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Scientists Worried With Spike In Southern California Tremors

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:10:17 +0000

The tremors have increased under the San Andreas fault and is giving scientists as well as government officials sleepless nights. According to reserchers Robert Nadeau and Aurellie Guilhem ’s findings the earthquakes in 2003 and 2004 of magnitude 6.5 and 6.0 near the San Andreas Fault were preceded with background noises which were actually tremors.
Nadeau and Aurelie have proved the connection between tremors and earthquakes and these new tremors which have increased by 80 percent within last four years is making officials and scientists worried.
The southern California experiences a quake every 85 to 142 years which makes a quake 10 years overdue for this region. The temblor in 1857, one of the greatest earthquakes in California history, caused little damage because the region was virtually uninhabited at the time, but the fault has generated no significant movement since then and is considered locked for 185 m
A series of small tremors was seen a few days before the Parkfield quake, so Nadeau hopes there may be a way to interpret them to get some kind of warning of future quakes.
Seismologists say the study is intriguing and could help warn Californians of what’s ahead, but they say there’s not enough data to know what the San Andreas is doing in the long term.

American bats and fungus

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:40:59 +0000

A mysterious disease that’s killing
tens of thousands of bats in the Northeast is spreading so fast that it
could reach California within five years, biologists and officials of
the Agriculture and Interior departments told lawmakers Thursday.About 95 percent of infected bats perish, and the disease appears to
spread from bat to bat, infecting entire caves, officials said. The
main clue to their deaths is fungus-encrusted noses and wings. Whether
the fungus causes their deaths or is merely a symptom of a failing
immune symptom is unknown.The Department of the Interior so far has spent $5 million studying
white-nose syndrome, and it’s closed 2,000 caves, said Marvin Moriarty,
the Northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Swine Flu Spreading Fast in Mexico and U.S

admin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:29:30 +0000

More than 1,000 people have fallen ill in Mexico City in a short period of time.
An unusual strain of swine flu has been detected among victims of a large outbreak of a severe respiratory illness in Mexico, prompting global health officials, fearful of a potential flu pandemic, to scramble yesterday to try to contain the virus.
Authorities in Mexico urged people to avoid hospitals except for medical emergencies because hospitals are centers of infection. They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks.

Scientist Predicted Italy Quake

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:34:57 +0000

Gioacchino Giuliani a researcher who works for the National Institute of Astrophysics, had forecast a devastating earthquake for March 29, posting his findings on the Internet and alerting authorities.

Vans with loudspeakers drove around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after Giuliani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

“I want apologies from Boschi (Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology,) and Bertolaso (Guido Bertolaso, the civil protection chief), on behalf of all those who died today,” he said. “My prediction unfortunately proved correct.”

North Korean Satellite’s Revolutionary Songs

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:41:35 +0000

North Korea said the satellite launched on saturday is now transmitting revolutionary songs while circling around the earth.

Tokyo requested an emergency session of the Security Council to call for a stern response to the launch, Japan’s U.N. spokesman Yutaka Arima said. The U.N. said it would meet Sunday afternoon in New York.

The South had put its 680,000-strong military on heightened alert against any border provocations by the North’s 1.2 million member armed forces, while Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan said the launch breached Resolution 1718.

Circumcision Decreases Risk of Contracting STDs by 60 percent, Study Says

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:03:19 +0000

Circumcised heterosexual men are 35% less likely to contract human papillomavirus (HPV) and 25% less likely to catch herpes than their uncircumcised counterparts, according to the study, published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Uganda, relied on data from the same randomized control trials in Africa that already showed that circumcision cuts in half the risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can cause AIDS. HPV and herpes are among the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S., far more common than AIDS. HPV can cause genital warts and cervical cancer. There are no cures for herpes and HPV.

About 30% of men worldwide are circumcised. In the U.S., about 79% of men have undergone the procedure, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Meanwhile, the new study and a recent report from South Africa show that male circumcision may benefit women, too. Compared with uncircumcised men, those who were circumcised as part of either of the clinical trials were one-third less likely to be infected with one of the dangerous types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, that can cause cervical cancer when passed on to women.

Earlier studies by all three teams showed male circumcision lessened the risk of acquiring HIV by up to 60 percent.

Obama’s Warning to Afghan President

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:37:52 +0000

Mr Obama used a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night to set out more limited objectives in Afghanistan, where he said the “central mission” was to prevent terrorists plotting violence against America. “There’s got to be an exit strategy,” he said. “There’s got to be a sense that this is not perpetual drift.” Mr Obama expects a better return for the investment of so much blood and money in Afghanistan than a weak Government riddled with corruption that spends much of its time complaining about the American-led Nato forces.

Obama has approved an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to go to Afghanistan this year, bolstering 33,000 already there, to counter the Taliban’s growing resurgence in recent years in the volatile southern part of the country. He has described that as the most difficult decision of his young presidency.

In the coming days, he is expected to announce his broader rethinking of U.S. strategy and goals in the war, including changed tactics and lowered expectations for the difficult conflict. Top aides to Obama are recommending that the United States combine a boost in military deployments with a steep increase in civilian experts to combat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials say.

Airline Industry Expected To Lose $4.7 Billion in 2009

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:17:41 +0000

For 2009, the IATA said it now expects an aggregate industry loss of $4.7 billion, compared to a loss of $2.5 billion that it forecast in December.

Reflecting the rapid deterioration in global economic conditions, IATA said it expected industry revenue to fall by more than in the aftermath of 9/11, by some 12%, or $62 billion, to $467 billion. Between 2000 and 2002, industry revenue fell $23 billion.

Falling fuel prices are helping to curb even larger losses for the airline industry. “Fuel is the only good news,” Mr. Bisignani said. “But the relief of lower fuel prices is overshadowed by falling demand and plummeting revenues. The industry is in intensive care,” he said.

Schilling for Hall of Famer

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:39:31 +0000

While the discussion of whether or not he’s a Hall of Famer will continue for at least the next five years, I was wondering if our readers had any thoughts about Schilling from a fantasy perspective. The strikeouts were huge — over 3,000 of them — and he did have three 20-win seasons with the Diamondbacks.

But when it comes to a borderline candidate such as Schilling, perhaps the postseason record breaks the tie in his favor. I’m on record as giving the thumbs-down to Mike Mussina’s candidacy. In doing so, I pointed out Mussina ranked behind three other right-handed starters of his era (Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux) and arguably behind Schilling and John Smoltz as well. Although Schilling has 54 fewer wins than Mussina, he also has a better ERA+ (127 versus 123), plus more strikeouts in fewer innings.

The World’s Billionaires have gotten poorer

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:21:42 +0000

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates endured a disaster that I’m sure most people would love to experience for themselves: His net worth dived to $40 billion from $58 billion a year earlier.

This year the world’s billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months. The world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago.

An annual list of the world’s billionaires has revealed that 355 have dropped off the list from last year.
And, on average, the world’s richest people have lost almost a quarter of their wealth in the past 12 months.

The world contained 1,125 billionaires in 2008, but this year there are only 793 – a drop of almost 30 per cent. And nine in ten of those that did make it have lost money this year.
Bill Gates has regained his position as the world’s richest man in 2009, despite losing $18 billion (£13 billion).
Last year’s No 1, Warren Buffett, has slipped into second place, having seen his fortune decline by $25 billion, as shares in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, fell by nearly 50 per cent over the past year.