AndrewA

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13...s1_head_dn13802 The shifting, shimmering Northern Lights might be more ordered than anyone realised. New observations suggest that, contrary to expectations, some of the colourful light shows appear to be polarised, with their electromagnetic waves lined up in a common orientation. If confirmed, the discovery will provide a powerful new tool to understand the Earth's magnetic field and the atmospheres of other planets. Auroras shine because charged particles from the Sun, such as electrons, get captured by the Earth's magnetic field. The field channels the particles into the atmosphere above the Earth's poles, where they collide with gas particles, causing them to glow. But scientists have long doubted the process could lead to polarised auroras. That's because there were thought to be too many atmospheric collisions for the resulting electromagnetic waves to be neatly aligned. In fact, when Australian researcher Robert Duncan announced in 1958 that he had detected one instance of polarisation in the nocturnal display after many nights of searching, his findings were disputed and the observation was dismissed within a year. Now, scientists working on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen far north in the Arctic have found new evidence of the phenomenon. Polar rain Jean Lilensten of the National Center for Scientific Research in Grenoble, France, and colleagues used a custom-built photopolarimeter to watch the sky at various times over the last two winters. They found that at an altitude of 220 kilometres, electrons from space excite oxygen atoms to emit polarised red light. The degree of polarisation is small

you can watch the dissection live from these webcams http://www.r2.co.nz/20080427/ Here is a blog explaining what will be going on etc. http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/category/colossal-squid/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7364206.stm Scientists say they have unlocked some of the secrets behind black holes, the gravitational fields known for sucking up light and stars from the Universe. In a report in the journal Nature, US researchers say they have worked out how black holes emit jet streams of particles at close to light speed. The Boston University team say the streams originate in the magnetic field near the edge of the black hole. They say it is within this region that the jets are accelerated and focused. Despite the fact that it is probable that a black hole lurks at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers still know very little about these celestial monsters which vacuum up almost everything in their path, even light. Professor Alan Marscher of Boston University and colleagues claim they have delved deeper than ever into their heart. Using almost every type of telescope known to humankind, Prof Marscher believes he has worked out where and how the jets - or blazars - are formed. Using an array of 10 powerful radio telescopes, aimed at the galaxy BL Lacertae, the researchers studied a black hole just as it was sending forth a blazar jet. The astronomers had suspected that the supermassive black hole was spewing out plasma jets in a winding corkscrew, and they say that their observations have now confirmed just that. "We have gotten the clearest look yet at the innermost portion of the jet, where the particles actually are accelerated," Prof Marscher said in a statement. University of Michigan astronomy professor Hugh Aller, who worked on the project, told Reuters news agency that the process of accelerating the material to nearly the speed of light was similar to what happened in a jet engine. "We think it is focused by a nozzle of sorts and it comes out at us," he was quoted by Reuters as saying. However, the BBC's science correspondent Neil Bowdler says despite this breakthrough, scientists are no closer to finding what lies within the black hole - beyond what is called the event horizon In fact, if the theoretical physicists are right, our correspondent says, then we will never be able to see inside these strange phenomena.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7367774.stm Technicians in New Zealand have begun to thaw a rare colossal squid specimen. The operation to defrost the 10-metre (34 feet) long, half-tonne squid began on Monday afternoon in Wellington following a postponement of 24 hours. The animal is now sitting in a bath of salt water. Once it is thawed, scientists will begin to dissect it. Very little is known about colossal squid, which appear to live largely in the cold Antarctic waters and can grow up to 15 metres (50 feet) long. "They're incredibly rare - this is probably one of maybe six specimens ever brought up," said Carol Diebel, director of natural environment at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa centre. "It's certainly the one that we're being really careful about, completely intact and in really fantastic condition." The Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni specimen was caught in February 2007 in the Ross Sea. Big unknown The colossal squid is remarkable for its size, but also for how rarely it has been sighted. It was identified first in 1925 from two tentacles found in a sperm whale's stomach. These deep-diving toothed whales regularly do battle with Mesonychoteuthis and other giant cephalopods such as the giant squid of the Architeuthis genus. Since 1925, only a few Mesonychoteuthis have been sighted, all in the seas around Antarctica. Very little is known about how and where they live. The one certainty is that they are fearsome opponents, with big beaks and unique swivelling hooks on the club-like ends of their tentacles. One of the first tasks is likely to be ascertaining the squid's gender. This one is believed to be male; and females are thought to grow larger than males. So if this one is a he, presumably there are even bigger and heavier shes somewhere in the cold Antarctic waters. The Te Papa scientists are also defrosting a smaller, damaged colossal squid specimen, and two giant squid. The defrosting and dissection are being shown in a live webcast. Later in the week, scientists are expected to give public lectures about their initial results. Once thawed and examined, the squid will be embalmed and preserved.

