CORNUCOPIERRE

Ceausescu in North Korea, 1971

2011-12-26T15:17:00.001-08:00

http://www.wimp.com/ceausescuvisit/

Taxi!

2011-12-26T15:09:00.001-08:00

http://www.wimp.com/besttaxi/

Noel

2011-12-22T16:28:00.001-08:00

Bonne année et bonne santé! Seasons Greetings!

May all that you wish for be fulfilled to its fullest in 2012 (but don't blame me if it doesn't happen, okay!) :) Let's hope for fewer economic and political catastrophies next year. I somehow doubt that this message will make a difference. In the MEANtime,...

Dans l'espoir que la prochaine année sera moins catastrophique sur le plan financier et politique au niveau macro-économique. Je doute que ce message fasse l'affaire, cependant! :) ) Donc, faisons comme Candide et occupons-nous de notre petit jardin!

Happy NEW YEAR to all!

Pierre

PS: I wish I were able to design such a clever --albeit light-hearted-- video.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2011-12-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

Hoe ?

Toothless Dictator!

2011-12-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

Lab-Grown Lungs

2011-11-23T11:49:00.001-08:00

Growing new body parts has always been more science fiction than science reality, but that balance may quickly be shifting, at least in the lab. Relying on more sophisticated biosimulators that can better mimic body conditions, researchers have re-created the delicate architecture of a rat lung accurately enough for it to assume 95% of a normal lung's inhaling and exhaling functions. The key to their respiratory success was starting with a skeletal rat-lung template, including a matrix of blood vessels and collagen and other connective tissue, then seeding it with stem cells and nutrients to generate lifelike tissue that exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide just like normal lung tissue. The ultimate goal is to replicate the feat on a larger scale: to replace enough human lung tissue to aid patients with emphysema or lung cancer.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030617_2029715,00.html #ixzz1eYlzWNdELab-Grown Lungs

First Synthetic Cell

2011-11-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

Creating life in the lab? It wasn't such a stretch for J. Craig Venter, who successfully co-mapped the human genome in 2001. Even while completing that feat, the genetic cartographer wondered if he could string together DNA and make life of the bacterial kind from scratch. So like a biological Lego builder, he started with off-the-shelf chemicals and, after 15 years of painstaking trial and error, managed to reconstruct the genome of a bacterium that successfully "booted up," dividing and replicating just like any other bug. Such synthetic life, he hopes, will make it possible to, among other things, generate new forms of man-made biofuel and speed up vaccine production by making it easier to create large amounts of whichever strains of influenza are circulating in a particular season.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030617_2029702,00.html #ixzz1eYlnsQgEFirst Synthetic Cell

The Malaria-Proof Mosquito and The Mosquito Laser

2011-11-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a bad year to be a mosquito. The world's most annoying insect is responsible for 250 million cases of malaria per year — and 1 million deaths. But scientists at the University of Arizona have genetically engineered a mosquito that's immune to the Plasmodium parasite, the malaria-causing agent it transmits with its bite. The next step is to make the new mosquito hardier than the ordinary kind, then release it into the wild (perhaps within 10 years), where it will displace the deadly variety. Meanwhile, former Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold, working with the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, is developing a laser that can zap mosquitoes without harming other insects or humans. The laser targets the mosquitoes' size and signature wing beat and sends the bugs down in a burst of flame, making their deaths good for public health and, well, kind of cool.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030618_2029819,00.html #ixzz1eYlLVbyiThe Malaria-Proof Mosquito and The Mosquito Laser

Electric-Car Charging Stations

2011-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Electric-Car Charging Stations

t's the chicken-and-egg problem of electric vehicles: until there's a network of road-embedded rechargers (see No. 17) or a series of stations where drivers can charge their batteries — similar to the gas stations we depend on now — an electric car is inherently limited. Coulomb Technologies is working to break that deadlock. The company is building a system of automated charging stations in public places that are connected to utilities, so the charge for your charge can be added to your home electricity bill. And if your utility hasn't partnered with Coulomb, you can call a toll-free number and pay with your credit card.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030622_2029710,00.html #ixzz1eYkhLfiy

Antro Electric Car

2011-11-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

Antro Electric Car

The car of the future, now coming from: Hungary. Yes, it sounds like communist propaganda circa 1967, but the Hungarian designer Antro might just have made a superefficient, supercheap car that could put Western manufacturers to shame. The Antro Solo can hold up to three people — a driver and two passengers, one on either side — who pedal to help drive the ultralight car. The rest of the forward motion comes from an electric motor that's partly powered by solar panels. If you need a bigger car, Antro has a solution: two Solos can be combined, Transformers-style, to create the family-

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030622_2029708,00.html #ixzz1eYkTLHnk

Square

2011-11-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

Square

There might not be a piece of tech more due for an update than the cash register. Enter Square, a payment platform created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. With the aid of a tiny magnetic card reader that attaches to a smart phone, Square lets anyone process credit cards. It might not do away with paper entirely — plenty of people still prefer cash — but you certainly don't need to wait for a receipt: sign on the screen, and Square sends a copy straight to e-mail.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030652_2029712,00.html #ixzz1eYjZwpjU

Kickstarter

2011-11-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

Kickstarter

Think of Kickstarter as crowdsourced philanthropy — a website where anyone can donate any amount to a project in development, with no money changing hands until a minimum threshold has been met. Case in point: Californian Magen Callaghan wanted to launch a new comic about a half-human, half-zombie character. To create and market a first issue, she estimated a cost of $1,500, so she wrote a pitch letter and solicited a sliding scale of donations. (Five bucks gets you a signed copy, $100 a bag of zombie swag.) Only after she passed the $1,500 benchmark were her pledges called in. Additional proof that this strategy works: the success story of the EyeWriter (see No. 49), a project launched by Kickstarter. It's low-risk, grass-roots fundraising — $1 at a time.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030652_2029823,00.html #ixzz1eYjJ47zU

Looxcie

2011-11-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

Looxcie

Just when you thought you'd seen it all — and recorded it — Looxcie, a camera worn over the ear, ups the ante. Invented by a parent who found himself fumbling with video cameras while trying to record children's parties, Looxcie can capture everything the user sees for up to five hours, hands-free. And with the press of a button, a clip of the last 30 seconds of film can be sent to a Facebook page, YouTube or a preset e-mail address — making Looxcie the perfect device for the age of audio-video oversharing.

