A city-block size asteroid will fly by Earth this weekend -

A city-block size asteroid will fly by Earth this weekend - 




A city-block size asteroid will fly by Earth this weekend well beyond the orbit of the moon, and you can watch it zip safely by live in an online webcast.
The asteroid 2002 AM31 will make its closest approach to Earth on Sunday (July 22), when it will pass by at a range of about 3.2 million miles (5.2 million kilometers). That's about 13.7 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
On Sunday, the Slooh Space Camera sky watching website will host two live webcasts to offer Internet denizens views of the space rock from telescopes at the Prescott Observatory in Arizona and the Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa.
Asteroid 2002 AM31 has no chance of hitting Earth this weekend, scientists say, though it is on the watch list as an object that may one day pose a future concern. The space rock is listed as a "potentially hazardous asteroid" by the Minor Planet Center at Cambridge, Mass.
Asteroid 2002 AM31 was discovered in 2002 and is already being tracked by radar by astronomers at NASA's deep-space radio antenna in Goldstone, Calif., and at the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico for its weekend flyby.
A July 12 look at the asteroid by the Arecibo observatory radar suggests the asteroid is about 1,115 feet wide (340 meters), according to a Goldstone radar observation planning update. But a notice from NASA's Asteroid Watch program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., estimates that the asteroid is more than twice that size, with a diameter of about 2,600 feet (792 meters).
Sunday's webcasts are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 UT) and 11 p.m. EDT (0300 July 23) GMT). They can be accessed at the Slooh website: www.slooh.com
"Near-Earth asteroid 153958 (2002 AM31) represents one of approximately 9,000 whizzing past Earth at any given moment and we wanted to highlight this one as it's only 13.7 lunar distances from Earth and well over one city block big — similar to near-Earth asteroid LZ1 which zoomed past us unexpectedly mid-June," Slooh Space Camera president Patrick Paolucci told SPACE.com.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/07/20/asteroid-to-fly-by-earth-this-weekend-how-to-watch-online/

12 Signs That The Next Recession In The United States Has Already Begun -

12 Signs That The Next Recession In The United States Has Already Begun - 


Is the U.S. economy in a recession right now?  Has the next recession in the United States already begun?  Unfortunately, there are a lot of economic numbers that are pointing in that direction.  U.S. retail sales have fallen for three months in a row, U.S. manufacturing activity is contracting and there are numerous indications that the labor market is getting weaker.  Of course there are some economists that will argue that we never even left the last recession.  For example, the percentage of working age Americans with jobs fell from above 63 percent in 2007 to under 59 percentduring the last recession.  Since the end of the last recession, that number has not gotten back above 59 percent.  In fact, it has been below 59 percent for 34 months in a row.  In addition, we have continued to see poverty and government dependence steadily rise during this “economic recovery”.  Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.  So it would be really hard to argue with anyone that wants to say that the last recession never really ended.  However, the latest economic numbers indicate that things are about to get even worse for the U.S. economy, and that is not good news at all.


The following are 12 signs that the next recession in the United States has already begun….


#1 U.S. retail sales have declined for three months in a row, and that is a very bad sign.  Retail sales in America have fallen three months in a row only 27 times since 1947.  In 25 of those instances, the U.S. economy was either “in a recession or within three months of a recession.”


#2 Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region has declined for three months in a row.


#3 Overall, the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted last month for the first time in almost three years.  The following is from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times….


A factory index calculated by the Institute for Supply Management slid to 49.7 in June from 53.5 in May to the lowest reading since July 2009. Any level below 50 denotes tightening in the sector; anything above signifies growth.


#4 Sales of previously occupied homes dropped by 5.4 percent during June.


#5 Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 386,000 last week – another sign that the labor market is weakening again.


#6 According to one survey, only 23 percent of all U.S. businesses plan to hire more workers over the next 6 months.


#7 The Philadelphia Fed’s employment index indicates that there is bad news ahead for the labor market….


Labor market conditions at the reporting firms deteriorated this month. The current employment index decreased 10 points, to ‐8.4, its second negative reading in three months. The percent of firms reporting decreases in employment (18 percent) exceeded the percent reporting increases (10 percent).


#8 Unless Congress acts, the U.S. Postal Service is going to financially default for the first time ever on August 1st.


