Sure, meteorologists want you to THINK they’re just common lenticular clouds. But any fan of George Pal’s epic War of the Worlds
would recognize them instantly as the prescient HG Wells’ Martian invaders (who have developed some sort of cloaking device since the 50s)
Prosaic Source/Explanation here: APOD: 2016 March 2 – Unusual Clouds over Hong Kong
A new study that examined the dietary habits of more than 18,300 U.S. adults found the majority of people who increased their consumption of plain water — tap water or from a cooler, drinking fountain or bottle — by 1 percent reduced their total daily calorie intake as well as their consumption of saturated fat, sugar, sodium and cholesterol.
People who increased their consumption of water by one, two or three cups daily decreased their total energy intake by 68 to 205 calories daily and their sodium intake by 78 to 235 grams, according to a paper by University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Ruopeng An.
They also consumed 5 grams to nearly 18 grams less sugar and decreased their cholesterol consumption by 7 to 21 grams daily.”The impact of plain water intake on diet was similar across race/ethnicity, education and income levels and body weight status,”
Source: Drinking more water associated with numerous dietary benefits, study finds — ScienceDaily
And another diet-related development:
High-fat dairy products linked to reduced type 2 diabetes risk
Consumption of high-fat yoghurt and cheese 
are linked to a reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes by as much as a fifth, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden. High meat consumption, on the other hand, is linked to a higher risk
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150402081804.htm
Of varying complexity,
these 100s of cool Star Wars items would make a great theme for a kids party or just be a great way to use up your company’s toner when you’re bored at work.
Back in Aug. 2013, the New York State Attorney General’s office sued Donald Trump and Trump University, alleging that the for-profit investment school had tricked students out of $40 million by misleading them into thinking they were paying for a licensed education program with instructors handpicked by Trump. Today, a state appeals court panel breathed new life into the lawsuit, meaning the fraud case can move forward.
The school was launched in 2004, but Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says that the state repeatedly advised the program’s operators that it was violating state law by using the term “University” without a charter, and because it lacked a license to offer student instruction or training in New York.
Students paid upwards of $35,000 each to participate in the program, which advertised that the lecturers were “Donald Trump’s handpicked experts,” and that it could “turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you.”
But according to the state, only one person who spoke at Trump University presentationS had ever even met the real estate mogul.
Source: Appeals Court Reinstates Fraud Case Against Trump University – Consumerist
Hallerberg and her colleagues built a “bag of calls” algorithm. The program listens to recordings of groups of animals, examining all the frequencies present in the signal. Rather than classify individual calls one by one, it calculated a coefficient to represent all the features of interest.“We’re not looking at each sound. We’re looking at the ensemble of sounds,” she says. “It’s like looking at a whole text instead of just looking at a particular word.”
After running their algorithm on the recordings, Hallerberg’s team could prove that each family had its own distinct dialect.
“It’s a hint that they acquire their communication by vocal learning,” Hallerberg says.
The team thinks their software could help analyse the vocalisations of other species, too, and plan to try the algorithm on orca recordings.
John Hildebrand at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego says the approach makes sense for pilot whales, which communicate with “burst pulse” calls. But he’s not sure that it would work as well for other toothed whale vocalisations such as echolocation clicks and whistles.
The technique can be useful for high-level questions about big data, but may not help with finer details, like the specific characteristics that set the dialects apart, says Marie Roch at San Diego State University. “It all depends on the question you’re trying to answer and how accurate you’re trying to be,” she says.
Source: Whale algorithm could unlock secrets of their many dialects | New Scientist
John Oliver exposes the lie that is Donald Drumpf. Watch the video and you’ll see why I (and probably you) will be spelling his name that way from now on.
Seven different types of mushrooms, sweet red & yellow peppers, fried tofu, and feta in a picanté Meyer lemon /cider vinegar brine.
About 16 pints (7.6 liters in the civilized world).
Essential information for strangers in a strange land:
That was the end of Part 2, here’s the equally entertaining Part 1:
Do you try to have a light carbon footprint? Do you concern yourself with the environmental impact of your actions?
Do you worry about pollution and try to mitigate your contribution?
The Porter Ranch methane leak, the largest in California history, release about 100,000 TONS of the greenhouse gas before it was capped. And it’s just one of almost 200 that are spewing this toxic gas into the atmosphere constantly. Few of these are in areas as affluent as Porter Ranch, which may be why it took that event to get the EPA off its damned ass.
Just as the worst methane leak in California’s history is sealed and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged that America pollutes much more methane than previously estimated, Earthworks—the group that filmed the videos revealing the scope of the methane disaster in Los Angeles County—released a map of 180+ infrared videos of oil and gas methane pollution events across the country.
Scientists who flew an airplane equipped with sensors through the plume of natural gas leaking into the Porter Ranch area have found that at its peak, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane — effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin.
Oil and gas development’s air pollution can cause health problems for communities living nearby.
But the energy industry claims there is no proof, and often gets away with it because the pollution is invisible.
The Citizens Empowerment Project brings communities the tools they need to provide compelling proof of what they’re living with. The FLIR GF320 camera, operated by our ITC-certified thermographers, provides infrared video evidence of air pollution from during oil and gas activities. The GF320 makes visible 20 normally invisible volatile organic compounds, including benzene (a carcinogen) and methane (a potent climate pollutant).
At least the Southern California Gas Co. has been ordered to keep paying the cost of housing for the Porter Ranch refugees (they originally wanted to give them 48 hours to move back). Clearly they got cocky and forgot the cardinal rule of resource exploitation: Don’t fuck with the rich people!
Of course getting back will take a LOT longer.
There’s a roadmap for using this system, and it starts small. At first, DEEP IN would be used to launch small cube satellites. The feedback from this phase would then inform the next step, which would be to test a unit for defending the ISS from space debris. From then, the systems would meet goals of increasing complexity, from launching satellites to LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) and GEO (Geostationary Orbit), all the way up to asteroid deflection and planetary defense. After that, relativistic drives capable of interstellar travel is the goal.
Source: NASA thinks there’s a way to get to Mars in three days
The Truthiness Shall Set You Freak
Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness 