Here's a map of Central America and the Caribbean from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Univ. of Texas...
Here'a a community area map of the greater Los Angeles megacity...
From the CIA, a 1.3 MB map of Iraq, and a 1.6 MB NIMA map of Baghdad, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Univ. of Texas...
Here's an 1805 allegorical map of "The Paths of Life" that outlines the different potential courses that a person's life can take...
The "Map of BCS Conferences" shows the names and locations of the college football teams that make up the different conferences, plus the Independent schools...
A new high-resolution map of American per-capita CO2 emissions. It shows the amount of carbon dioxide produced in 100 square kilometer regions of the United States divided by the number of residents in that area. I'm using a much smaller version,
but you can download the full eight megabyte ultra-high-resolution file here.
In honor of the Berlin...I mean, the Beijing Olympics. here's a pdf download Tiananmen Massacre map that points out the street locations and hospitals where the students died in and around the Square...
From Barry Cooper, narcotics interdiction expert, a Narcotics Interdiction Map showing the locations citizens are likely to encounter drug interdiction officers. Some officers are rated on their willingness to violate the 4th amendment...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From
Sundown Lounge No. 205
Geeknotes:
Saint Patty Day Poetry Cram
Bloodlines - Tales From The African Diaspora
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saint Patty Day Poetry Cram
Saturday, March 13, 2010
7 to 9 PM
Cafe Ballou
939 N. Western Ave
Bring a lucky poem or two to share and wear
something green, everyone is invited.
It's FREE!!!
It's a good spot to plug your book or event too.
Mark you calendar and don't miss it one of
Chicago's hottest poetry open mic events. The Cram
always happens on the second Saturday of the
month.
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade scattered millions of Africa's children across the globe. They are together, once again, in the pages of this short story collection. Featuring fourteen new voices from the African diaspora, these tales span the genres of literary, mystery, romance and science fiction. Through this collection, we weave another chapter into the fabric of our shared ancestry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Zeit Heilt" - sect23/Vanessa Devinie
Zeit Heilt
Der Himmel hängt voller Wolken, schwer neigt er sich herab.
Narben, die einst da gewesen, heilen mit der Zeit.
Sie heilen, auch wenn du sie noch sehen kannst.
Gehe weiter, vorwärts, blicke nicht zurück
in den Spiegel
in die Scherben
deines Glücks
Die dort liegen, stumm
sterbend
Die Hoffnung hat sie aufleben lassen
für eine kurze Zeit
doch glaube mir
die Zeit heilt alle Narben
irgendwann
Gesegnet durch die Melodie
fühlst du dich frei
verstanden
umarmt
und dann
weisst du
die Zeit kann alles heilen
Time Heals
The sky hangs down of full clouds, hard he bends.
Scars, once been there, heal with the time.
They heal, even if you can still see them.
Go on, forward, do not look back
in the mirror
in the shards
of your luck
They lie there, silently
dying
Hope has revived them
for a short time
however, believes me
the time cures all scars
sometime
Blest by the melody
if you feel free
understood
embraces
and then
if you know
the time can cure everything
Project Courage and Consequence
"Coleen Rowley to Minneapolis Police: Arrest Karl Rove!"
These were links from my old KR show, no. 111. One I used this time, one I didn't...
From CBS Evening News, Jan. 18th, 1972,
with Karl Rove,
GOP College Director of the Republican National Committee
The Young Turks Check Out What Karl Rove Did To Don Siegelman.
(Feb. 2008, while Siegelman was in jail as a political prisoner)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tata Nano EV – World’s Cheapest Electric Car
India’s Tata Nano EV, world’s cheapest car, transformed into the world’s cheapest electric car, went on display at the Geneva Motor Show. The Tata Nano EV seats four, has a predicted range of about 80 miles and will go from zero to about 35 miles per hour in a blistering 10 seconds. The car has super-polymer lithium-ion batteries, which Tata says provide superior energy retention.
“Electrification will be an integral part of our initiative to launch environment-friendly vehicles,” said Ravi Kent, vice chairman of Tata.
Tata displayed the gas-powered European version of the Nano, the Nano Europa, at last year’s Geneva Motor Show. It goes on sale in select European countries in a couple of years and is eventually supposed to work its way to the U.S. In India, Nano is being delivered to 100,000 customers. No word yet on how soon the electric version will come to Europe — or the U.S. — as well.
Forget Fingerprints – Supersleuths Develops Software to Analyze the Nose
The technology uses computer software, called the PhotoFace, to analyse the nose then put it in one of six categories.
The software measures the width of the nose tip, length of the ridge, and width of the saddle (the bit under the eyebrows).
To do this, the computer takes four photographs of a person, each one using different lighting.
This means shadows fall on different parts of the face in each photograph, which helps to determine the shape, length and depth of each part of the nose.
The system could take over from iris scanning and fingerprinting because changing the nose by plastic surgery is harder than changing the colour of the eyes (with contact lenses) or wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.
It’s also rare to find two people with identically proportioned noses.
‘Noses are prominent facial features,’ says Dr Adrian Evans, one of the researchers involved in a study at the University of Bath. ‘They are easier to photograph and are harder to conceal, so a system that recognises noses would work better with an uncooperative subject or for covert surveillance.’
Experts believe the distinctive shape of your conk reveals fascinating facts about your personality.
Here, Simon Brown, author of The Secrets Of Face Reading (Godsfield Press, £12.99) analyses what your nose shape says about you.
TURNED UP
What it looks like: Imagine the shape of the ski jump at the Winter Olympics — it’s a long, curved, almost-concave slope with a slight upward peak at the tip.
What it says about you: cutesy uppy-nose types are often kind, optimistic and nurturing in personality with bags of enthusiasm, a strong sense of support for friends and family. Oh, and a sexually adventurous side too.
Who has one? Actresses Nicole Kidman and Marilyn Monroe; former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.
ROMAN
What it looks like: This nose has a small bump protruding out, about halfway down the ridge. It points downwards at the tip, but not quite as much as the hawkshaped nose.
What it says about you: This signals a strong personality — but not always an impulsive one. They are very good at rallying people to take action, often very influential and carefully measured.
Who has one? Bono (of U2), French president Nicolas Sarkozy, singer Barry Manilow.
GREEK
What it looks like: A long, straight and rather strong nose shape. If you look at the angle between the nose tip and the groove above your top lip, it should be about 80 degrees, almost a right angle.
What it says about you: These are grafters, efficient, hard-working, matter-of-fact sorts of people who keep their emotions close to their chests and can be difficult to fathom. You’ll want to be around them in a crisis.
Who has one? Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Michelangelo’s David statue.
HAWK
What it looks like: This type of nose has a deep hook at the tip, pointing downwards towards your lip. The shape of the ridge is often curved.
What it says about you: Out of the six types of nose personality, these are least likely to care what others think of them. They don’t seek approval, are often rebellious and are most happy when pursuing their own goals.
Who has one? Socialite Paris Hilton, chef Antony Worrall Thompson, poet Dante Alighieri.
SNUB
What it looks like: This is a short, small nose that doesn’t usually protrude to any great extent in any particular direction.
What it says about you: People with this type of nose are often quick-witted and more street-wise than your average person. They react quickly — sometimes too quickly, which can sometimes lead to aggression.
Who has one? Pop singer Lily Allen, Girls Aloud and X Factor star Cheryl Cole, and Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp.
NUBIAN
What it looks like: Short and wide, not as protruding as the other shapes and quite an uncommon shape among European noses. It’s common among certain ethnic groups.
What it says about you: This nose type is said to reflect creativity and passion. Its wearers are often charismatic, which draws people to them.
Who has one? Actor Will Smith, model Naomi Campbell, Barack Obama.
Physicist Discovers How to Teleport Energy
First, they teleported photons, then atoms and ions. Now one physicist has worked out how to do it with energy, a technique that has profound implications for the future of physics.
In 1993, Charlie Bennett at IBM’s Watson Research Center in New York State and a few pals showed how to transmit quantum information from one point in space to another without traversing the intervening space…
The technique relies on the strange quantum phenomenon called entanglement, in which two particles share the same existence. This deep connection means that a measurement on one particle immediately influences the other, even though they are light-years apart. Bennett and company worked out how to exploit this to send information. (The influence between the particles may be immediate, but the process does not violate relativity because some informatiom has to be sent classically at the speed of light.) They called the technique teleportation.
That’s not really an overstatement of its potential. Since quantum particles are indistinguishable but for the information they carry, there is no need to transmit them themselves. A much simpler idea is to send the information they contain instead and ensure that there is a ready supply of particles at the other end to take on their identity. Since then, physicists have used these ideas to actually teleport photons, atoms, and ions. And it’s not too hard to imagine that molecules and perhaps even viruses could be teleported in the not-too-distant future.
But Masahiro Hotta at Tohoku University in Japan has come up with a much more exotic idea. Why not use the same quantum principles to teleport energy?
Today, building on a number of papers published in the last year, Hotta outlines his idea and its implications. The process of teleportation involves making a measurement on each one an entangled pair of particles. He points out that the measurement on the first particle injects quantum energy into the system. He then shows that by carefully choosing the measurement to do on the second particle, it is possible to extract the original energy.
All this is possible because there are always quantum fluctuations in the energy of any particle. The teleportation process allows you to inject quantum energy at one point in the universe and then exploit quantum energy fluctuations to extract it from another point. Of course, the energy of the system as whole is unchanged.
He gives the example of a string of entangled ions oscillating back and forth in an electric field trap, a bit like Newton’s balls. Measuring the state of the first ion injects energy into the system in the form of a phonon, a quantum of oscillation. Hotta says that performing the right kind of measurement on the last ion extracts this energy. Since this can be done at the speed of light (in principle), the phonon doesn’t travel across the intermediate ions so there is no heating of these ions. The energy has been transmitted without traveling across the intervening space. That’s teleportation.
Just how we might exploit the ability to teleport energy isn’t clear yet. Post your suggestions in the comments section if you have any.
But the really exciting stuff is the implications this has for the foundations of physics. Hotta says that his approach gives physicists a way of exploring the relationship between quantum information and quantum energy for the first time.
There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity. Having a way to handle energy on the same footing may help to draw these diverse strands together.
Interesting stuff. There’s no telling where this kind of thinking might lead.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1002.0200: Energy-Entanglement Relation for Quantum Energy Teleportation
‘Brain Washing’ Technique Could Reduce Disability In Newborn Babies
A new treatment known as ‘brain washing’ could dramatically reduce disability in newborn babies. The process involves removing toxic fluid potentially harmful to infants born early and suffering from large brain haemorrhages.
The technique, pioneered by doctors in Bristol, reduces the pressure put on the brain and for the first time has been shown to benefit newborn babies suffering from the condition.
Professor Andrew Whitelaw and paediatric neurosurgeon Ian Pople have researched the condition, known as hydrocephalus, for the last 20 years.
Two tubes are inserted into the ventricles in the brain of a premature baby suffering from a large hemorrhage and expanded ventricles.
One tube continuously drains out fluid while the other tube lets clear fluid flow in. The pressure in the brain is measured continuously and more fluid is drained out than flowed in so the brain slowly decompresses.
