Archive - 2011

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Mysterious Sights: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni is a magical place: When covered by water, the world’s largest salt flat becomes a mirror, and anyone walking across it appears to be walking on clouds. The salt crust, which covers 4,086 square miles in southwestern Bolivia at 11,995 feet above sea level, is nearly flat, which makes it ideal for calibrating the altimeters of satellites. Salar de Uyuni's origins lie in prehistoric lakes; it is a major breeding ground for several species of flamingoes.

Mysterious Sights: Eye of Africa, Mauritania

The Eye of Africa - whose official name, the Richat Structure, seems so mundane in comparison - was spotted in central Mauritania by astronauts on early space missions. In the expanse of the Western Sahara Desert, the formation has a diameter of about 30 miles. At first, scientists thought a meteorite had hit the Earth, causing this impression. But now it is believed to be a symmetrical uplift that erosion has revealed. No one has explained yet why it is circular.

Mysterious Sights: Middle East Desert Floor Drawings  read more »

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Protesters Demand Honest GMO Labels at Right 2 Know March
The Right to Know Where Food Comes From

[October 1, 2011] Starting today, thousands of Americans will march in protest from New York City all the way to Washington D.C. to demand clear, honest labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients.

Genetically modified foods are subject to disclosure and labeling requirements in many countries, but currently, United States law does not require food producers to label genetically modified foods sold to consumers as genetically modified. The only way for consumers who prefer not to eat genetically modified foods to avoid GMOs is to buy produce only from farmers they know, carefully research the origins of the food they purchase, or limit themselves to buying only food that either been certified by the USDA as organic or has been voluntarily labeled by its manufacturer and certified by a third party as non-GMO.  read more »

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They wear a $1,000 belt despite alleged financial hardships.

They're just not normal. They have huge, celebrity-sized problems that they solve with celebrity-sized purchases that they buy with their celebrity-sized fortunes...

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Images courtesy of Felipe Ramales / Pacific Coast News

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N.Y. Police Can’t Use Bus Drivers in Protest Arrests, Union Says  read more »

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Disneyland, the original California park, was groundbreaking in every possible way. Prior to Disneyland’s creation, amusement parks were, by and large, dirty, dangerous places aimed almost exclusively at teenagers. Parents didn’t go on rides, they sat on benches while the kids played. As an animator, Walt Disney had already earned a reputation as a maverick, a rebel genius who was able to sell adult audiences on feature-length cartoons, something his peers had claimed would never work. Disneyland was the culmination of many of Walt’s big dreams, a different kind of park, where parents and children could have fun together. Walt Disney told stories, and Disneyland allowed guests to become a part of those stories.

Walt Disney World History Year by Year  read more »

The junk in low Earth orbit: space pollution and rising hazard from debris

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NASA: 'We May Never Know' Whereabouts of Satellite Debris
NASA scientists are still not sure exactly where pieces of a huge, defunct satellite landed after re-entering Earth's atmosphere this morning, but early evidence suggests that the debris landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, which could complicate recovery efforts.

During a Saturday afternoon conference call with reporters, Nicholas Johnson, chief orbital debris scientist for NASA, acknowledged that "we may never know" the whereabouts of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).

Data from the Department of Defense's Joint Space Operations Center (JSOC) indicate that UARS fell to the Earth sometime between 11:23pm Eastern Friday night and 1:09am Saturday morning. At that point, the satellite passed over Canada, the African continent, and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. The mid-point of that path, and likely point of entry, according to those calculations, is off the West Coast of the U.S., as indicated by the green circle on a map published by NASA.  read more »