Bloom Box

2011-11-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Bloom Box

Inventors have tried to use hydrogen fuel cells as a cleaner way to create commercial electricity, but they've always been limited by the cost. That's beginning to change, however, thanks to a California start-up called Bloom Energy. Its Bloom Box — about half the size of a shipping container — generates electricity using solid oxide fuel cells, which provide juice by oxidizing a fuel source. In the case of the Bloom Box, that fuel source is natural gas, though the company hopes to substitute cleaner sources in the future. Silicon Valley companies like Google and eBay are already using Bloom Boxes for greener backup power, at a cost of about $800,000 each.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030623_2029713,00.html #ixzz1eYibIBeE

Deep Green Underwater Kite

2011-11-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

Deep Green Underwater Kite

Sugru

2011-11-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

Sugru

Looks like Play-Doh, acts like Super Glue. Sugru, a brightly colored silicone rubber, is the brainchild of designer Jane ni Dhulchaointigh, who worked with scientists for five years to develop a material soft enough to mold yet durable enough to fix or "hack" things so they work better. Sugru (Gaelic for play) sticks to everything from metal to fabric and can be used to craft an array of improvements — softer corners, grippier handles, more comfortable shoes, even more decorative glasses.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030629_2029789,00.html #ixzz1eYheixlU

The English-Teaching Robot

2011-11-23T11:27:00.001-08:00

The English-Teaching Robot

Woolfiller

2011-11-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

Woolfiller

The (Almost) Waterless Washing Machine

2011-11-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

The (Almost) Waterless Washing Machine

In Search of the Ideal Grid Battery - Technology Review

2011-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

In Search of the Ideal Grid Battery - Technology Review

The electrodes maintain 83 percent of their charge capacity after 40,000 cycles—in comparison, lead-acid batteries last a few hundred cycles, while lithium-ion batteries typically last for 1,000.

Lawmakers trade stock on inside information!

2011-11-15T09:08:00.001-08:00

SHOCKING and REVOLTING! This is why we have the Occupy movement taking place! Personaly, a revolt would be more appropriate!

Gang violence being fuelled by prohibition on pot: report

2011-10-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Gang violence being fuelled by prohibition on pot: report

The Liars Club

2011-07-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

The Liars Club

The future!

2010-12-07T01:51:00.001-08:00

In a few years,...

Improving English Literacy

2010-03-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/

A jet-boat!

2010-01-09T00:55:00.000-08:00

Nice, but what is the price of kerosene?

Vancouver - Whistler Olympics: Poverty is not a game!

2009-12-27T06:58:00.001-08:00

paradoxes

2009-06-05T19:23:00.001-07:00

EVER WONDER where we are headed...
Why the sun lightens our hair,
but darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara
with their mouth closed?

Why you don't ever see the headline:
"Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why "abbreviated" is such a long word?

Why Doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why you have to click on "Start"
to stop Windows 98?

Why lemon juice is made with artificial flavour, while dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons?

Why the man who invests all your money is called a "Broker"?

Why there isn't mouse flavoured cat food?

Who tastes dog food when it has a
"new & improved" flavour?

Why Noah didn't swat those two mosquitoes?

Why they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

Why they don't make the whole plane out of the material used for the indestructible black box?

Why sheep don't shrink when it rains?

Why they are called apartments when
they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro,
is Congress the opposite of progress?

Why they call the airport "the terminal"
if flying is so safe?

AND...

In case you need further proof that the human race is doomed because of stupidity, here are some actual label instructions on consumer goods.

On a Myer hairdryer:
"Do not use while sleeping".
(Darn, and that's the only time I have to work on my hair).

On a bag of Chips:
You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside.
(The shoplifter special?)

On a bar of Palmolive soap:
"Directions: Use like regular soap".
(And that would be how???)

On some frozen dinners:
"Serving suggestion: Defrost".
(But, it's just a suggestion).

On Nana's Tiramisu dessert
(printed on bottom):
"Do not turn upside down".
(Well...duh, a bit late, huh)!

On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding:
"Product will be hot after heating".
(And you thought????...)

On packaging for a K-Mart iron:
"Do not iron clothes on body".
(But wouldn't this save me more time?)

On Boot's Children Cough Medicine:
"Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication".
(We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5 year olds with head colds off those forklifts.)

On Nytol Sleep Aid:
"Warning: May cause drowsiness".
(And...I'm taking this because???)

On most brands of Christmas lights:
"For indoor or outdoor use only".
(As opposed to...what?)

On a Japanese food processor:
"Not to be used for the other use".
(Now, somebody out there, help me on this. I'm a bit curious.)

On Nobby's peanuts:
"Warning: contains nuts".
(Talk about a news flash!)

On an American Airlines packet of nuts:
"Instructions: Open packet, eat nuts".
(Step 3: maybe, uh...fly Delta?)

I don't blame the company, I blame the parents for this one:
On a child's superman costume:
"Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly".

On a Swedish chainsaw:
"Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals".
(Was there a lot of this happening somewhere?)

an electric municipal garbage truc

2009-02-07T22:50:00.001-08:00

February 5, 2009 Mr. Fusion it ain't, but in what is believed to be a world first, a small town in the UK has debuted an electric municipal garbage truck that's powered by the garbage it collects. Kirklees council has deployed a modified Ford Transit with a 40kWh lithium-ion battery pack as its first silent garbage truck - and the trash it collects is burned back at the Energy from Waste center, generating enough energy to recharge the truck's batteries and pump another ten megawatts back into the power grid.

The British town of Huddersfield may be the first in the world to have a fully electric garbage truck, let alone one that is powered by its own garbage. The truck is a 3.5-tonne Ford Transit that has been retro-fitted with a 40kWh lithium-ion battery pack, giving it a top speed of 50mph and a range of around 100 miles, which is more than enough to make the rounds of the 25 new "split bins" around town.

Back at the plant, much of the garbage is burned in an electricity generator. Around 10 megawatts per day is returned to the national power grid, and the council have installed a charging station for the van to hook up with overnight for a full 6-8 hour charge. Sensible thinking!

4D technique promises new insights into brain function

2009-01-25T18:39:00.000-08:00

4D technique promises new insights into brain function: "January 23, 2009 It’s kind of ironic that the very organ that gives us our intelligence and understanding of the world around us is also the one we understand the least. Now a novel 4D colorimetric technique developed by researchers at Florida Atlantic University, (FAU), that simultaneously maps four dimensions of brain data, (magnitude, 2D of cortical surface and time), in EEG signals could dramatically change the way neuroscientists are able to understand how the brain operates. The technique makes it possible to observe and interpret oscillatory activity of the entire brain as it evolves in time, millisecond by millisecond, so that for the first time, true episodes of brain coordination can be spotted"

More than 25 per cent of pregnant Albertans smoke: Study

2008-12-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

"EDMONTON — Researchers have determined that an alarming number of pregnant women in Alberta smoke — particularly young women who live in the north.

