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Space

Newly Discovered Asteroid To Pass Within Geostationary Orbit Sunday 101

Posted by Soulskill from the how's-that-space-program-coming-along dept.
theshowmecanuck writes: A newly found asteroid the size of a house will give earth a close flyby this weekend. It will pass just below satellites in geostationary orbit, and above New Zealand around 14:18 EDT / 18:18 GMT / 06:18 NZST this coming Sunday (Monday morning in NZ). "Asteroid 2014 RC was initially discovered on the night of August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakal on Maui, Hawaii," NASA officials said in a statement.
Image

Dirty Diapers Used To Grow Mushrooms 97

Posted by samzenpus from the hold-the-mushrooms-please dept.
Zothecula writes While their contents might be considered an environmental hazard by many, disposable diapers themselves pose a more significant problem for the environment. According to the EPA, the average baby will work their way through 8,000 of them before they end up in landfill where they'll take centuries to break down. In an effort to reduce the problem, scientists at Mexico's Autonomous Metropolitan University, Azcapotzalco (UAM-A), have turned used diapers to the task of growing mushrooms.

Comment I did it first ! (Score 5, Interesting) 182

by dargaud (#47823127) Attached to: Taking the Ice Bucket Challenge With Liquid Nitrogen
In 1994 I had a liquid nitrogen tube break above my head while preparing an experiment for Antarctica. About 30 liters poured on my head in a second. I felt it go instantly trough my clothing, run over me, and on the floor. Everybody else in the lab ran away, but I couldn't because it formed a dense could, I couldn't see anything and I was behind a lot of equipment and cables. Then the floor exploded: I couldn't see what was going on but very loud cracking and banging noises later proved to be the tiles shattering. Fortunately I was wearing security shoes and just stood my ground. After the fog cleared I saw some faces at the door: "Are you still alive?"
The Courts

First US Appeals Court Hears Arguments To Shut Down NSA Database 199

Posted by Soulskill from the good-luck-with-that dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The second of two lawsuits filed against the U.S. government regarding domestic mass surveillance, ACLU vs. Clapper, was heard on Tuesday by "a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit." The proceeding took an unprecedented two hours (the norm is about 30 minutes), and C-SPAN was allowed to record the whole thing and make the footage available online (video). ACLU's lawyers argued that mass surveillance without warrants violates the 4th Amendment, while lawyers for the federal government argued that provisions within the Patriot Act that legalize mass surveillance without warrants have already been carefully considered and approved by all three branches of government. The judges have yet to issue their ruling.
Earth

DNA Reveals History of Vanished "Paleo-Eskimos" 57

Posted by samzenpus from the back-in-the-day dept.
An anonymous reader writes The earliest people in the North American Arctic remained isolated from others in the region for over 4,000 years before vanishing around 700 years ago, new analysis shows. The study also reveals that today's Inuit and Native Americans of the Arctic are genetically distinct from the region's first settlers. "A single founding population settled, and endured the harsh environmental conditions of the Arctic, for almost 5,000 years — during which time the culture and lifestyle changed enough to be represented as distinct cultural units," explained Dr Maanasa Raghavan, first author of the new paper.

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