Rex Murphy: Global warming runs out of gas

For those who have a wish to hear the grating sound of a man distempered and frustrated that the cause for which he has given at least a decade of his time, the “greatest moral challenge of our time,” is lost, I recommend listening to Al Gore as he was captured during an address at an Aspen global warming conference two weeks ago. It is a revelation.
Mr. Gore is not a happy Jeremiah. You hear him on the tape near rage, repeatedly shouting “bulls–t” over the arguments of his critics. He raves about conspiracy — a rebirth of the tactics of the dreaded tobacco industry of a few decades back. He blames “media manipulation” for the refusal of people to take up his gloomy summons. He hisses at “volcanoes and sunspots” as having much or anything to do with climate. “Bulls–!” he cries over and over — perhaps it’s the methane content that has him mesmerized with the word. Listen to this aria: “They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: ‘This climate thing, it’s nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn’t trap heat. It may be volcanoes.’ Bulls–t! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bulls–t! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bulls–t!”

'Bulletproof' skin: researcher creates silk that stop bullets

A .22 calibre bullet hitting but not breaking the "bulletproof" skin created by Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi with the help of Utah researcher Randy Lewis. Photo: AP/Jalila Essaida

A bio-art project to create bulletproof skin has given a US researcher even more hope his genetically engineered spider silk can be used to help surgeons heal large wounds and create artificial tendons and ligaments.
Researcher Randy Lewis of Utah and his collaborators gained worldwide attention recently when they found a commercially viable way to manufacture silk fibres using goats and silkworms that had spider genes inserted into their make-up.
Spider silk is one of the strongest fibres known and five times stronger than steel. Lewis's fibres are not that strong but much stronger than silk spun by ordinary worms.

Space vacation: orbiting hotel ready for guests by 2016

Commercial space station.

This post was originally published on Mashable.com
The age of space tourism might be closer than you think. In fact, if you have an extra $US1 million ($964,041) lying around, five years from now you could be one of the first off-world adventurers to stay for five days in this orbiting hotel built by Russian company Orbital Technologies.
You’ll get there via a Russian Soyuz rocket, taking you about a day to reach the Commercial Space Station 217 miles above the earth. Once you catch up to the orbiting abode, you’ll settle in with your comrades — up to six other space tourists (or researchers) — for an unparalleled adventure, residing in four cabins aboard the space station.

Are humans to blame for shark attacks?

Marine biologists say there is little research into the causes of shark attacks but point to several possibilities, all linked to humans themselves. Photo: AFP

An apparent increase in shark attacks may well have a human cause, with low-cost air travel but also over-fishing and possibly global warming among the hidden suspects, say experts.
Headlines this week were grabbed by a decision to close beaches in the Seychelles after a shark savaged a British honeymooner before the horrified gaze of his spouse, in the second fatal attack there in 15 days.
In Russia's Pacific coastal region of Primorye, a shark mauled a 16-year-old boy a day after a man lost his forearms defending his wife.

In the Caribbean, a woman holidaying in Puerto Rico received a 30-centimetre shark bite as she swam in a tourist haunt, the bay of Vieques.

Russia loses newly launched telecom satellite

 

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia lost contact with a communications satellite shortly after its launch Thursday, the government space agency said, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged the nation's space program.

The Express-AM4 satellite, described by officials as Russia's most powerful telecommunications satellite, was launched atop a Proton-M booster rocket from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Federal Space Agency said in a statement the booster itself worked fine, but a subsequent failure of the additional upper stage, the Briz-M, resulted in the loss of communications with the satellite. It said efforts were being made to re-establish contact with the 5.8-ton (6.38-ton) craft.

The satellite has been insured for 7.5 billion rubles (about $260 million or euro180 million) with Russian Ingosstrakh insurance company.

The satellite was to be put into a geostationary orbit to provide digital TV broadcasting for Russia's far eastern regions. Broadcasters said that the failure would likely delay the planned transfer to digital TV.

The Briz-M upper stage has experienced several failures, most recently in February when its malfunction led to the loss of a Russian military satellite.

Walrus herds gather on Alaska's northwest shore

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Large herds of Pacific walrus have begun gathering on the northwest coast of Alaska, again forsaking sea ice for sand in what has become a symbol of climate warming in the region.

A contractor taking part in federal marine mammal aerial surveys over the Chukchi Sea spotted about 5,000 walruses Wednesday on a beach north of Point Lay. A second herd of 3,000 walruses rested a short distance away.

In winter, Pacific walruses are found at the edge of sea ice in the Bering Sea. Older males remain in the Bering Sea for the summer, but mothers and their young ride the edge of sea ice as it melts north through the Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea.