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2009-12-20T23:26:00.000-08:00

Eight ancient drinks uncorked by science

By John Roach, contributor

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34435526/ns/technology_and_science-science/?pg=1#Tech_Ancient_drinks

Throughout human history, alcoholic beverages have treated pain, thwarted infections and unleashed a cascade of pleasure in the brain that lubricates the social fabric of life, according to Patrick McGovern, an archaeochemist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

For the past several decades, McGovern's research has focused on finding archaeological and chemical evidence for fermented beverages in the ancient world. The details are chronicled in his recently published book, “Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages.”

He argues that the mind-altering effects of alcohol and the mysterious process of fermentation may explain why these drinks dominated entire economies, religions and societies. He’s found evidence of fermented beverages everywhere he's looked, which fits his hypothesis that alcohol "had a lot to do with making us what we are in biological and cultural terms."

The author, shown here examining an ancient pottery sherd, spoke with msnbc.com about his research. Click the "Next" arrow above to learn about 8 ancient drinks uncorked by science.

China: First known brew

While the human relationship with alcohol may trace back to our ancestors, the earliest chemical evidence for an alcoholic beverage dates back 9,000 years to the ancient village of Jiahu in China's Henan province.

Based on the analysis of residues extracted from pottery fragments, McGovern and colleagues concluded that the people were drinking a mixed wine-and-beer-like beverage made with grapes, hawthorn fruit, rice and honey. The finding was published in December 2004. The following year, McGovern collaborated with Sam Calagione and his crew at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware to re-create the millennia-old drink. Their creation, called Chateau Jiahu, won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2009.

"We worked hard on getting this interpretation right. Since it does represent the oldest alcoholic beverage, it was really gratifying to get that gold tasting award,"

Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania

Iran: Earliest evidence for barley beer

Which came first: bread or beer? The question remains unresolved, but evidence suggests barley was first cultivated about 10,000 years ago – the same time humans were abandoning the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and sowing the seeds of civilization. What was the catalyst for the transition? A steady supply of barley bread is one possibility. Brewing copious amounts of barley beer is another.

"From a pragmatic standpoint, the question is really a-no brainer," McGovern writes in his book. "If you had to choose today, which would it be? Neolithic people had all the same neural pathways and sensory organs as we have, so their choice would probably not have been much different."

Some of the earliest chemical evidence for beer comes from residues – calcium oxalate, known as beerstone – inside a jar excavated at the Godin Tepe archaeological site in the Zagros Mountains of Iran that is dated to between 3400 and 3100 B.C.

Turkey: Mixed drink for Midas?

In 1957, University of Pennsylvania Museum researchers working at the Gordion archaeological site near Ankara, Turkey, broke through the wall of an elaborate tomb dated to between 740 and 700 B.C. that research suggests was the burial site of the fabled King Midas, or his father and king, Gordius. Among the remains in the tomb were the body of a 60- to 65-year-old male and the largest Iron Age drinking set ever found: 157 bronze vessels that were presumably used during the occupant's farewell feast.

In the late 1990s, McGovern and his colleagues analyzed residues inside the vessels and found evidence for a mixed beverage of grape wine, barley beer and honey mead. In March of 2000, he challenged microbrewers to make a representative concoction – and in the process prove or disprove that such grog was a plausible, enjoyable drink. Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery came through with what has become his most celebrated beverage: "Midas Touch."

Phoenicia: Active in the wine trade

Analysis of a pottery jar, or amphora, pulled up from a late 8th century B.C. shipwreck in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel offers a strong hint that the wine trade flourished as a result of Phoenician enterprise originating from the coast of Lebanon and Syria, according to McGovern.

He and his colleagues discovered that the amphora was filled with a tree-resin-infused wine. What's more, the bottle had been sealed with resin to prevent the liquid from leaking out and oxygen getting in and spoiling the wine. Other Phoenician shipwrecks found throughout the Mediterranean dating to between 1000 B.C. and 400 B.C. also contained vast stores of wine.

"Some of the people working on that area say that the wine trade was really what transferred culture from the eastern Mediterranean to the western Mediterranean, because all of these ships are just chock-full of wine-related artifacts," McGovern said.

Chile: New World’s first fermented drink?

The earliest evidence for human occupation in the New World is found at Mount Verde, Chile, an inland archaeological site that dates to about 13,000 years before present. The discovery of the site in 1977 raised the possibility that the first migrants across the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska took a water route to get to South America, not a slower-going overland trek as previously thought.

