Milky Way and Andromeda will collide sooner than expected

According to the most detailed measurements yet, scientists have discovered that our solar system, the Milky Way, is moving at 600,000mph, 100,000mph faster than originally thought.

The speedier rotation also means its mass must be similar to that of Andromeda, around 270 billion times the mass of the sun.

It means that the gravitational pull the Milky Way exerts on its neighbouring galaxies is stronger, meaning a collision would happen sooner than expected.

The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the two largest in our cosmic neighbourhood, with the former 100,000 light years across, which is still only half the width of the latter.

Our solar system is around 28,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way; Andromeda is around two million light years away.

The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California, argues that the collision will happen around the same time our sun is due to burn up the last of its nuclear fuel, within the next seven billion years.

It is thought rather than planets and stars colliding, the two galaxies will merge to form a new, large galaxy.

Karl Menten, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, and Mark Reid at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Massachusetts used a radio telescope called the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) to make precise measurements of the Milky Way as it moved through space.

"These measurements are revising our understanding of the structure and motions of our galaxy," said Dr Menten.

Gerry Gilmore, at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, who was not involved in the study, said: "The galaxies will be dramatically stirred up, but they are very squidgy, so they will stick together and eventually all the stars will die out, and it will become one huge, dead galaxy."

Health Hazard Alert: Head-Banging May Hurt Your Brain

It’s bad enough that loud music can potentially harm your hearing. But now it turns out that head-banging, a violent and rapid form of dancing, can put you at risk for brain injury, whiplash, and even stroke.

There have been isolated reports of head-banging injuries in the past: When guitarist Terry Balsamo of Evanescence had a stroke, his doctors attributed it to his on-stage thrashing. But until now, scientists really haven’t studied the effects of head-banging since it first started back in 1968 with Led Zeppelin.

According to Australian risk and safety researchers Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, head-banging is pretty much guaranteed to give you brain damage if you’re not careful. To test their theory, the researchers went to a variety of metal and hard rock concerts (the best way to test any scientific theory) and observed the head-thrashing techniques used by artists.


Then they created a “theoretical head-banging model” and plugged in various possible head angles and intensities. Using the top 11 “head-banging songs” chosen by a focus group, they measured an average tempo of 146 beats per minute, which they combined with head-banging arcs of more than 75 degrees from a person’s upright stance. They concluded that the typical death-metal tempo combined with a head-banging arc of at least 45 degrees will likely “cause mild head and neck injury.”

So is there hope for death-metal lovers? Yes, according to Patton and McIntosh, who offer the following advice:

“To minimize the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment.”

Oxford Univ. math exam question

I came accross this little math problem in a new biography of Lewis Carroll. It was on a math final during the 1850's at Oxford University. I believe that any budding mathematician in the 9th grade should be able to figure it out.

Problem: Let m and n be arbitrary odd integers (m>n). Prove m^2 -n^2 is divisible by 8

Katie Holmes spends $14m in six months in New York

The actress arrived in the New York in July to appear on Broadway in the Arthur Miller play, All My Sons.

She is living in a Manhattan apartment owned by her husband Tom Cruise and has become a regular fixture on the city's social circuit.

As well as regularly frequenting the city's best restaurants, Holmes is often photographed with her daughter Suri carrying purchases from some of New York's most expensive shops.

The New York Post's Page Six magazine estimates that, mainly due to her real estate purchases, she has spent more than $14 million (£9.6 million) since being in the city.

"While ordinary city dwellers are cutting back, Mrs Cruise has been valiantly doing her bit to boost our economy," the magazine said.

"We tally up a conservative estimate of her 24-week NYC spending spree, and crown her Manhattan's Most Valued Shopper."

Holmes has reportedly spent a reported $13,987 (£9,600) on child care and taking Suri out over the last six months

According to the publication, she and Cruise have bought three new apartments in the building where he has owned his home since 1985.

A spokesperson for Cruise has denied the purchases but real estate executive Barbara Corcoran claims they bought a trio of lofts last year.

