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Pharoah

Secret writing in mummy cases is revealed by new scan technique

Pallab Ghosh
BBC News
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
mummy face
© BBC News
Light of different frequencies can bring out writing that is obscured by the paste and plaster that holds mummy cases together.
Researchers in London have developed scanning techniques that show what is written on the papyrus that mummy cases are made from.

These are the decorated boxes into which the wrapped body of the deceased was placed before it was put in a tomb. They are made from scraps of papyrus which were used by ancient Egyptians for shopping lists or tax returns.

The technology is giving historians a new insight into everyday life in ancient Egypt.

The hieroglyphics found on the walls of the tombs of the Pharaohs show how the rich and powerful wanted to be portrayed. It was the propaganda of its time.
Mummy writing
© BBC News
Writing on the footplate reveals the mummy's name: Irethorru - translated means "the Eye of Horus is against my enemies".
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Info

New study traces electric currents that flow along Earth's magnetic field

Sarah Witman
EOS Org
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 14:01 UTC
Earth’s magnetic field lines
© ESA/ATG Medialab
An illustration of Earth’s magnetic field lines, which are generated by the planet’s swirling liquid outer core and curve as they get buffeted by the solar wind.
The fact that planet Earth is essentially a giant magnet is not a great secret: A compass works because either end of its magnetized needle is constantly being drawn toward the North and South poles. Scientists believe that the Earth's magnetization is caused by a sea of liquid metal flowing past its solid iron core, creating electric currents and, in turn, magnetic fields.

The Earth's magnetic fields extend to the ionosphere-a layer of plasma and neutral gases about 50-500 kilometers above Earth's surface-and the magnetosphere, which starts at the outer edges of the ionosphere and stretches many thousands of miles into space. Magnetic fields from Earth and the Sun affect the behavior of charged particles in the magnetosphere.

Earth's magnetic field is highly conductive and carries charged particles in a predictable fashion along field lines (giving rise to aptly titled field-aligned currents). Starting in the early 1900s, scientists conceptualized an exchange of energy and momentum between the solar wind (a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun that flows throughout the solar system) and our planet's own magnetic field.
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Laptop

China sets it's sights to become world's leading cyber power by 2035


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:46 UTC
Oriental Science Fiction Valley
© Joseph Campbell / Reuters
A view of the Oriental Science Fiction Valley theme park at sunset, in Guiyang, Guizhou province, China
The world's second-largest economy, China, is poised for breakthroughs in cyberspace, says the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Beijing wants to be in the forefront of the booming digital economy.

"China will endeavor to basically build itself into a strong cyber power by 2035 to join the world's top rank in cyberspace," said the minister Miao Wei.

Among its new projects, China is planning to build a 13.8 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) artificial intelligence (AI) development park in the Mentougou district of Beijing, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Spanning a total of 54.87 hectares, the park will be home to around 400 businesses focused on high-speed data, cloud computing, biometrics and so-called deep learning - an advanced learning technique of AI.
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Binoculars

Breakthrough genetic treatment for rare form of blindness will cost $850,000, if it works

Michelle Cortez
Bloomberg
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:44 UTC
Luxturna
© Spark Therapeutics
Spark Therapeutics’ Luxturna
A transformative genetic treatment for a rare, inherited form of blindness will come with a price tag of of $425,000 per eye, or $850,000 for both, said Spark Therapeutics Inc., the tiny biotechnology company that is bringing the therapy to market.

Since Spark's Luxturna was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, speculation over the price has grown as it became clear the therapy would be one of the first in a wave of medicines that yield remarkable results after a single treatment -- and would carry a commensurate cost.

In a novel arrangement, Spark will offer discounts based on whether or not the drug works initially and remains effective for the estimated 1,000 to 2,000 patients in the U.S. with a type of inherited retinal disease caused by a mutant gene.
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Rocket

SpaceX to launch top secret Zuma satellite for US government


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 13:51 UTC
SpaceX
© SpaceX / Facebook
SpaceX is getting ready to launch a top secret government satellite this week, but details of the mission are shrouded in mystery, as no particular government agency has yet been named as being in control of the Zuma project.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Zuma satellite between 8pm and 10pm EDT Friday, January 5 from Pad 39A at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is still unclear what the government-owned satellite will do after it is blasted into space, but its destination will be somewhere in low-Earth orbit, according to a US Air Force execution forecast.

The Falcon 9 belongs to a family of two-stage-to-orbit medium lift launch vehicles created by SpaceX.
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Network

Social media: Can we take back power from the tech giants and their government overlords?

Max Hastings
Daily Mail
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
facebook cia darpa fbi
Almost 70 years ago, George Orwell wrote a nightmare into our language when, in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, he imagined a future in which 'Big Brother' scrutinises an enslaved society with an all-seeing eye.

More recently, civil libertarians have warned ubiquitous CCTV and Government surveillance, born out of the fight against terrorism, have begun to fulfil Orwell's prophesy.

