dailymail - Stephen Hawking has warned that unless the human race colonizes space within the next two centuries it will disappear forever.The famous astrophysicist says that our only chance for long-term survival is to move away from Earth and begin to inhabit new planets.
In an interview with website Big Think, Hawking said he was an ‘optimist’ but the next few hundred years had to be negotiated carefully if the human race is to survive.
He said: 'I see great danger for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 is one of these.
‘The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully.’
‘But I am an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries our species should be safe as we spread into space.’
Earlier this year, Hawking warned that humans should be wary about trying to make contact with other alien lifeforms in space as we could not be sure that they would be friendly.
‘If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy we should make sure we survive and continue.’
But he warned that mankind was entering ‘an increasingly dangerous period of our history’.
‘Our population and use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially along with our technical ability to change the environment for good and ill,’ he said.
‘But our genetic code carries selfish and aggressive instincts that were a survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next 100 years let alone the next thousand or a million.
‘Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain on planet Earth but to spread into space.
'We have made remarkable progress in the last 100 years but if we want to continue beyond the next 100 years our future is in space.'
That was why he is in favor of manned space flight, he said.
Earlier this year, Hawking he said that a spaceship capable of traveling through time - but only forwards - would breach Albert Einstein's theories of relativity.
This means that humans might one day be able to use time travel to skip generations into the future.
Having taken six years to reach its full speed of 98 per cent of the speed of light (650million miles per hour), a day on board the ship would be equivalent to a year on Earth, he said, allowing those on board to reach the edge of the galaxy in just 80 years.
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More Horror In China...Female Babies Develop Breasts
dailymail - Female babies in China have grown breasts after they were given milk laced with hormones.
The horrifying scenes have caused uproar among parents in central China, who fear that the milk powder they used had led to the premature developments.
The official China Daily newspaper reported today that medical tests indicated that the level of hormones in three 'test case' girls, ranging in age from four months to 15 months, exceeded those found in the average adult woman.
All the babies who showed symptoms of the phenomenon were fed the same baby formula.
'The amount of hormones in the babies definitely means there's a problem,' said Mr Yang Qin, chief physician in the child care department at the Hubei Maternity and Children's Hospital.
He urged parents to stop using the formula and insisted that the milk powder be subjected to chemical analysis.
But his suggestion has come up against red tape.
Local food safety authorities have refused one mother's request to investigate the formula, made by the Synutra company, claiming they do not conduct tests when requested by consumers.
According to the Global Times newspaper the suspect baby formula is still being sold in the Hubei provincial capital, Wuhan, at discounted prices and is also on store shelves in Beijing.
Synutra insisted that its products were safe, claiming that 'no man-made hormones or any illegal substances were added during the production of the milk powder'.
As experts tried to pin down the source of the hormones that resulted in babies growing breasts, a dairy association said the hormones could have entered the food chain when farmers reared the cattle.
'Since a regulation forbidding the use of hormones to cultivate livestock has yet to be drawn up in China, it would be lying to say nobody uses it,' said Mr Wang Dingmian, the former chairman of the dairy association in the southern province of Guangdong.
Two years ago Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide after it was revealed that melamine, used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.
At least six infants died and 300,000 others fell sick as a result of the malamine additions, it was claimed.
Though...Girls in the West are Reaching Puberty Much Sooner
NOTE: maybe my theory that aliens could be mutated humans from the future isn't that crazy after all...Lon
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Man Sentenced for Murder After Seer Predicts Prison
themoscowtimes - A court in the Kemerovo region has sentenced a man to more than 20 years in prison for stabbing two people to death following a fortuneteller's prediction that he was destined for jail.
Last fall, on Oct. 8, Gennady Osipovich met with a Gypsy woman to have his future told. He became enraged when the self-proclaimed clairvoyant informed him that he was bound for a "kazyonny dom," or "state-sponsored house," a Russian slang term for prison, regional prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.
Osipovich proceeded to employ dubious logic, according to the prosecutors. In order to prevent this fortune from coming true, Osipovich tried to kill the woman. He pulled out a knife and stabbed her, though she managed to escape.
Tragically, two witnesses were unable to flee in time. Osipovich stabbed each of them repeatedly, and the victims died of the knife wounds, investigators said.
Prosecutors said Osipovich was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum security prison.
NOTE: there's a Greek tragedy in there somewhere...Lon
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Groom Accidentally Kills Father and Two Aunts at Wedding
newstime - A wedding in Gaziantep, Turkey ended disastrously after the groom killed his father and two of his aunts after opening fire into the air with a machine gun which is part of the usual celebrations. There were an additional 8 other relatives injured in the debacle that took place in the southeastern province of Turkey. The groom somehow lost control of the weapon and accidentally aimed it at guests occasioning the carnage described above.
The police then intervened and he was arrested on what should have been the happiest day of his life. Shooting into the air is traditional at weddings, circumcisions or sports victories in Turkey. This has led to criticism by opponents who point to the number of accidents as a result of stray bullets. Unfortunately for this groom that won’t be of much comfort to him following this disaster.
His conduct might well help others in the future as the Turkish government responds to the events. There are different kinds of wedding ceremonies in Turkey depending upon the social and economic status of the couples and their families. Those in the rural areas differ from the wedding ceremonies of urban areas. In the villages, the wedding ceremonies continue for two days. There are two separate wedding ceremonies, one in the home of the bride's family and one in the home of the groom's family.
The ceremonies start on Friday evening and finish on Sunday at noon when the groom's relatives take the bride from the home of the bride's family and bring her to the groom's home. After that, the groom's relatives and the bride's relatives have lunch together, and the bride and groom are left alone in their new home. Unfortunately in the case of the groom here, while he may have made it to Sunday, chances are that he won’t be home alone for many days to come.
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El Camino del Rey - The King's Little Pathway
Click for video
Located along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in the district of Málaga, Spain. There is a wire pinned into the wall that follows most of the walkway and can be used by people to latch onto as safety precaution, but it was not designated to carry much weight. The walkway was closed off in 2000 after 4 people died on it within a span of two years. Many travelers however find the way to get on El Caminito del Rey and get themselves the rush of walking on the most dangerous pathway in the world.
Fortean / Oddball News - 8/9/2010
