Drudge Retort: Zatoichi's blog

Anonymous says attack put CIA website offline

Zatoichi — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:32:39 -0500

Hackers have claimed responsibility for making the CIA website inaccessible on Friday - the latest attack on a US federal agency.

Companies Pioneer New Nuclear Designs

Zatoichi — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:53:20 -0500

Two relatively new nuclear companies, NuScale Power and TerraPower, are cooking up new reactor designs, and meeting new challenges along the way.

Modern light water reactors generate, on average, 1000 megawatts of energy. Medium reactors can dip down to 700 MW. Ideas for smaller reactors have always been around, but never made it past the drawing board, as they seemed reasonable only for small, isolated markets. But in the late 2000s, the cost of large nuclear power plants began to grow unwieldy. Even large buyers were forced to make drastic financial bets on new reactors. So around 2009, the market changed its mind about small reactors.

American Physical Society tops 50,000 Members

Zatoichi — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:51:11 -0500

The official count of APS members for 2012 has been tabulated and the Society has reached a new record enrollment of 50,055 members. This surpassed last year's record of 48,263 by 1,792 new members, an increase of about 3.7 percent. This is also the first time the membership has passed the 50,000 milestone.

Arctic Oscillation switches phase

Zatoichi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:22:19 -0500

Arctic sea ice extent remained unusually low through December, especially in the Barents and Kara seas. In sharp contrast to the past two winters, the winter of 2011 has so far seen a generally positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation, a weather pattern that helps to explain low snow cover extent and warmer than average conditions over much of the United States and Eastern Europe.

Shrinking Polar Ice caps: Frigid Europe

Zatoichi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:20:47 -0500

Scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany, say the frigid, snowy European winter has its origins in a warm Arctic summer. Arctic sea-ice levels last July were the lowest in three decades.The effect is twofold.First, less ice means less solar heat is reflected back into the atmosphere. Second, once that heat is in the ocean, the reduced ice cap allows the heat to more easily escape into the air just above the ocean's surface. One pattern, called the Arctic Oscillation, normally pushes warm Atlantic air over Europe and keeps Arctic air over the poles. In mid-January, the Arctic Oscillation abruptly changed, allowing the jet stream to plunge into Siberia and push cold and snowy weather over much of Europe.

Drug Cartels Get into Meth Business

zatoichi — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:31:29 -0500

Mexico's drug cartels have diversified beyond their traditional business peddling cocaine, heroin and marijuana with methamphetamine "super labs," MSNBC reports. Methamphetamine prices are falling and the purity level of seizures is rising, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Meth lab seizures have increased from 22 in 2006 to 206 last year. "All of these drug trafficking groups, they are not in the business of drugs, they are in the business of making money," said DEA Special Agent Gary Boggs. "So regardless of what the drug is, if there is a market for it they are going to try ways of making money out of it."

Santorum: Don't Donate to Colleges

Zatoichi — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:33:09 -0500

Despite having three degrees -- a B.A. in political science from Penn State, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and a J.D. from Dickinson School of Law -- Rick Santorum told a Florida audience last week that colleges indoctrinate students for the left and he discouraged them from donating to higher education. "I'll bet you there are people in this room who give money to colleges and universities who are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology," he said. "And you continue to give to these colleges and universities. Let me have a suggestion: Stop it."

'Jewish Indiana Jones' a Total Hoax

zatoichi — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:33:54 -0500

A self-described "Jewish Indiana Jones" who claimed to have circled the globe rescuing Torah scrolls has admitted he made it all up. Rabbi Menachem Youlus, 50, pleaded guilty to defrauding the charity he founded of $862,000. "I know what I did was wrong," Youlus said in court. The owner of a Jewish bookstore in Wheaton, Md., rarely was out of the U.S. when he claimed to be Torah hunting.

Anonymous 'intercept FBI and Scotland Yard phone call'

Zatoichi — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:48:46 -0500

Hacking network Anonymous has released a recording of a conference call between the FBI and UK police in which they discuss efforts against hacking.

Stock Market's Best January Since 1997

Zatoichi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:30:17 -0500

The stock market had its best January since 1997, with the Dow Jones industrial average climbing 3.4 percent and the Standard & Poors 400 up 4.4 percent. Investors were encouraged by modest gains in the U.S. economy, including at 8.5 percent the lowest unemployment rate in almost three years, reports the Associated Press. "I don't see anything really glamorous or tremendous about the economy or earnings," investment strategist Jerry Harris of the brokerage Sterne Agee told the news service. "But I think they're very acceptable."

A Telescope as Sharp as Hubble -- But On the Ground

Zatoichi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:41:00 -0500

Most people think that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is the most powerful stargazing system in the world. But there's another way: a technology known as adaptive optics (AO) can de-blur the vision of a ground-based telescope -- and astronomers at the 26-ish-foot (8-ish-meter) Gemini South telescope in Chile have debuted the most powerful AO system to date. According to astronomer Francois Rigaut, who led the team that built the new hardware, its images rival the Hubble's for sharpness, and in a press release, Matt Mountain, director of the Hubble's home base, the Space Telescope Science Institute, called the image quality "incredible."

Pet python strangles Florida toddler

Zatoichi — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:44:30 -0500

A pet python broke out of its holding tank and strangled a two-year-old girl in the bedroom of her home in Florida, local authorities said.

The 8ft (2.5m) albino Burmese python had also bitten Shaiunna Hare on her forehead several times. (You'd think they'd get it. Oh wait, it's Florida, the Stupid State.)

Pythons linked to Florida Everglades mammal decline

Zatoichi — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:41:08 -0500

Burmese pythons, originally kept as pets, are the likely cause of a severe mammal decline in Florida's Everglades. Researchers found a strong link between the spread of pythons and drops in recorded sightings of racoons, rabbits, bobcats and other species. In PNAS journal, they report that observations of several mammal species have declined by 90% or more.

Dying Honeybees: It Was the Insecticides All Along

zatoichi — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:23:50 -0500

With news that the U.S. honeybee population has been so devastated that some beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief dollars, comes a report from Purdue University that one of the causes of honeybee deaths is – as long suspected – neonicotinoids.

Lambda virus is a fast learner

Zatoichi — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:17:15 -0500

Viruses regularly evolve new ways of making people sick, but scientists usually do not become aware of these new strategies until years or centuries after they have evolved. In a new study published on Thursday in the journal Science, however, a team of scientists at Michigan State University describes how viruses evolved a new way of infecting cells in little more than two weeks.