Moo Pig Wisdom is a brilliant combination of Antiquity and Prequel Modern Flea Market. We respectfully ask you to mind your children while here.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

MooPig Milestones Department :: "Voyager"

Voyager
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 30, 2012 | Bryan TX
[Picture LINK]  Voyager is now entering space beyond our solar system ... an inevitable but historic conclusion - that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system ...

NewsDaily: Voyager space probe reaches edge of solar system: "Voyager 1, along with its sister spacecraft Voyager 2, was launched in 1977 and is now about 18 billion kilometers from the Sun. It is moving at a speed of about 17 km per second and it currently takes 16 hours and 38 minutes for data to reach NASA's network on Earth. Voyager 2 is about 15 billion kilometers from the Sun. ... "

Between them, the probes have explored all the giant planets of the solar system; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as 48 of their moons."

'via Blog this'

They both carry a greeting for any extraterrestrial life they may bump into, a phonograph record and 12-inch gold-plated copper disk with sounds and images of life and culture on Earth selected by a group chaired by the famous space scientist Carl Sagan. ... "

The plutonium power sources on the Voyager probes are designed to last until 2025. When they die, the probes will keep hurtling through space towards other stars in the Milky Way but they will no longer transmit data back to Earth. (Chris Wickham. 2012/06/15.LONDON, Reuters. Editing by Rosalind Russell) ... "

[Picture LINK]
‘A billion years from now, when everything on Earth we’ve ever made has crumbled into dust, when the continents have changed beyond recognition and our species is unimaginably altered or extinct, the Voyager record will speak for us.’

_________________________Reference
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/thirty.html
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre85e0vu-us-space-voyager-probe/
http://www.maoptp.co.uk/Voyager.html
http://www.sarahangliss.com/sounds/findus

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "Demise of the Fossil Fuel Industry" PART TWO

[Picture LINK]  ... Heat Waves and Our Aging Electrical Grid

" ... Electricity now powers devices of amazing technological sophistication, from lightning-fast desktop computers to flat screen TVs. But our means of getting power from the plant to the plug hasn't changed much since the early 20th century. "

Equipment Aging
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 28, 2012 | Bryan TX

IEEE Xplore - Abstract Page: "Thereby, the results can provide an early forecasting for equipment fault and scientific evidences for equipment maintenance and out of service, which are caused by equipment aging."
[Picture LINK]

'via Blog this'
" ... Models have been published addressing the issue of the calculation of the remaining life, future failure rates and the probability of failure of power equipment. ... " (HERE)

" ... Older equipment have higher failure rates, leading to customer interruption rates affecting the economy and society; also, older assets and facilities lead to higher inspection maintenance costs and further repair/restoration costs. ... " (HERE)

" ... Aging transmission and distribution infrastructure poses increasing obstacles for the power industry. Industry-wide run-to-failure policies have left large portions of utilities' transmission and distribution infrastructure rapidly approaching or exceeding expected service lifetimes. ... " (HERE)

" ... At 3:05 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2003, a 345-kV transmission line in northern Ohio began to sag. This happens commonly, especially during hot summer days, when the demand for power created by all those air conditioners can cause power lines to slacken.

Energy, which was responsible for powering northern Ohio, should have detected the loss of that first line, but its energy management system wasn't working at the time (the company didn't know that). Higher up, the Midwest Independent System Operator's state estimator, which helps ensure reliability for several utility companies in the region, had just been taken down for troubleshooting that day, and wasn't fully back online yet, so operators were unable to get an accurate, real-time picture of what was happening to the grid. ... " (HERE)


______________________Reference
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5448903&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5448903
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4912630&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F4912595%2F4912596%2F04912630.pdf%3Farnumber%3D4912630
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid
http://www.euci.com/events/?ci=1689&t=O
http://www.euci.com/events/?ci=1377&t=O
http://www.fujielectric.com/company/tech/pdf/55-03/FER-55-3-099-2009.pdf
http://site.ge-energy.com/prod_serv/plants_td/en/downloads/casestudies_dtech.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/94623624/Equipment-Aging
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1831346,00.html

NASA Talk -- Catherine Coleman

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 30, 2012 | Bryan TX


[Picture LINK]

Space girl | wordlessTech Flight engineer Catherine Coleman, one of the ISS crew, occupies the commander’s station on the Discovery flight deck. Credit: NASA

'via Blog this'

MooPig has a secret crush on Space Gurl, Catherine Coleman.


