The solar wind is back down to 366.9 km/sec and the proton count dropped to 0.1. Interrupting days of quiet, sunspot AR1564 erupted on Saturday, Sept. 8th, producing an M1-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Obervatory (SDO) recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash. The 100-year Starship project that plans to transport humans beyond the solar system

 Project has received the backing of Bill Clinton, who is set to chair the project's symposium next week

 Non-profit scheme has already received funding after an initial seed investment by the US military By Mark Prigg PUBLISHED:10:04 EST, 6 September 2012| UPDATED:08:21 EST, 8 September 2012

A dramatic plan to transport humans beyond the solar system within 100 years today received the backing of former President Bill Clinton. The 100-year Starship project, which was set up with US military seed funding, plans to develop huge 'starships' to send humans far into space.

Next week it will meet to discuss the plans and begin the huge task. Project Daedalus, the first serious attempt to design a ship capable of travelling to the nearest stars. Weighing 50,000 tonnes, powered by nuclear fusion, travelling at 12% of the speed of light, the journey time would be close to 50 years.

It has already received large amounts of funding, and former President Bill Clinton has even stepped in to serve as the symposium's Honorary Chair.

In a statement, Clinton said: 'This important effort helps advance the knowledge and technologies required to explore space, all while generating the necessary tools that enhance our quality of life on earth.'

The astronuat who became the first black woman in space in 1992 has been chosen to skipper the '100 Year Starship' project. Mae Jemison will lead the project to explore what it would take for a multigenerational mission beyond the solar system.

'The 100 Year Starship will make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system to another star a reality over the next 100 years,' she said.

The massive craft needed to escape our solar system next to St Pauls cathedral

PROJECT DAEDALUS Conceived by the British Interplanetary society, Project Daedalus was a thirteen member volunteer engineering design study conducted between 1973 and 1978, to demonstrate that Interstellar travel is feasible in theory.

The basis of this belief was the demonstration of a credible engineering design just at the outset of the space age that could in theory, cross the interstellar distances.

Project Daedalus demonstrated that with current, and near future, technology, interstellar travel is feasible.

'We will embark on a journey across time and space.

'If my language is dramatic, it is because this project is monumental.

And our team is both invigorated and sobered by the confidence DARPA has in us to make interstellar flight a reality.'

The project began with an award by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of a $500,000 contract to study what is needed for long term projects such as interstellar space missions.

The group has teamed with Icarus Interstellar and the Foundation for Enterprise Development.

Adam Crowl, director of Icarus Interstellar, said: 'Project Icarus will be producing designs and doing basic research with the common goal of building the technical foundation required for eventual successful interstellar flight.'

However, the team has not underestimated the task.

It has already produced a list of what needs to be done

'A venture to the stars will require the creation of revolutionary energy generation, storage and control systems, advanced propulsion systems, radical advancements in closed-loop, life-support systems, and new insights into human development, health, behaviour and training, as well as advances in robotics, automation, intelligent systems, and manufacturing techniques,' it says on its website.

'Programs to establish a human presence on the moon, Mars, or elsewhere in our solar system will be stepping-stones to the stars.'

The 1970s project planned an entire mission, and found a two stage spacecraft was the best option.

Weighing 50,000 tonnes and powered by nuclear fusion the journey time would be close to 50 years. The 1970s plans could now be re-examined thanks to the 100 year stars No more needles: Diabetics might be able to stop the constant blood sugar checks thanks to 'nano-sensor'

 Sensor can sit on the body and check on blood sugar levels through sweat particles By Eddie Wrenn PUBLISHED:11:50 EST, 7 September 2012| UPDATED:11:50 EST, 7 September 2012

Pricking a finger everyday is just part of everyday life for many diabetes patients.

But now a non-invasive measurement approach could release them from the constant annoyance of pin pricks.

Researchers for a firm called Fraunhofer have designed a chip which can be placed on a patient's body, which can then measure glucose levels via fluids such as body-sweat, meaning diabetics could say goodbye to the prick and needle approach. No more pricks: The Fraunhofer chip can sit below the eye, or elsewhere on the body, and could mean the end of needles for diabetics

For many diabetics, checking blood glucose is an everyday part of life, especially for patients with Type-1 diabetes, who always have to keep a close eye on their levels, since their bodies are incapable of producing the insulin to break down the glucose in the blood.

Several times a day, they have to place a tiny drop of blood on a test strip. It is the only way they can ascertain the blood glucose value, so they can inject the correct amount of insulin needed. And for pain-sensitive patients, the procedure is agony.

The new procedure by Fraunhofer is a bio-sensor that is located on the patient’s body. End to the injections: The nano-sized chip could mean an end to painful constant blood-sugar checks

It is also able to measure glucose levels continuously using tissue fluids other than blood, such as in sweat or tears, and as it is in nano-form, it is less uncomfortable and more discreet for users - measuring just 0.5 x 2.0 millimeters.

Researchers have also attached the entire diagnostic system to it.

Tom Zimmermann, business unit manager at IMS, said: 'It even has an integrated analog digital converter that converts the electrochemical signals into digital data.

'The biosensor transmits the data via a wireless interface, for example to a mobile receiver. Thus, the patient can keep a steady eye on his or her glucose level.

'In the past, you used to need a circuit board the size of a half-sheet of paper. 'And you also had to have a driver. But even these things are no longer necessary with our new sensor.'

The circuitry also holds a battery which can last for months.

The company hopes to get the prototypes into production in the near-future to banish the finger pricks forever.

The 'dark matter DNA' that could revolutionise medicine - even though scientists had written it off as junk By Fiona Macrae

It is a discovery which scientists say could revolutionise the search for new medicines.

Vast swathes of our DNA previously thought of as 'junk' could actually hold hundreds of clues to the treatment of diseases, a study has revealed.

Our 20,000 or so genes make up just 1 to 2 per cent of our DNA, leading to the rest – not previously thought to have had much significance – being termed junk.

Scroll down for video The 46 human chromosomes, where DNA resides and does its work. Each chromosome contains genes, but genes comprise only 2 per cent of DNA. Now scientists have studied the rest

But a British study involving more than 400 scientists in 32 labs around the world has transformed the view of this DNA 'dark matter', revealing that much of it is actually hard at work.

