Current Moon Phase May 25 Full Moon Lunar Eclipse 4° Sagittarius Current Solar Data From NOAA Current Earthquake Activity IRIS Earthquakes Worldwide in the Last 30 Days IRIS Astronomy Picture of the Day NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Archives NASA Website Spaceweather.com Thunderbolts Picture of the Day Thunderbolts Archives MAY 2013 May 25 - Vesak, Birth of Buddha May 27 - Memorial Day

Order Your eBook Reading with Ellie

Ellie's World Blogs
Memos
Coming up ...
Reality Check - May 13-17
    Traveling to Find Your Purpose
    Texas Tornadoes - Funnels and DNA Consciousness Journeys
    Feeling Burned Out - The Roller Coaster Metaphor
    Destroying an Ancient Pyramid in Belize
    Metaphysics Today ... The Last Drop .. of Life
Multitasking
Emotional Strategy May Influence Anxiety
Dr. Joyce Brothers Died, Role Model For Ellie
Angelina Jolie Has Double Mastectomy

  Live Tornado Watch   Weather Channel - May 19, 2013

  What Exploded on the Moon?   Weather Channel - May 19, 2013

Proof of heaven popular, except with the church   CNN - May 19, 2013
Eben Alexander shouted and flailed as hospital orderlies tried to hold him in place. But no one could stop his violent seizures, and the 54-year-old neurosurgeon went limp as his horrified wife looked on. That moment could have been the end. But Alexander says it was just the beginning. He found himself soaring toward a brilliant white light tinged with gold into the strangest, most beautiful world I'd ever seen.

Johann Fichte was a German philosopher and one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement German Idealism, developed from the writings of Immanuel Kant. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Like Descartes and Kant, subjectivity and consciousness motivated much of his philosophical ruminations.

North Korea launches short-range missiles   CNN - May 18, 2013
North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast Saturday, South Korea's semi-official news agency Yonhap cited the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.

  Guangdong hit as deadly floods sweep southern China   BBC - May 18, 2013
Flooding and landslides across nine southern Chinese provinces have killed more than 50 people and left 14 missing, officials say.

  Dozens injured in head-on train crash in Connecticut   BBC - May 18, 2013
More than 60 people were injured, at least two critically, after a head-on, rush-hour collision between two commuter trains near New York City. Hundreds of people were on the trains involved in Friday evening's crash just outside Bridgeport, Connecticut. Officials said a train that left New York City's Grand Central Station en route to New Haven, Connecticut, derailed then was hit by another train. Amtrak has suspended its service between New York and Boston.

Probe begins after Conn. commuter trains crash   AP - May 18, 2013
Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in an accident that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor. Three patients remained in critical condition Saturday morning, with two of those stable, according to officials at two Bridgeport hospitals.

  Cannes film festival suffers $1m jewellery theft   BBC - May 17, 2013
More than $1m (£650,000) worth of jewels have been stolen from a hotel in the French town of Cannes, police say. The jewels were to be loaned to celebrities who have arrived on the French Riviera for the famous annual film festival. They were stolen from a safe in the Novotel Hotel room of an employee of exclusive Swiss jewellers Chopard.

Invasive ladybirds wage 'biological war' on natives   BBC - May 17, 2013
German researchers have discovered the biological keys to the success of an invasive species, wreaking havoc across Europe and the US. The Asian ladybird was originally brought in to control aphids in greenhouses. But it has escaped and is increasing uncontrollably across Europe, wiping out native species. The alien is winning, say scientists, because its body fluid contains a parasite toxic to other insects.

Cicadas ramping up for East Coast invasion   MSNBC - May 16, 2013
Cicada nymphs have been starting to crawl out of the ground in droves across the East Coast, and the highly anticipated emergence of the 17-year-old insects has been ramping up in the Mid-Atlantic in recent days. Nymph sightings have been reported as far north as Connecticut, according to citizen science projects such as Radiolab's Cicada Tracker and Magicicada. But farther south, some residents of Virginia are seeing adult cicadas by the hundreds. Sometimes these sightings have been accompanied with mating calls or a loud continuous chorus, according to the tracking maps.

