Black Plants Could Grow on Exoplanets With Two Suns

Gliese 667 is a triple-star system with planets thought to be close in mass to our Earth

The flora may be black on distant planets orbiting dimmer stars.  Plants on distant hospitable planets could have developed black foliage and flowers to survive, according to a new study. Flora that would appear black or grey to human eyes could have evolved on planets orbiting dim "red dwarf" stars, according to unpublished research that is being presented at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.
This would enable plants to absorb more light to photosynthesise, using their star's light to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds.


Jack O'Malley-James, a PhD student and astrobiologist, focused on multiple star systems thought to be common throughout the universe. He used models for star systems with two or three stars with various combinations of Sun-like and red dwarf stars. He then added planets to these models, orbiting around one or more of the stars.

The research presumes first that plant life similar to that on Earth could evolve on an exoplanet in the "habitable zone" around its star - which is not a given, but the odds of which are difficult to estimate.
The idea then is that photosynthesis there would resemble that seen on our own planet, whereby plants use energy from the Sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and organic compounds, such as sugars. Flora on those planets would have to adapt to very different light conditions in order to photosynthesise.

"If a planet were found in a system with two or more stars, there would potentially be multiple sources of energy available to drive photosynthesis," said O'Malley-James. "The temperature of a star determines its colour and, hence, the colour of light used for photosynthesis. Depending on the colours of their starlight, plants would evolve very differently."

Gliese 667 is a triple-star system with planets thought to be close in mass to our Earth If a planet's light source comes primarily from a red dwarf, then O'Malley-James believes any possible plant life could be black or grey - but there are other outcomes which are more exotic still. One possible scenario is a hospitable planet that receives light from both a red dwarf and a more distant Sun-like star.  This could lead to two tiers of plantlife populating the same planet - plants using light from the Sun-like star which may be brighter in colour, and a second, darker array of plants using light from the red dwarf.

"Plants with dim red dwarf suns, for example, may appear black to our eyes, absorbing across the entire visible wavelength range in order to use as much of the available light as possible," said Mr O'Malley-James.
"They may also be able to use infrared or ultraviolet radiation to drive photosynthesis. For planets orbiting two stars like our own, harmful radiation from intense stellar flares could lead to plants that develop their own UV-blocking sun-screens."

Have Oman and Qatar Escaped the Arab Revolts?

Protestors camp outside Oman's Consultive Assembly demanding jobs

Student journalists launching a paper in Oman are happy there is more press freedom already

After revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings in Yemen and Syria, and serious unrest in the Gulf state of Bahrain, The World Tonight's Robin Lustig reports from Oman and Qatar on whether it is likely there could be more revolts there.

Usually when you see the word Oman, it is preceded by the word "sleepy".  It lies on the south-eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, and for centuries it has been valued for its strategic location at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.  But over the past few weeks, Oman has been stirring from its slumber.

In late February, at least two people were killed during clashes in the city of Sohar between security forces and protesters demanding more jobs. "Oman's stability was always just a cover," says activist Basma al-Kiyumi.  She gives credit to the country's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, for having responded promptly to protesters' demands, but says his words must now be followed by actions.
"Oman," she says, "is still a bomb waiting to explode."

Unemployment is relatively high in Oman, which has only limited oil reserves and is one of the poorest of the oil-producing countries.  Outside the Majlis al-Shura, the consultative assembly, there is a permanent encampment of protesters demanding jobs. They say they will not budge until their demands are met.
Sultan Qaboos has ruled as an absolute monarch for the past 40 years.  He has a reputation as a pro-Western reformer who introduced paved roads, schools and hospitals into what had been a remote and seriously under-developed nation.  But he is now facing unprecedented challenges from the streets as a direct result of the wave of uprisings that has swept through the region.

At Sultan Qaboos university, the country's only publicly-funded university,  students are celebrating the launch of Oman's first student newspaper.  "Just within the past few weeks, we've seen much more press freedom," one of them reports. "You can write things about ministers that never used to be said publicly. There really has been a big change."  The Sultan has been credited with reacting speedily to the protests in February and March.  "If you have everything you need, who needs democracy?”say the students.