When the fluid draining out has cleared, the two tubes are removed. The whole procedure takes about three days.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 204
Geeknotes:
Band Pluggers
Effie's Life Celebrations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Band Pluggers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EFFIE MIHOPOULOS LIFE CELEBRATION
(Feb. 15, 1952-Jan. 14, 2010)
Northeastern Illinois University, Recital Hall
5500 N. St. Louis, Chicago, IL 60625
Friday, March 5, 2010 5-7 pm
Please park in the 'F' lot at NEIU
Hosted by: Cathleen Schandelmeier-Bartels
Comments from the University
Dr. Carla Knorowski, Vice President for
Institutional Advancement.
My Blood Relative Effie
Catherine Valsamoulis
Remembering Effie Mihopoulos
Written and read by award-winning poet, Cynthia
Gallaher
as well as a poem by Effie composed in the '70s.
Theater Performance
The Trapdoor Theater Company
Tribute to Effie
Cornelius Eady, author of “Victims of the Latest
Dance Craze,” (1985) Ommation Press
To Effie
Created by Josephine Lipuma, award-winning
filmmaker
Poem for Effie
David Hernandez, famous Poet
Personal Memories of Effie
Craig Althage and Tom Mollo, NEIU Library
Specialists
Effie as a “Wizard”
Peter Enger, WZRD
"MONOS MOU" Greek Song & Trumpet
Peter C. Bartels
Quigong with Effie
Joanie and Ken Morris
Poem for Effie by Beatriz Badikian Gartler
read in English and in Greek as well as a poem by
Sonia Arvanitis
Spiritual Tribute
Nicole Aimee Macaluso, poet, artist, and close
friend
Closing Dance Performance
Ensemble Espanol
Dinner catered by Corky's of Addison.
Special thanks to:
Rhonda Ferren, Susan Appel
Bass, Mary Shen Barnidge, Brian Gary Kirst,
James Mesple, President Sharon Hahs and the CEO of the Universe.
A benefit for Haiti, hosted by WZRD will follow
from 7-9:30 in Alumni Hall
"[...] the only people for me are the mad ones,
the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of
everything at the same time, the ones
who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but
burn, burn, burn like fabulous
yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across
the stars and in the middle
you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody
goes 'Awww!'
— Jack Kerouac (On the Road)
A Poetry Tribute for Effie will be held
Saturday, March 6th, 1-3 pm, Newberry Library,
60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610-9090
Performance Line-up will be on a first-come first
read basis!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Venue Verite: James Mesple and Effie Mihopoulos-Words and Pictures
Exhibition: "Words and Pictures"
at the Main gallery of Oakton Community College's Koehnline Museum
Des Plaines, IL
December 2004.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pesticide Turns Male Frogs into Females
A commonly used pesticide known as atrazine can turn male frogs into females that are successfully able to reproduce, a new study finds.
While previous work has shown atrazine can cause sexual abnormalities in frogs, such as hermaphroditism (having both male and female sex organs), this study is the first to find that atrazine’s effects are long-lasting and can influence reproduction in amphibians.
The results suggest that atrazine, which is a weed killer used primarily on corn crops, could have potentially harmful effects on populations of amphibians, animals that are already experiencing a global decline, said study author Tyrone B. Hayes of the University of California, Berkeley. Atrazine is banned in Europe.
And since atrazine interferes with the production of the sex hormone estrogen, present in people and frogs, the findings could have implications for humans as well. “If you have problems in amphibians, you can anticipate problems in other animals,” Hayes said.
Hayes and his colleagues raised 40 male African clawed frogs in water containing atrazine, from when they were larvae all the way up until sexual maturity. The atrazine levels were about what the frogs would experience in environments where the pesticide is used, and below levels that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for drinking water.
They compared this atrazine-exposed group with 40 other male frogs reared in atrazine-free water.
At the end of the experiment, all frogs in the atrazine-free group remained male, while 10 percent of the frogs exposed to atrazine were completely feminized — their genes said they should be male, but they had female anatomy, including ovaries. The feminized frogs were able to mate with males and produce viable eggs.
In both frogs and humans, sex is genetic. In people, females have two X (sex) chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y. For frogs, the sex chromosomes are labeled as Z or W and females have dissimilar chromosomes (ZW), while males have matching ones (ZZ).
Frogs exposed to atrazine also had reduced testosterone levels, decreased fertility, and showed less mating behavior.
An Unintended Consequence of Mass Layoffs: Fewer Boys Being Born
Here’s a rather unexpected result of mass layoffs and high unemployment: the stress causes pregnant women to spontaneously abort more males, thus contributing to future gender gap.
To our ancient ancestors, those signs would presumably be signals of impending drought or other natural disaster, which would indicate a coming food scarcity. [Ralph] Catalano and colleagues concluded the closest thing we have today is the announcement of mass layoffs at major employers, which impacts “the degree to which the larger population perceives a threat to its economic security.”
Such threats are bad news to small male fetuses because “a relatively large fraction” of them fall near “a critical rank below which gestations spontaneously end,” the researchers explain. If they are born, these small males are more likely to die than larger infants and females of equivalent size.
The researchers examined California’s ratio of male to female births from mid-1995 to the end of 2007 and compared it to the federal Labor Department’s monthly statistics on mass layoffs in the state. The government reports a mass layoff has taken place when 50 or more people file for unemployment insurance from a single company over five weeks.
After doing some complex calculations, they estimated that news of impending mass layoffs “predicted the loss of 3,090 males in utero” during the 61 months (out of the 141 they examined) in which unemployment claims exceeded the expected number.
NASA Project M Could Put Humanoids on the Moon in 1000 Days
NASA could put humanoids on the Moon in just 1000 days. They would be controlled by scientists on Earth using motion capture suits, giving them the feeling of being on the lunar surface.
Back in the Lunar exploration days, scientists had to tell astronauts what to do up there, and how to identify interesting things during the limited time they had. For Apollo 15, the first mission that carried the Lunar Rover, astronauts were trained in field work by Caltech geologist Leon Silver.
That helped them to move faster and look at the ground with a critical science eye, knowing what they were looking for. The result: Their findings and samples were a lot more valuable to scientist back on Earth, confirming theories that weren’t confirmed till then.
Now imagine these NASA C-3POs roaming our satellite, controlled by all kind of scientists using telepresence suits down here, all looking for interesting things using high definition visors, and able to move just like they would move on planet Earth. It won’t work for Mars, but with a communication delay of only three seconds, it will work beautifully on the Moon.
The 1000-day mark is quite plausible, since the mission would be a lot simpler than a human-based one. It will also be quite cheaper than the real thing. First, you don’t have to care about life support systems, which will make spacecraft manufacturing a lot less complex. The whole system would also weight a lot less, reducing the need for the development of a huge rocket, and again reducing the costs.
We know that, sadly, we’re not going to get astronauts anywhere any time soon, so this is definitely the best alternative. It won’t be as inspiring as humans going back to the Moon or establishing a semi-permanent colony, but it could have an extremely positive effect on science.
Whoever did this at NASA should put together an actual budget as soon as possible. And while you are at it, make it possible for regular people to use one, maybe at the Johnson Space Center or some selected museums through the world. That will definitely inspire people.
‘Smart Salad Dressing’ Could Keep Venice from Sinking
Venice could be saved from sinking into the sea by releasing fat globules similar to olive oil into the water that are ‘programmed’ to form limestone reefs, say architects.
The novel solution for the threatened Italian city, built on silty islands on the Adriatic coast, uses experimental technology that they have dubbed “smart salad dressing”.
It would work by releasing oil droplets into the water that are chemically programmed to react with carbon dioxide in the water, precipitating an artificial limestone carbonate.
Two British architects at University College, London, are among those behind the Future Venice project.
Rachel Armstrong, from UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, explained the “protocell” technology.
She said: “This technology is based on the chemistry of oil and water and has the special property of transforming carbon dioxide into a limestone-like substance.”
The globules would form “solid pearls” of artificial limestone that could protect buildings from future damage, she argued.
Her colleague Prof Neil Spiller added: “The piles which support Venice are sinking into the lagoon like stiletto heels.”
If they could direct the oil to form carbonate deposits at their bases, this would distribute the load and slow or stop the sinking, he said.
The architects argue it could be an alternative to the current plan to install a series of steel floodgates to control tidal movements in the lagoon surrounding Venice.
Since being built the city, famous for its canals, has suffered from rising damp and the threat of being swamped by the sea. Scientists fear that rising sea levels caused by global warming will exacerbate the problem in coming decades.
However, Armstrong cautioned that the technology was only at the laboratory stage and would not be ready for three to five years.
The Future Venice project is being launched at a meeting in London on Friday.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 203
Geeknotes:
Chicago Poetry Items
Read An Ebook Week
Whispers In The Dark
1. You are invited to read poetry for the Saint Patty Day Poetry Cram, to
happen on Saturday, March 13, from 7 to 9 PM, at Cafe Ballou, 939 N.
Western Ave. You are encouraged to wear something green and to share two
or three of your luckiest poems. Please RSVP by writing to
publisher@chicagopoetry.com with "Cafe Ballou" in the subject field.
2. ChicagoPoetry.com is seeking poets to participate in the Chicago Public
Library's Poetry Fest on Saturday, April 24. The fest will take place at
the Harold Washington Library from 10 AM until 4 PM, which Cornelius Eady
as the keynote speaker. ChicagoPoetry.com will be hosting a Poetry Cram
starting at 2 PM. I am particularly interested in poets who will be
representing local poetry presses and / or poetry organizations or reading
series, so that we can represent as much of the thriving Chicago Poetry
Scene as possible during the Poetry Fest. Poets who are interested in
sharing a few pieces during the fest should RSVP by writing to
publisher@chicagopoetry.com with "Poetry Fest" in the subject field.
3. ChicagoPoetry.com is looking for a few poets to read at a special event
to be held at the Brookfield Zoo this summer. Poets desiring to
participate should have original work (or be willing to read other poets'
work) that in some way touches upon one or more of the followiing themes:
wildlife, wildlife conservation, nature, endangered species (polar bears,
grizzly bears, bald eagles, American bison, Mexican gray wolves),
prairies, polar ice caps, the artic ocean, etc. Poetry presented should be
family friendly but not necessarily for children, and should not too
political or divisive. This is a very competitive opportunity, as I am at
this time only seeking a few poets to perform for an exclusive engagement
that will take place in an underground polar bear viewing area late July
2010. If you are not selected for that opportunity, your name will be held
for consideration for other events that may be held at the Brookfield Zoo.
If you believe you meet the criteria for this event, please write to
publisher@chicagopoetry.com with "Zoo Poetry" in the subject field.
4. ChicagoPoetry.com is still considering submissions of poetry for Cram
Volume 8: The Chicago Issue, to be given away free to patrons at the
Poetry Fest this April. Instructions on how to participate in the project
can be found here:
It is not required of you to participate in the Cram 8 publication in
order to participate in the Cram show at the poetry festival, but you are
welcome to participate in both if you like.
From The Black Science Fiction Society:
Time: March 7, 2010 to March 13, 2010
Organized By: Valjeanne Jeffers
Event Description:
All ebooks distributed by smashwords, including Immortal 2nd edition by Valjeanne Jeffers are on sale or free. Ebooks will be available at smaswords, barnesandnoble, Sony and other ebook distributors.