For instance, the so-called junk DNA is littered with four million 'switches' that control our genes.

The switches have already been linked to around 100 diseases, including the bowel disorder Crohn’s disease, childhood diabetes and schizophrenia. One switch may play a role in height. Learning more about what they are doing could help scientists understand the causes of disease and speed the search for new treatments, they said last night. Dr Tim Hubbard of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (2nd right), Roderic Guigo (right) and Ewan Birney associate director of EMBL-EBI (3rd right) at the launch of the 'dark matter' report

The research, detailed in more than 30 papers in journals including Nature, Science and Cell, shows 80 per cent of our DNA 'doing something'.

Ewan Birney, who spearheaded the collaboration from the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute near Cambridge, said: 'There are more switches than you could ever believe. You can't move for switches.

'It is like a jungle out there. It is not a nice orderly place. It is absolutely full of life – of things doing stuff.'

While scientists had suspected junk DNA to have its uses, the data from the ENCODE project is the first detailed and firm proof.

However, results will not be instant. While we could learn more about various diseases within just five years, new drugs could be decades away. Evolution could explain the placebo effect: Human immune system has developed on- off mechanism to save energy By Anthony Bond PUBLISHED:11:52 EST, 8 September 2012| UPDATED:11:52 EST, 8 September 2012

Scientists have discovered a possible evolutionary explanation for the placebo effect with new evidence suggesting the immune system has an on-off switch to save energy.

People who suffer from a weak infection often recover whether they take a medicinal drug or a simple sugar pill - which suggests humans can heal themselves.

But this has begged the question why people need to wait for the placebo before the recovery process from an infection begins.

Breakthrough: Scientists have discovered a possible evolutionary explanation for the placebo effect with new evidence - using Siberian hamsters, pictured, suggesting the immune system has an on-off switch to save energy

According to the New Scientist, researchers have now found that something similar to the placebo effect occurs in animals, after studying Siberian hamsters.

If lights above the hamsters laboratory cages mimicked winter, they found the hamsters would not fight the infection.

However, if the lighting was changed to replicate summer conditions, the hamsters mounted a full immune response. Similar to this, people who think they are taking medicine to treat an illness, but are actually receiving a placebo, can see a response from their immune system twice that than people who take no pills.

The evidence shows that intervention causes a mental response which kicks the immune system into action.

According to Peter Trimmer, a biologist at the University of Bristol, there is an explanation for this.

He suggests that the immune system uses up lots of energy when it is in action. So an animal's energy reserves cold be severely depleted if the immune system launches a long response to an illness.

If the infection is not likely to causes death, it could be better to wait and see that fighting the illness will not put the animal in other dangers.

Evidence from a computer model designed by Mr Trimmer and his colleagues now supports this evidence.

It found those animals which live in more challenging environments were food was harder to find, they lived longer if they put up with infections rather than launch a response from their immune system.

However, for those animals living in much more favourable conditions, it was better for them to launch a response from their immune systems so they return to health quicker.

This is because in better conditions they have more access to food which provides energy to sustain an immune response.

Top Bank Lawyer’s E-Mails Show Washington’s Inside Game By Robert Schmidt and Jesse Hamilton - Sep 5, 2012 11:25 AM ET Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Mary Schapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, on April 25, 2012. It had been two days since U.S. lawmakers negotiated all night to finish rules that would reshape the business of Wall Street. The 20-hour session left legislators, aides, lobbyists and regulators exhausted. Almost no one had a grip on all the details.

