Putting a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon

Fission surface power systems – depicted in this conceptual illustration – could provide reliable 

power for human exploration of the Moon under Artemis. Credits: NASA

NASA is one step closer to finalizing nuclear power some 238,900 miles away from Earth.

The space agency and the U.S. Department of Energy have selected three design concept proposals for a fission surface power system that would be stationed on the moon.

The hope is that a nuclear reactor would produce the power needed to operate rovers, conduct experiments and help support life.


Scientists say that the concepts for the technology will benefit future exploration under the Artemis umbrella and will be ready to launch by the end of the decade.

The contracts fund the development of initial design concepts for a 40-kilowatt class fission power system planned to last at least 10 years in the lunar environment and valued at approximately $5 million each, NASA says. Forty kilowatts of power is enough to run 30 households for ten years continuously.  READ MORE...

Wild Hampster

 

Monkeypox Outbreak in US

On June 13, a man in New York began to feel ill.

"He starts to experience swollen lymph nodes and rectal discomfort," says epidemiologist Keletso Makofane, who's at Harvard University.

The man suspects he might have monkeypox. He's a scientist, and knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms, Makofane says. So the man goes to his doctor and asks for a monkeypox test. The doctor decides, instead, to test the man for common sexually transmitted diseases. All those come back negative.

"A few days later, the pain worsens," Makofane says. So he goes to the urgent care and again asks for a monkeypox test. This time, the provider prescribes him antibiotics for a bacterial infection.

"The pain becomes so bad, and starts to interfere with his sleep," Makofane says. "So this past Sunday, he goes to the emergency room of a big academic hospital in New York."

At this point the man has a growth inside his rectum, which is a symptom of monkeypox. At the hospital, he sees both an ER doctor and an infectious disease specialist. Again, the man asks for a monkeypox test. But the specialist rebuffs the request and says "a monkeypox test isn't indicated," Makofane says. Instead, the doctor speculates that the man might have colon cancer.  READ MORE...

Hungry Dogs

 

Mainstream Media Not Reporting

Censorship in an authoritarian society is obvious, from a distance, at least. There is a central agent or agency responsible for it and the lines are clearly drawn. That's not the case in America, yet some stories rarely, if ever, see the light of day.
Why?
One reason: While journalists every day work hard to expose injustices, they work within a system where some injustices are so deeply baked in that stories exposing them are rarely told and even more rarely expanded upon to give them their proper due.

Check out these 10 stories below...
1. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
2. Monsanto "Intelligence Center" Targeted Journalists and Activists
3. U.S. Military: A Massive, Hidden Contributor to Climate Crisis
4. Congressional Investments and Conflicts of Interest
5. Inequality Kills: Gap between Richest and Poorest Americans Largest in 50 Years
6. Shadow Network of Conservative Outlets Emerges to Exploit Faith in Local News
7. Underreporting of Missing and Victimized Black Women and Girls
8. The Public Banking Revolution
9. Rising Risks of Nuclear Power Due to Climate Change
10. Revive Journalism with a Stimulus Package and Public Option

SOURCE: Sonoma State University

What kind of a society do you want to live under?

One that keeps the news from you or one that does not keep the news from you?

You better start checking things out and compare news outlets to see what stories are being covered and which ones are not....

and, more importantly, WHY?

Why do they (that side of the political spectrum) want to keep you in the dark???

WOULD YOU COMPLAIN IF YOU KNEW?

Remember in the movie, A FEW GOOD MEN with Tom Cruise, the Colonel on the stand in the military courtroom said:  "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH..."

Is this you?

After Having Back Surgery

It has been 3 weeks since I had my back surgery and 5 disks in my lower back were fused together...  my incision was 7 inches and there were 10 screws and two rods connected to those vertebrae...  the pain was there for a couple of days then it became manageable when I moved around and tried to sleep.

I started walking two weeks after the surgery and at the end of the week, which will be this Saturday, I will have worked myself up to 1 mile...  I walked with a cane then used a rail to balance my stride.  What I discovered that walking with a cane gave me a third leg and I was only using 60% of my body.  Without the cane, I was using 90+% of my body, making it a lot more difficult and put more stress on my body...

My success to get back to the way I was where I can walk normally, is for me to continue walking and continue increasing the distance for at least 12 weeks from the date of surgery...  this will take me into September...

If I am not walking correctly by then, the surgery was not 100% successful...

The Postman

 

Shared Jumping Genes

According to a new study, the neural and cognitive complexity of the octopus could originate 

from a molecular analogy with the human brain.

New research has identified an important molecular analogy that could explain the remarkable intelligence of these fascinating invertebrates.

An exceptional organism with an extremely complex brain and cognitive abilities makes the octopus very unique among invertebrates. So much so that it resembles vertebrates more than invertebrates in several aspects. 

The neural and cognitive complexity of these animals could originate from a molecular analogy with the human brain, as discovered by a research paper that was recently published in BMC Biology and coordinated by Remo Sanges from Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) of Trieste and by Graziano Fiorito from Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples.


