Original Page: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/FYQf7pleki4/11-splendid-sand-sculp...
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Dwight A. Hunt, Sr., A+, MCP
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MHealthy, Health & Well Being Svc.
University of Michigan Health Systems
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Caffeine. Like so many other wonderful compounds that provide a lift, buzz, high or other pleasant side effect, caffeine under certain circumstances is toxic. It's most certainly poisonous to humans in high amounts, but even small amounts of caffeine in a watershed can kill off native bacteria populations and can stunt the germination and growth of many plants--which is unfortunate, because caffeine is frequently found in the water around cities. It's also used to produce certain kinds of asthma medication, and that excess frequently makes its way into wastewater. Of course, nature has already come up with a solution to the problem in the form of Pseudomonas putida CBB5, a bacterial species that lives on caffeine. That's great, but scientists were eager to develop a more manageable system to remove caffeine from wastewater, so they harvested the genes that coded for the caffeine-metabolizing proteins in P. putida and put them into a much more amenable creature: Escherichia coli.
The group of researchers, who hail from University of Texas at Austin and University of Iowa, Iowa City, engineered the E. coli bacteria to not only metabolize caffeine, they created a bacterial strain that can't live without it. (I know the feeling.) Due to a quirk in its metabolism, the bacteria cannot synthesize DNA or RNA without caffeine, providing a useful "kill switch" for when decaffeination is complete. To test their bacterias' abilities to metabolize caffeine and their relative addictedness to the compound, the researchers then grew the transfected E. coli on a variety of growth media containing caffeinated beverages, including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Starbucks Espresso, Monster and Red Bull (brave, brave E. coli). They also used caffeine-free Coca Cola in the growth media, and found that the bacteria simply could not survive without a jolt of joe. Most interestingly, the researchers found that they could back-calculate the amount of caffeine in a given sample by measuring how well the bacterial cells grew in that medium, making the bacteria a useful biomonitor as well as clean-up crew.
Is it wrong that what I really want to do with this bacterial strain is play an awful practical joke on my caffeine-addicted colleagues? A bit of this strain in the morning coffee pot (provided someone can make the bacteria heat-tolerant with a nice extremophile gene) and then sit back and watch as sleep takes over.
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Original Page: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/p0gIzkXQRdI/how-to-make-windows-8-look-and-feel-like-windows-7
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Heckler & Koch manufacture a non-lethal paintball shooting version of their H&K P30 pistol for law enforcement training. The P30 CM fires 11.4mm caliber paintballs filled with food dye. Like gas powered airsoft pistols, the magazine holds the paintballs and the propellent. The propellent interestingly enough is compressed air, not C02 or propane, allowing H&K to market this as having zero CO2 emissions (yes, it says this on the card in the photo below).
Many thanks to Dom for the photo.
Original Page: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/?p=41901
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Dwight A. Hunt, Sr., A+, MCP
Desktop Support Specialist - Lead
MHealthy, Health & Well Being Svc.
University of Michigan Health Systems
3003 S. State Street, Suite 2060
Ann Arbor MI 48104
Phone: (734) 647-5758
Fax: (734) 764-0292
Cell: (734) 545-5189
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Original Page: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57576813-1/fbi-famous-ufo-memo-is-our-most-popular-file/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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"Is this conversation unencrypted?" is going to be the new "Are you wearing a wire?"
Noting that communication technology has changed faster than the law, FBI general counsel Andrew Weissman said recently that the bureau wants to be able to monitor online chats as they happen.
Right now, the FBI can obtain electronic communications after the fact, but if they could snoop on people discussing illegal activity in a chat, they could catch criminals in the act.
A problem for the FBI is that most savvy criminals know to not discuss business over landline phones and other platforms that make it easy to get caught. Instead, like plenty of normal and totally not-criminal conversations, conversation has moved to online chats, text messaging, and cellphones. And the law hasn't kept up.