United Nations Identifies e-waste as an Urgent And Growing Problem
E-waste might be one of the biggest misnomers in the history of nomery — the image it creates in the mind is of a bunch of email and document files clogging up your local internet pipes. The reality of it is that electronic waste is rapidly populating ever-growing landfill areas in so-called developing countries (they’re poor, just call a spade a spade) and the issue has now garnered the attention of the United Nations…
The UN Environment Programme has issued a wideranging report warning that e-waste in China and South Africa could double or even quadruple within the next decade, whereas India could experience a five-fold rise. Major hazards exist in the unregulated and informal recycling of circuit boards and techno gadgets, as processes like backyard incineration for the retrieval of gold generate toxic gases while also being wildly inefficient. The whole point of the report is to encourage some global cooperation in setting up modern and safe recycling facilities in the affected countries to ameliorate the problem, though being generally more careful in our consumption and disposal of electronics wouldn’t do the environment’s chances any harm either.
Chronic Health Problems in Children Have Doubled in 12 Years
The rates of childhood chronic health problems, including obesity, asthma and learning disabilities, have doubled in just 12 years, a new study reports — to 1 in 4 children in 2006, up from 1 in 8 in 1994.
But the findings, which appeared in the Feb. 17 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, held a welcome surprise, the researchers said: many chronic conditions resolve themselves during childhood.
While half of the children followed from 2000 through 2006 had a chronic condition at some point during the period, only one-quarter did at the study’s end.
“There is much to be hopeful about,” said the paper’s lead author, Dr. Jeanne Van Cleave, a pediatrician at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston. “We’re now wondering what’s going on with those kids, and why a chronic condition resolves in one child while another child may not experience the same thing.”
The study analyzed data from the government’s National Longitudinal Surveys that included three nationally representative groups of children ages 2 through 8. Besides obesity and asthma, the scientists looked at allergies, heart trouble, impaired vision and hearing, and behavior and learning problems like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Though the researchers did not study the reasons for the increases, they suggested several possible factors: improvements in screening and diagnosis that led to more reporting of the chronic conditions; the rise in childhood obesity, which can lead to other problems; and the increasing survival of premature babies and children with cancer and other diseases, who are more likely to have chronic health problems.
EDUIT Announces $50 Million eSingularity Prize for Global Education
Imagine a world where everyone participates on a level education system, challenging themselves and others, and achieving rewards and prizes for applying themselves, no matter what their social, economic, geographic disposition is…
EDUIT, Inc. has announced the creation of the $50 million eSingularity Prize for global Education. EDUIT, Inc will seek to raise the funds over a five-year period and use the funds to award the first person or group that develops an open source software solution that autonomously takes a 2 year old to an 8th grade equivalent in math, science and language arts. The Prize will be split between the three categories at a rate yet to be determined by EDUIT. EDUIT will spend the next five years raising awareness and identifying the funds and promoting the prize globally.
The eSingularity or the Education Singularity is the moment in human history when all learning and education becomes a free and accessible natural right for all humanity. EDUIT’s vision is to become the catalyst that helps to bring about The eSingularity nexus.
“The simple fact is for the first time in human history we have the technology, connectivity and content to make basic education accessible to over 80% of the world. The only thing stopping us from developing a real solution for global education is greed, a desire to profit off others, and sell education and learning like it is some kind of commodity. This Prize serves as a means to encourage others to focus time and energy in developing an autonomous education solution that will benefit humanity by making it possible for anyone to get a 8th grade education without a school or even a “living” teacher. Sophisticated software will become your teacher and school. ” Michael J. Trout, EDUIT Founder and Chief Evangelist.
EDUIT evolved out of a start-up that looked to use gaming arenas to help flatten IT certification education and make it more affordable to high school seniors. Over the last seven years it has been working to develop a viable practice means to flatten global education, id the technology, align the partners, strategy and investors to take on one of the most ambitious global education projects ever — to flatten global education and bring about what we have termed the eSingularity event — the point in human history learning becomes free and accessible to all with connectivity.
“Should We Clone Neanderthals?”
That’s the provocative title of an article in this month’s Archaeology magazine exploring the scientific, legal, and ethical considerations involved. Extensive information about the Neanderthal genetic code is available, and the technologic problems can apparently be overcome. Questions remain about how the process might best be accomplished, and whether it should be done at all.
The Neanderthals broke away from the lineage of modern humans around 450,000 years ago… As different as Neanderthals were, they may not have been different enough to be considered a separate species. “There are humans today who are more different from each other in phenotype [physical characteristics],” says John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin… Many of the differences between a Neanderthal clone and a modern human would be due to genetic changes our species has undergone since Neanderthals became extinct… Clones created from a genome that is more than 30,000 years old will not have immunity to a wide variety of diseases, some of which would likely be fatal. They will be lactose intolerant, have difficulty metabolizing alcohol, be prone to developing Alzheimer’s disease, and maybe most importantly, will have brains different from modern people’s…
“I think there would be no question that if you cloned a Neanderthal, that individual would be recognized as having human rights under the Constitution and international treaties,” says Lori Andrews, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. The law does not define what a human being is, but legal scholars are debating questions of human rights in cases involving genetic engineering…
Hawks believes the barriers to Neanderthal cloning will come down. “We are going to bring back the mammoth… the impetus against doing Neanderthal because it is too weird is going to go away.” He doesn’t think creating a Neanderthal clone is ethical science, but points out that there are always people who are willing to overlook the ethics. “In the end,” Hawks says, “we are going to have a cloned Neanderthal, I’m just sure of it.”
The image is a computer-assisted reconstruction of a Neanderthal child by a research team at the University of Zurich.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 202
Geeknotes:
Lucille Clifton
Sunset Boulevard Lit Crawl
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Lucille Clifton, one-time poet laureate of Md., dies at 73
A biography on the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Web site says that Thelma Lucille Sayles was born in 1936 in Depew, N.Y., a small town outside Buffalo. Her mother, a poet, encouraged her creativity, and she began to compose stories and poems as a child. She was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and, in 1953, she won a scholarship to Howard University, where she majored in drama. She left Howard after two years after deciding that she would rather write poetry, according to the Web site.
Ms. Clifton had been ill for some time with an infection, her sister, Elaine Philip, told The Buffalo News on Saturday. She had undergone surgery to remove her colon on Friday, but the exact cause of death remains undetermined.
The poet and her husband, Fred Clifton, a philosophy professor at the University at Buffalo, moved to Baltimore in the 1960s and had six children. Her husband died in 1984.
Besides her 11 poetry collections, Ms. Clifton published 20 children's books, and her poems have appeared in more than 100 anthologies, according to her biography.
Goodreads, Booksoup and PEN Center USA proudly announce their first Lit Crawl!
Join us as we channel our inner Hemingway, Kerouac and Chandler with a trip down Sunset Boulevard.
Beginning with readings at Malo by authors Joseph Mattson, Martin Pousson, and Aimee Bender, we will travel to Tiki Ti, Good Luck Bar and 4100 Bar.
Along the way, toast great American writers. Be prepared to honor your favorites. Perhaps a glass of rye whiskey for Salinger, a champagne cocktail in memory of Parker, a mint julip for Faulkner, a boilermaker for Bukowski, or a splash of Wild Turkey for London.
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Scientists Fear Lightning Deaths Will Increase Due to Global Warming
In the last ten years, Brazil has been the target of an estimated 57 million lightning strikes–the most in the world. This astonishing natural record is not without a human toll, however. During that same period, 1,321 people have been fallen victim to lightning in Brazil alone, and scientists fear that incidents will only increase in the coming years. As if the long term threats of climate change were not enough to arouse concern, new research reveals that rising temperatures may increase the frequency of the sometimes fatal lightning strikes.
According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), global warming may dramatically increase the occurrence of lightning. A recently released hypothesis postulates that each degree of increase in global mean temperature will result in a 10 to 20 percent increase in the amount of lightning.
Casualties as a result of lightning were not the primary focus of research, but rather the fires that often result from the strikes. Osmar Pinto explains in a report from Globo:
At the meeting, it was hypothesized that the rays would increase the greenhouse effect by causing more forest fires, which in turn release more carbon dioxide, fueling a continuous cycle.
In order to test the theory that climate change may contribute to more occurrences of lightening, INPE will be working in conjunction with NASA and other US agencies.
While the climate change phenomena is of primary focus to researchers participating this study, the behavior of the sun will also be analyzed as a possible culprit for the increase in lightning strikes.
According to Pinto, sun-spots may play a role in the creation of thunderstorms that not yet well understood.
[Sun spots] can facilitate the formation of ice in the clouds and the rays only occur when there is ice inside the clouds.
Scientists intend to closely follow the next increase of sun-spots in 2012.
While it is still unclear exactly what may be leading to the increase in the number of lightning strikes, researchers plan on continuing to try to better understand the phenomena which may be symptomatic of a greater shift in climate behavior. After all, even with an increase in strikes, the chances of being hit by lightning may be slim, but the consequences of climate change, yet to be fully understood, may effect us all.
Hubless Zigzain Bicycle Concept Powered by Simple Driveshaft
Would a drive shaft work in a bicycle? Possibly, and here’s a BMX bike concept that takes the design and runs with it, sans hubs!
The hubless wheels are a cool touch, I’ll admit, but I have my doubts about whether the tiny driveshaft will replace today’s venerable chain configuration.
Whatever the case may be, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me the BMX riders of the future will be using this design to shred the pipe at the Mountain Dew extreme to the MAXX 2020 X-Games.
Hubless wheels allowing a neat and minimal design is fast becoming an integral part of contemporary as well as futuristic autos. Designed by Nikolay Boltachev, a beginning graphic designer from Russia, the “BMX Concept,” is a hubless bike that features Zigzag OneFoot fork, NS Bikes Quark Pro White stem and custom slick 20″/ Maxxis Hookworm 20″ slick tires, together with Crankbrothers 5050 pedals, Superstar SweetSweep handlebar and gear system without chain for a smooth and effortless city ride. We don’t have much info about how it’s gonna work, as the bike is in its conceptual stage at the moment, but hubless wheels definitely give it an elegant look.
Researchers at SCRI, Scotland’s leading centre for crop research in Invergrowrie, have found that baking British garden rhubarb for 20 minutes dramatically increases its levels of anti-cancer chemicals, according to findings published in the Journal Food Chemistry.
These chemicals, called polyphenols, have been shown to selectively kill or prevent the growth of cancer cells – and could be used to develop new, less toxic, treatments for the disease, even in cases where cancers have proven resistant to other treatments.
The scientists at SCRI were involved in a joint study with researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.
Academics are now hoping to use the results to study the effect of rhubarb’s polyphenols on leukaemia.
They aim to discover the best combination of polyphenols and chemotherapy agents to kill leukaemia cells, even those previously resistant to treatment.
It is the first time the benefits of British garden rhubarb, specifically a variety grown in South Yorkshire, have been studied.
Previous research has focussed on Oriental medicinal rhubarb, which has been recognised for its health benefits and used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years.
Dr Gordon McDougall from SCRI’s Plant Products and Food Quality programme said: “Our research has shown that British rhubarb is a potential source of pharmacological agents that may be used to develop new anti-cancer drugs.
“Current treatments are not effective in all cancers and resistance is a common problem. Cancer affects one in three individuals in the UK so it’s very important to discover novel, less toxic, treatments, which can overcome resistance.”
From
Sundown Lounge No. 201
Geeknotes:
Black Comic Book Day
Festival of Writing
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Black Comic Book Day
The second Saturday of February annually, the latest run away bullet-train in the indie universe. Join in the flow, fun, fire, & funk by collecting, sharing, gifting, creating, and promoting in the name of the Black Age of Comics!
Organized By: Turtel Onli, internationally-known Indie illustrator and publisher from Onli Studios in Chicago.