This research shows that the same ‘jumping genes’ are active both in the human brain and in the brain of two species, Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus, and Octopus bimaculoides, the Californian octopus. 

A discovery that could help us understand the secret of the intelligence of these remarkable organisms.

Sequencing the human genome revealed as early as 2001 that over 45% of it is composed of sequences called transposons, so-called ‘jumping genes’ that, through molecular copy-and-paste or cut-and-paste mechanisms, can ‘move’ from one point to another of an individual’s genome, shuffling or duplicating.

In most cases, these mobile elements remain silent: they have no visible effects and have lost their ability to move. Some are inactive because they have, over generations, accumulated mutations; others are intact, but blocked by cellular defense mechanisms. 

From an evolutionary point of view even these fragments and broken copies of transposons can still be useful, as ‘raw matter’ that evolution can sculpt.  READ MORE...

How to Escape Zip Lock

 

Climate Change Alters Wine

Soon after the devastating Glass Fire sparked in California’s Napa Valley in September 2020, wine chemist Anita Oberholster’s inbox was brimming with hundreds of emails from panicked viticulturists. They wanted to know if they could harvest their grapes without a dreaded effect on their wine: the odious ashtray flavor known as smoke taint.

Oberholster, of UC Davis, could only tell them, “Maybe.”

Industry laboratories were slammed with grape samples to test, with wait times of up to six weeks. Growers didn’t know whether it was worth harvesting their crops. About 8 percent of California wine grapes in 2020 were left to rot.

Winemakers are no strangers to the vicissitudes wrought by climate change. Warmer temperatures have been a boon to some in traditionally cooler regions who are rejoicing over riper berries—but devastating to others. Scorching heat waves, wildfires, and other climate-driven calamities have ruined harvests in Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere.

And as 2020 showed, climate change can take its toll on grapes without directly destroying them. Wildfires and warmer temperatures can transform the flavor of wine, whose quality and very identity depends on the delicate chemistry of grapes and the conditions they’re grown in. Many growers and winemakers are increasingly concerned that climate change is robbing wines of their defining flavors, even spoiling vintages entirely.

“That’s the big worry,” says Karen MacNeil, a wine expert living in Napa Valley and author of The Wine Bible. “That’s the heartbeat of wine—it’s connected to its place.”

The greatest challenge that climate change brings to winemaking is unpredictability, MacNeil says. Producers used to know which varieties to grow, how to grow them, when to harvest the berries, and how to ferment them to produce a consistent, quality wine—but today, every step is up in the air. This growing recognition is spurring researchers and winemakers to find ways to preserve beloved grape varieties and their unique qualities under the shifting and capricious conditions of today’s warming world.  READ MORE...

Paul Simon - Diamonds

 

Flying Luxury Hotel Plane

 

Original Design

Engineer Hashem Al-Ghaili created an animation based on an original design by artist Tony Holstrem for Sky Cruise, a conceptual nuclear fusion-powered luxury hotel.

Introducing Sky Cruise, a nuclear-powered hotel suspended above the clouds. This futuristic sky hotel gives you the ultimate travel experience. 

It’s big enough to accommodate over 5,000 guests. Its sleek design combines the features of a commercial plane while offering the epitome of luxury.

This high-flying hotel holds 5,000 people and stays in the air for years. The airborne hotel also has a shopping mall, elevators for easy access, and a deck for 360° views of the sky. 

The hotel is also equipped with an anti-turbulence system, state-of-the-art medical facilities, and is surprisingly, environmentally friendly.

You don’t have to worry about Sky Cruise’s carbon footprint. Its 20 electric engines are powered solely by clean nuclear energy. 

A small nuclear reactor uses highly controlled fusion reaction to provide the sky hotel with unlimited energy. 

Thanks to nuclear energy the hotel never runs out of fuel and can remain suspended in the air for several years without ever touching the ground.

Eating Birds

 

Doodle

 

Mexico Blames US

"Poverty and desperation" led to the deaths of at least 50 migrants abandoned in a Texas lorry, Mexico's president has said.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed trafficking and "a lack of control" at the border - the worst case of migrant deaths due to smuggling in the US.

Nearly two dozen Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were among the dead.

Those found alive, including four children, were taken to hospital.

The survivors were "hot to the touch" and suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

So far, Mexican authorities have said that at least two Mexican citizens are being treated for dehydration in hospital. Consular officials are working to confirm their identities.

Authorities are working to confirm the nationalities of remaining victims.

According to US authorities, three people "believed to be part of the smuggling conspiracy" have been taken into custody.

Speaking at his daily briefing, Mr Lopez Obrador, popularly known as Amlo, called the discovery a "tremendous tragedy", and said Mexico would work to repatriate the remains of its citizens.  READ MORE...

Whale

 

Bill Benefits Wealthy Americans

A retirement bill currently under negotiation in the Senate gives rich Americans a tax break by bringing forward the payment schedule to remain revenue-neutral within the 10-year budget window, but will ultimately add to the national deficit unless a future Congress raises taxes.

The Senate’s Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act raises the age at which taxpayers must start making withdrawals from 72 to 75, allowing them three extra years of tax-free growth.