A newly released 2005 Alberta Health study took samples from 28,484 women, which were randomly selected from 50,599 samples used to test for infectious disease markers during pregnancy.
The levels of detected contaminants were mostly normal, except for cotinine, a nicotine metabolite and marker of cigarette smoke exposure"

EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids

2008-12-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

"EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations 02 December 2008

BERKELEY — University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.
In a study recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity."

Honda to market electric motorcycle by 2010

2008-12-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

"December 19, 2008 HondaHonda has been quick to signal some radical changes in direction to enable it to endure the tough times expected in 2009. Following news that it is cancelling all F1 racing involvement and development, and likewise with the successor to the NSX sports carHow-to-Import-Your-Own-Supercar , the company has announced it intends to pursue ever cleaner automotive technologies and the most exciting of its announcements is that it will have an electric motorcyclehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle on the market before the end of 2010. Honda’s original core product was the motorcycle and history shows that motorcycle sales remain strong in difficult times – the Honda announcement of an electric motorcycle is likely to spur rivals Yamaha and Suzuki into action, with both having shown fantastic electric bikes already, and both afraid to give Honda a head start in what will surely be a massive market."

The Disappearing Male

2008-12-14T09:24:00.001-08:00

The Disappearing Male

"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects." Dr. Herbert Needleman

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.

The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. Some researchers say that declining male fertility rates could be the first sign of extinction.

At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.

Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called "hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

HP and Arizona State University reveal flexible, unbreakable display

2008-12-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

"December 10, 2008 HP and Arizonahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona State University (ASU) have announced the first prototype of their affordable, flexible electronic displays. The unbreakable displays were created by ASU’s Flexible Display Center and HP using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology developed by HP Labs, HP’s central research arm. HP claims the production feat is a milestonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milestone in the industry’s efforts to create a mass market for high-resolution flexible displays. Plus, from an environmental standpoint, the displays leapfrog conventional display processes by using up to 90 percent less materials by volume"

FloDesign :: Aerospace Technologies Everywhere

2008-12-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

"FloDesign innovates energy with technology that changes the way we capture the wind."

Dimensional Imaging - World Leading 3D & 4D Surface Imaging

2008-11-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Dimensional Imaging - World Leading 3D & 4D Surface Imaging

Technology Review: Plastic E-Reader Debut

2008-10-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, Cambridge University startup Plastic Logic, which is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, will open a factory in Dresden, Germany, that will produce about 11 million large, flexible electronic-paper display units a year. The displays will be used in an electronic reader that the company showed at the Demo conference in San Diego last week. The product, which is scheduled to be commercially launched in January, uses display technology from E Ink and backplane technologies that employ polymer electronics developed by Plastic Logic's founders at Cambridge University

BioSolar

2008-10-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

BioSolar, Inc. has developed a breakthrough technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources that will reduce the cost per watt of solar cells.

The Toyotron Hunter Electric Motorcycle

2008-09-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Toyotron Hunter Electric Motorcycle: "REVISED July 31, 2008 Given the reluctance of the big four Japanese motorcycle manufacturers to sacrifice their existing markets by introducing electric motorcycleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle , the window of opportunity for small and innovative manufacturers to work with the Chinese manufacturing powerhouse to create pollution-free motorcycles that run at negligible cost is wide open. A new electric-only motorcycle manufacturer hit the scene this month in Thailand, moving the country ahead of many first world countries in the quest for sustainable transport. It borrows quite a bit from what has been before, but it looks the goods.
Toyotron is a new Thai company with three electric motorcycles in its range and plans to add two more in the very near future. Now we're not suggesting for a moment that the name has any relationship to that other well known brand which sells more motor vehicles than Ford and General MotorsGeneral Motors , but ... well, check"

New study identifies mechanism linking stress to physical illness and premature aging

2008-09-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

New study identifies mechanism linking stress to physical illness and premature aging

September 6, 2008 Stress is a function of our primal origins. When the body is under stress, it boosts production of cortisol to support the 'fight or flight' response we all have at the heart of our operating system. If the hormone remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, though, it wears down the immune system. Every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. Previous studies have shown that an enzyme within the cell, called telomerase, keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing. UCLA scientists have found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres.
The research was published in the May 2008 issue of the peer-reviewed journal “Brain, Behavior and Immunity” and reveals how stress makes people more susceptible to illness. The findings also suggest a potential drug target for preventing damage to the immune systems of individuals suffering from long-term stress — such as caregivers to chronically ill family members, soldiers, air traffic controllers, astronauts and people who drive long daily commutes.
“We are testing therapeutic ways of enhancing telomerase levels to help the immune system ward off cortisol's effect”, said study author Rita Effros, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “If we're successful, one day a pill may exist to strengthen the immune system's ability to weather chronic emotional stress."

Researchers open new 'window' on solar energy: Cost effective devices expected on market soon

2008-07-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Researchers open new 'window' on solar energy: Cost effective devices expected on market soon: "The work, to be reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of a novel 'solar concentrator.' 'Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges,' explains Marc A. Baldo, leader of the work and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering."

What the Gay Brain Looks Like - TIME

2008-06-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

"Scientists at the Karolinska Institute studied brain scans of 90 gay and straight men and women, and found that the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men. In heterosexual women, the two halves of the brain are more or less the same size. In heterosexual men, the right hemisphere is slightly larger. Scans of the brains of gay men in the study, however, showed that their hemispheres were relatively symmetrical, like those of straight women, while the brains of homosexual women were asymmetrical like those of straight men. The number of nerves connecting the two sides of the brains of gay men were also more like the number in heterosexual women than in straight men."

Who is responsible for the global food crisis?

2008-06-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Excerpt:

The record escalation of food prices has played havoc with every link in the food chain, from grain merchants to futures markets, from publicly traded food companies to consumers.

Producers such as Mr. Giessel now find themselves on the front line of a mushrooming global crisis, one that has sparked violent protests in some of the world's poorest countries, prompting aid agencies to warn of a pending humanitarian catastrophe.

In the search for answers, pundits have attempted to pin the blame on the usual suspects: rising demand from China and India, bad crop conditions and booming ethanol production.