For McGovern, another intriguing possibility at Monte Verde is telling hints that these early Americans were drinking a fermented beverage. Though a drinking vessel or jug for chemical analysis has yet to be found, botanical debris at the site includes several fruits and starchy foods that could have been made into a buzz-giving drink.

"Humans are very innovative when it comes to figuring out how to make a fermented beverage, so if you've got fruits or other starchy materials that could be chewed or made into a sweet food or beverage, they'd discover how to do it. ... We just don't have the hard evidence for it yet," McGovern said.

• Honduras: Wine and chocolate

Chocolate, almost anyone will attest, is tasty stuff. But long before humans were turning cacao beans into delicious deserts, they were making a wine from the sweet pulp that fills the cacao pods. "The initial motivation for focusing in on the chocolate tree and domesticating it would have been this fermented beverage," McGovern said.

The earliest evidence for this cacao-based wine comes from chemical analysis of pottery fragments recovered at the Puerto Escondido site in Honduras dating to as early as 1400 B.C. Nearly all the fragments tested had the fingerprint compound for cacao, theobromine. And these vessels clearly were intended to hold a liquid or a beverage, McGovern said.

Cacao-based fermented drinks were popular throughout Mesoamerica, evolving into a mixed beverage during Aztec and Mayan times that may have even included the addition of mind-altering substances such as peyote or hallucinogenic mushrooms. Honey, chilis, scented flowers and spices were the usual additives.

McGovern's research once again led to collaboration with Calagione at Dogfish Head to re-create a representative concoction of this centuries-old tradition. The creation, called Theobroma, is brewed with cocoa powder and nibs from the Aztec region of Soconusco, honey, chilis and fragrant tree seeds called annatto – though it lacks the illicit kick.

• Peru: Burning down the house

For some reason or other, a pre-Incan civilization known as the Wari abandoned their outpost atop Cerro Baul, a mountain about 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean in southern Peru. Before they departed, archaeological evidence indicates that they had a grand bash replete with ceremonial smashing of mugs full of alcoholic beverage and then literally burned down the house.

The drink of choice for the Wari was made from the fruit of the pepper tree Schinus molle. The largest known production facility for making the beverage was found at Cerro Ba�l. In addition to vats for making the beverage and thousands of pepper-tree seeds and stems, archaeologists found shawl pins worn by women, an indication that they were responsible for making the beverage.

Egypt: Beer helped build the pyramids

For many a manual laborer, even today, few things are as rewarding after a long day's work than a mug of beer. The ancient Egyptians knew this. The workers who built the Great Pyramids, for example, were paid in a daily allotment of bread and beer, noted McGovern. Just how deep in time the Egyptian beer-making tradition goes is uncertain, but pottery remains from Hierakonpolis, in Upper Egypt, suggest that the craft was under way perhaps as early as 3500 B.C.

Chemical analyses suggest that barley was mashed and beer was made at the site and other sites nearby. If so, they would be the earliest breweries in the world. "They seem to be making beer on a very large scale," McGovern said. "It was probably involved in large-scale architectural projects in which the workers, just like at the pyramids, were paid in bread and beer."

2009-12-20T23:22:00.000-08:00

Even bacteria get lonely

Bacteria locked in solitary confinement change behavior in strange ways

Getty Images

When scientists trapped samples of Staphylococcus aureus (shown here) in glass cages, the bacteria acted disturbed and "talked" to themselves.

By Eric Bland

updated 12:42 p.m. CT, Fri., Dec . 18, 2009
SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34481185/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Humans in solitary confinement can go crazy, talking to themselves and trying to break free. Now scientists from New Mexico and New Hampshire are reporting that bacteria locked in solitary confinement know they are locked up, talk to themselves, and try to break free of their imprisonment.

The research could have important health implications, from how an individual bacterium can trigger full-blown infections to how a single human cancer cell can metastasize into a deadly tumor.

"There are many real-world situations where bacteria find themselves alone," said Jeff Brinker, a scientist at the University of New Mexico and co-author of a recent paper in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. "When the bacteria are confined they turn on these virulence pathways," causing infections.

