The European Union Times |
- Australia seeks US advice on impact of harmful fracking polluting water supply
- Stephen Hawking Says People Can Escape Black Holes
- Donald Trump Goes Head to Head with Univision Reporter on Immigration
- Cancerous cells turned back healthy by American scientists
- Hungarian police use tear gas against migrants in city of Roszke
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Posted: 26 Aug 2015 03:18 PM PDT
 Australia sought guidance from US environmental regulators about the impact of fracking on water supplies. The practice is currently banned in some Australian states, but the federal government wants a new set of guidelines regarding the process. The US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided the Australian Department of the Environment with details of a recent study it had carried out on fracking. The EPA had carried out the research following a request from Congress to see if the process, also known as hydraulic fracturing, which sees a combination of chemicals, sand and water injected deep underground to try and extract oil and gas from rocky areas, is harmful to the water supply. The EPA said that they could not find any evidence of “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States,” from fracking. A spokeswoman for the Australian Department of the Environment said the government was aware of the findings, and is currently in the process of writing new guidelines regarding the controversial process. Fracking is currently banned in the state of Victoria, while there have been protests in New South Wales and Queensland about proposals to start fracking projects there. The EPA report did mention that fracking had the potential to pollute water supplies and there were not enough long-term studies, which have been undertaken to give a clearer understanding about the potential impact. The Australians could do worse than travel to the United States to see for themselves the impact that fracking has had, not only on the water supply, but also on the environment. A family in Texas filed a law suit against hydraulic fracturing companies last week, for causing an explosion on their ranch through their water supply, which left them with serious injuries and has left them needing to import water onto their ranch, as the water in their private well has become contaminated. Cody Murray suffered severe burns after a giant fireball erupted from the pump house where they used to store their water. “Rigorous scientific testing, including isotope testing, has conclusively demonstrated that the high-level methane contamination of the Murrays’ water well resulted from natural gas drilling and extraction activities,” the lawsuit said. “The high levels of methane in the Murrays’ well were not ‘naturally occurring’.” Meanwhile, the neighboring state of Oklahoma has seen a surge in the number of earthquakes since fracking processes were implemented. An astounding 40 earthquakes were reported within the period of a week in Oklahoma in late July, with even State Governor Mary Fallin acknowledging the link between such earthquake clusters and wastewater disposal procedures used in fracking operations. “We all know now there is a direct correlation between the increase in earthquakes we have seen in Oklahoma and the disposal wells, based upon many different factors, whether it is volume or location or whether it is on a fault line, how deep that disposal well goes into the earth itself,” Fallin said on August 4. In 2013, Oklahoma experienced 109 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher. In 2014, the number skyrocketed to 585 such seismic events, according to the state website Earthquakes in Oklahoma. This puts the current rate at some 600 times the historical average. “We are almost seven months through the year and we’ve almost tied the number of earthquakes we had in 2014. And of course, 2014 was an absolute record-breaking year for the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma,” state seismologist Austin Holland told a local Fox affiliate. Meanwhile, Australia recently got a taste of just how dangerous trying to extract minerals out of the ground using chemicals can be. A leaked government report this month revealed that the Linc Energy mining company could have polluted hundreds of square kilometers of farm land in Chinchilla, Queensland, after a mixture of toxic chemicals and explosive gases were released. “We have found gases in quantities above the explosive limit. In our reconnaissance boreholes, explosive levels have been found that indicate very much higher concentrations in the soil atmosphere,” according to the report. The report also stated that soil pollution within a 320-square-kilometer area around the plant could be dangerous to people’s health, while local workers complained of severe breathing problems. The company has already been asked to provide AU$22 million (US$15.7 million) in financial guarantees to cover the cleanup of possible environmental damage at the Chinchilla site. The department reportedly said water and sediment in some of the facility’s storage dams were “likely” contaminated with dioxins. The plant near Chinchilla was Linc Energy’s first facility conducting underground coal gasification. The technique is used to extract coal, which is too deep to be mined. The coal is burned underground, producing gas, which is siphoned off through wells – a process similar to fracking. Source           |
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Posted: 26 Aug 2015 03:05 PM PDT
