The Daily Populous

Friday June 30th, 2017 night edition

image for A Very Scary Light Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space

Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space, some 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

It was a weapons test, but one that created a man-made light show that has never been equaled — and hopefully never will.

Peter Kuran of Visual Concept Entertainment collected them for his documentary Nukes In Space.

If you are wondering why anybody would deliberately detonate an H-bomb in space, the answer comes from a conversation we had with science historian James Fleming of Colby College.

Van Allen described how the Earth is surrounded by belts of high-energy particles — mainly protons and electrons — that are held in place by the magnetic fields.

Fleming is trying to figure out if Van Allen had any theoretical reason to suppose the military could use the Van Allen belts to attack a hostile nation.

When the bomb burst, people told of blackouts and strange electrical malfunctions, like garage doors opening and closing on their own. »

Japan reveals plans to put a man on moon by 2030

Authored by phys.org

Japan has unveiled ambitious plans to put an astronaut on the moon around 2030 under new proposals from the country's space agency.

Japan has revealed ambitious plans to put an astronaut on the Moon around 2030 in new proposals from the country's space agency.

This is the first time the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has said it aims to send an astronaut beyond the International Space Station, an agency spokeswoman told AFP on Friday. »

New York Times staffers stage walkout in support of copy editors

Authored by money.cnn.com
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Scores of newsroom staffers staged an afternoon walkout of the Times' New York office, protesting plans to dramatically reduce the paper's editing staff.

"They say cutbacks, we say fight back," employees yelled as they circled the building, carrying signs that read "Copy editors save our buts" and "Without us, it's the New Yrok Times.".

"As a journalist, I've been saved by my copy editors many, many times," said Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for the New York Times Magazine who took part in the walkout. »

The blue wings of this dragonfly may be surprisingly alive

Authored by sciencenews.org
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So what in the world were tiny respiratory channels doing in a wing membrane of a morpho dragonfly?.

Guillermo Ferreira, then at Kiel University in Germany, showed the image to a colleague who also was “shocked,” he remembers.

The shimmering, bluest-of-skies wings of male Zenithoptera dragonflies might be unexpectedly and fully alive, Guillermo Ferreira says. »