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Jungle Cat to Potential Prey: Nobody Here but Us Monkey Babies | Discoblog

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

margay-cat One pied tamaran turns to another: Do you hear that infant monkey call?

That’s one weird-sounding baby, the other responds. Shrugging their shoulders, the pair goes to investigate. Surprise! It’s not a baby monkey at all, but a margay cat doing impersonations. Then it’s up to the monkeys to escape becoming a snack.

In the domain of jungle tricks, monkeys usually take center-stage. They may give false alarms to steal bananas or (shamelessly) carry an infant to strike up a conversation. But the above fake-out scene, documented in 2005 by Wildlife Conservation Society researchers, hinted that at least one feline is giving monkeys a dose of their own medicine.

The small spotted margay won’t be winning any stand-up awards: Fabio Rohe, a researcher at the Society, told National Geographic that the cat’s impressions were “poor.” Though researchers watched the monkeys escape, they still found the ruse impressive, given that no other cat is documented to have used vocal mimicry in hunting (though some people claim to have heard similar strategies used by jaguars and cougars).

The margay’s acting skills may soon prove crucial, since the South American species is threatened by hunting, the pet trade, and habitat destruction. As National Geographic reports, researchers believe the cat may have other animals in its “repertoire” including macuco birds and agouti rodents.

Given its apparent skills and the fact that the seven-pound cat also eats lizards, perhaps the tongue-flick pictured here is only another act of cunning.

Image: Wikimedia / Malene Thyssen

Boeing’s “Phantom Eye” Joins the Roster of Unmanned Spy Planes | 80beats

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

The next generation of spies from on high continue to emerge, with two secretive unmanned planes making their public debuts this week.

Boeing Phantom Eye

Engadget calls it a “bowling pin with wings.” I’d say it’s more like a flying maraca.

The Phantom Eye, which Boeing unveiled this week, will take to the skies next year on the power of hydrogen. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) should be able to cruise at an altitude of 65,000 feet.

But the propeller-driven Phantom Eye is no muscle plane. It’ll have a pair of 150-horsepower, 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engines. Boeing says the UAV, with a 150-foot wingspan, will be able to cruise at about 150 knots [172 miles per hour] and carry a payload of up to 450 pounds [CNET].

The plane won’t need to carry much weight, though, because it’s intend to spy, not attack. Boeing says the Phantom Eye will be able to stay aloft for four consecutive days, executing “persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.” Its size and breezy pace mean it’s built for endurance and not stealth. But that might not be true for Boeing’s other UAV project, the menacing Phantom Ray that will make a test flight in December.

The U.K.’s Taranis

You can be even more brash when naming secretive military aircraft than when naming flashy new cars, and Britain’s new UAV bears the name of the Celtic god of thunder.

Taranis is the first step in the development of unmanned strike aircraft, capable of penetrating enemy territory. Unmanned aircraft carrying weapons are already used in service, such as the MQ-1 Predator which carries Hellfire missiles, although these are only suitable for use where the airspace is under allied control [BBC News].

Taranis is a tech demo that will likely be a testbed for developing future aircraft rather than flying into service itself. For the U.K., it’s a major step in going from manned to unmanned fighters.

It is accepted that the most vulnerable part of a plane is the pilot. While the airframe is capable of pulling multiple Gs – the gravitational force exerted on a body when standing on the Earth at sea level – the maximum safe level for a pilot, even when wearing a protective G-suit, is 8 or 9, above which they will lose consciousness [BBC News].

Don’t Sleep on the X-37B

Those UAVs will reach lofty heights, but not quite as high as the U.S. Air Force’s secret space plane, the X-37B. That unmanned craft was launched into orbit in April.

For a story in the upcoming September issue of DISCOVER hitting newsstands next month, Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation told me that what little we know about the plane suggests it’s probably for surveillance and not attack. Weeden also argued that there’s no one thing the X-37B does that we couldn’t do better or cheaper with existing technologies, like satellites. “But, it does a lot of things,” he says. “The X-37(B) is a milepost on the road, not the end of the road.”