This sound rather occult based itself and something that crops up in horror films and certain fantasy books. Whats to stop people from finding them and using them once they have been buried? Jumanji anyone?!!!

definitely, everyone know it is a money making scheme for local government. Kat, Sterling Dollar is pretty easy to work out these days, just double and half. basically 1 Pound is worth 2 dollars, so the fine mentioned in the article of

its not much different from traffic wardens in Uk who will issue tickets for equally stupid reasons, then fixed penalties from speed cameras who catch you doing 2 mph over limit. It is just an edict from above to make as much money from this new source of ready income. Certainly this case would be thrown out of court, especially as the media have hold of it, not to mention there is no evidence. I do agree with the litter policing as UK streets are filthy and disgusting, for generations it has never been an issue that has been addressed, where as other countries like Germany have been conditioned and taught that litter is crime and sociably unacceptable, combined with a wonderful and regular street cleaning, most places in Germany look immaculate and spotless. people DILIBERATLY discarding any kind of food wrappers, newspapers, cigarettes, chewing gum, bags and just about anything else no matter how small SHOULD be fined, but certainly picking on soft targets like a mother and child who simply drop a bit of food is bad. I seem to remember another similar case where someone pulled something out of their pocket and a tissue fell out un noticed within seconds they were pounced on and fined.

Nothing like a good old book burning! Have a public burning and get everyone to come along and burn their books that do not honour God!!

Of course it is about publicity. I expect there will be a couple of books comming out shortly, "Living with Abuse" and "Christians and Divorce"

