Do you know of any kid who has dipped his feet in the Pacific Ocean lately? It may be a strange question to ask, but a study indicates that 73% of kids these days have never done so.

Even curious is the fact that video games and other media have again taken flak for kids' being supposedly out of touch with nature. More on this topic in the full article after the jump.

Today's Astronomy picture from NASA is a beautiful view of the Earth's horizon during a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. If you've brushed up on your Astronomy (and possibly history, too), you probably know what today is. If you haven't the slightest idea, find out at the full article.

Let's get our daily dose of scientific news before the day ends, shall we? Yesterday, the US Navy fired a single missile against a failing spy satellite, and contrary to many naysayers' claims, the plan was claimed to be very effective. Officials made it clear that the satellite generously exploded into bits - football-sized bits, they say - over the Pacific Ocean. More at the full story.

Remember the news about the satellite that the US lost contact with back in late January? Well, someone believes that it might be harmful to denizens of planet Earth once it re-enters after all. The Pentagon's top brass that think shooting it down is the best way to stop NROL-21, the recon satellite, from burning up in the atmosphere and releasing its poisonous rocket fuel.

*UPDATE*: They're gonna shoot it. And they've probably launched now!

Here's one forest that should be safe from deforestation: an underwater kelp forest in the Pacific Ocean. The forest is so dense that it's home to a huge range of plants and animals with their own ecosystem. Scientists believe that they may become a refuge for animals once global climates change.

The Pacific kelp forest has plants growing from 100 to 150 feet, some brushing the surface of the ocean. It's not very impressive when viewed from above (all you'll see is floating green stuff) but beneath, the waters are brimming with life and activity, just like a tropical forest on land.

This kelp forest came as a surprise to scientists because it was found in the tropical waters of the Pacific. Normally kelp forests can be found in cooler waters and the discovery of the Pacific forest comes as a reminder that still little is known or understood about the world underneath the waters.

Eastern Pacific whales appear to be starving, and this causes scientists a big deal of distress as they cannot identify what seems to be causing this decline. Over the past few years, Dr. William Megill of Earthwatch and his team have been noticing that at the end of the migration of the grey whales, their fat has gone, and they don't seem to be as interested in breeding anymore.

One hypothesis is that there's not enough food stock going around for the whales to be kept nourished. So instead of breeding, they busy themselves looking for their food. Talk about getting their priorities straight, eh? Another guess is that the warming waters affect their productivity, as well as the number of tiny crustaceans, which are the staple dish of the grey whales.

Then again, it could just be because the population of the grey whales became "unsustainably high", especially since they bounced back from the slump during the 1997 to 1998 El Nino event. "It could just be the whales ate them all," Megill acknowledges of the lack of food for the whales, "and what we're seeing is the same thing that happens to wolf and lynx populations when they eat too much of their prey."

But could this decline in the grey whales of the Pacific be just the tip of the iceberg? "It may be a lot more serious than just grey whales - they may just be the early warning sign of changes for the whole Pacific [Ocean], and we urgently need to know what's going on."

Leatherback turtles have been around for a hundred million years now, and they are desperately trying to fend off the onslaught of man's activities which has decimated their population by 95 percent in the past two decades.

On April 16, the online community can watch as 11 of these sea turtles swim for the future of their species from Costa Rica to the Galapagos Island in Ecuador where they will hopefully lay their eggs and give birth to a new generation.

Using satellite tracking devices, scientists and everyone interested can track the movement of the turtles across the pacific as the ancient reptiles embark on their 950-mile odyssey. Participants can choose which of the turtles will make it to Galapagos. There's no reward for getting it right, but to know that hope for the species is at hand should be fulfilling enough.

The turtles are extremely endangered as a lot of their kind have died because of pollution, poaching and destruction of their habitat. These turtles can grow as big as almost six feet long and can weigh as much as 1,540 pounds.

