>Senate votes to halt strategic oil stockpiling

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Bush wants to keep filling the underground petroleum reserve, but legislators take the near-unanimous action in reaction to record gas prices. The House is expected to concur. The Senate, jittery about a political backlash over the rising price of gasoline, voted by a veto-proof majority today to halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over President Bush’s objections.

The House is expected to follow suit later today.

The action, supported by the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, comes as high fuel costs have contributed to the nation’s economic woes and become a hot issue on the campaign trail. It could be the only legislation that Congress passes this year in response to public angst at the fuel pump because of the parties’ differences over energy issues.

The Senate measure passed 97 to 1, with Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York breaking off from their campaigns to return to the Capitol to vote for the measure. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, supported the measure but was absent for the vote, continuing his campaigning in the Pacific Northwest.

“Why on earth should we be putting oil underground at a time of record high prices?” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), the measure’s chief sponsor, argued.

Bush has resisted calls to suspend the delivery of about 70,000 barrels a day to the emergency stockpile, contending that it would have little impact on prices in a nation that uses about 21 million barrels a day and would weaken weakening the nation’s energy security. The reserve was established after the 1973 Arab oil embargo to protect against supply cutoffs and now holds about 702 million barrels in underground caverns on the Gulf Coast.

Bush has assailed Congress for not doing enough to spur more domestic production.

But members of Congress, who, unlike Bush, face reelection, are anxious to show they are doing something to respond to the high prices, even though there is little they can do in the short term to provide relief. Suspending deliveries to the reserve is a modest step that some supporters say could save motorists 2 to 5 cents a gallon, perhaps more.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who is retiring from the Senate and has previously resisted suspending shipments to the reserve, was among those supporting the measure. “I have changed my mind,” he said, “and it’s simply because the price of oil is now up to $125 a barrel.”

The measure’s approval came as the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline hit a record of more than $3.73, up from $3.07 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Assn.

Earlier today, the Senate rejected a Republican-sponsored measure that called for increasing production by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration and relaxing a long-standing ban on new drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

A Democratic proposal to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies and roll back tax breaks for the industry and new protections against price-gouging is expected to face a Republican-led filibuster when it reaches the Senate floor, perhaps next week. – lat

How much a suspension of strategic reserve purchases would sway price is a matter of dispute. Though the Strategic Petroleum Reserve purchases account for 0.3 percent of demand for that grade of petroleum, Verleger testified that it could add 10 percent to the price of light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a press release noting that Bush did in fact halt additions to the SPR in 2006 to blunt the rise in prices. But Bush now says that the oil bought by the reserve amounts to less than 0.1 percent of world oil demand.

If the purchases seem like a drop in the bucket of world demand, they also represent a drop in the bucket of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently has 701.3 million barrels, equal to 52 days of all U.S. petroleum imports. On Jan. 23, 2007, Bush announced plans to expand the reserve to 1.5 billion barrels.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) has been rallying lawmakers’ support since March. “All of us feel very strongly that it makes no sense at all for the administration to be taking action to put upward pressure on prices when the SPRO is 90 percent filled,” Dorgan told me. – newswk

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil. The federally-owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.Decisions to withdraw crude oil from the SPR are made by the President under the authorities of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. In the event of an energy emergency, SPR oil would be distributed by competitive sale. The SPR has been used under these circumstances only twice (during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005). Its formidable size (700-plus million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool of foreign policy. – doe

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency petroleum store maintained by the United States Department of Energy. The US SPR is the largest emergency supply in the world with the current capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels (115,600,000 m³) of crude oil. The second largest emergency supply of petroleum is Japan’s with a 2003 reported capacity of 579 million barrels (92,100,000 m³).

The current inventory is displayed on the SPR’s website. As of May 07, 2008, the current inventory was 702.0 million barrels (111,610,000 m³). At current market prices ($125 a barrel) the SPR holds over $88 billion worth of petroleum. – wiki

>7 Bombs Kill Scores in Indian City

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In the first terrorist attack in many months, seven bombs went off within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening in the crowded lanes of one of India’s main tourist hub, the historic city of Jaipur, with reports of deaths ranging from 50 upwards, with roughly 150 injured, officials said.

The bombs went off within a radius of 50 feet, police said, and that bombs may have been planted in the wheels of bicycles, the mangled remains of which were found near many of the blast sites.

There were no claims of responsibility, which is typical of terror attacks in India, but the junior minister for home affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal, immediately said “foreign terrorists” were suspected, using a phrase understood to refer to India’s neighbor and nuclear rival, Pakistan. Pakistan routinely deny Indian accusations that it is involved in any way in attacks on India.

One blast went off around 7:30 p.m. near a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman that is especially crowded on Tuesday evenings. Six more went off in quick succession in the warrens of shops and monuments nearby, including the popular 18th-century tourist site called Hawa Mahal, and the Johri Bazaar, lined with jewelers. Panic set in immediately, officials said.

The police sealed off the walled city, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm. Hospitals in Jaipur asked for blood donations.

Rohit Singh, the spokesman for Rajasthan state, of which Jaipur is the capital, estimated the death toll to be over 50 about three hours after the blasts. The Indian federal government dispatched explosives experts with the National Security Group, and put several major cities on alert, including the capital.

Although Jaipur, known as the pink city, is a popular tourist destination, in mid-May, the peak of the Indian summer, is not a busy season, and there were no reports that any foreigners had been killed..

The last major bombing in India came in August, when a pair of bombs went off in an outdoor auditorium and restaurant in the southern city of Hyderabad, killing more than 40. Two years ago, serial blasts along the commuter train line in Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, killed nearly 200.

Mr. Singh, speaking by telephone from Jaipur, said it was too early to say who was responsible, but that the attack, on a summer’s evening when the walled city was thronged, appeared to be designed to ignite religious fury between Hindus and Muslims. Similar terror attacks targeting religious sites in recent years have not succeeded in setting off sectarian violence.

The Hindu holy city of Varanasi was struck by a pair of bombings in March 2006, killing 14, and a blast killed two worshippers in one of the holiest Muslim shrines in Ajmer, also in Rajasthan, last September.

“It is usually crowded in the evening, but on Tuesday evening it is more crowded,” Mr. Singh immediately after the blasts. “There is a lot of panic.” – nyt

>How To: Power Your Computer With Car Batteries

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>Human Aging Gene Found In Flies

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Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human aging. Working at the University of Oxford and The Open University, Dr Lynne Cox and Dr Robert Saunders have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects aging has on DNA. In new work published today in the journal Aging Cell, the researchers demonstrate the value of this model in helping us to understand the aging process. This exciting study demonstrates that fruit flies can be used to study critical aspects of human aging at cellular, genetic and biochemical levels.

Dr Lynne Cox from the University of Oxford said: “We study a premature human aging disease called Werner syndrome to help us understand normal aging. The key to this disease is that changes in a single gene (called WRN) mean that patients age very quickly. Scientists have made great progress in working out what this gene does in the test tube, but until now we haven’t been able to investigate the gene to look at its effect on development and the whole body. By working on this gene in fruit flies, we can model human aging in a powerful experimental system.”

Dr Robert Saunders from The Open University added: “This work shows for the first time that we can use the short-lived fruit fly to investigate the function of an important human aging gene. We have opened up the exciting possibility of using this model system to analyse the way that such genes work in a whole organism, not just in single cells.”

Dr Saunders, Dr Cox and colleagues have identified the fruit fly equivalent of the key human aging gene known as WRN. They find that flies with damage to this gene share important features with people suffering from the rapid aging condition Werner syndrome, who also have damage to the WRN gene. In particular, the DNA, or genetic blueprint, is unstable in the flies that have the damaged version of the gene and the chromosomes are often altered. The researchers show that the fly’s DNA becomes rearranged, with genes being swapped between chromosomes. In patients with Werner syndrome, this genome instability leads to cancer. Cells derived from Werner syndrome patients are extremely sensitive to a drug often used to treat cancers: the researchers show that the flies that have the damaged gene are killed by even very low doses of the drug.

Professor Nigel Brown, Director of Science and Technology, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council said: “The aging population presents a major research challenge to the UK and we need effort to understand normal aging and the characteristics that accompany it.”

“Fruit flies are already used as a model for the genetics behind mechanisms that underlie normal functioning of the human body and it is great news that this powerful research tool can be applied to such an important area of study into human health.” – sd

>Microwaves ‘cook ballast aliens’

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US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo vessels.