A human locked up in solitary confinement can see the walls around them, touch their rough surfaces, hear their pleas and curses echoing around the cell. Bacteria lack these senses, but they do have excellent noses. They smell the walls around them, using a chemical process known as quorum sensing.

Quorum sensing is how bacteria communicate with each other, and with the world around them. Bacteria send out specific chemicals, often called autoinducers, that diffuse away, their concentration decreasing the farther away the chemical travels. Low levels of autoinducers usually means that a bacterium is alone. High levels of autoinducers means there are many bacteria.

Once the signal reaches a certain threshold, or quorum, the bacteria change their behavior, turning some genes on, turning other genes off. The bacteria become an organized pack, known as a biofilm, instead of lone wolves. In a biofilm, certain bacteria are responsible for protection, others for food, and still others for replication. A biofilm can be anything from the brown scum on river rocks to the yellow mucus hacked up during a lung infection.

But what happens when there are high levels of autoinducers but only one bacterium?

Until now the technology to create glass cages 20 micrometers wide to hold bacteria three to four micrometers long didn't exist. Now nanotechnology has advanced to the point where scientists can trap these tiny organisms in glass cages and watch the imprisoned bacteria, in this case Staphylococcus aureus, talk to themselves.

The conversations are angry. The bacteria know their messages, or quorum sensing molecules, are going nowhere. If the chemicals can't move anywhere then neither can much larger bacteria. If bacteria can't move it means they are trapped, either inside a tissue or inside another cell, usually a macrophage, that is attempting to destroy the invading cell.

Either way, bacteria needs to get out, and they activate genes that will help them escape. The Staph produces lysosomes, chemical bombs that eat away at whatever they touch, and releases them into the environment around it. Since the cage is glass, the lysosomes are ineffective, but the bacteria continue to pound the walls with them.

A bacterial change like this isn't supposed to happen. A quorum of chemicals from dozens, hundreds of bacteria packed close together is supposedly the only way for a bacteria to alter its gene expression.

"This is really a way for cells to fight back, to adapt to any condition a cell finds itself in," said Brinker. "All that's needed is a quorum of one."

Staph bacteria can cause serious, life-threatening infections in humans. The new research could eventually have important applications in finding ways to stop individual Staph cells, and other pathogens, from becoming full-blown infections. Equally important, however, is the new research's implications for cancer, says Brinker and other scientists, including Carrie Rinker-Schaeffer, a scientist at the University of Chicago.

Just like invading Staph, a cancer cell that breaks off from the main tumor can find itself trapped, isolated, and trying to figure out where it is using chemical signals. Scientists don't know which chemicals metastatic cancer cells use, but they expect to start finding them soon.

Whether the cells involved are invading pathogens or metastatic cancer cells, "these are some very complicated questions," said Rinker-Schaeffer. "But if you take the process of bacterial infection and metastatic cancer colonization and line them up, the similarities are amazing."

From Hiroshima to 9/11, a girl's origami lives on

2009-12-17T07:43:00.001-08:00

By Wayne Drash, CNN

December 17, 2009 4:08 a.m. EST

Sadako Sasaki, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, made this red origami crane while dying of leukemia.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Origami crane, made by girl that inspired a nation, is now on display at 9/11 center
Sadako Sasaki survived the Hiroshima bombing; made origami in hopes of beating leukemia
Her brother recently donated an original crane as message of peace
"Even in death, we're going to carry on that little girl's wish," center's co-founder says

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/17/origami.gift/index.html

This holiday season, CNN highlights inspiring acts of kindness and generosity in a special series called "Giving in Focus: The 12 Days of Goodness."

(CNN) -- When Sadako Sasaki lay in her hospital bed sick with leukemia, she showed her father origami cranes from local school girls. "When you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will get well," her dad responded.

Sadako was just 12. Hoping to get better, she began folding tiny origami cranes, using paper from get-well gifts and wrappers from medicine. She had survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Yet 10 years later, her fragile body suffered the effects of exposure to radiation.

"Please treasure the life that is given to you," Sadako said before her death on October 25, 1955. "It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people's feelings, as if they are your own."

Sadako's death inspired a memorial in Japan's Hiroshima Peace Park, complete with a statue of her holding a golden crane. Now, one of her last origami cranes resides in a new memorial thousands of miles away, in the country that dropped the bomb.

It was given to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York by her aging brother.

