the alma-X-files

[huge]

fucking lol

[ghetto kitty]

that was awesome. in all honesty, it made me miss the freaks in america.

[mrj]

ahaha

the bit where he coughs is the best.

[DBoy]

So end of the world theories are funny. But are they still funny when they come from NASA. And they actually have set up committees to prepare for this shit?

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... rediction/

http://www.asylum.com/2010/06/15/end-of ... says-nasa/

http://gawker.com/5556692/the-newest-th ... lar-storms

Course - Almax's man with a plan is commenting on this shiz too. David Icke
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120854

[JAMESSSS]

David Icke is probably god tbh.

[mrj]

So end of the world theories are funny. But are they still funny when they come from NASA?

Yes. Hilarious.

[almax]

So you have all probably heard about the declining bee population around the world, putting crops at risk from lack of pollination? well here is a possible cause, pretty interesting find:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europ ... 0dJl_Am1vi

London, England (CNN) -- A new study has suggested that cell phone radiation may be contributing to declines in bee populations in some areas of the world.

Bee populations dropped 17 percent in the UK last year, according to the British Bee Association, and nearly 30 percent in the United States says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Parasitic mites called varroa, agricultural pesticides and the effects of climate change have all been implicated in what has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder" (CCD).

But researchers in India believe cell phones could also be to blame for some of the losses.

In a study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, northern India, researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day.

After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced.

It's not just the honey that will be lost if populations plummet further. Bees are estimated to pollinate 90 commercial crops worldwide. Their economic value in the UK is estimated to be $290 million per year and around $12 billion in the U.S.

Andrew Goldsworthy, a biologist from the UK's Imperial College, London, has studied the biological effects of electromagnetic fields. He thinks it's possible bees could be affected by cell phone radiation.

The reason, Goldsworthy says, could hinge on a pigment in bees called cryptochrome.

"Animals, including insects, use cryptochrome for navigation," Goldsworthy told CNN.

"They use it to sense the direction of the earth's magnetic field and their ability to do this is compromised by radiation from [cell] phones and their base stations. So basically bees do not find their way back to the hive."

Goldsworthy has written to the UK communications regulator OFCOM suggesting a change of phone frequencies would stop the bees being confused.

"It's possible to modify the signal coming from the [cell] phones and the base station in such a way that it doesn't produce the frequencies that disturb the cryptochrome molecules," Goldsworthy said.

"So they could do this without the signal losing its ability to transmit information."

But the UK's Mobile Operators Association -- which represents the UK's five mobile network operators -- told CNN: "Research scientists have already considered possible factors involved in CCD and have identified the areas for research into the causes of CCD which do not include exposure to radio waves."

Norman Carreck, Scientific director of the International Bee research Association at the UK's University of Sussex says it's still not clear how much radio waves affect bees.

"We know they are sensitive to magnetic fields. What we don't know is what use they actually make of them. And no one has yet demonstrated that honey bees use the earth's magnetic field when navigating," Carreck said.

[C.I.A.]

The jury is still out on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

There is no clear correlation between location of mobile phone towers and colony collapse. At the moment, entomologists seem to think that a build-up of novel pesticides in the environement are the major contributors to this disorder, but nothing is being ruled out until clear causality can be established.

From the US Congressional report (Jan 2010)

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf

Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Renée Johnson
Specialist in Agricultural Policy
January 7, 2010