Uncovering the secrets of North America's Ice Age giants   BBC - May 17, 2013
Eighty thousand years ago the Earth began to cool, marking the start of the last Ice Age. Experts are still discovering how the big freeze affected the giant mammals which prowled its dramatically changing landscape. Scientists are helping to uncover the secrets of giant Ice Age beasts like the sabretooth cat - by foraging in crates of dirt which were collected during the building of a car park.

Cemetery Reveals Baby-Making Season in Ancient Egypt   Live Science - May 17, 2013
The peak period for baby-making sex in ancient Egypt was in July and August, when the weather was at its hottest. Researchers made this discovery at a cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt whose burials date back around 1,800 years. The oasis is located about 450 miles (720 kilometers) southwest of Cairo. The people buried in the cemetery lived in the ancient town of Kellis, with a population of at least several thousand. These people lived at a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, when Christianity was spreading but also when traditional Egyptian religious beliefs were still strong. So far, researchers have uncovered 765 graves, including the remains of 124 individuals that date to between 18 weeks and 45 weeks after conception. The excellent preservation let researchers date the age of the remains at death. The researchers could also pinpoint month of death, as the graves were oriented toward the rising sun, something that changes predictably throughout the year

Property of Rarest Element on Earth Measured for 1st Time   Live Science - May 17, 2013
A fundamental property of the rarest element on Earth, astatine, has been discovered for the first time, scientists say. Astatine occurs naturally; however, scientists estimate much less than an ounce in total exists worldwide. For a long time, the characteristics of this elusive element were a mystery, but physicists at the CERN physics laboratory in Switzerland have now measured its ionization potential - the amount of energy needed to remove one electron from an atom of astatine, turning it into an ion or a charged particle.

3D Print Your Own Invisibility Cloak at Home   Live Science - May 17, 2013
Invisibility cloaks made of plastic can now be created at home using 3D printers, researchers show. The first clues that cloaking devices might one day become more than science fiction, a la "Star Trek" began emerging seven or so years ago. Since then researchers have made such cloaks a reality by smoothly guiding rays of electromagnetic radiation such as microwave beams completely around objects so they proceed along their original trajectory as if nothing were there. The first working invisibility cloaks were demonstrated using complex lab experiments. They can now, in principle, get made at home using 3D printers.

5 Fascinating Facts About Fetal Ultrasounds   Live Science - May 17, 2013
For most women today, it's hard to imagine going through a pregnancy without having an ultrasound. But these iconic black-and-white images of a developing fetus, generated by the reflection of high frequency sound waves, have only been around since the mid-1950s. A new book explores the history of ultrasounds, in both their technical and social dimensions.

Crop circle appears in rural Tennessee   Open Minds- May 17, 2013
The circle was found on May 13, 2013 in a field near the town of Gray, which is in northeastern Tennessee near the border with Virginia. The design is reported as consisting of two half-moon shapes facing in opposite directions connected by a bar of some kind, with two complete circles inside each of the half-moons. The circle is in high grass that has been reportedly pushed down, and there are no footsteps or vehicle tracks leading up to the formation.

Bach to the Blues, Our Emotions Match Music to Colors   Science Daily - May 17, 2013

Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel. People in both the United States and Mexico linked the same pieces of classical orchestral music with the same colors. This suggests that humans share a common emotional palette -- when it comes to music and color -- that appears to be intuitive and can cross cultural barriers, UC Berkeley researchers said. The results were remarkably strong and consistent across individuals and cultures and clearly pointed to the powerful role that emotions play in how the human brain maps from hearing music to seeing colors.

Researchers suggest Victorian-era people more intelligent modern-day counterparts   PhysOrg - May 17, 2013
In a new study, a European research team suggests that the average intelligence level of Victorian-era people was higher than that of modern-day people. They base their controversial assertion on reaction times (RT) to visual stimuli given as tests to people from the late 1800s to modern times - the faster the reaction time, they say, the smarter the person.

