500,000 flee as typhoon lashes japan. the year’s 18th typhoon shot through central and northeast Honshu on Monday, unleashing torrential rain and strong winds on much of the main island, including Fukushima prefecture, where radioactive water was discharged to prevent the troubled complex from flooding - Japan Times
Outdated lead exposure regulations threaten thousands of American workers. lax federal regulations allow some workers to accumulate dangerous amounts of lead in their blood, but California is taking the first steps toward safer standards.- Scientific American
Modern
Farmer is celebrating Goat Week, their response to the success of
Discovery Channel's Shark Week. The centerpiece of Goat Week is the GoatCam, through which you can monitor real goats in real time. And, most likely in a tribute to the fake documentary Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, Goat Week takes a look at the legendary Goatman of Prince Georges County, Maryland.When scared teenagers whisper about Goatman, not all agree on the form he takes. Some say he was a man who kept goats and went mad after teenagers killed his flock, driven to seek revenge against any youngster. But perhaps the most titillating version traces the origin of Goatman to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a sprawling USDA facility anchored by a big brick building appointed with white columns. In this version, a mad scientist is conducting experiments on a goat when something goes horribly wrong, turning him into a half man-half goat beast that is, naturally, hungry for blood.Read the history of the Goatman tales and how this local legend became known throughout the nation, if not the world. More
The Battle of New Orleans is often remembered as one of the most decisive American victories in the War of 1812. It’s also often remembered as an infamous battle-fought-after-the-war-ended, though the moniker is only half true. It’s true that the battle, which was fought on January 8, 1815, took place after the Treaty of Ghent was signed in Belgium on December 24, 1814, and even after the treaty had been ratified by the Prince Regent (the future King George IV). But President James Madison and the American Senate did not ratify the treaty until February 16, allowing the battle to assume an arguable level of tactical importance.The Battle of New Orleans is only one of eight such battles explained here.
This
may sound like a horror movie or a nightmare or an urban legend, but it
happened last week in Ohio. A group of Ohio State University students
rented a house near campus. To be specific, five students rented the
first floor, and ten other students rented the second and third floors.
That's fifteen people in a house. Or make that sixteen -with so many
people in one house, it's easy to overlook someone. It turned out there
was another guy living in the basement, who none of the other residents
knew.The roommates thought a locked door in the basement led to a utility closet. When maintenance workers knocked the door down, they found a bedroom complete with framed photographs and textbooks, said Jimmy Alderman, a fourth-year in civil engineering.Jeremy's cousin had lived in the house the year before, and since the locks weren't changed, he was able to use the old key. One of the residents had actually met the guy earlier, but assumed he belonged to the other unit. More
The residents had the locks changed that night and posted a note asking their houseguest to call them, said resident Brett Mugglin, a fourth-year in computer science and engineering. A man named Jeremy contacted them and then moved his belongings out of the room.
“He was a nice enough guy,” Mugglin said. “He just wasn’t supposed to be there.”
The origin of the glass is a controversial issue for the scientific community, with many evolving theories. Meteoritic origins for the glass were long suspected, and recent research linked the glass to impact features, such as zircon-breakdown, vaporized quartz and meteoritic metals, and to an impact crater. Some geologists associate the glass not with impact melt ejecta, but with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts. If that were the case, the glass would be analogous to trinitite, which is created from sand exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion. The Libyan desert glass has been dated as having formed about 26 million years ago. It was knapped and used to make tools during the Pleistocene Era.These two specimens were sold by Crystal Circle.
Datolite is a calcium boron hydroxide nesosilicate, CaBSiO4(OH)... It is common in the copper deposits of the Lake Superior region of Michigan. It occurs as a secondary mineral in mafic igneous rocks often filling vesicles along with zeolites in basalt. Unlike most localities throughout the world, the occurrence of datolite in the Lake Superior region is usually fine grained in texture and possesses colored banding. Much of the coloration is due to the inclusion of copper or associated minerals in progressive stages of hydrothermal precipitation.