Summary
Starting in late 2006, commercial migratory beekeepers along the East Coast of the United States
began reporting sharp declines in their honey bee colonies. Because of the severity and unusual
circumstances of these colony declines, scientists named this phenomenon colony collapse
disorder (CCD). Reports indicate that beekeepers in most states have been affected. Overall, the
number of managed honey bee colonies dropped an estimated 35.8% and 31.8% in the winters
of 2007/2008 and 2006/2007, respectively. Preliminary loss estimates for the 2008/2009
winter are reported at 28.6%. To date, the precise reasons for colony losses are not yet known.
Honey bees are the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural crops worldwide.
Scientists at universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) frequently assert that
bee pollination is involved in about one-third of the U.S. diet, and contributes to the production of
a wide range of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, forage crops, some field crops, and other specialty
crops. The monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States is
estimated at about $15-$20 billion annually.
Honey bee colony losses are not uncommon. However, losses in recent years differ from past
situations in that colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return to the hive
(which is largely uncharacteristic of bee behavior); bee colony losses have been rapid; colony
losses are occurring in large numbers; and the reason(s) for these losses remains largely unknown.
Based on the available research over the past few years on the numerous possible causes of CCD,
USDA concluded in its 2007-2008 progress report (released in June 2009) that “it now seems
clear that no single factor alone is responsible for the malady.” This has led researchers to further
examine the hypothesis that CCD may be “a syndrome caused by many different factors, working
in combination or synergistically.” Currently, USDA states, researchers are focusing on three
major possibilities:
• pesticides that may be having unexpected negative effects on honey bees;
• a new parasite or pathogen that may be attacking honey bees, such as the parasite
Nosema ceranae or viruses; and
• a combination of existing stresses that may compromise the immune system of
bees and disrupt their social system, making colonies more susceptible to disease
and collapse. Stresses could include high levels of infection by the Varroa mite;
poor nutrition due to apiary overcrowding, pollination of crops with low
nutritional value, or pollen or nectar scarcity; exposure to limited or
contaminated water supplies; and migratory stress.
Funding for honey bee and CCD research at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has
increased sharply, following both the enactment of the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246) and the
FY2009 and FY2010 appropriations process (P.L. 111-8 and P.L. 111-80, respectively). These
legislative actions contained additional provisions that would, among other things, provide
additional funding for research and conservation programs addressing honey bees and pollinators.
Total ARS funding for honey bee and CCD research averaged more than $7.7 million each in
FY2007 and FY2008, increasing to $8.3 million in FY2009 and $9.8 million for FY2010.

[C.I.A.]

In news that should probably be receiving more attention, Sperm Whales have about 2 generations at most to live.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/2 ... 25417.html

The crux of the issue is that these whales are at the top of the food chain, and biomagnification of pollutants within the fat of mother whales is being passed on at increasingly elevated levels to calves, who then store these POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) in their fat and concentrate them even more in their milk... these levels will be fatal in the very near future.

"Payne said sperm whales, which occupy the top of the food chain, absorb the contaminants and pass them on to the next generation when a female nurses her calf. "What she's actually doing is dumping her lifetime accumulation of that fat-soluble stuff into her baby," he said, and each generation passes on more to the next."

Nice work, people



And lol at the fact that the article is completely 'o noes teh peoplez eatin teh seefoodz, wont someone think of teh peoplez????'.

[C.I.A.]

Also, anyone with a few minutes on their hands should look up the effect of phthalates... readily leached from plastic (like that healthy bottle of water you just bought)...

Act as endocrine disruptors, possibly contributing to obesity, feminisation of men (to blame for Beckam and pink polo-shirts?), ADHD and autism.

Again, great work people



Fuck this week has sucked.

[almax]

If you are still buying water in a bottle you have to take a good look at yourself, be prepared and buy yourself a reusable flask like a hiking or gym bottle and keep it in your bag and refill it. Not only are bottles bad for the environment, but water is free! why pay $2.50 for 600ml of it???? doesnt make sense, never has, never will.

[DBoy]

even if googs are in play?

[almax]

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/02/18/hist ... aking.html

History in the Remaking

A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution.
They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization. And under our feet, according to archeologist Klaus Schmidt, are the stones that mark the spot—the exact spot—where humans began that ascent.

Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed.

Göbekli Tepe—the name in Turkish for "potbelly hill"—lays art and religion squarely at the start of that journey. After a dozen years of patient work, Schmidt has uncovered what he thinks is definitive proof that a huge ceremonial site flourished here, a "Rome of the Ice Age," as he puts it, where hunter-gatherers met to build a complex religious community. Across the hill, he has found carved and polished circles of stone, with terrazzo flooring and double benches. All the circles feature massive T-shaped pillars that evoke the monoliths of Easter Island.