Amarantine is an ancient word, which means eternity.

The poets describe an undying flower with that word,

and I fell in love with that idea.

Enya Quotes 1

Enya Quotes 2

Enya Quotes 3

It's better to have a rich soul than to be rich.

Olga Korbut Quotes 1

Olga Korbut Quotes 2

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian linguist, mathematician, and philosopher who was considered the first important woman mathematician since Hypatia (fifth century A.D.) She is credited with writing the first book, that still survives, discussing both differential and integral calculus. She discussed the curve known as the "witch of Agnesi" or "versiera" as she named it in 1748.

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen,

whatever you say to them they translate

into their own language and

forthwith it is something entirely different.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mathematics Quotes

William Henry Seward was a Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. On the night of Lincoln's assassination, he survived an attempt on his life. As Johnson's Secretary of State, he engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in an act that was ridiculed at the time as Seward's Folly but which exemplified his character.

  Mexico Popocatepetl Volcano Registers More Seismic Activity   Weather.com - May 16, 2013
Seismic activity is continuing at the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City and authorities say they have readied shelters and identified evacuation routes in case they should be needed. Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center says there were two explosions at the white-capped volcano between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The center says the volcano spewed a plume of steam about a mile (1.5 kilometers) into the sky.

The North Pole is on the Move   Weather.com - May 16, 2013
The North PoleÕs surprise trip toward Greenland is due to Earth's rapidly melting ice sheets, a new study finds. The distribution of mass across the planet determines the position of Earth's poles. Because Earth is a bit egg-shaped, the North Pole is always slightly off-center. It's also been slowly drifting south, responding to long-term changes since the last Ice Age, as the enormous ice sheets that once covered large swaths of the planet melted and parts of the Earth rebounded from the lost weight.

  Suspected tornadoes hit Texas; 6 dead, dozens injured   CNN - May 16, 2013
Suspected tornadoes ripped through North Texas on Wednesday night, killing at least six people and injuring more than 100 others, officials said. The fatalities occurred when the storm struck a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in the Granbury area, Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said. There were about 120 homes in the neighborhood, and most of them were destroyed. Fourteen people were still missing, and the death toll could rise, Deeds said. About 100 people were injured, said Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare.

Texas Tornado Caught on Video   Live Science - May 16, 2013
A series of tornadoes tore through towns in Texas last night (May 15), leaving a string of damage, dozens of injuries and six confirmed fatalities in its wake, according to news reports. The six deaths occurred in Granbury, about an hour west of Dallas, and the hardest hit town in last night's storms, which hit around 8 p.m. local time. Another tornado hit the town of Millsap, damaging several homes and a barn, according to The Associated Press, but no injuries were reported there.

Huge Solar Flares Keep Erupting from Busy Sunspot   Live Science - May 16, 2013
An overachieving sunspot on the surface of the sun unleashed its fourth major solar flare in two days late Tuesday (May 14), a solar storm that may deal Earth a glancing blow, space weather experts say. The active sunspot AR1748 roared to life Tuesday night releasing an X-class solar flare - the strongest type the sun can experience - that peaked at 9:48 p.m. EDT (0148 May 15 GMT), according to NOAA's Space Weather PredictionCenter in Boulder, Colo. The flare came after a relative lull in activity from sunspot AR1748, which fired off three monster X-class solar flares within a 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday.

Engineers Monitor Heart Health Using Paper-Thin Flexible 'Skin'   Science Daily - May 16, 2013
Most of us don't ponder our pulses outside of the gym. But doctors use the human pulse as a diagnostic tool to monitor heart health. Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, has developed a heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill and no wider than a postage stamp. The flexible skin-like monitor, worn under an adhesive bandage on the wrist, is sensitive enough to help doctors detect stiff arteries and cardiovascular problems.