In this frame grab from video shot on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 and made available by NASA, astronaut Catherine Coleman, right, holds her flute aboard the International Space Station during an interview. One of the flutes is her own. Two belong to members of the Irish group “The Chieftains.” And one belongs to the flutist with the Jethro Tull band. Coleman says she prefers creating music with other people. But she’s the only flutist among the six-member space station crew. So she puts flute music on in the background, and plays along. (AP Photo/NASA) Original Filename: Flutes in Space.JPEG-03546.jpg

________________Reference
http://wordlesstech.com/2011/03/09/space-girl/
http://sites.socsdblogs.org/cyassky/2011/03/23/flutes-in-space/

NASA Talk -- Space Telescopes found in Storage!

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 30, 2012 | Bryan TX


[Picture LINK]  " x 2 "

Space Gift: NASA Gets Two New Hubble Telescopes for Free - TIME: "The National Science Foundation has just revealed the existence of not one but two pristine, Hubble-class space telescopes still in their original wrappings in a warehouse in Rochester, N.Y. The pair was originally built for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency in charge of spy satellites, to look down at Earth rather than up into space. But the NRO has moved on to bigger and better instruments, and decided to hand the telescopes over. "It just blew me away when I heard about this," says Princeton astrophysicist David Spergel, a member of the National Academy of Science's Committee on Astrophysics and Astronomy. "

'via Blog this'

But while the free scopes are essentially there for the taking, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome. The cost of adapting cameras and other instruments to the rest of the components, then launching the whole thing and operating it for years won't be insignificant. "A 50% discount still means you have to come up with the other 50%," says Spergel. Still, getting the new scope into space should at least be cheaper than it was to launch the Hubble. "Hubble," he says, "is really a 1960s-era telescope. It's very heavy and fairly long. This one will be lighter and smaller." Even with drastic upgrades, Hertz says, it's plausible that it would cost just $1 billion to adapt and launch the proposed WFIRST — an absurdly low figure for such a powerful machine.

___________________________Reference
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2116436,00.html?iid=obinsite
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2112361,00.html
http://wordlesstech.com/2012/06/05/nasa-gets-two-military-spy-space-telescopes/

MooPig HealthCare Tracking Department :: "#SCOTUS upholds #ACA"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 30, 2012 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK] [CREDIT Cartoon by DonkeyHotey] ... Is the Minimum Coverage (individual mandate) provision constitutional? ...
SCOTUS Answer: Do you think Justice Kennedy would let the government make you eat your broccoli? Hell No. 5-4. The usual suspects.

Obamacare Lives: What You Need to Know: ""#SCOTUS upholds #ACA individual mandate."

That was the tweet heard 'round the world this morning from the widely followed SCOTUS Blog.

We'll probably be parsing the words of the Supreme Court's decision for weeks, but it looks like the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has survived.

What's it mean?"

'via Blog this'

Very few expected this outcome. Intrade, an online betting site, put the odds of the mandate being struck down at around 70%. Even staunch supporters of the mandate seemed resigned in recent days to the likelihood that it would likely be repealed.

Simplified, the bill does a few big things:
  • Prevents insurance companies from denying customers for pre-existing conditions.
  • Allows young adults to stay on their parent's insurance until age 26.
  • Limits age-rating, or charging premiums several times higher for older customers.
  • Eliminates lifetime insurance caps and restricts annual limits.
  • Restricts how much insurance companies can spend on non-medical costs (overhead).
  • Mandates that everyone acquire health insurance by 2014 or face a tax, offering subsidies or Medicaid for those who can't afford it.
Here's what's important: According to the Census Bureau, 49.9 million Americans didn't have health insurance in 2009. Part of that is due to the weak economy; most of those without health insurance have a very low or nonexistent income. But a lot is due to soaring costs that have put insurance out of reach for the gainfully employed. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 69% of businesses offered workers health insurance in 2000. By 2009, that number had dropped to 60%. It's almost certainly lower today. Our health-care system doesn't work for far too many Americans, which likely explains why most of the policies outlined above are pretty popular. Most, that is, except the mandate to buy insurance ... "

The measuring of political wins and losses misses the point altogether. The winners here are the nearly 50 million Americans who don't have health insurance. They're the majority of personal bankruptcy cases linked to medical bills, and those who couldn't quit their job because they can't afford to lose employer-provided coverage. ... "

Health insurers might be seen as losers -- shares of UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH ) , WellPoint (NYSE: WLP ) , and Cigna (NYSE: CI ) were all down big this morning -- but it's still entirely unclear how the bill will affect their business over the long haul. On one hand, there are a raft of new rules to comply with. On the other, they'll eventually see a flood of new customers effectively mandated to buy their product. First-day knee-jerk reactions rarely reflect the true impacts of big events. ... "