Yet one major culprit behind these gyrating markets and unprecedented price spikes has been largely overlooked: the deep-pocketed pension and index funds upon which most Canadians and Americans depend for their retirements.

These funds have plowed hundreds of billions of dollars into agricultural commodities as a way to diversify their assets and improve returns for their investors.

The amount of fund money invested in commodity indexes has climbed from just $13-billion (U.S.) in 2003 to a staggering $260-billion in March, 2008, according to calculations based on regulatory filings.

Michael Masters, a veteran U.S. hedge fund manager, warned a Senate hearing this month that this number could easily quadruple to $1-trillion, if pension funds allocate a greater portion of their portfolio to commodities, as some consultants suggest they are poised to do. Because agricultural markets are small — relative to stock markets — the amount of cash pouring in gives these funds substantial clout.

Mr. Masters estimated that that these big institutional investors control enough wheat futures to supply the needs of American consumers for the next two years, and blamed the "demand shock" from these recent entrants to the commodities markets as arguably the primary factor behind the sudden take-off in food prices.

"If immediate action is not taken, food and energy prices will rise higher still," he told the hearing. "This could have catastrophic economic effects on millions of already stressed U.S. consumers. It literally could mean starvation for millions of the world's poor."

The massive influx of cash has only occurred in the past few years. But its roots stretch back to the Reagan era, when a court battle over oil price manipulation set off a domino effect that would ultimately transform the arcane world of commodities trading.

Beginning with the energy market, regulators made a series of far-reaching decisions that gradually loosened oversight of complex commodity derivatives and created loopholes for large speculators, allowing them to trade virtually unlimited amounts of corn, wheat and other food futures.

Only now, nearly two decades later, are the full consequences of those decisions being felt.

79% of homeless boys exploited by women

2008-05-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

"Canada's largest study into the sexual exploitation of street kids and runaways has shattered some myths about who the abusers might be --with the most surprising finding being that many are women seeking sex with young males.

'Some youth in each gender were exploited by women with more than three out of four (79%) sexually exploited males reporting exchanging sex for money or goods with a female,' said Elizabeth Saewyc, associate professor of nursing at the University of B.C. and principal investigator for the study conducted by Vancouver's McCreary Centre Society.

'I must admit it wasn't something we were expecting.'"

http://www.nursing.ubc.ca/PDFs/ItsNotWhatYouThink.pdf

Gender of exploiters

The 2006 survey of younger street-involved and marginalized youth asked two questions about
exchanging sex for money or goods: about whether youth had ever exchanged sex with a
male, and with a female. Just under half of respondents chose to answer those two questions
(49%), but among those who did answer, contrary to common stereotypes, the results showed
both men and women sexually exploit youth. Youth of any gender were still most likely to be
exploited by males (70%), but half
(50%) of sexually exploited youth who
answered the questions reported that
they had exchanged sex for money
or goods with females. Around 1 in 5
youth had been exploited by both men
and women, nearly 1 in 3 had been
exploited only by women, and half
only by men.

http://www.mcs.bc.ca/rs_facts.htm

Jet lagged? Next time skip airplane food: study

2008-05-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Jet lagged? Next time skip airplane food: study: "Skipping airplane meals and fasting for an extended period of time may help ease travellers' jet lag, suggests a U.S. study on circadian rhythms.

Lead researcher Patrick M. Fuller of the Beth Deaconess Medical Center in Boston theorizes a food-based clock overrides the standard light-based regulator in animals when food is scarce.

'When food is plentiful, circadian rhythms of animals are powerfully entrained by the light-dark cycle,' said the study published in the May 22 issue of Science.

'However, if animals have access to food only during their normal sleep cycle, they will shift most of their circadian rhythms to match the food availability.'"

Vitamin D: Boning up on the sunshine vitamin

2008-05-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Imagine incorporating an inexpensive, single supplement into your life that forces you to get a little sunshine and promises to strengthen your bones, thwart different forms of cancer, stave off multiple sclerosis and autoimmune disorders and fight infections.

New research into the preventive benefits of vitamin D has raised hopes that the sunshine vitamin, which is produced naturally in the body through exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, could extend and improve people's lives.

In September 2007, an analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials involving people over the age of 50 found that people who took at least 500 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily had a seven per cent lower risk of death compared with those given a placebo.

Lead researcher Dr. Philippe Autier said it was not clear how the supplements lowered risks of mortality, but he suggested that Vitamin D may block cancer cell proliferation or improve blood vessel and immune system functions. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reviewed research involving 57,311 participants.

Gene therapy restores vision in nearly blind patients

2008-04-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

"Some vision was restored in four of the six young people who got the treatment, teams of researchers in the United States and Britain reported Sunday. Two of the volunteers who could only see hand motions were able to read a few lines of an eye chart within weeks.

'It's a phenomenal breakthrough,' said Stephen Rose, chief research officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which helped pay for one study done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The operation involves injecting fluid with missing gene within a modified virus into the eye. A fine needle (cannula) is passed through the front of the eye and across the vitreous gel. The cannula is pushed through the retina, light sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eye. The fluid is injected beneath the retina, causing it to detach from the underlying pigment layer.

Cells in the pigment layer absorb the fluid and the retina returns to its normal position. The virus infects cells of the pigment layer, supplying the gene required for normal sight.
If successful in larger numbers, experts said, the technique has the potential to reverse blindness from other kinds of inherited eye diseases. 'I think this is incredibly exciting,' said Dr. Jean Bennett, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leader of the Philadelphia study. 'It's the beginning of a whole new phase of studies.'"

Bioplastics: Environmentally Unfriendly, Contributing To The Food Crisis

2008-04-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

"About those bioplastic bags - you know, the ones you've been using to assuage your eco-conscious guilt - turns out not only are they not as green as you think, they could also be partially responsible for the global food crisis. A worldwide effort by bag-heavy industries to replace petroleum-based plastics with plant-based plastics could actually lead to more environmental problems, according to a study by the Guardian UK.

The bags, made from sugarcane, corn or wheat, can increase greenhouse gas emissions because they require higher temperatures to decompose. Even the biodegradable versions don't disintegrate as planned when thrown into the anaerobic environment of a landfill. The lack of oxygen causes the bags to release methane, which is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

They also tend to screw up recycling operations by contaminating the waste stream and making regular recycled plastics unsaleable. Recycling companies would need to invest in extremely expensive equipment to extract bioplastic packaging from regular waste.

