On Earth, thieves steal everything from diamonds to art to bags full of money. In space, gas - fuel for making stars - is a commodity worth the price of theft. New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a distant, massive galaxy in the act of ripping off vast reservoirs of gas - the equivalent of one billion suns - from its smaller, neighbor galaxy. The stolen gas, which has become scorching hot during the heist, will likely cool down and get turned into new stars and planets.
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| ©NASA/JPL-Caltech
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| A big galaxy is stealing gas right off the "back" of its smaller companion in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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Nine South African soldiers died and eleven were injured last Friday during a live-fire exercise when an anti-aircraft gun went out of control. But, contrary to some reports, the tragic accident was not the result of an automated or robotic weapon going out of control, a defence expert says.
Comment: Let us contrast some quotes from the
original story vs. the comments in the above damage control story.
Original: Young says in the 1990s the defence force's acquisitions agency, Armscor, allocated project money on a year-by-year basis, meaning programmes were often rushed. "It would not surprise me if major shortcuts were taken in the qualification of the upgrades. A system like that should never fail to the dangerous mode [rather to the safe mode], except if it was a shoddy design or a shoddy modification.Damage Control: "I think it is bad luck more than anything else, the shells move through the gun so fast you only have to be a fraction out for something to go wrong," O'Halloran says, adding that weapons are usually subject to rigorous tests to try and ensure that they rarely, if ever, malfunction.We find it curious that not only is our good expert lying, but even the lie is horrifying in its implications. Just what does he mean by "usually"? Do they flip a coin before deciding which weapons to test rigorously, and which are going to get the rushed, shoddy design?
As for these weapons rarely if ever malfunctioning, here's a
video of another one of those shoddy autonomous weapons apparently taking its aim at certain "VIP's" which may include members of Congress! They must've forgotten to warn Congress that there is coin-flippage afoot. A minor "intelligence failure" we suppose.
On the other hand, maybe these weapons are conspiring with
bands of wild monkeys to try to end the pathocracy as we certainly cannot fault either on their choice of targets. When our own weapons refuse to listen to us anymore and bands of wild monkeys take matters into their own hands one would think humanity would take notice?
A 7,000-year-old statue of a woman has been discovered by archaeologists in the Czech Republic.
A team of archaeologists working in the Czech Republic have uncovered a 7,000-year-old statue, dating back to an ancient prehistorical culture.
The half a metre high statue of a woman has been reported in the Czech press as an exceptional find and was created in a style known as Moravian Painted Ceramic.
Height may point to a biological basis for pedophilia, according to new research released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The study found that pedophilic males were shorter on average than males without a sexual attraction to children.
The study, published in Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, suggests that pedophiles may have been exposed to pre-birth conditions that affected their physical development. The researchers observed this height difference by analyzing the files of over 1,000 men who were assessed for pedophilia or other sexual disorders between 1995 and 2006 at the Kurt Freund Laboratory in Toronto, Canada.
China's preparations to launch its first lunar orbiter are on schedule for lift-off later this week, a Chinese official said on Monday, as the country steps up efforts in a new international race for the moon.
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| ©REUTERS/China Daily
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| The Long March 3A rocket and a lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One, which are under wraps, sits on the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in southwest China's Sichuan province, October 20, 2007.
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Marcel Michelson
ReutersMon, 22 Oct 2007 13:51 UTC
Oil is getting scarce and the internal combustion engine adds to pollution, therefore the car of the not too distant future needs a new motor. But what?
Delegates at the Nikkei automotive conference here, in the week of the Tokyo Autoshow, reviewed the industry's sputtering progress towards new power systems in the knowledge that if they do not come up with a solution the sector may come to a halt.
Tim Shipman
TelegraphSun, 21 Oct 2007 13:59 UTC
Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature - unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina.
The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather.
Caroline Williams, Ted Nield
New ScientistSun, 21 Oct 2007 09:11 UTC
IT'S the year 250,000,000 and Earth is alive and well. Humans have long since perished, but the planet is still home to a bewildering array of life forms. Yet apart from a few mysterious fossils there is no trace that we ever existed.
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| ©New Scientist
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A century after the first electric washing machines promised to take the work out of laundry, it doesn't seem like today's multi-cycle magicians are saving us much time.
Sure we don't have to boil the water and lug it by hand over to big metal tubs. Nor do we have to strain our arms running sopping wet clothes through a wringer thanks the advent of the spin cycle.
But, somehow, the pile of washing has managed to grow ever larger with every seemingly time-saving advance.
According to
Next Energy News, work funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory may produce batteries capable of fueling an electrical device, like a laptop, for about 30 years.
The breakthrough
betavoltaic power cells are an alternative energy technology, similar to that of a solar panel, which converts photons (light) into electric current. The betavoltaic batteries are constructed from semiconductors that use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays, it emits beta particles that transform into usable electric power.
Comment: Let us contrast some quotes from the original story vs. the comments in the above damage control story.
Original: Young says in the 1990s the defence force's acquisitions agency, Armscor, allocated project money on a year-by-year basis, meaning programmes were often rushed. "It would not surprise me if major shortcuts were taken in the qualification of the upgrades. A system like that should never fail to the dangerous mode [rather to the safe mode], except if it was a shoddy design or a shoddy modification.
Damage Control: "I think it is bad luck more than anything else, the shells move through the gun so fast you only have to be a fraction out for something to go wrong," O'Halloran says, adding that weapons are usually subject to rigorous tests to try and ensure that they rarely, if ever, malfunction.
We find it curious that not only is our good expert lying, but even the lie is horrifying in its implications. Just what does he mean by "usually"? Do they flip a coin before deciding which weapons to test rigorously, and which are going to get the rushed, shoddy design?
As for these weapons rarely if ever malfunctioning, here's a video of another one of those shoddy autonomous weapons apparently taking its aim at certain "VIP's" which may include members of Congress! They must've forgotten to warn Congress that there is coin-flippage afoot. A minor "intelligence failure" we suppose.
On the other hand, maybe these weapons are conspiring with bands of wild monkeys to try to end the pathocracy as we certainly cannot fault either on their choice of targets. When our own weapons refuse to listen to us anymore and bands of wild monkeys take matters into their own hands one would think humanity would take notice?