AP - The moon may be shrinking.Not to worry though, lovers and crooners, it won't be disappearing any time soon.
New research indicates cracks in the moon's crust that have formed as the interior has cooled and shrunk over the last billion years or so. That means the surface has shrunk, too, though not so you'd notice just from gazing at it.
Scientists have identified 14 landforms called lobate scarps scattered over the surface of the moon, explained Thomas R. Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
Watters and colleagues describe their find in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The scarps had previously been noted at the moon's equator, but this is the first evidence in other areas, indicating they result from a global process.
The study calls the scarps "evidence of recent thrust faulting on the moon." But this is planetary science, where "recent" can mean a billion years ago.
The scarps, or cliffs, extend across some small craters, and small craters tend to be obliterated over time, Watters explained in a telephone interview. In addition, there are no large craters imposed on top of the scarps, another indication they are relatively recent, in planetary terms, he said.
"One of the really cool parts of this ... the faults are so young-looking that you can't escape the possibility that this contraction occurred recently, and could indicate that the moon is still active," Watters said.
The size of the scarps indicates a shrinkage in the size of the moon of about 100 meters (328 feet), which wouldn't be nearly enough to be noticed with the naked eye. The moon is about one-fourth the size of the Earth in diameter.
The scarps range up to 10 meters (a little over 30 feet) high and a few kilometers long, he said. By comparison, the planet Mercury has much larger scarps indicating considerably more shrinkage over time.
The moon's not going to disappear and its shrinkage won't affect the Earth in any way, Watters stressed.
**********
Kissing Bugs...Nasty Little Insects That Bite Your Lips
fishinsects - Triatoma infestans is one of the Kissing Bugs. Like the ticks, these bugs can carry human diseases. T.infestans is the most important carrier of Chaga’s disease in South America.What happens is that the bug gets infected with the parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi) when he sucks blood from an infected person, and then passes it on when he bites a new victim. The parasite is actually passed out with the bug’s faeces, and then it creeps into the wound which is usually on the lips. Soon after infection there is a chronic reaction, typically with swelling around the lips, and then the disease lays dormant for several years. The later, chronic, stage of the disease is very serious. There is often severe heart damage, and while the disease can be treated just after infection, the chronic disease remains incurable. Even heart transplants don’t seem to work because the parasite just takes advantage of the lowered immune system, reproduces like mad, and then starts doing damage all over again!
Charles Darwin ( famous for his views on evolution ) probably caught Chaga’s Disease when he was bitten by “a great black bug of the pampas” while on his famous voyage round the world in the ‘Beagle’. It is possible to get a vaccination before going to places where the disease is endemic (parts of South America), and you can also use mosquito nets. The worrying thing is that for every one adult flying down to ‘get’ you there will be five young ones crawling up! And that’s not all one has young that camouflage themselves, so that you can end up carrying them into the house with the firewood.
Kissing Bugs are members of the Assassin Bug and Wheel Bug family of insects (Reduviidae). They have been found preserved in Amber - (Assassin Bug in Colombian Amber). Most Assassin Bugs kill insects so they can be very helpful to man, often killing agricultural and garden pests, and sometimes more directly (such as the ‘Masked Hunter’ who kills bedbugs!). Wheel Bugs are among the many bugs kept as pets by some people who feed them mealworms. They look very unusual but they can give a very nasty bite, so I don’t think I’ll go any further than keeping Silverfish myself!
***********
India Couple Sacrifices 4-Year-Old Daughter To 'Attain Wealth'
indiatimes - A poverty-stricken couple in an Uttar Pradesh village allegedly killed their four-year-old daughter after a self-proclaimed godman assured them that the act would attain them affluence, police said Wednesday.
Shri Krishna and his wife Rama Devi are absconding. The body of their daughter Kanni was recovered late Tuesday evening from their house in Sitapur district's Dahelikushepa village, some 80 km from Lucknow.
"Investigations reveal it is a case of human sacrifice. Flowers, packets of sindoor (vermillion), incense sticks and other 'puja' items were recovered from near the girl's body," police inspector Rajveer Singh told reporters in Sitapur.
"The body, which was found buried in the courtyard, had multiple burn injuries. It appeared that the girl was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination," he added.
The couple killed their daughter under the influence of a 'tantrik', Shiv Kumar, who too is absconding.
Villagers, who noticed Shiv Kumar entering the couple's house Tuesday morning, informed the police after they heard Kanni's screams.
"They managed to escape. The same 'tantrik' had also suggested other families to go for a child sacrifice in order to get rid of their poverty," the police inspector said.
"Locals said Shri Krishna and his wife believed they would attain affluence overnight with the ways suggested by Shiv Kumar," he added.
**********
Raelians' 'Go Topless' Day
myfoxspokane - Sunday is "Go Topless" Day, with women (and men) gathering in U.S. cities to advance a woman's right to go shirtless, just like men.
"As long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest," Maitreya, Rael, "spiritual leader" and founder of Go Topless , the group behind Sunday's annual event, says on the group's website.
In case you are wondering:
• No, there is no PG version of Sunday's event.
• Women do wear nipple covers that look like actual nipples.
• They also wear little more than strategically placed stickers.
• And guys? Male supporters wear bras and bikinis.
The annual event is held on the Sunday nearest to Aug. 26, the date in 1920 when the U.S. Constitution was amended to grant women the right to vote. Also, Congress in 1970 declared Aug. 26 "Women's Equality Day."
Major cities taking part include: San Francisco; New York; Austin, Texas ; Los Angeles; Denver; Seattle; Miami, and Chicago .
Go Topless was founded by the Raelian Movement, which believes that life on Earth was created by advanced extraterrestrial scientists, states the group's website.
For supporters of the topless cause, a woman's breasts should not be treated any different than her legs, belly button or other body parts than can be exposed without hassle.
"It's a matter of fairness," Go Topless director Nadine Gary told AOL News . "We want equal topless rights for all or none."
Gary, a native of France, which tolerates topless women in public, wants the issue to become law, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
She said the goal is also to establish clarity in what's allowed. Gary noted that a woman arrested in New York for going topless in public was later awarded $29,000 for wrongful arrest.
**********
Japanese Man Kept Dead Mother in a Backpack
BBC - The remains of a Japanese woman have been found in a backpack, in the latest gruesome discovery by investigators searching for missing old people.
The woman's son told police his mother died in 2001 but he had not been able to pay for a burial.
A similar discovery weeks ago sparked a search for people who are registered as being more than 100 years old.
According to Japanese media, the audit has so far identified 281 centenarians who are missing or have already died.
The inquiry followed the discovery last month of the mummified remains of a man registered as being 111 years old. He had died 30 years earlier.
Those unaccounted for include a 125-year-old woman whose registered address was turned into a park in 1981, according to media reports.
In the latest find, a 64-year-old man told officials that his mother had died at home in Tokyo in "about June 2001".
"Because I didn't have money for a funeral, I didn't report her death," the Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted him as saying.
The AFP news agency reported that he told police: "I laid out her body for a while, washed it in the bath, then broke up the bones and put them into a backpack."
But the woman's pension continued to be paid and police are now investigating the son on suspicion of fraud.
There are more than 40,000 registered centenarians in Japan, according to government data, but the number of missing has raised concerns that the welfare system is being exploited by dishonest relatives.
Analysts say there is dismay in Japan that a rich, efficient society could have lost track of its senior citizens to such a degree.
Fortean / Oddball News - 8/21/2010
