Archive
UK Police Join Nationwide Strike
Friday, 11 May 2012 07:07
‘More than 30,000 off-duty police officers in London have joined a massive nationwide strike staged by British public sector workers against the government’s changes to pays and pensions.
Trade unions in Britain have said over 400,000 people took part in the 24-hour UK-wide strike on Thursday 10 May. Furthermore, London’s Metropolitan Police said around 32,000 off-duty police officers joined the striking public servants marching through London. Unions are angry with the government’s pension changes saying that public sector workers are being “robbed” as they will have to pay more and work longer for lower pensions.’
Nevada Issues a Driver’s License to Google’s Self-Driving Car
By Paul Adams 05.08.2012 at http://www.popsci.com/
Fukushima Reactor No. 4 Vulnerable to Catastrophic Collapse; Could Unleash 85 Times Cesium-137 Radiation of Chernobyl; Human Civilization on the Brink
Monday, 07 May 2012 08:05
‘The news you are about to read puts everything else in the category of “insignificant” by comparison. Concerned about the 2012 U.S. presidential election? Worried about GMOs? Fluoride? Vaccines? Secret prisons? None of that even matters if we don’t solve the problem of Fukushima reactor No. 4, which is on the verge of a catastrophic failure that could unleash enough radiation to end human civilization on our planet. (See the numbers below.)
The resulting releasing of radiation would turn North America into a “dead zone” for humans… mutated (and failed) crops, radioactive groundwater, skyrocketing infant mortality, an explosion in cancer and infertility… this is what could be unleashed at any moment from an earthquake in Japan. Such an event could result in the release of 85 times the Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl catastrophe, say experts (see below). And the Chernobyl catastrophe made its surrounding regions uninhabitable by humans for centuries.’
Venus to Appear in Once-In-A-Lifetime Event
ScienceDaily (May 1, 2012)
On 5 and 6 June this year, millions of people around the world will be able to see Venus pass across the face of the Sun in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
It will take Venus about six hours to complete its transit, appearing as a small black dot on the Sun’s surface, in an event that will not happen again until 2117.
In this month’s Physics World, Jay M Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College, Massachusetts, explores the science behind Venus’s transit and gives an account of its fascinating history.
Read full story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120501085556.htm
Fukushima Still Spewing Massive Radiation Plumes; America in ‘Huge Trouble,’ Says Nuclear Expert
Tuesday, 01 May 2012 12:08
‘During a recent Congressional delegation trip to Japan, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden witnessed with his own eyes the horrific aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which we have heard very little about from the media in recent months. The damage situation was apparently so severe, according to his account, that he has now written a letter to Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador of Japan, petitioning for more to be done, and offering any additional support and assistance that might help contain and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
The letter, which many experts see as the ominous writing on the wall for the grave severity of the circumstances, offers a disturbing glimpse into what is really going on across the Pacific Ocean that the mainstream media is apparently ignoring. While referencing the fact that all four of the affected reactors are still “badly damaged,” Sen. Wyden seems to hint in his letter that Reactor 4, which has reportedly been on the verge of collapse for many months now, could be nearing catastrophic implosion.’
http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/
NASA Invests In Satellites That Beam Power Down to Earth
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 04.11.2012 at 4:05 pm
As spaceborne energy-harvesting schemes go, this one seems faintly possible — an array of curved mirrors directing sunlight toward solar cells, their energy production microwaved down to Earth. It’s so realistic, actually, that NASA is providing funding for a proof-of-concept study.
A former NASA engineer named John Mankins, now with a company called Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, detailed his plans at a NASA innovation conference recently. The concept is called called Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array (SPS-ALPHA), and it would harvest solar energy from a perch in high Earth orbit.
It would consist of a modular array of movable thin-film mirrors, which could be taken into space using current cargo ships and assembled piece by piece. This would be less expensive than building a gigantic array and launching it. These curved mirrors would redirect sunlight toward an internal collection of photovoltaic panels, and the solar energy would be converted into microwaves. Then the Earth-facing portion, or the bottom of the margarita glass in the image at top, would transmit low-frequency, low-intensity waves toward Earth. At the receiving end, power plants would convert the microwave energy into electricity, adding it to the power grid.
It’s not as comprehensive — nor potentially destructive — as building a Dyson sphere around the Earth, but it’s sort of along the same lines, building a space-based system that can harness solar radiation and somehow beam it back to the planet. Mankins’ design is inspired by nature, according to an account of his presentation over at Space.com. It does sort of look like a flower.
His project, first announced last fall, is part of NASA’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts project, under the Office of the Chief Technologist. A one-year study is ongoing.
[via PhysOrg]
NASA’s Building of the Future: a Model for Tomorrow’s Moonbases
by:Charlie Jane Anders at http://io9.com/5904872/nasas-building-of-the-future-a-model-for-tomorrows-moonbases?tag=space
Check out this gorgeous cutting-edge building, which NASA just opened in Moffett Field, CA and won the coveted Platinum LEED certification.
Ames Research Center director Pete Worden described the Sustainability Center as “the first Moon building on the planet Earth,” because of all the insane technology that’s been deployed here. A water recycling system, similar to what’s on the Space Station, will cut water use by 90 percent. The building uses geothermal wells for heating and cooling, and opening and closing windows to adapt to changing weather conditions. And solar panels and fuel cells power the building and other buildings at Ames. [Mountain View Voice]
Lincolnshire UK – Say Hello To Your Corporate Police
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 09:33
‘Police staff throughout the county of Lincolnshire are now proudly wearing the logo of their corporate bosses, as Government cutbacks force the privatization of the nation’s peacekeepers.
G4S, a controversial multi-national security corporation has now virtually taken over all civilian positions in the region, including front counter staff at police stations, control room operators, custodians at local holding cells, and even inquiry officers.
In total 550 employees who previously worked for Lincolnshire Police Authority are now considered private sector workers, essentially accountable only to company policy, with 200 or so already sporting the G4S stamp.’
Read more: Lincolnshire UK – Say Hello To Your Corporate Police
GPS Satellites Could Improve Tsunami Advance Warning Time Tenfold
By Clay Dillow Posted 04.23.2012 at 5:20 pm
When the Tohoku earthquake struck Japan in March of last year, seismometer data allowed authorities to issue earthquake earnings within eight seconds of first realizing something was seismologically amiss. But their initial readings were not fully accurate, labeling the ‘quake a magnitude 7.1. It took authorities another 20 minutes to revise the magnitude to its real value of 9. Just ten minutes later, the tsunami hit.
Researchers at NASA and a group of universities think they can issue more accurate readings faster using global positioning data, thus allowing officials to more accurately assess risks and issue better-informed warnings up to ten times faster.
Super Secret Hypersonic Aircraft Flew Out of Its Skin
Tuesday, 24 April 2012 06:21
‘It turns out that tearing through the atmosphere at 20 times the speed of sound is bad for the skin, even if you’re a super high-tech aircraft developed by the government’s best engineers at its far-out research agency.
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, has made public its best guess about what might have caused its unmanned arrowhead-shaped Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) to suddenly lose contact and crash in the Pacific just a few minutes after slicing through the sky at Mach 20 last August: it was going so fast its skin peeled off.’
Read more: Super Secret Hypersonic Aircraft Flew Out of Its Skin
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