7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars: CAN HUMANS LIVE ON MARS

7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars | Mars Water & Habitability | Search for Life on Mars | Space.com:

To answer whether or not life did or does exist on Mars, people might actually have to go there and find out.

NASA's plan as of 1969 was to have a human Mars mission by 1981 and a permanent Mars base in 1988. However, interplanetary human voyages pose definite scientific and technological challenges. One would have to deal with the rigors of travel — issues of food, water and oxygen, the deleterious effects of microgravity, potential hazards such as fire and radiation and the fact that any such astronauts would be millions of miles away from help and confined together for years at a time. Landing, working, living on another planet and returning from it would offer a host of challenges as well.

Nevertheless, astronauts seem eager to find out. For example, this year six volunteers lived in a pretend spacecraft for nearly a year and a half in the so-called Mars500 project, the longest spaceflight simulation ever conducted, aimed at replicating a manned mission to Mars from beginning to end. There are even numerous volunteers for a one-way trip to the Red Planet. Tiny rock-eating microbes could mine precious extraterrestrial resources from Mars and pave the way for the first human colonists, and farmers could grow crops on its surface. The mystery as to whether or not humans will ever go to Mars may rest largely on whether or not the powers-that-be can be convinced to go there.

Read full article here:

http://www.space.com/13681-mars-biggest-mysteries-water-life. html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAcKukNId7c

'via Blog this'

SINGULARITY: THE MERGING OF MAN AND MACHINE IS NEAR

Internet Changes How We Remember: Scientific American:

Four years ago Columbia University psychologist Betsy Sparrow turned to her husband after looking up some movie trivia online and asked, “What did we do before the Internet?” Thus, Sparrow set out to investigate how Google, and all the information it proffers, has changed how people think. Four psychology experiments later Sparrow has her answer, which was published in Science this past August. “[The Web] is an external memory storage space, and we make it responsible for remembering things,” she says.

Brief of the full article here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-google-effect&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20111228

Does it mean that internet has in fact relieved our brain from the load of memories? Is it possible for science in the future to find a better use for the free space in our brain; a bigger emotional storage for love, kindness, charity, patriotism, patience, concern for the humanities, environment and of course evil for the demonically inclined?

When I bought a 160 GB external disc memory 2 years ago; I thought I will never be able to fill it. I was wrong and with internet speed getting faster and faster; downloading from the internet gets not only fun but necessary for a lot of reasons depending upon one’s own interests.

I need a new ‘terabyte external memory disc.’ It is not an external memory disc for my laptop; it is in reality an external memory extension of my aging brain because I choose what to store into it meaning I keep only that which I can tap anytime I want like recalling a memory. The beauty of it is: you and I can keep the memory in its entirety…no more no less unlike a jumbled-up human memory where you inevitably substitute words you can’t recall and alter the meaning. In essence; we are all ‘Cyborg.’

A book has just been published by a technology genius Kurzweil who predicted that “SINGULARITY IS NEAR;” which happened to be the title of his book meaning man and machine will merge in the not so distant future. Micro machines smaller or as big as a red blood cell will in the future circulate in our body not one, not two but as many as necessary and directed to any part of the body to cure diseases.

The first time I ever sit on a documentary movie for 5 hours was two days ago and there was not a single time that it paused to buffer. Really amazing but it is the present (nothing out of the ordinary) state of the net and it will keep on getting better. They used to cut You Tube into 10-15 minutes sequences but that is now history. Watching movies in the internet is presently like watching a DVD on your monitor.

Unless our educational system is overhauled to respond to the net’s increasing relevance; many parents may opt to keep their children at home where learning will be more advanced and fun to the very young. Our children will in the future sit in a classroom where a virtual Einstein delivers lecture on the theory of relativity complete with virtual tools that only the real dumb will not understand. Virtual atoms will be whizzing around the classroom and chains of DNA that you found insanely difficult to grasp will be worming around you. Many of our subjects today where the young spend grueling hours learning by force will in the future be laughably perceived as primitive and stupid :-) 

NLK

'via Blog this'

'Israel can cease to exist if Iran attacked'

Let there be PEACE; tone down the rhetoric…don’t attack Iran; it’s 2012

PressTV - 'Israel can cease to exist if Iran attacked':

A former CIA analyst says the notion that stirring up hostilities towards Iran will make Israel more secure will prove to be “the big mistake of the century.”

“If this rhetoric spins out of control, if there are incidents in the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz that lead to wider hostilities, as night follows the day, this could spin not only into a regional war but even farther; and... of Israel, I fear, may cease to exist,” Ray McGovern told Press TV US Desk.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi warned on December 27 that imposing sanctions against the country's energy sector will prompt Tehran to prevent oil cargoes from passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“If they impose sanctions on Iran's oil, not even a drop of oil will be allowed through the Strait of Hormuz,” he warned.