#9 The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators fell by 0.3 percent in June.


#10 A Washington Post survey that was conducted back in April discovered that 76 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession.


#11 According to AARP, 600,000 American homeowners that are 50 years of age or older are currently in foreclosure.


#12 The unemployment rate in New York City is now back up to 10 percent.  That equals the peak unemployment rate in New York City during the last recession.


So where do we go from here?


Are poverty and government dependence going to reach even higher levels during the next recession than they did during the last recession?


Yes, we always want to help those that are hurting and that cannot take care of themselves.  We don’t want to see anyone going without food or sleeping in the streets.


But handouts are not going to solve our economic problems.  The U.S. government even admits that handouts can be very damaging to those that become accustomed to them.  The following is from the website of the U.S. National Park Service….


Feeding bears or allowing them access to human food causes a number of problems:


• It changes the bear’s wild behavior and causes them to lose their instinctive fear of humans. This lack of fear causes panhandler or “nuisance” bears to be more unpredictable and dangerous when they encounter humans.


• At their best, panhandler bears perform tricks to obtain food. At their worst, they damage property and injure people. In 2009, 288 bear-related incidents were recorded in the park. One incident involved an injury to a park visitor and others resulted in extensive property damage.


• It transforms wild and healthy bears into habitual beggars. Studies have shown that panhandler bears never live as long as wild bears. Many are hit by cars and become easy targets for poachers. Beggar bears may die from ingesting food packaging or toxins.


But although socialism is bad for bears, apparently it is just right for humans.


According to the Daily Caller, the federal government is actually working with the Mexican government to increase participation in the U.S. food stamp program….


The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.


USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.


“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on their “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” web page. “Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”


This doesn’t make any sense at all.


Why is the U.S. government seeking the assistance of a foreign government to help get more people on food stamps.


Sadly, many in our government actually believe that getting people on food stamps is one of the best things we can do for our economy.


For example, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer recently told reporters that enrolling more Americans in the food stamp program is one of the “most stimulative” things that the government can do for the U.S. economy.


Isn’t that frightening?


No wonder why so many people are skeptical of the government these days.  One recent survey found that 23 percent of all Americans believe that “government is the solution to the problem” while 64 percent of all Americans believe that “government is the problem”.


What we really need is for the government to get off of the backs of our businesses so that they can start thriving again and so that they can start creating more jobs.


But as we have seen in the past, that never seems to happen no matter which political party is in power.


Meanwhile, the next great global financial crisis is rapidly approaching and there seems to be little hope that the U.S. is going to be able to avoid another major economic downturn.


If you expect the government or the Federal Reserve to save you from what is coming, then you are going to be bitterly disappointed.  They were not able to prevent the last economic crisis and they are not going to be able to prevent the next one either.


The truth is that our financial system is massively overloaded with debt and our economy is failing.


A great storm is coming and it is going to be exceedingly painful.


You better get ready while you still have time.


Read more - 
http://www.blacklistednews.com/12_Signs_That_The_Next_Recession_In_The_United_States_Has_Already_Begun/20608/0/38/38/Y/M.html

300 radioactive Japanese cars stopped at Russian border -

300 radioactive Japanese cars stopped at Russian border - 





Russian customs officials have stopped the smuggling of nearly 300 radioactively contaminated cars at the Japanese border as part of an ongoing operation monitoring imports following the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant last year.
“We have inspected 150,000 vehicles as part of this monitoring mission. Three hundred units that have been seized indicated a level of radioactivity,” said Gennady Onishchenko, the head of Russia’s consumer rights watchdog.
After the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster in March 2011, the Russian government has implemented a monitoring mission whereby all imports from Japan, including food and consumer goods, are checked for radioactive contamination.
Since the mission’s inception, experts have checked 500,000 shipments, 908 ships, 473 aircraft and more than 42,000 people that have arrived from Japan.
Russian authorities, together with the EU and World Health Organization, are keeping a watchful eye on all the food imports entering the country through its far eastern border.
“We import very little food products from Japan, but we have restricted a number of the country’s provinces from delivery. The Japanese side has shared with the international community the data on provinces which have a dangerous fallout of precipitation,” said Onishchenko.
However, fish caught off the shores of Japan show radioactive signs, according to the official.
Speaking about the Fukushima disaster, Onishchenko stressed that this is the “first time we have encountered a contamination threat from another state.”
In August, Russia’s Consumer Rights Organization will mount a scientific expedition with the support of the Russian Geographical Society, to establish if in fact there is a health threat from the fish stock off Japan’s coast.


