Prof. Michio Kaku Accurately Predicts Scientific Future: New Predictions? Exciting New Technologies Ahead!

In his latest book, Physics of the Future, Kaku interviewed 300 top scientists, Nobel laureates and directors of laboratories, picking their brains for future inventions. Like this: a chip in our toilets that will detect cancer 10 years before a tumor forms by analyzing our urine and feces.

And this: computers that are embedded in everyday objects such as note pads and household appliances and accessed from a "cloud" that follows us.

Aging will be slowed or maybe even halted. New discoveries have pinpointed the mechanisms that cause aging, Kaku said. It's the buildup of genetic or cellular errors. Over time, skin cells start to get sluggish and no longer function properly and bones become brittle and hollow. Error-correcting mechanisms in cells start to fail. Targeting those mechanisms, Kaku said, could extend our lives.

Click image for more predictions from the world recognized professor of Quantum Mechanics

One of Michio Kaku’s theories is that aging will be slowed or stopped.

Asteroids: 1930's Nazi Expedition Discovered Ancient Statue Determined Carved from Rare Meteorite

Researchers say the 1,000-year-old object with a swastika on its stomach is made from a rare form of iron with a high content of nickel.

They believe it is part of the Chinga meteorite, which crashed about 15,000 years ago.

The findings appear in the Journal,Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

The 24cm (9-inch) tall statue is 10kg (22lb) and is called the Iron Man,an ancient Buddhist statue that was recovered by a Nazi expedition in the 1930s was originally carved from a highly valuable meteorite.

Click for full story

Space and Politics Revisited:Obama and Romney on the Subject of Space Exploration

From the pages of the Orlando Sentinel Opinions Sections

Our take: Romney and Obama space plans

Empty spaces

With Florida once again considered a must-win state in this year's presidential race, space policy is finally lifting off as an issue for the candidates. Some coincidence, huh?

Last week at the University of Central Florida, Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan vowed the U.S. would remain the world's "unequivocal leader" in space. Romney's campaign issued a policy statement promising he'd make space a priority as president, but it included few details.

Ryan rightly declared that the U.S. space program needs a clear mission — ironic, because the policy statement didn't offer one.

Meanwhile, President Obama's campaign gave him credit for the burgeoning commercial space industry, the Mars rover mission and a long-term plan for deep-space exploration. All positives, but each falls short of securing U.S. space leadership.

Leaked documents from NASA indicated that the agency is seeking White House support to build and locate a new orbiting outpost that would serve as a staging area for future deep-space missions. But key details in this plan also are missing, starting with its cost.

Floridians, who have seen the state lose thousands of space jobs, should be hopeful but skeptical about the candidates' proposals. In 2008, Obama vowed to narrow the gap between the end of the shuttle and the next manned program. After he was elected, he canceled the next program and replaced it with another one that will probably widen the gap.

Voters who consider space a national priority should demand details from both campaigns.

OK GCSFN blog readers,what's your take on the subject?
 

Past GCSFN blog posts on politics and space exploration:
politics-space-exploration-Romney-vs-Obama
space x's-success-and-politics-who-gets-the credit?
space-exploration-why-is-it-important?
nasa-and-current-politics

Asteroids; NEOs,How Many Are There in the Area

As far as how many asteroids there are… well, if you only consider those larger than 100 meters orbiting within the inner Solar System, there’s over 150 million. Count smaller ones and you get even more.

I don’t know about you but even with the distances involved it’s starting to feel a little… crowded!

Click image for full story 

Honey Boo Boo:"You Better 'Redneckonize!'" TLC's Newest Jaw Dropper!

You better "redneckognize." The cast of TLC's new hit series "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" reportedly want a big salary raise come Season 2.

Seven-year-old pageant star Alana Thompson and her family are allegedly in talks to return for another season of the TLC reality show, but want to renegotiate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Honey Boo Boo" and family is reportedly asking for a pay raise, bumping up their salary to $10,000 per episode.

THR reported that the "Honey Boo Boo" stars will likely snag an $8,000-per-episode salary after negotiations with the network conclude.

Click image of Honey Boo Boo for more



Iran vs.Israel: Who Will be Attacked First? U.S.bases in Middle East

Iran threatens attack: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a senior commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, warned that his country would target US bases in the region in the event of a war with Israel.

The comments by Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guard's aerospace division, came amid tension over Iran's nuclear program and Israel's suggestion that it might unilaterally strike Iranian nuclear facilities to scuttle what the United States and its allies believe are efforts to build a bomb. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Hajizadeh said no Israeli attack can happen without the support of its most important ally, the United States, making all U.S. military bases a legitimate target.