This isn't the end of the story, of course. Mitt Romney has vowed to repeal the ACA if elected president. One of the biggest complaints about the ACA is that it causes uncertainty. No one knows what might happen next, or what health-care costs will be a year or two from now. Alas, that hasn't gone away. (Morgan Housel | More Articles. June 28, 2012. HERE)... "

___________________________Reference
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/06/28/obamacare-lives-what-you-need-to-know.aspx#.T-6kA7W86aU
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/5985153020/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/28/1103845/-SCOTUS-ACA-predictions

Thursday, June 28, 2012

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "Demise of the Fossil Fuel Industry?"


[Picture LINK] " ... We have now passed Peak Oil which began back in 1979 (some disagree with this date but all concede we have past peak oil) the decline is unavoidable. Few can conceive of what lies ahead. Complacency reigns. By far the great majority of people, including those at the very top in all strata of society, including governments, industry, and the media, will be caught unawares. ... "

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June, 2012 | Bryan TX

350.org: "After the birth of our first grandchild (Dougie), my wife Karen and I participated in the March on Blair Mountain last June, we were arrested in front of the White House on August 22 as part of the Tar Sands Action, we were part of the Ring Around the White House in November and we haven't looked back.  Little Dougie needs to grow up in a world freed from the tyranny of fossil fuels.  There is something about rubbing elbows with climate activists of all stripes, all ages, all races, and from every region of the world that lets us know that we aren't in this alone, that there is hope." (Michael Bagdes-Canning of Tour de Frack posted by Duncan Meisel - 06/27/12. HERE )

'via Blog this'

The real story is about our Power Grid and it's strengths and frailty. How safe is our electricity that flows to, well, flows to everywhere?

Does each person in fact have the ability in today's tech world mechanics to actually produce his own electrical power source? And does each one of us have the right to this technology?

These are the questions MooPig will be asking for the next few days. But it all starts with the raw material of Power, doesn't it? Fossil fuels.

One would hope that in the current climate change situation world wide, that a common goal is to limit the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. This site, 350.org, is about limiting the CO2 index to 350 ppm, and below. We are currently at 392 ppm CO2:
" ... At 350.org, we're building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis and push for policies that will put the world on track to get to 350 ppm. (350.org)... "
World Politics?! YIKES! Why is it always some political football? Oh, well, we give up. What happened to the decision making process?


________________________Reference
http://350.org/
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/27/bill_mckibben_of_350org_on_colorado
http://www.thefuture.net.nz/peakoil.htm


WKPDA Footnotes:
In cities and towns of North America, the grid tends to follow the classic radially fed design. A substation receives its power from the transmission network, the power is stepped down with a transformer and sent to a bus from which feeders fan out in all directions across the countryside. These feeders carry three-phase power, and tend to follow the major streets near the substation. As the distance from the substation grows, the fanout continues as smaller laterals spread out to cover areas missed by the feeders. This tree-like structure grows outward from the substation, but for reliability reasons, usually contains at least one unused backup connection to a nearby substation. This connection can be enabled in case of an emergency, so that a portion of a substation's service territory can be alternatively fed by another substation.

MooPig's Brand Department :: "Toynbee Idea BRANDS"


[Picture LINK]

'via Blog this'

Hundreds of Cryptic Tiles on Several Continents
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  June 28, 2012  |   Bryan TX

Someone has anonymously put tiles in the pavements of intersections in cities all over the USA and in other cities in South America. That's not all. It has been going on for "three decades." And there could be more undiscovered tiles around the world.

They are called the Toynbee Idea tiles. They went unnoticed until 1990's. Then as the Internet gained ground, pictures of the tiles surfaced on the Web.

The tiles say the same message in English " ... ‘Toynbee Idea in Movie 2001. Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.’ ... " with side notes sometimes.

Now the subject of a movie, selected by Sundance 2011, how does an anonymous artist, the only truer artist, react to his or her Brand being exploited?

We may never know what the heck this is all about, but you can be sure Toynbee Idea is now a BRAND that many will not be able to live without. Just like the stone pictographs that our ancient ancestors left for us... this one will be the Brand of least recognition, or not!