Opal from Ethiopia that hit the market in 1993 from deposits near Mezezo, Shewa Province, has a tendency to craze. But the Wollo Province deposit was hailed as one of the most promising deposits of precious opal for the coming years in the Summer 2010 issue of Gems & Gemology and the Summer 2011 issue of InColor. “Wollo opal should be recognized as a new type because it can absorb or lose water, affecting transparency and play-of-color when wet, but recovering all its qualities when dry,” report researchers. They describe this new Ethiopian opal find as different from the opals of Shewa Province. Laboratory testing of the Wollo opal revealed most specimens were resistant to crazing after repeatedly being immersed in water and dried out over a period of time. Not only are they stable, researchers say, they’re surprisingly tough.Nine views of the specimen in this imgur album. Video of a beautiful cab here.
A
study into the aerodynamic performance of feathered dinosaurs, by
scientists from the University of Southampton, has provided new insight
into the evolution of bird flight. In recent years, new
Frogs were used because their inner ears turn out to be quite a useful model for the human inner ear, and the factors that induce motion sickness in frogs are the same as those for humans and other mammals. In addition to their use as model species, frogs were also logistically valuable thanks to their amphibious nature: preflight surgery could be performed out of water, but the frogs could then be kept in water during the experiment. This was important for two reasons: first, the water cushioned the critters from the vibration that comes when you launch an 18,000kg Scout rocket into space. Second, the water would cycle carbon dioxide and heat away from the frogs, keeping them cool. This was all possible because frogs can breathe through their skin while submerged in the comfortable 60F water.
This isn't an area where there has been a lot of research and experimentation (just imagine the required permits!), but snakes do not have special immunity from their own venom. When venom is stored in a snake's body, it is located within specially-evolved glands that can safely contain it. This is the same basic idea that allows us to hold potentially harmful stuff in our appendix or gall bladder. If chemicals escaped from a snake's venom gland (or our appendix or gall bladder), it would be bad news.
| 1356 | In a landmark battle of the Hundred Years' War, English Prince Edward defeats the French at Poitiers. | |
| 1544 | Francis, the king of France, and Charles V of Austria sign a peace treaty in Crespy, France, ending a 20-year war. | |
| 1692 | Giles Corey is pressed to death for standing mute and refusing to answer charges of witchcraft brought against him. He is the only person in America to have suffered this punishment. | |
| 1777 | American forces under Gen. Horatio Gates meet British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga Springs, NY. | |
| 1783 | The first hot-air balloon is sent aloft in Versailles, France with animal passengers including a sheep, rooster and a duck. | |
| 1788 | Charles de Barentin becomes lord chancellor of France. | |
| 1841 | The first railway to span a frontier is completed between Stousbourg and Basle, in Europe. | |
| 1863 | In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga begins as Union troops under George Thomas clash with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest. | |
| 1893 | New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant women the right to vote. | |
| 1900 | President Loubet of France pardons Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus, twice court-martialed and wrongly convicted of spying for Germany. | |
| 1918 | American troops of the Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force receive their baptism of fire near the town of Seltso against Soviet forces. | |
| 1948 | Moscow announces it will withdrawal soldiers from Korea by the end of the year. | |
| 1955 | Argentina's President Juan Peron is overthrown by rebels. | |
| 1957 | First underground nuclear test is takes place in Nevada. | |
| 1970 | First Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Artis (originally called the Pilton Festival) held near Pliton, Somerset, England. | |
| 1973 | Carl XVI Gustaf invested as King of Sweden, following the death of his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf. | |
| 1982 | The first documented emoticons, :-) and :-(, posted on Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System by Scott Fahlman. | |
| 1985 | An earthquake kills thousands in Mexico City. | |
| 1985 | Parents Music Resource Center formed by Tipper Gore (wife of then-Senator Al Gore) and other political wives to lobby for Parental Advisory stickers on music packaging. | |
| 1991 | German hikers near the Austria-Italy border discover the naturally preserved mummy of a man from about 3,300 BC; Europe's oldest natural human mummy, he is dubbed Otzi the Iceman because his lower half was encased in ice. | |
| 2006 | Military coup in Bangkok, revokes Thailand's constitution and establishes martial law. |
About 6.4 million Americans will be able to purchase insurance for less than $100 each month
on Obamacare’s new state-level marketplaces, according to a new report
from the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s because those
people will be eligible for federal subsidies that will reduce the price
of purchasing a plan under the health reform law.