Though not as large as Stonehenge—the biggest circle is 30 yards across, the tallest pillars 17 feet high—the ruins are astonishing in number. Last year Schmidt found his third and fourth examples of the temples. Ground-penetrating radar indicates that another 15 to 20 such monumental ruins lie under the surface. Schmidt's German-Turkish team has also uncovered some 50 of the huge pillars, including two found in his most recent dig season that are not just the biggest yet, but, according to carbon dating, are the oldest monumental artworks in the world.

The new discoveries are finally beginning to reshape the slow-moving consensus of archeology. Göbekli Tepe is "unbelievably big and amazing, at a ridiculously early date," according to Ian Hodder, director of Stanford's archeology program. Enthusing over the "huge great stones and fantastic, highly refined art" at Göbekli, Hodder—who has spent decades on rival Neolithic sites—says: "Many people think that it changes everything…It overturns the whole apple cart. All our theories were wrong."

Schmidt's thesis is simple and bold: it was the urge to worship that brought mankind together in the very first urban conglomerations. The need to build and maintain this temple, he says, drove the builders to seek stable food sources, like grains and animals that could be domesticated, and then to settle down to guard their new way of life. The temple begat the city.

This theory reverses a standard chronology of human origins, in which primitive man went through a "Neolithic revolution" 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. In the old model, shepherds and farmers appeared first, and then created pottery, villages, cities, specialized labor, kings, writing, art, and—somewhere on the way to the airplane—organized religion. As far back as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thinkers have argued that the social compact of cities came first, and only then the "high" religions with their great temples, a paradigm still taught in American high schools.

Religion now appears so early in civilized life—earlier than civilized life, if Schmidt is correct—that some think it may be less a product of culture than a cause of it, less a revelation than a genetic inheritance. The archeologist Jacques Cauvin once posited that "the beginning of the gods was the beginning of agriculture," and Göbekli may prove his case.

The builders of Göbekli Tepe could not write or leave other explanations of their work. Schmidt speculates that nomadic bands from hundreds of miles in every direction were already gathering here for rituals, feasting, and initiation rites before the first stones were cut. The religious purpose of the site is implicit in its size and location. "You don't move 10-ton stones for no reason," Schmidt observes. "Temples like to be on high sites," he adds, waving an arm over the stony, round hilltop. "Sanctuaries like to be away from the mundane world."

Unlike most discoveries from the ancient world, Göbekli Tepe was found intact, the stones upright, the order and artistry of the work plain even to the un-trained eye. Most startling is the elaborate carving found on about half of the 50 pillars Schmidt has unearthed. There are a few abstract symbols, but the site is almost covered in graceful, naturalistic sculptures and bas-reliefs of the animals that were central to the imagination of hunter-gatherers. Wild boar and cattle are depicted, along with totems of power and intelligence, like lions, foxes, and leopards. Many of the biggest pillars are carved with arms, including shoulders, elbows, and jointed fingers. The T shapes appear to be towering humanoids but have no faces, hinting at the worship of ancestors or humanlike deities. "In the Bible it talks about how God created man in his image," says Johns Hopkins archeologist Glenn Schwartz. Göbekli Tepe "is the first time you can see humans with that idea, that they resemble gods."

The temples thus offer unexpected proof that mankind emerged from the 140,000-year reign of hunter-gatherers with a ready vocabulary of spiritual imagery, and capable of huge logistical, economic, and political efforts. A Catholic born in Franconia, Germany, Schmidt wanders the site in a white turban, pointing out the evidence of that transition. "The people here invented agriculture. They were the inventors of cultivated plants, of domestic architecture," he says.