The magazine says a similar, three-bedroom home on the same street is on the market for $4.8 million, (£3.3 million) and calculates that the Cruises would have spent $14.4 million (£10 million) on their apartments as a result.

Meanwhile the couple is reported to have spent an additional $7,000 (£4,800) on installing gym equipment in their home.

The publication also claims that Holmes, 30, and Cruise, 46, have spent an estimated $7,315 (£5,000) on dining out at top restaurants such as brasserie Balthazar, and sushi restaurant Nobu and more than $17,000 (£11,700) on clothes for Holmes and Suri from shops like Hermes and Bonpoint.

The people on the bus are ... of diverse personalities

Forward-minded people tend to sit at the front of the top deck, according to Dr Tom Fawcett of Salford University, the independent-minded in the middle and those with a rebellious streak at the rear.

He came to his conclusions after watching people on hour-long bus trips between Bolton and Manchester.

His research would appear to indicate that companies which spend large amounts on psychometric tests to ensure they recruit the right people are wasting their money.

All they need to do is jump onto public transport.

Dr Fawcett, a lecturer on mental toughness who has helped train Olympic athletes, said there were definite patterns in people's behaviour depending on where they sat.

He said: "With something as habitual as getting on a bus people may find it surprising that their choice of seat can actually reveal aspects of their personality."

He concluded that bus passengers fell into seven distinct groups.

Those at the front on the top deck are generally forward thinkers and those at the back are rebellious types who do not like their personal space being invaded, he found.

Sitting in the middle are independent thinkers - usually younger to middle-aged passengers more likely to read a newspaper or listen to a personal music player.

On the bottom deck at the front tend to be gregarious meeters-and-greeters while those in the middle are "strong communicators". Travellers who automatically head for the rear downstairs are said to be risk-takers who like to sit on elevated seats because it makes them feel important.

He defined a final group as chameleons - travellers who do not care where they sit because they feel they can fit in anywhere.

He did not say what happened to forward thinkers on a single-decker bus - presumably they wait for a double-decker.

Dr Fawcett said the study was an "observational" one.

He said: "It was carried out as an observational survey - we noted people's body language and whether there was any interaction with other passengers, if they were sociable or withdrawn or even anti-social."

Buses have long been thought of as vehicles for social observation and not only a means of getting from A to B.

The 19th century journalist Walter Bagehot, who edited The Economist, coined the phrase "the bald-headed man at the back of the Clapham omnibus" to describe a normal Londoner.

The phrase was later used in legal cases to describe what a hypothetical, reasonably intelligent, middle-of-the-road person might think.

Later Loelia Ponsonby, the third wife of the Second Duke of Westminster, stigmatised those who have to use them by saying that "a man who, beyond the age of 30, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure."

Political legend wrongly attributed the quotation to Lady Thatcher.

Despite the subsequent damage to their reputation, our affection for these mobile communities remains strong, to the exasperation of the likes of motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson.

Boris Johnson's nostalgic election pledge to bring back the traditional Routemaster models in a modern form, and banish Ken Livingstone's bendy-buses "to an airport in Scandivania", arguably helped him become mayor of London.

Did Palin abuse power again for future son-in-law?

A critic of Gov. Sarah Palin claimed the Alaska politician may have once again abused her power to obtain an apprenticeship for her soon-to-be son-in-law Levi Johnston.

Dan Fagan, who also publishes a Web site called the thealaskastandard.com, said federal regulations require all apprentices to have a high school diploma, which Johnston does not have.

"So how is it that the governor's soon-to-be son-in-law is working in an apprentice program?" Fagan wrote in an column. "Is this another case of the governor believing the rules don't apply to her or her family?"

Called "Troopergate" by the media, an investigation of Palin concluded in October that she abused her power as an Alaska governor in the firing of the state public safety commissioner.

Palin defended her daughter's fiance from what she considers inaccurate descriptions of Johnston as a high school dropout. Palin said he is working for his diploma through a correspondence program.

Palin said she is "over the moon" about her future son-in-law.

