jeffreymark

IS FINGER PRINTING HISTORY?

A report from USA Today suggests iris scanning is the wave of the future.

RETRO OPTICS

All you 60s and 70s heads who just can't move on, click here for a psychedelia fix.

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED IN FOREST

The BBC reports:

An expedition to a remote forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo has uncovered six new animal species.

While walking in the San Juan forest last month I too discovered a new species. See the picture below.

A SECOND TEACHER PREPARING FOR SPACE ADVENTURE

Fast Company post the rather obscure news:

Next Wednesday, if everything goes according to plan, NASA will launch a teacher into space. Not just any teacher: the woman who was the backup for Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher headed for space, who was killed in the Challenger disaster in January 1986.

Yes, 21 years later, McAuliffe’s understudy Barbara Morgan will rocket into orbit aboard space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to blast off next Wednesday.

You probably haven’t heard about NASA finally getting a teacher into space. The agency has been pretty quiet about it, the news media has been even quieter, and of course, Barbara Morgan is going to the International Space Station in the somnolent second week of August. Not that many schools are even in session.

FC continues describing the astronauts' dinner menus:

Among the things now available on the web is what each astronaut has requested for each meal of the two-week flight — their personalized menus (scroll down to the crew section of the mission page and click "view menu" for a PDF). Morgan has chosen meatloaf for her first space meal (a dinner), and grits with butter for the breakfast she gets just before returning to Earth.

Yes, the food has gotten better in the 20 years since Challenger.

So have the margaritas, guys, so have the margaritas.

WHATEVER DUDES

Scientists tells us that apes play Charades. In fact I discovered a picture of Charades' star Cary Grant then and now. Keep in mind Mr. Grant was placed in suspended animation for years. Looks like the process went awry in some way.

Cary Grant 1940s

Cary Grant today

CONGRESS SEEKS TO PROTECT THE TITANIC

Live Science informs us:

Congress will soon consider legislation that could protect the Titanic, which tragically sunk in the North Atlantic 95 years ago, from unregulated salvage and other activities that could harm the remains of the once great ship. The Department of State sent the bill to Congress yesterday. The RMS Titanic was a British passenger superliner that sunk on its maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg on April 14, 1912. About 1,500 people died as a result, making the sinking one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history. Some scientists are concerned that visits to the wreck and the recovery of artifacts from the ship are hastening its decay. If enacted, this legislation will implement the agreement called for by Congress in the RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act of 1986 (Titanic Memorial Act), and will allow the United States to work in concert with the United Kingdom, Canada and France to more effectively protect the ship and its wreck site. The agreement would designate the Titanic shipwreck, which sits 12,000 feet below sea level, as an international maritime memorial to those who lost their lives in the sinking.

YOU MEAN THERE MAY BE TWO AL GORES?

Druge links to an article proclaiming:

It's got the same climate as Earth, plus water and gravity. A newly discovered planet is the most stunning evidence that life - just like us - might be out there.

Read the rest here.

IMMOBILIZING THE CROWD

The US Army may develop a new weapon that offers a fresh approach to crowd control.

GLOBAL WARMING TAKE #____________

Arnold king at TCS Daily tells us how to Think About Uncertainty and Global Warming. He concludes:

It is possible to have a civilized, sensible discussion about the issue of global climate change. However, doing so requires speaking in the language of uncertainty, rather than moral righteousness.

ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE'S TAKE ON GLOBAL WARMING

Thomas Sowell gives the low down on the hot air surrounding global warming. One notable point he makes suggests:

It is not just the sky that is falling. Government money is falling on those who seek grants to study global warming and produce "solutions" for it. But that money is not as likely to fall on those skeptics in the scientific community who refuse to join the stampede.

Therein lies the rub.