I remember reading about the early development of this technology many many ago, where a boy was given such an eye, the "image" was just a small grid of about a dozen pixels, and it could only show black and white and only shades, it is good to see how far this has now come on. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7359282.stm A 'bionic eye' may hold the key to returning sight to people left blind by a hereditary disease, experts believe. A team at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have carried out the treatment on the UK's first patients as part of a clinical study into the therapy. The artificial eye, connected to a camera on a pair of glasses, has been developed by US firm Second Sight. It said the technique may be able to restore a basic level of vision, but experts warned it was still early days. The trial aims to help people who have been made blind through retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye diseases that affects the retina. The disease progresses over a number of years, normally after people have been diagnosed when they are children. It is estimated between 20,000 to 25,000 are affected in the UK. It is not known whether the treatment has helped the two patients - both men in their fifties - to see and any success is only likely to be in the form of light and dark outlines, but doctors are optimistic. Lyndon da Cruz, the eye surgeon who carried out the operations last week, said the treatment was "exciting". "The devices were implanted successfully in both patients and they are recovering well from the operations." Other patients across Europe and the US have also been involved in the trial. Electronic The bionic eye, known as Argus II, works via the camera which transmits a wireless signal to an ultra-thin electronic receiver and electrode panel that are implanted in the eye and attached to the retina. The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves allowing a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain. David Head, chief executive of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, said: "This treatment is very exciting, but it is still early days. "There is currently no treatment for patients so this device and research into stem cells therapies offers the best hope."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7358423.stm (visit above link for video and pictures) By Andrew Luck-Baker The annual mass spawning of corals on the Palau archipelago in the western Pacific has occurred right on cue. With Sunday night's full moon, coral polyps let forth a huge swathe of sperm and egg, to seed the next generation. The event was short-lived - only about 30 minutes - but so vast in its scale that it turned the sea water pink. Scientists from Palau, Australia and the UK are studying the practicality of collecting coral larvae to help restore damaged reefs elsewhere. As we got into the boat for our trip to Luke's reef, I admit I was not really expecting to see the mass spawning on the exact night of the full Moon. All the visiting scientists here thought it was more likely the reproductive extravaganza would happen the next evening or the following one - based on what had happened the last two years. The only person who seemed sure it would happen on cue was Steven Victor, the Palauan director of the Palau International Coral Reef Center. Local knowledge was spot on, as it turned out. Almost as soon as the boat engine switched off, we got a sense that something might be brewing. There was a faint fishy whiff in the air, and then in the torchlight, one, then two orange particles - coral spawn - suspended in the water. Scanning from the other side of the boat, the excitement went up another notch - a steady stream of orange spat was rising to the surface in one small isolated patch. Scuba gear was flung on and the marine biologists were overboard. I paddled on the surface with snorkel, mask and diving torch, watching the scientists check the coral colonies on the reef bed five metres below. The minutes ticked by - lots of them. If our first stream of spawn was the warm up act, was the main attraction having a mighty tantrum and refusing to come on tonight? Apparently not. Sonia Bejarano, from the University of Exeter, UK, surfaced with an update. A great many of the branching table corals and stag horn corals - the chief reef builders - were close to spawning. The little egg and sperm bundles were visible in the open mouths of most of the individual coral polyps of each colony. Depending on the size of the colony, the number of tiny sea anemone-like polyps ranges from hundreds to thousands. At 8.29pm the mass spawning began. Across the reef, polyps contracted into their stony skeletons. Spawn particles popped out of their mouths. Because the egg and sperm bundles contain waxy yolk, they are buoyant and rise in the water column. Within minutes, I was snorkelling in what looked like a reverse snow storm of orange and pink particles. It became thicker and thicker as more and more colonies across the reef fired their latest shots at founding a new generation. The spawn just kept coming - the sea was becoming a pink soup. Pink was emerging as the dominant colour. Akin to taramosalata There was a rising pale rose particle for every cubic centimetre of seawater at least. Above water, the odour of spawn was also thick in the air - it smelt like taramosalata, the pink Greek dish made of fish roe. I spent most of the time in a state of amazement at the surface but I managed to get down a couple of times to the reef bed to see a colony close-up as it released its spawn. Profusions of pink blobs, each with a little tail of mucus, wafted from the antler branches of a stag horn colony. The reef fish were also excited. Earlier most of them were hidden, lurking in dark crevices and overhangs for safety away from night-time predators. But with the spawn bonanza, many threw caution to the winds and came out to feast. Back on the boat, Peter Mumby, also from Exeter, estimated it was about half hour from the time the first colony unleashed its spawn to the time the last one spewed forth to multiply. The time it all started was almost exactly the same as the moment the mass spawning began the previous year he'd visited Luke's reef to video the event. Somehow all the colonies are running with synchronised biological clocks. In some way not really understood by scientists, they are entrained by factors such as light levels and durations from the Sun and the Moon over a year and over individual months. The result is they spawn within minutes of each other. That synchrony is vital if you reproduce as most corals do. The majority are hermaphrodites which release their eggs and sperm into the open water for fertilisation. The chances they will have any offspring would be terrible if they did not have tight coordination so that eggs of one colony meet sperm from another. By now, at the surface, the number of egg and sperm bundles was staggering. Dense rafts and slicks of pink were coalescing all around the boat for as far as we could see. The ripe smell of taramosalata hung in the air. And we could see the water below the floating spawn begin to cloud up. Seawater was penetrating every spawn particle - breaking apart separate compartments of eggs and sperm. The visibility was falling as billions of coral sperm were liberated for fertilisation. Andrew Luck-Baker is preparing a Frontiers programme to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 26 May. The programme will also be broadcast on Discovery on the BBC World Service.

