Thursday, April 07, 2011

News

A woman attacked a Gauguin hanging in a museum!
According to court documents, Burns said she believed Gauguin was evil and objected to nudity in the painting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110405/ap_en_ot/us_painting_attacked;_ylt=AoF3p9Jxzs1eIq8eSB88uhxxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTJoYzJ0N2t0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDA1L3VzX3BhaW50aW5nX2F0dGFja2VkBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN5bl9tb3N0X3BvcHVsYXIEc2xrA3BhaW50aW5naGl0Yg--
Did the Church keep records of people attacking crucifixes in church? maybe because they didn't believe in torture and murder?
What would the US do if someone attacked a voting booth as an inadequate communication tool between slave and kleptocracy?

the White House biographies offer an unusual history lesson. Some are examples of blatant boosterism and outdated scholarship. Others are oddly selective or politically incorrect.
George W. Bush's entry, for example, makes no reference to Hurricane Katrina or the economic collapse of 2008, but does find room for the names of his dogs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110405/ap_on_en_ot/us_white_house_biographies;_ylt=AiMQZzaMvfK9ApiffAldC8VxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTJuZmx2Mm9kBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDA1L3VzX3doaXRlX2hvdXNlX2Jpb2dyYXBoaWVzBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9tb3N0X3BvcHVsYXIEc2xrA2hpc3RvcmlhbnNxdQ--

While both the liver and the brain influence caffeine consumption, "It turns out that your liver, more than your brain, determines daily caffeine intake," said study researcher Neil Caporaso, of the National Cancer Institute.
"You might think, I drink caffeine to feel good, or not to feel bad, but that, in turn, is established by how fast your liver breaks down the caffeine," Caporaso said. "If your liver breaks it down very rapidly, then likely you drink more."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110407/sc_livescience/caffeinecravinglinkedtogenetics;_ylt=AtD20OP6594pejwxHI7mcAAPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNlNWVkc25qBGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTEwNDA3L2NhZmZlaW5lY3JhdmluZ2xpbmtlZHRvZ2VuZXRpY3MEcG9zAzEzBHNlYwN5bl9hcnRpY2xlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDY2FmZmVpbmVjcmF2

The gigantic underground plume of partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano might be bigger than previously thought, a new image suggests.

The study says nothing about the chances of a cataclysmic eruption at Yellowstone, but it provides scientists with a valuable new perspective on the vast and deep reservoir of fiery material that feeds such eruptions, the last of which occurred more than 600,000 years ago. [Related: Infographic - The Geology of Yellowstone.]

Earlier measurements of the plume were produced by using seismic waves — the waves generated by earthquakes — to create a picture of the underground region. The new picture was produced by examining the Yellowstone plume's electrical conductivity, which is generated by molten silicate rocks and hot briny water that is naturally present and mixed in with partly molten rock.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110411/sc_livescience/yellowstonesupervolcanobiggerthanthought;_ylt=AtKzSIbb74.bVRn7e9PmX20PLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNlbzBrNml1BGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTEwNDExL3llbGxvd3N0b25lc3VwZXJ2b2xjYW5vYmlnZ2VydGhhbnRob3VnaHQEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDeWVsbG93c3RvbmVz
Almost 17 million years ago, the deep plume of partly molten rock known as the Yellowstone hot spot first breached the surface in an eruption near what is now the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border.

As North America drifted slowly southwest over the hot spot, there were more than 140 gargantuan caldera eruptions — the largest kind of eruption on Earth — along a northeast-trending path that is now Idaho's Snake River Plain.

The hot spot finally reached Yellowstone about 2 million years ago, yielding three huge caldera eruptions about 2 million, 1.3 million and 642,000 years ago.

Two of the eruptions blanketed half of North America with volcanic ash, producing 2,500 times and 1,000 times more ash than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. Smaller eruptions occurred at Yellowstone in between the big blasts and as recently as 70,000 years ago. ...

pk here now: I've been a doomsday fan since childhood. I've spent my adulthood warning us about dangers that no one wants to heed. (Never forget, it's not the boy-who-cried-wolf who owned the sheep the wolf killed! He was behaving badly when he called a false alarm, but the society is doomed that ignores real alarms. The boy was mortal anyway; but did the society have to be?