He sacked 12 of his ministers, increased the minimum wage, and promised to create 50,000 new jobs.
His richer Gulf neighbours are providing cash to help him - after all, none of them wants to see chaos in a country where, because about 40% of all the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, stability is so vital to their own wealth.

As soon as you mention wealth you think of Qatar, a tiny pinprick of a country half way up the Gulf, sticking out like a thumb from the Arabian peninsula, and now reckoned to be the richest country in the world.
Its total population is around 1.6m, but of those, only about 250,000 are Qatari. The rest are foreign workers who keep the place going, build its gleaming high-rise offices and hotels, and staff its service industries.
Qatar is awash in oil and natural gas, and if you ask why there have been no protests in Qatar, the answer you get is: "Because there's no reason to protest." On the other hand, even if jobs are not a problem in a country with an economic growth rate approaching 20% a year, Qatar is still an absolute monarchy, with a ruler, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose family have run the place since the mid-1800s.

So why are Qataris not demanding democracy, in the same way as so many others are elsewhere in the Arab world? "Brand Qatar" is recognised as its strategy of spending wisely and giving generously The repl yyou get from a Qatari student is simple enough: "If you have everything you need, who needs democracy?" But wouldn't they at least like a public debate over the Emir's decision to send Qatari warplanes to join the Nato-led military operation in Libya?  There is no need, they say, because just about everyone agrees that it is right for Qatar to help fellow-Arabs in their hour of need.
As for the paradox of a country with no semblance of democracy sending warplanes to help people fighting for democracy thousands of miles away - there's no paradox at all, they believe. The involvement in Libya is simply designed to help save lives. It has nothing to do with democracy.

Qatar prides itself on its ability to make friends (how many countries can you think of who manage to remain on good terms with both the US and Iran?).  "Brand Qatar" is what some people call it - spend wisely, give generously, and keep your name in the public eye.

And if it helps you to win the right to host the World Cup football tournament in 2022, well, no-one in Qatar is complaining

Largest Fossil Spider Found In Volcanic Ash

The largest fossil spider uncovered to date once ensnared prey back in the age of dinosaurs , scientists find.

The spider, Named Nephila Jurassica , was discovered buried in ancient volcanic ash in inner Mongolia, China . Tufts of hairlike fibers seen on its legs showed this 165-million-year-old arachnid to be the oldest known species of the  largest web-weaving spiders  alive today  ... the golden orb  weavers , or Nephila , which are big enough to catch birds and bats , and use silk that shines like gold in the sunlight.

The fossil was about as large as its modern relatives , with a body one inch (2.5 centimeters) wide and legs that reach up to 2.5 inches (6.3) long . Golden orb-weavers nowadays are mainly tropical creatures , so the ancient environment of Nephila  juassica probably was similarly lush .

"It would have lived , like today's Nephila  , in its orb web of golden silk in a clearing in a forest or more likely at the edge of a forest close to the  lake," says researcher Paul Selden , director of the Paleontological Institute at the University  of Kansas , told LiveScience . "There would have been volcanoes nearby producing the ash that forms the lake sediment it is entombed within."

Spiders are the most numerous predators on land today , and help keep insect-spider  predator-prey relationship," Selden said , suggesting that golden  orb-weavers  have  been ensnaring insects and influencing their evolution since the Jurassic  Period.

"There were many large or medium-sized flying insects around at that time on which it would have fed indiscriminately," Selden said.

In Modern golden orb-weavers species , females  are typically much larger than males . This new fossil was a female, suggesting this trend stretches back at laest as far as the Middle Jurassic , Selden said ... that is , back before the first known bird , Archaeopteryx , or giant dinosaurs  such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus.

Although this is the largest fossil spider known to date , it is not the oldest . Two species from Cosely, England , Eocteniza silvicola and Protocteniza britannica , both come from about  310 million years ago.