Read more - 
http://www.prisonplanet.com/300-radioactive-japanese-cars-stopped-at-russian-border.html

Microsoft has posted its first quarterly loss in its 26 years -

Microsoft has posted its first quarterly loss in its 26 years - 




Microsoft has posted its first quarterly loss in its 26 years as a public company as it declared a struggling online ad business a bust and prepared for one of the biggest product updates in its history.
The software company had warned two weeks ago that it would take a $6.2 billion charge in the April-June quarter because its 2007 purchase of online ad service aQuantive failed to help it compete with Google Inc. The amount reflected the bulk of the $6.3 billion it paid for aQuantive.
The purchase of aQuantive, Microsoft's most expensive deal at the time, was supposed to help Microsoft boost its online ad business and mount a more serious challenge to Google. But the division housing aQuantive continued to post losses — totaling more than $9 billion since the company bought aQuantive, not including the charge.
By contrast, Google has widened its lead in the growing online ad market, thanks in part to its purchase of DoubleClick for $3.2 billion about eight months after Microsoft took control of aQuantive.
Google's search engine, a major vehicle for selling ads, has remained strong, while Microsoft's Bing search engine saw its market share drop slightly to 26 percent, from 27 percent a year ago. The Bing figures include searches through business partner Yahoo Inc., which has been using Microsoft's search technology for nearly two years.
The aQuantive setback didn't faze investors, who have been used to years of troubles in Microsoft's online ad business. Investors usually focus on what lies ahead for a company instead of dwelling on past mistakes. Despite the loss, Microsoft's stock was up 72 cents, or 2.4 percent, at $31.39 in after-hours trading following the announcement.


Read more -
http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-reports-first-loss-public-company-200908715--finance.html?_esi=1

Entire genome of human sperm sequenced for the first time - every sperm cell has a different genome -

Entire genome of human sperm sequenced for the first time - every sperm cell has a different genome - 




Researchers at Stanford University have sequenced the entire genomes of 91 human sperm from a single man – providing insight into the genetic variation that naturally occurs in a single individual.
The project marks the first time the whole-genome of a human gamete has been sequenced.
Published in the journal Cell, the study offers more detailed knowledge about the process of genetic recombination – the method in which DNA from both a mother and a father blend together in the children they produce.  Recombination facilitates both the breaking apart and rejoining of chromosomes during reproduction.
“We learned some really interesting details about how the body mixes together the genomes from parents to create new genomes for their potential children,” said Steve Quake, professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford University as well as the study’s lead author. “That’s why every sperm cell has a different genome.  Your body mixes to create unique genomes so your offspring have different genetic diversity.”
Providing greater detail
Quake and his colleagues isolated and sequenced nearly 100 sperm cells from a 40-year-old man with healthy children.  They compared the sperm sequences with the man’s whole-genome sequence, ultimately allowing them to identify where and when recombination took place.
Until this sequencing project, scientists could only rely on genetic studies of population to estimate how often recombination occurred in sperm and egg cells as well as the amount of genetic mixing the process needed.  
The Stanford study essentially confirmed what these previous studies theorized: Each sperm in the sample underwent 23 recombination events, or mixing events.  However, the study also showed that the degree of genetic mixing varied greatly between individual sperm, as well as the frequency and severity of spontaneous genetic mutations.  According to the researchers, the sequencing technique used in their study can provide a better guide as to what exactly happens during  a sperm’s development.
“[Before this study], we have no way to catalogue  the mutations and the recombination events of an individual,” co-author Barry Behr, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of Stanford’s in vitro fertilization laboratory, told FoxNews.com.  “Once we get our understanding of these, we can map them and see how they change as a man ages. We could map these in healthy versus unhealthy people.  We could map these in fertile and infertile people, and really get a better understanding as to what the fundamental makeup of a good sperm versus a bad sperm is.”