Entanglement to fishing nets and choking on plastics mistaken for jellyfish are just some of the leading causes of turtle deaths in the Pacific ocean. If you want to check it out see www.greatturtlerace.com .

Thank God this isn't the Cold War, or the communists might have taken full advantage of what a new U.S. study just discovered. China actually has the ability to pound the West Coast with devastating hurricanes.

Does all that sound a little too sci-fi? They won't do that with a weather manipulation gizmo of sorts. All China needs to do is dump enough carbon and aerosol in the air and they're locked and loaded.

According to a study conducted at the Texas A&M University, the industrial boom in China and the Indian subcontinent have resulted in a higher degree of air pollution in these countries. Smoke from vehicles, power plants, and factories have increased dramatically and lowered air quality in the said regions.

The emissions given off by the industries contribute to a higher degree of cloud formation which is blown off across the Pacific Ocean and into North America, leading to an increase of more than half the old number of storms battering coastline states. This is most evident during the winter when China burns more fuel to generate heat for homes and industries.

The Chinese government has responded to the issue well, coming up with political measures to address the problem. The only thing the country needs to figure out now is how to make their solution work given the fact that they're building a new power plant every week.

Here's the old bad news" Killer asteroids and comets are lurking stealthily in our solar system. There are about 20,000 of them which pose a threat to our lives. The good news is that NASA says it can detect these space monsters and devise a plan to save life on Earth as we know it.

Here's the new bad news: Washington says that even if NASA reduces its proposed budget by 70 percent, the answer is still no and the plan is denied the funding necessary to save us all. It leaves NASA - and the rest of the world - sightless to defend itself. Simon "Pete" Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center said "We know what to do, we just don't have the money."

After reports rattled the world of an asteroid which may hit the Pacific ocean in 2008 were released and debunked, the U.S. congress ordered NASA to devise a way to track down such threats and propose a way to avoid a catastrophe. NASA did just that, and the budget proposed rings to the tune of one billion dollars.

Asteroids that measure 460 feet in diameter are considered threats. To contextualize just what kind of horrors can happen if one enters the atmosphere, NASA had this to say:

Even if the asteroid burns up and shatter to pieces in the atmosphere, the particles raining down can obliterate a small American state like Maryland. If it hits the ocean, colossal tidal waves will follow, and if it's big enough to land intact for deep impact, the blast can rival the one that supposedly wiped the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth.

The best and fastest way to track asteroids is through a space infrared telescope which will cost about 1.1 billion dollars. A cheaper 800-million dollar solution is to mount a new telescope to one of NASA's existing telescopes. The cheapest is to cooperate with other agencies around the world and mount the new telescope into one of theirs. That would bring the cost down to 300-million dollars.

Washington, however, still says that all the solutions are too costly. John Logsdon, space policy director at George Washington University emphasized the need to keep track of these space-based threats and concluded "you can't deflect them if you can't find them."

In some species of reptiles, gender is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. Warmer temperatures often produce more females, while cooler temperatures produce males, and because of this, scientists believe that global warming could have a major impact on the endangered Hawaiian green sea turtles by changing its natural sex ratio.

Researchers at Sea Life Park, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Alabama have been studying how temperature affects gender determination of Hawaiian green sea turtles as they develop in their eggs. "With the results of this research, we will be able to predict with quite a bit of accuracy how weather patterns impact the reproductive colonies (of the sea turtle)," according to Renato Lenzi, general manager of Sea Life Park.

In order to determine how temperature affects sex determination in the animals, about 250 sea turtle eggs at Sea Life Park were harvested and divided among three incubators set at different temperatures. The researchers will then use a harmless surgical procedure to check the sex of each individual turtle. Scientists will insert a tiny micro-laparoscope — the size of a strand of hair — into each turtles' sex organ to identify its gender.

The data will help researchers predict how climate changes will affect the sea turtle population years from now and how conservation organizations can address the possibility of gender imbalance.