Image: Boeing; UK Ministry of Defense; USAF

From the Vault: An Inordinate Fondness for Beetle Horns | The Loom

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

[An old post I'm fond of]

Beetle horns.jpg

It’s strange enough that beetles grow horns. But it’s especially strange that beetles grow so many kinds of horns. This picture, which was published in the latest issue of the journal Evolution, shows a tiny sampling of this diversity. The species shown here all belong to the genus Onthophagus, a group of dung beetles. The colors in this picture, which are false, show which parts of the beetle body the horns grow from. Blue horns grow from the back of the head, red from the middle of the head, and purple from the front of the head. Green horns grow from the center of the body plate directly behind the head (the pronotum), and orange horns grow from the side of the pronotum. These beetles can grow horns big and small, single or multiple, shaped like stags or like rhinos. And, as these colors show, the beetles can take very different developmental paths to get to their finished product. The biologist JBS Haldane was supposedly asked once if he could say anything about God from his study of nature. Haldane replied He must have an inordinate fondness for beetles. Add to that a fondness for putting horns on those beetles.

A century before Haldane, Charles Darwin was fascinated by the horns of these beetles. He proposed that they were produced through sexual selection. Natural selection was based on how traits helped an organism survive and have offspring—staying warm in winter, fighting off diseases, and so on. Sexual selection was based on the struggle to have sex. If females preferred to mate with males with certain traits (big tails in peacocks, for example), the males would gradually evolve more and more elaborate versions of that trait. Males might also fight with other males to get access to females, and here too their struggle could lead to baroque anatomy—such as beetle horns.

Modern evolutionary biologists have followed up on Darwin’s suggestion, and have made a close study of beetle horns. There are thousands upon thousands of species with horns to compare, and scientists can observe how the horns develop and are used by the males. A lot of fascinating work has been published on beetle horns, such the work I described in this post. The picture I’ve shown here comes from a paper that represents a big step forward in understanding this explosion of diversity. Douglas Emlen of the University of Montana and his colleagues have, for the first time, reconstructed some of the evolutionary history that produced this embarrassment of horns. (You can download the paper for free here on Emlen’s web site.)

Emlen and his colleagues focused their attention on Onthophagus dung beetles. These beetles, which are found all over the world, search out dung and then dig a tunnel underneath it. The female beetles then make a ball of the dung and lay eggs in it. The male beetles will guard the opening of these tunnels and fight off any males that try to get in and mate with the female inside. It’s here the horns come in handy, helping a guarding male make it impossible for other males to get past them.

The scientists extracted DNA from 48 different species of Onthophagus and used the sequence to figure out their evolutionary relationships. They then reconstructed the changes that evolved in the horns as new species arose. And finally, the researchers looked at the natural history of the animals—where they lived, how they lived, and the like.

It turns out that beetle horns have changed a lot. Judging from the species that sit on the oldest branches of the tree, the scientists concluded that the common ancestor of these 48 beetle species had a single horn growing from the base of the head (the second from the top on the left hand side of the photo may bear a resemblance). As new species arose, they tended to grow bigger horns, and they also tended to grow horns from new parts of their bodies. On the other hand, sometimes a lineage with elaborate horns gave rise to species with much smaller ones. Sometimes one horn became two which became one. This chart shows the tortuous paths that evolution has taken in these beetles. (The thickness of the arrows shows how often these transformations took place in different lineages.) Given that the researchers analyzed only 48 out of the 2000 Onthophagus species, the true scale of change is probably far greater.

beetle horn paths.jpg

Emlen and his collagues argue that sexual selection has driven the horns of these beetles to outrageous lengths. If you’re a male dung beetle and you want pry another male out of his tunnel, it helps to have a longer horn. If you’re that male in the tunnel, your own chances of victory depend on the horn too. So it’s the males with bigger horns that are most likely to win. And yet, as this beetle flow chart shows, these insects have lost their weaponry in some lineages. What is the countervailing force in beetle evolution?