Göbekli sits at the Fertile Crescent's northernmost tip, a productive borderland on the shoulder of forests and within sight of plains. The hill was ideally situated for ancient hunters. Wild gazelles still migrate past twice a year as they did 11 millennia ago, and birds fly overhead in long skeins. Genetic mapping shows that the first domestication of wheat was in this immediate area—perhaps at a mountain visible in the distance—a few centuries after Göbekli's founding. Animal husbandry also began near here—the first domesticated pigs came from the surrounding area in about 8000 B.C., and cattle were domesticated in Turkey before 6500 B.C. Pottery followed. Those discoveries then flowed out to places like Çatalhöyük, the oldest-known Neolithic village, which is 300 miles to the west.

The artists of Göbekli Tepe depicted swarms of what Schmidt calls "scary, nasty" creatures: spiders, scorpions, snakes, triple-fanged monsters, and, most common of all, carrion birds. The single largest carving shows a vulture poised over a headless human. Schmidt theorizes that human corpses were ex-posed here on the hilltop for consumption by birds—what a Tibetan would call a sky burial. Sifting the tons of dirt removed from the site has produced very few human bones, however, perhaps because they were removed to distant homes for ancestor worship. Absence is the source of Schmidt's great theoretical claim. "There are no traces of daily life," he explains. "No fire pits. No trash heaps. There is no water here." Everything from food to flint had to be imported, so the site "was not a village," Schmidt says. Since the temples predate any known settlement anywhere, Schmidt concludes that man's first house was a house of worship: "First the temple, then the city," he insists.

Some archeologists, like Hodder, the Neolithic specialist, wonder if Schmidt has simply missed evidence of a village or if his dating of the site is too precise. But the real reason the ruins at Göbekli remain almost unknown, not yet incorporated in textbooks, is that the evidence is too strong, not too weak. "The problem with this discovery," as Schwartz of Johns Hopkins puts it, "is that it is unique."

No other monumental sites from the era have been found. Before Göbekli, humans drew stick figures on cave walls, shaped clay into tiny dolls, and perhaps piled up small stones for shelter or worship. Even after Göbekli, there is little evidence of sophisticated building. Dating of ancient sites is highly contested, but Çatalhöyük is probably about 1,500 years younger than Göbekli, and features no carvings or grand constructions. The walls of Jericho, thought until now to be the oldest monumental construction by man, were probably started more than a thousand years after Göbekli. Huge temples did emerge again—but the next unambiguous example dates from 5,000 years later, in southern Iraq.

The site is such an outlier that an American archeologist who stumbled on it in the 1960s simply walked away, unable to interpret what he saw. On a hunch, Schmidt followed the American's notes to the hilltop 15 years ago, a day he still recalls with a huge grin. He saw carved flint everywhere, and recognized a Neolithic quarry on an adjacent hill, with unfinished slabs of limestone hinting at some monument buried nearby. "In one minute—in one second—it was clear," the bearded, sun-browned archeologist recalls. He too considered walking away, he says, knowing that if he stayed, he would have to spend the rest of his life digging on the hill.

Now 55 and a staff member at the German Archaeological Institute, Schmidt has joined a long line of his countrymen here, reaching back to Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy. He has settled in, marrying a Turkish woman and making a home in a modest "dig house" in the narrow streets of old Urfa. Decades of work lie ahead.

Disputes are normal at the site—the workers, Schmidt laments, are divided into three separate clans who feud constantly. ("Three groups," the archeologist says, exasperated. "Not two. Three!") So far Schmidt has uncovered less than 5 percent of the site, and he plans to leave some temples untouched so that future researchers can examine them with more sophisticated tools.

Whatever mysterious rituals were conducted in the temples, they ended abruptly before 8000 B.C., when the entire site was buried, deliberately and all at once, Schmidt believes. The temples had been in decline for a thousand years—later circles are less than half the size of the early ones, indicating a lack of resources or motivation among the worshipers. This "clear digression" followed by a sudden burial marks "the end of a very strange culture," Schmidt says. But it was also the birth of a new, settled civilization, humanity having now exchanged the hilltops of hunters for the valleys of farmers and shepherds. New ways of life demand new religious practices, Schmidt suggests, and "when you have new gods, you have to get rid of the old ones."

[DBoy]

Fascinating stuff.