Festival of Writing
Authonomy has teamed up with The Writers' Workshop to help launch the very first Festival of Writing!
Running in the UK from 9-11 April 2010 at the University of York, this residential weekend includes a full schedule of talks from high profile literary agents, authors and editors - and we have a free ticket to give away - to the author who tops the Authonomy Editor's Desk at the end of February. The ticket is worth £500 and includes entry to the festival, three nights' accommodation and entrance to a selected workshop.
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Bioactive Nanomaterial Promotes Growth of New Cartilage
Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this.
The results will be published online the week of Feb. 1 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“Unlike bone, cartilage does not grow back, and therefore clinical strategies to regenerate this tissue are of great interest,” said Samuel I. Stupp, senior author, Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Medicine, and director of the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine. Countless people — amateur athletes, professional athletes and people whose joints have just worn out — learn this all too well when they bring their bad knees, shoulders and elbows to an orthopaedic surgeon.
Damaged cartilage can lead to joint pain and loss of physical function and eventually to osteoarthritis, a disorder with an estimated economic impact approaching $65 billion in the United States. With an aging and increasingly active population, this is expected to grow.
“Cartilage does not regenerate in adults. Once you are fully grown you have all the cartilage you’ll ever have,” said first author Ramille N. Shah, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Shah is also a resident faculty member at the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine.
Type II collagen is the major protein in articular cartilage, the smooth, white connective tissue that covers the ends of bones where they come together to form joints.
“Our material of nanoscopic fibers stimulates stem cells present in bone marrow to produce cartilage containing type II collagen and repair the damaged joint,” Shah said. “A procedure called microfracture is the most common technique currently used by doctors, but it tends to produce a cartilage having predominantly type I collagen which is more like scar tissue.”
The Northwestern gel is injected as a liquid to the area of the damaged joint, where it then self-assembles and forms a solid. This extracellular matrix, which mimics what cells usually see, binds by molecular design one of the most important growth factors for the repair and regeneration of cartilage. By keeping the growth factor concentrated and localized, the cartilage cells have the opportunity to regenerate.
Together with Nirav A. Shah, a sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon and former orthopaedic resident at Northwestern, the researchers implanted their nanofiber gel in an animal model with cartilage defects.
The animals were treated with microfracture, where tiny holes are made in the bone beneath the damaged cartilage to create a new blood supply to stimulate the growth of new cartilage. The researchers tested various combinations: microfracture alone; microfracture and the nanofiber gel with growth factor added; and microfracture and the nanofiber gel without growth factor added.
They found their technique produced much better results than the microfracture procedure alone and, more importantly, found that addition of the expensive growth factor was not required to get the best results. Instead, because of the molecular design of the gel material, growth factor already present in the body is enough to regenerate cartilage.
The matrix only needed to be present for a month to produce cartilage growth. The matrix, based on self-assembling molecules known as peptide amphiphiles, biodegrades into nutrients and is replaced by natural cartilage.
The National Institutes of Health and the company Nanotope supported the research.
UN To Discuss International Air Traffic Control For Outer Space
An international air traffic control for outer space should be set up to prevent damage to satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth, according to proposal to be discussed at the United Nations next week. Space experts from around the world will discuss ways of tackling the growing problem of space debris in orbit around the Earth. It comes just a year after an American satellite collided with a Russian satellite.
There are thought to be more than 19,000 pieces of debris larger than 4 inches across racing around the Earth at high speeds, while there are more than 500,000 bigger than a postage stamp. The number of particles smaller than this are thought to exceed tens of millions.
Despite their relatively small size, most are travelling faster than 15,600mph and at these speeds a fleck of paint could do as much damage as a .22-calibre rifle bullet.
Growing numbers of satellites in orbit around the Earth have also made space a more hazardous place. Low orbits have now become so crowded with satellites that operators are regularly having to make emergency manoeuvres to avoid collisions.
Officials are now proposing an international space traffic management system that will track and control the movements of spacecraft to ensure there are no accidents, much like air traffic control centres do with aircraft.
Currently the US is the only country with the ability to track satellites and debris in space, so other countries and satellite operators are reliant on the Americans alerting them to an impending threat.
Professor Richard Crowther, head of the UK delegation to the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space, and an expert on space debris, said: “The potential for collisions between spacecraft and with debris is only going to increase as more and more objects are sent into space.
“Satellites now form an essential part of everyday life on Earth and many important services are provided by them, so it is crucial that we don’t have satellites being damaged or destroyed.
“What we need is a way for countries to share data about what they have up there and establish some rules of the road for space, like which satellites have to give way to others and those which don’t have the ability to move.
“The term we are using for this is Space Traffic Management, which is a bit like an air traffic control for outer space.”
The European Space Agency has already begun work on a new tracking system, the Space Situational Awareness Programme, that could form part of such an international space traffic control.
The UN committee is also due to discuss new rules about satellites that will ensure they can be recovered or burned up in the atmosphere at the end of their life. Proposals for how debris in orbit around the Earth can be cleaned up will also be put forward.
In 2008 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing new guidelines for how space debris can be reduced. The meeting comes as the UK government prepares to unveil, this week, a 20 year strategy for the future of the British space industry.
Your Baby’s DNA Is Being Stored In A Government Lab
When Annie Brown’s daughter, Isabel, was a month old, her pediatrician asked Brown and her husband to sit down because he had some bad news to tell them: Isabel carried a gene that put her at risk for cystic fibrosis.
While grateful to have the information — Isabel received further testing and she doesn’t have the disease — the Mankato, Minnesota, couple wondered how the doctor knew about Isabel’s genes in the first place. After all, they’d never consented to genetic testing.
It’s simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.
In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies’ DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center.
Many parents don’t realize their baby’s DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents’ concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it’s appropriate for a baby’s genetic blueprint to be in the government’s possession.
“We were appalled when we found out,” says Brown, who’s a registered nurse. “Why do they need to store my baby’s DNA indefinitely? Something on there could affect her ability to get a job later on, or get health insurance.”
According to the state of Minnesota’s Web site, samples are kept so that tests can be repeated, if necessary, and in case the DNA is ever need to help parents identify a missing or deceased child. The samples are also used for medical research.
Art Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, says he understands why states don’t first ask permission to screen babies for genetic diseases. “It’s paternalistic, but the state has an overriding interest in protecting these babies,” he says.
However, he added that storage of DNA for long periods of time is a different matter.
“I don’t see any reason to do that kind of storage,” Caplan says. “If it’s anonymous, then I don’t care. I don’t have an issue with that. But if you keep names attached to those samples, that makes me nervous.”
DNA given to outside researchers
Genetic testing for newborns started in the 1960s with testing for diseases and conditions that, if undetected, could kill a child or cause severe problems, such as mental retardation. Since then, the screening has helped save countless newborns.
Over the years, many other tests were added to the list. Now, states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to indefinitely, depending on the state. (To find out how long your baby’s DNA is stored, see this state-by-state list.) http://www2.uthscsa.edu/nnsis/reportlabspecimen.cfm
Brad Therrell, who runs the federally funded genetic resource consortium, says parents don’t need to worry about the privacy of their babies’ DNA.
“The states have in place very rigid controls on those specimens,” Therrell says. “If my children’s DNA were in one of these state labs, I wouldn’t be worried a bit.”
The specimens don’t always stay in the state labs. They’re often given to outside researchers — sometimes with the baby’s name attached.
According to a study done by the state of Minnesota, more than 20 scientific papers have been published in the United States since 2000 using newborn blood samples.
The researchers do not have to have parental consent to obtain samples as long as the baby’s name is not attached, according to Amy Gaviglio, one of the authors of the Minnesota report. However, she says it’s her understanding that if a researcher wants a sample with a baby’s name attached, consent first must be obtained from the parents.
Scientists have heralded this enormous collection of DNA samples as a “gold mine” for doing research, according to Gaviglio.
“This sample population would be virtually impossible to get otherwise,” says Gaviglio, a genetic counselor for the Minnesota Department of Health. “Researchers go through a very stringent process to obtain the samples. States certainly don’t provide samples to just anyone.”
Brown says that even with these assurances, she still worries whether someone could gain access to her baby’s DNA sample with Isabel’s name attached.
“I know the government says my baby’s data will be kept private, but I’m not so sure. I feel like my trust has been taken,” she says.
Parents don’t give consent to screening
Brown says she first lost trust when she learned that Isabel had received genetic testing in the first place without consent from her or her husband.
“I don’t have a problem with the testing, but I wish they’d asked us first,” she says.
Since health insurance paid for Isabel’s genetic screening, her positive test for a cystic fibrosis gene is now on the record with her insurance company, and the Browns are concerned this could hurt her in the future.
“It’s really a black mark against her, and there’s nothing we can do to get it off there,” Brown says. “And let’s say in the future they can test for a gene for schizophrenia or manic-depression and your baby tests positive — that would be on there, too.”
Brown says if the hospital had first asked her permission to test Isabel, now 10 months old, she might have chosen to pay for it out of pocket so the results wouldn’t be known to the insurance company.
Caplan says taking DNA samples without asking permission and then storing them “veers from the norm.”
“In the military, for instance, they take and store DNA samples, but they tell you they’re doing it, and you can choose not to join if you don’t like it,” he says.
What can parents do
In some states, including Minnesota and Texas, the states are required to destroy a baby’s DNA sample if a parent requests it. Parents who want their baby’s DNA destroyed are asked to fill out this form in Minnesota and this form in Texas.
Parents in other states have less recourse, says Therrell, who runs the genetic testing group. “You’d probably have to write a letter to the state saying, ‘Please destroy my sample,’” he says.
He adds, however, that it’s not clear whether a state would necessarily obey your wishes. “I suspect it would be very difficult to get those states to destroy your baby’s sample,” he says.
1 in 5 Have Inherited the ‘Unfitness Gene’
Spent hours sweating it out in the gym but don’t feel any fitter? Blame your parents. One in five of us has inherited ‘unfitness genes’ that mean no matter how often we pound the treadmill, we’ll still be out of puff.
The researchers focused on aerobic fitness but believe our DNA could also affect our ability to burn off fat through exercise.
The finding paves they way for a simple blood test that will tell us whether we should be getting on our bikes to get fit – or taking a less strenuous route to good health.
Researchers from 14 institutions around the world asked more than 600 people to take up cycling and tracked subsequent improvements in their aerobic fitness.
This involved measuring the amount of oxygen they took in, an indicator of the heart’s ability to pump blood and one of the best predictors of a long and healthy old age.
Running, cycling and brisk walking all increase the body’s ability to take in and use oxygen, boosting resistance to disease.
By peering into the volunteers’ DNA they found 30 genes that affect oxygen uptake and showed that differences in 11 of these genes closely correlated with changes in aerobic fitness after cycling.
Around one in five of those tested had a combination of genes that meant their oxygen uptake hardly changed, despite weeks of fast pedalling.
‘The change in aerobic fitness was so small you could miss it,’ said researcher James Timmons.
‘People will say that we only looked at one measure of fitness and there are other benefits of aerobic exercise.
‘That is absolutely true but this is the hard and fast one that really predicts death.’
Another, more fortunate, 10 per cent saw a massive improvement in aerobic fitness, according to a report of the research in the Journal-of Applied Physiology.
The researchers have applied for the patent for a blood test that would pinpoint those carrying the ‘ unfitness genes’.
They believe it could be on the market within a year. They envisage GPs or gym instructors using the test results to tailor a person’s exercise programm.
Those found to carry the ‘ unfitness genes’ would be advised to concentrate on changing their diet or taking cholesterol-busting statins to improve their heart health.
They could also benefit from different types of exercise, such as weight training.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 200
Geeknotes:
New Guide from CD Baby 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
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New Guide from CD Baby, for members only
2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published. Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. In the inaugural contest, Amazon customers voted and named Bill Loehfelm the winner with his novel, Fresh Kills. Several of the other Top 10 finalists also received publishing deals with Penguin.
Manuscript submissions are now being accepted through February 7, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier.
2-cent entertainment's controversial "This is What You Paid To See" PSA.
Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong - Farewell to Storyville
It's a fragment of the film "New Orleans", directed by Arthur Lubin in 1947. This is the saddest part of the film, in my opinion, because everybody is obliged to leave the city they learnt to call a home and that's what this song tell us about.
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Forests Are Growing Faster
Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.
For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker’s research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation’s capital.
Parker’s tree censuses have revealed that the forest is packing on weight at a much faster rate than expected. He and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute postdoctoral fellow Sean McMahon discovered that, on average, the forest is growing an additional 2 tons per acre annually. That is the equivalent of a tree with a diameter of 2 feet sprouting up over a year.
Forests and their soils store the majority of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon stock. Small changes in their growth rate can have significant ramifications in weather patterns, nutrient cycles, climate change and biodiversity. Exactly how these systems will be affected remains to be studied.
Parker and McMahon’s paper focuses on the drivers of the accelerated tree growth. The chief culprit appears to be climate change, more specifically, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2, higher temperatures and longer growing seasons.
Assessing how a forest is changing is no easy task. Forest ecologists know that the trees they study will most likely outlive them. One way they compensate for this is by creating a “chronosequence” — a series of forests plots of the same type that are at different developmental stages. At SERC, Parker meticulously tracks the growth of trees in stands that range from 5 to 225 years old. This allowed Parker and McMahon to verify that there was accelerated growth in forest stands young and old. More than 90% of the stands grew two to four times faster than predicted from the baseline chronosequence.
By grouping the forest stands by age, McMahon and Parker were also able to determine that the faster growth is a recent phenomenon. If the forest stands had been growing this quickly their entire lives, they would be much larger than they are.
Parker estimates that among himself, his colleague Dawn Miller and a cadre of citizen scientists, they have taken a quarter of a million measurements over the years. Parker began his tree census work Sept. 8, 1987 — his first day on the job. He measures all trees that are 2 centimeters or more in diameter. He also identifies the species, marks the tree’s coordinates and notes if it is dead or alive.
By knowing the species and diameter, McMahon is able to calculate the biomass of a tree. He specializes in the data-analysis side of forest ecology. “Walking in the woods helps, but so does looking at the numbers,” said McMahon. He analyzed Parker’s tree censuses but was hungry for more data.
It was not enough to document the faster growth rate; Parker and McMahon wanted to know why it might be happening. “We made a list of reasons these forests could be growing faster and then ruled half of them out,” said Parker. The ones that remained included increased temperature, a longer growing season and increased levels of atmospheric CO2.
During the past 22 years CO2 levels at SERC have risen 12%, the mean temperature has increased by nearly three-tenths of a degree and the growing season has lengthened by 7.8 days. The trees now have more CO2 and an extra week to put on weight. Parker and McMahon suggest that a combination of these three factors has caused the forest’s accelerated biomass gain.
Ecosystem responses are one of the major uncertainties in predicting the effects of climate change. Parker thinks there is every reason to believe his study sites are representative of the Eastern deciduous forest, the regional ecosystem that surrounds many of the population centers on the East Coast. He and McMahon hope other forest ecologists will examine data from their own tree censuses to help determine how widespread the phenomenon is.
Funding for this research was provided by the HSBC Climate Partnership.
Spray-On Liquid Glass Can Protect Almost Any Surface From Damage
Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.
The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.
Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool, a family-owned German company. Research on the product was carried out at the Saarbrücken Institute for New Materials. Nanopool is already in negotiations in the UK with a number of companies and with the National Health Service, with a view to its widespread adoption.
The liquid glass spray produces a water-resistant coating only around 100 nanometers (15-30 molecules) thick. On this nanoscale the glass is highly flexible and breathable. The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids. UK project manager with Nanopool, Neil McClelland, said soon almost every product you purchase will be coated with liquid glass.
Food processing companies in Germany have already carried out trials of the spray, and found sterile surfaces that usually needed to be cleaned with strong bleach to keep them sterile needed only a hot water rinse if they were coated with liquid glass. The levels of sterility were higher for the glass-coated surfaces, and the surfaces remained sterile for months.Other organizations, such as a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, and a hamburger chain in Germany, are also testing liquid glass for a wide range of uses. A year-long trial of the spray in a Lancashire hospital also produced “very promising” results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti. Trials in Turkey are testing the product on monuments such as the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara.
The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on plants and seeds. Trials in vineyards have found spraying vines increases their resistance to fungal diseases, while other tests have shown sprayed seeds germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds, and coated wood is not attacked by termites. Other vineyard applications include coating corks with liquid glass to prevent “corking” and contamination of wine. The spray cannot be seen by the naked eye, which means it could also be used to treat clothing and other materials to make them stain-resistant. McClelland said you can “pour a bottle of wine over an expensive silk shirt and it will come right off”.
In the home, spray-on glass would eliminate the need for scrubbing and make most cleaning products obsolete. Since it is available in both water-based and alcohol-based solutions, it can be used in the oven, in bathrooms, tiles, sinks, and almost every other surface in the home, and one spray is said to last a year.
Liquid glass spray is perhaps the most important nanotechnology product to emerge to date. It will be available in DIY stores in Britain soon, with prices starting at around £5 ($8 US). Other outlets, such as many supermarkets, may be unwilling to stock the products because they make enormous profits from cleaning products that need to be replaced regularly, and liquid glass would make virtually all of them obsolete.
Tobacco Plants Used To Grow Cheap Biodegradable Solar Cells
Researchers at UC Berkeley have hacked tobacco plants to grow synthetic photovoltaic cells which can then be extracted and sprayed onto any substrate to create solar cells.
How? The scientists tweaked a few genes within the tobacco mosaic virus to build tiny structures called chromophores. Once the plant is sprayed with the virus, the new chromophores will group into tightly coiled formations. Chromophores are structures that turn light into high powered electrons.
Each formation is hundreds of nanometers long and about three nanometers away from its neighbor. That spacing is very important. Just one atom closer would impede any electrical current. Harvesting the electrons would be nearly impossible.
“Over billions of years, evolution has established exactly the right distances between chromophore to allow them to collect and use light from the sun with unparalleled efficiency,” said Matt Francis. “We are trying to mimic these finely tuned systems using the tobacco mosaic virus.”
While they aren’t as efficient as silicon cells, they are a lot more eco-friendly. Along with being biodegradable, no environmentally toxic chemicals are required to make biologically derived solar cells. And probably most important, they’re very very cheap!
Trapped inside the tobacco plant, scientists will have to harvest the plant, chop it up and extract the structures. Dissolved in a liquid solution, chromophores can then be sprayed over a substrate coated to hold them in place.
“It’s very difficult to recreate photosynthesis,” said Angela Belcher, a researcher at MIT who uses viruses to build batteries and other structures. “The precision of each structure is very important, and it’s very hard to pick up one molecule and put it where you want it to be.”
Growing biologically derived solar cells could definitely put farmers back to work. The harvested electrons could also generate chemical energy much like plants do. This could mean hydrocarbons that could power cars or aircraft.
Francis and his colleagues were also successful using this process with the E. coli bacteria.
2010 Tapping World Summit
Now, this item came in via a Facebook friend, Megan Jenifer, and though I usually pass on these alternative-whatever conferences as events designed to separate curious yuppies from their money, the info said it was free, so what the hell...
Tapping, apparently, is a technique that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.
It has been shown to provide relief from chronic pain, emotional problems, disorders, addictions, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, and physical diseases as helping people clear the limiting beliefs that are holding them back from attracting what they want.
The infopage includes a video, testimonials and a plug from at least one person who was involved in the self-help smash hit "The Secret."
If you're interested, check it out; registration is open till Feb. 21st.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 199
Geeknotes:
Chicago Poetry Items
MUSIC Domain name
Quinta Do Agrinho
On Saturday, April 17, Charlie Rossiter and the Unity Temple, 835 W. Lake St. in downtown Oak Park, will present two special events featuring Poet, Publisher, Translator, and Founder of Poets Against the War, Sam Hamill. This will be a rare opportunity to spend time with one of the major poets and cultural forces of our time. Sam Hamill is the author of more than forty books, including fifteen volumes of original poetry (most recently Measured by Stone and Almost Paradise: New & Selected Poems & Translations); four collections of literary essays; and some of the most distinguished translations of ancient Chinese and Japanese classics of the last half-century. Hamill co-founded, and for thirty-two years was editor, at Copper Canyon Press. He taught in prisons for fourteen years and has worked extensively with battered women and children. Mr. Hamill also inspired tens of thousands of poets across the country and across the world to protest the war in Iraq, after a White House poetry symposium was cancelled for fear that anti-war poetry would be read.
"The Practice of Poetry," an intimate workshop and discussion with Mr. Hamill (limited to 20 participants) will take place at the Temple from 2 to 4 PM. And then, "An Evening of Poetry with Sam Hamill," a special 3rd Saturday Coffeehouse event, will take place at 8 PM. Tickets for these events will become available starting February 1. Tickets for the workshop can be purchased for $20 from BrownPaperTickets by clicking here and tickets for the reading can be purchased for $9 by clicking here. Please note there will be no open mic. for the evening reading. These events are funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. and the Social Mission Committee of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. For more information please contact 708-660-9376.
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Your own BandName.Music domain name!
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Here's the latest promotional mailer from Quinta Do Agrinho, a Portuguese resort located in the area surrounding Caniçada dam and Peneda Park. Really beautiful area...
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Evidence of the Afterlife
Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long says if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade’s worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife.
Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of near-death experience, the intersection between religion and science and the Oprah effect.
Medically speaking, what is a near-death experience?
A near-death experience has two components. The person has to be near death, which means physically compromised so severely that permanent death would occur if they did not improve: they’re unconscious, or often clinically dead, with an absence of heartbeat and breathing. The second component [is that] at the time they’re having a close brush with death, they have an experience. [It is] generally lucid [and] highly organized.
How do you respond to skeptics who say there must be some biological or physiological basis for that kind of experience, which you say in the book is medically inexplicable?
There have been over 20 alternative, skeptical “explanations” for near-death experience. The reason is very clear: no one or several skeptical explanations make sense, even to the skeptics themselves. Or [else ]there wouldn’t be so many.
You say there’s less skepticism about near-death experiences than there used to be, as well as more awareness. Why is that?
Literally hundreds of scholarly articles have been written over the last 35 years about near-death experience. In addition to that, the media continues to present [evidence of] near-death experience. Hundreds of thousands of pages a month are read on our website, NDERF.org. - http://www.nderf.org/
In the book you say that some critics argue that there’s an “Oprah effect”: that a lot of people who have had near-death experiences have heard about them elsewhere first. How do you account for that in your research?
We post to the website the near-death experience exactly as it was shared with us. Given the fact that every month 300,000 pages are read [by] over 40,000 unique visitors from all around the world, the chances of a copycat account from any media source not being picked up by any one of those people is exceedingly remote. Our quality-assurance check is the enormous visibility and the enormous number of visitors.
