On this day in 1939 Germany invaded Poland, starting WWII.
King Tut’s Family Secrets. DNA analysis reveals a lot of the missing details in his 3,300-year-old story.
Marlene Dietrich. She was an actress famous for her glamor and good looks. She was the highest paid actress of the early 1900′s and was performing all the way to the 1970′s.
——————–
The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. doesn’t just have over 33 million books; it also has 12 million photographs, millions of maps, sheet music, and other manuscripts. Its holdings make it largest library in the world; and having been founded in 1800, it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. – Provided by The World Almanac 2010
Exploring Prostate Cancer Treatment Options .
Say What? Random Ramblings from Iowa
Phys Ed: Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries? – .
Doctors Seek New Ways to Treat Loss of Muscle From Aging .
Bedbugs Crawl, They Bite, They Baffle Scientists .
New infrared light may open new frontier in fighting cancer, Tay Sachs .
Celebrity News and Information
——————
Earlier this month, two Chinese satellites met up in orbit. Depending on who you believe, it’s either a sign of China’s increasingly-sophisticated space program — or a sign of its increasingly-sophisticated space warfare program.A well-regarded Russian space watcher was the first to note that the two satellites, newly-launched SJ-12 and two-year-old SJ-06F, had performed maneuvers indicating a cutting edge procedure called non-cooperative robotic rendezvous. A loose network of amateur space spectators and astronomers soon congregated online, and confirmed that the sats had, indeed, converged.
This kind of rendezvous can have extremely useful, and benign, applications: removing space debris, refueling satellites or repairing craft in orbit. But the military apps are massive, and include up-close inspection of foreign satellites, espionage — and the infliction of some serious damage to adversarial space infrastructure. In other words, orbital warfare that, given just how reliant we are on satellite technology, would have widespread consequences on the ground.
“These kinds of rendezvous have been done plenty of times with ground control, but robotically controlled satellites, rendezvousing at higher altitudes, is really quite new,” says Brian Weeden, who offers an in-depth rundown of the incident at The Space Review. “The perception of how this technology is being developed, and what it is being used for, is extremely important.”
——————-
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875) Born on this date, September 1st.
After working numerous odd jobs, Burroughs tried his hand at writing, publishing his first story under the pen name Normal Bean in 1912. Two years later, he published Tarzan of the Apes, a story about an English boy raised by apes in Africa. Wildly successful, the book was the first in a series of 27 Tarzan titles. Burroughs later moved to Hollywood to supervise the filming of the first of the extremely successful Tarzan films. What city is named after his most famous character? More…
——————-
Can a Salad Prevent Lung Cancer? .
Bomb kills head of Iran’s military drone program
Domain and Domainer News and Information
First clear evidence of organized feasting by early humans.
Special report: Living in denial – New Scientist.
Top 10: Jazz Standards
——————-
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank detained dozens of Hamas activists on Wednesday in response to a lethal attack on Jewish settlers in the occupied territory, a senior security source said.The Hamas armed wing claimed responsibility for the killing of four Jewish settlers near Hebron on Tuesday on the eve of a new round of U.S.-backed peace talks.”Dozens of Hamas members have been arrested, mainly in Hebron area and across the West Bank,” the source said. “We are investigating if they have any links to the shooting attack. There will be more arrests,” he said.Hamas sources in the West Bank said some 150 activists, including relatives of senior party figures, had been arrested in a sweep that began shortly after the shooting.
MORE.
——————-
Short Sharp Science: Today on New Scientist: 31 August 2010.
Success, not size 0, makes women want to eat less .
——————
In 1998, the Pentagon budget was at a twenty-three year low at $361 billion (in constant 2010 dollars). For 2010, the DOD budget was $697 billion (also 2010 dollars, as are all the rest that follow).
According to the analysis of the Project on Defense Alternatives, between 1998 and 2010 Congress appropriated to the Pentagon $2.144 Trillion (with a “T”) more than was anticipated by the 1999 “baseline.” Of that amount, $1.113 Trillion was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $1.031 Trillion was added to “base” (non-war) Pentagon spending. (See p. 3 of PDA’s study, “An Undisciplined Defense: Understanding the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense Spending.” I basically concur with PDA’s numbers, which are from DoD and OMB budget data as described on p. 61.)
What did you get for that extra $1 Trillion? Basically, you got a smaller Navy and Air Force and a tiny increase in the size of the Army. As an extra bonus, the hardware those forces use are now older than they were in the Clinton administration in 1998.
How can that be?
——————-
CultureLab: Nicholas Carr: Surfing our way to stupid.
Taliban operate ‘very extensive’ spy network in British Afghan bases
DUBLIN, Ireland – A British Cabinet Minister and a Cardinal were certain that a Roman Catholic priest was responsible for one of the worst IRA atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles, but they colluded to allow him to continue his ministry preaching the Gospel….
