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+-   World on course for catastrophic 6C rise-> on Saturday November 21, @08:07AM jamie

Submitted by jamie on Saturday November 21, @08:07AM
science
jamie writes "The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. Such a rise — which would be much higher nearer the poles — would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilisation."
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+-   WHO Says Swine Flu May Have Peaked in US on Friday November 20, @06:54PM Hugh Pickens

Submitted by Hugh Pickens on Friday November 20, @06:54PM
medicine
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) says that there were “early signs of a peak” in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including the United States while the American College Health Association, which surveys more than 250 colleges with more than three million students, said new cases of flu had dropped 27 percent in the week ending November 13 from the week before, the first drop since school resumed in the fall. Nonetheless, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of vaccination and respiratory disease at the CDC, chose her words carefully. "We are in better shape today than we were a couple of weeks ago," Schuchat says. “I wish I knew if we had hit the peak. Even if a peak has occurred, half the people who are going to get sick haven’t gotten sick yet." Privately, federal health officials say they fear that, if they concede the flu has peaked, Americans will become complacent and lose interest in getting vaccinated, increasing the chances of another wave. However Dr. Lone Simonsen, a former CDC epidemiologist, says she expects a third wave in December or January, possibly beginning in the South again. Based on death rates in New York City and in Scandinavia, Simonsen argues that both 1918 and 1957 had mild spring waves followed by two stronger waves, one in fall and one in midwinter adding that in the pandemic of 1889, the bulk of the deaths occurred in the third wave. “If people think it’s going away, they can think again,” Dr. Simonsen says."
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Comments: 5 +-   The Climatic Research Unit hacked, files leaked-> on Friday November 20, @11:53AM huckamania

Submitted by huckamania on Friday November 20, @11:53AM
science
huckamania writes "The Climatic Research Unit is widely recognised as one of the world's leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. Consisting of a staff of around thirty research scientists and students, the Unit has developed a number of the data sets widely used in climate research, including the global temperature record used to monitor the state of the climate system, as well as statistical software packages and climate models.

An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server, here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today:

"We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents"

The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files. It contained data, code, and emails apparently from the CRU. If proved legitimate, these bombshells could spell trouble for the AGW crowd.

Discussion and analysis of the leaked items can be found at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/#more-12937. The BBC is also reporting but with few details http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8370282.stm."
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+-   Tracking the world’s great unsolved math mys-> on Tuesday November 17, @11:22AM coondoggie

Submitted by coondoggie on Tuesday November 17, @11:22AM
math
coondoggie writes "Some math problems are as old as the wind, experts say and many remain truly unsolved. But a new open source-based site from the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) looks to help track work done and solve long-standing and difficult math problems. The Institute along with the National Science Foundation will on Wednesday open the AIM Problem Lists site to offer an organized and annotated collection of unsolved problems, and previously unsolved problems, in a specialized area of mathematics research. The problem list provides a snapshot of the current state of research in a particular research area, letting experts track new developments, and newcomers to gain a perspective on the subject, AIM stated.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/48054"
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+-   Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning-> on Monday November 16, @05:31PM GringoChapin

Submitted by GringoChapin on Monday November 16, @05:31PM
space
GringoChapin writes "Space.com reports that "One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive. The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the
Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting." Folks from the United States will want to start watching at 0100 Pacific, 0400 Eastern, and those in Europe from 0100 local time until dawn."
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