Chareidio News

Oil Supplies Cut Iran Ties

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:11:29 -0500

Responding to vigorous US pressure, three of the world's largest oil suppliers- Holland-based Vitol, Switzerland's Glencore and Trafigura, have cut business ties with Iran. The three companies, which provide the Islamic Republic with 50 percent of its refined oil, made the move prompted by concerns that trading opportunities with America and its allies would suffer unless they abided by the US request. One-third of Iran's refined oil comes from China, an amount likely to increase because of western sanctions. View More Stories

500 Dead in Nigerian Ethnic Clashes

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:11:31 -0500

Nigerian Muslims armed with machetes went on the rampage in the village of Dogon Na Hauwa, and outlining areas, attacking and killing at least 500 Christians living there. The violence was reportedly prompted by the killing of some 150 Muslims during Christian rioting that took place in January, and which virtually wiped out the Muslim village of Kuru Karama. View More Stories

Agreement for Indirect Middle East Peace Talks

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:11:33 -0500

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have accepted US-brokered indirect talks and are discussing the structure and scope of those talks, to be held under the guidance of American special envoy George Mitchell. View More Stories

Land Shifts in Chile Earthquake

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:11:35 -0500

The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the west coast of Chile last month apparently moved the entire city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west, and shifted other parts of South America as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina moved about one inch to the west, and Chile's capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches to the west-southwest. The February Chilean quake occurred where the oceanic Nazca tectonic plate subducted below the adjacent South American plate, to relieve pent-up geologic pressure. View More Stories

Earth Days Shortened by Chile Quake

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:53:29 -0500

The Feb. 27th magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile last Saturday may have shortened the length of each Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one-millionth of a second.) JPL researcher Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake using a complex model. According to his calculations, the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds, which is equivalent to about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). By comparison, Dr. Gross said the same model estimated the 2004 9.1 magnitude Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the length of each day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth's axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds, which is about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches). According to Benjamin Fong Chao of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation. Filling the gigantic Three Gorges Dam in China, for example, would theoretically lengthen the day by about 60 billionths of a second, and the moon's gravitational influence results in a net lengthening of the day by a little more than two thousandths of a second per day every century. View More Stories

Touted Darwinian Fossil Refuted

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:53:31 -0500

A fossil that was grandly celebrated last year by scientists as the 'missing link' between humans and primates is actually an ancestor of modern-day lemurs and lorises, and has nothing at all to do with humans, according to research presented at The University of Texas at Austin. Published in the current edition of the Journal of Human Evolution, the academicians refute a much-publicized article on the fossil Darwinius, which was widely publicized last spring- issued in conjunction with a book, a History TV Channel documentary and an exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History, touting the now-disputed 'missing-link' characteristics of the ancient relic. At the time, many anthropologists were skeptical and began writing their responses such as the one published this month. View More Stories

Research: Learning Promotes Brain Health

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:56:18 -0500

Researchers at the University of Irvine, California have provided the first visual evidence that learning promotes health of the brain, and that mental stimulation may limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind. Using a novel visualization technique, the academicians found that learning animates neuron receptors which facilitates the growth and differentiation of the connections, or synapses, responsible for communication among neurons. In addition to discovering that brain activity sets off this chain reaction, the team also determined that this process is linked to learning-related brain rhythms, called theta rhythms, vital to the encoding of new memories. Theta rhythms, which occur in the hippocampus of the limbic region of the brain, involve numerous neurons firing synchronously at a rate of three to eight times per second, and are associated with long-term potentiation- a cellular mechanism underlying learning and memory. Say the academicians, it may be possible to artificially promote brain signaling with drugs designed for that purpose. View More Stories