[almax]

Humans and Technology doco

"TechnoCalpse"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7713668208#

Goes in depth regarding cyborgs and genetically engineering humans, amazing.

They are already attaching bits of brain to microchips, keeping brains alive sans body, being able to tap a cats brain and see what the cat is seeing on a monitor etc etc.

Really facinating and kinda scary but exciting.

[almax]

http://www.slimdizzy.com/2009/11/techno ... mitations/

Technocalps Documentary – Transcending Human Limitations



This documentary is absolutely fascinating look at the future of humanity. Warning: the ideas, speculations and scientific research in this film just might blow your mind. Be sure to watch in full-screen.
“Technocalyps is an intriguing three-part documentary on the notion of transhumanism by Belgian visual artist and filmmaker Frank Theys. The latest findings in genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, bionics and nanotechnology appear in the media every day, but with no analysis of their common aim: that of exceeding human limitations.
The director conducts his inquiry into the scientific, ethical and metaphysical dimensions of technological development. The film includes interviews by top experts and thinkers on the subject worldwide, including Marvin Minsky, Terence McKenna, Hans Moravec, Bruce Sterling, Robert Anton Wilson, Richard Seed, Margareth Wertheim, Kirkpatrick Sale, Ralph C. Merkle, Mark Pesce, Ray Kurzweil, Rabbi Youssouf Kazen, Rael and many others.”

Part I – Transcending Human Limitations
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7713668208#

The first part provides an overview of recent technological developments in bio-genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, implants and nanotechnology – and prognoses made by leading scientists about the impact of these developments in the near future.

Part II – Preparing For The Singularity
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7984107504#

In this part advocates and opponents of a transhuman future are weighed against each other; prognoses are done when we can expect the transhuman revolution and how people are preparing for it already now.

Part III – The Digital Messiah
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7984107504#

This part covers the metaphysical consequences of the new technological revolution. On the one hand scientist start to use metaphysical concepts to describe the impact of their research, on the other hand, a surprisingly large number of scientific projects is inspired by religious aspirations and more and more theologians from any religious or spiritual belief are getting interested in these aspirations of new technology, making the discussion inextricable complex.

[DBoy]

They can't do shit until they can record dreams.

Dreamtube.com

[almax]

they will be able to as they are recording the visual cortex already, its blurry but its getting closer!

[DBoy]

But do you actually 'see' dreams?

[almax]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... peech.html

'Mind-reading machine' can convert thoughts into speech



A mind reading machine is a step closer to reality after scientists discovered a way of translating people's thoughts into words.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 5:30AM BST 08 Sep 2010


Researchers have been able to translate brain signals into speech using sensors attached to the surface of the brain for the first time.

The breakthrough, which is up to 90 per cent accurate, offers a way to communicate for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could eventually lead to being able to read anyone thoughts.

"It was just one of the moments when everything came together.

"We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralysed patients who cannot now speak.

"I would call it brain reading and we hope that in two or three years it will be available for use for paralysed patients."

The experimental breakthrough came when the team attached two button sized grids of 16 tiny electrodes to the speech centres of the brain of an epileptic patient. The sensors were attached to the surface of the brain The patient had had part of his skull removed for another operation to treat his condition.

Using the electrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals in a computer as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralysed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less.

Then they got him to repeat the words to the computer and it was able to match the brain signals for each word 76 per cent to 90 per cent of the time. The computer picked up the patinet's brain waves as he talked and did not use any voice recognition software.

Because just thinking a word – and not saying it – is thought to produce the same brain signals, Prof Greger and his team believe that soon they will be able to have translation device and voice box that repeats the word you are thinking.

What is more, the brains of people who are paralysed are often healthy and produce the same signals as those in able bodied people – it is just they are blocked by injury from reaching the muscle.

The researchers said the method needs improvement, but could lead in a few years to clinical trials on paralysed people who cannot speak due to so-called "locked-in" syndrome.

“This is proof of concept,” Prof Greger said, “We’ve proven these signals can tell you what the person is saying well above chance.

"But we need to be able to do more words with more accuracy before it is something a patient really might find useful.”