Horns, the scientists point out, are expensive. It takes a lot of energy and the dedication of large swaths of a beetle’s body to grow horns. When you’re talking about horns that can get longer than a beetle’s entire body, the costs can be huge. In fact, growing bigger horns means that beetles have to reduce the size of other organs. Experiments have shown that the growth of horns can reduce the size of beetle eyes by 30%.

The researchers proposed that growing horns would force a trade-off with other important parts of the body, such as eyes and antennae. And the beetle tree supports their proposal. It is harder for beetles to detect the odor of dung with their antennae in a pasture than in a forest, because the odor plumes last longer in the woods. Four out of the five gains of new horns took place in forests—perhaps because beetles could afford to grow smaller antennae in a place where smelling wasn’t so hard. On the flip side, in seven of the nine cases in which horns were lost, the beetles became nocturnal. Beetles that fly at night need larger eyes, and so they can’t afford to shunt resources to big horns any more. The pressure to evolve bigger horns still exists in these lineages, but it’s been offset by other demands.

Emlen’s study is a nice reminder that we don’t have to stand back, slack-jawed, at nature’s diversity. When you look at a line-up of beetle horns like the one at the beginning of this post, they can seem like an impenetrable mystery. But understanding of how these beetles live, and how they evolved from a common ancestor, makes them less mysterious. But no less marvelous.

The Oil Spill’s Smallest Survivors Released into Atlantic | The Intersection

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

The first sea turtle eggs rescued from the Gulf have hatched! From the Associated Press:
About 700 sea turtle nests — each containing about 100 eggs — are being trucked from oiled shores along the Gulf to Cape Canaveral, where they're kept at a climate-controlled facility. The turtles are being released into the Atlantic as they hatch. Scientists feared that a generation of the imperiled species would die if they hatched and swam into the oil.
One small step toward restoration. One giant leap for the oil spill's tiniest refugees. They face a tough road ahead. Godspeed and good luck little dudes!
(Photo: The Ocean Conservancy)

Geology Fail: California Moves to Disown State Rock | Discoblog

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

It’s an honor doled out by about half of the American states: the naming of an official state rock. West Virginia has bituminous coal. Florida has agatized coral. California has the olive-green beauty serpentine–for the moment. State legislators are moving to cast off the rock, saying it contains the mineral chrysotile asbestos.

Exposure to chrysotile asbestos, according to the pending “serpentine bill,” increases the risk of cancer, and State Senator Gloria Romero wants nothing to do with the once-loved rock. She sponsored the bill, which has received support from the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and the Consumer Attorneys of California.

But geologists think the rock bill is dense, Malcolm Ross a retired geologist from the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times.

“There is no way anyone is going to get bothered by casual exposure to that kind of rock…. Unless they were breaking it up with a sledgehammer year after year.”

Geologists like Ross have hope to save serpentine’s special status, given concern that the bill–as a perfect excuse for litigious jewelery owners and park visitors–could make many Californians’ lives rocky.

The bill recently passed the State Senate, so serpentine’s fate is now up to a vote in the Assembly.

Meanwhile, in “granite state” New Hampshire, the granite cliff formation “Old Man on the Mountain” continues to appear on state license plates, though the rocky visage collapsed in 2003.

Follow DISCOVER on Twitter.

Image: flickr / AlishaV

Why Gorillas Play Tag: To Learn Social Etiquette and to Settle Scores | 80beats

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

There may be no game simpler than tag. To play, you need nothing but a few friends and some energy. In fact, tag is so easy to play that it reaches other primate species: Gorillas like to play, too.

Marina Davila Ross and colleagues spent three years watching and filming gorilla colonies at Germany and Swiss zoos for a study now out in Biology Letters. They shot footage of 21 different young gorillas goofing around in a game that resembles human children playing tag.

