XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Monday 11 July 2011

Cyclist riding to work collides with nearly 300-pound bear, smacked him off bike and fled into some nearby woods -

Cyclist riding to work collides with nearly 300-pound bear, smacked him off bike and  fled into some nearby woods - 




A Panama City man is recovering after colliding with a black bear while riding his bike to work.


John Hearn said he saw something out of the corner of his eye early Thursday morning. The nearly 300-pound bear smacked him off his bicycle and then fled into some nearby woods. Passing motorists stopped to help Hearn, who sustained minor injuries. The back tire of his bike was also ripped off.


Read more - http://www.wtsp.com/news/florida/article/200596/19/Black-bear-Florida-bicyclist-collide

Pharmacist sentenced to LIFE for shooting robber -

Pharmacist sentenced to LIFE for shooting robber - 






A pharmacist has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in the shooting death of a teenager who tried to rob the south Oklahoma City store where he worked.
Jerome Ersland had no reaction and said nothing as Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott handed down the sentence Monday.
As the 59-year-old Ersland left the courtroom he told a reporter the sentence is "an injustice of a monumental proportion."
In May, a jury convicted Ersland of first-degree murder in the May 2009 shooting of 16-year-old Antwun Parker.
Defense attorney Irven Box said the conviction and sentence will be appealed.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/11/oklahoma-man-gets-life-sentence-in-shooting-death-teen-thief/#ixzz1RoqN9NdV

Survey Shows Men Need to Cuddle, Women Value Sex -

Survey Shows Men Need to Cuddle, Women Value Sex - 


That old chestnut about women always wanting to cuddle? Myth, according to a Kinsey Institute study, which finds that kissing and hugging were more important to the happiness of men than of women.
The study involved 1,009 heterosexual middle-aged and older couples in long-term (average 25 years) committed relationships in five countries. Researchers asked participants to fill out questionnaires about their satisfaction with their relationships and sex lives, revealing some surprising truths: for instance, men who reported frequent kissing or cuddling with their partners were on average three times as happy with their relationships as men who reported limited snuggling. For women, such shows of tenderness didn't have much impact on relationship satisfaction.


Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/07/survey-shows-who-really-wants-to-cuddle-its-men/#ixzz1Ro4HaI00

How Seawater Can Power the World -

How Seawater Can Power the World - 


DEBATE about America’s energy supply is heating up: gas prices are rising, ethanol is under attack and nuclear power continues to struggle in the shadow of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
But an abundant, safe and clean energy source once thought to be the stuff of science fiction is closer than many realize: nuclear fusion. Making it a reality, however, will take significant investment from the government at a time when spending on scientific research is under threat.
Harnessing nuclear fusion, the energy that powers the sun and the stars, has been a goal of physicists worldwide since the 1950s. It is essentially inexhaustible and it can be created using hydrogen isotopes — chemical cousins of hydrogen, like deuterium — that can readily be extracted from seawater.
Fusion energy is created by fusing two atomic nuclei, in the process converting mass to energy, which appears as heat. The heat, as in conventional nuclear fission reactors, turns water into steam, which drives turbines to generate electricity, or is used to produce fuels for transportation or other uses.
Fusion energy generates zero greenhouse gases. It offers no chance of a catastrophic accident. It can be available to all nations, relying only on the Earth’s oceans. When commercialized, it will transform the world’s energy supply.
There’s a catch. The development of fusion energy is one of the most difficult science and engineering challenges ever undertaken. Among other challenges, it requires production and confinement of a hot gas — a plasma — with a temperature around 100 million degrees Celsius.
But potential solutions to these daunting technical challenges are emerging. In one approach, known as magnetic fusion, hot plasma is confined by powerful magnets. A second approach uses large, intense lasers to bombard a frozen pellet of fusion fuel (deuterium and tritium nuclei) to heat the pellet and cause fusion to occur in a billionth of a second. Whereas magnetic fusion holds a hot plasma indefinitely, like a sun, the second approach resembles an internal combustion engine, with multiple mini-explosions (about five per second).