Like soldiers in combat zones, birds operate a sentry system to ensure their comrades are safe from attack. By singing a "watchman's song", the pied babbler tells its group mates they are free to forage for food in Africa's Kalahari desert. This is a rare example of truly altruistic bird behaviour, said Dr Andy Radford, of Bristol University, UK. "The unselfish behaviour of the sentry is probably rewarded down the line. It's a win-win scenario," he said. Pied babblers live in groups of around six or seven, one of whom acts as a sentinel, scanning the desert for predators, such as mongoose, eagles, or even cobras. Just as soldiers on sentry duty in hostile territory keep in regular radio contact with their colleagues, the sentinel sings a distinctive watchman's song to assure them that all is well. This leaves the rest of the group free to focus on finding food, such as scorpions and small snakes buried beneath the surface of the sand. Whistle and weigh Dr Radford's team observed a study population of 12-20 groups living in the Kalahari, southern Africa. They demonstrated that the watchman's song allowed groups to capture more food. Dr Radford said: "These exciting results point to a great example of true cooperation. "The unselfish behaviour of the sentry is probably rewarded down the line by the improved survival of group mates, which leads to a larger group size. "This increases the sentinel's chances of survival when the group is under attack from predators or having to repel rivals from their territory." Though they live in the wild, the groups of pied babblers in the study have been trained to fly in to the researchers in response to a whistle and weigh themselves on a small set of scales. Observers can then walk within a few feet of the birds to observe their behaviour and monitor the prey that they catch. Their latest research showed that the foragers respond to the watchman's song alone, whether or not they see a sentinel sitting in a tree. Language use http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7350610.stm (visit webpage above for video) In response to playbacks of recordings of the call, the foraging individuals spent less time looking out for predators, looked up less often, spread out more widely, and spent more time out in the open. This means that they have more time for foraging, are less likely to lose track of prey, have more foraging patches to choose from and are less likely to encounter patches that have already been depleted. As a consequence of these changes in behaviour, the birds had greater foraging success. The research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is published in Current Biology. "Decision making in response to vocal cues is an important behaviour in social birds, and by studying it we can discover much about the way that different groups of animals develop language use," said Dr Radford, a BBSRC David Phillips Fellow. "We are now investigating whether sentinels differ in their reliability and how this might influence the behaviour of their group-mates."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7358863.stm Boring jobs turn our mind to autopilot, say scientists - and it means we can seriously mess up some simple tasks. Monotonous duties switch our brain to "rest mode", whether we like it or not, the researchers report in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. They found mistakes can be predicted up to 30 seconds before we make them, by patterns in our brain activity. The team hopes to design an early-warning brain monitor for pilots and others in "critical situations". The scientists say the device would be particularly suitable for monotonous jobs where focus is hard to maintain - such as passport and immigration control. Mistakes 'foreshadowed' "We might be able to build a device (that could be placed) on the heads of people that makes these easy decisions," said Dr Eichele, of the University of Bergen, Norway. "We can measure the signal and give feedback to the user that your brain is in the state where your decisions are not going to be the right one." In the study, Dr Eichele and his colleagues asked participants to repeatedly perform a "flanker task" - an experiment in which individuals must quickly respond to visual clues. As they did so, brain scans were performed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They found the participants' mistakes were "foreshadowed" by a particular pattern of brain activity. "To our surprise, up to 30 seconds before the mistake we could detect a distinct shift in activity," said Dr Stefan Debener, of Southampton University, UK. "The brain begins to economise, by investing less effort to complete the same task. "We see a reduction in activity in the prefrontal cortex. At the same time, we see an increase in activity in an area which is more active in states of rest, known as the Default Mode Network (DMN)." Workplace safety This is not a sign of the brain going to sleep, says Debener. "Autopilot would be a better metaphor," he explains. "We can assume that the tendency to economise task performance leads to an inappropriate reduction of effort, thus causing errors." Since this state begins about 30 seconds prior to a mistake being made, it could be possible to design an early-warning system that alerts people to be more focused or more careful, said the researchers. That could significantly improve workplace safety and also improve performance in key tasks, such as driving, analysis of X-rays, or airport security screening. But MRI scanners are neither portable enough nor fast enough to be practical for these real life scenarios, so the next step is to see if more mobile EEG devices are able to detect the phenomenon. A prototype of a wireless, mobile, and lightweight EEG amplifier is currently in development and could be ready for the market in "10 to 15 years", says Dr Debener, who is based at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, at Royal South Hants Hospital. "But first, we must establish what is causing these mistakes," he adds. "We do not know whether the change in brain activity we see has a causal link to the mistakes. After we establish that, we can try to develop monitoring devices."

