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POPSFor Those Of You About To Vote; Here's A Few Words From Shelley continues (full text of 'The Mask of Anarchy' by Shelley, through link ) 'And that slaughter to the Nation Shall steam up like inspiration, Eloquent, oracular; A volcano heard afar. 'And these words shall then become Like Oppression's thundered doom Ringing through each heart and brain, Heard again—again—again— 'Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number— Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you— Ye are many—they are few.'
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POPSVolcanic lightning may have sparked life on Earth In the classic Miller-Urey experiment, a mixture of gases and water that Miller thought were present on early Earth was heated and zapped with electricity to mimic lightning. This created five identifiable amino acids. Yet Miller tested three versions of his spark flask. One of the two lesser-know setups – the volcanic apparatus – created 22 amino acids that could be positively identified. The findings could also give clues to life on other planets. The conditions found in the volcanic spark flask could conceivably have once existed on Mars or Titan, and Bada is developing instruments that could detect tiny amounts of amino acids frozen beneath the surface of the Red Planet.
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POPSA satellite eye on the Earth last 2 pictures: a) Kasatochi volcano, Aleutian Islands, August 8: Dormant for 200 years this small volcano in the Pacific erupted without warning on August 7. The volcano’s plume is seen here as a brown streak in the cloud b) Phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea, Norway, August 12 2008. Phytoplankton are tiny plant-like organisms that are the foundation of the ocean food web. Like plants, they contain chlorophyll that they use to harvest sunlight for photosynthesis. In northern waters, these organisms are starved for sunlight much of the year, but during the summer months, they explode in colourful blooms such as this one