0ink! » Guaranteed to contain absolutely zero ink!

Ever wondered what big sharks like to have for a meal? Have a look at these awesome pictures of great white sharks hunting seals off the coast of South Africa.

The US government is urging scientists to develop technology that will allow control over how much sunlight reaches the earth. It says techniques, such as space mirrors and reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere, would help to reduce global warming.

Yeah, good idea. Let’s keep burning the fossil fuels. We won’t have to worry about the green house effect, because those big ol’ mirrors up there will reflect the sun’s rays away into space. Who needs sunlight anyway? Smog is way better…

If you were a farmer you might need sunlight. What would happen if the mirrors malfunctioned? Not enough or too much sunlight and things won’t grow.

How hot could it get if all the mirrors were directed at a certain spot on earth? Did you ever fry little ants with a magnifying glass as a kid? They pop. I’m sure that’s an exaggeration, but you catch my drift.

It’s no use continuing current emission trends and then trying to reduce the damage done with reflective crap in the atmosphere or space. Band-aid policies and stopgap measures only work to a certain point and do more harm than good in the long run.

“The first thing the federal government can do is recognise that climate change is real,” Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said today.

“Mr Howard’s cabinet still has in it an industry minister who only a few months ago said climate change was a pile of hogwash.”

“We need global leadership on climate change, and instead Mr Howard follows (US President George) Bush in ignoring the Kyoto protocol and ignoring practical programs of action which will help deal with, and turn back, the challenge of climate change.”

The only way to reduce global warming, is to reduce emissions by adopting clean renewable energy.

Articles:

• US bid to block sun to stop warming
• US climate scientists pressured on climate change
• Americans ‘least concerned’ about climate change
• Activists scale Eiffel Tower
• Soaring temperatures ‘unstoppable’
• ‘A disaster for life on earth’
• Scientist’s ‘Russian roulette’ climate warning
• Reef ‘facing extinction’
• Climate alert disturbing: Rudd
• UN report turns up heat on PM
• 2500 scientists, 1200 pages, and one quibble
• Key climate report sparks global call to action
• Australian states commit to greenhouse gas cuts
• ‘Sunshade’ for global warming could cause drought
• Pentagon backs plan to beam solar power from space
• Australia ‘back on the map’ with Kyoto decision

I was surfing YouTube when I came across this video. Watch it with the sound off and you might think that what you are seeing is footage of microbes swimming around in a petridish.

Watch it with the sound on and you will realise that it’s actually NASA footage taken from the space shuttle Columbia during a mission in 1996.

It was project STS-75, a collaboration between Italy and the US to determine if electric power could be harnessed from the earth’s magnetic field, via a space tether.

They had hoped to unfurl about 20km of tether, but the scientists had miscalculated. The tether broke after 19km was deployed. That brought an end to the experiment.

That’s where things started getting interesting though. As the tether floated away from the shuttle, unidentified objects started appearing all over the place.

Space debris? Dust motes? Spacecrafts? Lifeforms?

It was strange that no one in the video really gave much thought to these objects as they ’swam’ around the tether.

Considering that most of them were scientists, the seeming lack of curiosity was astounding.

Maybe they were curious the first time they saw it, but after seeing it for the umpteenth time, things became routine.

Maybe it was all ‘hush-hush, keep quiet about it and no one will notice’.

Whatever the reason, I am surprised that none of the ‘interesting bits’ have been reported by the media.

Interesting, don’t you think?

So what are they? And why haven’t we heard more about them?

Related Articles:

• France opens up its UFO files

Mia: Don’t you hate that?

Vincent: What?

Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it’s necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?

Vincent: I don’t know. That’s a good question.

Mia: That’s when you know you’ve found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.

Pulp Fiction (Directed by Quentin Tarantino, 1994). See Pulp Fiction in 30 seconds.

There is a lot of misunderstanding with the terms introversion and extroversion. Carl Jung brought us the concepts of extroversion and introversion when it comes to the study of personality types.

Introverts prefer the inner, subjective world of thoughts, ideas, and emotions, while extroverts prefer the outer, objective world of things, people, and actions. In other words, introverts tend to draw their energy from within, while extroverts need the stimulation of things around them to be energized.

Extroverts are energized by people, and often seem bored by themselves when alone. Leave an extrovert alone for a few minutes and they will reach for their hand phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of socialising, introverts need to time out to recharge.