Anger Management: 6 Ways to Keep Your Cool at Work   Live Science - May 16, 2013
Whether it is the stress of meeting a deadline or finishing a big project, work can often drive employees to their breaking points. However, workers must be able to keep their heads no matter how stressful a situation may be. To help, Joseph Shrand, an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical Schooland author of "Outsmarting Anger: 7 Strategies for Defusing our Most Dangerous Emotion" (Jossey-Bass 2013), has several tips on how workers can avoid losing their tempers in any given situation.

World's Most Extraordinary Species Mapped for the First Time   Science Daily - May 16, 2013
Scientists pinpointed areas of the world where Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) mammals and amphibians occur. Regions containing the highest concentrations of these species are highlighted as global conservation priorities.

6 of NatureÕs Loneliest Animals Looking for Love   National Geographic - May 16, 2013
The London Zoo recently put out a call to collectors that doubled as the animal version of a personals ad. The zoo was looking for females of the Mangarahara cichlid, a species of fish so rare that none are thought to exist in the wild, and one that is in critical danger of going extinct entirely if the zooÕs two males and a further bachelor fish at a zoo in Berlin donÕt find mates soon.

It's better to have a rich soul than to be rich.

Olga Korbut Quotes 1

Olga Korbut Quotes 2

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian linguist, mathematician, and philosopher who was considered the first important woman mathematician since Hypatia (fifth century A.D.) She is credited with writing the first book, that still survives, discussing both differential and integral calculus. She discussed the curve known as the "witch of Agnesi" or "versiera" as she named it in 1748.

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen,

whatever you say to them they translate

into their own language and

forthwith it is something entirely different.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mathematics Quotes

William Henry Seward was a Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. On the night of Lincoln's assassination, he survived an attempt on his life. As Johnson's Secretary of State, he engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in an act that was ridiculed at the time as Seward's Folly but which exemplified his character.

Oldest Water on Earth Found Deep Underground   Live Science - May 15, 2013
A pocket of water some 2.6 billion years old - the most ancient pocket of water known by far, older even than the dawn of multicellular life - has now been discovered in a mine 2 miles below the Earth's surface. The finding raises the tantalizing possibility that ancient life might be found deep underground not only within Earth, but in similar oases that may exist on Mars, the scientists who studied the water said. Geoscientist Barbara Sherwood Lollar at the University of Toronto and her colleagues have investigated deep mines across the world since the 1980s. Water can flow into fractures in rocks and become isolated deep in the crust for many years, serving as a time capsule of what their environments were like at the time they were sealed off.

Ruins of Lost City May Lurk Deep in Honduras Rain Forest   Live Science - May 15, 2013
New images of a possible lost city hidden by Honduran rain forests show what might be the building foundations and mounds of Ciudad Blanca, a never-confirmed legendary metropolis. Archaeologists and filmmakers Steven Elkins and Bill Benenson announced last year that they had discovered possible ruins in Honduras' Mosquitia region using lidar, or light detection and ranging. Essentially, slow-flying planes send constant laser pulses groundward as they pass over the rain forest, imaging the topography below the thick forest canopy. What the archaeologists found - and what the new images reveal - are features that could be ancient ruins, including canals, roads, building foundations and terraced agricultural land.

Oldest Fossils Reveal When Apes & Monkeys First Diverged   Live Science - May 15, 2013
The oldest ape and Old World monkey fossils have been unearthed in a riverbed in Tanzania, a new study reports. Researchers found a tooth from the newfound species Nsungwepithecus, the oldest member of the primate group that contains Old World monkeys (cercopithecoids). The team also found a jawbone from the newfound genus Rukwapithecus, an early member of the hominoids, the group containing the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and humans) and lesser apes (gibbons). The fossil remnants of these two primate groups date back to 25 million years ago, filling a gap in the fossil record that reveals when apes and monkeys first diverged.

Latest big solar flare could give Earth a glancing blow   MSNBC - May 15, 2013
A huge X1.2-class solar flare erupted from the sun late Tuesday, the fourth major flare in two days from a busy sunspot on the surface of the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory captured this view of the event. An overachieving sunspot on the surface of the sun unleashed its fourth major solar flare in two days late Tuesday, a solar storm that may deal Earth a glancing blow, space weather experts say.

