Gaia's giant farts may be silent but deadly

Scientists have discovered that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed.

Preliminary findings suggest that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

Gaia, the Greek supreme goddess of Earth, is frequently used to describe the Earth as a single organism.

Around the world in 80 ways

Check out this visualization of air traffic around the world.

How to train your pet rocks

This is a remarkable story of a man who is able to balance rocks in gravity-defying sculptures. Watch the video and you still won't understand how he does it.

Bill Dan is a San Francisco-based balanced-rock sculptor who has demonstrated the art, discipline and craft of rock balancing and balanced-stone stacking around the world. His website includes images of his balanced stones and rocks, links to other rock balancers, information about naturally balancing rocks and world-wide stone balancing and rock stacking traditions.

Couple put on trial in Dubai for drinking juice in public

A 28-year-old Russian female, who visited Dubai on a tourist visa, and a 30-year-old male citizen of Lebanon, a salesman in a local store, were put on trial for drinking juice in a public place in the daytime during Muslim fasting.

The police caught the two people red-handed at a gas station in Dubai, Emirat.ru reports with reference to Gulf News.

In accordance with the Federal Penal Code of the United Arab Emirates, a public intake of food and beverages during daytime hours of the month of Ramadan is forbidden by Article 313. The article stipulates the punishment in the form of either a monetary penalty – up to 2,000 dirhems ($555) – or even a term of up to one month in prison.

The young people told the court that they were not Muslims and were thus unaware of the fact that their actions could be punishable.

People tell more lies in email than on paper

In two studies co-authored by Lehigh’s Liuba Belkin, people using e-mail lied almost 50 percent more often than those using pen-and-paper.

Workers are significantly more likely to lie in e-mail messages than in traditional pen-and-paper communications, according to two new studies co-authored by Lehigh’s Liuba Belkin.

More surprising is that people actually feel justified when lying using e-mail, the studies show.

“There is a growing concern in the workplace over e-mail communications, and it comes down to trust,” says Belkin, an assistant professor of management in the College of Business and Economics. “You’re not afforded the luxury of seeing non-verbal and behavioral cues over e-mail. And in an organizational context, that leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and, as we saw in our study, intentional deception.”

Pickle-lovers unite!

Picklefest 2008 was a huge success. Held at Machine Project in LA, the public was invited to bring their produce (grown in their garden, or purchased at farmers' markets or a supermarket) and pickle it using the lacto-fermentation process.

From Machine Project's page about lacto-fermentation pickling:

Back before the advent of canning and freezing, folks preserved their vegetable harvest via lacto-fermentation. This process, once commonplace, survives today mostly in the form of sauerkraut and kim-chi. These days, almost all store bought pickles and contemporary pickle recipes are vinegar-based. Lacto-fermented pickles contain no vinegar at all.

In lacto-fermentation, salt is added to vegetables, either by covering them in salty water or by mixing them with salt to draw out their own juices. Either way, the vegetable ends up stewing in salty liquid. Lactic microbial organisms (the same beasties that spoil milk) take hold in this environment and make it so acidic that bacteria that cause food to spoil can’t live there. The result is a pickled food that will keep without canning or refrigeration.

Lacto-fermented pickles are also full of beneficial bacteria that, like the bacteria in yogurt, are good for your gut and make food more digestible.

More female candidates on ballot in federal election than ever before

A record number of women are among the 1,601 candidates vying for the approval of voters and 308 House of Commons seats in the federal election campaign, according to Elections Canada.

But while women represent more than 50 per cent of the Canadian population, only 437 of the candidates — 27 per cent — are female.

"This improvement provides more opportunities than ever to increase the representation of women in Parliament," Equal Voice chairwoman Raylene Lang-Dion said.

All five major parties have made strides since the last election in getting more women to run, although the Tories continue to lag behind the others.

Street Corner Science

In “Street Corner Science,” a ScienCentral original Web Show, pedestrians are given the chance to sit down with a world-class scientist and ask him or her any question they like about science, or anything else on their minds. In this episode, Nobel-Prize-winning Physicist Dr. Leon Lederman graciously answers a varied and astute array of questions from some lucky passersby. This video is the first of two “Street Corner Science” segments featuring Dr. Lederman, so be sure to check back with ScienCentral.com for more!

Best ''brew' product

The first of its kind worldwide, "red espresso" is the world's first tea espresso. Premium Rooibos tea [Wikipedia] offers a healthy alternative to coffee and contains five times the antioxidants than green tea.

Lost in Space

On a clear night, you can look in the sky and see the moon and stars. You might even see the blinking light of a working satellite as it flies past, on its way around the Earth.

And, even though you cannot see it, you are also looking at the largest junkyard in the solar system.

Higher than the highest clouds but much closer than the moon, the bulk of the junkyard stretches from the Earth’s surface to 20,000 miles overhead. There are tens of millions of pieces of rubbish there. Some of the pieces are rocks and dust from passing comets, but most of them are manmade and called “orbital debris”.

In the picture above, each white dot represents an individual piece of tracked orbital debris. This image shows the Low Earth Orbit, which is the region from the Earth’s surface to 1,240 miles and contains the most space junk.
NASA Johnson Space Center