Selden and his colleagues are now investigating other  fossil spiders  from China , "as well as those from elsewhere in the world ... currently Brazil , New Zealand , Australia , Italy  and Korea," he said.

Robots Report Radiation Readings at Fukishima Too High for Workers

Earthquake and tsunami left Japan with unparallelled devastation

Plant workers have accepted that this is probably a suicide mission

Robot made in Bedford Massachusetts by iRobot

These sturdier robots are also used in the damaged nuclear plant

Creepy spider robots are also used at the plant in hard to get to places

TOKYO - A pair of robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside Japan's crippled nuclear reactor came back Monday with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside. Nevertheless, officials remained hopeful they can stick to their freshly minted "roadmap" for cleaning up the radiation leak and stabilizing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant by year's end so they can begin returning tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.

"Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I'm sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.)  other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the roadmap," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Officials said Monday that radiation had spiked in a water tank in Unit 2 and contaminated water was discovered in other areas of the plant, underscoring the growing list of challenges facing TEPCO in cleaning up and containing the radiation. They also described in more detail the damage to fuel in three troubled reactors, saying pellets had melted.

Angry at the slow response to the nuclear crisis and to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that caused it, lawmakers tore into Prime Minister Naoto Kan. "You should be bowing your head in apology. You clearly have no leadership at all," Masashi Waki, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, shouted at Kan.
"I am sincerely apologizing for what has happened," Kan said, stressing the government was doing all it could to handle the unprecedented disasters. TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu, appeared ill at ease as lawmakers heckled and taunted him.

Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the stricken plant since the first days after the cooling systems were wrecked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 27,000 people dead or missing. Hydrogen explosions in both buildings in the first few days destroyed their roofs and scattered radioactive debris.
On Sunday, a plant worker opened an outer door to one of the buildings and two Packbots, which resemble drafting lamps on tank-like treads, entered. After the worker closed the door, one robot opened an inner door and both rolled inside to take readings for temperature, pressure and radioactivity. They later entered a second building. The robots reported radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1 and up to 57 inside Unit 3, levels too high for workers to realistically enter.
"It's a harsh environment for humans to work inside," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Japanese authorities more than doubled the legal limit for nuclear workers since the crisis began to 250 millisieverts a year. Workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

The robots, made by Bedford, Massachusetts, company iRobot, which also makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner, explored Unit 2 on Monday, but TEPCO officials had yet to analyze that data.

The radioactivity must be reduced, possibly with the removal of contaminated debris and stagnant water, before repair crews would be allowed inside, said NISA official Masataka Yoshizawa.
Sturdier robots can remove some of the debris, but workers are needed to test the integrity of the equipment and carry out electrical repairs needed to restore the cooling systems as called for in the road map, Yoshizawa said.

"What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings," TEPCO official Takeshi Makigami said. The robots, along with remote-controlled miniature drones, have enabled TEPCO to photograph and take measurements of conditions in and around the plant while minimizing workers' exposure to radiation and other hazards.
Separately, readings from a water tank attached to the spent fuel pool in Unit 2 showed a severe spike in radiation that NISA officials said might have been caused by the escape of radioactive vapour from a nearby containment vessel. They said, however, the possibility of damage to spent fuel rods could not be ruled out.

NISA also sent a report to the government watchdog Nuclear Safety Commission, saying that some fuel pellets and rods in the reactors in Units 1, 2 and 3 had become overheated and melted, the first time it had provided details of the damage to the fuel. Nishiyama, said the agency can only say "more than 3 per cent" of the fuel rods have melted.  A pool of stagnant radioactive water was also discovered in the basement of Unit 4.

With evacuees' ordeal stretching into the long-term, some began moving out of school gymnasiums into temporary housing. Hundreds who have not found apartments or relatives to take them in began filling up inns at hot springs. The evacuation will continue for at least another four months, according to the Japanese Government.

Mystery Illnesses Plague Louisiana Oil Spill Crews

Raceland, Louisiana : Jamie Simon worked on a barge in the oily waters for six months following the BP spill last year , cooking for the cleanup workers , washing their clothes  and tidying up after them.