Tests showed that a continuous microwave system was able to remove all marine life within the water tanks.

The UN lists “invasive species” dispersed by ballast water discharges as one of the four main threats to the world’s marine ecosystems.

The findings will appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Shipping moves more than 80% of the world’s commodities and transfers up to five billion tonnes of ballast water internationally each year, data from the UN shows.

Vessels, especially large container ships, need ballast tanks to provide stability in the water and correct any shift in the ships’ mass.

When a ship’s cargo is unloaded, it fills with ballast water; when it is later reloaded, often on the other side of the world, the water is discharged. – bbc

>BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Platypus genetic code unravelled

> Vodpod videos no longer available. from news.bbc.co.uk posted with vodpod

>Woman killed as stingray leaps into boat in US

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A woman sunbathing on a boat has died after a stingray leaped from the water, hitting her in the face and knocking her to the deck. The incident, which happened in the Florida Keys, involved a 75lb spotted eagle ray and was described by wildlife experts as a freak accident. Judy Zagorski, 57, of Pigeon, Michigan, was relaxing in the bow of a small fishing pleasure boat going 25 nautical mph when the ray leaped out of the water.

The impact is likely to have killed the woman but it was not immediately clear whether she was also stung by the venomous barb on the ray’s tail, said officials. The boat was being driven by the victim’s father on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key when the creature, which had a wingspan of five to six feet, came out of the sea..

“He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously,” said Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The woman was taken to the Mariner Hospital in Tavernier, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy will determine an official cause of death. Bobby Dube of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said: “The officer on the scene said she fell and maybe struck her head too. There was a lot of blood on the boat.

“She was just cruising on the boat, thinking they would enjoy a nice day of fun in the sun when something tragic happened.” He said rays leaping out of the water was “natural to them and quite spectacular to watch”. Rays sometimes jump out of the water when they feel threatened and it has been known for rays, who are protected in Florida waters, to mistake the shadow of a fast-moving boat for that of a shark.

Local media reported that the creature’s barb had impaled the woman through the neck. Eagle rays, also called leopard rays or bonnet skates, can have a wingspan of up to 10ft, and, with an 8ft long tail, weigh up to 500lb. They have between two and six short, venomous barbs near the base of their whip-like tails. Lynn Gear, a local wildlife expert, said: “Rays jump to escape a predator, give birth and shake off parasites. They do not attack people.”

This was not the first such incident in Florida. A spotted eagle ray stung James Bertakis, 83, in October 2006. Although the barb entered his heart chamber, he has made an almost full recovery. Steve Irwin, the Australian wildlife expert, died the same year when a stingray’s barb pierced his chest off the Great Barrier Reef. – telegraph

>Midwest quakes remain a mystery

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Scientists say they know far too little about Midwestern seismic zones like the one that rumbled to life under southern Illinois Friday morning, but some of what they do know is unnerving.

The fault zones beneath the Mississippi River Valley have produced some of the largest modern U.S. quakes east of the Rockies, a region covered with old buildings not built to withstand seismic activity.

And, when quakes happen, they’re felt far and wide, their vibrations propagated over hundreds of miles of bedrock. Friday’s quake shook things up from Nebraska to Atlanta, rattling nerves but doing little damage and seriously hurting no one. It was a magnitude 5.2 temblor centered just outside West Salem in southeastern Illinois, a largely rural region of small towns that sit over the Wabash fault zone. The area has produced moderately strong quakes as recently as 2002.

But it hasn’t been studied to nearly the degree of quake-prone areas west of the Rockies, particularly along the heavily scrutinized Pacific coast.

“We don’t have as many opportunities as in California,” said Genda Chen, associate professor of engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, which sits near the well-known and very active New Madrid fault zone.

“We cannot even borrow on the knowledge they learn on the West Coast” because quakes that happen in California — where tectonic plates beneath the Earth’s surface collide — are so different from Midwestern quakes that happen far away from the edges of the nearest plates.

It isn’t entirely clear, for instance, whether the Wabash faults are related to the New Madrid faults or not.

Some scientists say they are related, noting that the Wabash faults, which roughly parallel the river of the same name in southern Illinois and Indiana, are a northern extension of the New Madrid zone. Others say they’re not.