Like human tag, one gorilla runs up to another and taps, hits, or outright punches the second. The hitter then usually runs away, attempting to avoid being hit back. Davila Ross and her colleagues also noticed that, like kids, the gorillas would reverse roles, so sometimes the first hitter would be the tagger, and vice versa. All African great apes appear to play tag, and younger apes play it much more often than their elders. Tree-dwelling orangutans likely also play a similar game, but not on the ground, according to Davila Ross [Discovery News].

Gorillas games, like their analogues in human kids’ games, would seem to play a role in social development and learning to play nice with each other. Gorillas strike each other pretty hard during play, Davila Ross says, but they’re careful not to strike too hard.

The game is thought to prepare gorillas for conflicts that might arise over food or mates. “This kind of playful behaviour lets them test their group members and learn what the borders are,” she added. “How far you can go with an individual is important for social interactions later in life” [The Guardian].

Davila Ross argues that gorilla tag is even more revealing than that. Those who are lower on the social ladder tend to be the instigators of the game, trying to get a leg up or an ego boost from besting a gorilla with more social status. Thus, she argues, the gorillas are aware of social inequities, and the competition of playing tag teaches them how to deal with unfair situations by seizing a competitive advantage, like smacking your friend and then running away.

“It remains unknown to what extent unequal play itself gives animals a more competitive edge,” the scientists write. But while further research will attack that question, one thing is clear: Humans probably wouldn’t fare well in an inter-species game of tag, as we wouldn’t describe the force with which they strike one another as “playful.”

Video: Davila Ross et. al.

Apollo 16 site snapped from orbit | Bad Astronomy

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Once again, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured pictures of humanity’s presence on the Moon! This time, it’s the Apollo 16 landing site:

What an awesome picture! It was taken at local noon, so the Sun is shining almost straight down on the surface. That means there are no shadows, which de-emphasizes topology of the surface (changes in height like craters, hills, and dips) but provides brilliant contrast in brightness features.

For example, the metal and white man-made lander and rover are so bright they are saturated in the picture. However, wherever the astronauts walked they stirred up the lunar dust, creating dark spots. The more often they walked in one spot, the darker that area. So the region around the lander itself (LM) and the rover (LRV) are almost black from bootprints. You can also see lines of bootprints radiating away from the lander and other spots. Amazing!

Also marked are the locations of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) and the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) used to power it. These were a series of scientific experiments designed to learn more about the surface, interior, and environment of the Moon. The geophone line was a seismograph used to measure moonquakes generated by the astronauts themselves using — seriously — mortar shells. You might think astronauts would be nervous carrying small bombs to the Moon, but given they rode at the top of a Saturn V rocket which carried about 3 million kilograms (6 million pounds) of fuel, I can’t think a mortar or two bugged them very much.

Someday we’ll head back to this spot. When we do, we’ll learn about how our artifacts have aged, and hopefully with a few decades of advances — as well as trained scientists to poke around in situ — we’ll learn even more about our nearest neighbor in space.

Related posts:
- One Giant Leap seen again
- LRO spots Apollo 12 footsteps
- … and the flag was still there
- One of the newest craters on the Moon

“The Inheritors” | Gene Expression

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

I just purchased a copy of William Golding’s The Inheritors. Golding is famous for writing Lord of the Flies, a work of literature of such influence that it has made the transition into our everyday lexicon. But I just listened to a podcast of an interview with a biographer of the great author, and it seems that Golding and many of his admirers who are “close readers” judge The Inheritors as his finest novel.

The general outline of the plot is easy enough to find on Wikipedia, it is one of those stories about the transition from a “bushy” hominin tree of life to the dominance of H. sapiens sapiens. Neandertals are finally expiring as a species in the face of the advance of modern humans, who marginalize and extirpate all those who came before. But I get the impression that the execution of Golding’s attempt is very different from Clan of the Cave Bear. Not having read the book yet I do not know if William Golding’s depiction is up to snuff with the latest scholarship on the Neandertals (granted, I am not up to date on the latest scholarship on Neandertals!), though he did guess correctly in all likelihood as to their pigmentation. But, in light of the highly probable non-trivial Neandertal ancestry in over 80% of humans, I feel like revisiting Golding’s vision in the near future, as we carry within our genomes the shadows of both the inheritors and the dispossessed.

