Former NASA Scientist Believes Viking Mission Found Life on Mars in 1976
October 11th, 2019Not new claims, but very interesting if you haven’t heard about this before.
Via: Scientific American:
I was fortunate to have participated in that historic adventure as experimenter of the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment on NASA’s spectacular Viking mission to Mars in 1976.
On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results from Mars. Amazingly, they were positive. As the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart. The data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet. The curves from Mars were similar to those produced by LR tests of soils on Earth. It seemed we had answered that ultimate question.
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Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results.
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The Viking LR sought to detect and monitor ongoing metabolism, a very simple and fail-proof indicator of living microorganisms. Several thousand runs were made, both before and after Viking, with terrestrial soils and microbial cultures, both in the laboratory and in extreme natural environments. No false positive or false negative result was ever obtained. This strongly supports the reliability of the LR Mars data, even though their interpretation is debated.
In her recent book To Mars with Love, my LR co-experimenter Patricia Ann Straat provides much of the scientific detail of the Viking LR at lay level. Scientific papers published about the LR are available on my Web site.
In addition to the direct evidence for life on Mars obtained by the Viking LR, evidence supportive of, or consistent with, extant microbial life on Mars has been obtained by Viking, subsequent missions to Mars, and discoveries on Earth…
Pentagon to Send More Troops, Fighter Jets to Saudi Arabia
October 11th, 2019Via: USA Today:
The Pentagon will send thousands more troops and two squadrons of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia as tensions increase with Iran.
The move follows an attack last month on oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia that Iran was “clearly responsible for,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday. Iran denied it had a role in the attacks, which an Iranian-backed proxy force claimed credit for.
The deployment adds to the 11,000 troops sent to the region since May in response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. Friday’s announcement covers troops send to the region or whose deployments have been extended. In all, the Pentagon has added about 3,000 troops over the last month.
Giuliani Associates Charged with Illegally Funneling Cash to Pro-Trump Group
October 10th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Two foreign-born Florida businessmen who have helped President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani investigate political rival Joe Biden were arrested in a scheme to illegally funnel money to a pro-Trump election committee and other U.S. political candidates, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The arrest of Ukraine-born Lev Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman at an airport outside Washington carrying one-way tickets to Vienna was the latest dramatic development in a political saga that threatens Trump’s presidency.
Prosecutors said Parnas and Fruman conspired to contribute foreign money including at least $1 million from an unidentified Russian businessman to candidates for federal and state offices to buy influence.
Prosecutors separately said they donated $325,000 to a pro-Trump political action committee called America First Action in May 2018, and the money was falsely reported as coming from a purported natural gas company set up to conceal its true source, according to the indictment.
Dyson Has Scrapped Its Electric Car Project
October 10th, 2019Via: BBC:
Dyson, the UK-based company best known for its vacuum cleaners, has scrapped a project to build electric cars.
The firm, headed by inventor Sir James Dyson, said its engineers had developed a “fantastic electric car” but that it would not hit the roads because it was not “commercially viable”.
In an email sent to all employees, Sir James said the company had unsuccessfully tried to find a buyer for the project.
Burisma Paid Joe Biden $900,000 for Lobbying – Ukrainian MP
October 9th, 2019Hmm…
Via: Interfax Ukraine:
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden received $900,000 for lobbying activities from Burisma Group, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada member Andriy Derkach said citing investigation materials.
Derkach publicized documents which, as he said, “describe the mechanism of getting money by Biden Sr.” at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine’s press center in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“This was the transfer of Burisma Group’s funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, personally to Joe Biden through a lobbying company. Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners, which according to open sources, in particular, the New York Times, is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was payment for consultative services,” Derkach said.
He also publicized sums that were transferred to Burisma Group representatives, in particular Hunter Biden, a son of the former U.S. vice president.
18-Year Old U.S. Soldiers Now Entering Afghanistan 18 Years After War Began
October 9th, 2019Even though Private Nines is from North Carolina, this story reminds me of: Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA by Terry Reed:
Terry was the quintessential product of Middle America. Sown like patriotic seed on the plains, his destiny was to be harvested for the nation’s use…
So it goes, generation after generation.
Via: ZeroHedge:
This week America’s longest war in Afghanistan turned eighteen, and so did its youngest solder. To mark the occasion, ABC News profiled the US occupation’s newest American member: “Pvt. Hunter Nines is about to join a war nearly as old as he is,” the report said.
Reflecting on his first impending deployment with the Army Pvt. Nines said, “I didn’t have a lot of thoughts on Afghanistan in particular.” He was but 7 months when the war began with the arrival of US troops on Oct. 7, 2001 following the 9/11 attacks. “I honestly just had the notion of I wanted to serve, and wherever that is, that’s where I’ll go.”
Thermoelectric Generator: Cold Side Radiates Heat Built Up from Day to Sky at Night
October 9th, 201925 mW/square meter is close to nothing, but it’s an interesting idea.
Via: Joule:
A large fraction of the world’s population still lacks access to electricity, particularly at night when photovoltaic systems no longer operate. The ability to generate electricity at night could be a fundamentally enabling capability for a wide range of applications, including lighting and low-power sensors. Here, we demonstrate a low-cost strategy to harness the cold of space through radiative cooling to generate electricity with an off-the-shelf thermoelectric generator. Unlike traditional thermoelectric generators, our device couples the cold side of the thermoelectric module to a sky-facing surface that radiates heat to the cold of space and has its warm side heated by the surrounding air, enabling electricity generation at night. We experimentally demonstrate 25 mW/m 2 of power generation and validate a model that accurately captures the device’s performance. Further, we show that the device can directly power a light emitting diode, thereby generating light from the darkness of space itself.
More: The Anti-Solar Panel – A Device That Generates Electricity From Darkness
Water Bottles Accumulate Bacteria Like ‘Barnacles on a Boat’ and Must be Cleaned Once a Week
October 9th, 2019haha. Unless the water bottles belong to my children, in which case the bottles require thorough washing every few days.
Via: Daily Mail:
A microbiologist has warned that your water bottle may be a portable Petri dish if it is not cleaned properly.
The bacteria accumulation is being compared to ‘barnacles on a boat’ and the most dangerous ones come from the outside world, which can cause strep and staph infections.
To transform the infected vessel back to a healthy water bottle, it is suggested that you clean every inch with hot, soapy water and a bottle brush, and do so at least once a week.
Millions Brace for Unprecedented Power Cuts in California
October 9th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
It was a once-unthinkable move: purposely shutting off power to millions of people and plunging a major metropolitan area into darkness.
And yet, on Wednesday, utility PG&E Corp. began cutting electricity to almost 800,000 California homes and businesses — representing roughly 2.4 million people — to prevent wildfires as high winds are forecast to whip through the state. The outages will hit 34 counties, including much of the San Francisco Bay area, triggering a scramble by residents to prepare for what may be days without power.
For PG&E, forced into bankruptcy by devastating fires that its equipment has ignited over the past two years, there is no alternative. The shutoff is a key strategy for preventing its power lines from sparking another deadly — and costly — conflagration. It’s largely unprecedented. Never before have California utilities intentionally put so many people out of power for their own safety. Nor have they darkened heavily populated cities in addition to rural areas.
Nobel Awarded for Lithium-Ion Batteries and Portable Power
October 9th, 2019Via: Quanta Magazine:
Three researchers were honored with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry this morning for their roles in the development of lithium-ion batteries, a technology that has made possible our mobile electronic civilization of cellular phones and electric cars. John Goodenough of University of Texas, Austin, M. Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University share equally in the prize.