Video Captures Amazing Greenland Glacier Crackup   Live Science - May 15, 2013
A deafening rumble alerted two scientists to an amazing sight: the collapse of one of Greenland's biggest and fastest-moving glaciers. And because the scientists were already in place with a time-lapse camera, they were able to capture the calving event - one of the biggest of these glacier collapses ever recorded on film. Before the collapse, Timothy James, a researcher at Swansea University in the United Kingdom, was in southeastern Greenland in July 2010 to set up a remote camera to spy on Helheim Glacier where it meets the sea. This meeting of glacier and ocean is called the calving front, and marks the zone where icebergs break off (or calve).

2 Alaska volcanoes on alert as lava flows   CNN - May 15, 2013
Lava flowed Tuesday from two Alaskan volcanoes, with authorities placing both on the second-highest alert levels because "sudden explosions ... are possible with little or no warning."

18 Photos: Hawaii's Amazing Volcanic Rocks   Live Science - May 15, 2013
An amazing variety of rocks appear in Hawaii from a single type of molten rock called basalt. Here's a guide to some of the weird and wonderful stones that result from the active lava flows in Hawaii, as well as a description of different types of volcanic rocks.

US man killed dribbling football to Brazil World Cup   BBC - May 15, 2013
In American trying to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil in time for the 2014 Brazil World Cup has died less than two weeks into his trip. Richard Swanson, 42, was hit by a truck in Lincoln City, Oregon. His football was found nearby.

Prescription Painkillers Linked to Erectile Dysfunction   Live Science - May 15, 2013
Men who take prescription pain medications for long periods may be at increased risk of erectile dysfunction, a new study suggests. In the study, men who took high doses of opioid medication for at least four months were 50 percent more likely to be treated for erectile dysfunction (ED) than those who did not take opioid medications, the researchers said.

Brain Rewires Itself After Damage or Injury, Life Scientists Discover   Science Daily - May 15, 2013
When the brain's primary "learning center" is damaged, complex new neural circuits arise to compensate for the lost function, say life scientists from UCLA and Australia who have pinpointed the regions of the brain involved in creating those alternate pathways -- often far from the damaged site.

New Craters Abound: Mars Camera Reveals Hundreds of Impacts Each Year   Science Daily - May 15, 2013
Taking before and after pictures of Martian terrain, researchers of the UA-led HiRISE imaging experiment have identified almost 250 fresh impact craters on the Red Planet. The results suggest Mars gets pummeled by space rocks less frequently than previously thought, as scientists relied on cratering rates of the moon for their estimates.

North Pole Moves as Ice Sheets Melt   Live Science - May 15, 2013
The North PoleÕs surprise trip toward Greenland is due to Earth's rapidly melting ice sheets, a new study finds. The distribution of mass across the planet determines the position of Earth's poles. Because Earth is a bit egg-shaped, the North Pole is always slightly off-center. It's also been slowly drifting south, responding to long-term changes since the last Ice Age, as the enormous ice sheets that once covered large swaths of the planet melted and parts of the Earth rebounded from the lost weight.

Quote by Spielberg, "My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none. The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium."

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of
government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

Democracy cannot be built on revenge. You will not have the support
of the world if you are intolerant and take the law into your own hands.

Madeleine Albright Quotes 1

Madeleine Albright Quotes 1

Madeleine Albright Quotes 2

Don't be afraid to fall flat on your face.

You'll bounce back.

Eddy Arnold Quotes

Mount Everest

If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest,
then I will have to live with this shame.

Tenzing Norgay

Quotes From Those Who Climbed Mt. Everest

Enter the land of Oz ... It may be closer than you think.

Lyman Frank Baum

  Angelina Jolie has double mastectomy   CNN - May 14, 2013
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has undergone a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer. The 37-year-old mother of six has explained her reasons for having the surgery. She said her doctors estimated she had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. "I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could," she wrote.