Enlarge image Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg Annette Nazareth, an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell and a former commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies at a joint meeting between the and the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C., in this Sept. 2, 2009 file photo. Annette Nazareth, an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell and a former commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies at a joint meeting between the and the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C., in this Sept. 2, 2009 file photo. Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg Then Annette Nazareth stepped in. That Sunday morning, she e-mailed a dozen Securities and Exchange Commission officials about the bill that would become the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank Act. Nazareth, herself a former SEC commissioner, represents the biggest banks and securities firms as a partner in the Washington office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. She attached an annotated copy of the measure to her June 27, 2010, e-mail, marking changes made during the wee hours. It could be an invaluable tool for an agency hard-pressed to analyze the bill on a tight deadline. “In case you would find it helpful,” Nazareth wrote to the group, many of them ex-colleagues. Two hours later, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro responded: “Thanks. We have our work cut out for us.” Dodd-Frank, which took effect in July 2010, would shape the SEC’s agenda for the next two years as it labored to write some 100 regulations the law required. It also opened opportunities for Nazareth. With her connections and longtime SEC experience, she emerged as the preeminent legal advocate for financial services firms as they sought to scale back the new rules. With Nazareth on board, Davis Polk was hired as outside counsel on Dodd-Frank by the six largest U.S. banks and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Wall Street trade group, according to the law firm’s website. The firm also performed work for foreign lenders including Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) and Deutsche Bank AG. Friendly E-Mails Nazareth’s e-mails to Schapiro and then-SEC General Counsel and Senior Policy Director David Becker, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Bloomberg News, demonstrate how lobbyists and lawyers draw on bonds they formed in government service to gain access for clients, and how they work to maintain those ties. It’s “a real advantage” to send a familiar face into the agency, said Adam Pritchard, a University of Michigan law professor and ex-SEC lawyer. “If I’m a client, I’m very pleased. I’m willing to pay top dollar for that.” Rather than making specific policy requests, Nazareth’s messages asked for meetings, offered her firm’s products and opined on the debate in Congress. She told Becker the prospect of a consumer finance protection agency made her “feel ill” and that she’d asked Sifma, the Wall Street trade group, to “trash” a proposal for an investor advocacy office at the SEC. Translating Washington Officials routinely leave federal agencies, Congress and the White House to work for the industries they once supervised. While that path is well-trod and legal -- with some time restrictions -- it still provokes handwringing in Washington. Nazareth’s communications provide an inside look at what happens when the revolving door spins. Nazareth, 56, declined to discuss specific e-mails. She said that people like herself who have worked for both sides are valuable because they can “better translate to their clients” what the SEC is trying to achieve. “It’s unfortunate where we are in an environment now where everybody thinks that is nefarious,” Nazareth said. Nazareth added that she “absolutely” doesn’t get favorable treatment. “I am not batting a thousand, let’s put it that way,” she said. “And I respect that.” Displaying Clout Nazareth and her colleagues at Davis Polk played a central role as the financial industry shaped its Dodd-Frank priorities, helping write more than 80 comment letters to regulators. The firm’s clients, including Sifma, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp., targeted rules such as the so-called Volcker ban on proprietary trading, arguing it could create excessive burdens on banks, choke off business and hurt the economy. The Volcker rule has yet to be completed, along with other key Dodd-Frank components such as swap-trading and mortgage regulations, meaning the success of the banking pushback won’t be fully measured until next year at the earliest. In May, Nazareth was named as the top woman lawyer in financial regulation at the Americas Women in Business Law awards in New York. Public disclosures from the SEC also underline her clout. In 2009 and 2010, she attended 11 meetings with Schapiro -- twice as many as any single competitor in the law and lobbying business -- according to the chairman’s appointment calendar. Since Dodd-Frank was enacted, Nazareth has taken executives from firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Credit Suisse to the SEC, agency memos show. Schapiro Contacts Nazareth has also attended meetings at the Federal Reserve and represents clients at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she has met with Chairman Gary Gensler among other officials, according to public disclosures. Lynn Turner, a former SEC chief accountant who is critical of the banks’ agenda, said that Nazareth is “at the top of that list of influential attorneys” who have access to regulators as former SEC officials. John Nester, an SEC spokesman, said those who used to work at the commission don’t get special access to the chairman. Schapiro “knows a lot of people in government, law, academia and consumer advocacy” and it’s not surprising that she e-mails and meets with some of them, he said. “In the end, whether she or anyone in the agency agrees with a particular viewpoint or a specific request depends on whether it furthers the mission of the agency,” Nester said. ‘Fantastic, Mary’ In her e-mails, Nazareth blended the personal and professional. For instance, she sympathized with Schapiro over a “frustrating” New York Times article in one message, and in another offered to sell the SEC a Davis Polk Web product “at an appropriate government rate.” The overlap was sometimes evident in Nazareth’s salutations, which varied from “Dear SEC friends” and “Dear Mary and David” to “Hello All.” On March 10, 2010, for example, she wrote to “Chairman Schapiro” asking if she’d take a meeting with Credit Suisse “to discuss the SEC’s concept release on equity market structure.” After Schapiro agreed, Nazareth wrote back: “Fantastic, Mary!” Schapiro answered the e-mails in a business-like way. The more numerous exchanges between Nazareth and Becker, who are friends, display an easy banter and a familiarity developed over the years. Becker, now a partner at the Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP law firm in Washington, declined to comment for this story. His biography on the firm’s website says he was “intimately involved” in financial regulatory reform at the SEC and “served a central role in the commission’s efforts to implement the Dodd-Frank Act.” ‘Nap Time’ Early in the Dodd-Frank debate, in November 2009, Nazareth forwarded a summary of a Senate proposal to Becker, who noted that the actual text ran to 1,100 pages. “More nap time for me,” he wrote. That prompted Nazareth to ask, “Yea, but what about me? No rest for the outside counsel.” Becker responded about 25 minutes later with an offer to connect Nazareth with the agency’s newly named director of trading and markets, who had worked with Becker in private practice. “I’m going to encourage Robert Cook to call you for the scoop,” he wrote. Cook said through an SEC spokesman that he doesn’t recall discussing the Davis Polk document with anyone at the time. Bush Appointment Nazareth joined Davis Polk in September 2008, eight months after leaving the five-member commission. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, she began her career at the same law firm in 1981, then moved to Wall Street, working at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Salomon Smith Barney. (SPFSDX) She joined the SEC in 1998 as an aide to then-chairman Arthur Levitt and the next year became director of the trading and markets division. (Levitt is a board member of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News.) President George W. Bush appointed her to a Democratic seat on the SEC in 2005. Nazareth is married to former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson Jr., now chief executive officer of TIAA-CREF, the manager of retirement funds for employees of nonprofits. Some e-mails refer to a party they host during the December holidays, where regulators and lawyers mingle. In one note, Nazareth jokingly told Becker, “We expect Greenspan to lead us in a sing-along,” referring to former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. When Becker gave his regrets for her 2010 party he noted that, “In truth, I enjoy your holiday parties very much, not to mention seeing the host and hostess. It’s the only place I get to see famous economists.” Not ‘Door-Opener’ Nazareth isn’t a registered lobbyist -- a designation that is triggered under federal rules when a person spends 20 percent or more of his or her time engaged in “lobbying activities” for a client over a three-month period. Other Davis Polk attorneys have filed documents with Congress registering as lobbyists on behalf of Sifma, the finance trade association. Sifma paid Davis Polk $1.3 million from November 2009 through October 2010, its tax filings show. Nazareth said she doesn’t lobby. “I am not a door opener,” she said. “I am a substantive lawyer.” Andrew DeSouza, a Sifma spokesman, declined to comment on Nazareth’s work. There’s no indication Nazareth violated the federal ethics law that bars senior officials from representing clients before their agency for one year after they leave. The law imposes a two-year ban on the most senior officials, including cabinet heads, the vice president and top members of the White House staff. President Barack Obama has expanded the two-year ban to his appointees, meaning that if Nazareth had been named by Obama she wouldn’t have been