Wiretap law is still largely stuck in the early 1990s. The 1994 "Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act" was written with some knowledge of the internet, but this was well before Skype, widespread email, cloud computing, and gchat.
To catch up to all that technology, the FBI is working with other members of the intelligence community to propose new legal snooping rules by the end of the year, Weissman said at the National Press Club in Washington last week. Weissman mentioned not just the ability to watch Gchat in real-time, but also the chat function in online games like Scrabble, as well as online voice chat programs like Skype and cloud storage services like DropBox (a noted favorite of former CIA spymaster David Petraeus.)
It's a broad goal, and it's likely criminals will adapt faster than the FBI can catch them. Such is the history of crime. In the late 1980s, pagers and payphones revolutionized the drug trade, with the combination of anonymity, on-demand delivery, and an absence of recorded-transaction information. Police eventually caught on. Criminals moved on, using pre-paid and disposable "burner" cell phones for everything from drug sales to bomb detonators, until the law finally caught up to that, too.
The FBI's latest call for great legal power to spy on online chats as the happen is just a sign of the perpetual cat-and-mouse between police enforcing the law and criminals trying to dodge it. The next likely move for criminals (and other, totally legal private citizens uncomfortable with the idea of warrant-free chat monitoring): casual cryptography. Protocols for off-the-record chats already exist, and will ensure that conversations remain only between known parties, without someone else eavesdropping. What's this mean? Expect me in five years to be writing about how the FBI wants a legal backdoor around encrypted conversations. Oh, wait.
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If you saw the MAPi Soli iPad mini case that Cam reviewed a week or two back and took interest in its cases, then here is a chance for you to get one for your iPhone 5. MAPi has announced a few new iPhone 5 case lines that also come with a new price tag. These new cases, which are dubbed "budget friendly", include the Poros Caller ID pouch, the Altos Flip...
Original Page: http://www.todaysiphone.com/2013/03/mapi-cases-launches-new-iphone-5-cases-with-some-new-prices/
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So, here are the rules: To answer, follow us on Twitter and tweet at us with the hashtag #mysteryanimal. For example:
Hey @PopSci, is the #mysteryanimal a turkey?
And then I might say "if you think that's a turkey, perhaps you are the turkey!" But probably not, because this is a positive environment and all guesses are welcome and also this is not a very common animal so guess whatever you want!
The first person to get it right wins! We'll retweet the answer from @PopSci, and also update this post so your amazing animal knowledge will be permanently etched onto the internet. Show your kids! Your dumb kids who thought that was a baboon!
Update: And the winner is...Seth Rosenthal, who correctly and in all capital letters guessed that this is an indri! The indri is a very large lemur, one of the largest in the world, in fact. It's native to Madagascar, like all lemurs, and is closely related to the sifakas.
The indri, like the sifakas, stands vertically when grasping and leaping through the trees, where it spends all of its time. Its long, powerful legs are rarely fully extended except when leaping, but when they are, the indri can be nearly four feet tall. Its behavior is curious; it has many traits in common with humans, for example. It practices long-term monogamy and has very close nuclear familial ties. The young mature slowly, and stay with their parents for as many as 9 years--an extremely long time, in the animal kingdom. It's also known for its detailed songs, which have specific movements, and can signify anything from "that's a loud noise" to arranging territory with other families or noting when members of its own family are sexually active. (This is slightly different from humans--few human fathers are known to yell "MY YOUNG DAUGHTER IS SEXUALLY ACTIVE" at passersby.)
It also demonstrates what some call, and what biologists are very reluctant to call, "sun worship." It's really more like basking or tanning; it will sit and face the sun in a meditative position for hours.
As a result of its semi-human-like behaviors, the indri has a very special relationship with the Malagasy people, the natives of Madagascar. It's protected by fady, or taboo--it cannot be harmed or eaten. There are many different legends, but they mostly all come back to the idea that the indri is sacred because it was at one point related to humans--that a human turned into an indri, or that two brothers quarreled and one became the first human and the other became the first indri, or that a father lost his son (or vice versa) and became an indri.