"You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time," Palin said in her first public statement about the father of her grandchild.

But Fagan questioned how Johnston gained entrance to the apprenticeship program when similar programs have long waiting lists. There are only three in the state, according to Fagan, and at least one of them has a waiting list of at least 100 people.

"I believe 2009 will be the year more and more Alaskans will come to realize Sarah Palin is in way over her head as governor, doesn't always play by the rules, and is, at times, less than honest," Fagan wrote.

Conn. man's last lotto ticket wins $10M for widow

DANBURY, Conn. – On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 78, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.

Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.

"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."

She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.

Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.

She does not yet know what she will do with the money.

"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one. I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun," she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. "I'm going to go home and sit and think."

The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.

"He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd say, 'Figures!'"

Did Carpet Cleaning Kill John Travolta's Son?

As celebrity actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston mourn the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, they raise questions about the potentially lethal effects of past exposure to toxic chemicals in carpet cleaners, as well as about the mysterious Kawasaki Disease -- which their son reportedly suffered from.

According to CNN, Jett died while on vacation in the Bahamas with his parents and other family members. He reportedly had a seizure and hit his head, though an autopsy has been scheduled for Monday to better determine exact cause of death. For years, Travolta and Preston have blamed their son's ill health on a poorly understood condition known as Kawasaki Disease, a noncontagious problem that is thought to be associated with a failure in the immune system, and which affects many organs, including the skin and mucous membranes, lymph nodes, blood vessel walls and heart.

Kawaski diease was first described in 1967 by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan. The disease is most prevalent in young children, especially boys and most commonly in Japan, though its incidence is reportedly rising in the U.S. as well. It affects 15 out of 100,000 U.S. children under the age of five, and is the country's leading cause of acquired heart disease. In Japan about 175 out of 100,000 kids get it.

Kawasaki disease is thought to have a component of genetic susceptibility. Yet like other autoimmune and similar problems, it may have an environmental trigger. These days the medical community is most focused on looking for an infectious agent, though no specific one has yet been found. For some time, experts thought an environmental toxin could be to blame, particularly one found in carpet cleaners. In fact, Travolta and Preston have long pointed to that route, since they say they used carpet cleaners extensively in their home when Jett was young.

However, the carpet cleaning link has lost favor among many investigators, since the results of an early study have not been replicated. A relationship between Kawasaki Disease and carpet cleaning was first reported in a case-control study published in 1982 in the medical journal Lancet (Vol. 2 No. 8298 pp 578-80). Researchers found that 11 out of 23 Denver children with Kawasaki Disease (48%) were living in homes where carpets had been shampooed within 30 days of the onset of symptoms; 10 of these children had played on the carpets two hours after they had been shampooed. In the control group (those who did not have the disease), only nine of 86 families (10%) had also shampooed carpets within 30 days. Some suggested that Kawasaki Disease could be caused by hypersensitivity to the detergents used, or by inhalation of an infectious agent (such as a bacterial toxin or virus) that becomes suspended in the air during cleaning.

When subsequent studies were done, the picture became more muddled. Three additional studies did find an association between exposure to freshly cleaned carpets within 4 hours of the cleaning process and Kawaski disease -- however, the results were the same if the carpets or upholstery were cleaned with chemicals or simply plain water. Four studies found no associations at all. When researchers tried to follow up and determine if the causative agent might be disturbing of dust mites, which they reasoned might harbor disease agents, that lead did not pan out (Can Med Assoc J. 1984 October 1; 131(7): 720.).

Currently, there is not enough evidence to suggest a causal link between carpet cleaners and Kawasaki Disease. However, there are other reasons to avoid using strong cleaning chemicals in your home, including suspected increases in susceptibility to allergies, respiratory trouble and other concerns. To be safe, a number of concerned parents are giving green cleaning a try instead.

Further complicating the issue, some pundits have argued that restriction of medical care for Jett due to his parents' Scientology beliefs may also be to blame. There has also been speculation that Jett may have suffered from autism, which isn't recognized by Scientology.

