In today’s green world, hydroelectric dams are often unwelcome. Though their power is renewable and, on the face of it, carbon-free, there are lots of bad things about them, too. Blocking a river with a dam also blocks the movement of fish upstream to spawn and the movement of silt downstream to fertilise fields. The vegetation overwhelmed by the rising waters decays to form methane-a far worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The capital cost is huge. And, not least, people are often displaced to make way for the new lake. The question, therefore, is whether there is a way to get the advantages without suffering the disadvantages. And the answer is that there may be. The purpose of a dam is twofold. To house the turbines that create the electricity and to provide a sufficient head of water pressure to drive them efficiently. If it were possible to develop a turbine that did not need such a water-head to operate, and that could sit in the riverbed, then a dam would be unnecessary. Such turbines could also be put in places that could not be dammed-the bottom of the sea, for example. And that is just what is […]
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army has turned to private contractors to supply translators and analysts for Arabic and other languages in Iraq as well as other regional states. The military has launched a five-year project meant to embed thousands of Iraqi translators into U.S. ground force units in Iraq. The prime beneficiary of the project has been Global Linguist Solutions, based in Falls Church, Va. GLS, a joint venture of DynCorp International and McNeil Technologies, which has won a contract with a maximum value of $4.6 billion through 2013. The contract, awarded by U.S. Intelligence and Security Command, called for the recruitment of up to 7,000 translators from Iraq and the United States. Under the program, GLS would employ up to 6,000 locally-hired translators and up to 1,000 U. S. citizens with security clearances who are native speakers of languages spoken in Iraq. DynCorp has billions of dollars worth of security contracts with the State Department, particularly in bolstering the protection of U.S. embassy personnel. McNeil recruits and deploys linguists, including in Iraq. This was the third time GLS has won such an army contract. The last contract to GLS was awarded in December 2007 […]
Sometimes, government inspectors responsible for examining slaughterhouse cattle for mad cow disease and other ills are so short-staffed that they find themselves peering down from catwalks at hundreds of animals at once, looking for such telltale signs as droopy ears, stumbling gait and facial paralysis. The ranks of inspectors are so thin that slaughterhouse workers often figure out when ‘surprise’ visits are about to take place, and make sure they are on their best behavior. These allegations were raised by former and current U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors in the wake of the biggest beef recall in history – 143 million pounds from a California meatpacker accused of sending lame ‘downer’ cows to slaughter. The inspectors told The Associated Press that they fear chronic staff shortages in their ranks are allowing sick cows to get into the nation’s food supply, endangering the public. According to USDA’s own figures, the inspector ranks nationwide had vacancy rates of 10 percent or more in 2006-07. ‘They’re not covering all their bases. There’s a possibility that something could go through because you don’t have the manpower to check everything,’ said Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinary inspector at a plant […]
WASHINGTON — A new genetic analysis of people from around the world adds further confirmation to the African origin of humans. The study of genetic details from 938 individuals from 51 populations provides evidence of how people are related and different, researchers led by Richard M. Myers of Stanford University report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. The team looked at variations in 650,000 sections of each of the DNA samples, providing a view of the similarities and differences between people in greater detail than had been available previously. Scientists have long believed that modern humans first developed in Africa and spread from there to populate the rest of the world, a theory strongly supported by the new analysis, the researchers said. In addition, they noted that residents of the Middle East can trace their ancestry to both Africa and Europe, which they said is logical since the region formed a bridge for movement back and forth between the areas. Also, they noted, they found a close a relationship between the Yakut population of Siberia and native Americans, who are believed to have migrated from Siberia via a land bridge at a time of […]
I.B.M. scientists have measured the force needed to nudge one atom. About one-130-millionth of an ounce of force pushes a cobalt atom across a smooth, flat piece of platinum. Pushing the same atom along a copper surface is easier, just one-1,600-millionth of an ounce of force. The scientists report these minuscule findings in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. I.B.M. scientists have been pushing atoms around for some time, since Donald M. Eigler of the company’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., spelled ‘IBM’ using 35 xenon atoms in 1989. Since then, researchers at the company have continued to explore how they might be able to construct structures and electronic components out of individual atoms. Knowing the precise forces required to move atoms ‘helps us to understand what is possible and what is not possible,’ said Andreas J. Heinrich, a physicist at Almaden and an author of the new Science paper. ‘It’s a stepping stone for us, but it’s by no means the end goal.’ In the experiment, Dr. Heinrich and his collaborators at Almaden and the University of Regensburg in Germany used the sharp tip of an atomic force microscope to push […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