"I thought if Sadako's crane is placed at Ground Zero, it will be very meaningful," says Masahiro Sasaki, in an education program produced by the tribute center and the Japan Society. "Commonly, in Japan, the crane is regarded as a symbol of peace. But for us, in the Sasaki family, it is the embodiment of Sadako's life, and it is filled with her wish and hope."

"I hope by talking about that small wish for peace, the small ripple will become bigger and bigger."

The delicate red crane, smaller than a fingernail, is on display at the center. Hanging near it are origami cranes that were placed on the fence around Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Another 10,000 cranes from families and colleagues of Japanese victims of 9/11 surround Sadako's.

Every time I visit the World Trade Center site, I wonder where my son was and where he suffered.
--Tsugio Ito, Hiroshima survivor

RELATED TOPICS

"This little girl believed that the world could be made better if we all worked together," says Lee Ielpi, the co-founder of the center, whose grown son, Jonathan, was killed on September 11.

"It sends that beautiful message: Even in death, we're going to carry on that little girl's wish. ... I'm so tickled we can carry on her wish."

Meriam Lobel, the center's curator, says staffers were speechless when Masahiro Sasaki presented the gift. "He lifted it out with this little, tiny tweezer and there was this beautiful red glistening crane," Lobel says. "It was like a gem, like a little red ruby."

For Tsugio Ito, the symbolism of the crane holds special meaning.

"When the atomic bomb was dropped, I was exercising in the schoolyard at the elementary school. My brother was a student at the high school," he says in the center's educational program.

He survived. His brother was killed in the bombing.

Fast forward six decades. Ito's son was working for Fuji Bank in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. Kazushige Ito, 35, was one of 24 Japanese killed on 9/11.

"After September 11, we waited for him to call. One month passed, then two months, then I came to accept that perhaps this means he is gone," he told the center. "Every time I visit the World Trade Center site, I wonder where my son was and where he suffered."

What happened that day only reinforces "how important it is to have peace."

"We must have peace," Ito says. "I feel that stronger now than ever before."

Tom Johnson has been active on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ever since 9/11 when terrorists killed 2,976 people. His 26-year-old son, Scott, was among the victims.

When he visits the center, he cherishes two items in particular: his son's death certificate, which lists "homicide" as his cause of death, and Sadako's origami crane.

"You have to derive some kind of message of meaning that will make the world heal," he says.

Sadako's brother says the spirit of his sister lives on in the crane, "because she had a heart of kindness." He had five of her original cranes. He hopes to give the others away to museums on other continents.

"As a victim of war or a victim of terrorism, we share the same grief, and share the sense of duty to tell the stories to our children and our children's children," he says.

"Although the incidents were different, I hope we can help each other work for world peace from now on."

Ben & Jerry's bagels? Chick-fil-A's burgers?

2009-12-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

By Stacy Conradt, Mental Floss

December 17, 2009 9:42 a.m. EST

Dunkin' Donuts was born after its founder tried delivering breakfast, lunch to factory workers.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Some famous fast food joints originally planned to cook up something else
High cost of bagel equipment sent Ben and Jerry into ice cream business
Creator of Popeye Chicken started out selling doughnuts
Dunkin' Donuts' founder started out with truck delivering breakfast, lunch to factories

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/12/17/mf.original.fast.food/index.html

(Mental Floss) -- Ben & Jerry's Bagels? Sonic Steakhouse? Be glad that some of our favorite quick-service places evolved into what they are today.

1. When Ben and Jerry decided to go into business, they really wanted to make bagels. But the equipment required to make bagels was rather expensive, so they researched a cheaper product and settled on ice cream.

Although they've released plenty of other breakfast-related ice cream flavors -- Cinnamon Buns, Coffee & Biscotti and Maple Grape Nut among them -- they have yet to create a lox and bagel-flavor. Maybe it's in production?

2. Glen Bell, the founder of Taco Bell (who knew the "Bell" represented a person?), started his career in the fast food business with a meager hot dog stand. It did so well that he sold it and opened a bigger and better stand, and he started selling tacos for 19 cents out of a side window. Before long, the hot dogs were playing second banana to the tacos, and Bell decided to switch the business.

Mental Floss: 10 secret fast food menu items

3. What if Tim Hortons' Timbits actually referred to chicken nuggets? It could have gone that way -- the ex-hockey player originally focused his post pro-sports career on hamburgers and opened a few burger joints in Toronto and North Bay. They didn't do so well.