Like Hitler, he [Obama] needs a powerful domestic army to terrify any opposition that might arise…The National Police will be recruited from “young out-of-work urban men” and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities. In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama’s enemies.Never mind that Obama neither needs nor has a powerful domestic army – or any domestic army – for people like Card, who operate by generating fear, even the suggestion is enough.
We are pleased to welcome Mr. Card to the UNC-TV Board of Trustees. We are grateful for his willingness to serve and look forward to working with him to continue providing the people of our state with enriching, life-changing television in these challenging times.Apparently, some repugicans think public television should reflect their hate-filled and inflammatory rhetoric – which happens to be a very Hitler-like move, and one, no doubt, of which Der Führer would have approved.
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossenPeople like Glenn Beck and our various religious zealots fling words like “Communist” and “Nazi” around because they generate negative emotion. None of it has to make any sense. In fact, they don’t want to make any sense. They just want to stoke levels of fear and hatred, which is, as it turns out, very Nazi and very Hitler-like of them.
S. A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam’raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier’n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
Flag high, ranks closed,
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
march in spirit with us in our ranks.
Though they claim to advance rights, or equality, or justice – values that in their place may be seductively legitimate – the real aim is power – or as currently phrased, “empowerment.” In comparison with this shared common goal, differences in contentare secondary. This is why alliances are readily formed between seemingly incompatible agendas: Hitler and Stalin, or Islamists and feminists. “Power is the alpha and the omega of contemporary Communism,” wrote Milovan Djilas during the repression of the 1950s.”Ideas, philosophical principles, and moral considerations…- all can be changed and sacrificed. But not power.Because we can all see radical islamists allying themselves with feminists.
Tropical forests ‘fix’ themselves
Climate change to shift Kenya’s breadbaskets 
These are the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that are thought to refer
to acne. They're part of a nifty piece by Hilda Bastian that looks at the history of our understanding about zits
— where people thought they came from before we knew about their
relationship to hormones and bacteria. And how some of the myths that
originated in that pre-scientific understanding still affect our
cultural attitudes about acne and the way anti-acne products are
marketed to us today.
How common is it among high school seniors? 
... It could lower your risk of stroke 
Phobias
— whether it’s fear of spiders, clowns, or small spaces — are common
and can be difficult to treat. New research suggests that watching
someone else safely interact with
A
University of Melbourne researcher has helped develop the first online
dictionary of sign languages used by Indigenous communities across
central Australia. The dictionary includes several hundred videos of
hand-signs
Fire
salamanders have been almost wiped out in the Netherlands by a new
skin-eating fungal disease which could threaten other amphibian
populations. Fire salamanders, recognizable by their distinctive yellow
and
| 1758 | James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War. | |
| 1759 | Quebec surrenders to the British after a battle which sees the deaths of both James Wolfe and Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders. | |
| 1793 | George Washington lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol. | |
| 1830 | Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in the United States, loses a nine-mile race in Maryland to a horse. | |
| 1850 | Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners. | |
| 1862 | After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia. | |
| 1863 | Union cavalry troops clash with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek. | |
| 1874 | The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West. | |
| 1911 | Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin dies four days after being shot at the Kiev opera house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff. | |
| 1914 | The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I. | |
| 1929 | Charles Lindbergh takes off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America. | |
| 1934 | The League of Nations admits the Soviet Union. | |
| 1939 | A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous, killing 500 people. | |
| 1948 | Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress. | |
| 1960 | Two thousand cheer Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session. | |
| 1961 | UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Congo. | |
| 1964 | U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam. | |
| 1973 | East and West Germany and The Bahamas are admitted to United Nations. | |
| 1975 | Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by violent radical group SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army); she later took part in some of the group's militant activities, is captured by FBI agents. | |
| 1977 | Voyager I takes first photo of Earth and the Moon together. | |
| 1980 | Cosmonaut Arnoldo Tamayo, a Cuban, becomes the first black to be sent on a mission in space. | |
| 1998 | ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is formed to coordinate unique identifying addresses for Websites worldwide. | |
| 2009 | The US television soap opera The Guiding Light broadcasts its final episode, ending a 72-year run that began on radio. |