Click image for full story



Global Warming: Does it Really Matter?



Why it matters:

It's worsening. In the U.S. July was the hottest month ever recorded and this year is on track to be the nation's warmest. Climate scientists say it's a combination of natural drought and man-made global warming. Each decade since the 1970s has been nearly one-third of a degree warmer than the previous one.

Sea levels are rising while Arctic sea ice was at a record low in September. U.S. public health officials are partially blaming unusually hot and dry weather for an outbreak of the deadly West Nile virus that is on pace to be the worst ever. Scientists blame global warming for more frequent weather disasters, with the World Health Organization saying: "Climatic changes already are estimated to cause over 150,000 deaths annually."

Click image for full story

The issue:

People love to talk about the weather, especially when it's strange like the mercifully ended summer of 2012. This year the nation's weather has been hotter and more extreme than ever, federal records show. Yet there are two people who aren't talking about it, and they both happen to be running for president.

Where they stand:

In 2009, President Barack Obama proposed a bill that would have capped power plant carbon dioxide emissions and allowed trading of credits for the right to emit greenhouse gases, but the measure died in Congress. An international treaty effort failed. Obama since has taken a different approach, treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the law. He doubled auto fuel economy standards, which will increase the cost of cars but save drivers money at the pump. He's put billions of stimulus dollars into cleaner energy.

Mitt Romney's view of climate change has varied. In his book "No Apology," he wrote, "I believe that climate change is occurring" and "human activity is a contributing factor." But on the campaign trail last year he said, "We don't know what's causing climate change on this planet." He has criticized Obama's treatment of coal power plants and opposes treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant and the capping of carbon dioxide emissions, but favors spending money on clean technology. Romney says some actions to curb emissions could hurt an already struggling economy.

Debris From Tsunami Damaged Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Reaches American Shores

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that a large plastic bin which washed ashore on Friday was a piece of debris from Japan and had floated across the Pacific Ocean.

The news was later confirmed by Japanese officials who said the bin had come from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

Click image for full story 

A NOAA spokesman, Ben Sherman told the Huffington Post the bin was the 12th piece of marine debris to land in the United States.

The Huffington Post reported the bin was a four-foot by four-foot cube that was spotted off Waimanalo, on the southeast coast of Oahu, by Makai Ocean Engineering staff and was retrieved by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.

More than 16 months after an earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Japan, debris continues to wash ashore across the Pacific Ocean in the United States.

The debris first arrived on beaches in Alaska and Oregon but now Hawaii is being affected.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that a large plastic bin which washed ashore on Friday was a piece of debris from Japan and had floated across the Pacific Ocean.

NASA: Most Ultra-Distant Galaxy Discovered



"This galaxy is the most distant object we have ever observed with high confidence," said Wei Zheng, a principal research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who is lead author of a new paper appearing in Nature.

Click imagefor complete story

With the combined power of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, as well as a cosmic magnification effect, astronomers have spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light from the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories first shone when our 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old.

The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe began to transit from the so-called cosmic dark ages. During this period, the universe went from a dark, starless expanse to a recognizable cosmos full of galaxies. The discovery of the faint, small galaxy opens a window onto the deepest, most remote epochs of cosmic history.

Secret Service Code Names for President and First Ladies of the United States

Harry S Truman - General

Dwight Eisenhower - Scorecard or Providence

Mamie Eisenhower - Springtime

John F. Kennedy - Lancer

Jacqueline Kennedy - Lace

Lyndon Johnson - Volunteer

Lady Bird Johnson - Victoria

Richard Nixon - Searchlight

Pat Nixon - Starlight

Gerald Ford - Pass Key

Betty Ford - Pinafore

Jimmy Carter - Deacon

Rosalynn Carter - Dancer

Ronald Reagan - Rawhide

Nancy Reagan - Rainbow

George H.W. Bush - Timberwolf

Barbara Bush - Snowbank or Tranquility

Bill Clinton - Eagle

Hillary Clinton - Evergreen

George W. Bush - Tumbler or Trailblazer

Laura Bush - Tempo

Barack Obama - Renegade

Michelle Obama - Renaissance

Mitt Romney - Javelin

Space Exploration: Why is it Important to Study Asteroids?



While there is still much to learn about the processes that led to the formation of the planets, it is now fairly clear they formed from the collisions and sticking together of smaller objects that have been dubbed "planetesimals." In the more distant regions of the solar system, where the temperatures are colder and where gas could accumulate, giant planets like Jupiter were able to form relatively quickly. Jupiter's gravitational effects, in turn, were able to keep many of these planetesimals from forming into planets. The result was a large region of space where these "leftover" planetismals remained, which is the part of the solar system we now call the main asteroid belt.