When will next one strike?
The New Madrid fault zone produced a series of quakes in 1811 and 1812 that reached an estimated magnitude 7.0, putting them among the strongest known quakes to have occurred east of the Rockies. The quakes changed the course of the Mississippi River and were felt in New England.

That distance of well over a thousand miles sounds impressive, but experts say quakes that happen in the Midwest commonly radiate out for hundreds of miles because of the bedrock beneath much of the eastern United States.

“Our bedrock here is old, really rigid and sends those waves a long way,” said Bob Bauer, a geologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey who works in Champaign.

He compared the underground rock, which in much of the Midwest lies anywhere from a few thousand feet to just a few feet below the earth’s surface, to a bell that very efficiently transmits seismic waves like sound.

“California is young bedrock,” he explained. “It’s broken up … like a cracked bell. You ring that, the waves don’t go as far.”

The question of whether Friday’s quake was centered along a branch of the New Madrid zone or not is of more than academic interest. The area even now produces smaller, very regular quakes, and experts say it still has the potential to produce a quake that could devastate the region.

The Wabash faults have the potential to do the same, at least based on distant history, said Columbia University seismologist Won-Young Kim.

The strongest quake produced in recent history by the Wabash was a magnitude 5.3 in southern Illinois in 1968, but researchers have found evidence that 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, much stronger quakes shook the region, Kim said, as strong as magnitude 7.0 or more.

A similar quake is still possible, if the region is given time to build up enough energy, Kim said. But knowledge about the area is too thin to say whether that’s likely, he added. – msnbc

>Why You Make the Same Mistake Twice

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We sure do learn from our mistakes, but what we learn is how to make more mistakes, new research shows.

This seemingly counterintuitive idea comes from a study of a phenomenon called tip of the tongue (TOT), detailed in the most recent issue of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

A tip-of-the-tongue state occurs when your brain has accessed the correct word, but for some reason can’t retrieve the sound information for it. While the word-glitch can happen regardless of your vocabulary aptitude, researchers have found TOT happens more for bilinguals (they have more words to sift through), older people and individuals with brain damage.

“This can be incredibly frustrating — you know you know the word, but you just can’t quite get it,” said researcher Karin Humphreys of McMaster University in Ontario. “And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can’t imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do.”

The reason, she suggests, is that the time spent not remembering causes our brains to reinforce that “mistake pathway.”

“We know this is how the brain works — it reinforces whatever it does. So [the study results] completely make sense,” Humphreys told LiveScience. “But at the same time, it’s so counterintuitive to how we feel we should learn from all our mistakes.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue …

With funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Humphreys and McMaster University colleague Amy Beth Warriner tested word-retrieval in 30 undergraduate students.

The students were offered a series of definitions and had to indicate whether they knew the answer, didn’t know it, or if the answer was at the tip of his or her tongue. If a student answered TOT, he or she spent either 10 seconds or 30 seconds trying to come up with the word before getting the answer. Two days later, students completed the same word-retrieval test with the same definitions.

Students tended to report TOT for the same words that twisted their tongues in the first test. Those who were given 30-second stints to retrieve the words in past tests were even more likely to get stuck again.

Mistake begets mistake

The period in which people continue to rack their brains for the answer could be referred to as “error learning,” Humphreys said. “You’ll keep on digging yourself the wrong pathway, you either have 10 seconds worth of that extra bad learning or you have 30 seconds worth of that extra bad learning.”

In a follow-up study, the researchers found the best way to tackle mistake-learning is to repeat the word (out loud or in your head) once you find the correct answer. And instead of trying to recall the elusive word, stop and ask a colleague or look it up on the Web.

The findings should apply to other situations, including music and sports. “Music teachers know this principle; they tell you to practice slowly,” Humphreys said. “If you practice fast, you’ll just practice your mistakes.” – livesci

This is the basis of my disagreement with Freudian Analysis. You get good at what you practice. Don’t practice memories of past bad experiences, practice new healthy thoughts.

>Skydiver trains for space jump

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Steve Truglia, a former special forces solider turned stuntman, is training for a death-defying jump he’ll make later this year from the upper stratosphere.

Truglia plans to do two jumps from heights up to 120,000, more than 20 miles above the surface of the earth. – Reuters (with video)