__________________________Reference
http://www.argotpictures.com/presskits/ResurrectDead_PressKit_Final.pdf
http://citynoise.org/article/11246

Sunday, June 24, 2012

MooPig Site Review :: "Our Tattered Campaign Fund System"


[Picture LINK]

A Mumbling Waste of Time?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  June 24, 2012  |  Bryan TX

Watch dogs for this mess are falling down and drowning in their own water bowls. There is a mess of dark money being infused into our 2012 presidential race. The thread of legality is that these super PAC's must maintain a "facade" that they are independent of the campaign that they are sloshing billions into.

What is the Dark Money? Non-disclosure is the slippery device that is used to avoid being evaluated by the American people and their watch dogs. Super PAC's say: 'We don't have to disclose our contribution, and we will go to great lengths to make sure no one can find us.'

All of this is happening right now. Because of a Supreme Court decision made since the last election, this presidential election will be the most expensive in the history of mankind. The decision to allow unlimited corporate spending on campaigns is called the Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission decision that Democrats condemn was a "clear signal that the Supreme Court takes a dim view of campaign finance."
" ... WASHINGTON — David Axelrod, President Obama’s political strategist, recently invoked a common perception about the 2012 campaign by blaming the Supreme Court for empowering 21st-century “robber barons trying to take over the government.” (JOHN HARWOOD. June 22, 2012. NYT. HERE) ... "
" ... In the case, a bitterly divided court ruled 5 to 4 that the government may not ban independent political spending by corporations, as well as labor unions and other organizations, in candidate elections. (NYT. June 21, 2012. HERE) ... "

What would make a skin-flint billionaire, cheap shot artist, spend $10 million of his money on a candidate? It is because the election is slanted towards the rich! The less rich candidate cannot keep pace with the rich in their attempts to "quickly, and without disclosure" push through their candidate. A less rich candidate cannot even make a tiny splash with his money raising donations in $25,000 units.

Who is going to file all the lawsuits this rich man's game creates? No one could get ahead of it, or afford it.

LISTEN to Democracy Now! video HERE:
" ... Part two of our conversation with Monika Bauerlein and Andy Kroll of Mothers Jones magazine. The new cover story in the magazine is called "Follow the Dark Money." We discuss at how Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson and others are bankrolling Mitt Romney’s campaign, why President Obama has opted to accepted unlimited SuperPAC donations as well and Stephen Colbert’s role in the debate over campaign finance. ..."

______________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/politics/with-elections-awash-in-cash-looking-for-culprits.html
http://www.motherjones.com/category/secondary-tags/dark-money
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/6/22/wanna_buy_an_election_mother_jones_expose_on_dark_money_citizens_united
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bopp
http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/08-205/
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/23/new-super-pac-ad-hits-romney-over-bain/

MooPig Retail Space Watch :: "Apple Stores"


[Picture LINK]

Why Did Microsoft Really Unveil Surface Tablets? | John C. Dvorak | PCMag.com: "The Apple stores, if you haven't noticed, account for the incredible success of the company over the past few years. They bring in a whopping $4,000 per square foot in annual retail sales, topping perennial sales star Tiffany and Co. The 363 stores in 13 countries move products like crazy—and Microsoft has noticed. It needs stores and branded products, period."

'via Blog this'

____________________Reference
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406095,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000585
http://www.apple.com/retail/upperwestside/

MOINK !! MooPig

Saturday, June 23, 2012

FWD :: FWD Email "Jim Robinson says: ... "


by Jim Robinson Unabridged
To all the Tea Baggers!

Shut the fuck up. Just for five fucking minutes.

We know you want to end taxation. We know you don’t care that every reputable economist on the fucking planet has tried to explain to you inbred sisterfuckers that austerity budgets and tax breaks for billionaires and transnational corporations makes joblessness worse, not better. It makes the recession worse, not better. It makes the deficit worse, not better.


But you don’t care what experts have to say, do you, knuckle-draggers, because all you care about is what makes you feel better. And what makes you feel better, apparently, is waddling up and down the street with powdered wigs and little flags and misspelled signs with pictures of the president wearing a turban, and you think that makes your opinion equal to those of educated experts who do research for a living. Don’t you get how utterly fucking stupid that makes you look?

We know you want to drill for oil in Yellowstone and downtown Detroit and fucking Disneyland and two miles down through the fucking Antarctic ice cap and on Mars and every dam place you can think of, until the entire solar system is a polluted piece of steaming shit just like fucking Texas.

We know you email each other ape jokes and watermelon jokes and other racist Ku Klux Klan fucking bullshit–just what, three years?– after screaming TREASON! at anyone who dared disagree with George W. Bush, and three years after deciding to tell everyone you’re not actually Republican because that would mean you voted for the moron who destroyed our economy.

