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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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POPSGod Ditches the GOP I could barely clip enough of this excellent, humourous and right-on column for our forum. I hope y'all will take the time to read the entire piece. It is well worth the effort.
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POPSNew hyperspace engine could roundtrip Mars in 5 hours The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented each year. Last year’s winner went to a paper authored by physicist Jochem Hauser, calling for experimental tests of Heim’s theory. “This hyperdrive motor,” Hauser said, “would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could reach a star eleven light years away in just eighty days.”
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POPSGreen technology creating 'green collar' jobs I stand strongly behind my belief that if this country committed ourselves to becoming energy independent with the same determination that we committed to putting a man on the moon, that we could do it and we could create millions of new jobs in the process. It would be an enormous driver of economic growth and strengthen our leverage in the Middle East because we would no longer be reliant on their oil.
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POPSPork Chops , Garlic When I was a child we had an enormous fig tree in the back yard. Every year the tree would produce an abundance of fruit, much to the delight of my mother and grandmother. Personally I didn’t like them at all, although I loved Fig Newton’s. It wasn’t until I was all grown up and went to Italy that I found figs to be delicious, especially when served with a cool Vin Santo along with cheese and nuts.
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POPSExploding chromosomes fuel research about evolution of genetic storage
Dinoflagellates are stuffed at the core with tightly compacted chromosomes, yet these organisms contain neither histones nor nucleosomes. "What takes care of neutralizing DNA, to allow chromosomes to condense?" Levi-Setti asked. "Most biology books do not tell you." Other scientists had already identified positively charged atoms called cations as neutralizing factors. They found that dinoflagellate chromosomes explode upon the removal of calcium and magnesium cations. Levi-Setti has produced the first images of the distribution of these cations in dinoflagellate chromosomes. These images verify that cations, mainly of calcium and magnesium, neutralize DNA's enormous negative charge, and further suggest a critical role in folding the protein as well. The finding raises questions about the evolution of chromosomes, Rizzo said. "Did dinoflagellates once have histones and then lost them? Or did dinoflagellates never have histones and just 'figured out' a different way to fold lar
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POPSThis made me smile Somehow I have been neglecting blogs that turn out to be totally worth reading over the last week... First: Neil Gaiman is in China and therefore the - hilarious - Web Goblin took over his blog. Read this post (http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/08/how-well-do-we-use-our-freedom-to.html), and laugh out loud. The following part really made my morning:
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POPSAn Underground City Beneath Beijing, Why? Beijing's Underground Hideout With Khrushchev and the Soviets breathing down his country's metaphorical neck, Chairman Mao ordered the construction of a vast underground city to serve as a shelter during an invasion, air raid or nuclear war. This was no minor undertaking. In the late 1960s, the population of Beijing reached 7.5 million residents . In short order, the residents of the capital city were put to work excavating their enormous air raid shelter. Most of the digging was done by hand, and the work was shared by adults and schoolchildren alike. This communal venture fit nicely into Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution -- a massive campaign to support the communist movement and thwart counterrevolutionary ideas. From 1969 to 1979, the people of Beijing focused their attention underground. Watch Reuters video at website: Building the $500 million Beijing Olympic Stadium
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POPSThe crew in Venice around the piano ...eventually things settled down and we all joined Musetta around the piano to sing our favorite bits and pieces...it took a lot of diplomacy to sooth these enormous egos!.....more will follow as we travel around getting people to buy the book.
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POPSGM says Chevy Volt is on track for 2010 I sure hope they can pull this off. The introduction of a rechargeable electric car has the potential to be a game changer for our economy and global dynamics. I would imagine that the response to this in the market would dwarf that received thus far by hybrids. We are talking about truly revolutionizing one of the most important industries in the world. And don't forget the ripple effect this will have by creating the need to make enormous investments in our national electricity grid.
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POPSString Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed Dreams of interstellar travel may need to be put on hold for the moment, however. Cleaver and Obousy estimate that the amount of energy needed to influence the extra dimension is equivalent to the entire mass of Jupiter being converted into pure energy for a ship measuring roughly 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters. "That is an enormous amount of energy," Cleaver said. "We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy." But what if we could make ourselves very very small??? I am ready to squeeze myself quite a bit to get really far... :-)
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