People who eventually could benefit from a wireless device that converts thoughts into computer-spoken words include those paralysed by stroke, disease and injury, Prof Greger said.

People who are now “locked in” often communicate with any movement they can make – blinking an eye or moving a hand slightly – to arduously pick letters or words from a list.

The new device would allow them freedom to speak on their own.

"Even if we can just get them 30 or 40 words that could really give them so much better quality of life," said Prof Greger.

“It doesn’t mean the problem is completely solved and we can all go home. It means it works, and we now need to refine it so that people with locked-in syndrome could really communicate.”.

The study, published in the journal of Neural Engineering, used a new kinds of nonpenetrating microelectrodes that sit on the brain without poking into it.

The first was attached to the face motor cortex, which controls facial movement and is on the top left hand side of the brain.

The second was attached to the Wernicke's area, an area just above the left ear that acts as a sort of language translator for the brain.

Because the microelectrodes do not penetrate brain matter, they are considered safe to place on speech areas of the brain – something that cannot be done with penetrating electrodes that have been used in experimental devices to help paralysed people control a computer cursor or an artificial arm.

The researchers were most accurate – 85 per cent – in distinguishing brain signals for one word from those for another when they used signals recorded from the facial motor cortex.

They were less accurate – 76 per cent – when using signals from Wernicke’s area.

Last year, Prof Greger and colleagues published a study showing electrodes could “read” brain signals controlling arm movements.

[quick]

pfft... Sookie can already do that

[almax]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/ ... -ignition/


World’s Most Powerful Laser on Target for Awesome Science




Scientists recently pulled together the pieces of the world’s most powerful laser and, in a first-ever complete dry run, pulled the trigger on a peppercorn-sized pellet of nuclear fuel. The energy crushed the capsule instantly, causing it to spew a shower of neutrons. In short: It worked.

The firing of the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located 40 or so miles east of San Francisco, wasn’t an earnest attempt at a more-energy-out-than-you-put-in “ignition” of fusion, the same process that merges atoms at the sun’s core — and the facility’s ultimate goal. Yet the staff and independent researchers working with the $3.5 billion machine have reason to be optimistic about achieving fusion within two years, even if much of the device’s time is earmarked for defense research and prospects of near-limitless and pollution-free energy aren’t certain.

“In my mind, to have accomplished this shot is an almost unfathomable scientific achievement,” Paul Drake, a physicist at the University of Michigan using NIF as a proving ground for studying supernova physics in the laboratory, told Wired.com. “I’ve had a lifetime of experience of big science facilities, and find myself in awe of [the NIF team] having made this thing work this fast.”

The research facility’s construction began in 1997 and spreads over an area nearly the size of three pro league football fields, most of the space occupied by equipment that revs up 192 laser beams. During the Sept. 29, 2010 firing of the laser, scientists and engineers funneled these beams into a 30-foot-diameter metal sphere at the end of the complex. At the center of this chamber, a tiny plastic pellet filled with heavier forms of hydrogen received a punishing 1 megajoule zap, similar to the instantaneous oomph of a car traveling 100 mph.

According to engineering physicist Edward Moses, who heads up the NIF team, the laser burst was about 75 percent of its full energy capacity. In addition, the cryogenically cooled pellet was filled with deliberately less-than-perfect fuel.

“The last thing we’d ever think about doing is playing cowboy with this thing,” Moses said. Throughout the next year or two leading up to an all-or-nothing firing, the facility will make similar integrated shots about once a month.

Richard Petrasso, a fusion scientist at MIT who works with the machine’s diagnostic equipment, said the tiptoeing is for a good reason.

“The facility is like a new car engine,” Petrasso said. “You don’t hit the pedal all the way down to the ground the first time. You have to tune it to get all of the conditions just right — the laser, the diagnostics and the surface of the capsule.”



About 10 trillion neutrons zoomed out of the capsule during the test shot, signaling the successful fusion of some tritium and deuterium atoms — the “heavy” hydrogen fuels in the pellet. Moses said 1,000 times more neutrons should fly out during the ultimate goal of a fusion chain reaction.

