It’s time for humor

Canadian technology on NASA mission is a prototype for future, longer mission
Where does space begin? Scientists at the University of Calgary have created a new instrument that is able to track the transition between the relatively gentle winds of Earth’s atmosphere and the more violent flows of charged particles in space – flows that can reach speeds well over 1000 km/hr. And they have accomplished this in unprecedented detail.

Data received from the U of C-designed instrument sent to space on a NASA launch from Alaska about two years ago was able to help pinpoint the so-called edge of space: the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
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Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.

They found the higher a mother’s level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003

UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
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Considering how the fear of global warming is inspiring the world’s politicians to put forward the most costly and economically damaging package of measures ever imposed on mankind, it is obviously important that we can trust the basis on which all this is being proposed. Last week two international conferences addressed this issue and the contrast between them could not have been starker.

The first in Copenhagen, billed as “an emergency summit on climate change” and attracting acres of worldwide media coverage, was explicitly designed to stoke up the fear of global warming to an unprecedented pitch. As one of the organisers put it, “this is not a regular scientific conference: this is a deliberate attempt to influence policy”.
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The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard.

In the morning, the bricks will be covered with snow and barely discernible. The snowflakes will have filled every vacant space between and around the bricks.

What you will see, says Ivan Biaggio, resembles a phenomenon that, when it occurs at the smallest of scales on an integrated optical circuit, could hasten the day when the Internet works at superfast speeds.

Biaggio, an associate professor of physics at Lehigh University, is part of an international team of researchers that has developed an organic material with an unprecedented combination of high optical quality and strong ability to mediate light-light interaction and has engineered the integration of this material with silicon technology so it can be used in optical telecommunication devices.

A description of this material was published on the Nature Photonics Web site March 15.
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Obama budget kills Nevada storage site for used radioactive fuel rods piling up near power plants
In a pool of water just a football field away from Lake Michigan, about 1,000 tons of highly radioactive fuel from the scuttled Zion Nuclear Power Station is waiting for someplace else to spend a few thousand years.

The wait just got longer.

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget all but kills the Yucca Mountain project, the controversial site where the U.S. nuclear industry’s spent fuel rods were supposed to end up in permanent storage deep below the Nevada desert. There are no other plans in the works, meaning the waste for now will remain next to Zion and 104 other reactors scattered across the country.

Obama has said too many questions remain about whether storing waste at Yucca Mountain is safe, and his decision fulfills a campaign promise. But it also renews nagging questions about what to do with the radioactive waste steadily accumulating in 35 states
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Economist Nicholas Stern warns of ‘absolute lunacy’ of do-nothing approach of Czech president Václav Klaus and fellow climate change sceptics
Climate change deniers are “ridiculous” and akin to “flat-earthers”, according to Sir Nicholas Stern, who advised the government about the economic threat posed by global warming. The respected economist compared climate naysayers to those who deny the link between smoking and cancer or HIV and Aids in the face of mounting scientific evidence.

Stern — who prepared his influential report to the UK Treasury in 2007 at Gordon Brown’s request — said the evidence that human-induced climate change was occurring was “crystal clear”.

“If you look at all the serious scientists in the world, there is no big disagreement on the basics of this … it would be absolute lunacy to act as if climate change is not occurring,” he said.
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If you want your car converted to run on biodiesel or vegetable oil, there are plenty of places to turn–conversion kits are available for the DIY crowd, and the less mechanically-inclined can have professionals give their car biodiesel capability. But what if you want an electric car?

A Colorado company called Ree-V has stepped in to fill that niche by providing full-service electric car conversions. And while companies like Toyota, GM, and Ford have announced intentions to release PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) models, a conversion could cost significantly less.

Conversions to a lead-acid battery cost a pretty penny–between $17,500 and $200,000. And most converted cars are only suitable for quick trips around town. Ree-V’s 1995 Geo Metro conversion, for example, has a top speed of 70 MPH and a range of 25-35 miles.
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