They retooled the concept and reopened as a small doughnut shop housed in an old gas station, selling coffee for 25 cents and doughnuts for 69 cents per dozen. Today, Tim Hortons employs 100,000 people and has more than 3,000 stores (mostly in Canada, but the company is expanding into the U.S.)

4. What if Dunkin' Donuts had a fleet of vehicles that drove around like the ice cream man, selling sweet, sweet carbs to anyone who could scrounge up some change? Well, they used to, sort of.

After working for just such an ice cream company, William Rosenberg used his war bonds and borrowed some money to start a mobile catering business that delivered breakfast and lunch to factory workers. He noticed that his best sellers by far were coffee and doughnuts, and decided to base the whole business around them. Seems to have worked out OK. (I still like the idea of doughnuts coming to me, though.)

5. On the other hand, Al Copeland, who created Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, started out in the doughnut biz and ended up in poultry. He sold his car to purchase a Tastee Donut franchise from his brother and then decided to fry chicken instead of crullers. The first one failed, even with the tagline "So fast you get your chicken before you get your change."

But the second version succeeded, making him a multimillionaire. The name, by the way, came from Popeye Doyle from "The French Connection" -- not Popeye the Sailor Man.

Mental Floss: 15 companies that originally sold something else

6. How about a Sonic Steakhouse? The founder, Troy Smith, had big plans for an upscale steak eatery when he originally entered the restaurant business. He opened a small diner called Troy's Pan Full of Chicken to generate revenue for the bigger steakhouse and realized somewhere in the middle of things that he was making a load of money selling just root beer, hamburgers and hot dogs every week. He decided to stick with the low-brow menu and scrap the sirloin.

7. Wilbur Hardee, obviously the founder of Hardee's, ran several inn-style restaurants in North Carolina and took that time to study the habits of his patrons. He got rid of the inns and opened his first quick-service place, selling 15-cent hamburgers under the Hardee's name until the chain was purchased by Carl's Jr. in 1997.

8. Speaking of Carl's Jr., Carl Karcher came from similar humble beginnings. Like a lot of the great fast-food giants, Karcher started with a hot dog stand he and his wife purchased by taking a $311 loan out on their car. They also sold tamales. Somehow, I don't think Paris Hilton biting into a big, juicy tamale would have had quite the same effect as Paris Hilton biting into a big, juicy Six Dollar Burger, do you?

9. Chick-fil-A started out as Dwarf Grill (now Dwarf House), a full-service restaurant housed in a tiny little building with a tiny little door. The original can still be found in Hapeville, Georgia, complete with diminutive door (it has a regular door as well). What might be shocking to Chick-fil-A die-hards is that the Dwarf Houses offer steakburgers and hamburgers. Gasp!! What would the "Eat Mor Chikin" cows think?!

Mental Floss: Was there really a Granny Smith? Fruit and veggie origins

10. Finally, of course, there's McDonald's. Like our other frankfurter entrepreneurs, Dick and Mac McDonald started with a mere hot dog stand in Monrovia, California. They upgraded, but burgers weren't really their main focus -- they planned to capitalize on their delicious BBQ. They were mistaken.

Several years later, they noticed that burgers were the item keeping the store alive and decided to switch exclusively to burgers, shakes, and fries. These days, I suppose they do a little bit of all of that, and more (yes, even the McHotDog).

For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com

10 worst phrases to use at office

2009-12-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

10 worst phrases to use at office

By Frances Cole Jones, author of "The Wow Factor"

December 16, 2009 10:44 a.m. EST

Some phrases are over used while others are wrongly used, according to the author.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Some phrases uses at the office drive one author crazy
She doesn't want anyone picking her brain or requesting some sweat equity
Says all history is past and you can't get more unique than plain unique
She's also tired of things being drilled down and balls tossed into her court

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/12/16/cb.worst.phrases.work/index.html

(CAREERBUILDER) -- YouGov published its list of the 10 worst business sayings months ago. Some I more than agreed with ("thinking outside of the box," "blue-sky thinking," "heads up"); some didn't bug me too much ("at the end of the day," "going forward," "credit crunch").

But it also got me thinking about my own version of the 10 worst business sayings. Consequently, I compiled my own list, complete with definitions and -- most importantly -- the reasons they were included.