Not to mention, bioplastics also compete for land with food and biofuel. The industry, which is growing by 20 to 30% a year, may take over several million more acres of farmland within the next half decade. With rising food prices set to push another 100 million people into poverty, maybe it's time everyone just ditched plastics all together."

Energy-positive wind powered rotating skyscraper set to begin construction in Dubai - Image 4 of 4 - gizmag Image Gallery

2008-04-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

"April 18, 2008 Dubai has well earned its reputation for architectural extravagance and excess. Not a cent has been spared as various developers vie to produce the biggest, the most stunning, the most luxurious and the most outrageous projects ever undertaken. And while this next project is right up there in terms of luxury, exclusivity and head-spinning architectural genius, it adds a fascinating extra dimension - the ability to generate ten times as much power as it will use. Each floor of Dynamic Architecture's wind-powered rotating skyscraper is a single apartment with the ability to rotate independently, giving residents the ability to choose a new view at the touch of a button - quite a party trick. Wind turbines between each floor will generate a vast surplus of electricity capable of powering the whole surrounding neighborhood. Construction is set to begin soon in Dubai, with a second tower to follow in Moscow and numerous other sites around the world being considered."

Vois sur ton chemin

2008-04-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Caresses sur l'ocean - les choristes

2008-04-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Aeroscraft ML866 Milestone

2008-04-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

"April 8, 2008 A spectacular new type of aircraft is one step closer to take-off with the announcement that the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has accepted the type certification application for the Aeroscraft model Aeros ML866.

Described as a new paradigm in air transport, the 64 meter (210 ft) long, 36 meter (118 ft) wide ML866 is a a buoyancy assisted air vehicle with a rigid structure that generates lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy. Along with a range of more than 3000 miles and a top speed of 138mph, it boasts some unique properties for a craft of its size including the ability to hover, take-off and land vertically, complete autonomy from airports, not to mention incredible aerial views.
The mammoth 5000ft square cabin area also opens up a range of possible applications for the aircraft, from cargo transport and mining to use as a luxurious private sky yacht or a fully functional conference center.

“The Aeroscraft will be type certified as a new type of aircraft. This is a monumental step forward in the aerospace industry. It is a new dimension of flight – an aircraft that utilizes adjustable buoyant and dynamic lift, creating unique capabilities beyond what is available from any other air platform today,” said Aeros president and CEO Igor Pasternak. “This is a significant milestone in an overall Aeroscraft development program. I am absolutely confident in the project’s successful completion.”"

Biofuel From A Termite's Butt?

2008-04-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

"Termites mainly eat dead wood with very little nutritional value, effectively converting it to energy needed to survive and thrive. How do they do it?

The answer lies deep inside their digestive systems where hundreds of different bacteria and microorganisms live symbiotically. It's a common trade-off in nature."

How to Find Other "Earths"

2008-04-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

"Astronomers are keen to find a rocky, Earth-like planet revolving around a Sun-like star; it's the most likely place to find life as we know it. But the technologies used to find such planets, which work by analyzing starlight, haven't been up to the task. Now researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have adapted a relatively young laser technology to discern the once undetectably faint gravitational influence such planets exert on their home stars' light output.

Their system increases the precision of spectrographs--optics used to analyze light from distant stars--by a hundred times, and it should make it possible to detect Earth-like planets. This May, Harvard senior lecturer Ronald Walsworth and postdoc Chih-Hao Li will be installing the system at the Multiple Mirror Telescope on Mount Hopkins, in Arizona."

> gasification

2008-04-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

"The proposal for Red Deer and 14 other area municipalities appears to be the most ambitious and high-tech of Alberta’s gasification projects.

When our plant is in production, up to 200 tonnes a day of municipal waste will be chopped into little pieces and passed through a plasma field to be broken into its organic molecule building blocks.
Building costs could be as high as $100 million

All that is supposed to escape are water vapour, carbon dioxide, an inorganic slag that looks like solidified lava, and electricity. Some of the power will be used to run the garbage chopper and plasma arc, but the net energy gain is expected to be enough to power 200 average-sized homes."

Elephants use a water pouch to cool

2008-03-28T14:10:00.001-07:00

Video of elephants using a water pouch to cool themselves down.

> Important Medical Breakthrough > Cancer, diabetes, liver

2008-03-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Writing in Nature, a Danish team said they had "silenced" key genetic material in cells called RNA, thought to play an important role in disease.

Working on monkeys, they cut the animals' cholesterol levels by silencing strands of micro-RNA in liver cells controlling its metabolism.

Previous tests had only been carried out in a test-tube, or on rodents.

The study holds out hope for the treatment of liver diseases.

The team from the Copenhagen-based drug firm Santaris Pharma are aiming to use their findings to develop a treatment for Hepatitis C rather than high cholesterol, for which there are already a number of effective treatments.

But they say the technique could ultimately be employed to treat a range of conditions, including certain types of cancer, cardiac diseases and metabolic problems like diabetes.

Taking charge

The treatment is based on the idea of silencing certain types of RNA, which scientists have increasingly come to understand as the main regulator of what goes on in a cell.

Types of RNA have been identified which have been associated with disease.

There is evidence to suggest, for example, that levels of one form of RNA are extremely elevated in lymphomas, and that they are not just a symptom but a driver of the disease.

Dolphins use material for sex display

2008-03-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

"They would also throw it or smash it against the surface, and it does appear that the waving around and bashing is to impress the ladies; but at the same time there's a lot of aggression between adult males, and we have to infer that's part of it."

Professor Martin's group established that rock carrying and branch thrashing were almost exclusively the preserve of adult males, and that they did it more when lots of adult females were present.

Although the males were more aggressive towards each other at these times, they were never seen to hit each other with the rocks or plants.

Sound theory

Three years ago, scientists found bottlenose dolphins in Australian waters carrying pieces of sponge, either to help with foraging or to defend against predators.

But using objects for socio-sexual display is a novel finding.

"I naively imagined this kind of thing was seen in other mammal species," said Professor Martin.
"But I was quite surprised when I consulted friends and colleagues, and it turns out that only chimps do anything similar - and that's much less sophisticated."

How and why the boto evolved the behaviour is unclear; although as cetaceans communicate largely with sound, it appears likely that the displays also create an impressive auditory impact on females, rival males, or both.

Oldest recorded voices - French invention, not Edison's

2008-03-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice.

A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.

The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines.

"When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP.
"The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke."
Sheet music

The short song was captured on April 9, 1860 by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville.

