Free Republic

Speaking at a town hall event in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday, President Barack Obama claimed that “the planet will boil over” if everyone has access to air conditioning, automobiles and big houses. That is, unless the world finds “new ways of producing energy,” he said. “Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over — unless we find new...

Source: University of Alaska Fairbanks Date: September 15, 2007 Lakes Boiling With Methane Discovered In Alaska Science Daily — Last month, UAF researcher Katey Walter brought a National Public Radio crew to Alaska’s North Slope, hoping to show them examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes. When they reached their destination, Walter and the crew found even more than they bargained for: a lake violently boiling with escaping methane. “It was cold, wet and windy. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a helicopter and paddled out to a huge methane...

Active lava pond in the East Pond Vent, Pu'u O'o, Kilauea, Hawaii: CHALLENGE: Find a good picture of a freshwater spring sand boil. This is where the water of a spring is emerging from a sandy bottom, and the sand "boils" where the water flow is strongest. Example: The white area is a sand boil in a Florida freshwater spring. What I need is a high-quality close-up example of this for a demonstration. (Not critical, but it would be helpful.)

Activists say Norwegian report slanted to favor fishing industry PORTLAND, Maine - A new study out of Norway concludes it’s unlikely lobsters feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether Maine’s most valuable seafood suffers when it’s being cooked. Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters are in agony when being cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is tantamount to torture. The study, funded by the Norwegian government and written by a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests lobsters and other invertebrates such as crabs, snails and worms probably don’t suffer even...

It is the ethical dilemma that for decades has troubled the rich and aspiring the world over: when you place a live lobster in a pot of boiling water, does it feel pain? Norwegian scientists were asked to investigate pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates and claim now to have discovered that the answer is no. Their conclusion applies also to crabs and to live worms on a fish hook. None of these feel a thing. Which is good news for Norwegian fishermen at least. Their government was considering a ban on live worms as fish bait under revisions to...

Fair use for education/discussion purposes: Yahoo! News News Home - Help AFP CIA renditions of terror suspects are 'out of control:' report Sun Feb 6, 5:57 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)'s 'rendition' of suspected terrorists has spiralled 'out of control' according to a former FBI (news - web sites) agent, cited in a report which examined how CIA (news - web sites) detainees are spirited to states suspected of using torture. Michael Scheuer a former CIA counterterrorism agent told The New Yorker magazine "all we've done is create a nightmare," with regard...

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON - Staff Sgt. Eric DiVona didn't notice the small bumps on his face and left earlobe until he returned from serving nine months in Iraq (news - web sites). Nothing much, he thought, probably just a spider bite. But soon those bumps erupted into open sores, one growing to the size of a half dollar. AP Photo   What DiVona thought was a spider bite was actually caused by a tiny sand fly with a fierce parasite stewing in its gut, an organism that causes stubborn and ugly sores that linger for months. The...

(CBS) For years, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, scientists have tried to understand the dynamic nature of Yellowstone National Park. "It's beautiful up here, everybody should see this at one time or another," says one appreciative observer. Scientist Lisa Morgan may have unlocked one piece in the puzzle, deep below the park's biggest lake. "It is kind of the last unmapped frontier in Yellowstone National Park," says Morgan. What she found looks more like the surface of the moon. Using sonar she's identified a massive bulging dome the size of seven football fields. The only other underwater dome in...

Scientists have discovered the world's toughest life form. The single-celled microbe, called "strain 121" for the moment, can survive at a scorching 130C higher than the boiling point of water and nearly 20 degrees higher than the previous record holder. The discovery is announced today in the journal Science by Derek Lovley and Kazem Kashefi of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It raises the possibility that life began on earth earlier than currently thought. "Our goal was not to break the temperature limit," said Prof Lovley. "As part of the general characterisation of any organism, you look at what...

Tensions boil over between Kurds and Arabs in northBy Patrick Cockburn in Kirkuk 14 April 2003 At least eight people were killed in gun battles between Iraqi Kurds and Arab tribes south of Kirkuk yesterday as Arabs in northern Iraq become increasingly nervous of the Kurdish advance south. The fighting was around the town of Hawi Jah on the road between the Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk and the city of Tikrit. "It has been chaos. The Kurds are here to steal, and have killed some of our people while trying to rob them on the road," said one leader...