EARTH PORTATION curated News August 28th

ANIMALS - Giant Rabbit And Tiny Pigs Are Best Friends (PHOTOS)

Mini pigs Chino and Penny love to cuddle with Rob the giant rabbit at the Pennywell Farm in Britain, according to an accompanying photo caption. The teacup animals have been bred at the site since 1992 and only weigh around 250 grams at birth. Surprisingly, they only grow to about a fifth the size of a regular pig ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/giant-rabbit-mini-p

BIRDS - Fifteen New Species of Amazonian Birds

An international team of researchers coordinated by ornithologist Bret Whitney of the LSU Museum of Natural Science, or LSUMNS, recently published 15 species of birds previously unknown to science. The formal description of these birds has been printed in a special volume of the "Handbook of the Birds of the World" series. Not since 1871 have so many new species of birds been introduced under a single cover ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130828173115.ht

CLIMATE - Climate Name Change aims to connect deniers to storms

There's a pivotal scene in the 1996 Farrelly brothers' film, Kingpin, in which Woody Harrelson's character, Roy Munson hears someone use the phrase "munsoned" for the first time. Munson had been a bowler with a promising future before losing it all. Realizing that his surname had become a figure of speech meaning "to have the whole world in the palm of your hand and blow it" he is inspired to turn his life around and maybe rec ...
http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/power-naming-can-na

ENERGY - Oxygen 'sponge' presents path to better catalysts, energy materials

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new oxygen "sponge" that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms at low temperatures. Materials with these novel characteristics would be useful in devices such as rechargeable batteries, sensors, gas converters and fuel cells ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-oxygen-sponge-path-catalysts-en

ENVIRONMENT - Scientists monitor with phosphorus the algal blooms in European lakes

An international research team has analysed the relationship between the amount of phosphorus recorded in 1,500 European lakes and reservoirs, and the growth of cyanobacteria, a toxin-producing microorganism. The results show that 23% of these water masses in Spain exceed the level established by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This percentage is closer to 50% for Germany and the Netherlands. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scient ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scientists-phosphorus-algal-blo

FASHION - What your foot really looks like in high heels

Skyscraper-high heels make a woman’s legs look longer and leaner. But if you look at the cramped, claw-toed, gnome-like three-dimensional images of a woman’s foot in some stilettos released by London’s Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital on YouTube, you might rethink your fashion choice -- at least for a while ...
http://www.today.com/health/what-your-foot-really-looks-high

PEOPLE - A Lot Of People Think Elon Musk Is Already Greater Than Steve Jobs Ever Was

Steve Jobs was a marketing master who turned a near-bankrupt Apple into the most valuable company in the world. But many people are starting to believe Elon Musk is better than Steve Jobs ever was ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-must-versus-steve-jobs-2

SCIENCE - Magnetic materials: Forging ahead with a back-to-basics approach

Scientists have recently started to explore the possibility of using an intrinsic property of the electron known as spin for processing and storing information. Magnetic fields can influence the dynamics of electron spin, so harnessing this potential relies on precision engineering of crystalline storage materials ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-magnetic-materials-forging-back

SCIENCE - Quantum inverted pendulum: Control scheme dynamically maintains unstable quantum system

A simple pendulum has two equilibrium points: hanging in the "down" position and perfectly inverted in the "up" position. While the "down" position is a stable equilibrium, the inverted position is definitely not stable. Any infinitesimal deviation from perfectly inverted is enough to cause the pendulum to eventually swing down. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-quantum-inverted-pendulum-scheme-dynamically.h ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-quantum-inverted-pendulum-schem

SCIENCE - Quantum measurement carries information even when the measurement outcome is unread

Some tasks that are impossible in classical systems can be realized in quantum systems. This fact is exemplified by a new protocol that highlights an important difference between classical and quantum measurements. In classical mechanics, performing a measurement without reading the measurement outcome does not carry any information and is therefore equivalent to not performing the measurement at all. But in the new protocol, a quantum measuremen ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-quantum-outcome-unread.htm

SCIENCE - Scientists May Soon Add Element 115 To The Periodic Table

Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have announced that they’ve been able to confirm the existence of element 115 on the periodic table. Their research is being published in this week’s edition of Physical Review Letters ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/08/28/scientists-

SPACE - SDO mission untangles motion inside the Sun

Using an instrument on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, called the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, or HMI, scientists have overturned previous notions of how the sun's writhing insides move from equator to pole and back again, a key part of understanding how the dynamo works. Modeling this system also lies at the heart of improving predictions of the intensity of the next solar cycle. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-sdo-mission-unt ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-sdo-mission-untangles-motion-su

SPACE - We may all be Martians: New research supports theory that life started on Mars

New evidence has emerged which supports the long-debated theory that life on Earth may have started on Mars ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-martians-theory-life-mars.htm

URBAN - Strong, elastic 'smart materials' aid design of earthquake-resistant bridges

Bridges are a main component of the transportation infrastructure as we know it today. There are no less than 575,000 highway bridges nationwide, and more than $5 billion are allocated yearly from the federal budget for bridge repairs. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-strong-elastic-smart-materials-aid.html#jC ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-strong-elastic-smart-materials-

WIND - Hang On To Your Hat: New Wind Power Records In Australia

It’s been a big month for wind – and wind power – in Australia. The industry group Clean Energy Council reports that during the week beginning August 11, wind farms in South Australia, the state with the most turbines, produced “the equivalent of 48 percent of the state’s power needs. ...
http://www.earthtechling.com/2013/08/hang-on-to-your-hat-new

WORK - These People Work In Paradise (And You Can Too!)

Who wants to work in an office until they die? With the Internet keeping everything super-connected it's possible for many people to carry our their entire job descriptions online, and they're taking this as their cue to find a dream office of their own ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/people-who-work-in-paradise-2