Scientists have completed the first stage of an ambitious plan to drill down into an earthquake-generating region near Japan. The project saw holes bored 1.4km into the sea floor, producing 3D images of stresses inside the quake zone. The Nankai Trough produced major lethal earthquakes and tsunami during the last century. The eventual aim is to place instruments 6km deep in the crust, possibly as an early warning system. Findings from the initial phase of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) were presented here at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) annual meeting. "Maybe it's a bit obvious after the 2004 tsunami why we're interested in doing this," said the project's co-chief scientist Harold Tobin. "The Sumatra quake is a good example of the fact that the greatest quakes on the planet happen in subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is sliding beneath another. "And virtually all of the big quakes, the ones of magnitude eight or nine or above, happen at sea; so we have to go to sea to study the plate boundaries, the actual faults, that generate those earthquakes," the University of Michigan researcher told reporters. The Nankai Trough off the south-eastern coast of Japan, centre of the 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankaido earthquakes which both exceeded Magnitude 8, is structurally similar to the Sunda Trench where the 2004 tsunami originated, he added. Fault in vision The five months from last September saw eight holes drilled to various depths in the Nankai Trough, using the new Japanese research vessel Chikyu. The drill bits travelled through the "megasplay zone", the region above the actual subduction path, which is riddled with faults. Three-dimensional scans performed aboard Chikyu on cores taken from these boreholes reveal some of the stresses that the rock is placed under as the Philippines tectonic plate descends underneath Japan. "We use this medical CT (computed tomography) scanner that scans through core samples instead of the human body," said co-chief scientist Masataka Kinoshita from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (Jamstec), which runs operations on behalf of the international Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). "This gives 3D density images, just like in the human body we would see brain or bones or other things." Most of the stress lines, as researchers anticipated, lie along the direction that the plates are travelling. But one core showed strong stress lines at 90 degrees. Mapping these stress lines could indicate which portions along the subduction zone are "locked" - where the descending plate snags and sticks to the one above - and which are loose and able to move freely. That in turn would set some parameters for the likely scale of a tsunami, which is believed to occur in this region when the forces on the snagged upper plate grow too large and the plate snaps upward violently, releasing its accumulated energy into the water above. The first set of boreholes also broke through into the "accretionary prism", where material such as mud, water and loose rock is carried downwards by the descending Philippines plate. Some of the cores revealed evidence of past undersea landslides. Deep plans This first phase of NanTroSEIZE has only scratched the surface of where the scientists want to go. "Later this year we will do some more shallow drilling," said Dr Tobin. "Then in 2010 or 2012 we aim to drill two deep holes down to about 6km. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7353866.stm "We can then get cores through the fault zone where it branches down there; and we will also place instruments down inside the boreholes." The Japanese government plans to run an undersea cable out to the Nankai Trough. That will allow data from seismometers, tiltmeters and other instruments inside the subduction zone itself to be carried back to the mainland and analysed in real time. At the very least, this will provide unprecedented insights into the processes happening in a major earthquake zone. At best, it will become a tool for forecasting quakes and tsunami. The Japanese government puts the chances of a major event happening in the Nankai Trough over the next 30 years at more than 50%. And eventually the findings here, or the technologies developed, could be applied in other similar regions, including the Sunda Trench which caused so much devastation back in 2004.

http://technology.newscientist.com/article...s2_head_dn13753 Beating the "botnets"

http://technology.newscientist.com/article...s9_head_dn13744 Robots are competing in Germany this week to traverse a maze that simulates the aftermath of a natural disaster (Visit above webpage to see youtube clip) It is part of the largest warm-up event, the German Open, for the annual RoboCup, held in China this July. The main Robocup event has been running for 11 years and pits teams of soccer robots against each other, with the goal of having a robotic team beat the human world soccer champions at their own game by 2050. But a sub-competition called RoboCup Rescue may yield useful robots. Held since 2000, it aims to stimulate development of robots to help humans in dangerous situations, like collapsed buildings or after a chemical spill. Maze mapping Robots in this year's competition must navigate a complex three-dimensional maze, using their sensing and mapping abilities to sniff out toy dolls that either emit CO2, give off heat, make noise, or move. "The robots are the mouse and the dolls are the cheese," says Adam Jacoff of the US Government

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13...s8_head_dn13748 Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA's 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA's current budget

i hardly wear shoes. As a kid i used to go almost everywhere bare footed especailly in summer. There is a woman who lives locally who i see from time to time, she is a hard core no footwear person, as she wears no shoes or socks ever. It is a liberating feeling, i suppose next step will be everyone walking around naked!