The Magic Formula [Science Tattoo] | The Loom

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Boise Euler440 Billy Hudson, a mathematician, writes, “I was in a introductory Number Theory class when Professor David Ferguson told me that e^(ipi) + 1 = 0. Of course, Euler’s equation had the same affect on me as it has on many undergraduate mathematicians, i.e. I was hooked. I had the equation tattooed on my arm in May of 1998, thinking that if nothing else it would be unique. I’ve still yet to meet anyone else with the tattoo, but as your site shows, there are others (although I still think I may have been the first .”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Obama’s “War on Science”? | The Intersection

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

There was a pretty disturbing story in the Los Angeles Times recently about how much trouble some government scientists are having in the Obama administration--which has not formally issued its promised scientific integrity rules yet. Now, organizations whose work I trust, like Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Union of Concerned Scientists, are going on record saying that there are some serious cases of science being suppressed or interfered with in various government agencies. I have not independently investigated any of the cases here, but you have got to take these kinds of charges seriously. Let's go through some claims from the Times article, to list and also to comment:
In Florida, water-quality experts reported government interference with efforts to assess damage to the Everglades stemming from development projects.
In the Pacific Northwest, federal scientists said they were pressured to minimize the effects they had documented of dams on struggling salmon populations.
In several Western states, biologists reported being pushed to ignore the effects of overgrazing on federal land. These sound like very serious charges, and should be officially looked into, if that is not occurring already. Let's continue:
In Alaska, some oil and gas exploration decisions given preliminary approval under Bush moved forward under ...

The girls are all right, they accept human evolution | Gene Expression

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

One of the trends that makes me less pessimistic about the inevitability of an idiocratic end-point to technological civilization is that it seems young Americans are more likely to accept evolution than earlier age cohorts. The EVOLVED variable asks whether one believes that “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animal.” It was asked in 2004 and 2008, and its response is dichotomous between true and false. The favorable age trend I was aware of, but almost randomly I decided to control for some demographic variables, and I stumbled onto something which surprised me a bit, but in hindsight shouldn’t have: much of the greater acceptance of evolution among the youth has to do with a closing of the sex gap between men and women. Traditionally women have been more religious and Creationist in their inclinations, but far less so in Gen Y. Chart below of EVOLVED.

girlevolv

The convergence between men and women here seems to mirror what is occurring with religion more generally. Young men aren’t getting that much more secular, but women are, resulting in an aggregate of serious secularization.

Here are the percentages for 2004 and later in relation to attitudes toward the bible.

girlevol2

So some, but not all, of the closing of the “evolution gap” across sexes can be attributed to decreased belief in the core precepts of organized religion (e.g., the revealed nature of scripture). Rather, if you constrain the beliefs about evolution to those who believe that that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, you see that women are converging with men in the proportion who are theistic evolutionists, and turning away from Creationism. Among these believers, for those who were 61 or older 42% of women accepted evolution vs. 56% of men. For those in the age bracket 18-30 the proportion was 65% for both sexes.

Nelson’s Politics Vs Florida’s Concerns

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Space Coast leaders attack Nelson NASA bill, Orlando Sentinel

"I do not believe anyone in Brevard doubts your passion and commitment to NASA and its mission. However, the risk that this future for Florida might be bargained away for one more attuned to the needs of Alabama, Texas and Utah, in the name of political expediency, demands a response. There is no one on the Space Coast, least of all this EDC, that doesn't understand the need for a Heavy Lift Vehicle to enable NASA to go beyond LEO. And we zealously will seek to assure KSC participates fully in that endeavor. However, to sacrifice the workforce that so enriches our future is not something to which we can acquiesce quietly."

