NightBlogger

“The history of science is the history of suppression and great inventions.”
Considering the exposure of Wall Street bankers’ pillage of financial assets around the world, the veracity of such claims may have been questionable until now. This is a short 6 minute documentary regarding energy secrets kept silent by powerful groups and the governments they control.

“What people have to understand is that those who run the energy business in this world — which is the biggest business on the planet, turning over 4-5 Trillion dollars a year, it’s bigger than guns and drugs, it’s bigger than defense — they control the newspapers, they control the governments, but these companies are so big that they regulate the governments which regulate them.”

A new study adds to arsenic’s notoriety as a cancer-causer and favored murder mystery poison, suggesting it also plays a role in diabetes. In today’s Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that exposure to low levels of inorganic arsenic — an industrial pollutant that is also found naturally in rocks and soil — in drinking water may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. For years, it’s been known that arsenic is linked to cancer. At high levels of exposure it is also connected to cardiovascular health and diabetes, but that evidence comes from regions where arsenic levels in drinking water and the environment are very high, says study author Ana Navas-Acien, an assistant professor of environmental health science at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who ticks off highly contaminated regions, including Bangladesh, Taiwan, Inner Mongolia and Chile. More

“We’ve seen plenty of promises about water-powered cars (among other things), but it looks like Japan’s Genepax has now made some real progress on that front, with it recently taking the wraps off its Water Energy System fuel cell prototype. The key to that system, it seems, is its membrane electrode assembly (or MEA), which contains a material that’s capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction. Not surprisingly, the company isn’t getting much more specific than that, with it only saying that it’s adopted a “well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA.” Currently, that system costs on the order of ¥2,000,000 (or about $18,700 — not including the car), but company says that if it can get it into mass production that could be cut to ¥500,000 or less (or just under $5,000).”

The Mars Phoenix Lander has found ice on the surface of the Red Planet, triumphant NASA scientists said, a key discovery for the spacecraft as it searches for water and signs of life on Earth’s closet planetary neighbour. The proof came in a series of pictures sent back by Phoenix of a trench it dug with its robotic arm at the arctic circle of Mars, showing dice-sized chunks of white material that are seen to melt away over the course of several days.

“It is with great pride and a lot of joy today that I announce we’ve found the proof we’ve been seeking that this really is water ice and not some other material,” mission principal investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, said at a press conference. The presence of water on Mars is crucial because it is a key to the question of whether life, even in the form of mere microbes, exists or has has ever existed on Mars. On Earth, water is a necessary ingredient for life. More

Photo David Paul Ohmer

Lake Michigan’s water level has dropped nearly four feet since 1997, and Lake Superior dipped to a record low last year according to federal data. The low lake level has widened beaches but created safety hazards for recreational boaters and caused freighters to run aground in Muskegon, Grand Haven and other ports around the lake. The plunging water levels have some Great Lakes scientists and residents wondering whether factors other than weather conditions are causing lake levels to drop.
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Photo courtesy of Luza

You may never have heard of bisphenol-A (BPA), but it’s probably in your body. It was in 93 percent of 2,517 Americans age 6 and over, tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BPA is in baby bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups, food containers, water bottles, dental sealants, the liners of food cans, and hundreds of household goods. Six million pounds of BPA are produced in the U.S. each year.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report stating that BPA may be a toxic chemical. And The U.S. government’s National Toxicology Program expressed “concern” about BPA, even though research links BPA to a host of illnesses in rats. Despite this, the FDA has still not established any restrictions on the use of (BPA) in baby bottles.

Wal-mart reported that instead of removing baby bottles made with BPA, they will phase them out. U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has stated he will introduce a bill on Monday calling for a ban on all products containing BPA in the U.S. Read more