Guess what? The 80 percent of us who think you’re a bunch of fucking retarded clowns are sick and tired of hearing about you. The 80 percent of us who think education is actually a good thing are tired of hearing you pontificate about shit you don’t know because you can barely spell your own names.

Like how you think the Internet is a bunch of fucking tubes.

How you think evolution isn’t real because the other monkeys haven’t evolved into people yet.

How you think we’ll still have roads and courtrooms and jails and people checking for e.coli in your WalMart burger meat without paying any taxes.

How you think it’s okay for you to accuse the president of being Muslim without any evidence—and then act like it’s a bad thing if he WAS a Muslim because you loathsome asswipes judge people by what group they belong to—not by their credentials as individuals.

How you hate Affirmative Action until it’s used to give preferential treatment to white students over students from Asia, or preferential treatment to the underachieving white children of the wealthiest donors. What a fucking bunch of racist hypocrites.

How you think lesbians have taken over the public university system—despite the fact that all the trustees and presidents and football coaches and most of the professors and most of the students and every evil fucker in any position of power happens to be in possession of a snow white penis.

How you think unions are the bullies with all the power and all the money while corporations are the victims with none of the power and none of the money, with no incentive to screw you because for some reason you’d rather pay them double, triple, quadruple for the same fucking services your taxes used to provide before they were used to pay for tax cuts to people who own yachts and jets. You dumb fucking idiots.

How you think some stupid bitch from Alaska actually knows any fucking thing about Russia just because Alaska is closer to Russia, than say, the Russian embassy in Washington Fucking D.C., you geopolitically-challenged shit-for-brained nine-year-olds! Meanwhile not a single one of you can say a single specific thing about any specific policy this stupid bitch has ever advocated. But you will of course scream at the top of your lungs that calling her bitch is sooooo wrong because Lord knows you’ve never called Hillary the c-word after wiping the beer foam off the ends of your snouts. What a bunch of misogynistic hypocrites.

Fuck you and your own personal fucking “news” channel, where you’re invited to spew your fucktarded bullshit with Bill "O" and Sean Hannity and the rest of the animal house twenty four hours every fucking merciless day. If they told you the only way to love America was to take a dump on on a downtown street corner, you’d be pushing each other out of the way to be first. Did you know they laugh at you behind your backs every two weeks when their seven-figure paychecks arrive, you stupid tools?

Liberal media, huh? One million Latinos march for immigration reform in Los Angeles, but on every donkeypissing television station across America all we see is a tribe of twenty assholes in plaid picketing on a street corner in Arizona because they flunked economics AND history in high school and don’t know the first thing about the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the history of our court system, OR the history of the last eight goddamned years in this country we love more than you do. Yes, more than you do—because we care enough about it to protect everyone’s freedoms—not just our own. Everyone’s property, not just our own. Everyone’s tax money, not just our own.

What a smarmy drooling circus you fuckers are.

Shut the fuck up for five fucking minutes, just for once. A town hall meeting is not for screamers. No one wants to smell your Cheetos breath from across the room. No one wants to smell the sweat stains under your armpits as you flail, spraying spittle. A town hall meeting is for people to discuss things, not scream. Stop fucking playing the victim when the SEIU dares to use YOUR OWN dam town hall tactics against you. Just because most of the rest of us fear all you scary, hooded, screaming, violent bastards doesn’t mean we all have to just sit there and take it. Fuck you. We want you to go away, back to your basements, back to your generators and your canned peas and your mistranslated bibles and your pregnant daughters, waiting for the rapture while you leave the rest of us the fuck alone.

You lost the fucking presidential election, you bastards.

So go away!

Mitt Romoney is Boring!!

[Picture LINK]

Thursday, June 21, 2012

MooPig Site Reviews :: "Urban Dictionary"

[Picture LINK]

Urban Dictionary: armchair activist:

'via Blog this'

June 18, 2012 Urban Word of the Day
A so-called activist who thinks he is helping towards a good cause by making a topic famous via blogs/social media.
"Forward this link to help breast cancer!!!!"-common saying by an armchair activist.
"Copy this message to help prevent HIV! Look I'm an activist xoxo."

_____________Reference
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=armchair%20activist&defid=6485317
http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/2012/03/12/armchair-activism-wont-fix-the-worlds-problems/

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

NASA Talk :: "New Era of Space Telescopes"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 20, 2012 | Bryan TX
[Picture LINK] The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light to the Euclid mission to explore the 'dark' side of the Universe.

