction as an energy-saver wonder how many faces it can recognise (say in a household of a family of 5)..... also, what if someone fell asleep facing the tv? would that face still be recognised?
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POPSClowns pwn Nazi/KKK rally - Awesome! Truly brilliant. "Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns. http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/7704982.html"