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POPS Invisibility cloaks could take sting out of tsunamis "I think that this is a great idea with much potential," says Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews, UK. "One could really imagine protecting coastlines by arrays of cleverly designed concrete poles." Such structures act like metamaterials, materials whose properties result from their structure not composition, and can be used to make invisibility cloaks for light, he says. But Guenneau cautions that large structures like islands and coastlines are unlikely to become invisible anytime soon, because building the many small islands needed to protect one is such a big job. "It's crazy – maybe only people in Dubai could do this," he adds, referring to the spectacular artificial islands built there. Smaller structures such as offshore oil platforms would be easier to protect, he says.
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POPS Cataloguing Biden's Whoppers ..... president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; he falsely claimed Gov. Sarah Palin supported a windfall profits tax on oil companies; he said he's always been for clean coal in spite of his record of voting against it in the Senate. Biden said we have to drill for more of our own oil, easily leading viewers to conclude he and Obama are in favor of more domestic drilling, but as the American Thinker blog's Rick Moran noted in a list of "Biden's Big Lies," "Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to 'raping' the Outer Continental Shelf." Gov. Palin called Biden on his claim that Gen. David McKiernan in Afghanistan said that the surge could not be applied in Afghanistan; in fact, McKiernan has said that some aspects of Gen. David Petraeus' Iraq strategy could be part of our war efforts in Afghanistan.
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POPSEuropean Big Four Rule Out Joint Rescue Action
The summit called for greater flexibility in accounting rules by the end of October, in line with US practices. This would be done by giving European banks "the same rules to reclassify financial instruments from the trading book to the banking book, including those already held or issued". This is a reference to a rarely used rule in the US that allows banks to record assets at an amortised cost, rather than at its current market value. This would be a way of circumventing the existing "mark-to-market" accounting rules, which critics say have contributed to a downward spiral of asset prices *Allow banks to apply mark-to-market accounting rules for assets more flexibly in line with US practices *European Commission to draw up EU rules aligning bank deposit guarantee schemes *Establish task forces to co-ordinate *Establish task forces to co-ordinate with the US authorities and others during crises *Supervisors to draw up codes of conduct on pay and risk-taking
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POPSObama's Foreign Funders Of course, its against the law for him to accept money from non-US citizens, but that wouldn't stop the Messiah, would it?
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POPS'Chemical equator' keeps southern air clean The virtual map says it all. Now it means the approach to the solution of the pollution problem needs to be tackled in different ways in each hemisphere. Atmospheric pollution is only one problem. More investigation needs to be done into the nature of oceanic pollution. it did make me wonder of the Nuclear Fusion experiments on Mururoa (Aopuni) and Bikini atolls in French Polynesia last Century. The first nuclear test was conducted on July 2, 1966, code named Aldebaran. France abandoned nuclear testing in the atmosphere in 1974 and moved testing underground in the midst of intense world pressure. A total of 147 underground nuclear tests were conducted at Mururoa and Fangataufa. This practice created much controversy as cracking of the atolls was discovered, A 1979 test conducted at half the usual depth caused a large submarine landslide on the southwest rim of the atoll. Just somehow seemed relevant
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POPSSocialism Around the World So wait...A private company loaned money to the government. The government defaulted on loans. The private company failed because of all the failures so the government will pay the private company to keep it in business using the taxpayers money. It is positively cannibalistic.
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POPSFrom Jet Man to Pedal Man?
continues: "It's all going right. He is hovering about 10 metres from the water and is making a really good go of it." It marks the second attempt at the challenge by Rousson after he was forced to postpone a previous bid in June because strong winds made the feat too hazardous. The challenge is a long-held dream for Rousson, whose love affair with aviation grew as a child after watching Steven Spielberg's alien adventure and led to him gaining a pilot's licence. He said: "When I was young, I saw the movie and watched the little guy pedalling on a bike flying in front of the moon with ET. I always wanted to fly." Rousson had been banking on a five-hour wind-free timeframe to enable him to set off. The 16-metre-long helium-filled blimp, nicknamed "Miss Louise" after his former girlfriend, requires the wind should be gusting no more than two knots to become airborne. During the challenge, Rousson is sitting underneath the envelope in a carbon fibre gondola, powering th
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POPSAaaaargh - Pirates The news story highlights that it would be difficult to unload Russian tanks. I'm doing my part and keeping an eye on eBay.