Euclid telescope to probe dark universe

The cost to Esa of building, launching and operating Euclid is expected to be just over 600m euros (£480m; $760m). Member states will provide Euclid's visible wavelength camera and a near-infrared camera/spectrometer, and its ground and data-handling elements, taking the likely cost of the whole endeavour beyond 800m euros.

The US has been offered, and will accept, a junior role in the mission valued at around 5%. The American space agency (Nasa) will pay for this by picking up the tab for the infrared detectors needed on Euclid. A memorandum of understanding to this effect will be signed between the agencies in due course.

Here's the PR:
" ... Euclid is optimised to answer one of the most important questions in modern cosmology: why is the Universe expanding at an accelerating rate, rather than slowing down due to the gravitational attraction of all the matter in it?

Although the discovery of this cosmic acceleration in 1998 was rewarded with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011, scientists are yet to discover what causes it.

The term ‘dark energy’ is often used to signify this mysterious force, but by using Euclid to study its effects on the galaxies and clusters of galaxies across the Universe, astronomers hope to come much closer to understanding its true nature and influence.

“Euclid addresses the cosmology-themed questions of ESA’s Cosmic Vision and it’s fantastic that we are moving forward into the next stage of development – we’re one step closer to learning more about the Universe’s darkest secrets,” said René Laureijs, ESA’s Euclid project scientist. (20 June 2012. By Sofia Mitra-Thakur) ... "

Galaxies, for example, could not hold their shape were it not for the presence of some additional "scaffolding". This is presumed to be dark matter - whatever that is.

Although this material cannot be seen directly, the telescope can plot its distribution by looking for the subtle way its mass distorts the light coming from distant galaxies. Hubble famously did this for a tiny patch on the sky - just two square degrees.

_____________________Reference
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18503703
http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2012/jun/euclid-telescope.cfm

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "China's Rare Earths"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 20, 2012 | Bryan TX


[Picture LINK] China controls 95% of the global rare earths market, with 45% of the global supply coming from China’s Baiyun Obo mine in Inner Mongolia. In recent years, the Chinese government has shuttered a number of other rare earth mining operations and imposed a range of export restrictions on rare earths, with the aim of ensuring domestic supply is sufficient to meet expected domestic demand (or for monopolistic control- you decide).

China warns its rare earth reserves are declining:
"After more than 50 years of excessive mining, China's rare earth reserves have kept declining and the years of guaranteed rare earth supply have been reducing," China's cabinet said in the paper on the rare earth industry published by the official Xinhua news agency.
EXCERPT | " ... the United States, the European Union and Japan jointly filed a case in March at the World Trade Organization that challenged China’s restrictions on rare earth exports, which were imposed in 2006 and have been repeatedly tightened since then. The W.T.O. case argues that the export quotas and tariffs violate free trade rules by putting pressure on companies to move their factories to China if they want to tap China’s vast supply of rare earths..."
" ... We're willing to cooperate with the parties involved to solve the dispute as soon as possible. At the same time, we will actively use WTO rules to defend China's legitimate rights and interests” (KEITH BRADSHER. Published: June 20, 2012) ... "

Gao Yunhu  Rare Earth Office
What are 'rare earths' used for?
The term rare earth refers to a group of 17 elements that are used to make a range of hi-tech gadgets.

These elements are used in products ranging from MP3 players to mobile phones, flatscreen TVs and hybrid batteries.

With those products becoming increasingly popular, the demand for rare earths has been rising.

There are quite a few production sites being developed at the moment, for example, in Australia, Canada, South Africa and Greenland. Unfortunately, most of them will not be able to ramp up output until 3-4 years from now, and significant environmental, technological and financing concerns may yet keep production costs high and supply outside China uncertain. According to Roskill, this new supply will become available just in time, as by 2012 China’s own elevated demand due to the growth in high-tech industries will have outstripped local supply. (January 19th, 2010)

_________________Reference
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18516461
http://slopeofhope.com/2010/10/rare-earth-a-long-term-investment.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/business/global/china-vows-tighter-controls-over-rare-earth-mining.html
http://indiumsamplesblog.com/2010/01/19/rare-earths-in-china-cornering-the-market-or-a-victim-of-its-own-success/

Monday, June 18, 2012

MooPig's Flood Gauge Fusion :: "the NEPHILIM"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  June 18, 2012  |  Bryan TX


SECTION ONE: THE NEPHILIM COVER-UP HERE

EXCERPT  |  " ... In this chapter I make an effort to anticipate various aspects of a huge and carefully crafted deception program which the Devil has planned for the world, particularly during the final months of human history.