I had read about this ages ago, thing is no-one seems to know the truth about this situation. Snopes has this story filed as "undetermined" , this is a good example of Email chain letter, how something like this can spread across the internet where people just accept it as true without actully bothering to verify it. Here is an official letter from WSPA in reply to snopes.com on the matter. A query to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) brought a response indicating that the circumstances surrounding the controversial art exhibit were unclear to them as well, and that since the artist would be presenting a different, unrelated exhibit at the upcoming Central American Biennial, the Costa Rican authorities have so far declined to disallow him from representing that country: Thank you for contacting the WSPA regarding the issue of this artist in Central America. The WSPA is well aware of this situation. It does appear that the facts have been misconstrued in some news articles, however. The artist is Costa Rican, and this one-time exhibit happened in a Nicaraguan art gallery last October. It involved one dog, and this dog was not replaced by another after it had died. While there is an animal cruelty law in Costa Rica, there is no such legislation in Nicaragua; so unfortunately the artist did not break the law by mistreating this dog. As far as we are aware, he is not planning on doing this exact same thing again, but the controversy now lies in the fact that he has been chosen to represent Costa Rica at the Central American Biennial, set to take place in Honduras this year, with an exhibit apparently not involving a dog this time. The news of the exhibit did not seem to get picked up by the Costa Rican press until about a month after it happened. Even then there was very little coverage and it was never made clear whether the dog actually died, how long it was there and why nobody did anything if it was suffering. Following this, people around the world began protesting against Vargas, and our Costa Rica office issued a statement in response to this act. A member society of ours in Honduras (AHPRA) also took action and wrote a statement which was sent to the appropriate authorities in Honduras. The WSPA Costa Rica office has also contacted the Ministry of Art and Culture, to urge them to consider disallowing Vargas from representing Costa Rica at the Central American Biennial. The response was that since Vargas was participating at the Biennial with a different exhibit, they could not ban him from attending. This issue is of concern to the WSPA, and it is unfortunate that this artist will be able to gain publicity through this second exhibition despite his previous display involving mistreatment of this dog. The WSPA is completely opposed to the use of animals for entertainment purposes. Despite this, it seems that there is little more that can be done to address this issue, and as we have very limited resources, we must direct them where we can most effectively promote animal welfare. We will, however, continue to monitor the situation in case further action can be taken at any time. Last updated: 14 April 2008

Here we see another step towards tightening the grip upon the population. Biofuels will have a long term impact on food production as biofuel crops are more profitable. It may not seem that drastic now, but in years to come we could have a problem. Just put it this way, if you are a farmer and you can see you can make twice the amount of profit from growing biofuels what are you going to grow? We shall end up with hardly any food production plunging the world into crisis. We could be witnessing the first links in a lengthy and numerous chain of events that bring about the Antichrist and one world governemnt. Anyway heres the article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7347142.stm All petrol and diesel which is sold at UK pumps now has to include at least 2.5% biofuels. These renewable fuels, made from crops such as sugar cane or maize, have been added to fuel sold around the country. This target will rise to 5% by 2010. The move is aimed at making transport fuels more environmentally friendly and will not change how cars work. But some scientists and green groups say biofuels contribute more greenhouse gases than they save. Negative effects The idea behind the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) is to reduce climate change emissions from transport - which produced more than a quarter of overall greenhouse gases in the UK - by using renewable fuels instead of fossil fuels. But some critics say the biofuels' carbon benefits may be outweighed by negative effects from their production. For example Oxfam said millions of indigenous people faced clearance from their land to make way for biofuel plantations such as palm oil. The aid agency is also concerned that the switch to energy crops from food production - including a large-scale drive in the US to produce bioethanol from maize - is contributing to rising food prices. Oxfam joined campaigners from Friends of the Earth and the RSPB for a protest outside Parliament on Monday aimed at urging the government not to go ahead with the new rules. 'Total disarray' But Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said gradually introducing biofuels could help save millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide in the next few years. "The UK has done more than any other country to make sure they are produced sustainably," he said. Mr Fitzpatrick said fuel suppliers would be required to report publicly on the sustainability of the biofuels they provide. "We will not increase biofuels targets beyond 5% unless we are satisfied this can be done without damaging the environmental impacts," he said. Shadow Environment Secretary Peter Ainsworth said the government's policy on biofuels was in "total disarray". "The government has embarked on a course which endangers food security, threatens poverty, damages natural habitats and could increase climate change emissions," he said. "It is utter madness that without proper sustainability criteria the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation threatens to destroy vast swaths of rainforest in the name of the environment." Friends of the Earth has demanded that greenhouse gases from transport, which account for about 28% of overall emissions, be tackled by investing in better public transport and mandatory emissions limits on cars. Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said biofuels would not help the environment. "The government is introducing these fuels because they think it's going to help cut climate change emissions from transport, but we believe they're a false solution," he said. "In many cases some of the biofuels which they're using won't cut carbon dioxide emissions and could indeed lead to more carbon dioxide emissions." A survey for Friends of the Earth suggested almost nine out of 10 people did not know that renewable fuels would be required in their vehicles.

