| Airborne Bacteria Make It Rain, Researchers Find
The sky is not an ethereal, sterile realm. It's teeming with bacteria, and scientists say that the microbes play a powerful role in producing rain and snow. While the idea that bacteria could prompt precipitation was previously known, a paper published this week in Science shows that they're more important than anyone expected. Researchers led by Louisiana State University microbiologist Brent Christner analyzed snow samples from around the world, categorizing the content of their "nucleators" -- tiny particles that help water vapor coalesce and freeze. All snow and most rain begins as ice. Though water is widely thought to have a freezing point of zero degrees Celsius, it's not so simple in the clouds, where pristine vapors only bind to form ice crystals at exceedingly cold temperatures.
the has-been
Today, Kidd Island Bay is filling up with sediment from all the subdivisions. But happily, no one has figured out how to put a house on Kidd Island. In the old days, the few brave souls who lived on the bay could skate across the lake to the town movie theater. The theater is gone now, and the lake doesn't freeze like it used to, so everyone has a satellite dish. As a Camp Fire Girl, my wife used to earn beads by making the half-mile swim to Kidd Island and back from Camp Neewahlu. The camp closed a few years ago. The Camp Fire Girls sold it for $2 million to former NYPD Blue star Dennis Franz, confirming everybody's suspicion that no matter what Giuliani says, anybody who cared that much about crime would leave New York City and move to Idaho. Giuliani raised $50-100,000 in Coeur d'Alene.
Too cool for schoolies
Students who volunteer must make a commitment that embraces the whole of their year 12. They pledge to raise the money for their airfares and expenses and enough money to cover the cost of building the houses and classroom. The members of this year's group have been industrious. Daniel Rodway, 18, was the guest speaker at a dinner arranged by his uncle and aunt, Peter and Nicole Rodway. They held it in their home and guests paid $50 a couple. Money went towards building a new house. Before they flew out of Melbourne after their VCE exams, the students raised $20,000. Many of Daniel's mates headed to Queensland as he boarded the flight to India for his first overseas adventure. "The idea of travelling and seeing a foreign country attracted me more," he said.
Buffalo nixes hope for SSD drive marvel
High-end drive systems based on SDD have even reached as high as 1.6TB, but the latest news confirms that mainstream SSD drives are only slowly emerging as direct competitors for conventional HDDs. <<newer article | back to index | older article>> .
Halt Islamic banking study, group says
However, I have been told that Islamic Banking in Pakistan has a history of major scandals and flops where hundreds of thousands lost their savings. I hope that Canadian agencies are more careful in regulating these instruments.
Posted 29/01/08 at 12:26 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .
Best Answers to Sunday Question ...
The 65-31 vote passed a bill that supporters said protects the industry from financial disaster and bankruptcy caused by damage lawsuits/Associated Press. DFO: I'm not a hard-core, pro-gunner, but I do believe that people that pull triggers kill people, not the gun alone. .
You Gotta Sin To Get Saved and Other Assorted Love Songs.
There's some really promising albums coming out soon; it's better than the first signs of spring. Canadian folk-rocker Kathleen Edwards' new album “Asking For Flowers" is released March 4. I'm streaming it off her Web site as I write this and every song thus far is a winner.
I got turned on to Edwards a couple of years ago when I was floored by her 2003 debut “Failer." The lead cut on that one, “Six O'clock News" was on constant repeat on the iPod. (That is before the stupid thing crashed something that's never happened with my turntable). Give Edwards a listen. I guarantee you'll end up scrapping all your horrid Carrie Underwood records. Leave those for the chumps. My buddy Rick Koster's bête noir Stephen Malkmus has a new album out called “Real Emotional Trash" with reportedly some prog flourishes.
|