able to represent clients at the SEC until 2010. Powerful Agency “Every one of those commissioners should have the two-year ban,” said Richard Painter, who served as White House ethics lawyer in the Bush administration and is now a professor at University of Minnesota Law School. “They are in charge of a very powerful independent agency.” Painter said the longer time-out would help reduce the influence that former SEC leaders might have on the people they worked with at the agency. That could diminish any advantage over others seeking the attention of the regulators. The potential for a high-paying job after an SEC stint helps the agency recruit people with expertise in arcane areas. SEC pay scales generally can’t compete with industry; they top out at about $240,000 for staff and $156,000 for commissioners. At Davis Polk, profits per partner reached $2.3 million in 2011, according to the American Lawyer magazine. ‘Economic Opportunities’ The SEC gets “top-notch, high-quality people because it’s fun, because it’s challenging, because it’s exciting and because of the economic opportunities after they leave,” said David Gourevitch, a former agency enforcement lawyer who is now in private practice in New York. Gourevitch, in comments echoed by other SEC alumni, said the back-and-forth between the industry and the commission doesn’t help ex-officials tip the scale toward their clients. “There clearly is a revolving door,” he said. “I don’t see it influencing the results.” Others aren’t so sure. Markets are so complex that regulators operate under an “informational disadvantage” with those they police, and it’s natural for SEC officials to listen more closely to lawyers and lobbyists who once worked at the agency, said Pritchard, the Michigan law professor. Nazareth is recognized as an expert since she ran the SEC’s markets division before she served as a commissioner. “She knows how to pitch the arguments to the SEC in a way that they’re likely to respond to,” Pritchard said. Marketing Push The e-mails reviewed by Bloomberg News begin in February 2009, just as Dodd-Frank was being crafted by the Obama administration and half a dozen agencies, and end in May 2011, when the public records request originally was made. The time period coincided with an effort by Davis Polk, a New York-based firm that has long represented prominent Wall Street clients, to market its financial regulatory work. It sought to outdistance rival Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, people in the legal and banking industries say. Besides JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, Davis Polk has done work for Citigroup Inc. (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) on Dodd-Frank matters. The correspondence illustrates how Nazareth tended her relationships and pushed for access. She was able to arrange an unscheduled meeting with Becker on June 24, 2009, when she e- mailed him from the SEC’s lobby: “My meeting has just ended with Trading and Markets. Do you have time to meet?” Five minutes later, Becker replied, “I do.” ‘Very Peculiar’ The next month, on July 11, Nazareth e-mailed Becker to offer “just some Saturday morning thoughts” about the Treasury Department’s draft of the regulatory bill, noting that she found it “very peculiar in places, causing me to believe that it was not written by the SEC or fully vetted.” That included a section of the legislation concerning whether brokers should have a fiduciary duty to their clients. Sifma was fighting to make sure brokers weren’t covered by the same requirement as investment advisers. “The language is broad enough to suggest that any compensation creates a conflict of interest,” Nazareth wrote. “Are these services now going to be provided for free?” Becker responded that the draft was left vague on purpose, to give the SEC the authority to set the rules itself, rather than have Congress do it. Still, he told Nazareth: “This has been unbelievably messy.” Observing Schapiro After a month had gone by without any e-mails, Nazareth contacted Becker at 5:46 a.m. on Aug. 13. “You never call. You never write. Do you have any time for lunch?” she wrote. They met the following week at an eatery in Washington’s Union Station, which is connected to the SEC offices. Nazareth and Becker sometimes discussed Schapiro. In October 2009, Nazareth wrote that the chairman appeared “really exhausted and downbeat” when she spoke to a New York conference sponsored by Sifma. “It must be very difficult,” Nazareth said in the e-mail. Becker responded that it “is an impossible job” to be SEC chairman. “The demands from various quarters are strident and irreconcilable, and the agency, as you well know, is a huge management challenge,” he added. Nazareth’s e-mails to Becker and Schapiro increased when there were developments on Capitol Hill. On November 10, 2009, then-Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, released his 1,100- page version of the regulatory bill. Investor Advocate The next morning Nazareth sent the copy of her firm’s bill summary to Becker, Schapiro and the four other SEC commissioners. “Thanks, this is very helpful,” Schapiro responded. Becker told Nazareth that the summary was “really good” and noted that it “should go into extensive detail about the inanity of the Investor Advocate,” a new SEC position dedicated to protecting investors. “Give me time!” Nazareth replied. “I have also asked Sifma to trash it. They need to understand how terrible it could be for all.” The idea stayed in the bill, though the agency has yet to fill the job. Congress continued to work on the bill into 2010. As lawmakers neared a deal to create a new consumer agency to police products like credit cards and mortgages, Nazareth forwarded Becker a news article about the agreement. “I am beginning to feel ill!” she wrote on March 1. ‘Overworked Friends’ Toward the end of the month, when a later version of the Senate bill was released, Nazareth sent Becker and Schapiro another Davis Polk document outlining changes. “To assist all of my overworked friends at the commission,” Nazareth wrote. She passed along four more during the next few months. President Obama signed Dodd-Frank on July 21, 2010, ending the legislative fight but opening a new front for banks and their lobbyists at the rule-making agencies. Nazareth marked the occasion with an e-mail to Schapiro, copied to Becker. “Dear Mary, today is certainly a big day!” she wrote. “Congratulations on the end of the beginning.” In the message, Nazareth offered to come in and give a demonstration of the Davis Polk Web product to track the regulatory developments. Schapiro, responding the next evening, said she would defer to Becker on the meeting. “Hope you are well,” she concluded, prompting Nazareth to reply, “Thanks Mary, I always defer to David as well!” Schapiro then replied: “It’s the safest thing to do!” The SEC never purchased the product, the agency said. Other E-Mails The e-mails include matters beyond Dodd-Frank. In February 2011, Nazareth forwarded Schapiro an exchange with New York Times reporter Edward Wyatt, who was writing an SEC story. Wyatt asked Nazareth to let him use a laudatory comment she had given him about Schapiro. Nazareth asked Wyatt to include the name of her law firm. She objected to his identifying her solely as someone who “represents clients before the commission,” saying it might imply she was praising the chairman to benefit clients. “That is not the case,” Nazareth wrote. “I believe what I said.” When she sent the e-mails to Schapiro two minutes later, Nazareth wrote: “The following seems to indicate that at least part of the piece will be positive.” Schapiro replied: “Thanks so much. I have fingers (and toes) crossed.” ‘Remarkably Narrow’ However, the story, released online later that day, Feb. 2, was mainly about how the SEC failed to properly account for its finances. “It’s hard to imagine that I gave him an hour of my time, talked about real issues from market structure to rules and lots in between and this is what he produces,” Schapiro wrote to Nazareth. Nazareth called the article “remarkably narrow and largely off the point,” and added that, “the good news is that it says very little and therefore will not get much attention.” Schapiro then thanked Nazareth: “I really, really appreciate your comments.” In an interview, Wyatt said he wrote “a tough story” and added, “What Annette Nazareth does with her e-mails is her decision.” In another set of e-mails, Becker wrote Nazareth in November 2009 to “beg for help” in finding an attorney with a background in administrative law to work at the SEC. Nazareth passed along a name and said, “we can give her a call to let her know that you would like to speak to her.” Becker replied: “You are a peach.” ‘Very Flattering’ In March 2010, Nazareth sent Becker a message on a Saturday afternoon that said she had “been getting pressure from headhunters” to consider taking a new job. “I told them you would be great,” Nazareth told Becker. “You may get a call.” She signed off, “Your Faithful PR Department.” Becker, responding two minutes later, demurred. “That’s very flattering,” he wrote. “Probably out of the question.” In February 2011, as Becker prepared to leave his post at the SEC and return to his law firm, he e- mailed Nazareth asking if she’d seen the press announcement. Nazareth wrote back: “Yup! And I talked Mary off the ledge.” It was the second time Becker had left the agency. He had been general counsel from 2000 to 2002 before rejoining the SEC in 2009 to be Schapiro’s top lawyer. ‘Degree of Influence’ Becker publicly addressed the revolving door at an Oct. 8, 2010, Cleveland conference on securities regulation, where he sat next to Nazareth on the panel. The two discussed the event in advance, the e-mails show. Becker’s remarks were prompted by suggestions from participants that the agency’s enforcers tend to go easy on firms represented by former SEC lawyers. “When you’re an SEC alum, particularly someone who’s high- level, certainly your clients think you have a certain degree of influence,” Becker told the conference at Case Western Reserve University’s law school. “I have told them this: What you’re getting from me is good lawyering. I’m not in the influence business.” While SEC officials may be more likely to return phone calls from former colleagues, “they don’t do anything for me that they wouldn’t otherwise do,” Becker said