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/07/19/entire-genome-human-sperm-sequenced-for-first-time/?intcmp=trending

NASA spies bright-blue 'intense' daylight lightning on Saturn -

NASA spies bright-blue 'intense' daylight lightning on Saturn - 





A NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn has captured an amazing view of lightning in broad daylight on the ringed planet.
The Cassini orbiter captured the daytime lightning on Saturn as bright blue spots inside a giant storm that raged on the planet last year. NASA unveiled the new Saturn lightning photos Wednesday (July 18), adding that the images came as a big surprise.
"We didn't think we'd see lighting on Saturn's day side —only its night side," said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. "The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense."
Cassini spotted the daytime lightning while observing a giant Saturn storm on March 6, 2011. A blue filter on the spacecraft's main camera recorded the lightning flashes, and scientists then exaggerated the blue tint in order to pin down the lightning's location and size, researchers said. 
The Saturn lightning in Cassini's new images apparently packs quite a wallop. An analysis of the new images revealed that the energy from the visible lightning flashes alone could have spiked up to 3 billion watts over one second. That makes the daytime Saturn lightning on par with some of the strongest lightning flashes on Earth.
Cassini mission scientists said the lightning on Saturn was spotted across a region 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide where it exited the cloud layer. In all, Cassini spotted eight daytime lightning flashes on Saturn, five in one part of the storm and three in an another, they added.[More Photos of Saturn's Monster Storm]




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/07/19/daytime-lightning-on-saturn-spotted-by-cassini-spacecraft/?test=latestnews

Nearly 36 percent of Fukushima children diagnosed with abnormal thyroid growths -

Nearly 36 percent of Fukushima children diagnosed with abnormal thyroid growths - 




Nearly 36 percent of children in Fukushima Prefecture have been disgnosed with abnormal growths on their thyroids, although doctors insist there is no link between the "cluster" of incidents and the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in March of last year.


The Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey, released in April, included examinations of 38,114 children, of whom 35.3 percent - some 13,460 children - were found to have cysts or nodules of up to 5 mm (0.197 inches) on their thyroids.


A further 0.5 percent, totalling 186 youngsters, had nodules larger than 5.1 mm (0.2 inches).


A study by the Japan Thyroid Association in 2001 found that zero percent of children in the city of Nagasaki had nodules and only 0.8 percent had cysts on their thyroids.


"Yes, 35.8 percent of children in the study have lumps or cysts, but this is not the same as cancer," said Naomi Takagi, an associate professor at Fukushima University Medical School Hospital, which administered the tests.


"We do not know that cause of this, but it is hard to believe that is due to the effects of radiation," she said. "This is an early test and we will only see the effects of radiation exposure after four or five years."


The local authority is carrying out long-term testing of children who were under the age of 18 on March 11 last year, the day on which the magnitude-9 Great East Japan struck off the coast of north-east Japan, triggering the massive tsunami that crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant.


Thyroid examinations were first conducted in October last year and will be carried out every two years up to the age of 20 and every five years for the rest of the children's lives.


A second report has been issued by Japan's Institute of Radiological Sciences in which it found that some children living close to the plant were exposed to "lifetime" doses of radiation to their thyroid glands.----


Read more - 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9410702/Nearly-36pc-of-Fukushima-children-diagnosed-with-abnormal-thyroid-growths.html

Video Footage Of Suspected Israel Bus Suicide Bomber Who Is Caucasian And Had Fake Michigan License -

Video Footage Of Suspected Israel Bus Suicide Bomber Who Is Caucasian And Had Fake Michigan License - 




The smoke from the exploded bus carrying Israeli tourists was still billowing and yet Israeli PM Netanyahu had already declared that "Iran is responsible for the terror attack in Bulgaria, we will have a strong response against Iranian terror." Perhaps that statement was a little premature: as footage released by Bulgarian police indicates, the suspected suicide bomber is Caucasian, and was in possession of a Michigan driver's license, supposedly a fake one, but why anyone in Bulgaria would be carrying a fake Michigan ID is just a little confusing.


From Haaretz:


A top Bulgarian official said it was a "mistake" to lay the responsibility of a terror attack on an Israeli tourist bus on any specific countries or organizations, on Thursday, as security camera footage revealed the person authorities suspected of perpetrating the suicide attack.