At that point, if the machine can actually do it, Drake said the scientific payoffs will be huge.

“We’re still proving we can do experiments we want, and also for the broader scientific community,” Drake said. “But without hesitation, I’d say NIF is on track for doing some pretty awesome science,” including simulating Jupiter’s oddly magnetic core, the innards of stars and other hot-and-dense environments around the universe.

At the end of the day, however, most of NIF’s operating time isn’t slated for doing fundamental science. Moses said about 10 percent of the machine’s time is dedicated to that now and will go up to 20 percent after 2013. Another 40 percent (by 2013) is hedged for more ignition research, and the remaining 40 percent chunk will be for gathering data about fusion physics for the government. In other words, it will simulate fusion bomb explosions without detonating them.

“Strategic security is also part of the mission,” Moses said. “We want to make sure we can build virtual test sites on computers, but we need good data to ground the models.” If NIF achieves fusion burn, he said it will be the only facility of its kind to safely create the conditions of active weapons.

Beyond NIF’s three-pronged mission, there’s also the promise of developing a safe fusion energy source that releases 30-40 times the energy put in. The only theorized “pollution” would be helium, which is the universe’s most pervasive and inert gas.

“The energy potential is there, for sure,” Petrasso said. “The question is about practical implementation. There are a lot of … issues that have to be dealt with to turn it into a reactor that makes energy.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/ ... z12CRKphRx

[flippo]

heartwarming to hear that fusion bombs are a higher funding priority than clean energy

[huge]

priorities dave

[flippo]

priorities dave

oh yeah, forgot

[FoundationStepper]

yanno, i think almax is unfairly maligned as the resident crackpot of mbc

just try ozreggae for some masonic goodness: http://forums.ozreggae.com/index.php?showtopic=15906

MTV’s Video Music Awards have often incorporated dark and strange acts, containing some occult symbolism. This year’s version, however, outdid itself. The show left most people wondering what was wrong with Kanye West or trying compute the madness of Lady Gaga’s performance. The only way to understand the full meaning behind those performances is to look into esoteric teachings. The fact is that the whole awards show took the most common rituals of occult orders and re-enacted them in a show witnessed by the entire world....

MTV MASONS OMG!!

[DBoy]

Want to watch now. Do I need to line up Pink Flyod with when Kayne steps on stage.

[FoundationStepper]

kayne was inducting swift in traditional masonic humiliation ceremony yanno

[DBoy]

bang

[almax]

Kanye? really? sure it wasnt Jay Z?

He has been linked to the illuminate by symbolism used in his videos and lyrics, heap of it on the net if you're interested. (im not tbh)

[almax]

...oh and since we are here, the 3rd Zietgeist was released today, havent watched it yet

Zeitgeist - moving forward

02:41:25 duration

Watch the posted video on YouTube.

[DBoy]

Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily in 2011.
Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario. Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time.
When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.

[fooishbar]

I love the way the illuminati has been a top secret organisation for centuries,but now all these mugs can spot them in rap videos lol!!

[FoundationStepper]

Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily in 2011.
Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario. Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time.
When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-t ... 5992757166

[DBoy]

yeppers. Wiki is good read on this one. Learnt a lot...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

[almax]

There's records in chinese books of supernovas during the ming dynasty, they said something like you could read books at night it was that bright.

[almax]

I hope this is real!

http://pesn.com/2011/04/06/9501804_Engi ... s_Forward/

[apophenian]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-n ... -in-Hawera

[ghetto kitty]

^ looks like some crappy light photography with long exposure.

http://www.unexplainable.net/UFO-Alien/ ... tion.shtml

[almax]

totally, never trust a kiwi with their fantastical stories!

Back on a more scientific note, BIG development in the production of Hydrogen

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 041211.php#

A chance discovery may revolutionize hydrogen production

Molybdenum-based catalysts now enable a more cost-effective hydrogen production



IMAGE: Using a molybdenum based catalyst, hydrogen bubbles are made cheaply and at room temperature.