But colonialism and modernity have diminished the power of the fady, and the indri is endangered today, due to habitat destruction and some hunting. The indri has proved nearly impossible to breed in captivity, making its survival all the more difficult in Madagascar.
GIF pulled from this BBC video.
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Will the word Sasquatch be verboten around these here parts now... Tune in and find out...Original Page: http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/sasquatch-is-a-dirty-word/
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Original Page: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/DUc_XxWJGc8/your-old-hard-drives-are-diy-cotton-candy-machines-just-waiting-to-happen
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San Antonio - Heading back to the skeet fields at the NSSA-NSCA National Shooting Complex, hundreds of collegiate shotgun shooters participated in today's American Skeet Championships.
Originating as a way to practice wing-shooting skills for bird hunting, skeet quickly grew into its own competitive sport. Practically the same as International Skeet (shot on Thursday), American Skeet is a little easier and tends to see higher scores.
Shooters still compete on a half-circle field with eight stations; seven along the curve and one in the center of the straightedge. The squad of shooters stays together, taking turns at a station before advancing to the next.
At each corner of the semicircle is a house that launches clay pigeons from varying heights; the high house at ten feet and the low house at three. Despite the differences in houses, both throw their targets to the same height and distance.
As the shooters progress through the stations, they will face different combinations of either one house throwing a target, or both houses throwing targets simultaneously. Clays must be broken before they reach the ground in order to be registered as a hit.
Shooters will need to adjust their lead on the target - aiming ahead of a moving target to account for the speed and angle it's traveling - from station to station, creating the challenge of attaining a high score.
And you're only allowed one shot at the target, so if you miss, that's it.
Unlike the International version, there are no finals for American Skeet. There is, however, a pseudo-finals when ties are involved.
For instance, there are five men currently tied with scores of a perfect 100. They (and anyone else who shoots a 100) will need to engage in a sudden-death tiebreaker after everyone has finished their regular rounds of skeet.
In a way it can be more exciting than a final but, conversely, it isn't always guaranteed to happen. As is the case with the women, where a sole shooter is leading with a 99.
<img style="border: 1px solid #000000" src="http://www.nrablog.com/image.axd?picture=2013%2f3%2f2013_acui_american_skeet_bethel.jpg" alt="Bethel University shooters at the ACUI Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, Texas" title="Bethel University shooters at the ACUI Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, Texas/></p> <p> And, as usual, Lindenwood is leading the American Skeet team race with Lindenwood #1's 490 out of 500 holding three points on the Texas A&M team. </p> <p> Today is far from over through, as there are more events left, not to mention gun raffles, later tonight. </p>
Original Page: http://www.nrablog.com/post.aspx?id=d805ea6e-cbcc-4215-a9a6-190b2cb86883
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Original Page: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoologists/a-snake-headed-dog/
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Original Page: http://www.cryptomundo.com/folklore/man-eating-river-monsters/
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Dwight A. Hunt, Sr., A+, MCP
Desktop Support Specialist - Lead
MHealthy, Health & Well Being Svc.
University of Michigan Health Systems
3003 S. State Street, Suite 2060
Ann Arbor MI 48104
Phone: (734) 647-5758
Fax: (734) 764-0292
Cell: (734) 545-5189
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Original Page: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4FgsUxxrqYQ/fighter-jet-lamp-carpe...
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Dwight A. Hunt, Sr., A+, MCP
Desktop Support Specialist - Lead
MHealthy, Health & Well Being Svc.
University of Michigan Health Systems
3003 S. State Street, Suite 2060
Ann Arbor MI 48104
Phone: (734) 647-5758
Fax: (734) 764-0292
Cell: (734) 545-5189
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In 2011, a series of earthquakes hit central Oklahoma, destroying six houses, damaging an additional 14, and bringing down a turret at the 700-student St. Gregory's University. Among the series was the largest earthquake ever recorded in the state of Oklahoma. And, some scientists say, the quakes may have included the largest earthquake ever triggered by the injection of wastewater from oil and gas drilling deep inside the Earth.