Senator Nelson Previews 2010 NASA Reauthorization Bill, AIP

"We are building consensus in what has otherwise been a consensus-less position of the future of the manned space program. The President had proposed one thing. He altered that. Different people have different ideas. Different aerospace companies all looking to have a certain part of the manned space program also have their different ideas. "Out of this mix, we are trying to bring together Senators to build a consensus in a bipartisan way; the space program is not only not partisan, it is not even bipartisan. It is nonpartisan - to be able to do this in a fairly unanimous way."

Save Constellation Supporters Respond

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Support Constellation

"IT'S FAST AND EASY: Each member of Congress has a phone line for public comments. Just call! A congressional staffer will pick up the phone. Just say something like: "I'm calling to express my concern about the NASA budget. I think we should restore full funding to Project Constellation and to the human space exploration program." The staffer will thank you, and will probably ask for your address. That's it!"

Video: It’s nice to know that America still builds rockets

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

"Once upon a time, a bunch of guys got together with a crazy idea - build rockets that go farther and faster than mankind had ever gone before. It's nice to know that America still builds rockets ..."

A Chance To Tell The President’s Sci &Tech Advisors What You Think

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Partially Closed Meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, OSTP

"Public Comments: It is the policy of the PCAST to accept written public comments of any length, and to accommodate oral public comments whenever possible. The PCAST expects that public statements presented at its meetings will not be repetitive of previously submitted oral or written statements. The public comment period for this meeting will take place on July 16, 2010 at a time specified in the meeting agenda posted on the PCAST Web site at http://whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast. This public comment period is designed only for substantive commentary on PCAST's work, not for business marketing purposes. Oral Comments: To be considered for the public speaker list at the July meeting, interested parties should register to speak at http://whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast, no later than 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 6, 2010."

Keith's 23 June note: Well folks, if you like the President's space policy - or hate it - here is a chance to let his Science and Technology advisors hear your thoughts. If you pass on the opportunity its your fault. OSTP has extended the invitation - don't pass on the opportunity. This event will be webcast.

Astronauts Send Letter in Support of Commercial Crew

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Letter From Former NASA Astronauts in Support of Commercial Crew Transport

"Dear Senator Mikulski: The 2011 budget request for NASA has generated much debate about the right course for America in space. You have raised the issue of safety as an indispensable component of any new plan for NASA, and we wish to express our appreciation for your leadership in ensuring that safety is at the center of this debate. Both as astronauts and as citizens who care passionately about the future of human spaceflight, we write today to communicate our views on this critical issue. Let us be clear: we believe that that the private sector, working in partnership with NASA, can safely develop and operate crewed space vehicles to low Earth orbit. We have reached this conclusion for a number of reasons:"

Commercial Space Proponents Respond

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Note circulating in the Suborbital research community: "As you may know, Sen. Nelson's NASA authorization markup kills the CRuSR line item. Yesterday Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico introduced an amendment that would bolster this small but high-profile program, designed to allow students, small companies, and researchers to fly experiments on-board new commercial suborbital space vehicles such as Virgin Galactic or XCOR Aerospace. The amendment would ensure that this program, known as Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR), would be fully funded at $15 million per year and report directly to NASA's Chief Technology Office to give it high-profile status. Please call your Senators to support the Udall Amendment, call Sen. Nelson's office to support it, and ask colleagues to do the same. The Senate NASA authorizing bill full committee vote is tomorrow (Thu 15 Jul)-- please take time today on this important matter!"

Commercial Space in Jeopardy, Call Your Senator TODAY, Space Frontier Foundation

"I urge American citizens interested in the affordable utilization and eventual settlement of space to open their eyes to the attack on NASA's new Commercial Crew Program by pork-hungry legislators. Contrary to the White House's request, the NASA Authorization Bill proposes cutting commercial space by $2.1 billion (up to 66%). Virginia's Senator Warner is ready to ride to the rescue with an amendment restoring full funding to the program, but he needs YOUR help to gain support from other Senators."