When introverts want to be alone, it does not on it’s own mean they are depressed. It might just mean that they either need to regain their energy from being around people or that they simply want the time to be with their own thoughts. Being with people, even people they like and are comfortable with, can prevent them from their desire to be quietly introspective. It drains them.

Being introspective, though, does not mean that an introvert never has conversations. However, those conversations are generally about ideas and concepts, not about what they consider the trivial matters of social small talk. This does not mean introverts aren’t capable of small talk, it’s just that they have to actively think in order to chitchat. This tires them. People tire them.

Introverts tend to think and mull over ideas in their mind before talking (making them good writers), whereas extroverts instinctively think by talking.

Extroversion is seen as normal and desirable in Western and particularly US society, where fast talk and snap decisions are valued over listening, deliberation and careful planning. This may not be true in other societies, for example Japanese culture places great value on quietness, contemplation, reflection and self-control.

Are introverts normal?

While only about 25% of the general population are introverts, they make up about 60% of the gifted population. Which makes them a little abnormal. But don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt. Really.

Some famous introverts include:

Not all introverts are brilliant scientists and metaphysicians, but there are some things most have in common. Focus/concentration, love of pets and modesty are typical of most introverts. Shyness is not an introvert trait, as can be seen from the list above. It is a totally unrelated condition.

In an extroverts’ world, the etiquette is to fill silence with small talk. Maybe one day, moments of silence and reflection will not only be acceptable, but encouraged.

Articles:

• Personality Types
• Ask Yahoo!
• The Tyranny of the Extroverts
• Being an Introvert
• Caring for Your Introvert

This post is a little deeper than usual, with a bit of a sci-fi twist to it. That’s because the topic sounds like something that came out of a sci-fi novel, or an episode of Star Trek.

So, what could be so out of this world?

Judging by the post title you would probably guess it has to do with some form of travel. And you would be right. To elaborate, it has to do with space travel.

When we think about space travel, we think about rockets and maybe, if we are a little more adventurous, ion drives.

If you have ever seen an episode of Star Trek, you would notice that the Starship Enterprise is no ordinary rocket propelled starship. It is powered by a warpdrive. When the Enterprise initiates “warp”, it stretches and then does a vanishing act…into where?

The place it goes to is basically another dimension. This other dimension has many names: warpspace, slipspace or hyperspace, to name a few*.

Due to the different laws that govern physics in hyperspace, the Enterprise is able to travel faster than the speed of light.

So what? Star Trek is just TV show. Faster-than-light (FTL) travel only exists in science-fiction. And even if it were scientifically possible, the technology to achieve it wouldn’t be possible until maybe the year 2266.

Well, it seems the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics doesn’t think it’s that far-fetched an idea.

Every year they award prizes for the best papers presented at their annual conference. Last year the winner for nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of a hyperdrive motor. A motor that would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds.

The concept does rely some obscure theories by Burkhard Heim that have yet to be fully peer reviewed (due to his reclusiveness when he was still alive and the complexity of the theory itself). However, the AIAA and the US military do seem to take Heim theory seriously.

The AIAA is certainly not embarrassed. What’s more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test. And despite the bafflement of most physicists at the theory that supposedly underpins it, Pavlos Mikellides, an aerospace engineer at the Arizona State University in Tempe who reviewed the winning paper, stands by the committee’s choice. “Even though such features have been explored before, this particular approach is quite unique,” he says.

At the moment, the main reason for taking the proposal seriously must be Heim theory’s uncannily successful prediction of particle masses. Maybe, just maybe, Heim theory really does have something to contribute to modern physics. “As far as I understand it, Heim theory is ingenious,” says Hans Theodor Auerbach, a theoretical physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who worked with Heim. “I think that physics will take this direction in the future.”

Maximum warp. Engage!

Article: Take a leap into hyperspace
Theory: Heim theory
Open Letter: Research Group Heim Theory
* Discworld inhabitants might be more familiar with L-space.

There is a strange state between life and death that is akin to suspended animation. Researchers have discovered a technique that allows them to bring animals back to life after being dead for a few hours.

First the heart begins to beat, and then the pig starts breathing. Finally, it stands up and looks curiously at the man in the lab coat standing outside its cage.

“This animal was dead for several hours,” says Hasan Alam, 39, a surgeon at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. “But we brought it back. And now it’s here again.”