Yet both the fictional fantasies and daily realities pale into insignificance alongside the threat posed by social media.

Comment: Social media is a tool which in the hands of the people and free from censorship can be an extremely valuable tool, however there are many signs that it is being coopted for the nefarious agendas of the corrupt western governments:

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Cloud Precipitation

Earth's thermostat discovered in rocks: Regulates planet and helps recover from ice ages

Craig T Lee
Study Finds
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 09:49 UTC
Earth constructed from NASA’s Terra satellite
© NASA/Goddard
An image of the Earth constructed from NASA’s Terra satellite.
The possibility of controlling the Earth's temperature has long led to various experiments by inquisitive scientists, but without great results. Now a recent study found proof for the first time ever of a natural thermostat that helps regulate the planet during extreme temperature swings.

British scientists say they've discovered that the preeminent mechanism that allows the Earth to recover from global cooling events is linked to the weathering of rocks. Rocks dissolve by rain and river water during the weathering process, and carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere to carbon-rich rocks in nearby waterways. When weathering runs its course, there's a decrease in carbon dioxide on our planet.
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Moon

First total lunar eclipse on January 31st

JR
Sky & Telescope
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:07 UTC
On Wednesday, January 31, 2018, the first total lunar eclipse in more than two years graces the skies above North America. But unlike the previous one, this eclipse is positioned perfectly for the West Coast and Pacific Rim, while the East Coast and the Atlantic Regions will see little, if any, of the show.
Total Lunar Eclipse
© Sean Walker
This sequence taken during the last total lunar eclipse on September 28, 2015, was captured in seven separate exposures with a Canon Rebel XSi DSLR and an 8-inch f/3.3 Newtonian reflector.
The eclipse occurs in the morning for western North America and the near Pacific. For the East Coast, the Moon sets before totality arrives, so the best you'll see from, say, Pittsburgh, is a partial eclipse. Viewers in the western contiguous United States (roughly west of a line drawn from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to El Paso, Texas) will have good views of most of the action, with the Moon setting at the end of or soon after totality. The farther west/northwest the viewer, the better the event. Los Angeles sees the end of totality in a brightening sky; the Moon sets before the second partial stage is complete. More northwesterly Seattle sees almost the entire eclipse, missing only the subtle end stage. Honolulu and Anchorage see every stage in an enjoyably dark sky. Alaska, Yukon, most of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, parts of Nunavut, and Hawai'i see the eclipse from start to finish.

Totality falls on the evening of January 31st for eastern Asia and the far Pacific. China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Russia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and most of Indonesia and Australia will see the eclipse in its entirety. (Perth, you miss the opening minutes of the event, but this is no big deal as the subtle shadow in the early stages of a total eclipse isn't visible to the naked eye.)
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Snowflake Cold

Study predicts next phase of solar cycle will bring on 'Mini Ice Age' as early as 2020

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 18:29 UTC
ice covered car ice age
A team of astrophysicists has conducted a years-long study showing that in only a few years, Earth may experience a mini ice age that would drastically change how we live.

A bombshell study, led by professor Valentina Zharkova of Northumbria University, suggests that in the next few years Earth will enter into a cooling phase that will set off a series of events leading to a mini ice age.

Researchers came to the somewhat alarming conclusions by creating a mathematical model of the sun's magnetic fields.

According to the models, there will be a "huge reduction" in solar activity for 33 years between 2020 and 2053. This will cause global temperatures to decrease-drastically.

The temperatures will plummet to levels not seen since the 17th century.

Comment: More from Valentina Zharkova's work:

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Fish

Research indicates multiple causes for whale strandings

Bec Crew
Cosmos Magazine
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 18:02 UTC
Stranded Whale Rescue
© Tony Ashby/Stringer/Getty Images
A whale rescue effort in Perth, Western Australia, in 2009. Research suggests multiple causes behind strandings.
In June 2015, 337 dead whales were found in a fjord in Chilean Patagonia. It was quickly declared one of the largest whale stranding events known to science.

Researchers suggested a recent explosion of toxic red algae could be behind the mysterious phenomenon, but they couldn't say for sure.

The following year, more than 80 short-finned pilot whales beached themselves on the coast of the Bay of Bengal in India, seemingly unable to navigate away from the shoreline.

When rescuers managed to move 36 of them back to sea, they appeared disoriented, and struggled to rejoin their pod. Some even found their way back to the beach and stranded themselves once more.

And in February 2017, in what has become one of the biggest mass stranding events in New Zealand history, 416 pilot whales beached themselves on the South Island's Farewell Spit beach, followed by roughly 240 more that ran aground between the settlements of Puponga and Pakawau. This time, many of them were refloated.

Potential explanations abound, including solar storms, military sonar, and even the Moon's gravitational pull, but what's become increasingly clear each time is that no one really knows what's going on.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing, according to Mark Hindell, professor of marine science at the University of Tasmania in Australia.
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