Once again though, the problem is..in trying to communicate many of these things, we're coming up against the net effect of PreTrib Rapturism which creates a strange kind of detachment and withdrawal from realism. PreTrib would respond to the entirety of this chapter's contents with--"Who cares what the Devil has in store for the final days--I'll be up in the 'heavenly places' when all of this is going on."

For example, in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami a few years ago, in which over a quarter million people died...there was a great deal of excited chatter on Christian discussion boards all over the Internet. Some of these folks aren't quite cognizant of the fact that all the various subcultures can now, by means of the Internet, get intimate inside glimpses of each other's internal affairs and discussions...and non-'believers' heard a thousand variations of-- "Oooh, that tsunami must mean the Lord's return is at hand! Praise be! Hallelujah! Oh and...uh...too bad about all the dead people, of course."

I'm asking--what's wrong with this picture? Something has gone waaay wrong with conservative Evangelicalism and its "carried-off-to-heaven-on-flowery-beds-of-ease" doctrines.

I'm sure many would point out there have been Christian organizations that stepped in to help with the Tsunami victims. That's fine...but I'm talking about the weird effect Pretrib has had on the rank and file..a kind of premature withdrawal...which (understandably) comes across as very inappropriate and cynical to non-church-goers. They cannot understand the giddiness and glee with which PreTrib Evangelicals greet these increasingly troubled times.

Even among Evangelicals who claim they are not explicitly PreTrib, I still hear a lot of this:

"Everything I need to know about the Devil and his demons, and about the world around me...I can read about on the pages of the Holy Bible." ( Matt TwoFour. no date. ) ... "

Read Entire Article HERE ...


_________________________Reference
http://themurkynews.blogspot.com/2008/08/introduction-connecting-current-events.html

Pyramids

MooPig Personality Disorders Department :: Sandusky and Histrionic Personality Disorder

Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  June18, 2012  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]

After week of graphic testimony, Sandusky set to present his defense - CNN.com: "The defense is expected to call an expert witness to testify that Sandusky may have "histrionic personality disorder," which the National Institutes of Health defines as acting "in a very emotional and dramatic way that draws attention to themselves.""

'via Blog this'
EXCERPT | " ... The prosecution had presented as evidence what one alleged victim described as "creepy love letters," written by Sandusky, that they argued were part of "grooming techniques" commonly employed by sexual predators.
Judge John Cleland issued an order on Friday granting a defense motion allowing them to offer expert testimony from a psychologist who "will explain that the words, tones, requests and statements made in the letters are consistent with a person who suffers from a Histrionic Personality Disorder."
"The goal of a person suffering from this disorder in writing those letters would not necessarily be to groom or sexually consummate a relationship in a criminal manner, but rather to satisfy the needs of a psyche belabored by the needs of such a disorder," the defense lawyers wrote in their motion.
Sandusky was expected to be examined Sunday by a prosecution psychologist related to the personality disorder defense, according to a source with knowledge with the case. It was not clear if that happened. (CNN Wire Staff. Mon June 18, 2012. HERE)..."
From another Article this EXCERPT  |  " ... About 2% to 3% of the general population is thought to have histrionic personality disorder, she said. "We all have traits that resemble this, but it becomes a problem when all of the symptoms are combined in a way that makes functioning difficult."

Inflicting sexual abuse is not a commonly recognized trait of this condition, but sexually-provocative behavior is, she adds. ( Elizabeth Landau - CNN.com Health Writer/Producer. June 11th, 2012. HERE) ... "

Sandusky may now be touted a victim of a genetically passed down syndrome, histrionic personality disorder? YIKES!!

__________________Reference
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/18/justice/pennsylvania-sandusky-trial/index.html
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/11/what-is-histrionic-personality-disorder/?iid=article_sidebar
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/jerry-sanduskys-alleged-victims-shame-fear-love/story?id=16570043

Friday, June 15, 2012

MooPig FWD Email Department :: "Mosquitoes"

Al Sears, MD
11903 Southern Blvd., Ste. 208
Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411

June 13, 2012

Dear Patdarnell,

The summer heat is here, and so are the mosquitoes.

Reminds me that we’re still in the thick of the Everglades, no matter how many buildings go up here in South Florida. My house used to be a swamp.

I’ve been lucky not to have many problems with mosquitoes, even when I travel. In parts of the world known for swarms of insects, they still don’t bite me much. There’s one called “The Assassin” in the Amazon rainforest. It makes the bugs in Florida look small.

Every culture I’ve visited has its own way of dealing with pests. The most common mosquito repellent here is a chemical called DEET. It’s known to scientists as “N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide” or “N,N-Diethyl-3-methylbenzamide.” All of the popular brands use it.