How surgeons build new breasts   CNN - May 14, 2013
Nine weeks after Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy to prevent cancer, the actress had another surgery to reconstruct her breasts using implants.

Angelina Jolie's mastectomy account raises awareness of gene testing   The Guardian - May 14, 2013
In her account, published on Wednesday, Jolie appealed for greater access for gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment and encourages women to explore their options. The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which doctors told her increased her risk of developing breast cancer to 87%; it also increased her risk of ovarian cancer.

Stars Aligned at Ancient Tomb in Spain   Live Science - May 14, 2013

Some astronomical sleuthing has revealed the cultic past life of a Roman tomb in Spain. Researchers believe the burial site was once used as a Mithraic temple, positioned to line up with the constellations and guide sun through its window during the equinoxes. The Carmona necropolis in Seville is full of burials from the 1st century B.C. through the 2nd century A.D., including the so-called Elephant's Tomb, named so for an elephant-shaped statue discovered inside the structure. Researchers have debated what this structure was used for and archaeologists from the University of Pablo de Olavide in Seville now propose that it served as a place of worship for devotees of Mithraism, a cult that thrived during the Roman Empire.

  Dr. Joyce Brothers dead at 85   MSNBC - May 14, 2013

Brothers died peacefully, surrounded by family, according to an obituary written by her family and provided to NBC News.

2,300-year-old Mayan pyramid bulldozed   MSNBC - May 14, 2013

A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract rock for a road-building project. The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology says the destruction was detected late last week. Only a small portion of center of the pyramid mound was left standing.

Mayan pyramid bulldozed by Belize construction crew   BBC - May 14, 2013
Officials in Belize say a construction company has destroyed one of the country's largest Mayan pyramids. Head of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology Jaime Awe said the Noh Mul temple was leveled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler. The Mayan temple dates back to pre-Columbian times and is estimated to be 2,300 year old. Only a small core of the pyramid was left standing. Police said they were investigating the incident. Archaeologists said this was not the first incident of its kind.

In Dan Brown's 'Inferno,' numeric riddles and controversial science mix   MSNBC - May 14, 2013

Dan Brown's "Inferno," the latest thriller from the author of "The Da Vinci Code," is another globe-trotting, world-saving adventure - and a chance for readers to ponder a new set of mathematical and scientific puzzles. In "The Da Vinci Code," Robert Langdon, the world's best-known fictional symbologist, follows a trail that highlights a controversial reading of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. In "Angels and Demons," an antimatter bomb from Europe's CERN research center plays a key part in the plot. In "The Lost Symbol," Langdon teams up with a researcher in noetic science, which tackles woo-woo subjects like ESP and vibrational energies. All three thrillers are seasoned with a healthy dose of secret codes.

Prince Harry to Tour NJ Sandy Damage, Visit NYC   MSNBC - May 14, 2013
Prince Harry is headed to the Jersey shore to visit two communities ravaged by Sandy. From there he'll travel to New York City to promote British trade and a community baseball program. With New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his tour guide, Prince Harry is scheduled to stop Tuesday morning in the towns of Mantoloking and Seaside Heights on a slender barrier island along the Atlantic Ocean.

  Insect invasion: Israel battles plague of locusts   MSNBC - May 14, 2013
Huge swarms of the newly hatched critters have begun marching across the sand, devouring everything in their path. With the help of high-tech irrigation methods, much of IsraelÕs desert has been transformed into lush farmland that supplies supermarkets across the country with fresh produce. But the swarm of locusts, which locals say is the worst infestation in decades, is threatening crops and farms.

Spontaneous Gene Mutations Linked to Kids' Heart Defects   Live Science - May 14, 2013
Mutations in genes that occur spontaneously may contribute to congenital heart disease in children, according to a new study. These mutations - which arise after conception, rather than being inherited from a parent - may contribute to about 10 percent of cases of congenital heart disease in children, the study said. Congenital heart disease is a group of heart defects (such as holes, or missing parts of the heart), and is the most common type of birth defect in the United States. About 40,000 babies are born each year with congenital heart disease.

