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Suffice to say that neither being a U.S. Senator nor signing a petition by the UCS makes you a scientist. That "App" needs (much) more work! No need for you to feel “scientifically challenged” anymore; there’s an App for nearly everything now. It appears that one of the easiest ways to become a “scientist” (concerned or not, my personal view) is to join the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). That group has already millions of members (so it claims) and you are most welcome to join. No experience or other credentials required—if anything, just a few dollars from your wallet....

What killed the dinosaurs? It’s a question as old as – well the dinosaurs themselves, and one that everyone from school children to scientists have been asking for decades. Movies like Jurassic Park and the Land Before Time only heighten that sense of wonder and raise the stakes behind that question. Now according to a new scientific study, it seems that black gold may have been the source of the dinos’ demise. Japanese researchers at Tohuku University and the Meteorological Research Institute authored a recent study in the research journal Scientific Reports suggesting that a meteor impact 66 million years...

We haven't had a good series on the Chickenhawks of the Radical Left in a while. You might remember some of the previous ones - paternity leave, minimum wage,and of course, my first chickenhawk post from three years ago, also about green chickenhawks! But now let's return to the chickenhawks of the Church of Climate Change. Where a few years ago I asked why they don't invest more of their own money in green technology, let's look at it from a simpler angle of how they live their everyday lives. A few months ago a few of this strange cults'...

There are millions of trucks on the world’s highways at any given time, carrying cargo from one place to another and spewing diesel exhaust fumes. That’s how it’s been since the dawn of trucking, that’s how it still is. But that’s not necessarily how it will be in the future. Electric trucks are a fact, though not a very popular one, which is undeserved to a certain degree. While short-haul deliveries are perfect for utilizing electric freight carriers, a long-haul electric truck would need a battery weighing 23 tons to be able to make a 500-mile journey in one go....

The home and small shop manufacture of ammunition is an interesting subject for those debating the potential for disarming the population.  Guns are not very hard to make.  They are routinely made in third world workshops and by first world hobbyists.  Some of the simplest to make are some of those most detested by the opponents of armed self defense.  Homemade submachine guns are commonly found in Brazil and Israel. Many who oppose armed self defense have made the case that ammunition is the weak point in a black market or grey market economy.  They assume that ammunition is...

Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that he will be releasing the second part of his Top Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan soon, possibly by the end of this week. The unofficial announcement comes at an interesting time for the company and its boss. Tesla Motors is currently the target of an investigation after a fatal accident with a Tesla Model S that was allegedly caused by the car’s autopilot. The car did not stop when it approached a tractor-trailer and crashed into it, killing its driver. The investigation, initially involving the Florida Highway Patrol and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,...

This image from homemadeguns.wordpress.com appears to be from a Portugese  police agency.  Shotgun shells are often used for the clandestine manufacture of pistol ammunition.  It many countries it is much easier to obtain shotgun shells than pistol or rifle ammunition.  In countries where severe restrictions on the private ownership of firearms have been imposed, shotguns are the least restricted.  In the extremely restrictive Soviet Union, shotgun cartridges were relatively available.  In England, the easiest firearm license to obtain is the shotgun license, as it is in Japan. With a source of shotgun cartridges, you have everything you need to...

A couple weeks ago I was at a party where out of the corner of my eye I noticed what looked like a giant phone book sitting open on a table. It was printed with perforated green and white paper bound in a binder who’s cover looked a little worse for the wear. I had closer look with my friend James Kinsey. What we read was astonishing; Program 63, 64, 65, lunar descent and landing. Error codes 1201, 1202. Comments printed in the code, code segments hastily circled with pen. Was this what we thought we were looking at? And...

Excavating toilets might not seem like glamorous work. But this team of archaeologists were not complaining when they unearthed 87,000 artifacts dating back to the American Revolution while digging up 250-year-old outhouses in Philadelphia. The Commonwealth Heritage Group made the fascinating find on a dig at the site of the new Museum of the American Revolution, which opens next year. Twelve of the brick bathrooms were uncovered during the dig just two blocks away from Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the Huffington Post reported. Intricate crockery, finely detailed jugs, wig curlers and an array of beads were found during the excavation....

America, Japan and China are racing to be the first nation to make nuclear energy completely renewable. The hurdle is making it economic to extract uranium from seawater, because the amount of uranium in seawater is truly inexhaustible. And it seems America is in the lead. New technological breakthroughs from DOE’s Pacific Northwest (PNNL) and Oak Ridge (ORNL) national laboratories have made removing uranium from seawater within economic reach and the only question is – when will the source of uranium for our nuclear power plants change from mined ore to seawater extraction? Nuclear fuel made with uranium extracted from...