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POPSThe Population of China’s Provinces Compared # Zhejiang (47 million) South Africa # Yunnan (44 million) Colombia # Jiangxi (43 million) Tanzania # Liaoning (42 million) Argentina # Guizhou (39 million) Sudan # Heilongjiang (38 million) Poland # Shaanxi (37 million) Kenya # Fujian (35 million) Algeria # Shanxi (33 million) Canada # Chongqing (31 million) Morocco # Jilin (27 million) Afghanistan # Gansu (26 million) Saudi Arabia # Inner Mongolia (24 million) North Korea # Taiwan (23 million) Yemen # Xinjiang (20 million) Madagascar # Shanghai (18 million) Cameroon # Beijing (16 million) Angola # Tianjin (12 million) Cuba # Hainan (8 million) Austria # Hong Kong (7 million) El Salvador # Ningxia (6 million) Sierra Leone # Qinghai (5 million) Slovakia # Tibet (3 million) Jamaica # Macau (0,5 million) Cape Verde
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POPS2006 International Snow Sculpture Championships The site has many more pictures from previous years, plus a video (which I couldn't clip) showing how they make the blocks for the sculptors. I don't which is more difficult, snow carving or sand carving. But they can both look magnificent!
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POPS25%+ of all Pentagon money is unaccounted for Why Bush & Co. love war. Little known fact: George Herbert Walker, grandfather of George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr, besides being a major financier to the Nazis along with his son-in-law Prescott Bush, was also appointed supervisor of military contracts by Woodrow Wilson. Interestingly enough, it's much easier to find out details of the family's dealings with the Nazis than it is to uncover the simple, biographical fact that the Bush dynasty has been hardwired into the finances of the Pentagon since Day One. Ripping off the nation via the Pentagon is a four generation old business for this crew. No wonder they're so good at it. 9/11 helped then both cover their tracks and take things to a new level. Wow, that's a pretty good scam for some people...I wonder where all that tax money goes? It's bad enough how they rip us off legally, let alone down the rabbit hole to...?
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POPSHow genes pick our mates for us Instead of smelly T-shirts, Chaix and colleague Peter Donnelly of the University of Oxford studied previously gathered genetic data on 30 Caucasian couples from Utah and 30 Yoruba couples from Nigeria. The researchers analysed about 9000 genetic differences within the MHC genes, as well as more than 3 million differences dotted across the rest of their genomes. This suggests that the American couples are selecting mates, in large part, based on MHC genes. Not so for Yoruba couples, who seemed to pick mates with MHC genes no more different than would be expected for any two people picked at random from the population. One explanation for the different findings could be diversity. Overall, Yoruba people had more differences in their MHC genes than Americans, so there could be less evolutionary pressure to find a mate with new genes.
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POPSMeet Satish Kumar (a diamond geezer) In 1973, he settled in England, taking an Editorship of Resurgence magazine. He has been the editor ever since (30 + years!). He is the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures in Britain. He founded the Small School in Hartland, a pioneering secondary school (aged 11-16), which brings into its curriculum ecological and spiritual values. In 1991, Schumacher College, a residential international center for the study of ecological and spiritual values, was founded, of which he is the Director of Programme. Following Indian tradition, in his fiftieth year, he undertook another pilgrimage: again carrying no money, he walked 2,000 miles to the holy places of Britain — Glastonbury, Canterbury, Lindisfarne and Iona. Meeting old friends and making new ones along the way, this pilgrimage was a celebration of his love of life and nature. In July 2000, Satish Kumar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education from the University of Plymouth. In July
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