The first three top my list for their gross factor, pure and simple. Why? Because regardless of the people or situation in question, I've found that the overt or indirect referencing of bodily functions in a business environment gets me down.

1. Pick your brain: Substituted when someone simply wants to ask you something. "Do you mind if I just pick your brain?"

2. Throw it against the wall and see what sticks: Often used to describe a haphazard approach to presenting a motley product line, batch of ideas, etc. "Well, let's just throw these against the wall and see what sticks."

3. Sweat equity: Offered up when asking people to give their time and talent, and payment is not available. "We can't pay you your rate now, but -- when we do start making money -- you'll definitely have sweat equity."

The next three were included because of their cliché factor. Like "thinking outside the box" and "blue-sky thinking," their overuse means they no longer catch our attention.

4. It's not rocket science: Used most often when pointing out to someone that the task he's been asked to complete isn't, in fact, complicated. "After all, it's not rocket science."

5. The ball's in your court: This phrase is usually thrown around (pun intended) to let others know that you've reached your limit with regard to handling a situation. "I've now done everything I can. After this, the ball's in your court."

6. Drill down: This is too often used to denote the vigor with which a person or team will be pursuing an objective. "Yes, Bob and I are really going to drill down on that."

The following three made my list thanks to their redundancy:

7. I, personally: Since something that is said by you is, by definition, personal, I see no need to include both words. For example, when you take the "personally" out of the following sentence, the meaning doesn't change. "Well, I, personally, don't think that X should take precedence over Y."

8. Quite unique (and its compatriots "very unique," "really unique" and "most unique"): Despite the fact that things that are unique can't be qualified, I see this all the time. "Our store has the most unique items." Um ... no. You can, however, say, "Our store is filled with unique items." I have no trouble with that.

9. Past history: This one drives me wild every time I hear it, "Well, based on past history ..." History is, by definition, something that occurred in the past, so why on earth say "past"?

And, finally, the most overused phrase in a business context:

10. Urgent (and its frequent companion "crisis"): I include these because, as I'm sure you've discovered, the use of either, or both, of these words does little to resolve what might be going on. Instead, they either ratchet up the tension or make others wonder why you are so out of control.

What do I recommend you use instead? I would substitute the use of "immediate" for "urgent," and "situation" for "crisis," as both convey the need for action but leave others room to bring their own skills and intelligence to bear -- while reflecting well on your own.

Frances Cole Jones is the author of "The Wow Factor: The 33 Things You Must (and Must Not) Do to Guarantee Your Edge in Today's Business World."

What not to wear in 5 countries

2009-12-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

What not to wear in 5 countries
How to dress in countries where it really matters
Think twice about wearing your favorite Hawaiian shirt to the board meeting in Dubai.
View related photos

Want to wear a Hawaiian shirt to your board meeting in Silicon Valley? Be our guest. But in Dubai? Not so fast. Here’s how to dress appropriately where and when it matters.

Dubai

At a meeting: In Dubai, women's pantsuits should be sheeny and glam; men's duds are buffed, black, and paired with slim ties.
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On the street: The mall, not the street, is the social arena. In Dubai, girls in T-shirts (their shoulders covered out of respect and as a remedy against the freezing AC blasts) tote the latest Louis Vuittons. Carry a pashmina to cover up in case you find yourself in a traditional souk—although you'll see miniskirts and shorts, they're for people who know the city well enough to avoid ultra-conservative quarters. On men, reflective aviators abound, as do Gucci sandals.

At a party: Go glam to the gills: No Swarovski is too shiny and no Giuseppe Zanotti is too high. Men wear Y3 trainers and tailored blazers over graphic tees.

P.S. Put on clean socks if you're going to a local's house in Dubai—you'll leave your shoes at the door.

Israel

At a meeting: Israelis take pride in dressing down: Jeans are more common in Israel than jackets and ties, and business formal often means no more than a button-down and khaki pants. For women, skirts are better than trousers for meetings with religious colleagues. But in liberal Tel Aviv, anything goes—particularly trendy dresses from boutiques on Dizengoff and Shenkin streets.

On the street: It's South Beach style in resorty Eilat and Tel Aviv, where cotton shorts and tank tops are de rigueur during the hot summer months. Everywhere in Israel is fairly casual, but Jerusalem, Galilee, and Tiberias get colder winters and call for more conservative dress. In these places, long skirts are ideal for women, and everyone covers up at Jewish and Christian religious sites, with high necks and long sleeves.

