Tuesday, the head of NASA, Charles Bolden, along with the White House Science advisor and the head of U.S. Space Command testified in front of the House Science Committee. The three were summoned to advise whether anything could be done to stop an asteroid from destroying Earth, or specifically, New York. When Rep. [...More...]
So confident are NASA that the apocalypse will not happen on December 21st that they have released a video 10 days ahead of schedule entitled 'Why the World Didn't End Yesterday'. Outlining point by point each of the so called 'myths' that surround the end of the Mayan calendar, astronomical and planetary experts debunk [...More...]
While some are throwing Doomsday countdown parties, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is issuing grave warnings that 2012 Mayan apocalypse rumors pose a real-life threat to frightened children and depressive teenagers. David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said on Wednesday that he receives a large number of emails and letters [...More...]
Over the past eight decades, New York City has proven irresistible to filmmakers with a taste for onscreen mayhem. The Big Apple was obliterated by ice fields, crushed by a monster lizard, pulverized by meteors and blown to smithereens by invading aliens, but the first movie to capture the destruction of New York was [...More...]
The results of two studies in the August 15 issue of JAMA report on the psychological status of workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan several months after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and the amount of internal radiation exposure among residents of a city north of the power plant that [...More...]
A drought scouring the farming heartlands of the United States is the worst for 25 years and could drive up food prices, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday. The United States is the world's biggest producer of corn and soybeans, and the warning came as some farmers warned they may be forced to harvest crops [...More...]
Stocking up on flashlights, batteries and other items to get ready for hurricane season this summer? You might want to wait for May 26 and 27, when the state of Louisiana will hold its annual sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness items. That weekend, Louisiana residents won't have to pay the 4 percent state sales tax [...More...]
Thick dust clouds block our night-time view of the Milky Way, creating what is sometimes called the Dark Rift. The fact that — from the viewpoint of Earth — the sun aligns with these clouds, or the galactic center, near the winter solstice is no cause for concern. Credit: A. Fujii One of the [...More...]
Mayan wall writings in Guatemala include calendars suggesting the culture was not convinced the world will end in 2012, as many have believed, researchers say. Some previously discovered Mayan calendars did not go beyond 2012 — but the newly discovered writings and calendars do, scientists said. "So much for the supposed end of the [...More...]
Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather – great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun – some people worry that a gigantic "killer solar flare" could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth. Citing the accurate fact that solar activity [...More...]
Supernova 1987A was the closest exploding star seen in modern times. It occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that orbits our own Milky Way. Images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope were combined to make this composite of the blast's expanding debris. Credit: NASA / ESA / P. Challis and R. [...More...]
Schematic illustration of Earth's magnetic field. Credit: Peter Reid, The University of Edinburgh Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the [...More...]
Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice. Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed [...More...]
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Panic spread today after tsunami warnings were issued following two massive earthquakes off Indonesia. Thousands of people in Aceh – 270 miles from the epicenter of the first 8.7 magnitude quake – fled to the hills fearing a repeat of the deadly 2004 tsunami. Buildings shook for four minutes and there were reports of [...More...]
Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in the deadly shootings of unarmed residents during the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, with the judge lashing out at prosecutors for two hours on their handling of the case. Police shot six people [...More...]
A century after the Titanic disaster, scientists have found an unexpected culprit for the sinking: the moon. Anyone who knows history or has seen the blockbuster movies knows that the cause of the transatlantic liner’s accident 100 years ago next month was that it hit an iceberg. “But the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic,” said Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist whose team of forensic astronomers examined the moon’s role.
Mexican political party officials are scrambling to do damage control and apologizing to 650 plus people who suffered from food poisoning after attending a campaign rally in southern Mexico. The leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Guerrero state blames the candidate who held the event. Party leader Victor Valencia saying it is not the [...More...]
The Hungarian Central Bank has begun recycling bank notes withdrawn from circulation by turning them into fire briquettes and donating them to the poor who can use them for burning. Watch the video below. What do you think of this post?Awesome (0) Interesting (0) Useful (0) Boring (0) Not Good (0)
At least 16 students have been stricken with a mysterious illness will Tourettes-like symptoms in LeRoy, NY. Doctors say the students are experiencing a psychological condition called Conversion Disorder or Mass Psychogenic Illness. Basically, it is when a bunch of people get together and start freaking out. Recently, parents unsatisfied with calling their [...More...]
The Ministry of the Environment has started a study to examine the effects of radiation from the disaster-struck Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on nearby plant and wildlife, particularly their reproductive functions. The ministry — working with the Japan Wildlife Research Center and the National Institute of Radiological Sciences — is selecting local [...More...]
Japan's stricken nuclear power plant has leaked more than 600 litres of water, forcing it to briefly suspend cooling operations at a spent-fuel pond at the weekend, but none is thought to have escaped into the ocean, the plant's operator and domestic media said. The Fukushima plant, on the coast north of Tokyo, was [...More...]