The same magic forces seem to be at work in the animal research facility of the General Hospital of the City of Vienna. Pigs are suddenly opening their eyes after their hearts were stopped with electric shocks and they lay dead for half an hour. “The miracle,” says Wilhelm Behringer, 39, a physician specializing in emergency medicine, “is that the animals return to life without neurological damage.”

This feat has being performed hundreds of times in the past few years on dogs and pigs.

Researchers allow dogs or pigs to bleed to death. Their blood is collected and kept warm. The animals’ bodies are then flooded with saline solution that had been cooled to around 2°C (36°F).

It was found that by adding tiny amounts of sugar to the saline solution, the animals could be left in this state longer without adverse effects.

At this stage the animals are dead: no heartbeat, no breathing, no brain activity.

After a few hours, the creatures are then brought back to life. It’s simply a matter of pumping back their own oxygen enriched blood, then applying mild electric shocks until the animals revive.

This discovery has significant impact on medicine, especially in emergency situations where the extra time could mean the difference between life and (permanent) death. It also brings the science-fiction notion of suspended animation a step closer to reality.

Pretty amazing stuff, but a tad creepy.

Source: Round-Trip Journeys to the Afterworld

Physicists from ANU working with the ESA have recently designed a new spaceship engine prototype that I used to read about in science fiction not long ago.

Ion drives create thrust by expelling an ion particle beam, which in turn propel the ship in the opposite direction.

There has been some development in this field in the past by NASA (view flash presentation) and ESA, but low thrust to weight ratio has been their shortcoming.

The new Australian designs have addressed this issue more effectively and future space travel via ion thrusters seem a tad more promising.

It took only four months for the scientists to design and manufacture the ion thruster. It showed Australian scientists were more than capable of such project, said Dr Orson Sutherland, project leader at the ANU Space Plasma, Power and Propulsion (SP3) laboratory.

“We’ve got the capability and know how, we just need the opportunity and sometimes we are lucky enough to find opportunities like we have with space propulsion,” he said.

“I think at the very least Australia should have a space agency or some sort of organisation that Australia can interface with the rest of the world.”

Given enough electricity, there is no reason why ion drive ships couldn’t traverse yonder and beyond methinks!

Source: Aussie scientists build new space engine

I know Christmas is not over yet. Plenty of eating and drinking to do. A lot of time left for merriment. Maybe a little bit more time than usual this year for fun and laughter.

As it turns out this year includes a leap second. This happens every seven years to account for the slowing down of the Earth’s rotation.

So, for the countdown on New Year’s Eve, it will go a little something like this: “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0..0? Erm…Happy New Year?”

Hmmm…there could be a little confusion on New Years Eve, but on the up side, that extra second could mean an eternity depending on who you are kissing.

Source: Extra Second Will be Added to 2005

Recently scientists Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Eating Association…Oops I meant the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association have captured the very first pictures of a live giant squid (Architeuthis).

The amazing pictures show the 8 metre (25 feet) creature feeding on a baited fishing line. The snaps were taken at a depth of around 900 metres (2,950 feet) in total darkness and shows the squid attacking the bait.

To find these illusive squids, the scientists had to track sperm whales, which seem to include the squids as part of their diet.

Their perseverance paid off on this occasion and they have achieved what many others have been trying to do for decades.

They admit there is still a lot to learn from these mysterious creatures, but are confident that now they know where to look, it’s only a matter of time before they get more pictures.

Article: Holy Squid! Photos Offer First Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant

By the way, the giant squid should not be confused with it’s cousin, the “Colossal Squid” (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni).

Got hayfever or asthma? Do you get allergies, but can’t find a way to get rid of it? I know that whenever it’s spring, it’s the start of sneezing season for me.

Well, there could be a treatment for these irritating allergies. It seems we might be missing something from our…erm…diet?

Apparently worms hold the key to our immune system.

“Worms require humans to survive. In essence the worms are part of us and it’s possible that we’ve become interdependent and removing worms has resulted in an imbalance to our immune systems.

“People have what I consider an irrational fear of worms. Nobody wants to go to the toilet and look into the toilet and see something wiggle”, says Dr Joel Weinstock, a specialist in bowel disorders.

If what they say is true, maybe we should not be calling worms good for nothing parasites, but instead refer to them as symbionts.

Whatever category worms belong in, they still make my skin crawl.

Article: Eat worms - feel better