It is clear that if we want to understand our origins, we need to study these asteroids, which are relatively primitive bodies that preserve clues as to the conditions that existed during the early days of the solar system.

Click image of Asteroid belt for full story

Godspeed Neil Armstrong:First Man on the Moon Buried at Sea



Armstrong became an international icon on July 20, 1969, when his boot crunched down into the gray lunar dirt. The words Armstrong uttered upon the occasion — "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" — are among the most famous ever spoken.

Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the moon during the mission, while Michael Collins orbited above them in the command module Columbia. On July 24, 1969, all three men returned safely to Earth, making good on a pledge President John F. Kennedy had made eight years earlier and notching a huge win in the Cold War space race against the Soviet Union.

Click image for full story at Space.com

US Navy Lieutenant Commander Paul Nagy, USS Philippine Sea, and Carol Armstrong, wife of Neil Armstrong, commit the cremains of Neil Armstrong to sea during a burial at sea service held onboard the USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, in the Atlantic Ocean. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.
CREDIT: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Gary Cox, Science Fiction Novelist Blog Celebrates One Year Anniversary!

As of this week I am celebrating my one year anniversary producing this blog. I think it is a success. 

Here are the stats:

Page views today: 23

Page views this week: 712

Page views this month: 2,731

Page views all time: 21,793

Number of articles offered on this blog: 401

Here are the top five articals:

Hatfield & McCoys Feud: Truth vs. Legend -1393 views

Leap Year and the Mayan Calendar -1310 views

Fake: Long Island Medium on TLC -939 views

When Galaxies Collide: Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies -748 views

Swamp People: Willy Kills Giant Alligator with Pocket Knife! -653 views 

Here are the countries that view my blog:

 United States -16,834 views

Russia -957

United Kingdom -511

Germany -497

Canada -430

Australia-138

France -123

Netherlands -85

India -81

Spain -59

Thank you all for making my blog one of the more popular sites at blogspot.com

Galactic Fonts: Write Your Name with Real Images of Galaxies that Happen to Look Like Letters

There are billions of galaxies out there in the cosmos and with Hubble being in orbit taking vivid ,sharp images for over a decade we now have thousands of images of real galaxies. Odds were on that the alphabet would be in these images. This is way cooler than it is scientifically significant,but what the heck...here's my name fonted in images of real galaxies.

Click image to write your own name in the stars at WiredScience.com

This fun web page — My Galaxies — is part of the Galaxy Zoo, a citizen science project that enlists ordinary people to sift through data from Hubble and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to identify celestial objects. Launched in 2007, Galaxy Zoo has identified more than 250,000 new galaxies, most of which have remained undiscovered until now. Along with finding a plethora of objects in the night sky, Galaxy Zoo volunteers have spotted many oddly shaped galaxies, and a good deal resembling English letters and numbers.

Paleontologists Claim to have Found "Living" Mammoth Cells in Siberia Raising Hopes of Cloning Ancient Animal

Will cloning of ancient species be possible? You'd be surprised at the number of animals that have aleady been cloned.

An international expedition called Yana-2012 found soft tissue, fatty tissue, fur and bone marrow of mammoths, said expedition leader and Northeast Federal University researcher Semyon Grigoryev on Friday.

However, not everyone in the scientific community is so readily willing to accept the news as fact. Some say they doubt living cells had been found, and question why such a significant discovery had not been announced in a scientific journal.

An unidentified member of the expedition team said that findings from the expedition would be published in authoritative scientific journals.

Click image for more on Woolly Mammoth(Mammuthus primigenius)

Mammoths went extinct about 4,500 years ago, and their remains are occasionally found in the permafrost of Russia's northernmost regions.

Earlier this year a team of Russian scientists conducted a groundbreaking experiment in which they were able to produce an entire plant from fruit tissues found in the permafrost. The researchers said that the experiment opened the door to the resurrection of other ancient species.

Asteroids: Amateur Video of Impact Explosion on Surface of Jupiter

Asteroids and comets can and do collide with planets here in the solar system, but recording an amatuer video of one of these srtrikes is very unlikely.

George Hall's high powered telescope caught a meteor or comet hitting the planet Jupiter. It resulted in a huge explosion on the surface of Jupiter and a white flare that was visible for only about two seconds.

A man named Don Peterson in Wisconsin was the first to report seeing the explosion. But Hall has the only known video proof of the event, which he posted online.

