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Ancient Fossils Hold Clues for Predicting Future Climate Change, Scientists Report

By Guest PostApril 18, 2011Environmentadam csank, ancient climate record, ancient fossils, Antarctica, aradhna tripati, arctic circle, arctic temperatures, beaver pond, canada, carbon dioxide, climate modeling, coal mine, early pliocene epoch, ellesmere island, Environment, fossilized mollusks, geochemical techniques, geosciences, global climate change, greenland, mollusk shells, natalia rybczynski, polar ice cap, strathcona fiord

By studying fossilized mollusks from some 3.5 million years ago, UCLA geoscientists and colleagues have been able to construct an ancient climate record that holds clues about the long-term effects of Earth’s current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change.

Two novel geochemical techniques used to determine the temperature at which the mollusk shells were formed suggest that summertime Arctic temperatures during the early Pliocene epoch (3.5 million to 4 million years ago) may have been a staggering 18 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today. And these ancient fossils, harvested from deep within the Arctic Circle, may have once lived in an environment in which the polar ice cap melted completely during the summer months. (more…)

Highest Percentage of Americans in Four Decades Say Financial Situation Has Gotten Worse

By Guest PostApril 17, 2011Economyamericans, biennial survey, economic assessments, financial situation, general social survey, happiness, norc, policy makers, tom smith, university of chicago, well being of americans

*General Social Survey Also Shows That Happiness Takes A Hit Because of Personal Finances*

Chicago — A recently released report of the General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, shows that for the first time since 1972, more Americans say that their financial situation has gotten worse in recent years rather than better. Understandably, also for the first time since 1972, the percentage of Americans saying that they are “not at all” satisfied with their financial situation (31.5%) notably exceeds those saying they are “pretty well” satisfied (23.4%). (more…)

Ceramic Coatings May Protect Jet Engines From Volcanic Ash

By Guest PostApril 17, 2011Scienceaircraft engines, ceramic coatings, jet engines, sand resistant coatings, silicate ash, thermal barrier coating, volcanic ash

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Last year’s $2 billion shutdown of European airspace following a volcanic eruption in Iceland alerted everyone to the danger that ash clouds can pose to aircraft engines. (more…)

WISE Delivers Millions of Galaxies, Stars, Asteroids

By Guest PostApril 17, 2011Scienceastronomers, blue star, celestial objects, colorful images of the cosmos, earth, edward wright, entire sky, fengchuan liu, galaxies, infrared wavelengths, nasa. wide field infrared survey explorer, polar orbit, roc cutri, solar system, star forming complexes, universe, wise, zeta ophiuchi

Astronomers across the globe can now sift through hundreds of millions of galaxies, stars and asteroids collected in the first bundle of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

“Starting today thousands of new eyes will be looking at WISE data, and I expect many surprises,” said Edward (Ned) Wright of UCLA, the mission’s principal investigator. (more…)

Crime And The Rise of Modern America

By Guest PostApril 16, 2011Politicsamerican criminal history, american criminals, criminal figures, gangster ifestyle, modern america, syndicated criminals

Nowhere celebrates its criminals like America. In books and on film, in fact and in fiction criminals sell.

The way people break the law has shaped American national identity just as clearly as any war according to research by University of Exeter historian, Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt. (more…)

Crossing the Line: What Constitutes Torture?

By Guest PostApril 16, 2011Generalbush administration’s, interrogation techniques, loewenstein, psychological science, psychologically untenable, rarified situation, room-temperature water, torture, waterboarding

Torture. The United Nations defines it as the “infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” But how severe is severe? That judgment determines whether or not the law classifies an interrogation practice as torture.

Now, a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, condemns this method of classification as essentially flawed. The reason: The people estimating the severity of pain aren’t experiencing that pain—so they underestimate it.

As a result, many acts of torture are not classified—or prohibited—as torture, say authors, Loran F. Nordgren of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Mary-Hunter Morris of Harvard Law School, and George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University. (more…)

Search for Dark Matter Narrowed by New Data From XENON100

By Guest PostApril 16, 2011Sciencedark matter, dark matter experiment, detector, ordinary matter

Collaboration reveals results from 100-day experiment

Today, scientists from the XENON collaboration announced the result from their search for the elusive component of our universe known as dark matter. After analyzing one hundred days of data taken with the XENON100 experiment, they see no evidence for the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the leading candidates for the mysterious dark matter. The XENON100 experiment is operated deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the Italian National Institute for Physics (INFN). (more…)

Fable Creator Blames Success on Baked Beans, Happy Accidents

By Guest PostApril 15, 20111 commentTechnologyfable creator, fable game, microsoft game studios, peter molyneux

Peter Molyneux, creator of the popular “Fable” games series and head of Microsoft Game Studios in Europe, recalls the highs and lows of a 22-year career in video games – a career that was just honored by two lifetime achievement awards.

GUILDFORD, U.K. — April 15, 2011 – Peter Molyneux, one of the video game industry’s most celebrated designers and the creative force behind hits such as “Fable,” “Populous” and “Dungeon Keeper,” credits much of his 22-year career to a happy accident involving baked beans. (more…)

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