Drone Wars

For all of the skeptics and detractors it has produced, the drone industry also has its vocal supporters. Few are louder than Jerry LeMieux, a retired Air Force colonel, commercial airline pilot, college lecturer and, most recently, the founder of the world’s first university dedicated solely to unmanned systems education. “At the end of the day, I’m just trying to do something good for the unmanned systems community,” he said at the drone sector’s Las Vegas trade show earlier this month. “It’s something that I look at as very important. What’s my motivation for doing this? Everybody has a little bit of a teacher in them. Now, I’m finally able to do it on a larger scale.” Col. LeMieux’s school is one of several trying to get off the ground, literally and figuratively, with colleges and universities across the country seeking a piece of what is expected to be a business boom in the drone market in the coming years. Unmanned Vehicle University received its international accreditation in July, and while it currently offers only online courses, Col. LeMieux envisions a sprawling campus in Lake Havasu, Ariz. The university teaches a variety of subjects, including unmanned vehicle design, system fundamentals. It’s yet another example of the unmanned industry’s growth, a boom that’s only just begun. Drones are now available only to military and law enforcement agencies, but the Federal Aviation Administration is gearing up to begin granting personal and commercial licenses in 2015. Before that happens, the FAA must craft detailed training requirements and certifications for future drone operators. In a statement earlier this month, the agency stressed that “pilot training and medical requirements” will be established as part of drone integration into the nation’s crowded airspace. Col. LeMieux, along with other institutions in the traditional world of higher education, are angling for FAA certification, so that after obtaining a degree, an operator will be fully licensed by the federal government. Such certification, however, isn’t a sure thing. “I take risks,” Col. LeMieux said. “That’s a risk, that I’ll get FAA certification within a year. But that’s my goal, and I’m building a program to go in that direction. … A lot of schools are trying to get into this game.” One school already in the game is the University of North Dakota, which offers its own degree programs in the field of unmanned systems. Like Col. LeMieux’s university, the school is banking on becoming an FAA-certified training center. “That’s the intent. We have a long track record of working with the FAA. We worked closely with them in developing the [drone] program and talked with them about the needed knowledge base,” said William H. Semke, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who partners with the school’s Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research. “What training will [pilots] need? That’s going to change as time progresses. But right now, we’re right in the middle of that,” he said. Dozens of other institutions are staking their claim in the drone game. The University of Texas at Austin did so in a high-profile way earlier this summer, when professor Todd Humphreys and his students successfully hijacked a drone to demonstrate holes in current safety protocols. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Matt Waite took a different approach and founded the first- ever “drone journalism lab” to explore the opportunities — and inevitable ethical conflicts — of using unmanned crafts in the news-gathering business. Such programs, analysts say, will grow in number dramatically over the next several years, as drones come to the forefront. Educators such as Col. LeMieux plan to take full advantage, offering students the chance to be a part of a technological revolution. “We’re looking to the future,” he said. “We are trying to develop the future leaders of this industry. When you graduate from this school, you will have a job. If you’re a fighter pilot, the war is winding down, so what are you going to do? You can go to a school, get 50 hours of flight training, and now you have a degree in unmanned aerial vehicle operations.”

14 State Governors Prepare State Militia Defenses, Against Obama’s Rogue Federal Forces!

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin

Informative article worth your time to read with considerable amount of history explained

Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina – to name a few. The Governorsof the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise. Also important to note: There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State’s Defense Forces. This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many “citizen soldiers” choosing to serve their states instead of the Federal Government.

Angered by the several State Governors who have reestablished “State Defense Forces.” These forces are described as: “State Defense Forces (also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the Army National Guard of the United States. State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. State Defense Forces are distinct from their state’s National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.” Mr. Obama is fearful of these State Defense Forces, in that he does not have control of said forces, and with the U.S. Military stretched to near breaking from multiple deployments and theatre actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, these State military forces would be under the direct command and authority of the Governors in which states have said forces. In essence, the Governors would have “de facto control” of the United States.

Map

Ramadan Celebrating Islamic Terrorist Camps

The two Governors leading this move are: Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota; and Rick Perry, Governor of Texas. Both of these State Governors stated they have: “…deep fear the President is destroying their Nation.” Governor Pawlenty’s fear of Obama is that since Obama took office he has appeased America’s enemies and has shunned some of America’s strongest allies, especially Israel. Governor Perry has declared that Obama is punishing his State of Texas by dumping tens-of-thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants into the cities and small towns of Texas. Governor Perry further recently stated: “If Barack Obama’s Washington doesn’t stop being so oppressive, Texans might feel compelled to renounce their American citizenry and secede from the union.”