One year later , the 32-year-old said she  still suffers from a range of debilitating health problems , including raceing heartbeat , vomiting , dizziness , ear infections , swollen throat , poor sight in one eye and memory loss.

Jamie blames toxic elements in the crude oil and the dispersants sprayed to dissolve it after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig  exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles (80 kilmeters) off the coast of Louisisna on April 20, 2010.

"I was exposed to those chemicals , which I question , and they told me it was just as safe as Dawn dishwashing  liquid and there was nothing for me to worry about ," she said of the BP bosses at the job site.

 The local doctor , Mike Robichaux , said he has seen as many as 60 patients like Simon in recent weeks , as this small town of 10,000 b ordered by swamp and sugar-cane fields grapples with a mysterious sickness that some believ e is all BP's fault.

Andy LeBoeuf, 51, said he was paid $1,500 per day to use his boat to go out on the water and lay boom to contain some of the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spewed from the bottom of the ocean after the BP well ruptured. But four months on the job left him ill and unable to work , and he said he recently had to refinance his home loan because he could not pay his taxes. "I have been sick for a long time , I just got sick  and couldn't get better ," LaBoeuf said , describing memory problems and a sore throat  that has nagged him for over a year.

Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist whose office an  hour's drive southwest of New Orleans is nestled on a roadside marked with Handwritten signs advertising turtle meat for sale , saying he is treating many local patients in  their homes ."Their work ethic is so strong , they are so stoic , they don't want people to know when they are sick,"he said. "Ninety percent of them are getting worse ... nobody has a clue as to what it is."

According to a roster complied by the National Insititute for Occupational Safety and Health , a total of 52,000  workers were responding to the Gulf oil spill as of August 2010.The state of Louisiana has reported 415 cases of health problems linked to the spill , with symptoms  including sore throats, irritated eyes , respiratory tract infections , headaches and nauses. But Bernard Goldstein, an  environmental toxicologist and professor of the University of Pittsburg, said the US government's method of collecting health data on workers is flawed.

For instance, a major study of response workers  by the National Insititute of Environmental Health Sciences was not funded until six months after the spill, a critical delay that affects both the biology and the recall ability of the workers . "It's to late if you go  six months later," he told AFP.

Benzene , a known carcinogen present in crude oil , disappears from a person's blood within four months, Goldstein said. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAHs , are pollutants that can cause genetic mutations and cancer. They are of particular interest in studying long-term health , but without a baseline for comparison it is difficult to know  where they came from ... the oil spill or somewhere  else in the environment . "They last in the body for a longer period of time  but they also get confounded by, if you will, obscured by other sources  of PAHs ," like eating barbeque meat or smoking cigarettes, said Goldstein.

Local chemist Wilma Subra has been helping test people's blood for volatile solvents , and said levels of benzene among clean-up workers , divers, fishermen  and crabbers are as high as 36 times that of the general population. "As the event progresses we are seeing more and more people who are desperately ill ," she said.

"Clearly it is showing that this is ongoing exposure," Subra said , noting that pathways include contact with the skin, eating contaminated seafood or breathing polluted air. "We have been asking the federal agencies to please provide medical care from physicians who are trained in toxic exposure." She said she has received no response.

Asked for comment , BP said in an e-mail that"protection of response workers was a top priority " and that it had conducted "extensive monitoring of response workers " in coordination with several government agencies.  "Illness and injury reports were tracted and documented  during the response , and the medical data indicate they did not differ appreciably from what would be expected among a workforce of this size under normal circumstances ," it added.

Any compensation for sick workers would fall under state law , and "BP does not make these determinations , which must be supported by acceptable medical evidence."

Jamie Simon says her way of life has been completely altered .She says she takes pain relievers every day just to function. A  couple of weeks ago, she read in a local newspaper that other ex-cleanup workers were feeling sick too, and her grandmother urged her to see a doctor . "I never put the two together , I am just realizing that this is possibly related , she said.