Earlier Thursday, Israeli and Bulgarian stated that the Wednesday attack on the bus in the coastal city of Burgas, killing seven and wounding dozens, was a suicide bombing.

The Bulgarian police said that footage from airport security cameras captured the suspect roaming the airport for at least one hour, the Bulgarian news agency Novinite reported. According to the report he was a long-haired Caucasian in sportswear.

The body suspected as belonging to the terrorist had a U.S. driver's license issued in Michigan – apparently fake.

Following the attack on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran is responsible for the terror attack, saying that all the evidence in Israel's possession points to Iran as the responsible party.

"In the past months we saw Iranian attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Kenya, and Cyprus," Netanyahu said. "Exactly 18 years after the attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina, the Iranian terror continues to hurt innocent people."

"This is an Iranian terror offensive that is spreading throughout the world," he said, warning that Israel will issue a "strong response against Iranian terror."

However, speaking on Thursday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said that he thought "it is wrong and a mistake to point fingers at this stage of the investigation at any country or organization."

"We are only in the beginning of the investigation and it is wrong to jump to conclusions," he added, saying that Bulgaria had "excellent cooperation with the Israeli security forces in matters pertaining to the investigation."
And this is the clip that was released showing the alleged bomber:

Iceberg breaks off from Greenland's Petermann Glacier - twice the size of Manhattan -

Iceberg breaks off from Greenland's Petermann Glacier - twice the size of Manhattan - 






The Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland has calved an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan, scientists say.


Images from a Nasa satellite show the island breaking off a tongue of ice that extends at the end of the glacier.


In 2010 an ice island measuring 250 square km (100 square miles) broke off the same glacier.


Glaciers do calve icebergs naturally, but the extent of the changes to the Petermann Glacier in recent years has taken many experts by surprise.


"It is not a collapse but it is certainly a significant event," Eric Rignot from Nasa said in a statement.


Some other observers have gone further. "It's dramatic. It's disturbing," University of Delaware's Andreas Muenchow told the Associated Press.


"We have data for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before," Mr Muenchow added.


However, the calving is not expected have an impact on sea levels as the ice was already floating.


Icebergs from the Petermann Glacier sometimes reach the coast off Newfoundland in Canada, posing a danger to shipping and navigation, according to the Canadian Ice Service.


Scientists have also raised concerns in recent years about the Greenland ice shelf, saying that it is thinning extensively amid warm temperatures.


Read more -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18896770

For the First Time, Canadians Now Richer Than Americans - is worth about $40,000 more -

For the First Time, Canadians Now Richer Than Americans - is worth about $40,000 more - 






While Americans might enjoy throwing politically-charged barbs at their neighbors to the north, Canadians now have at least one reason to be smug.


For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American, according to a report cited in Toronto's Globe and Mail.


And not just by a little. Currently, the average Canadian household is more than $40,000 richer than the average American household. The net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, compared to around $320,000 for Americans.


If you're thinking the Canadian advantage must be due to exchange rates, think again. The Canadian dollar has actually caught up to the U.S. dollar in recent years.


"These are not 60-cent dollars, but Canadian dollars more or less at par with the U.S. greenback," Globe and Mail's Michael Adams writes.


To add insult to injury, not only are Canadians comparatively better-off than Americans, they're also more likely to be employed. The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent—and dropping—in Canada, while the U.S. is stuck with a stubbornly high rate of 8.2 percent.


Besides a strengthening currency and a better labor market, experts credit the particularly savage fallout from the financial crisis on the U.S. economy and housing market, which torpedoed home values and gutted household wealth. According to the report, real estate held by Canadians is worth more than $140,000 more on average and they have almost four times as much equity in their real estate investments.




In a column for Bloomberg View, Stephen Marche traces the increasing wealth spread between the two countries to America's "struggles to find its way out of an intractable economic crisis and a political sine curve of hope and despair."


"The Canadian System is working," Marche writes, crediting Canada's cautious, fiscally conservative society. "[T]he American system is not."


But there is one caveat that could give the U.S. an ego boost: the average American holds more liquid assets—cash in hand—than the average Canadian.


Read more - 
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/07/18/for-the-first-time-canadians-now-richer-than-americans