Most Americans start living off their retirement accounts well before the age of 75, so the bumped-up age requirement really only affects the wealthy, who often use their retirement accounts as tax-sheltered investment vehicles rather than as savings to cover the cost of living in old age.

The bill throws another bone to rich taxpayers — and the Wall Street fund managers who look after their money — by allowing them to deposit an additional $10,000 a year into their retirement accounts beginning between the ages of 60 and 63. Setting aside an extra $10,000 a year is something most Americans can’t afford to do.  READ MORE...

Balance

 

China's Received Signals from Aliens

The signals were detected by the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) located in 

southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Image credit: NAO/FAST)

China is claiming that its enormous "Sky Eye" telescope may have picked up trace signals from a distant alien civilization, according to a recently posted and subsequently deleted report by Chinese scientists.


Astronomers at Beijing Normal University have discovered "several cases of possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations from outside the Earth," according to a report published Tuesday (June 14) in Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology.


The signals were picked up by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), nicknamed "Sky Eye," which is the largest radio telescope in the world. 

Sky Eye was put to work scanning deep space for radio signals that could indicate extraterrestrial life in 2019; sifting through that data in 2020, the researchers said they spotted two suspicious narrow-band, potentially artificial radio signals. 

Then, in 2022, a targeted survey of known exoplanets found another strange narrow-band radio signal, bringing the tally up to three.  READ MORE...

Fish Tank

 

Repeating Ball

 

Protein in Beans

Protein: it's not just for bodybuilders. Dietician Nancy Waldek explains that the human body doesn't naturally store protein, so folks need to consume protein regularly through their daily diets to create, maintain, and fuel cells, via Piedmont Healthcare.

Since everybody has different activity levels and calorie needs, it should come as no surprise that the amount of protein you should eat in a day varies from person to person. According to Harvard, a person's Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of their body weight.

For example, a person weighing 130 pounds would have an RDA of 46.8 grams of protein per day. In order to calculate your personal RDA, Harvard says, you can multiply your own weight in pounds by 0.36. Animal sources might be high in protein, but they're also high in saturated fat, according to Livestrong.

Plant-based protein sources like beans provide an easy and healthy way to bypass unwanted fat content and still fulfill your daily protein quota.  READ MORE...

Sunset

 

Britian's Early Inhabitants

Archaeologists have unearthed 600,000-year-old evidence of Britain’s early inhabitants near Canterbury, England.

The discovery, led by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge has found evidence of early humans that date from between 560,000 and 620,000 years ago during the Palaeolithic Period.

The site was first identified in the 1920’s when labourers found handaxes in an ancient riverbed, which researchers have now applied modern dating techniques through radiometric dating, infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating and controlled excavations of the site.

In a study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the researchers have confirmed the presence of Homo heidelbergensis, an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene and an ancestor of Neanderthals. 

Homo heidelbergensis is thought to have descended from the African Homo erectus during the first early expansions of hominins out of Africa beginning roughly 2 million years ago.

Early humans are known to have been present in Britain from as early as 840,000, and potentially 950,000 years ago, but these early visits were fleeting due to cold glacial climatic changes driving populations out of northern Europe which colonised Britain during a warming phase between 560,000 and 620,000 ago. 

During this period, Britain was connected to Europe on the north-western peninsular of the European continent, allowing populations to migrate to new hunting grounds probably during the warmer summer months.  READ MORE...

Another Sloth

 

Microscopic Mites Mating on our Faces

First ever comprehensive DNA analysis of mites that live in the hair follicles of all humans reveals explanations for their bizarre mating habits, body features, and evolutionary future.

Microscopic mites that live in human pores and mate on our faces at night are becoming such simplified organisms due to their unusual lifestyles that they may soon become one with humans, according to new research findings.

The mites are passed on during birth and are carried by almost every human, with numbers peaking in adults as the pores grow bigger. 

They measure around 0.3mm long, are found in the hair follicles on the face and nipples, including the eyelashes, and eat the sebum naturally released by cells in the pores. They become active at night and move between follicles looking to mate.


The first ever genome sequencing study of the D. folliculorum mite found that their isolated existence and resulting inbreeding is causing them to shed unnecessary genes and cells and move towards a transition from external parasites to internal symbionts.  READ MORE...

Immitations

 

Silent Running

 

Mysterious Impact Site on Moon

Artist’s animation of a rocket booster crashing into the moon.

Astronomers discovered a rocket body heading toward a lunar collision late last year. Impact occurred on March 4, 2022, with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later spotting the resulting crater. 

Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-meter diameter, about 19.5 yards) superimposed on a western crater (16-meter diameter, about 17.5 yards).

The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end. Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. 

Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity.

No other rocket body impacts on the Moon created double craters. The four Apollo SIV-B craters were somewhat irregular in outline (Apollos 13, 14, 15, 17) and were substantially larger (greater than 35 meters, about 38 yards) than each of the double craters. 

The maximum width (29 meters, about 31.7 yards) of the double crater of the mystery rocket body was near that of the S-IVBs.  READ MORE...

Happy Horses