Clearly, there are more questions than answers in the unfortunate case of Jett Travolta.

114-year-old U.S. woman to be world's oldest

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Gertrude Baines, a 114-year-old California resident, will likely be crowned the world's oldest woman, according to the organization that keeps track of such honors.


Gertrude Baines told CNN two years ago that she has taken good care of herself, "the way (God) wanted me to."

The previous oldest woman was Maria de Jesus, who died this week in Portugal at age 115, Guinness World Records said.

Baines -- born to former slaves in a small town south of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1894 -- now lives in a Los Angeles nursing home.

Baines appeared cheerful and talkative when the Los Angeles Times interviewed her in November as she cast her vote for Barack Obama for president, whom she said she supported because "he's for the colored people."

"I'm glad we're getting a colored man in there," she said.

Baines apparently prefers using the older term for her race. She was well into her 70s when "African-American" became the common reference in the United States. Watch Baines speak to CNN

She told the Times she spends most of her time "doing nothing but eating and sleeping."

When CNN interviewed Baines two years ago, she was asked to explain why she thought she has lived so long.

"God. Ask him. I took good care of myself, the way he wanted me to," Baines said.

Her only child, a daughter, died of typhoid fever at age 18.

Much of her long life was lived in Ohio, where she worked as a "house mom" at a state university. She eventually divorced and traveled to Los Angeles, where she retired.

Baines will not officially be given the title until after Guinness World Records completes an investigation, the organization said.

"Maria was crowned the world's Oldest Living Woman by Guinness World Records on 28 December upon the death of Edna Parker," the group said.

Parker -- an American -- was 115 years, 220 days old when she died November 26, 2008, in an Indiana nursing home, it said

Many delta islands may be lost

Two decades ago, water breached a levee on Tyler Island, 8,800 acres along the northeastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, wiping out crops, damaging buildings and nearly destroying the Mello family's farming business. Steve Mello worries the same thing may happen again - with the approval of state policymakers who are considering whether to save some islands if increasingly fragile levees fail. It's a familiar scenario for Mello, who has heard proposals in the past to flood the land in the name of restoring a sensitive ecosystem that also serves as the hub of California's water supply.

"I feel like a lamb surrounded by wolves, and every time you turn to deal with one, another one is nipping at you," said Mello, who farms about 2,500 acres of alfalfa, corn, pears, potatoes and wheat.

Fewer structures have been more critical to California's development than the 1,100 miles of earthen levees that help funnel water through the 1,300-square-mile confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. That water, mostly runoff from mountain snowpack, flows through a web of channels to mammoth pumps in the southern delta, sending billions of gallons of water to 25 million Californians.

But the levees are in trouble, experts say. Rising seas, earthquakes, subsiding land and floods pose dire threats on top of the escalating repair costs to the state. Rather than allowing nature to decide when and how the levees give way, many researchers and policymakers say, California should manage the inevitable reshaping of the delta by deciding which levees to repair after a disaster.

No rules exist yet. But beginning this year, government, scientists, planners, environmentalists and water agencies will attempt to reconcile their views on the barriers that have defined the delta for so long.

"The delta is two or three different places," said Will Travis, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. "From the perspective of the environmentalists, the delta is a piece of geography like San Francisco Bay or Yosemite that is near and dear. For water users, the delta is really a broad, leaky ditch and the water has to get from one side of delta through south side of delta."

Levee failures common
Over the last 100 years, delta levees failed 166 times and all but three were restored. In the next century, according to a recent, influential report by the Public Policy Institute of California, the average island at the core of the delta has a 99 percent chance of being inundated by levee failure.

The study concluded that as many as 19 islands in the delta's central area should not be repaired, depending on whether their property value includes land, structures and equipment. Many of those islands have infrastructure that includes railroads, bridges, aqueducts and energy facilities. As many as a dozen should be repaired, according to UC Davis scientists who wrote the report, while 11 are undetermined.

Tyler Island, where land and assets are worth about $126 million, may not be worth saving, they say.