Brain's 'Clock' Disrupted in Depressed People   Live Science - May 14, 2013
Disrupted sleep is so commonly a symptom of depression that some of the first things doctors look for in diagnosing depression are insomnia and excessive sleeping. Now, however, scientists have observed for the first time a dysfunctional body clock in the brains of people with depression. People with major depression, also known as clinical depression, show disrupted circadian rhythms across brain regions, according to a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers looked at post-mortem brain samples from mentally healthy donors and compared them with those of people who had major depression at the time of their death. They found that gene activity in the brains of depressed people failed to follow healthy 24-hour cycles.

Gut microbe battles obesity   PhysOrg - May 14, 2013
Akkermansia muciniphila is one of the many microbes that live in our intestines. This bacterium, which feeds on the intestine's mucus lining, comprises between 3 and 5 percent of the gut microbes of healthy mammals. There is an inverse correlation between body weight and abundance of A. muciniphila in mice and humans.

Hidden Graves Revealed with Geophysics Tools   Live Science - May 14, 2013
Convicting a murderer can be hard if there's no body, but new research may help authorities to better detect human remains hidden underground, in clandestine graves. Thousands of missing people that have been tortured and killed may be buried in such secret graves, the researchers say. By simulating human graves by burying dead pigs under a variety of conditions, and then monitoring the graves using geophysical methods such as radar, researchers could improve the ability to find hidden bodies.

Demolition to begin on NJ coaster wrecked by Sandy   AP - May 14, 2013
Workers are set to begin demolishing perhaps the most famous symbol of Superstorm Sandy's devastation along New Jersey's shoreline. They'll be taking apart the remnants of a roller coaster that plunged off an amusement pier into the ocean during the Oct. 29 storm.

If you know you are going to fail,

then fail gloriously.

Cate Blanchett Quotes 1

Cate Blanchett Quotes 2

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.

George Lucas Quotes 1

George Lucas Quotes 2

George Lucas Quotes 3

The answers are in the matrix if you just know how to read it.

Mark Zuckerberg

X-Rated: Sun Unleashes Biggest Boom of 2013   Discovery - May 13, 2013
In the early hours of this morning (Monday, 02:17 UT), the sun exploded to life with an X1.7 flare. X-class flares are the most energetic type of flare the sun can generate. Although this flare was at the lower end of the the X category, it was the most powerful of the year, so far. Although the Earth has a pretty hefty atmosphere that can shield us against the X-ray radiation generated by flares of this type, this morningÕs event occurred beyond the limb of the sun, meaning that the bulk of the energy generated was directed away from Earth.

Earth's center is out of sync   PhysOrg - May 13, 2013

We all know that the Earth rotates beneath our feet, but new research has revealed that the center of the Earth is out of sync with the rest of the planet, frequently speeding up and slowing down. The use of earthquake doublets to measure the rotation speed of Earth's inner core over the last 50 years showed that not only did the inner core rotate at a different rate to the mantle - the layer between the core and the crust that makes up most of the planet's interior - but its rotation speed was variable.

Stunning Byzantine Mosaic Uncovered in Israel   Live Science - May 13, 2013

Archaeologists have uncovered an extraordinary mosaic that would've been used as the floor of a public building during the Byzantine Period in what is today Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. The colorful mosaic and public building, whose ceiling was covered in roof tiles, were uncovered in Kibbutz Bet Qama, in the B'nei Shimon regional council, prior to the construction of a road between Ma'ahaz and Devira Junction.

New method of finding planets scores its first discovery   PhysOrg - May 13, 2013
A team at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity.

To suppress or to explore? Emotional strategy may influence anxiety   PhysOrg - May 13, 2013
When trouble approaches, what do you do? Run for the hills? Hide? Pretend it isn't there? Or do you focus on the promise of rain in those looming dark clouds? New research suggests that the way you regulate your emotions, in bad times and in good, can influence whether - or how much - you suffer from anxiety.