Stay tune:  Updates as the become available

Obamas Earned $1.7 million.....Paid $454,000 Federal Taxes

President  Obama and his First Lady, Michelle, reported income of more than $1.7 million for last year, much of it from the sale of the president's pre-presidency books. They paid federal taxes totaling just under $454,000.
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Genie Jokes

A guy is walking along the shoreline at the beach wearing just a pair of cutoff jeans. Sure enough he kicks up a bottle, pulls the cork, and out comes the Genie to give him one wish.

He pulls out a map of the Middle East, and asks the Genie if he can bring Peace to this part of the World. The Genie pales, and says, "Master, these people have been at war since time began. It is their nature, woven  into the very fabric of their lives. What you ask is totally impossible. It is probably the only wish I cannot grant you. Ask for anything else and I will make it happen."

"Okay", the guy says. "Tomorrow morning have my wife awaken me, with the best blow job I've ever had, on her own, without my begging and pleading - just because she likes it, because she wants to, and because it turns her on."

The Genie shakes his head and says, "Let me see that map again!

A guy walks into a tavern. As he walked up to the bar he noticed a twelve-inch man playing the piano, so he asked the bartender, "What's that all about?"

The bartender told him he that would tell him later. So the guy asked the bartender for a drink. The bartender said, "Before you get your drink, you get to rub the magic beer bottle and make one wish."

"Okay," said the guy. He went over to the magic beer bottle and rubbed it. Poof. Out came a genie. The genie, of course, said, "You have one wish."

The guy thought about it and then wished for a million bucks. A cloud of smoke filled the room, and then both the genie and the guy disappeared. In a few minutes, the guy reappeared back in the bar with a million ducks all around him.

The guy was astounded and said to the bartender, "Hey! I didn't want a million ducks." The bartender replied, "Do you think I wanted a twelve-inch Pianist?"

A guy goes into this bar, sits down and orders a drink. While waiting, he sees a guy sitting at the bar who has a very big muscular body but a little tiny head. So, he asks the guy, "How is it that you have such a huge body and a small head?"
The guy replied, "I was walking along the beach one day and I came across this bottle buried halfway in the sand. So I picked it up, brushed away the sand, and out popped this fine female genie. She said she would grant me three wishes for releasing her."

"For my first wish, I asked for ten-million dollars, and POOF right there on the sand was $10,000,00."
"For my second wish, I asked for a luxury yacht, and POOF right there on the ocean was a 90-foot yacht."
"Finally for my third wish, I asked to have sex with the genie, but she said that genies were not allowed to indulge in those kind of activities." So, I said, " c'mon, how about a little head?"

A guy and his wife went to an expensive golf course. He said to his wife, "Be careful of the expensive houses around us. I don't know if we can afford to break a window." His wife tees off and breaks the biggest window of the most expensive looking house.

He said, "Oh no! We had better go ask how much it's gonna be." So he and his wife go up to the house and see the door open. They went inside and saw the golf ball laying next to a broken glass bottle. A man walks up and says, "Thank you!"
The husband said, "I'm sorry about the . . . " And the man interrupts, "Oh don't worry about the window. I have to thank you for getting me out of the bottle. You see, I'm a genie. So you get one wish and your wife  gets one, but, in return, you have to give me one."
The husband asks for $100 million. The genie says, "Done." The wife asks for 80 exotic sports cars. Genie says, "Done. Now, my wish is to have sex with your wife because, you know, I've been trapped in that bottle for so long."
 They agreed, since their extravagant wishes had been granted. And so the genie has sex with the man's wife, not just once but many times. When they're done, the genie asks the wife, "How old is your husband?"

She answers, "33." And, the man said, "And he still believes in genies?"

A man stumbles across an old lamp while he was at his attorney's office. Figuring his luck has to change, he rubs the lamp and out pops a genie. The genie explains to him that he gets three wishes, and whatever he wishes for, his wife gets double.
The man asks for his first wish. "The first thing I want is a million dollars."
The genie says, "Okay, but you know that your wife gets two million."