The U.S. Army developed it in the 1940s and it’s been on the market since the ’50s. The Environmental Protection Agency says DEET is OK for you to use. That it doesn’t cause any “unreasonable risk to human health.” But in my opinion, it’s just another man-made poison.

Scientists used to think DEET worked by confusing mosquitoes and interfering with their sense of smell. But recent research shows that DEET is a neurotoxin to insects and mammals. That means it attacks the central nervous system, like nerve gas does. If it does that to rats, I don’t want it on my skin.

I recommend natural bug repellents instead. Let me share what I’ve discovered during my travels...

Citronella
Citronella is a type of lemongrass, but it’s not the same one you cook with. In Bali, my friends Lelir and Westi showed me how they grow citronella (Cymbopogon nardus) in their huge herb garden. My own garden in Florida has just a fraction of what they have.
Mosquitoes don’t like the smell of it, so they stay away.

Citronella isn’t just for candles. Burning the candles can help if you’re lounging on your patio. But what if you’re out walking around? Then you need to take citronella oil with you. You can buy it at health stores and apply a dab right onto your skin instead of chemical bug spray.

There’s also a citronella geranium. It looks prettier than the grass, but the scent is not as strong.

Basil
Westi also showed me his crop of holy basil. They use it with citronella to repel mosquitoes and flies. Basil is toxic to mosquitoes, and especially to their larvae
Plant basil around your door, in between your flowers, and around your patio. Even better, go for a full herb garden – rosemary and bay leaves repel bugs too.

You can also put basil leaves in your cabinets and pantry to keep bugs out of the kitchen. It works at my house.

Andiroba oil
When I was in Brazil – a country with millions of mosquitoes – this is what the locals used. It comes from a tall tree that grows in the Amazon, but even the city dwellers use it. Clinical studies found it to be safe and effective.
Andiroba oil is also anti-inflammatory, so you can use it to treat existing bites and soothe the skin at the same time.

I liked it so much that I added it to my natural sunscreen, called Solis. Click here to find out more.

And if you do get bitten, remember this trick for getting rid of the itch: Rub the inside of a banana peel on the bite. It worked very well when a mosquito found me in Uganda.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

Thursday, June 14, 2012

NASA Talk -- Women are from Venus

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 14, 2012 | Bryan TX


[Picture LINK]

Venus Transit From the Space Station
This image of the 2012 Venus Transit was taken by NASA Astronaut Don Pettit from aboard the International Space Station on June 5, 2012. Pettit, who had the foresight to bring a solar filter for his camera, captured several images of the June 5 transit, downloading them in almost real-time. He photographed the image through the European Space Agency-built "cupola", removing the scratch panes to get crisp, clear images.

NASA's SDO Captures 2012 Venus Transit Approach
This image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows Venus as it nears the disk of the sun on June 5, 2012. Venus's 2012 transit will be the last such event until 2117.

Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA

Image Credit: NASA
Page Last Updated: June 6, 2012
Page Editor: Yvette Smith
NASA Official: Brian Dunbar


______________Reference
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2272.html

Enterprise on the Hudson, Land it like Sully

Retrieved by Pat Darnell | June 14, 2012 | Bryan TX
In January, 2009, on the other hand, a search for new heroes is embodied in the phrase "Land it like Sully," a reference to the hero of US Airways Flight 1549, Chesley Sullenberger.

Today the Enterprise floats on the Hudson reminding us of yesteryear. Of course, all agencies with the resources for it conduct deep-think consumer/culture research.  [LINK]

[Picture LINK]

Enterprise on the Hudson
Enterprise, the prototype for the space shuttle fleet, arrived at the Intrepid Museum in New York City on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, to the museum's Space Shuttle Pavilion, which will open to the public on July 19. Thousands however, got a sneak peek as they watched the shuttle move up the Hudson River.

In this image, the shuttle is being towed by barge from a port in Jersey City, N.J. to the Intrepid, a retired World War II aircraft carrier that is now used to house aerospace and maritime exhibits.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Page Last Updated: June 6, 2012
Page Editor: Yvette Smith
NASA Official: Brian Dunbar


________________Reference
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2275.html
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-knowing-what-gives-us-pleasure-by.html
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2011/06/nasa-talk-endeavour-lands-wednesday.html
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2010/11/lets-keep-on-keeping-those-passengers.html
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2010/06/come-on-land-it-like-sully-its-only.html
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2009/01/urbanity.html

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