Solar Panels as Inexpensive as Paint?   Science Daily - May 13, 2013
Most Americans want the U.S. to place more emphasis on developing solar power, recent polls suggest. A major impediment, however, is the cost to manufacture, install and maintain solar panels. Simply put, most people and businesses cannot afford to place them on their rooftops.

How Multitasking Can Improve Judgments   Science Daily - May 13, 2013
A team of researchers from the University of Basel finds that multitasking does not always result in poor judgments. In fact, multitasking can improve performance -- provided that the task at hand can be best resolved by using a simpler, less demanding strategy. Research has revealed that multitasking impedes performance across a variety of tasks. Emergency room nurses that are interrupted multiple times while treating a patient can be more likely to make medication errors. Driving while speaking on a mobile phone significantly increases the probability of an automobile accident. At the same time, however, experienced golfers putt better when distracted than experienced golfers who are focusing on performance. Distractions resulting from the presence of other people can increase an individual's performance, too. Why?

Western Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami Hazard Potential Greater Than Previously Thought   Science Daily - May 13, 2013
Earthquakes similar in magnitude to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake could occur in an area beneath the Arabian Sea at the Makran subduction zone, according to recent research published in Geophysical Research Letters. The study suggests that the risk from undersea earthquakes and associated tsunami in this area of the Western Indian Ocean -- which could threaten the coastlines of Pakistan, Iran, Oman, India and potentially further afield -- has been previously underestimated. The results highlight the need for further investigation of pre-historic earthquakes and should be fed into hazard assessment and planning for the region. Subduction zones are areas where two of Earth's tectonic plates collide and one is pushed beneath the other. When an earthquake occurs here, the seabed moves horizontally and vertically as the pressure is released, displacing large volumes of water that can result in a tsunami.

Earliest Archaeological Evidence of Human Ancestors Hunting and Scavenging   Science Daily - May 13, 2013
A recent Baylor University research study has shed new light on the diet and food acquisition strategies of some the earliest human ancestors in Africa. Beginning around two million years ago, early stone tool-making humans, known scientifically as Oldowan hominin, started to exhibit a number of physiological and ecological adaptations that required greater daily energy expenditures, including an increase in brain and body size, heavier investment in their offspring and significant home-range expansion. Demonstrating how these early humans acquired the extra energy they needed to sustain these shifts has been the subject of much debate among researchers.

'Junk' DNA Mystery Solved: It's Not Needed   Discovery - May 13, 2013
One person's trash may be another person's treasure, but sometimes, trash is just trash. So-called junk DNA, the vast majority of the genome that doesn't code for proteins, really isn't needed for a healthy organism, according to new research. For decades, scientists have known that the vast majority of the genome is made up of DNA that doesn't seem to contain genes or turn genes on or off. The thinking went that most of this vast terrain of dark DNA consisted of genetic parasites that copy segments of DNA and paste themselves repeatedly in the genome, or that it consists of the fossils of once useful genes that have now been switched off. Researchers coined the term junk DNA to refer to these areas.

  'Miming' brain helps humans to learn how to speak, scientists find   Telegraph.co.uk - May 13, 2013
Researchers have discovered that parts of the brain that are involved in controlling our mouths when we speak are also activated when we listen. The findings are now helping to shed light on how young children learn to speak and why humans have evolved complex speech while other animals have not.

Gallery: First Red List of Endangered Ecosystems   Live Science - May 13, 2013
The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be similar to the group's authoritative Red List of Endangered Species, which created internationally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.

  Boy Saved by CPR After Baseball Hit Chest Can Return to Field in 2 Weeks   NBC - May 13, 2013
An 8-year-old New Jersey boy who was hit in the chest by a baseball during a third base steal attempt is recovering and can return to the field in two weeks. Ian McGreevy was struck Saturday as the catcher on the opposing team tried to throw him out.