Dr. Lyle J. Rapacki Lyle is an intelligence analyst and consultant who receives and disseminates critical intelligence and policy information from and to law enforcement, intelligence operatives, homeland security officials, government and community leaders. He is the author of dozens of white papers, bulletins and briefings, and he is frequently called on to share his expertise with public and private security directors and organizations.

Lyle J. Rapacki, Ph.D. Protective Intelligence and Assessment Specialist Consultant at Behavioral Analysis and Threat Assessment Independent Intelligence and Information Warfare Analyst FBI InfraGard-Arizona ASIS-International.

George Washington takes the oath of office at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan, April 30, 1789.

On September 17, 1787 George Washington was the first to sign and accept the Constitution even though it had no Bill of Rights. It was Patrick Henry with his great speeches and lectures who in 1788 forced an agreement which promised that continued ratifica- tions of the document depended upon a Bill of Rights to be forthcoming.

In 1789 Washington took office and was faced with the arduous task of pioneering the first presidency including the structuring of the militia system. By January 1790 the influence Patrick Henry had over him became quite apparent. When Washington chaired the 1787 Constitutional Convention, provisions had been made for the defense of the country against invasion and for stifling rebel- lions, but there was an insufficiency of safeguards to be applied against tyranny brought on by public officials.

By 1790 Washington began work on his “Plan No. 2 for the Organization of the Militia.” By now he was more able to see the weaknesses in the Constitution. He openly discussed the threat of tyranny emanating from within the government. By then, Patrick Henry’s wisdom was spread throughout the 13 original states, and it was inculcated as the basis for the policies and functions of the militia. Henry perpetuated the people’s liberty. He sustained the ultimate authority of the people. Washington well understood the need to safeguard the nation from its foreign enemies. In his “Plan No. 2 for the Organization of the Militia” he undertook to warn about the dangers of domestic enemies: tyranny in government.

United States Militias: Oath To Support And Defend The Constitution Against All Enemies, Foreign And Domestic Washington himself took the farmers out for practice, and he utilized the knowledge and experiences of his generals and other valuable officers in the War for Independence by having them instruct and train the citizens (the whole people) in the techniques of soldiering, and the maintenance of an ‘energetic national militia’.

His “Plan No. 2 for the Organization of the Militia” was communicated to the Senate, on the 21st of January 1790. This lengthy Plan was permeated with the proposition that it is the direct duty and responsibility of the people themselves to guard against tyranny from within government.

State’s Constitutional Militias: Sovereign Militias Buy More Firearms In 3 Months, Than What It Takes To Outfit The Entire Chinese And Indian Armies Combined!

Washington declared that the purpose of the militia was “to oppose the introduction of tyranny.” He had come a long way from the days when he accepted the Constitution without a Bill of Rights.

To view Washington’s statement in the context in which it was delivered, please look over the following excerpt taken from Pages 7-8 of an old document published by Gales and Seaton in 1832 entitled “American State Papers – Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, from the First Session of the First to the Second Session of the Fifteenth Congress, inclusive: commencing March 3, 1789, and ending March 3, 1819”.

This excerpt is a part of Washington’s lengthy Plan No. 2 of 1790. While he also made reference to the prevention of invasion and rebellion, Washington said that “the well informed members of the community (the people) were meant to be the real defence of the country”; and “the virtues and knowledge of the people would effectually oppose the introduction of tyranny.”

BREAKING -> Kansas Initiative For November, To Reaffirm ‘The Peoples’ Right to Bear Arms – Counters – Kansas House Resolution Initiative #5017 For November Removing ‘The People’ – 5017 Designed To Outlaw George Washington’s State Militias, Thus Violating The Bill Of Rights.

He warned that “the government would be invaded or overturned, and trampled upon by the bold and ambitious” — meaning people in our own country who operated without adherence to vital principles. The absoluteness of the right of the people to keep and bear arms is a basic principle. Unless the right to arms is absolute, the people cannot remain the ultimate power. The Bill of Rights confirmed that we possess many other rights beside the absolute right to arms. All of the other rights for the preservation of their own existence, depend entirely upon the absoluteness, the force, and the reasoning that have shaped the Second Amendment. Washington agreed with Patrick Henry on the purpose of the militia: It was to “oppose the introduction of tyranny.” Make no mistake about it: The prime reason for the Second Amend- ment is prevention of tyranny in government.

EXCERPT FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON’S 1790 PLAN FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MILITIA

“An energetic national militia is to be regarded as the capital security of a free republic, and not a standing army, forming a distinct class in the community."

It is the introduction and diffusion of vice, and corruption of manners, into the mass of the people, that renders a standing army necessary. It is when public spirit is despised, and avarice, indolence, and effeminacy of manners predominate, and prevent the establishment of institutions which would elevate the minds of the youth in the paths of virtue and honor, that a standing army is formed and riveted forever.

Powerful evidence and testimony from an expert with many years of experience with typesetting and document images proves that Obama’s long form birth certificate PDF file posted on the White House servers on 27 April 2011 is a fake and is a fabricated, composite document forgery:http://www.scribd.com/doc/55642721/News-Release-Legal-proof-that-President-Obama %E2%80%99s-Certificate-of-Live-Birth-is-a-forgery When will Obama be seriously and fully investigated by the Congress , the FBI, or the Main Stream Media for his many criminal activities!

Meet ‘The Three Enablers‘ of Obama’s usurpation of office and who are continuing to allow him to get a pass on his crimes.

CDR Charles Kerchner (Ret) http://cdrkerchner.wordpress.com http://www.protectourliberty.org

While the human character remains unchanged, and societies and governments of considerable extent are formed, a principle ever ready to execute the laws, and defend the state, must constantly exist. Without this vital principle, the government would be invaded or overturned, and trampled upon by the bold and ambitious. No community can be long held together, unless its arrangements are adequate to its probable exigencies. If it should be decided to reject a standing army for the military branch of the government of the United States, as possessing too fierce an aspect, and being hostile to the principles of liberty, it will follow that a well constituted militia ought to be established.

Southern Poverty Law Center Has Become A Danger To America!: Fronts For Islam Training Jihad Militia Groups On U.S. Soil!

