Blog Heap of Links for the day 4 March 2009

The real Obama has stood up and lived up to his ranking as the most left-wing member of the Senate. Barack has no mandate for this. He was even behind John McCain when the decisive event that gave him the presidency occurred — the September collapse of Lehman Bros. and the market crash. Republicans are under no obligation to render bipartisan support to this statist coup d'etat. For what is going down is a leftist power grab that is anathema to their principles and philosophy.

German police have launched a nationwide search of more than 200 homes and businesses of people suspected of belonging to the country's extreme right.... "The primary aim of the concerted action by crime fighting authorities is to seize and confiscate prohibited items like music in order to move effectively and extensively against the spread of right wing extremism...." [Prohibited items like music??]

a team of University of Illinois education professors has found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on standardized math tests, thanks to two key factors: certified math teachers, and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum.

Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.

The mysterious door and window rattling that thousands of people felt across Orange County Tuesday night about 9:15 p.m. was likely caused by a sonic boom produced by a high speed jet, says Bob Dollar, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. And, in an extraordinary odd coincidence, a similar event occurred at 9:15 a.m. today (Wednesday) in Central California.

Evidently, Oklahoma has spent the past two years working on a very important legislative matter: the nomination and confirmation of the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" as the state's official rock song.

About 100 million light-years away, in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), three galaxies are playing a game of gravitational give-and-take that might ultimately lead to their merger into one enormous entity.

according to Tracy Harlow, ConocoPhillips spokesperson. "This is something that's in progress. It's not past tense at all. It basically has started today and our goal, to the extent possible anyway, is that all employees will know their status by the end of March...." There are approximately 3,000 employed by ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville.

An innovative and easily implemented technique in which nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media.... "The density achievable with the technology we've developed could potentially enable the contents of 250 DVDs to fit onto a surface the size of a quarter...."

A Spanish-British research project has come up with three future scenarios for the effects of climate change on the Mediterranean over the next 90 years, using global models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The conclusions show that ocean temperatures in this area will increase, along with sea levels. [Yeah, sure]

Power holders often seem misguided in their actions. ... power can literally "go to one's head," causing individuals to think they have more personal control over outcomes than they, in fact, do. ... implications for how power, once attained, is maintained or lost. The authors note that positive illusions can be adaptive, helping power holders make the seemingly impossible possible. But the relationship between power and illusory control might also contribute directly to losses in power, by causing leaders to make poor choices.

Hospital officials in Ohio say a Connecticut woman mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee two weeks ago lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids and may be blind and suffering brain damage. The Cleveland Clinic said 55-year-old Charla Nash also lost the bone structure in her face when she was attacked on February 16 in Stamford.

EXETER, N.H. -- A cat aptly named Ugly is attracting a lot of attention at an Exeter vet clinic, where clients say they can't take their eyes off his striking appearance. ... The cat's striking appearance is normal, for him. He was part of a litter of four with a sister that looked just like him.... Workers said many people who come into the building can't really believe what they're seeing. But they said despite appearances, Bat Boy has a nice disposition and real inner beauty.

Small robots the size of riding mowers could prepare a safe landing site for NASA's Moon outpost

The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius.

A collision between U.S. and Russian satellites in early February may have been a test of new U.S. technology to intercept and destroy satellites rather than an accident, a Russian military expert has said.

scientists have proposed a new theory for how a universal molecular machine, the ribosome, managed to self-assemble as a critical step in the genesis of all life on Earth.

a major new theory for the evolution of flight that is changing textbooks around the world. It involves wing-assisted incline running and a fundamental bird wing angle.

Scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick now believe they have been able to pinpoint the necessary expertise to make this possible, in a project called 'Towards Real Virtuality'. 'Real Virtuality' is a term coined by the project team to highlight their aim of providing a 'real' experience in which all senses are stimulated in such a way that the user has a fully immersive perceptual experience, during which s/he cannot tell whether or not it is real.

A virtual reality helmet that recreates the sights, smells, sounds and even tastes of far-flung destinations has been devised by British scientists. The device will allow users a life-like experience of places such as Kenya's Masai Mara while sitting on their sofa. They can also enjoy the smell of flowers in an Alpine meadow or feel the heat of the Caribbean sun on their face. [And, uh, about what most folks look for on the web...?]

A 26-year-old passenger on board an American Airlines jet from Charlotte to Dallas opened a door and slid down an inflatable emergency chute Tuesday as the aircraft waited to taxi to its gate at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Certain exotic atomic nuclei contain particles that shear off from the central core and create a cloud, which surrounds the central core like a 'heiligenschein' or halo.

Hardy's Paradox, the axiom that we cannot make inferences about past events that haven't been directly observed while also acknowledging that the very act of observation affects the reality we seek to unearth, poses a conundrum that quantum physicists have sought to overcome for decades. How do you observe quantum mechanics, atomic and sub-atomic systems that are so small-scale they cannot be described in classical terms, when the act of looking at them changes them permanently? ... research group explains how they used a measurement technique that has an almost imperceptible impact on the experiment which allows the researchers to compile objectively provable results at sub-atomic scales.

A couple drove 170 kilometres (100 miles) from South Africa's famous Kruger National Park with a highly venomous spitting cobra in their car ... Gordon Parratt, 69, felt the 85-centimetre (33-inch) long snake wind itself around his leg while he was driving. At first he thought an insect had brushed his leg and swiped it away, but when he looked down he saw the snake next to his left foot.... "Fortunately I'm not the panicky type. My wife immediately put her feet up on the dashboard...."

A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.

When gunmen jumped out of bushes and began spraying bullets at the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team Tuesday, Khalil quickly sized up his options and got everyone to safety. "First I thought there were some firecrackers going off. Then, when I saw the elite force cars in front of me taking fire, I immediately lost my voice.... At that time, the other elite car that was with us gave me cover, and then, when I saw he was giving me cover, my courage and my patience returned. I decided to take the vehicle from there, and one way or another, even if I had to drive over someone, I would take this bus and escape."