"Amateur astronomers around the world were exchanging emails about this. My website overnight had over 50,000 hits from people looking at this. And this morning I posted a little video of it on Flickr and I noticed a while ago it had 75,000 hits on it so there's a lot of interest," Hall said.

Fort Worth astronomer Don Garland said after the explosion on Jupiter a few years ago called Shoemaker Levy 9, more amateur astronomers have been watching the planet.

There are thousands of things crashing into Jupiter, but catching them on video is rare, he said

Read more at: myfoxdfw.com

11th Anniversary of 9/11: Remembering the Tragedy and Honoring the Heros

Always remember.

Never Forget.

Click for 9/11/01 timeline

Doomsday 2012: Countdown Until the End of the Mayan Calendar-100 Days and Counting

In a couple of days we will be observing the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C. It will be a solemn time in America over the weekend remembering our loss and the day that everything changed forever.

The day after 9/11 will be exactly one hundred days until the end of the Mayan calendar and the consiquent demise of civilization and maybe even the end of the world.
The question still stands;'is it true or just another instance of mass paranoia?'

Well check out these links below to see what everyone else is thinking.

world powers address doomsday threat

doomsday preparation are you ready?

doomsday 2012 zombie apocalypse

doomsday 2012 Noah's ark spaceship

doomsday criers could they be right?

Mayan calendar accuracy: leap year

Leap year and Mayan calender 

End of World Scenario

Short Story- 'Man in the Bubble'

NASA: Spacewalking at the I.S.S.-Sunita Williams is a Very Cool Astronaut Chick!



Sunita Williams, an Indian-American NASA astronaut and flight engineer on the 32nd expedition to the International Space Station, completed an epic, 6 hour and 28 minute spacewalk on Sept. 5.

She and astronaut Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency made repairs to the ISS and installed equipment, including a power-switching box and a new camera on the station's robotic arm.

Click image for more photographs of this amazing female astronaut

as she works in the vacuum outside the International Space Station

Mentioned at the NDC,Even Sarah Palin Surprised Anyone Remembers Her Name

Once the vice-presidential nominee of the republican party, Palin now wonders why "bigwig elites" even know who she is.

Click image for more on Sarah Palin's anonymity

In his surprisingly punchy speech at the Democratic convention Thursday night, Senator John Kerry delivered this zinger: "Folks, Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska. Mitt Romney talks like he's only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV."
Shortly thereafter on Fox News, Neil Cavuto asked Palin to respond. And it seems Palin is now in agreement with all the exasperated liberals who wish the political world would just ignore the former Alaska governor and onetime vice-presidential nominee:

PALIN: I think he diminished himself by even mentioning my name. How does he even know my name? I mean, aren't these guys supposed to be these bigwig elites who don't waste their time on the little people like me? Me representing the average American? Yeah, I did say in Alaska you can see Russia from our land base, and I was making the point that we are strategically located on the globe .... So it's funny that he would take a little potshot like that, but, uh, it's funny he even knows my name.

On a Lighter Note: The Top Ten Most-Paused Movie Moments

We've all done it.

We’re watching a movie and an image flashes by in an instant.

 Did we really just see that? 

click image for list

So after rewinding we patiently wait, remote in hand, until the precise second. You click the pause button like the whole remote just suddenly lit on fire and there it is….most likely one of these moments.  And, though Kevin Williamson wrote about it in Scream, Tom Cruise’s penis in All the Right Moves did not make the list.

Politics: Space Exploration, Romney vs. Obama

Here it is folks, the positions of both candidates on the subject of future space exploration.

The non-profit ScienceDebate organization posed 14 critical science policy questions to both presidential candidates, and the candidates handed in their written homework today. Members of the public suggested questions before national scientific organizations narrowed down and refined the final list. Dozens of organizations including the American Physical Society, the National Academies of Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of science helped coordinate this year's list.

While the candidates prevaricated on most of the questions, a few of their answers were more revealing. Here's a glimpse at how each candidate responded to questions about the future of space exploration.

Mitt Romney

In his answers to the space goals/funding question, Romney tended to focus on the industry's ability to create jobs, enhance national security and push technology forward. His answers, however, lacked clear goals for the space program in the near to intermediate future. His emphasis that NASA does not need more funding may raise the most eyebrows:
"A strong and successful NASA does not require more funding, it needs clearer priorities. I will ensure that NASA has practical and sustainable missions. There will be a balance of pragmatic and top-priority science with inspirational and groundbreaking exploration programs."