You say this research has affected you a lot on a personal level. How?
I’m a physician who fights cancer. In spite of our best efforts, not everybody is going to be cured. My absolute understanding that there is an afterlife for all of us — and a wonderful afterlife — helps me face cancer, this terribly frightening and threatening disease, with more courage than I’ve ever faced it with before. I can be a better physician for my patients.
You say we can draw on near-death experiences to reach conclusions about life after actual death. But is that comparing apples and oranges?
Scientifically speaking, interviewing people that have permanently died is challenging. Obviously, given that impossibility, we have to do the next best thing. If these people have no brain function, like you have in a cardiac arrest, I think that is the best, closest model we’re going to have to study whether or not conscious experience can occur apart from the physical brain. The research shows the overwhelming answer is absolutely yes.
You raise the idea that your work could have profound implications for religion. But is whether there is life after death really a scientific question, or a theological one?
I think we have an interesting blend. [This research] directly addresses what religions have been telling us for millenniums to accept on faith: that there is an afterlife, that there is some order and purpose to this universe, that there’s some reason and purpose for us being here in earthly life. We’re finding verification, if you will, for what so many religions have been saying. It’s an important step toward bringing science and religion together.
Is there any aspect of human experience that you don’t think science can touch?
Oh, absolutely. What happens after permanent death — after we’re no longer able to interview people — is an absolute. To that extent, the work I do may always require some element of faith. But by the time you look at [the] evidence, the amount of faith you need to have [to believe in] life after death is substantially reduced.
The Puffin: A Personal Aircraft
NASA is developing an aerial vehicle that will probably come as close to the personal jet-pack we were looking forward to. The “Puffin” features Vertical Takeoff and Landing, an electric engine, and a face-melting top speed of 300 miles per hour. They are already fine tuning its performance values for military use:
The rather unusual-looking craft would be especially handy for military applications. Its extremely low heat signature would make it difficult to detect in the air, and the fact that it’s whisper quiet doesn’t hurt, either.
In fact, because it’s so quiet similar technology may be used for commercial transportation in the future. The lack of loud, emissions-heavy aircraft engines would mean that airports could be situated closer to city centers and even residential areas. And if we can’t have personal jet packs, then personal aircraft would be the next best thing.
The Puffin is a single-person stealth VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicle with an electric engine. In theory, it will be able to cruise at around 150 miles per hour and sprint at close to 300 miles per hour. And since electric motors need much less air and cooling than internal combustion engines, the craft would have virtually no altitude limitation. The biggest limitation at the moment would be the battery: with a range of just 50 miles, it wouldn’t leave much time for anything. But batteries are rapidly decreasing in size and increasing in density, so engineers figure that the range could be doubled by 2017.
Venus Flytrap for Nuclear Waste
Not every object is food to a Venus flytrap. Like the carnivorous plant, a new material developed at Northwestern University permanently traps only its desired prey, the radioactive ion cesium, and not other harmless ions like sodium.
The synthetic material, made from layers of a gallium, sulfur and antimony compound, is very selective. The Northwestern researchers found it to be extremely successful in removing cesium — found in nuclear waste but very difficult to clean up — from a sodium-heavy solution. (The solution had concentrations similar to those in real liquid nuclear waste.)
It is, in fact, cesium itself that triggers a structural change in the material, causing it to snap shut its pores, or windows, and trap the cesium ions within. The material sequesters 100 percent of the cesium ions from the solution while at the same time ignoring all the sodium ions.
The results are published online by the journal Nature Chemistry.
“Ideally we want to concentrate the radioactive material so it can be dealt with properly and the nonradioactive water thrown away,” said Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the paper’s senior author. “A new class of materials that takes advantage of the flytrap mechanism could lead to a much-needed breakthrough in nuclear waste remediation.”
Capturing only cesium from vast amounts of liquid nuclear waste is like looking for a needle in a haystack, Kanatzidis said. The waste has a much higher concentration of sodium compared to cesium, with ratios as great as 1,000-to-1. This difficult-to-achieve selectivity is why currently there is no good solution for cesium removal.
The Northwestern material is porous with its atoms arranged in an open and layered framework structure with many windows to promote rapid ion exchange. Initially, organic cations reside in the material; when the material comes into contact with the liquid, the cations leave the material by going through the windows, and the cesium ions come in. In the end, the material contains only cesium ions and no organic cations. (The presence of organic cations in the liquid is not an issue as the cations are not radioactive.)
The snap-shut Venus flytrap mechanism occurs because ’soft’ materials like to interact with each other. A cesium ion is big and soft, and the metal-sulfide material is soft, too. The cesium ions are attracted to the material, specifically the sulfur atoms, and together form a weak bond. This interaction causes the material to change shape, close its windows and trap the cesium — like a juicy insect in a flytrap. Sodium, which is clothed in water molecules, can’t trigger the response.
Kanatzidis and Nan Ding, then a doctoral student in Kanatzidis’ research group and an author of the paper, did not set out to discover the flytrap mechanism. Instead, they were investigating different structures of the material, wondering if they could act as ion exchangers.
“Seeing the windows close was completely unexpected,” Kanatzidis said. “We expected ion exchange — we didn’t expect the material to respond dynamically. This gives us a new mechanism to focus on.”
From
Sundown Lounge No. 198
Geeknotes:
Chicago Poetry Items
Whispers Radio New Community Site
Black Science Fiction Society Items
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ChicagoPoetry.com is putting its plans for a monthly first Friday poetry show on temporary hold as it pursues its new monthly Poetry Cram series. ChicagoPoetry will be hosting a Poetry Cram on the 2nd Saturday of every month, at Cafe Ballou, 939 N. Western Ave, from 6 to 8 PM. Each month we will attempt to break the current Ballou Cram record of how many poets we can cram into a 2 hour show. The current record is 26 poets and the next Cram will be an uncensored Valentine's Day show on February 13. Poets who wish to RSVP for a performance spot should contact Cram host CJ Laity at Publisher[at]ChicagoPoetry.com
Current Chicago Poetry Announcements
There seems to be some confusion concerning the Revolving Door Reading Series, which will feature Allison Gruber, Donna Pecore, Luis Humberto Valadez and Sid Yiddish. Apparently it is going to take place on February 17 (not on January 27 as previously reported) from 7:30 to 9:30 PM, at Red Kiva, 1108 West Randolph St.
On Saturday, January 23, at 7 PM, Myopic Books at 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor, will be really happening with a double feature of Kevin Coval and Roger Bonair-Agard.
On Monday, January 25, Weeds, 1555 N. Dayton, will present its seventh "Off The Wall" Poetry Contest with a $50 cash prize. Sign up begins at 9 PM and the contest starts at 10 PM.
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Whispers Radio New Community Site
Whispers is the Ohio Valley’s only source for paranormal talk radio. The show is broadcast live on Tuesday’s at 6PM and is hosted by Jordan Cline and Nick Queen, with beloved producer Lola Miller. Jordan and Nick bring the best guests in the paranormal world to WKKX. Past guests have included Stanton Friedman, the first civilian investigator of Roswell and internationally acclaimed UFOlogist, Mark Nesbitt, operator of one of the most popular ghost tours in the nation, Ghosts of Gettysburg, and many others. Topics range from ghosts to cryptozoology to UFOs, as well as others that fall into the general paranormal realm. now syndicated on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network which reaches listeners around the world.
Want to tell us your story? Call 1-973-215-9178 and leave us a message and we might just play it on the air!
Want to talk live? Call Tuesday’s at 6PM Eastern Time, locally 214-1600 and nationally 866-514-1600.
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From The Black Science Fiction Society:
Author D. L. Russell will be signing copies of his new short story collection, "Hell is an Awfully Big City!" at Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago!
Time: January 30, 2010 from 7pm to 8:30pm
Location: Quimby's Bookstore
Street: 1854 W. North Avenue
City/Town: Chicago, IL
Website or Map: http://www.quimbys.com/
Phone: 773-342-0910
Octavia Butler: Science Fiction Writer - From democracynow.org 2005 Interview
Part 1:
Part 2:
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Haiti's history of hardship
Al Jazeera's Avi Lewis reports. (14 Jan 2010)
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The Future of Work
By the end of the month, a company called txteagle will be the largest employer in Kenya. The firm, started in its original form in 2008 by a young computer engineer named Nathan Eagle and, as of this coming June, based in Boston, will have 10,000 people working for it in Kenya. Txteagle does not rent office space for these workers, nor do the company’s officers interview them, or ever talk to most of them.
And, in a sense, the labor that the Kenyan workforce does hardly seems like work. The jobs – short stretches of speech to be transcribed or translated into a local dialect, search engine results to be checked, images to be labeled, short market research surveys to be completed – come in over a worker’s own cellphone and the worker responds either by speaking into the phone or texting back the answer. The workers can be anyone with a cellphone – a secretary waiting for a bus, a Masai tribesman herding cattle, a student between classes, a security guard on a slow day, or one of Kenya’s tens of millions of unemployed. The jobs take at most a few minutes and pay a few cents each (payment is sent by cellphone as well), but a dedicated worker can earn a few dollars a day in a part of the world where that is a significant sum.
The txteagle story is a variety of things: a tale of savvy social entrepreneurs taking advantage of the proliferation of cellphones in much of the developing world, an example of the ability of clever programming to chop big jobs up into tiny discrete chunks and to assess reliability by checking the answers of different workers against each other. But txteagle is also, at the most basic level, a story of how people are rethinking what work can be.
The United States Government Accountability Office has estimated that so-called contingent workers – everything from temps to day laborers to the self-employed to independent contractors – make up nearly a third of the workforce. And forecasters believe that proportion will rise. The growth is being driven partly by economic factors, with the uncertain economic climate making short-term contract workers more attractive to firms than full-time employees, but of course broader technological changes are at work as well – cellphones, PDAs, and broadband make it easy to farm out work, even complex, interactive tasks that previously only made sense to do in-house.
This shift has begun to trigger a more fundamental examination of what a job is and what we expect to get from it. Despite the vast diversity of the work people do, the traditional notion of a job has tended to be a standard bundle of responsibilities, roles, and benefits: We do our work for an employer to whom we owe our primary professional allegiance, and that employer pays us and provides us health insurance and a sense of professional identity. In the United States, many of the laws that shape health insurance, retirement, and tax policy are structured around this model.
Dell Froot Concept Design Does Away with Keyboard
With the environment and sustainability firmly in mind the Dell Froot concept saves the planet courtesy two projectors: One for the virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor.Designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest sponsored by Dell, the Froot also uses a colorful case that’s constructed out of a biodegradable starch-based polymer. As it’s a futuristic concept, the lack of a mouse is understabdable—we’ll no doubt be using our brains by then.
Haiti Earthquake Relief – Solar Panels To Help Light The Night
The Jan. 12 earthquake that hit Haiti has mobilized relief agencies, who are working around the clock to aid survivors. One thing lacking is electricity. There are reports of people burning tires to light up the night. Solar-powered lights that charge during the day are a better idea, a Florida company says.
One thing Haiti still has is sunlight. Sol Inc., based in Palm City, has donated about $400,000 in solar lighting supplies for the relief effort, to allow hospitals, food distribution and relief camps to operate past dusk.
“We know that once our solar lighting systems are installed, we will effectively double the amount of available relief effort time by allowing aid workers and rescuers to work around the clock when previously operations had to cease at dusk,” Rick Schuett, CEO of Sol Inc., said in a statement. More lights also will help restore some safety and security to the island country, Schuett said.