Filamet™, the new product from The Virtual Foundry, llc in Madison, Wisconsin, lets any standard 3d printer, print pure metal right on the desktop. This Crowdfunded development will likely change the way metal is 3D Printed. "I'd like to introduce you to the people that have found the Holy Grail of 3D Printing." -Engineer introducing Bradley Woods before a presentation given in the Hubble Auditorium at Lockheed-Martin. The Virtual Foundry has combined traditional plastics, Powdered Metallurgy, Metal Injection Molding and 3D Printing in a completely new way. Filamet™ has a composition of over 88% metal, which becomes pure metal after...

Penn State researchers have used a custom 3D photolithographic process similar to stereolithography to 3D print micro-patterned anion exchange membranes. The membranes, patterned for improved performance, could be used in energy, water purification, desalination, and other applications. Although they might resemble small pieces of run-of-the-mill kitchen plastic wrap, ion exchange membranes play a vital role several different practical processes. The thin, flat polymer sheets can be used in fuel cells and batteries, while food processing, heavy metals removal, and water purification can also benefit from the membranes. While these polymer membranes have traditionally been made flat and smooth, scientists have...

Artificial intelligence (AI) developed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate was recently assessed by subject-matter expert and retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee - who holds extensive aerial combat experience as an instructor and Air Battle Manager with considerable fighter aircraft expertise - in a high-fidelity air combat simulator. The artificial intelligence, dubbed ALPHA, was the victor in that simulated scenario, and according to Lee, is "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI I've seen to date." The application is specifically designed for use with Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) in simulated air-combat missions for research...

Dr. Patrick Moore sent me this last week, and after reading it, I agree with him in his initial note to me that This is probably the most important paper I will ever write. Moore looks at the historical record of CO2 in our atmosphere and concludes that we came dangerously close to losing plant life on Earth about 18,000 years ago, when CO2 levels approached 150 ppm, below which plant life can’t sustain photosynthesis. He notes: A 140 million year decline in CO2 to levels that came close to threatening the survival of life on Earth can hardly be...

Maltese prehistory may have just been extended by 30,000 years. The verdict of experts from the London Natural History Museum has revived the theory that a tooth discovered in Għar Dalam in 1917 may prove Neanderthals once roamed the island. The claim is not new. It was made in the 1920s by two British anthropologists, but four decades later the theory no longer had credence. “Anyone who wrote a history book from 1964 till today will say there were never any Neanderthals on Malta. According to them, the first people to come here were Sicilian farmers around 7,000 years ago,”...

So... it could still get us to Mars in 70 days? Physicists have just published a new paper that suggests the controversial EM drive - or electromagnetic drive - could actually work, and doesn't defy Newton's third law after all. In case you've missed the hype, here's a quick catch-up: a lot of space lovers are freaking out about the EM drive because of claims it could get humans to Mars in just 10 weeks, but just as many are sick of hearing about it, because, on paper at least, it doesn't work within the laws of physics. Despite that...

The ITER fusion reactor will fire up for the first time in December 2025, the €18-billion project’s governing council confirmed today. The date for “first plasma” is 5 years later than under the old schedule, and to get there the council is asking the project partners—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States—to cough up an extra €4 billion ($4.5 billion). “It is expected, if there are no objections, that we can approve [the schedule] by November and then we can move forward,” says ITER director general Bernard Bigot. ITER aims to show that it...

So you’re a global warming skeptic, author, philosopher and think tank creator who champions the use of fossil fuels. Then you get subpoenaed by the Massachusetts attorney general over your think-tank’s supposed ties to ExxonMobil — the claim being that the oil giant allegedly attempted to cover up global warming science. And how did Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels,” respond to Maura Healey’s subpoena on Wednesday? " F---- Off, Fascist"

Dream on you loopians, just don't expect me to fund your crazy ideas! There is a new company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) that intends to revolutionize high speed continental travel. It’s CEO, Dirk Ahlborn, recently announced an agreement with the Slovakian government to build Hyperloops from Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia, and from Bratislava to Budapest, Hungary. Its competitor, Hyperloop One, recently tested an open air propulsion test of a vehicle with its “Blade Runner” test rig. The Japanese “bullet trains” going at 200 mph are like snails in comparison. The new hyper-things are envisaged to do about 760 mph....

No matter what eco-activists say, truth does not apply to science In February, the draconian California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, Senate Bill 1161, was introduced by Democratic senators Ben Allen, Hannah-Beth Jackson and Mark Leno. Unbelievably, it passed both the state Senate’s environmental and judiciary committees. It was not until June 2 that the remainder of the Senate came to their senses and Sen. James Monning took the bill off the Senate floor. It can be reconsidered at a later date. Overlooked in the controversy is the fact that truth is not possible in science. Scientific...