Moments of Awareness

11 August 2010 Last updated at 21:47 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Brazil air force to record UFO sightings If they see something like this, Brazilian pilots will have to report it (computer illustration). Brazil's government has ordered its air force to officially record any sighting of unidentified flying objects. A government decree said all military and civilian pilots as well as air traffic controllers should register any UFO sightings with the national aerospace defence command. The information will be stored in the national archives in Rio de Janeiro. It will be made available to researchers, including those seeking evidence of extraterrestrial life. Anything unusual that is seen, photographed or video filmed in Brazil's air space will now have to be reported and catalogued. But the air force said it would limit itself to collecting inf...

11 August 2010 Last updated at 13:47 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Arctic rocks may contain oldest remnants of Earth By Howard Falcon-Lang Science reporter Remnants of the early Earth have been discovered in Arctic rocks Scientists have found Arctic rocks that may preserve the earliest remnants of Earth. Over billions of years, much of the material that made up the early Earth was modified by processes such as melting and mixing. But the Arctic rocks seem to contain chemical signatures that date from just after the Earth's violent origin. If confirmed, the discovery challenges established theories about the formation of our planet. The results of the study are published today in the leading journal, Nature. The signatures found in Arctic lavas are more than 4.45 billion years old. By compa...

12 August 2010 Last updated at 10:44 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print India rejects UK scientists' 'superbug' claim By Geeta Pandey BBC News, Delhi NDM-1 has been found in E.coli bacteria India has rejected a claim by British scientists that a new superbug, resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics, has entered UK from India. The health ministry said it was unfair to link the bug to India and officials described it as "malicious propaganda". Several Indian MPs raised the issue in parliament, calling it a conspiracy. Scientists say patients who went to India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery have come back with bacteria that make NDM-1 enzyme. Health experts say NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and it makes them resistant to most ...

12 August 2010 Last updated at 10:08 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print 'Give out statins with junk food' Burgers are loaded with fat Fast food outlets should consider handing out cholesterol-lowering drugs to combat the effects of fatty food, say UK researchers. Taking a statin pill every day would offset the harm caused by a daily cheeseburger and milkshake, the Imperial College London team said. It would only cost 5p a customer - similar to a sachet of ketchup. But the British Heart Foundation warned an unhealthy diet does more harm than just raising cholesterol. Writing in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues said it was about reducing harm in the same way that people who smoke are encouraged to use filters and those who drive are told to wear seatbelts. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote A junk ...

12 August 2010 Last updated at 07:22 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Largest tidal power device unveiled The AK-1000 will be taken by ship from Invergordon to Orkney A device thought to be the largest tidal energy turbine to be built in the world has been described by its developer as "simple and robust". Atlantis Resources unveiled its AK-1000 at Invergordon ahead of it being shipped to a European Marine Energy Centre test site off Eday, Orkney. Chief executive Tim Cornelius said it was designed to survive in a harsh marine environment. The device stands 22.5m (73ft) tall and weighs 130 tonnes. It has two sets of blades to harness ebb and flood tides and could provide electricity for about 1,000 homes. Mr Cornelius told BBC Scotland that the focus of the marine industry at the moment was making the Pentland Firth a huge success in terms of gene...

12 August 2010 Last updated at 06:59 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print How do blind people play football so well? By Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News This is an England football team that would never be booed, with silence a necessary part of the game. Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine What does blind football look like? What can councils use by-laws for? Woman in the gauze mask How to avoid nugget rage Watching the national blind team train days before the World Cup kicks off in Hereford, there is a hushed quiet. Whereas mainstream football around the ...

12 August 2010 Last updated at 02:24 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Teaching philosophy with Spider-Man By Katie Connolly BBC News, Washington Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker struggles with his superhero status (Image courtesy Marvel Entertainment) For years, fans of the Batman comics have puzzled over a mystery at the heart of the series: why doesn't Batman just kill his arch-nemesis, the murderous Joker? The two have engaged in a prolonged game of cat-and-mouse. The Joker commits a crime, Batman catches him, the Joker is locked up, and then invariably escapes. Wouldn't all this be much simpler if Batman just killed the Joker? What's stopping him? Enter philosopher Immanuel Kant and the deontological theory of ethics. Continue reading the main story Related stories ...

11 August 2010 Last updated at 06:12 ET Help Archaeologists say they have discovered Britain's oldest house. The circular structure, found at a site near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, has been dated as being made in 8,500BC - making it 500 years older than the previous oldest house. Jenny Hill spoke to Dr Nicky Milner an archaeologist from the University of York. Artist's drawing of ancient community life courtesy of Alan Sorrell, University of York. via bbc.co.uk Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

11 August 2010 Last updated at 20:08 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print High stress 'delays pregnancy' By Helen Briggs Health reporter, BBC News Relaxation techniques may help in conception A scientific study has shown for the first time that high stress levels may delay pregnancy. Oxford University experts measured stress hormones in women planning a baby naturally and found the most stressed had a reduced chance of becoming pregnant. Relaxation might help some couples, but more research is needed, they say. The study, in the journal Fertility and Sterility, followed 274 healthy women aged 18-40 planning a pregnancy. Age, smoking, obesity and alcohol are known to affect pregnancy success, but the influence of stress is less clear. Continue reading the main story Related stories ...