Keith's note: Its really somewhat counterproductive for the Space Frontier Foundation to put out a legislative alert and then insult every possible member of Congress that they seek to have people contact to help their cause i.e. calling them "donkeys" and "elephants". Also, Instead of portraying this as a fight against pork (and indicting all of Congress in so doing) perhaps the proponents should be focusing on the virtues of commercialization instead.

NASA Authorization Update

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

Senate's NASA "compromise" emerges. It undoes much of the President's space vision, Houston Chronicle (includes working draft of legislation)

"Sen. John Rockefeller, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has submitted the Senate version of the NASA budget this morning. It has been endorsed by Sen. Bill Nelson, a former NASA astronaut who many on the Hill look to for guidance on space issues, as well as Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison."

Senate bill rejects Obama's JSC plans, Houston Chronicle

"Obama requested $6 billion over five years for advanced technologies. The Senate bill requests less than $1 billion over three years."

Our views: Compromise space bill offers promise, problems for KSC, Brevard, Florida Today

"But the bill's catch -- and one that concerns us -- is that it would phase in $6 billion in funding for the commercial rocket program and other research and development projects that could be staged at KSC instead of providing it up front. That has the potential to slow the creation of new jobs and industries -- and diversification of the space industry -- our region needs. For instance, NASA could spend only $456 million on commercial rocket contracts next year with more allocated in later years, providing the companies meet safety and other requirements for flying astronauts."

5 Potential Paths To Live “Forever” [5 Dangers] – IndyPosted

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

5 Potential Paths To Live “Forever” [5 Dangers]
IndyPosted
“Mind-Uploading” technology could download your personality and memories, and theoretically, your very “consciousness,” and then upload it onto the World ...

Moving Our Cars Into the Future

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Danzig

It’s time to stop being so stuck in the past when it comes to cars. Cars and trucks are pretty old ideas at this point, and they need some serious modernization. T. Boone Pickens is still sending out email campaigns, still pushing natural gas as a transportation fuel, as are some members of Congress. They might as well be living in the 1970s because that’s where his ideas are coming from. A bygone era. Vehicles of the future will be electric, (including trucks) and the biggest challenges are to make those vehicles affordable and to make the electricity that will power them clean energy, from wind or solar. Electric vehicle companies are starting to advertise by appealing to people’s growing distaste for wars for oil and gas, the kind of wars our country is all too familiar with.

The Hill reports that, “The latest ad from the Electrification Coalition comes ahead of Senate debate on far-reaching energy legislation that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring to the floor before the August congressional recess. The coalition formed last year includes Nissan Motor Co. — which is rolling out a plug-in car called the Leaf — as well as NRG Energy Inc., PG&E Corp., lithium ion battery company A123Systems Inc., FedEx Corp. and GridPoint Inc., which provides software to enable a “smart” power grid.”

Non-personal transportation is becoming more attractive to a lot of people too, as Pres. Obama talks about high-speech rail more and more. There is so much freedom to not having to drive a car yourself, but leaving the driving to others, that people who haven’t experienced it have a hard time imagining it. Well, it’s like flying — you can sit back and relax.

The future of cars is electric, that much is clear. We need clean energy cars with no emissions to reduce CO2 and start to draw down climate change. To that end, I was very happy last week when I saw that President Obama was visiting an electric car company in Kansas City called “Smith Electric Vehicles”. They started out as a UK company and are now making cars in the United States.

Update correction: Smith makes vehicles, but not cars. According to the comment below, Smith makes “all-electric trucks vans and small buses. Vehicles which operate on predictable routes and return to base at the end of each day. I can recommend visiting the Case Studies page within the ‘Rest Of The World’ section of the company website at http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com to see examples of hundreds in daily use.”

It’s great to see the president supporting electric cars vehicles with a visit. (See his video on page 2).

Now if he’d only stipulate to our car makers a couple of things. First, that they need to stop moving their jobs to Mexico, as GM and Ford are starting to do. Second, that in the interest of national security (climate change being a national security threat) GM and [...]

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