The man said, "That's okay. My second wish is for a large house on a remote tropical paradise."
The genie says, "Then your wife will have two beautiful houses."

The man replied, "That's fine. Now for my third wish. I want you to beat me half to death."

After a recent football game, the team went into the locker room to get out of their uniforms and to shower. In the showers, Bubba noticed that Duke has a cork shoved up his butt-hole. So, Bubba asked, "Duke, why in the world do you have a cork up your butt?"
Duke answered, "Last night when I was cleaning my antique brass lamps, a genie came out of one of them. The genie said that I had one wish. I was really startled and I replied, "No shit!"

Two guys narrowly escaped from a sinking ship on a life raft and discovered a magic lamp tucked away in a dark cranny. Figuring what the hell, one of the men gave the lamp a rub and "poof," a cloud of smoke. A second later, a genie appeared and said, "I will grant each of you one wish."
After thinking a while, the first man turned to the genie and said, "I wish I were floating on an ocean of beer." The genie granted the man's wish and disappeared.

The man's companion turned to him and said, "Way to go idiot. Now we have to pee in the boat."

One day a fellow came into the bar with a cat, not just any cat, but a mean-looking ginger tom. You could see the scars from across the room. But that wasn't the weirdest thing; a six foot ostrich  - eyes like golf balls, followed them in -  a real live ostrich!

I asked the man what he wanted. "I'll have a pint of bitter," he said. "A pint of lager for the ostrich and a gin and tonic for the cat." The cat hissed at him. "Make that a double gin and tonic. Thanks."

Well, I served the drinks, he paid, and they all knocked 'em back. Wasn't long before the ostrich came back to the bar, and made it clear that it wanted the same again. Well I poured them. I could feel the cat's eyes burning through me, as if he was checking that he got his double again. I took the drinks over to them, and the man paid, taking the cash from a purse tied around the ostrich's neck.

This went on for a couple of hours. The man and the ostrich buying alternate rounds, while the cat just sat on the window shelf with his drink, looking fit to kill.

The whole place got quiet. People sat and stared, and who could blame them? Eventually, I plucked up the courage to ask the fellow just what was going on.
"Can't a man have a quiet drink anymore?" he rasped. So I said, "No harm meant, but you've got to admit that you're a unique set of drinkers. He smiled, but there was no light in that smile. "Okay, you want to know? I'll tell you."
"I was across town the other week, working on the new road.  Amid the dirt and the rubble I turned up this old brass lamp. I rubbed it, thinking there might be a date or inscription or something. Anyway, out comes this cloud of smoke and a Genie appeared. You know - turban, scimitar, and the whole works. And he tells me I've got just one wish."

"And before you ask, yes, I did wish for a long-legged bird with a tight pussy. But this wasn't what I had in mind."

A nursing assistant was doing a little cleaning on a quiet afternoon. She was polishing the old brass lamp that an old lady had donated to the ward in gratitude for the fine care she had received there.
One of the floor nurses and the head nurse were nearby as the lamp suddenly produced a cloud of dark smoke, from which stepped a lady dressed in nineteenth-century nurses' uniform.

"I am Gina the Gray Lady of the Lamp," she said. "I am so pleased with the way you have taken care of my previous owner that I will now grant you three wishes." With a wave of her hand and a puff of smoke, the room was filled with flowers, fruit, and bottles of fine wine, proving that she did have the power to grant wishes - before any of the nurses could think otherwise.

Speaking up, the nursing assistant wished first. "I wish I were on a tropical island beach, with a single, well-built man feeding me fruit and tending to my every need." With a puff of smoke, she was gone.

The floor nurse went next. "I wish I were rich, retired, and spending my days in my own warm cabin at a ski resort with a well-groomed man feeding me cocoa and doughnuts." With a puff of smoke the floor nurse was gone.
"Now what is the last wish?" asked the lady. The head nurse said, "I want those two back on the floor at the end of their lunch break."