Paint Your Home For Power

2008-03-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

"Forget old-news solar-power shingles: a team from Swansea in the UK have found a way of creating solar 'panel' paint. A by-product of their research into degrading paint on steel surfaces, their invention is applied in layers to steel cladding, and converts a gentle 5% of inbound solar energy to electricity. Sounds like not much, until you multiply it up over the surface area of a building.

It seems like a great eco-friendly idea, especially when you consider project leader Dave Worsley's figures: if just one manufacturer made all their steel cladding energy-producing, it would have the same generator capacity as 50 wind farms."

Solving the drug price crisis

2008-03-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

Solving the drug price crisis: "March 24, 2008 The mounting U.S. drug price crisis can be contained and eventually reversed by separating drug discovery from drug marketing and by establishing a non-profit company to oversee funding for new medicines, according to two MIT experts on the pharmaceutical industry. Stan Finkelstein, M.D., senior research scientist in MIT's Engineering Systems Division, and Peter Temin, Elisha Gray II Professor of Economics, present their research and detail their proposal in their new book, 'Reasonable Rx: Solving the Drug Price Crisis,' published by Financial Times Press."

The self-inflating tire

2008-03-26T00:14:00.000-07:00

The self-inflating tire: "The Self Inflating Tire (SIT) system consists of a tube chamber integrated into the tire wall that acts as a peristaltic pump, inflating the tire as it turns against the road, regardless of the speed at which the vehicle is traveling. Once a pre-set pressure is achieved a managing valve automatically shuts down any further inflation, resulting in a simple, maintenance free way to keep tire pressure at an optimal level without the use of externally stored compressed air."

Alzheimer's detection using near-infrared light

2008-03-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

"The technique is now being tested for its effectiveness at diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in living people.
The team’s research was recently published in the Optical Society of America’s journal, Optics Letters. The full article, “Scattering Differentiates Alzheimer Disease In Vitro', is available to read online. Accurate, early detection of Alzheimer's could save many lives. While there is no cure for the disease, clinically proven treatments can slow its progress—especially if they are administered early on. Moreover, being able to follow the disease progression over time would greatly enhance the ability of researchers and pharmaceutical companies to find new and improved drugs and treatment strategies for people at all stages of the disease."

END WAR!

2008-03-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

> The Fine Structure of a Frozen Virus

2008-03-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

"By refining an emerging imaging technique and harnessing a powerful computer network, researchers have glimpsed the three-dimensional structure of a virus in unprecedented detail. The images, which capture the virus in a near-native state, have fine enough resolution that the backbones of individual proteins can be traced--a feat never before accomplished for a whole, intact organism.

'It's a major development,' says Paul Matsudaira, director of the BioImaging Center at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, who was not involved in the work.

'This particular achievement is basically a showcase of how this technique has progressed to a level that is near atomic resolution, and that allows us to image a real living infectious virus in a near-native environment,' says Wen Jiang, assistant professor of biological sciences at Purdue University, who led the study. The results appeared in the February 28 issue of the journal Nature."

VIDEO:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid263777539/bctid1460823893

> Bacterial Battle Generates New Antibiotics

2008-03-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

"Scientists at MIT encouraged bacteria to produce a novel antibiotic by pitting them against a microbial enemy. The newly discovered compound can kill H. pylori, bacteria linked to stomach ulcers. The approach could provide a new way to discover novel antibiotics and shed light on how and when bacteria churn out these toxic compounds."

> lithium battery charges to 90% in just 5 minutes

2008-03-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

"December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what's pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices."

> police officers refuse to pay speeding tickets

2008-03-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

No matter what the cameras say, some drivers are refusing to pay dozens of $40 speeding fines.
Who? Police officers.

In the last eight months of 2007, Montgomery County's new speed cameras recorded 224 cases in which police vehicles were recorded travelling more than 15 kilometres an hour over the speed limit, according to department records.

Supervisors dismissed 76 of those citations after determining the officers were responding to calls or had valid reasons to break the speed limit.

But that left 148 who didn't have that excuse, and about two-thirds of those citations haven't been paid, said police Lt. Paul Starks.

The police union says officers shouldn't pay because the citations are issued to the owner of a vehicle, in this case the county, and not to the driver."

> Obesity. Why?

2008-03-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

"Obesity rates around the world have risen dramatically over the last 25 years. In fact, obesity is now considered a worldwide epidemic. Diseases like diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses that are a direct result of weight gain are costing the health care system millions of dollars. The standard argument is that obesity is a disease of affluence -- too much food, and not enough exercise are behind the problem. But there are researchers who argue that the story is more complicated than that; that lifestyles haven't changed enough to explain the big picture."

> Whale-Inspired Wind Turbines

2008-03-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

"Marine scientists have long suspected that humpback whales' incredible agility comes from the bumps on the leading edges of their flippers. Now Harvard University researchers have come up with a mathematical model that helps explain this hydrodynamic edge. The work gives theoretical weight to a growing body of empirical evidence that similar bumps could lead to more-stable airplane designs, submarines with greater agility, and turbine blades that can capture more energy from the wind and water."

> 10 questions for Christians

2008-03-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

> 10 questions for Christians

2008-03-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

Multipurpose Sink From Kohler » Yanko Design

2008-02-28T22:27:00.000-08:00

Multipurpose Sink From Kohler » Yanko Design: "The Kohler Prologue single-basin stainless steel kitchen sink with recessed wet surface creates a customized workflow station that’s perfect for food preparation. The integrated wet surface rests above the main basin to provide a separate area for rinsing fruits and vegetables or cleaning meats and seafood. An optional storage drawer and complementary accessories - a bamboo cutting board and stainless steel colander - complete this multipurpose system"

> Bacteria key ingredient in snow

2008-02-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

"Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside — bacteria.

Most snow and rain forms in chilly conditions high in the sky and atmospheric scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense.

Now, a new study shows a surprisingly large share of those so-called nucleators turn out to be bacteria that can affect plants."

> Mohawk haircut > Ohio kindergartner suspended from school

2008-02-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

"PARMA, Ohio - A kindergarten student with a freshly spiked Mohawk has been suspended from school.
Michelle Barile, the mother of six-year-old Bryan Ruda, said nothing in the Parma Community School handbook prohibits the haircut, characterized by closely shaved sides with a strip of prominent hair on top. The school said the hair was a distraction for other students.

An administrator at the suburban Cleveland charter school first warned Barile last fall that the haircut wasn't acceptable. The school later sent another warning to her reiterating the ban.

