Archive for June, 2010
The Science of Immortality
There has always been an interest in remaining young: immortality in myths, the fountain of youth, plastic surgery. People have continued to search for a means of stopping the aging process to prolong life. Immortality may be impossible for humans, but there is a fresh water animal that does not seem to age.
Photo: Hydra
Daniel Martinez was one of the first researchers to study hydras, of the phylum Cnidaria, at Pomona College. Martinez focused on the lack of senescence, “a deteriorative process that increases the probability of death of an organism with increasing chronological age.” Hydras undergo morphallaxis, tissue regeneration, which allows the genus to constantly renew its tissue. Hydras’ tissue regenerates itself, copying the same cellular structure, allowing their cells to remain ageless.
With mortality rates low, caused often by environmental changes like food shortage or displacement, hydras are to be considered biologically immortal.
Michelangelo Hid Anatomical Illustrations Of The Brain In The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo loved to do illustrations of dissected corpses, yet remnants of such works are scarce. What happened to them? Apparently they’re hidden, but have been staring people in the face for centuries — this is pretty crazy. The New York Times reports:
This is not the first picture of a human organ someone has found, or at least imagined, in Michelangelo’s Sistine frescoes. In 1990, in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a physician described what he saw as a rendering of the human brain in the Creation of Adam, the panel showing God touching Adam’s finger. And one physician published an article in a medical journal in 2000 suggesting that Michelangelo had included a drawing of a kidney in another ceiling panel.
The latest find, described in a study in the May issue of the journal Neurosurgery, appears directly above the altar in “The Separation of Light From…
Is This What God Sounds Like?
Fascinating developments from the Large Hadron Collider, as the BBC reports that the so-called “God particle” has been simulated as sound:
Scientists have simulated the sounds set to be made by sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs boson when they are produced at the Large Hadron Collider.
Their aim is to develop a means for physicists at Cern to “listen to the data” and pick out the Higgs particle if and when they finally detect it.
Dr Lily Asquith modelled data from the giant Atlas experiment at the LHC. She worked with sound engineers to convert data expected from collisions at the LHC into sounds.
“If the energy is close to you, you will hear a low pitch and if it’s further away you hear a higher pitch,” the particle physicist told BBC News. “If it’s lots of energy it will be louder and if it’s just a bit of energy it will be quieter.”
The…
McDonald’s Not So Happy Meals
Looks like Mickey D’s is about to undergo another round of public and media lashing now that childhood obesity is a major priority in Washington. As the Los Angeles Times reports, a watchdog group says giving away toys with Happy Meals contributes to childhood obesity and threatens to sue:
Weeks after a Silicon Valley county became the first in the nation to ban toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals and other food promotions aimed at children, a public health watchdog group called on the fast food giant to remove the playthings from all its meal packages.
Citing toys aimed at promoting the latest “Shrek” movie, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that the plastic promotions lure children into McDonald’s restaurants where they are then likely to order food that is too high in calories, fat and salt.
The organization on Tuesday served the fast food giant with a letter expressing its intent…
Toy Story 3 and the Apocalypse
Apocalypse narratives in kid’s movies — from The American Book of the Dead:
Toy Story 3 then takes this theme [of loss] to a new level, in which the toys don’t just fear a figurative death by being ignored by their owner, Andy, but also a literal death, where at the end of the movie they risk being incinerated. Like Madagascar, the movie begins with a strange image — which, coming at the beginning, seems fairly innocuous, but by the end takes on a new meaning. In the beginning fantasy sequence, one of the toys drops a bomb of a barrel of monkeys that blows up into a mushroom cloud. Sensitive as I am to this stuff, I did feel this was strange at the time, because making light of a mushroom cloud seems as inappropriate in a kid’s movie as evoking 9/11 in Madagascar….
In the end though, this takes on a new…
The IMPACTS Concept: A New Way to View the World and the Universe
Dickey Eason
I cannot find the author of the following quotation so I extend my apologies to him or her, but it is too valuable to be left unsaid: “The assumptions that are the most pernicious are the ones we don’t know we are making because they appear so intrinsically obvious.”
What assumptions are we making that may be preventing us from seeing a more realistic reality? Remember the flat-earth assumption? The earth is the center of the universe assumption? How about that some races or groups are superior to others? Incorrect assumptions distort reality, limit potential, and maintain the status quo. More accurate knowledge of the foundational dynamics involved in the world and the universe can help free human beings in many ways.