I have to keep on reminding myslef that pants = trousers. Pants here in UK means somthing quite different and i keep on thinking of people in thier underwear, certainly if peopel just turned up in thier pants here then yes that would create quite a stir! To be honest this whole thing over women wearing trousers is just plain stupid hoo-ha. All this has come about because people have wrongly interpreted the following Duet 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. SO what exactly does this mean? It certainly does not mean women should not wear trousers. I doubt anyone in those days had even seen trousers let alone wore them. Through history men have mainly worn various forms and styles of trousers and shorts and it is generally considered a male item of clothing, but I see it more as a unisex form of clothing. What exactly is the problem with women wearing trousers, it certainly does not violate Duet :22.5 Deuteronomy is an instruction against cross dressing, to dress in a way that passes you off as someone of the opposite sex. We only have to look at the homosexual community to see this happening, women dressing like men and men as women in such a way that if you gave them a quick glance you would think that they are the gender the dressed up to look like. this is what the verse is about, not a petty legalistic argument over what technically is a womans item of clothing and what is a mans. Another point is modesty, how on earth is a woman wearing trousers being less modest than a skirt, which is prone to having men a sneaky peek to see how much thigh they can see etc. Satan is having a laugh at how he has managed to get a group of CHristians to miss understand a verse in Bible then get everyone to argue over it, a matter that is so obvious and trivial that we should not even be giving it a certain thought. Last thought , it is up to a church what they decide they want memebers to do and even wear, but they should not force this upon everyone else outside of the church. If my church started to bring in such rules and regulations then I would consider leaving.

These laws are foundation of the what is to come during the Tribulation. Genuine CHristians will be persecuted and hunted down using these laws. In the mean time we shall see more cases like this where laws are used for different things than they were intended to.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...nt-catfish.html In the swift currents of the Mekong River in northern Cambodia, fishers expertly navigate their longboats past rock outcroppings and fallen logs. But soon these wild waters may be tamed. Plans for the construction of a large hydroelectric dam just across the border, at Khone Falls in Laos, would permanently alter one of the most pristine areas in Southeast Asia. The dam is one of several being planned on the mostly untouched Mekong River, which meanders through six countries

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...ess-frog_2.html The first recorded species of frog that breathes without lungs has been found in a clear, cold-water stream on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. The frog, named Barbourula kalimantanensis, gets all its oxygen through its skin. "Nobody knew about the lunglessness before we accidentally discovered it doing routine dissections," study lead author David Bickford, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, said in an email. His colleague Djoko Iskandar at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia first described the frog in 1978 from one specimen. About 15 years later, fishermen found another individual. "Each specimen was deemed so valuable that scientists did not want to sacrifice the animals for dissection," Bickford said. But the biologist immediately partially dissected several frogs when he found the species on a recent expedition to Borneo. The team describes the peculiar frog in the May 6 issue of the journal Current Biology. (Read about other new species found in Borneo.) Evolutionary Oddity Previously the only four-limbed creatures known to lack lungs were salamanders. A species of earthwormlike, limbless amphibian called a caecilian is also lungless. Tetrapods, or four-limbed creatures, that develop without lungs are rare evolutionary events, Bickford and colleagues write. The trait in amphibians is likely an adaptation to life between water and land and their ability to respire through the skin. The researchers suggest lunglessness in B. kalimantanensis may be an adaptation to the higher oxygen content in fast-flowing, cold water. "Cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water," Bickford explained. The frog also has a low metabolic rate, which means it needs less oxygen. (Related news: "Penguins Safely Lower Oxygen to 'Blackout' Levels" [December 7, 2007].) What's more, the species is severely flat compared to other frogs, which increases the surface area of the skin. "Along with the fact that having lungs makes you more likely to be swept away in a fast-flowing stream

DANGERMOUSE move over. "Impulsive mice" have been engineered in the lab to lack a key protein associated with vulnerability to drug addiction in humans. Louis Matzel at Rutgers University in New Jersey has created mice that lack the protein Nr-CAM. Although it plays a general role in the growth of neurons and their connections, the mice without Nr-CAM showed normal motor skills and learning abilities. But they performed poorly in a task that required them to stay still to avoid danger. They were also more sensitive to pain and "less cautious" when venturing into new places, like the middle of an open field Matzel says defects in the production of Nr-CAM in humans could affect their susceptibility to drug addiction - a conclusion supported by earlier studies.