Mohawks violate the school's policy on being properly groomed, school Principal Linda Geyer said. Also, the school district's dress code allows school officials to forbid"

> Tara electric Tiny : $2499

2008-02-25T19:46:00.000-08:00

"February 26, 2008 Little over a month after India's Tata Motor Company announced its 100,000 rupee (US$2500) NANO, reports have emerged that the mantle of the world's cheapest new car will pass to the Tara Tiny, a battery operated four-seater that's been sneakily priced at just 1 rupee below the NANO.

Rechargeable via a 220 volt, 15 amp socket, the Tiny is expected to achieve speeds of between 31 mph (50kmh) and 43 mph (70 kmh) top speed with a range of around 62 miles (100 km) and along with the attractive shelf price, running costs for the EV will be very low at approximately one-fifth to one-tenth the cost of using gas or 50-70 paise for every km (that converts to somewhere between 1 and 2 US cents!).

Tara International is collaborating with China’s Aucma on the project that will see production models appear sometime later this year. A 14-seater electric bus is already in the pipeline and the company also has plans to release battery-operated two-wheelers along with three other four wheel EVs labeled Tara Titu, Tara Micro and Tara Mini.

A target output of around 1,000 cars, 5,000 two-wheelers and 500 buses/lorries has been slated for the first year.

Regardless of the 'price war', the announcement of both vehicles highlights a new era in the auto market led by innovative Indian manufacturers looking to dramatically expand access to low cost transportation."

The world’s cheapest new car – just US$2500

2008-02-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

"January 11, 2008 If you haven’t heard of India’s Tata Motor Company, rest assured you’ll certainly be hearing a lot more about it very soon. Tata is about to give the world’s automotive manufacturers a landmark lesson in production efficiency with the release of a 100,000 rupee car – that’s US$2500, brand spanking new. Unveiled last night, the Tata ‘NANO’, “the People’s Car” as it is rightfully dubbed, will bring motoring within the reach of millions when it is launched in India later in 2008. Like the four-minute-mile, now we’re aware that it can be done, we suspect that the auto industry is in for another shake-up thanks to the flow-on effects precipitated by this long-time innovative Indian company. Not yet impressed? Then try this for size – Tata Group has been named by Ford as the preferred buyer for its two up-for-sale brands, Jaguar and Land Rover."

The People’s Car has a rear-wheel drive, all-aluminum, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 PS, multi point fuel injection petrol engine. This is the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft. The lean design strategy has helped minimize weight, which helps maximize performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system.

> Adobe AIR

2008-02-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

"Adobe Systems officially released a software development system Monday that allows computer users to access websites without opening a browser.

AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), available in its test or beta version since last June, allows developers to make programs that can mimic the functions of a web browser, but do not require a browser to run.
After a quick download, users can click a participating company's logo on their desktop and begin searching its site.

The technology reduces the waiting time for downloading images and data because the desktop is constantly updated while the computer is online."

> tracking people's movements using hair

2008-02-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

"A new method of human hair analysis involving drinking water may prove useful to police in tracking past movements of murder victims and suspects, according to a study published Monday on the website Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.

University of Utah scientists who conducted the study say a single hair can help determine a person's general location during recent weeks to years, based on the tap water they drank.

The technique analyzes the mixture of stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen found in drinking water, which creates what they call an 'isotope signature' in hair. Isotopes are types of the same atom with different atomic weights.

Scientists collected hair and tap water in 65 cities in 18 states, then drew up colour-coded maps showing how ratios of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in hair vary in different areas of the United States."

Kids' friends and bullying

2008-02-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

"The influence of friends and adults can trigger even the most mild-mannered children to launch psychological blows against their peers, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed 406 pairs of seven-year-old twins from the Montreal area, highlights environmental factors as the driving force behind kids who engage in non-physical, yet emotionally damaging attacks.

'Children who hang out with socially aggressive friends seem to pick up this behaviour even when they don't have a genetic predisposition to be socially aggressive,' said the study's lead author, Mara Brendgen.

'It's very important … especially for parents of such young children, to try to monitor their child's friendship network.'

Brendgen defines social aggression as hurtful behaviour without physical contact, which includes teasing and more covert strategies like rumour-spreading and social exclusion.

Catalysts for such behaviour differ from those that encourage children to take part in physical attacks, such as pushing, hitting and biting, she said."

> PC beats doctor in scan tests

2008-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

"Experts taught a standard computer how to diagnose Alzheimer's from brain scans, and got a 96% success rate.

The accuracy of diagnosis from standard scans, blood tests and interviews carried out by a clinician is 85%.

The findings, published in the journal Brain, could lead to earlier diagnosis and more successful treatment of dementias, say scientists."

> Deep stimulation 'boosts memory'

2008-02-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

"A team of doctors in Canada stumbled upon the finding while attempting to treat a morbidly obese man through deep brain stimulation (DBS).

The electrical stimulation caused the patient to experience vivid memories.

The findings, reported in the Annals of Neurology, potentially pave the way for electrical stimulation to treat disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."

> Making Memories

2008-02-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

"A new strain of genetically engineered mice has allowed researchers to pinpoint, for the first time, the precise cellular connections that form as a memory is created. By tracing a protein tagged to glow fluorescent green as it migrates through individual neurons, from the cell body out through the branching dendrites, the researchers could see exactly which synapses--connections to other neurons--were involved when the mice learned to fear an electric shock."

> Sperm damage 'passed to children'

2008-02-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

"Scientists say fathers who smoke and drink should be aware they are potentially not just damaging themselves, but also their heirs.

Tests on rats showed sperm damage caused by exposure to garden chemicals remained up to four generations later. Scientists say fathers who smoke and drink should be aware they are potentially not just damaging themselves, but also their heirs.

Tests on rats showed sperm damage caused by exposure to garden chemicals remained up to four generations later. Scientists say fathers who smoke and drink should be aware they are potentially not just damaging themselves, but also their heirs.

Tests on rats showed sperm damage caused by exposure to garden chemicals remained up to four generations later."

> Light Up The World Foundation

2008-02-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

"Technical advances have greatly improved the quality and reliability of LEDs since they were invented in the 1960s, making them much brighter and more efficient. The late 1990s brought high-brightness LEDs that could shine continuously for 100,000 hours, or 30 to 40 years in normal service. The first LEDs emitted light only at pure wavelengths or colours – blues, greens, yellows, oranges or reds – they were unsuitable for domestic lighting. The high-brightness white LED that emitts at all visible wavelengths to produce white light is a relatively new development.