Haiti has suffered for years from a lack of reliable electricity. According to the Solar Light Electric Fund, there was no access to electricity in almost all of the Haitian countryside before the quake, and dirty diesel generators provided the available electricity.
Besides the Sol Inc. donation, solar energy also is helping in other ways in Haiti. A South Carolina charity called Water Missions International, has sent 10 water filtration systems to the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The systems can run on diesel fuel or solar power to purify water from lakes, streams and wells, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sol Inc. says it’s working with several relief and government agencies to transport the solar lights from Florida and get them installed in Haiti as quickly as possible. Those involved with the effort include Missionary Flights International, World Vision, Unicef and Hands on Disaster Response.
Sol Inc. also is working to help other companies get solar supplies to Haiti, and is offering to match purchases of discounted, $1,200 solar lighting systems as part of a Solar Lights for Haiti program.
The company made similar efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Haiti is looking for help with their water supply, and this may be it. Providing water in remote and austere environments is a logistical nightmare. In emergencies, water systems take too long to setup. Bulk water is expensive and difficult to deliver. Surface water is almost always heavily contaminated, resulting in death and disease.
The HydroWell Village solves the problem of providing clean fluids to large groups by allowing the easy and safe filtration of virtually any water supply. The HydroWell Village is ideal for disaster preparedness and humanitarian relief efforts.
Manta Ventures, LLC is the leading provider of next-generation forward osmosis water filtration technology based on a proprietary membrane that converts almost any polluted water into safe, potable drink.
With over fifteen years of research, scientists have developed the world’s first commercially viable forward osmosis membrane for emergency desalination and water filtration. This membrane is used by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the United States Coast Guard and is now available to the public for use in emergency desalination situations.
Only one filter technology can reliably and safely filter the muddy or cloudy contaminated water frequently found in remote areas or during disaster scenarios. If you need to be prepared to filter the widest range of water sources – clear, muddy, brackish or ocean water – forward osmosis is the ideal solution.
Forward osmosis products out-perform the competition in these situations, because unlike other filter or purification technologies, they are virtually unaffected by the presence of mud or other suspended solids in the contaminated source water. Using an advanced membrane filter, our systems offer the highest purity available from any personal water filter. Yet because they operate passively without pressure, they do not clog, allowing virtually any water source to be used to provide clean, safe drink.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 197
Geeknotes:
Act on CO2 Anthology
Band Pluggers
2010 Indie Bible Music Directory
Chicago Poetry Events
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Act on CO2 Anthology
Authonomy has partnered up with the Act on CO2 campaign to offer you the
chance to be published in a very special anthology. To enter, simply write
a short story, fairytale or poem (which can be anything from 100 to 3000
words long) to educate people on the subject of climate change, and
encourage them to make a positive difference. When you've finished, submit
your work on this page: http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/clk;220263951;43795207;g
The closing date is the 31st of January so you still have plenty of time to
don your thinking caps and get scribbling.
"Laugh Detroit", a movie chronicling the second annual Detroit Comedy Festival at the Legendary Comedy Castle, opens in Emagine and Cinema Hollywood Theaters across Michigan. The soundtrack for the entire movie was done exclusively by Sadson Recording Artist, Rusty Wright of the Rusty Wright Band.
Amy Long at TwoShepsThatPass sent a last-minute plug about two upcoming performances from jazz singer-songwriter Jacqui Naylor, which will benefit the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium.
Jacqui will be donating 50% of her proceeds from both shows at the famed jazz club Yoshi’s Oakland on January 28th to this wonderful organization.
Here are the show details:
Jacqui Naylor show to benefit the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium
If you can't make it into the city for the Poetry Cram on Saturday, January 16, then we recommend you check out the 3rd Saturday Coffeehouse, happening at 8 PM (hey, you just might be able to make both events), at Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street in Oak Park. Bring poetry or prose to share and then enjoy the thrills of magician Tim Casady. $3-$5 donation. Wheelchair accessible. Info at 708-660-9376.
On Sunday, January 17, The Green Mill, 4802 North Broadway, will present the "Chicago Women's Slam" from 7 to 10 PM. If you are into performance poetry you absolutely do not want to miss this one, because the all-star cast includes Marty McConnell, Dahlia, Mojdeh Stoakley, Andi Strickland, Sarah Morgan, Tristan Silverman, Stacy Fox, Amy David and Emily Rose. Wow! And it will be hosted by Molly Meacham!!
And then on Monday, January 18, from 7:30 to 10 PM, Butterfly Social Club, 722 W. Grand, will present Mental Graffiti with featured guest Eboni Hogan, who was the 2008 champ of the legendary Urbana Slam and has represented the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. There will also be a slam hosted by former Chicago slam champ Tim Stafford. If you want to be on the only team "repping" Chicago at the National Poetry Slam this year, you need to get there and sign up. $5 donation
If you are going to perform in events like these, maybe you better touch up on your skills. Vox Ferus Aloud is a workshop for poets interested in improving or practicing their performance skills. Led by nationally renowned poet and performer Marty McConnell (www.martyoutloud.com), the workshop will include exploration and practice of performance techniques that enable the poet to reveal a poem's emotional range and meaning(s) on stage as well as on the page. Space is limited to keep the workshop small, and the fee is $10 per person. To register, email voxferus@gmail.com. The workshop will take place in the Loop on Saturday January 16 from 3-6 p.m.
On the afternoon of January 4, 2010, Chicago Def Jam poet, comedian and hip-hop artist Prince Akbar, also known as Jus Rhymz, was tasered and shot to death by two Calumet City police officers. Akbar, whose inspirations ranged from Louis Farrakhan to Dave Chappelle, was a Columbia College graduate who performed in Poetry Slams. Akbar was well known as the author of "WARZONE" (click to read it), a five part blog that chronicled day by day shootings in his Southside neighborhood and that talked about police brutality and issues of racism. Chicago poet Stephany Rose sites Akbar's blog in her 2008 story about the Jennifer Hudson family tragedy.
Adrienne Huff, commenting on a report of Akbar's death in the Tribune, said: "Brother Prince Akbar was a very caring, intelligent, and wise brother who didn't deserve this. The police could have handled this much differently. HE WAS UNARMED! This brother didn't like the way the justice system was treating Blacks and he was very vocal about it. He was a college graduated, with no criminal background despite his environment. He rose to the occasion . . . He touched many lives in a positive way. He will be truly missed."
Funeral / Wake Information: "Please join us in saying farewell to our dear friend, activist and slam poet Prince Alim Bantu Akbar on Friday January 15, 2009 at the House of Branch Funeral Home, 3125 W. Roosevelt, Chicago, IL 773.522.1551. . Viewing at 10:00 am and Services at 11:00 am. Any donation amount to assist with funeral cost is greatly appreciated and is accepted at www.blackbootink.com."
What can be said about Effie Mihopoulos? I am really at a loss for words. Carlos Cumpian has called her a "pioneer." Other poets have called her a legend. Many poets have called her a mentor and a friend. Recently, Effie became ill. In December, her longtime friend Rhonda Farrins brought her to Swedish Covenant Hospital, where Effie was found to have breast cancer. In January, Effie was transferred to a Hospice at Weiss Memorial, where she passed away on January 14, 2010. Before she died, she was visited by dozens of her friends, who sat by her side and told her how important she was to them. Effie Mihopoulos graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with a Master's Degree in English in 1974. Her imprint "Ommation Press" published many Chicago poets over the years. Her book of poetry "The Moon Cycle" was produced as a play and Effie worked as a interviewer on WZRD for many years. She was also the Theater Coordinator for the Bucktown Arts Fest and the Performance Art reviewer for Examiner.com. Yet mentioning these few things is like throwing a pebble into the ocean. Seriously. No amount of words can express how instrumental Effie Mihopoulos has been to the Chicago Poetry Scene. She has been active in Chicago's performance arts and poetry scene for decades and it would take volumes to list all of her accomplishments. She will truly be missed.
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Anti-Alzheimer’s Milkshake Boosts Memory
A memory-boosting milkshake for Alzheimer patients could be available within two years. Tests show that taken once a day with breakfast, the strawberry shake significantly improves short-term memory in those in the early stages of the devastating disease.
The changes were apparent after only 12 weeks, providing ‘compelling evidence’ of the drink’s potential, the journal of the American Alzheimer’s association reports.
Further, large-scale trials of Souvenaid, which contains a cocktail of brain nutrients found naturally in breast milk, are already under way.
If they are successful, it could be marketed by Shape and Actimel manufacturer Danone. It is likely to be displayed behind-the-counter in pharmacies and sold after a brief consultation, in a similar way to some cough mixtures.
Researcher Professor Richard Wurtman said: ‘This is something that has no toxicity, that gives you better function than you started with. If it works in the follow-up studies, it is very exciting.’
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia blight the lives of 400,000 Britons and their families – and the number of cases is expected to double within a generation.
There is no cure and existing drugs, which raise levels of key brain chemicals, do not work for everyone and their effects wear off over time.
Rather than targeting brain chemicals, the drink focuses on the connections that carry vital messages between brain cells. Damage to these connections, or synapses, is blamed for many of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, including memory loss.
Professor Wurtman, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, pinpointed the compounds which work together to make new connections.
The three key ingredients – omega-3 fatty acids, uridine and choline – are all found in breast milk. Other ingredients include B vitamins and health-boosting antioxidants.
The milky ‘cocktail’ was tested in elderly men and women in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
Half were asked to take the drink with breakfast for three months and half were given a substitute drink which looked and tasted the same but lacked the key ingredients.
They were then given a battery of memory tests, including one in which they were questioned on details of a story around half an hour after being told it.
This type of short-term memory loss is typical of Alzheimer’s.
Those taking Souvenaid were almost twice as likely to score better at the end than at the beginning of the three-month trial, the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia reports.
Overall, 40 per cent of those who had taken Souvenaid showed improvement, compared with 24 per cent given the dummy drink.
The drink did not produce improvements in scores for tests of orientation and spatial awareness – but this may be because these traits do not tend to fade until later in the illness.
Flemming Morgan, of Danone, which funded the research, said: ‘Our goal is to make a proven and positive difference in the lives of millions of people with Alzheimer’s and their carers.’
In Britain, Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said: ‘It’s very early days, but this study does suggest that this multinutrient drink is worthy of further investigation.’
Our Brains Have a Distorted Concept of Time
A recent study published in the journal Psychological Science has found our concept of time is distorted, and we consistently underestimate how much time has passed since events in the past, condensing the time.
The researchers, led by Dr. Gal Zauberman, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, wondered why events that occurred at about the same time can feel more or less distant. Previous research had suggested that characteristics pertaining to the event itself could influence the time estimate, so Zauberman and his team decided to focus on the characteristics of the time interval following the event to see how they influenced the perception of time.
They tested university students to find out how accurately they could estimate when news events had occurred. Events included the appointment of US Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Britney Spears shaving her head. They found the students underestimated the time passed since the events by, on average, three months, and that the estimate depended on the extent of memories of related events that have occurred since. The more details students had of related events in the interval, the longer ago the event seemed to have occurred. Dr Zauberman said it seems that people have trouble understanding the passage of time, and we need to “latch onto something we do understand” in order to comprehend it.
This may explain, for example, why children we rarely see seem to grow up faster than those we see every day — because there are fewer intervening memories — and so the time seems condensed. It may also explain why goals that are not acted upon seem to have been made a short time ago, while those that were acted upon seem to have been made in the more distant past.