 Humans can avoid being swallowed by a black hole, according to a new theory by prominent British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Noted UK astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has suggested that disappearing into black holes may not represent permanent disappearance, media reports said. Speaking at a conference in Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Hawking argued that black holes “are not the eternal prisons they were once thought.” “If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out,” Hawking said. According to him, those who find themselves in a black hole will not be able to return to their own universe but they can “possibly come out in another universe.” Scientists believe that black holes are super-dense areas in space where the gravitational suction is so great that nothing can emerge from them. But Hawking claimed that information that seems to disappear into a black hole may not, in fact, disappear into the hole at all. “I propose that the information is stored not in the interior of the black hole, as one might expect, but on its boundary: the event horizon,” he said. So it means that humans may not disappear if they fall into a black hole; they would either stay as a “hologram” on the edge, or fall out somewhere else. Summing up his thoughts on the matter, Hawking said that “black holes ain’t as black as they are painted.” His new theory is an attempt to answer a topical question about what happens to things when they go beyond the black hole’s event horizon, a theorized point of no return from which even light cannot escape. Source      |
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Posted: 26 Aug 2015 02:52 PM PDT
 Presidential candidate Donald Trump had Univision reporter Jorge Ramos temporarily removed from an Iowa press conference Tuesday after the journalist unexpectedly stood up and began demanding answers on the Republican frontrunner’s proposed immigration policy. Ramos, who peppered the business mogul with questions as soon as he reached the podium, refused to sit down as Trump attempted to call on other reporters. “Sit down,” Trump said repeatedly. “Excuse me, sit down. You weren’t called.” After being told to “go back to Univision,” Ramos was physically removed from the room by what appeared to be a member of Trump’s staff. The reporter, who was eventually allowed back in the room and permitted to ask his question, argued that it would be impossible to deport millions of illegal immigrants and to build a wall on the country’s Southern border. Trump’s back and forth with the journalist, which covers everything from drug smuggling to the deportation of violent Mexican gang members, can be viewed below. Source      |
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Posted: 26 Aug 2015 02:47 PM PDT
 Cancer cells are seen with an electron microscope.A group of researchers from the Mayo Clinic carried out the research published in the journal Nature: Cell Biology on Monday. Utilizing the new method in laboratory experiments, the team was able to successfully “reprogram” the out-of-control growth of the cells which would become cancerous. The team noted that further research is required in order to determine if the process would be applicable in human cells. “The study brings together two so-far unrelated research fields — cell-to-cell adhesion and miRNA biology,” said Dr. Antonis Kourtidis from the Mayo Clinic.  Dr. Panos Anastasiadis (L) and Dr. Antonis Kourtidis (Mayo Clinic)Based on the experiments reported in the study, if the miRNA in cancer cells is increased back to normal levels, the proteins also turn from bad to good which make cancer growth stop. “By administering the affected miRNAs in cancer cells to restore their normal levels, we should be able to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function,” said Dr. Panos Anastasiadis, director of the department of cancer biology at Mayo’s Jacksonville campus. “Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising.” Source      |
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Posted: 26 Aug 2015 02:29 PM PDT
 Unrest broke out at a migrant reception center in Hungary on Wednesday as police struggled to deal with an influx of refugees arriving from Serbia. Local television showed tear gas being fired. Police rounded up 300-400 migrants at the border area of Roszke and addressed them through megaphones, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. A police spokesman said that some 200 migrants at the reception center had refused to be fingerprinted. Dozens of migrants crossed over to Hungary on Wednesday, underneath a border fence set up by authorities to keep them out of the country, AP reported. “We raised the fence and crossed it now. We were here from yesterday. We are now without, we are very hungry, there’s no food, there’s no medicine for children, there’s nothing. We are so tired, frankly,” said Odei, a Syrian refugee from Daraa. The chief commissioner of Hungarian police, Karoly Papp, said on Wednesday that police were preparing six special border patrol units of an initial 2,106 officers to be sent in depending on the situation on the Serbian border. They would be equipped with helicopters, horses, and dogs. Hungary also outlined plans on Wednesday to send the army, mounted police, and dogs to its southern border in an attempt to deal with the migrant crisis. Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said parliament would debate next week whether to deploy the army. “Hungary’s government and national security cabinet…has discussed the question of how the army could be used to help protect Hungary’s border and the EU’s border,” Kovacs said. A total of 1,300 migrants were detained on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, a record 2,533 migrants were caught entering Hungary from Serbia on Tuesday. Hungary has requested more European Union funds as it struggles to deal with the surge of migrants pouring into the country. The prime minister’s chief of staff told Magyar Hirlap newspaper on Tuesday hat more cash is needed – and claiming that what has already been doled out was done in a humiliating way. The country is erecting a 3.5-meter-high fence along its border with Serbia in an attempt to deter migrants from crossing onto its territory. It aims to complete the barrier by November. Budapest also plans to tighten penalties for illegal migration and trafficking. According to Hungarian authorities, more than 140,000 migrants have entered the country from Serbia this year. The numbers have soared in recent weeks, as Greece and Macedonia also struggle to control the influx of refugees. Hungary is seen as a gateway for the migrants, as it is part of the EU’s borderless Schengen zone. From there, the refugees – most of whom hail from Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – can travel to more affluent western and northern European countries. Source     |