FULL ARTICLE:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/219009.html

'via Blog this'

2012 PEACE POSTERS: TOP 3 PICKS

 MY TOP 3 PICKS

I AM IN THE PROCESS OF OF PERFECTING THE TRICK

'Invading Iran is invading Russia, China' : let's declare "2012 YEAR OF PEACE" please!

PressTV - 'Invading Iran is invading Russia, China':

A political analyst says Russia and China consider a US military action on Iran as an attack on their own borders and a threat to their own national security.

“The US is assuming that Russia or China will not respond militarily, but they've been wrong before,” Shamus Cooke wrote on the Global Research website.

Cooke explained that when former US president George W. Bush gave the green light to the then President of Georgia Mikheil Saakahvili to attack South Ossetia in 2008, “Russia surprised everyone by responding militarily and crushing Georgia's invasion.”

“Attacking Syria and/or Iran opens the door to a wider regional or even international war,” Cooke stressed.

Read full article here:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/218815.html

 I think 2011 is the year that really changed the world (Arab Spring) or 2011 could be the beginning of the real change big and small and possibly an end whatever that is. Islamists are taking over via the ballot ;-) and with that in mind; USA/NATO/ISRAEL attacks Iran and the Islamists invade Israel from all directions. Israel starts lobbing nuclear bombs towards Mecca and Yemen. (A fire will come from the Hijjas so bright that it will light the neck of the camel in Basra. Another fire will come from Yemen that will drive people to the sea. A gentle breeze will come from the direction of Syria that will take the life of every believer (chemical/bacterial WMD) in a way that even if you can hide inside the mountain (bunkers and tunnels); it will come and take you :-( THE PROPHET) 

'via Blog this'

12 Most Anticipated Space Missions of 2012: MY TOP 3 PICKS

12 Most Anticipated Space Missions of 2012 | Spaceflight Calendar 2012 | Year in Space Launches | Space.com:

3. China's Manned Space Laboratory

China, a growing player in space, is working on its own manned space station. This year the nation launched its first space station test module and conducted its first in-orbit rendezvous and docking. Though these spacecraft were unmanned, Chinese astronauts are expected to fly on a subsequent docking test flight in 2012.

The Tiangong-1 module, launched Sept. 29, is still in orbit. The robotic Shenzhou 8 mission launched Oct. 31 and met up with Tiangong-1 multiple times before returning to Earth in November.

The next docking missions, which will further develop this critical skill for building a space station, will be Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10. At least one of them will be crewed, Chinese officials have said.

5. LightSail-1 Launches

LightSail-1 is an unmanned solar sail spacecraft being developed by the nonprofit Planetary Society, an organization that advocates space exploration.

Solar sail technology offers the potential to use the sun's radiation to push a spacecraft farther and faster than traditional propulsion does. The LightSail-1 vehicle is the first of three planned tests of the technology by the Planetary Society. It is due to launch sometime in 2012.

LightSail-1 is made of three small cube-shaped spacecraft attached to four triangular Mylar sails arranged like a kite. The vehicle will rely on pure sunlight for propulsion.

7. Curiosity Rover Arrives on Red Planet

NASA's huge new rover Curiosity, the centerpiece of the space agency's Mars Science Laboratory mission, is expected to land on the Red Planet Aug. 6.

The $2.5 billionCuriosity lifted off Nov. 26, 2011. It's the largest and most ambitiously designed Mars rover to date, packed with 10 different science instruments to search for signs that Mars is, or ever was, habitable to life.

The landing is expected to be a nail-biter, as Curiosity is due to descend to the planet's surface as no vehicle has done before. NASA engineers devised a sky crane descent module that will parachute down to hover over Mars, then lower Curiosity on tethers to a gentle touchdown.

Please read full article here:

http://www.space.com/14040-2012-spaceflight-anticipated-missions.html

'via Blog this'

Apocalypse Not Now: 2012 Doomsday Debunked by NASA

Apocalypse Not Now: 2012 Doomsday Predictions Debunked by NASA | End of the World & 2012 Theories | Nibiru, Doomsday Theories Debunked | Space.com:

On Dec. 21, 2012, many doomsday believers fear the apocalypse — anything from a rogue planet smashing into us to our world spinning end over end. However, the world should expect nothing more next year than the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, NASA says.

Many people point to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 as evidence of the coming apocalypse, but astronomers have been quick to stress that there is nothing to be concerned about.

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, next year's winter solstice marks the end of a 144,000-day cycle. This cycle, which begins at the mythical Maya creation date, has already been repeated 12 times. The 13th will end in 2012, capping a full 5,200-year Mayan cycle of creation.

This date has long been shrouded in mystery, with many claiming that it will bring destruction to our planet.

PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:

http://www.space.com/14078-apocalypse-2012-doomsday-predictions-debunked-nasa.html

'via Blog this'