A consideration of the subject will show the impracticability of disciplining at once the mass of the people. All discussions on the subject of a powerful militia will result in one or other of the following principles:

First, Either efficient institutions must be established for the military education of the youth, and that the knowledge acquired therein shall be diffused throughout the community, by the mean of rotation; or,

Secondly, That the militia must be formed of substitutes, after the manner of the militia of Great Britain.

United States Militias: Oath To Support And Defend The Constitution Against All Enemies, Foreign And Domestic

If the United States possess the vigor of mind to establish the first institution, it may reasonably be expected to produce the most unequivocal advantages. A glorious national spirit will be introduced, with its extensive train of political consequences. The youth will imbibe a love of their country; reverence and obedience to its laws; courage and elevation of mind; openness and liberality of character; accompanied by a just spirit of honor: in addition to which their bodies will acquire a robustness, greatly conducive to their personal happiness, as well as the defence of their country; while habit, with its silent but efficacious operations, will durably cement the system.

Habit, that powerful and universal law, incessantly acting on the human race, well deserves the attention of legislators—formed at first in individuals, by separate and almost imperceptible impulses, until at length it acquires a force which controls with irresistible sway. The effects of salutary or pernicious habits, operating on a whole nation, are immense, and decide its rank and character in the world. -2-Hence the science of legislation teaches to scrutinize every national institution, as it may introduce proper or improper habits; to adopt with religious zeal the former, and reject with horror the latter.

A republic, constructed on the principles herein stated, would be uninjured by events, sufficient to overturn a government supported solely by the uncertain power of a standing army.

The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

The well informed members of the community, actuated by the highest motives of self-love, would form the real defence of the country. Rebellions would be prevented or suppressed with ease; invasions of such a government would be undertaken only by mad men; and the virtues and knowledge of the people would effectually oppose the introduction of tyranny.

State Militias May Be Implemented To Root Out Obama’s Illegal Muslim Brotherhood: Islamic Terror Training Camps Inside The USA.

But the second principle, a militia of substitutes, is pregnant, in a degree, with the mischiefs of a standing army; as it is highly probable the substitutes from time to time will be nearly the same men, and the most idle and worthless part of the community. Wealthy families, proud of distinctions which riches may confer, will prevent their sons from serving in the militia of substitutes; the plan will degenerate into habitual contempt; a standing army will be introduced, and the liberties of the people subjected to all the contingencies of events.

The expense attending an energetic establishment of militia may be strongly urged as an objection to the institution. But it is to be remembered, that this objection is leveled at both systems, whether by rotation or by substitutes: for, if the numbers are equal, the expense will also be equal. The estimate of the expense will show its unimportance, when compared with the magnitude and beneficial effects of the institution.

But the people of the United States will cheerfully consent to the expenses of a measure calculated to serve as a perpetual barrier to their liberties; especially as they well know that the disbursements will be made among the members of the same community, and therefore cannot be injurious. Every intelligent mind would rejoice in the establishment of an institution, under whose auspices the youth and vigor of the constitution would be renewed with each successive generation, and which would appear to secure the great principles of freedom and happiness against the injuries of time and events.

BREAKING! Taking America Down For British Banking Cartel : Russian Troops Coming To America To Counter State Militias!

The following plan is formed on these general principles:

First, That it is the indispensable duty of every nation to establish all necessary institutions for its own perfection and defence.

Secondly, That it is a capital security to a free state, for the great body of the people to possess a competent knowledge of the military art.

Thirdly, That this knowledge cannot be attained, in the present state of society, but by establishing adequate institutions for the military education of youth; and that the knowledge acquired therein should be diffused throughout the community by the principles of rotation.

Fourthly, That every man of the proper age, and ability of body, is firmly bound, by the social compact, to perform, personally, his proportion of military duty for the defence of the state.

Fifthly, That all men, of the legal military age, should be armed, enrolled, and held responsible for different degrees of military service.

And Sixthly, That agreeably to the constitution, the United States are to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such a part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States; reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”

End of excerpt from the 1790 Plan for Organization of the Militia

State Militia Defense Forces For Homeland Security: ~ Against A Rogue Mainstream Government! GEORGE WASHINGTON

George Washington is listed as No. 1 in the Hall of Fame. In addition to his many other remarkable achievements, his Farewell Address also has gone down in history as one of the greatest writings of all time. In it he warned against engaging in foreign influence and entanglements, weakening the fabric of the constitutional government, loss of respect for national morality and religious principles, growth of party spirit, and against the devastation brought on by pretended patriotism.

It was a disgraceful effort which caused February 22nd, Washington’s birthday, to be renamed as President’s Day, thus reducing the respect due to a man who had contributed so much of himself. In his Farewell Address he left us this immortal advice:

“Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor and caprice?

George Washington And Father Augustine Washington

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world….”

Yet, we allow our public officials to “police the world”. Further still he said:

“One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown…..”

Yet, we allow our public officials to effect grievous alterations in the operation of the Constitutional system, swear by the oath of office under pretended allegiance, and destroy our inherent right as the ultimate power in the republic by denying us the use of firearms.

THREE LITTLE PROTONS

Seven billion years ago, three cosmic travelers set out together on an epic journey to Earth. They just arrived, and the trio has a surprising tale to tell about the structure of the universe. Their story could overturn decades of work by theoretical physicists. But first, an introduction: Scientists have long wondered about the nature of space and time. Albert Einstein envisioned the two concepts as an interwoven fabric that extends smoothly and continuously throughout the universe, warping under the weight of the matter it contains. The smoothness of this stretchy "space-time" fabric means that no matter how closely one inspects it, no underlying structure emerges. The fabric is completely pure even at infinitesimal scales. The snag in this picture of a space-time fabric is that it doesn't jive with quantum mechanics, the set of laws describing the bizarre behavior of subatomic particles. To explain gravitational interactions between planets and stars, Einstein's theory works beautifully; but try to describe quarks or electrons zipping about on a fabric with no elemental structure, and the equations turn to nonsense.