11 August 2010 Last updated at 12:59 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Pea plant grows inside man's lung Can the humble pea grow anywhere? A Massachusetts man who was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung. Ron Sveden had been battling emphysema for months when his condition deteriorated. He was steeling himself for a cancer diagnosis when X-rays revealed the growth in his lung. Doctors believe that Mr Sveden ate the pea at some point, but it "went down the wrong way" and sprouted. "One of the first meals I had in the hospital after the surgery had peas for the vegetable. I laughed to myself and ate them," Mr Sveden told a local Boston TV reporter. Mr Sveden said the plant was about half an inch (1.25cm) in size. "Whether this would have gon...

When we married, we each walked down the aisle solo and came back arm in arm. I kept my name, he kept his annual fishing trip, and we shared the wedding appliances and the home office. But when it came to entering the job market, we had what’s known in academic parlance as a “two-body problem.” Securing two tenure-track jobs anywhere is hard. Finding them close together is nearly impossible. Yet we pushed ahead. I applied to every position in early modern literature, and he applied to every one in the classics. Neither one of us was going to take a backseat or be pressured to follow the other. We were prepared to live apart as long as we stayed in the same time zone and there were direct flights. The prospect of getting tenure in seven years, the academic freedom and job security at the end of it all, would make the personal and financial sacrifices worth it. When our annual conventions rolled around, where the first round of interviews would take place, we each had fo...

SHE had so much. A two-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people. Yet Tammy Strobel wasn’t happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.” So one day she stepped off. Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number. Her mother called her crazy. Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing...

Clear skies over these next few nights and enough personal stamina to stay awake will afford a view of one of the flashiest meteor displays of the year. The annual Perseid Meteor Shower has been slowly ramping up in intensity since this past weekend and viewers from around the world have been delighted by views of these bright streaks of light darting across the night sky. In some special cases, they've put on spectacular – albeit brief – shows. And the best is yet to come.  [ Top 10 Perseid Meteor Shower Facts ] On Saturday, Ernõ Berkó from Ludányhalaszi, Hungary witnessed a Perseid that he estimated at magnitude -10, or more than 100 times brighter than the planet Venus (which, along with Mars and Saturn currently adorns the southwest sky right after sunset).  Excellent New England weather last weekend brought more than a thousand amateur astronomers to the 75th Stellafane Convention, just outside of Springfield, Vermont. While the emphasi...

   Download now or listen on posterous 01_Midnight_-demo.mp3 (15993 KB) Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness

Planets Align for the Perseid Meteor Shower Play Audio Download Audio Join Mailing List August 5, 2010:   You know it's a good night when a beautiful alignment of planets is the second best thing that's going to happen. Thursday, August 12th, is such a night. The show begins at sundown when Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon pop out of the western twilight in tight conjunction. All four heavenly objects will fit within a circle about 10 degrees in diameter, beaming together through the dusky colors of sunset. No telescope is required to enjoy this naked-eye event: sky map . A Perseid meteor photographed in Aug. 2009 by Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. [ more ] The planets will hang together in the western sky until 10 pm or so. When they leave, following the sun below the horizon, you should stay, because that is when the Perseid meteor shower begins. From 10 pm until dawn, meteors will flit across the starry sky in a display that's even more excitin...

Save The Salt, a brief history: During the (1930-1940) era the Bonneville Salt Flats was able to support the weight of 10-ton twin-engine streamliners that roared down the 13.5-mile long Race Courses. The Hot Rods roared onto the salt flats in 1949 with the first Speed Week event and have run every year since. Of course a few years were missed due to weather. By the early 1960's the pioneers of Land Speed Racing began to notice subtle changes in the surface of the raceway. There were discussions of why the surface seemed to be getting weaker and that this unique body of land was shrinking. We were able to get only as much as 7 miles of decent salt for our courses, if we were lucky. It wasn't long before fingers were pointed at the mining industry on the south side of interstate 80. Owned by Kaiser Chemical, their operations covered some 50 sq. miles of the salt flats. Rick Vesco, our first chairman of Save The Salt, spearheaded the...

Chinese businessmen and their families sat in the aisles and stood along the wall of a crowded Shanghai hotel conference room to hear Gov. Butch Otter invite them to move themselves and their money to Idaho. These wealthy families had thrived in the economic reform that encouraged private investment and in 30 years turned China into the second-largest economy in the world. Thanks to the efforts of a flamboyant Asian businessman, these families were being lured by the chance to invest in an Idaho gold mine that was once worked by Chinese miners - and by the opportunity to offer their children a new life in the United States. "I admit the project is attractive," Lu Yue, a woman who attended a Beijing seminar, told the China Daily newspaper. "Gold is always precious. Times change, but it keeps its value." By the end of Otter's whirlwind weeklong trade mission in June, 20 investors had signed on to invest a total of $10 million that estimates say could crea...