Plato thought there were two realities, the everyday world and the “ideal” world which existed in an unknown realm. I think there are two as well–the everyday world that…
The Musical Side of Chat Roulette
Photo: Chat Roulette still frame from The Fillmore
Chat Roulette has had a growing success since the beginning of the year. Chat Roulette pairs users with random video chatters from around the world.
The video chat site has revealed its “dark side” with a plethora of naked men exhibiting themselves every fourteen pairings or so. But since the site’s creation in January the public have found more intriguing uses, such as practicing different languages or using it as a performance space.
After being compared to Merton, a Chat Roulette user, who would wait on the site to improve songs about the people he was paired with, Ben Folds signed on to Chat Roulette during his concerts at the Fillmore in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Projecting the website on a large screen behind him for the audience to see, Ben Folds creates songs on his piano for each person he connects with. With comical lyrics he…
Who Needs Viagra When You Can Have A Magic Coffee!
Photo: Julius Schorzman (CC)
Shame I don’t like coffee! From Digital Journal:
The FDA is warning Magic Power Coffee has a little more then magic in its list of ingredients. An undeclared chemical similar to that of Viagra has been found in this powerful java. When mixed with other medicines the effects can be deadly.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that Magic Power Coffee, an instant coffee product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an active drug ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure.Consumers who have Magic Power Coffee should stop using it immediately, the advisory states. Sexual enhancement products that claim to work as well as prescription products are likely to expose consumers to unpredictable risks and the potential for injury or even death.
In the case of Magic Power Coffee, the FDA collected and analyzed the product and determined that the product contains hydroxythiohomosildenafil. This…
It’s 2010 — Finally My Jet Pack is Here!
I’m really not sure how much I’m looking forward to this – I’m imagining having to constantly look up to avoid falling debris from midair collisions while walking the streets of Manhattan… From Business Week/GizMag:
It’s been a long time coming. While Arthur C. Clarke’s satellites have taken to space, and James Bond’s futuristic mobile technology has become common place, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us. But the future is here! Finally we can all take flight as Martin Aircraft in New Zealand releases the first commercially-available jet pack!
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Tell what I really want to know: how can I get my hands on one?After nine prototypes Martin Aircraft have an accurate expectation for how much a jetpack will cost, and suggest that at $86,000 it is pitched at the level of a high-end car. As sales and production volume increase they expect this to drop to the price…
The Man Behind Wikileaks
Ian Traynor profiles Julian Assange for the Guardian:
The elusive founder of WikiLeaks, who is at the centre of a potential US national security sensation, has surfaced from almost a month in hiding to tell the Guardian he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert.
Julian Assange, a renowned Australian hacker who founded the electronic whistleblowers’ platform WikiLeaks, vanished when a young US intelligence analyst in Baghdad was arrested.
The analyst, Bradley Manning, had bragged he had sent 260,000 incendiary US state department cables on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks.
The prospect of the cache of classified intelligence on the US conduct of the two wars being put online is a nightmare for Washington. The sensitivity of the information has generated media reports that Assange is the target of a US manhunt.
“[US] public statements have all been reasonable. But some statements made in private are a bit…
Former CIA Officials Admit To Faking Bin Laden Video
By Steve Watson at We Are Change LA/PrisonPlanet:
Two former CIA officials have admitted to creating a fake video in which intelligence officers dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and his cronies in an effort to defame the terrorist leader throughout the middle east.
The details are outlined in a Washington Post article by investigative reporter and former Army Intelligence case officer Jeff Stein.
Stein’s sources told him that during planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group considered creating a fake video of Saddam Hussein engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy, then flooding Iraq with copies of the tape.
That idea, along with faking Iraqi news bulletins, never came to fruition according to the former CIA officials, because agreement on the projects could not be reached between the Iraq Group and CIA’s Office of Technical Services.
However, the two sources reveal that the agency did previously concoct at least…
Niger’s Silent Crisis
Source: Vardion (CC)
From the BBC:
Britain’s aid agencies are launching an appeal to help the people of Niger where half the country’s population is going hungry following droughts which have led to crop failures and food shortages.
A listless little boy with stick thin arms and legs is weighed at an emergency treatment clinic for under fives near Maradi in Southern Niger.
Abiou, who is just 13 months old, weighs less than four-and-a-half kilos. His half-closed eyes stare out from sunken sockets set in a head that now looks too big for him.
Doctor Mourou Arouna Djimba says he is now being overwhelmed by youngsters like Abiou. “There’s a massive need here,” he told me.
