Giant rats set to invade civilization

Researchers from Conservation International and the Indonesia Institute of Science had previously discovered several new species of plants and animals during a trip to the pristine rain forest region in 2005.

When the team returned to the Fojas this summer, they found the rat along with a pygmy possum that could also be a previously unrecorded species.

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said in a press statement. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

We're screwed

Common Cold Kills

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new and virulent strain of adenovirus, which frequently causes the common cold, killed 10 people in parts of the United States earlier this year and put dozens into hospitals, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report detailed cases of people ill in May of 2006 and from March to June of 2007 with a strain of the virus called adenovirus 14 in New York, Oregon, Washington state and Texas.

"Whether you're a healthy young adult, an infant or an elderly person, this virus can cause severe respiratory disease at any age," said John Su, who investigates infectious diseases for the CDC and contributed to the report.

"What makes this particular adenovirus a little different is that it has the capability of making healthy young adults severely ill. And that's unusual for an adenovirus, and that's why it's got our attention," Su said in a telephone interview.

Full article here

NCSU scientists are trying to blow up the planet

Raleigh (NC) - Scientists recently announced they have fired the most powerful antimatter beam ever created. Comprised of positrons (antimatter electrons) emitted from a large plate and focused into a beam, the emission strength exceeds the previous record held by a laboratory in Munich, Germany.

Sounds great, right? And then I read this portion of the article...

Since this project has now created a successful, powerful antimatter beam, physicsts are looking to turn their attention to practical applications. Dr. Ayman Hawari, associate professor of nuclear engineering and director of the Nuclear Reactor Program at NC State, told ncsu.edu's Dave Pond, "The idea here is that if we create this intense beam of antimatter electrons ... we can then use them in investigating and understanding the new types of materials being used in many applications."

Holy fucking shit we are screwed. All we need is one scientist to go off the radar and wind up in Syria to end it all. Using an antimatter death beam is only the number one method to destroy the planet.

Israel set to start nuking within a year

A claim by President Ahmadinejad that Iran has 3,000 working uranium-enriching centrifuges sent a tremor across the world yesterday amid fears that Israel would respond by bombing the country’s nuclear facilities.

Military sources in Washington said that the existence of such a large number could be a “tipping point”, triggering an Israeli air strike. The Pentagon is reluctant to take military action against Iran, but officials say that Israel is a “different matter”. Amid the international uproar, British MPs who were to have toured the nuclear facility were backing out of their Iran trip.

Even before President Ahmadinejad’s announcement, a US defence official told The Times yesterday: “Israel could do something when they get to around 3,000 working centrifuges. The Pentagon is minded to wait a little longer.” US experts say 3,000 machines running for long periods could make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.

It's the beginning of the end, folks. I guess Israel doesn't believe in M.A.D., or they don't care.

Full article available here.

The master race will soon be upon us

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "supermouse" with extraordinary physical abilities – comparable to the performance of the very best athletes – raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.

The mouse can run up to six kilometres (3.7 miles) at a speed of 20 metres per minute for five hours or more without stopping. Scientists said that this was equivalent of a man cycling at speed up an Alpine mountain without a break. Although it eats up to 60 per cent more food than an ordinary mouse, the modified mouse does not put on weight. It also lives longer and enjoys an active sex life well into old age – being capable of breeding at three times the normal maximum age.

American scientists who created the mice – they now have a breeding colony of 500 – said that they were stunned by their abilities, especially given that the animals came about as a result of a standard genetic modification to a single metabolism gene shared with humans.

Full story here

Amerca's Patient Zero?

Geneticists have traced the arrival of AIDS in America to a single person who came from Haiti in 1969.

In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, University of Arizona researchers analyzed archived blood samples from the first five U.S. AIDS patients. All were recent Haitian immigrants. The geneticists then looked at genetic sequences from another 117 people with HIV subtype B, the most common strain of the virus.

After assembling the sequences, the researchers modeled the probability of various HIV family trees. Did the virus go from Africa to the United States? The chance of that, they found, was just .003 percent. Did it go from Africa to Haiti and then to the U.S.? The chance of that was 99.8 percent -- within the scope of the model, a near certainty.

They found that Haiti, which contains more HIV strains than any other country, likely served as a breeding ground for the disease between 1966 and 1969, at which point a single person carried it to the United States. From there, the rest is tragic history.

Full Story Here

OH SHI-

"The heaven shall burn at five and forty degrees, the fire shall come near the great new city... when they shall make a trial of the Normans" (Century 6:97) Nostradamus

San Diego is going down.

Appropriate theme song for this image?

The winner is here:



Just play that while looking at the image.

Skynet has become self-aware

The National Defence Force is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.

SA National Defence Force spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope says the cause of the malfunction is not yet known and will be determined by a Board of Inquiry. The police are conducting a separate investigation into the incident.

Full article here

Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is Higher Than Thought

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said.

"This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

It's official, we're dead.

Full article here

West Nile Virus spreads to Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Wednesday the third case of West Nile virus in Illinois in 2007 has been discovered.

A Madison County man in his 60s, who reportedly traveled within Illinois and other states during his incubation period, has been diagnosed with West Nile neuroinvasive disease.

Neuroinvasive disease is the most severe form of the West Nile virus and affects a person’s nervous system, according to a release from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Cook, DuPage and Tazewell counties have all found mosquitoes that tested positive for the virus. The first human case for 2007 was reported in DuPage County on June 15, the release said.

Last year, 77 of Illinois’ 102 counties had a bird, mosquito, horse or human case of the West Nile virus. In Illinois, 215 people contracted the disease, which led to 10 deaths, the release said.

The West Nile virus is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on an infected bird. Most people with the virus have no clinical symptoms of illness, but some may become ill three to 14 days after the bite, the release said

Full Article here

West Nile Virus invades California

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Residents of Cambrian Park were alerted Thursday of increased West Nile virus activity in their neighborhood, according to the County of Santa Clara Vector Control District.

The district mailed more than 4,400 postcards to residents Thursday, saying that four WNV-positive birds were found in the area within the past two weeks.

The area of concern includes residents within a one-mile radius of where the birds were found.

In addition to offering WNV precautionary tips, the postcards also ask residents to alert the district of any possible mosquito sources in the neighborhood.

“It is very important that the residents in these areas know how to protect themselves and their families,” said District Manager Tim Mulligan. “Even though the virus could be anywhere in the county, all signs are pointing to the fact that this area may have the greatest potential for infected mosquitoes at this time.”

The area includes parts of San Jose in the 95124 ZIP code, as well as a small section of northern Los Gatos.

Full Article here