The research also suggests the sensation of passing time depends on what you think about and how, and this means that we actually have more control of our perception of time than previously thought, and focusing on our achievements rather than our lack of action on our goals makes time seem to have passed more slowly.
The Transparent House
A meeting of transparencies that heightens the senses. A collaboration with founder Carlo Santambrogio and designer Ennio Arosio, their ‘Simplicity’ range features a series of iconic furniture pieces, beds, sofas and bookcases, along with architectural elements such as staircases and kitchens, all fashioned from ‘extraclear’ glass, that are elegant and distinctive, whilst perfectly complimenting their surroundings.
The beauty of their work is perfectly showcased in their awe-inspiring concept home that the company are currently seeking a permanent location for…. while we may have one or two reservations about privacy, the idea of lying in bed watching the night sky is remarkably alluring.
“…And we realize that everything is possible in Simplicity, everything is feasible, provided it responds to the careful interpretation of the proposition aimed at satisfying aesthetic requirements,” Carlo Santambrogio, owner and author of the Simplicity project states.
‘Swelling Glass’ can pick and choose pollutants from water
Researchers at the College of Wooster have developed a unique glass that swells like a sponge and can be used to clean polluted water sources. The glass binds with gasoline and other pollutants but doesn’t bind with water. This smart material has the ability to pick and choose pollutants from contaminated groundwater.
The glass, dubbed Obsorb, is being developed by a new company, Absorbent Materials, and a number of pilot sites are being tested in the United States. Of all the pollutants present in groundwater, TCE is particularly difficult to remove, and mostly contaminated sites are simply shut down to allow the vapors to dissipate naturally.
Obsorb can provide a low-cost means of recovering sites more quickly. Nanoparticles of iron can be added to the glass to convert TCE or PCE into a harmless substance. Once full, Obsorb floats on the surface and can be easily skimmed off. After removing the pollutants, Obsorb can be reused hundreds of times.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 196
Geeknotes:
SLounge TV
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So, I got myself a webcam for Christmas to finally begin producing video content, not just for personal stuff like my show The Patio, but also to have my own MTV, specifically, to play video clips of songs featured in episodes of Sundown Lounge. Anyway, the first episode of my new vodcast SLounge TV went up a few days before this week's show, highlighting four bands included in the "Ariel Showcase."
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Nanotech Infused Viagra Bed Sheets
While it’s not entirely clear how the Viagra sheets actually work (how many washes can they go through?) they do seem to portend a look up in the lives of some this coming year. The basic idea is terribly simple.
Instead of taking a pill at some indeterminate time before one might be offered some sex the Viagra sheets are of course on your bed. So that you automatically start to get dosed with it when you actually go to bed with someone.
Spanish genius Pep Torres, 44, has used nanotechnology to infuse the sex drug’s arousing ingredient into the fibers of a bed sheet.
When people get into bed the viagra soaks into their skin and gets into the bloodstream – which could reek havoc if you were hoping for an early night. Pep said: “It started as a joke after we saw a German study that said businessmen get little sex because they are too tired from work. “But we got so many calls after launching it that we’re going into production.
So, who will be the manufacturer to use the same technology to infuse Vagra into pajamas? “Yes, that sounds like a good idea, an early night dear. I’ll just go and put on my “special” pajamas shall I?”
Pedal-Powered Submarine To Go On The Market
A pedal-powered submarine capable of diving up to 30 metres has been developed by a Russian company. The craft can be powered by two people with no specialist training and moves at about walking pace.
The pedallers sit side by side in the craft, most of which is made from a special acrylic glass. Its designers say this will give occupants “spectacular underwater views”.
Apart from two sets of pedals, controls are limited to a steering wheel and a few buttons to make operating the submarine as simple as possible.
The sub was developed by Russian company called Marine Innovative Technologies Ltd (MIT) and is expected to cost £50,000 pounds although prices could drop to around £15,000 for bulk buyers.
MIT expect to sell to private buyers as well as companies hiring out the subs to tourists in popular resorts.
At 11ft long and 6ft 6in wide it is possible to transport the craft on the back of a car trailer. MIT will also offer a model with a low-power electric drive unit as well.
Every National Geographic Available on External Drive
National Geographic Magazine has been one of the most important publications ever printed. From the insightful articles to the brilliant photography, NatGeo has been the benchmark that other magazines compare themselves to. Now, you can own a copy of every single issue without having to build a new addition to your house to store it.
What you get is a digital version of every issue, including the articles, pictures, maps, advertisements, everything that’s made NatGeo great over the years. It comes on a 160GB external hard drive, of which only 60GB is actually pre-loaded. Of course, you could probably pick up a 160GB drive for only $80, but it wouldn’t have all the NatGeo content. The package also comes with a DVD offering tips on better photography, a behind the scenes look at how National Geographic is produced and interviews with some of the photographers about their most famous pictures. It’ll set you back $199.95, but I think it’s totally worth it. Honestly, I’ll probably be ordering a copy for my personal library.
Top 10 Forecasts for 2010 and Beyond From The Futurist Magazine
Each year since 1985, the editors of The Futurist have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into the annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War. Here are the top ten forecasts for 2010 and beyond.
1. Your phone will tell you when you’re in love. Mobile devices are enabling new spontaneous connections in real-world settings, including love connections. One day soon, your phone will play matchmaker, recommending that you introduce yourself to someone nearby whose online profile displays tastes or passions similar to yours. Impossible? An iPhone application called Serendipity is currently being commercialized by MIT researchers. —Erica Orange, “Mining Information from the Data Clouds,” July-Aug 2009, p. 17
2. In the design economy of the future, people will download and print their own products, including auto parts, jewelry, and even the kitchen sink. Rapid prototyping, or 3-D printing, and devices like the RepRap self-reproducing printer are allowing people to design, customize, and print objects from their home computers. In the future, cheaper versions of these devices could disrupt manufacturing business models, resulting in far cheaper products individually tailored to every customer’s desire. —Thomas A. Easton, “The Design Economy,” Jan-Feb 2009, p. 43
3. The era of brain-to-brain telepathy dawns. Neuroscientist David Poeppel says that telepathic communication between brains is possible, so long as “communication” is understood to be electromagnetic signals and not words. Technologies like magnetoencephalography, which pick up the various signals the brain sends out, could be used to pick up specific signals and convey them. If you could train your brain to signal in Morse code, sensors in a helmet could pick up the message and send it to another helmet. —Patrick Tucker, “Reinventing Morality,” Jan-Feb 2009, p. 23
4. Tomorrow’s inventors will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then letting computers find the solutions. Invention programs like Gregory Hornby’s “evolutionary algorithm” have been used to invent real-world objects, such as a special space antenna, based entirely on engineering specifications. Continued advances will increasingly rely on cross-fertilization between the fields of biology and computer science. As a result, we will develop not only software that can produce better inventions but also inventions that are able to adapt to their environments. —Robert Plotkin, “The Automation of Invention,” July-Aug 2009, p. 24
5. Micronations built on artificial islands will dramatically shift the face of global politics. New forms of government and unusual political models will begin to emerge, including corporate nation-states, religious states, tax-free zones, single-function countries, cause-related countries, and even rental nation-states, where organizations can “rent a country” for a year or two to test a specific project. —Thomas Frey, “Own Your Own Island Nation,” May-June 2009, p. 30
6. Young people will read more, and the old will play more video games. According to the 2007 American Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed some surprising findings. In 2007, adults aged 75 and older spent nearly twice as much time playing video games (about 20 minutes) as they did in 2006. Teens aged 15–19 spent twice as much time reading as they did before (about 14 minutes) and less time using a computer for games or casual surfing. —World Trends & Forecasts, Nov-Dec 2008, p. 14
7. Ammonia may become the fuel of choice for cars by 2020. As a candidate source for hydrogen used in fuel cells, ammonia (comprising one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms) is plentiful, easier to liquefy than methane, and emits nitrogen rather than carbon, thus having fewer negative impacts on the climate. —J. Storrs Hall, “Ammonia, the Fuel of the Future,” Sep-Oct 2009, p. 10
8. Algae may become the new oil. According to researchers at a Department of Energy plant in New Mexico, single-celled microalgae, grown in pond water, produce a biofuel that is lead-free and biodegradable, emits two-thirds less carbon dioxide and other pollutants than gasoline, and can run any modern diesel engine. Even better, algae require only a fraction of the land area of biofuel-producing crops. —Robert McIntyre, “Algae’s Powerful Future,” Mar-Apr 2009, p. 25
9. Radical methods of altering the planet may be the only way to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Geoengineering may be inevitable because, even if humans could instantly end all greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures would continue to increase for the next 20–30 years, triggering feedback loops and more warming. Potential megascale geoengineering projects include sending space mirrors into orbit, sequestering carbon in the ground in biomass charcoal, and increasing the amount of carbon that the ocean can absorb by forcing plankton blooms in the seas. —Jamais Cascio, author of Hacking the Earth, reviewed by Bob Olson, July-Aug 2009, p. 51
10. The existence of extraterrestrial life will be confirmed or conclusively denied within a generation. New space missions and advanced computer technology could confirm the existence of extraterrestrials soon. Scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have found that at least 20%—and perhaps as many as 60%—of Sun-like stars could have rocky planets. Next generation, AI-driven space probes may allow us to plot the location of every planetary body in the known universe. Among the more than 300 extra-solar worlds already discovered, probably one has some form of life, according to Dimitar Sasselov, an astronomer and director of Harvard University’s Origins of Life Initiative. —Gregory Georgiou, “The Real Life Search for E.T. Heats Up,” Nov-Dec 2008, p. 20
All of these forecasts plus dozens more are included in the annual report that scans the best writing and research from THE FUTURIST magazine over the course of the previous year. The Society hopes this report, covering developments in business and economics, demography, energy, the environment, health and medicine, resources, society and values, and technology, will assist its readers in preparing for the challenges and opportunities in 2010 and beyond.
Cancer Victim Beats Disease By Using Mistletoe Instead Of Chemotherapy
A cancer victim who refused chemotherapy has beaten the disease – by using mistletoe instead. Joan van Holsteijn, 53, heard about the healing properties of the plant – better known for inspiring festive kisses – and rejected her doctor’s advice of more conventional treatment.
Now the tumours in her leg are gone and she is on the road to recovery. “I owe my life to mistletoe,” said Joan. “I feel so grateful and well….
“I’ve got my life back, thanks to the plant. I have never had it in the house before but I’ve got as prig of mistletoe at my front door.” She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, with a painful lump the size of an egg.
Her specialist recommended chemotherapy, but Joan, of Milltimber, Aberdeenshire, said: “I was scared of chemo because you can become so ill from it.
“Usually patients try chemo then mistletoe, but I didn’t want to do that.” Joan had injections refined from the plant’s berries which can help to kick-start the immune system at Park Attwood Clinic, Birmingham. In six months, the lump had shrunk. After 18 months that and her other tumours had gone.
The special needs therapist, who lives with husband Simon, 48, and daughter Lisa, 14, said: “Mistletoe is not a miracle cure, but I want others to know it’s an option.” A German study showed the plant as an additional treatment can increase survival time 40% by fighting the tumour, but other studies have raised doubts.
Okapi
"Aldo Kapi" (mp3) 
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Disjecta Membra
Omega Lithium
Dov
We Were Promised Jetpacks