The 2004 flooding of one island - Jones Tract - provided a stark example of the analysis that should go into a decision on any island, the experts say. A levee along the western side of the island collapsed, resulting in six months of repairs and pumping that cost $90 million, including $60 million in tax funds. The island's land was valued at $42 million, while assets on the island were worth about $500 million.

The cost of buttressing all delta levees to widely used standards runs into the billions.

"The delta means a lot of things, but what it doesn't mean (is) that all levees that presently exist must continue to exist and be maintained at taxpayers' expense without regard for benefit, difficulty or rationality of doing so," said Phil Isenberg, chairman of the governor's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a panel tasked with developing a sustainable delta management plan.

Sinking land biggest risk
A colossal earthquake, a 100-year rainstorm and the forecast of a 4 1/2-foot rise in the sea level by 2100: Each poses threats to the delta's levees, many of which sit below the level prescribed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But scientists say one weakness compounds all of those calamities: land subsidence.

In the 150 years since some of the levees were first carved out using horse-drawn dredgers, the land protected by the levees has sunk dramatically - pushing some of it 25 feet below sea level. Scientists say such differences are putting huge stress on the levees, raising the possibility of breaks or seepage. Fears grew after the catastrophic collapse of New Orleans' levees after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A drive around Tyler Island shows that some of Mello's fields sit near the island's average elevation of 9 feet below sea level. But Mello, whose family first bought land on Tyler in 1968, believes most delta islands are not as vulnerable as some experts suggest. The lowest subsidence occurs at the center of most islands, not up against the levees, Mello said, and farmers who cultivate two-thirds of the delta's 740,000 acres are using techniques to prevent erosion. Those include less-intensive farming, less burning to level land and growing fewer crops like white asparagus, which turned the topsoil "to flour," Mello said.

In addition, reclamation districts are spending millions to upgrade their levees, including about $6 million in the last eight years to raise 7 miles of levees on Tyler Island by about a foot. "I believe many of these farms, if not all of them, can be farmed indefinitely," Mello said.

He said forcing or allowing the levees to dissolve poses other major dangers, including the release of mercury accumulated in the levees during the region's strip-mining days. While environmentalists say creating tidal marshes and open water could boost important fish and plant populations, Mello and others say islands act as buffers for each other.

"There are difficulties finding one of the major islands you could flood and leave flooded without having a domino effect," said Tom Zuckerman, a retired Stockton water lawyer who now works with the Central Delta Water Agency. "You won't just lose one island; you'll lose the adjacent ones downwind."

Scenarios for the future
The debate over the delta levees will take on new urgency in the coming years as the state grapples with how to fix a water system plagued by leaky plumbing, booming demand and concerns over ecological damage.

A controversial proposal to construct a so-called peripheral canal - which would route water from the Sacramento River around the delta to pumps in the south - dovetails with the idea to let some delta islands return to marsh or open water. In such a scenario, any increase in salty water from the broader bay-delta estuary wouldn't affect the fresh Sacramento water streaming through the separate canal.

But many of the 6,000 people who live in the delta's interior say that option doesn't recognize important transportation lines, historic communities, schools, Victorian hotels, sought-after recreational activities and family farms.

Today's delta is a far cry from the tidal marsh that pre-dated modern development or the early operations of the Gold Rush. Many experts agree the delta's mix of islands and waterways has harmed native fish and plants that depended on the ebb and flow between river and bay.

Radical change is coming, they argue, whether forced by man or nature.

"With the delta, the natural systems are very dynamic and changing rapidly now," Travis said. "It's hard to have a political, legal, regulatory system that embraces that kind of change. It's hard, but we need to make some decisions."

After working for two years away from the ranch, Mello's son Gary, 22, came back to drive combines, work on irrigation systems and learn the intricacies of accounting. Mello, 53, hopes the island survives long enough for the next generation to take over.

"I'm trying to make sure it evolves and passes to them as a viable business," Mello said. "I think they're pulling the plug way too early."


Which levees should be saved?
Researchers at UC Davis say it may not make financial sense to save all of the at-risk Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta levees.