A team of U.S. geologists has published a paper in Geology that argues that wastewater injection triggered the magnitude 5.0 earthquake near Prague (pronounced with a long A), Oklahoma, on November 5, 2011. That quake then broke fault planes to the south, triggering more than 1,000 aftershocks, including a 5.7 quake November 6 and a 5.0 on November 8. "I think this should raise awareness for the potential for larger events that could be induced," Elizabeth Cochran, a geophysicist from the U.S. Geological Survey in California and one of the authors of the new paper, tells Popular Science.
The Oklahoma Geological Survey disagrees. The agency posted a statement on its website three days before the Geology publication, laying out its arguments for why survey scientists think those earthquakes were natural.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey says evidence is mounting that the American Midwest and East have seen increasing seismic activity since 2009, alongside increased wastewater injection. The increased quakes are generally small, of magnitude 3, which don't cause damage but which people can feel. Cochran tells Popular Science that her team's findings of larger induced quakes call for increased monitoring of areas where drilling occurs. However, there are no federal or state laws requiring companies to assess an area for earthquake potential before injections--nor to hold companies liable for earthquakes that occur afterward.
The practice of wastewater injection has proliferated over the past 60 years in the U.S. because it is a relatively inexpensive, swift way to get rid of oil and gas drilling waste, ProPublica reported last September. There are about 144,000 such wells in the United States. They're classified in such a way that they're under less stringent regulation than waste wells from the pharmaceutical, chemical or other industries. The ProPublica report mainly pointed to the wells' potential to contaminate nearby water supplies, but recent geological studies suggest that earthquake potential could also be a greater problem than previously thought.
Geologists have agreed-upon criteria for deciding whether an earthquake was triggered by human activity. One of these criteria is proximity, and the Prague earthquakes fit the bill. The first quake occurred about 200 meters, or little more than a tenth of a mile, away from an active injection well.
Another indicator of triggering is if a quake occurs soon after some drilling activity, sometimes within 24 hours. The Prague quakes don't fit that second category, as wastewater injection began in the area decades ago, in 1955. Cochran and her team argue, however, that the quakes began now because the pumping pressure increased recently. Jean-Philippe Avouac, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the paper, found their argument convincing. "They have a reasonable explanation for this delay," he tells Popular Science.
On the other hand, the Oklahoma Geological Survey argues that pumping pressure increased too long ago, in 2004. The survey also argues that a naturally induced 5.7 quake wouldn't be unheard of for the area, even if it is generally more seismically stable than, say, California.
"Because Oklahoma has naturally occurring earthquakes, we can start with the assumption that the earthquakes are natural and then when we have enough data, we can challenge that idea," says Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist Austin Holland. "There's no data that really challenge the idea that the earthquakes are naturally occurring."
The Oklahoma Geological Survey has previously determined earthquakes were human-caused. Earlier in 2011, Holland determined that quakes of magnitude 1.0 to 2.8 in south central Oklahoma were triggered by the injection of fluid into the Earth for hydraulic fracturing. After two injecting sessions, however, the drilling company didn't need to inject any more fluid, so it stopped.
Whether or not the Prague quakes are ultimately determined to be human-triggered, geologists such as Bill Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey and the folks on Cochran's team--including geologists from the University of Oklahoma and Columbia University--say the trend of increased earthquakes around wastewater injection wells is real. (U.S. Geological Survey studies have not linked hydraulic fracturing to the increased number of earthquakes.)
The geologists were reluctant to give their opinions on whether more regulation is warranted, however. Holland makes a cautious argument similar to what many geologists told me. "We're not a regulatory authority and I'd be stepping on someone's toes if I made any recommendations," he says, "but certainly there's room for improvement on existing regulations."
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