Modern "theories of everything" try to reconcile Einstein's big picture view of the universe, built of space-time, with the small-scale picture of the universe described by quantum mechanics. Most of these theories, collectively called "quantum gravity," posit that space-time must not be smooth after all, but must instead be comprised of discrete, invisibly small building blocks — sort of like 3D pixels, or what scientists have dubbed a "foam." But real or not, such space-time pixels seemed to be permanently out of human reach. For reasons having to do with the uncertainty that exists in the locations of particles, theories suggest the pixels should measure the size of the "Planck length," or about a billionth of a billionth of the diameter of an electron. With the key evidence for quantum gravity buried at such an inaccessible scale, physicists were at a loss for how to confirm or refute their ideas. Then, a paper published 15 years ago in the journal Nature proposed an ingenious method of detecting space-time pixels. Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, a theoretical physicist at Sapienza University in Rome, and colleagues said the building blocks of space-time could be discovered indirectly by observing the way light of different colors disperses as it travels through the pixels on its journey across the universe, just as light spreads into its component wavelengths when it passes through the crystalline structure of a prism. As long as one is sure all the photons, or particles of light, left their source at exactly the same time, measuring how much photons of different wavelengths spread out during their commute to Earth would reveal the presence, and size, of the pixels they passed through. Such studies hadn't been feasible, until now. "Very few of us were suggesting that the structure of space-time could be detected, and now 15 years later facts are proving us right," Amelino-Camelia told Life's Little Mysteries, a partner site to SPACE.com. [Top 10 Strangest Things in Space] Burst of light Seven billion years ago, 7 billion light-years away, a gamma-ray burst sent a blitz of photons tearing into space. Some of them headed for Earth. Gamma-ray bursts occur when an extremely massive, rotating star collapses in on itself, unleashing in less than a minute as much energy as our sun will radiate in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime. These shockwaves of gamma rays and other energetic photons are the brightest events in the universe. When gamma ray bursts have occurred in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists speculate that they might have altered Earth's climate and induced mass extinctions. Thankfully, the bursts are so rare that they typically occur a safe distance away — far enough that only a light mist of photons reaches our planet. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched into orbit in 2008 to scan the skies for these mists of shockwaves past. Robert Nemiroff, an astrophysicist at Michigan Technological University, and colleagues recently took a look at data from a gamma-ray burst detected by the Fermi telescope in May 2009. "Originally we were looking for something else, but were struck when two of the highest energy photons from this detected gamma-ray burst appeared within a single millisecond," Nemiroff told Life's Little Mysteries. When the physicists looked at the data more closely, they found a third gamma ray photon within a millisecond of the other two. Computer models showed it was very unlikely that the photons would have been emitted by different gamma ray bursts, or the same burst at different times. Consequently, "it seemed very likely to us that these three photons traveled across much of the universe together without dispersing," Nemiroff said. Despite having slightly different energies (and thus, different wavelengths), the three photons stayed in extremely close company for the duration of their marathon trek to Earth. Many things — e.g. stars, interstellar dust — could have dispersed the photons. "But nothing that we know can un-disperse gamma-ray photons," Nemiroff said. "So we then conclude that these photons were not dispersed. So if they were not dispersed, then the universe left them alone. So if the universe was made of Planck-scale quantum foam, according to some theories, it would not have left these photons alone. So those types of Planck-scale quantum foams don't exist." In other words, the photons' near-simultaneous arrival indicates that space-time is smooth as Einstein suggested, rather than pixilated as modern theories require — at least down to slightly below the scale of the Planck length, a smaller scale than has ever been probed previously. The finding "comes close to proving [that space-time is smooth] for some range of parameters," Nemiroff said. The finding, published in June in the journal Physical Review Letters, threatens to set theoretical physicists back several decades by scrapping a whole class of theories that attempt to reconcile Einstein's theory with quantum mechanics. But not everyone is ready to jettison quantum gravity. [Top 3 Questions People Ask an Astrophysicist (and Answers)] Other effects? "The analysis Nemiroff et al. are reporting is very nice and a striking confirmation that these studies of Planck-scale structure of space-time can be done, as some of us suggested long ago," said Amelino-Camelia, an originator of the idea that gamma rays could reveal the building blocks of space-time. "But the claim that their analysis is proving that space-time is 'smooth with Planck-scale accuracy' is rather naive." To prove that Planck-scale pixels don't exist, the researchers would have to rule out the possibility that the pixels dispersed the photons in ways that don't depend in a straightforward way on the photons' wavelengths, he said. The pixels could exert more subtle "quadratic" influences, for example, or could have an effect called birefringence that depends on the polarization of the light particles. Nemiroff and his colleagues would have to rule out those and other possibilities. To prove the photon trio wasn't a fluke, the results would then require independent confirmation; a second set of simultaneous gamma-ray photons with properties similar to the first must be observed. If all this is accomplished, Amelino-Camelia said, "at least for some approaches to the quantum- gravity problem, it will indeed be a case of going back to the drawing board." NINJA STAR AIRCRAFT

An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual "flying wing" concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel. The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound produced by a sonic boom — a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses. "I am hoping to develop an environmentally friendly and economically viable airplane for supersonic civil transport in the next 20 to 30 years," Zha said. "Imagine flying from New York to Tokyo in four hours instead of 15 hours."

The U.S. military's B-2 Spirit stealth bomber that debuted in 1989 represents the only previously successful flying wing aircraft, even though experimental flying wings flew before then. Zha's bidirectional flying wing kicks the general concept up a notch by essentially laying two flying wings on top of one another at a 90 degree angle, so that the aircraft faces one way for subsonic flight and rotates another way for supersonic flight. [Supersonic Biplane Design Stops Sonic Booms] The midair transformation allows the aircraft to fly in its most fuel-efficient modes at both subsonic and supersonic speeds, Zha explained. Jet engines located on top of the aircraft in concept illustrations appear to rotate independently of the aircraft so that they can always point forward in flight. Such midair spinning might sound unpleasant for people riding the aircraft. But a five-second rotation would only cause pilots and passengers to experience a "g-force" just one-tenth the force of gravity — less than what airline passengers experience during takeoff. NASA liked the idea enough to give Zha and his colleagues a $100,000 grant from the Innovative Advanced Concepts program. But the U.S. space agency does not expect such funded concepts to fly for at least another 20 years or so. "We are inventing the ways in which next-generation aircraft and spacecraft will change the world and inspiring Americans to take bold steps," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. The bidirectional flying wing aircraft could also lead to the first supersonic drones soaring over the U.S. homeland or distant battlefields.