“We’ve so little room that sometimes we need to put two or even three children in one bed. We’ve got 30 in this intensive ward, and this morning another five more severely malnourished children arrived.”
Save the Children says 400,000 children…
The U.S. Government Stops Paying Dead People
The U.S. government sees dead people. Explains a lot. Mark S. Smith writes on the AP via Yahoo News:
Here’s an idea, Uncle Sam: Stop writing checks to dead people.
The government sent benefit checks to 20,000 departed Americans over three years, totaling more than $180 million — a remarkable number that provoked the Obama administration to create a government-wide “do not pay” list as part of its brainstorming for ways to save taxpayer money.
Once the database is up and running, agencies will have to search it before sending out payments. A pre-check check, so to speak.
“We’re making sure that payments no longer go to the deceased — it sounds ridiculous even to say it,” acknowledged Vice President Joe Biden in describing the database.
Also planned for inclusion: contractors who’ve fallen behind in their payments or, even worse, landed in jail, and companies that have been suspended or otherwise deemed ineligible for government…
Warhol, Hendrix, Astronaut Overcame The Fear Of Rejection
For anyone who’s received a rejection letter in the mail, it’s good to know that plenty of famously successful people have had the same experience. In the new book Other People’s Rejection Letters: Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You’ll Be Glad You Didn’t Receive, author Bill Shapiro includes copies of the Museum of Modern Art’s rejection of Andy Warhol’s entries and the U.S. Army discharge letter sent to Jimi Hendrix because he was unable to “carry on an intelligent conversation,” among many others. Shapiro discusses the upside of rejection with ABC News’ John Berman:
Why Some Trades Feel Sooooo Good
Photo: Lee Jordan (CC)
Now we know why most investors act like lemmings. But will we change the way we act next time the crowd rushes to buy or sell? From the Wall Street Journal:
From February through May, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 1000 points in an almost uninterrupted daily march upward. Then came the “flash crash” of May 6 and day after day of losses through May. Now, in mid-June, the market has been up six of the past seven days.
What accounts for these sudden moves? Why do investors so often seem to resemble a school of fish, all changing direction together?
Sometimes the most interesting answers to financial questions come from scientific labs. A study published last week in the journal Current Biology found that the value you place on something is likely to go up when other people tell you it is worth more than you thought,…
Classic Disney Comics: Mickey Mouse Sells Amphetamine In Africa
From the vaults, the 1951 Disney comic book Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man, about Mickey and Goofy as drug pushers in Africa.
Debtors’ Prison Returns To America?
Did you know you can be thrown into jail for being unable to pay your credit card bills? Arrest warrants were used to jail hundreds of in-debt people last year in Minnesota, even though owing money isn’t a crime. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reports:
No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense — missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. “They have no right to do this to me,” said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. “Not for a stupid credit card.”
It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the…
The Link Between The Oil And Financial Crises
It seems clear that BP can’t seem to fix the catastrophic gusher the press calls a “leak,” and that President Obama can’t fix the economy because its problems are structural and won’t respond to soaring rhetoric emanating from his bully pulpit.
Meanwhile, most of the world’s people really don’t get the fix we are all in. I take that back; the million Americans who have just lost their benefits probably do. The deficit hawks voted that down without doing anything about the growing deficit of jobs.
43 members of the Congress and the Senate are tinkering with an increasingly diluted financial “reform bill.” Lobbies like the powerful Business Roundtable have pushed the White House to weaken proposed curbs on executive compensation while former Fedhead Tim Geithner is maneuvering behind the scenes to save dangerous derivative trading from too much regulation.
It is for this reason that financial writer Ilan Moscovitz worries about a…
Al-Qaeda Looking To Get On The Scoresheet Against U.S.
We already know that Al-Qaeda are supporting Algeria in the World Cup, perhaps explaining the reference to having failed to score against the United States so far in their latest rhetoric, as reported by AP/Yahoo News:
CAIRO – Al-Qaida’s U.S.-born spokesman warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones.
In a taunting, 24 minute message that dwelled on Obama’s setbacks, including the loss of Massachusetts Senate seat to the Republicans, Adam Gadahn set out al-Qaida’s conditions for peace with the U.S., including cutting support for Israel and withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Gadahn said that if you compared the number of dead Muslims “with the relatively small number of Americans we have killed so far, it becomes crystal-clear that we haven’t even begun to even the score,” he said, dressed in a white robe and turban.
“That’s why next time, we…