Producing hydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost is too high. A team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that a molybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensive and efficient. The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science Thursday the 14th of April. An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled.

Existing in large quantities on Earth, water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be broken down by applying an electrical current; this is the process known as electrolysis. To improve this particularly slow reaction, platinum is generally used as a catalyst. However, platinum is a particularly expensive material that has tripled in price over the last decade. Now EPFL scientists have shown that amorphous molybdenum sulphides, found abundantly, are efficient catalysts and hydrogen production cost can be significantly lowered.

Industrial prospects

The new catalysts exhibit many advantageous technical characteristics. They are stable and compatible with acidic, neutral or basic conditions in water. Also, the rate of the hydrogen production is faster than other catalysts of the same price. The discovery opens up some interesting possibilities for industrial applications such as in the area of solar energy storage.

It's only by chance that Daniel Merki, Stéphane Fierro, Heron Vrubel and Xile Hu made this discovery during an electrochemical experience. "It's a perfect illustration of the famous serendipity principle in fundamental research", as Xile Hu emphasizes: "Thanks to this unexpected result, we've revealed a unique phenomenon", he explains. "But we don't yet know exactly why the catalysts are so efficient."

The next stage is to create a prototype that can help to improve sunlight-driven hydrogen production. But a better understanding of the observed phenomenon is also required in order to optimize the catalysts.

[almax]

...Essentially what this is eluding to is how currently storing electrical energy is very difficult and expensive. The idea is to use electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can then be stored as a compressed gas, then recombined either to produce heat, or through a fuel cell to create electricity directly.

The problem now with breaking water into its base elements, is that you lose most of the energy in the splitting process. So it's a kind of a crappy battery even if it is very cheap to make. The batteries that could be used to power electric cars are at this time, very heavy, and expensive. But with efficient methods to split hydrogen, you could knock about 8-10 grand off the price of a Prius. Not only that, you would not need to put in two power plants, as the current "hybrid" cars employ. There would be no reason for petrol if you could simply pump you car full of hydrogen.

Oh and no more CO2 emissions either, you could convert petrol cars to run off hydrogen, similar to a LPG conversion, and when you burn hydrogen in oxygen, it just creates water vapor again.

So this is pretty cool news!

...And this is not "Free energy" by any means, hydrogen is just a very "energy dense" fuel that can be used as a battery. The beauty of this discovery is not to create energy, but rather to replace petrol as the cheap, easy method of storing very large quantities of energy.

To give you an idea of the energy, hydrogen and oxygen is what those huge central tanks on the space shuttle hold to power the main shuttle engines. The boosters on the side are solid fuel rockets.

[almax]

another article on it:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 073549.htm

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2011) — Producing hydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost has so far proven to be too high. Now a team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that a molybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensive and efficient.

The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science. An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled.

Existing in large quantities on Earth, water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be broken down by applying an electrical current; this is the process known as electrolysis. To improve this particularly slow reaction, platinum is generally used as a catalyst. However, platinum is a particularly expensive material that has tripled in price over the last decade. Now EPFL scientists have shown that amorphous molybdenum sulphides, found abundantly, are efficient catalysts and hydrogen production cost can be significantly lowered.

Industrial prospects

The new catalysts exhibit many advantageous technical characteristics. They are stable and compatible with acidic, neutral or basic conditions in water. Also, the rate of the hydrogen production is faster than other catalysts of the same price. The discovery opens up some interesting possibilities for industrial applications such as in the area of solar energy storage.

It's only by chance that Daniel Merki, Stéphane Fierro, Heron Vrubel and Xile Hu made this discovery during an electrochemical experience. "It's a perfect illustration of the famous serendipity principle in fundamental research," as Xile Hu emphasizes: "Thanks to this unexpected result, we've revealed a unique phenomenon," he explains. "But we don't yet know exactly why the catalysts are so efficient."

The next stage is to create a prototype that can help to improve sunlight-driven hydrogen production. But a better understanding of the observed phenomenon is also required in order to optimize the catalysts.