Barack Obama

Obama emphasized his goals to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the 2030's just as he told redditors last week during a surprise Q&A session. Although Obama did provide some hints about his goals for NASA, he focused on past achievements, particularly the recent Mars Rover mission. Obama smartly omitted the fact that the Mars Rover mission selected all of its instruments in 2004 and most software and hardware testing was done by his first year in office.

"No other country can match our capabilities in Earth observation from space. In robotic space exploration, too, nobody else comes close. And I intend to keep it that way."

You can read the entire responses from Obama and Romney at the ScienceDebate website.

Press Release

Story at Physicscentral.com

Grammer-What is Right : A LOT vs. ALOT , IRREGARDLESS vs. REGARDLESS, EVERY DAY vs. EVERYDAY

As a self-educated author and blogger I catch myself often wondering if I have used a word or phrase properly such as-'You and I vs. You and me' or a lot vs. alot. Well, here is the top ten most made grammar errors. Check them out and do it right, you'll not look so foolish to the nerds and geeks out there that are quick to correct you. I have been improperly told that I should say,'You and I' instead of 'you and me'. If this has happened to you and you weren't sure of the right way to use it then check out the simple rules at the bottom of the page. The rules are simple and can keep you and me from being embarrassed. 

1. ALL RIGHT vs. ALRIGHT

It is not all right to use "alright." In fact, you might even say it is "alwrong," and that if you make this error you are "alwet."

2. A LOT vs. ALOT vs. ALLOT

A lot of people make the mistake of writing alot when they mean a lot. Try not to be one of those people, because "alot" is not a word. There is, however, such a word as "allot," as in this sentence: I will allot you each twenty tickets to sell.

3. ALL TOGETHER vs. ALTOGETHER

Which you choose will depend on what you mean:

She just wanted to get the group all together on one side of the room to have their picture taken, but her tone of voice was altogether too bossy and self-important, so everyone ignored her.

4. AMOUNT vs. NUMBER

Detergent comes in amounts. People come in numbers. Don't talk about a large amount of people, or books, or pencils, or anything else that can be counted. If something is measured rather than counted, then it comes in amounts. There is a large amount of snow on the ground, but there are a large number of trees in the forest.

    Similarly, things that are numbered must be described as being more or fewer, not more or less.

      ~Correct: There are fewer people in Kansas than in                                                     Pennsylvania.

      ~Incorrect: There are less people in Kansas than in                                                         Pennsylvania.

5. DUE TO

Due to is properly used only after a linking verb.

~Correct :  Her high fever was due to a strep infection.

~Incorrect : Due to a strep infection, she had a high fever.

~Incorrect:   She had a high fever due to a strep infection.

6. EQUALLY AS

The phrase equally as is redundant. Use one or the other but not both.

~Margaret and Louise were equally responsible.

~Margaret was as responsible as Louise.

~This rule is as valid as the other.

~These two rules are equally valid.

7. EVERY DAY vs. EVERYDAY

Everyday is an adjective, meaning "ordinary" or "commonplace," as in "everyday people" or "everyday occurrence."

Every day is an adverbial phrase identifying how often something takes place: You seem to get up on the wrong side of the bed every day.

8. FROM WHENCE vs. WHENCE

Whence means "from where." Therefore, from whence is a redundancy, meaning "from from where."

~Correct: Send him back whence he came.

~Incorrect:  Send him back from whence he came.

9. IRREGARDLESS vs. REGARDLESS

Simply put, irregardless is not a word. It is a blend of regardless and irrespective of.

     ~Regardless of what he meant to say, the effect of his careless remark was to hurt a child's feelings.

10. PORE OVER vs. POUR OVER

When you intently study a book, you pore over it. If you pour over it, you are going to have a soggy book.

ALSO: You and I vs. You and me

        Consider the following sentence: You and I should have lunch.   Is the correct form of this sentence You and I ... or You and me ...? This is a common source of confusion in English. Fortunately, there's an easy way to decide whether to use I or me in such sentences. All you have to do is drop the word you then try the sentence with I and me one at a time. For example:

I should have lunch.

Me should have lunch. Clearly the preferred form in this case is I; thus, the original sentence was correct to use you and I.   Here's another example: He'll blame you and I. Drop the word you then try the sentence with I and me one at a time, like so:

He'll blame I.

He'll blame me.

You can see that the second of these is correct. This means that the original sentence should have been: He'll blame you and me. Easy.   On a related note, when using phrases such as you and me, you and I or them and us, it has traditionally been considered courteous to place the reference to yourself last. For example, we prefer:

 

He'll ask you and me later. over:

He'll ask me and you later.