Physicists say that the newly extended baseball season, where teams play a total of 162 games, gives weaker teams an advantage. Meanwhile, psychologists are trying to figure out how successful hitters keep their eye on the ball.

In LiveScience.com, Andrea Thompson writes that while the top teams usually win the most games, weaker teams might come out ahead in the new, extended season. When physicists Eli Ben-Naim and Nick W. Hengartner ran game simulations through their computer at Los Alamos to test for ?statistical randomness,? they found that a weak team needs to play 256 more games to overcome their weaker player lineup.
read more

Experts warn that food and water shortages caused by global warming could lead to future wars, and may be causing one of the wars that this going on RIGHT NOW. Past history makes it even more likely that this will happen. This is why the United Nations has become concerned about climate change.

In LiveScience.com, Andrea Thompson reports that researchers who studied nearly 900 wars fought in China in the last two thousand years (and Chinese history goes back a long time) found “a correlation between the frequency of warfare and records of temperature changes.”
read more

As predicted, at almost 8,000 square miles, this year’s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the biggest in history. The area off the Louisiana and Texas this year is the third-largest ever mapped.

A “dead zone” is caused by nitrogen runoff from fertilizer, which leads to a huge algae bloom. The algae sucks up all the available oxygen, leaving none for the fish. Crabs, eels and other sea creatures are being forced to swim on the surface in order to breathe.

According to CNN, “the dead zone was larger in 2002 and 2001, when it covered 8,500 and 8,006 square miles respectively, and was almost as big in 1999.”

Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
read more

First, a computer intended to be placed aboard Shuttle Endeavor for its upcoming mission was found to have been sabotaged. Now, it seems that the shuttle has sprung a leak, and the mission, which is scheduled for August 7, may have to be delayed. But the larger question is, was the leak another act of sabotage, and if so, who wants this mission to fail, and why?

CNN reports that NASA discovered the leak over the weekend and tightened a bolt to fix it, but further testing shows that air is still escaping from the crew cabin. One of the astronauts on board will be ex-school teacher Barbara Morgan, who was Christa McAuliffe’s backup in 1986. McAuliffe was one of the seven astronauts killed along when the Challenger broke up 73 seconds after takeoff.
read more