Science News

• Scientist admits taking, leaking think-tank papers (AP)
  AP - In the field of climate science, when someone — especially skeptics — did something ethically questionable or misrepresented facts, scientist Peter Gleick was usually among the first and loudest to cry foul. He chaired a prominent scientific society's ethics committee. He created an award for what he considered lies about global warming.
  
  
• 'Little Horny Man': Rock Carving of Giant Phallus Discovered (LiveScience.com)
  LiveScience.com - A stick figure man with a giant phallus dubbed "the little horny man" by its discoverers is the oldest rock carving found yet in the Americas, researchers say.
  
  
• Tiny 'Soccer Ball' Space Molecules Could Equal 10,000 Mount Everests (SPACE.com)
  SPACE.com - For the first time, astronomers have discovered the solid form of tiny carbon spheres in deep space in vast cloud of particles locked in orbit around two distant stars.
  
  
• Pope marks Ash Wednesday (AP)
  AP - Pope Benedict XVI rode on a motorized cart in an Ash Wednesday procession, forsaking the traditional short walk between two Rome churches as the 84-year-old pontiff tries to conserve his energy.
  
  
• Lawmakers to Obama: tamp down fuel prices with oil stocks (Reuters)
  Reuters - Three Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday urged the White House to signal it is ready to tap the nation's oil stockpiles to combat surging fuel prices, arguing an "aggressive" strategy could tamp down speculation.
  
  
• Groups challenge Shell Oil's Arctic air permit (AP)
  AP - Environmental and Alaska Native groups will try to keep Shell Oil out of Arctic waters this summer by appealing an air permit that was granted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
  
  
• Environmental Groups Threaten to Sue EPA Over Proposed Ballast Water Rule (ContributorNetwork)
  ContributorNetwork - Several environmental groups are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's restrictions on ship ballast water discharge, saying the laws are too lax and are leading to the spread of invasive species in the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters, according to Reuters. The EPA is required to rewrite its ballast tank rule this year, with it set to go into effect in 2013. But if the new rule is too lax, the environmental groups are threatening possible legal action.
  
  
• Venus, Jupiter & Moon Make Skywatching Triple Play This Week (SPACE.com)
  SPACE.com - Anyone out under the stars in the early evening lately likely cannot help but notice two brilliant objects dominating the western sky: the planets Venus and Jupiter.
  
  
• 2 US rescue helicopters in Montenegro (AP)
  AP - Two U.S. helicopters arrived in Montenegro Wednesday to join rescue operations in the areas of the tiny Balkan state hit by the heaviest snowfall in 60 years.
  
  
• The nations weather (AP)
  AP - Weather Underground Forecast for Wednesday, February 22, 2012.