The LUTW Luxeon lights can be utilized in a number of different applications and the most appropriate solution is dependent on the overall needs, budget and type of installation.The energy sources for LUTW's home lighting projects have included Person Powered Pedal Generators, Pico Hydro and Pico Wind Turbines and Solar Photovoltaic."

> Total human impact on oceans mapped

2008-02-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

"A map of the overall impact that 17 different human activities are having on marine ecosystems. Insets show three of the most heavily impacted areas, and one of the least impacted areas. (Image courtesy of B. S. Halpern)

Fishing, climate change and pollution have left an indelible mark on virtually all of the world's oceans, according to a huge study that has mapped the total human impact on the seas for the first time. Scientists found that almost no areas have been left pristine and that more than 40% of the world's oceans have been heavily affected.

'This project allows us to finally start to see the big picture of how humans are affecting the oceans,' said Ben Halpern, assistant research scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the research. 'Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me.'
Human impact is most severe in the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf, the Bering Sea, along the eastern coast of North America and in much of the western Pacific.

The oceans at the poles are less affected, but melting ice sheets will leave them vulnerable, researchers said."

> Night-vision, motion detection IP security cameras

2008-02-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

"February 15, 2008 Zonet has announced the upcoming release two new portable lP security cameras featuring motion detection and night-vision capabilities. The USD$220 7630 model and its USD$320 wireless counterpart (7630W) both have built in web servers with individual IP addresses that can connect directly to a user’s network and be accessed from a standard web browser.

Slated for a November release, the models have transfer rates of up to 30 frames-per-second in three different resolutions, the highest of which is VGA (640x480). Both models feature 3x digital zoom and a built-in omni-directional microphone that includes two-way voice communication, providing good quality audio footage to accompany the video record. The cameras provide the option to record streaming video with sound to a hard drive, or schedule and upload images to FTP or send over email. Both cameras have customizable automated alert notifications."

> New materials can capture CO2

2008-02-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

"Scientists have created metal-organic crystals capable of soaking up carbon dioxide gas like a sponge, which could be used to keep industrial emissions of the gas out of the atmosphere.

Chemists at the University of California Los Angeles said the crystals — which go by the name zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, or ZIFs — can be tailored to absorb and trap specific molecules."

> Tajabon from/de Ismael Mo

2008-02-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

"Tajabon is a Senegalese Muslim tradition, which celebrate the New Muslim year in the evening of the 10th day [sic]. It is recommended to love well, to eat well and to drink and to live it up, for the children notably. The children enter houses of houses where they accept presents. They have even the right to take what they want. It is really a nice holiday. Ismael Lô is a genius in the sense that he interpreted nobody in marvel as never before him a folk song which is part of Senegalese artistic heritage." (Excerpt taken to explain the song, unedited)

> Cellphone radiation alters proteins in human skin

2008-02-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

"Research from Finland indicates that protein in human cells is altered when subjected to cellphone radiation, but the health effects of such radiation remain unclear.

The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority subjected a small area of skin on the forearms of 10 female volunteers to cellphone radiation — otherwise known as radio frequency modulated electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) — for one hour.

The report found that biopsies from the exposed skin showed alterations not seen in similar biopsies on non-exposed skin.

'Even if the changes are small, they still exist,' said researcher Dariusz Leszczynski."

(8 people, people! Not much to call home about, but ... , still, ... )

> Fresh Insight into Evolution

2008-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

"Surprisingly, these variations had opposite effects in men and women: the mutation that increased recombination in women did the opposite in men, and vice versa. The findings suggest an evolutionary mechanism for keeping control of genetic diversity. 'It's important to increase diversity, but if it goes unchecked, it's likely to lead to instability in the genome that could be dangerous,' says Stefansson. 'If you have the same sequence variant influencing recombination in one direction in men and the other direction in women, you have put together a mechanism to keep recombination rates within certain limits.'"

> English Teachers in Korea

2008-02-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

"South Korea's incoming government will recruit 23,000 qualified English teachers by 2013 and increase the number of classes in elementary and secondary schools, the presidential transition committee said yesterday (Jan 30).

The plans, expected to cost 4 trillion won (US$4 billion), are part of President-elect Lee Myung-bak's drive to revamp public English education and reduce spending on private learning.

The goal is for everyone to be able to speak English freely with a high-school education, Lee said.

The new government plans to spend 1.7 trillion won on hiring 23,000 teachers with TEE (Teaching English in English) certificates between 2009 and 2013. Of them, 10,000 are to be posted to elementary schools and 13,000 to middle and high schools.

Eligible TEE teachers are individuals who have completed English education programmes at home or abroad, including those with TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificates; those with master's degrees from English-speaking countries; those with government-issued teaching certificates; and other professionals who can conduct English classes.

Potential candidates will be given in-depth oral interviews. Successful applicants will undertake six months of training in order to obtain a teaching certificate, which must be renewed every five to 10 years. They will work on a three- to five-year contract basis.

The government expects to post 3,500 TEE teachers to elementary schools, 2,000 to middle schools and 1,000 to high schools in 2010, with an emphasis on rural areas or downscale parts of large cities."

> Biofuels out ... Nuclear Power in

2008-02-09T21:27:00.001-08:00

"When I declare that the U.S. desperately needs to become more like France, some of my friends get upset. But hold your anger, keep eating your Freedom Fries, and let me explain. The real reason to emulate the French is that 75% of their electrical power use is derived from nuclear reactors."

> Sarkozi or is it his wife?

2008-02-08T23:06:00.001-08:00

> A parody of a wannabe eco-tourist

2008-02-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

Why English should be a universal language?

2008-02-08T22:47:00.000-08:00

> Paris Hilton by a French comedian

2008-02-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

> Robot use heat energy from ocean

2008-02-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

"The researchers say the same principle is at work, only their thermal glider gets its energy from the heat of the ocean. Warmer water closer to the surface warms wax-filled tubes inside the engine, which expand to push oil from the interior to the exterior of the glider. As the glider dives and reaches deeper, colder waters, the wax cools and contracts, bringing the oil back to the interior."

> A Window into Alzheimer's

2008-02-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

"An innovative imaging technique has revealed that the plaques that develop throughout the brains of Alzheimer's patients can form overnight, and they are likely a cause rather than a symptom of the disease.

Plaques, a defining hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, are brain lesions that result from the abnormal accumulation of a protein called amyloid-beta. Since the symptoms of the disease progress over the course of decades, plaques were generally thought to appear and accumulate slowly."