At a party: Secular celebrations call for jeans and nice tops; for religious ceremonies or weddings, cover past the elbows and below the knees.

P.S. Far from frumpy, Israel's a burgeoning fashion hub: Lanvin's Alber Elbaz and designer Yigal Azroel hail from the Holy Land.

China

At a meeting Twenty years ago, "Chinese fashion" meant dark Mao pantsuit uniforms; in China today, work clothes are still homogenous suits and ties, even on the hottest summer days. Businesswomen go without makeup and jewelry, and everyone shies away from conspicuous consumption to show they're focused on the business at hand.

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On the street: Arms, chest, and back should be covered, but "China is not puritanical," says Qin Herzberg, co-author of "China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps". "Dressing unconventionally won't offend anyone. It's a question of presenting oneself in the best light." Although Chinese women wear conservative cuts, shirts are sometimes transparent, leaving the bra in full view.

At a party: Exaggerated styles and silhouettes by Comme des Garçons, Martin Margiela, and Yohji Yamamoto are currently hot (in a monochromatic palette, of course).

P.S. "Chinese women would be loath to wear any footwear without straps, because it shows too much of the foot," says Herzberg. "The style also reminds them of flip-flops, which are seen as cheap."

India

At a meeting: Hillary Clinton, you're in luck—pantsuits are okay anywhere in India; choose cotton or linen in summer, and accessorize with a colored scarf or dangly earrings to keep up with vividly dressed locals, who wear bold diaphanous saris to boardrooms in Bangalore and Mumbai. (Men, don't be afraid to wear color, too—you certainly won't feel out of place.)

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From Sweden to Sigapore and Cambodia to Canada, 10 weird foreign laws.
On the street: Unless you're here to visit a Bollywood star, designer clothes aren't right for Indian city streets. A sari won't work, either: "Western women look silly because they can't wrap or tie it right," says Barbara Crossette, author of "India: Old Civilization in a New World". Instead, wear drawstring pants, leather toe sandals, and a nice cotton tee. Men can go super-comfy in a kurta, or knee-length tunic, usually worn with cotton or linen bottoms; the women's version is called a kameez.

At a party: Since beautiful silk is readily available, women commission local seamstresses to make sleek knee-length tunics with side slits and legging-like pants worn bunched at the ankles. But your jewels are what you'll really be judged by: "Indians have their jewelry made to order; no one buys off the shelf," Crossette says. Men wear short-sleeved button-downs, slacks, and loafers.

P.S. Sandals are easiest when touring, since you can slip them off quickly before entering temples. And a word to the wise: Ankle bracelets are out.

Japan

At a meeting: "The Japanese word for dress shirt, wai shatsu, comes from the English for 'white shirt,' which gives you an idea of the range of colors worn at work," says Dan Rosen, professor at Tokyo's Chuo Law School, who recommends basic black suits. In 2005, the government launched a Cool Biz initiative meant to lower AC costs by encouraging lighter work attire; it's been met with fierce resistance by the jacket-and-tie-loving Japanese working class.

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On the street: For Tokyo youth, nothing's too studied or over-the-top, so the laissez-faire American norm is seen as slovenly. Women should wear heels, makeup, and a dose of frills, and men must be clean shaven and must spend time on their hair.

At a party: Agnès B. and Louis Vuitton are the easiest icebreakers, since the Japanese love labels—along with the stylish shapes by local designers like Yohji Yamamoto. No sweat suits, please!

P.S. Planning to shop in Japan? Note that Japanese sizes run significantly smaller than those in the States. If you wear a medium in the United States, a Japanese XL might be a squeeze.

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34063796/ns/travel-tips/

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/10/cnnheroes.salutes/index.html

2009-12-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

In an instant, these people became everyday heroes
December 10, 2009 8:37 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Heroic acts occurred across the country as reported by CNN's affiliates
* Among them: A postal worker helps a mother whose baby is unconscious
* Off-duty emergency worker pulls a woman from a van after it crashes into an icy pond
* Man sees 75-year-old stuck on train tracks and pulls him to safety

(CNN) -- A man sees a 75-year-old man stuck on railroad tracks and pulls him to safety. An off-duty emergency worker pulls a woman from a van after it crashes into an icy pond. An NBA star saves a woman from drowning.

A postal worker helps a mother whose baby is unconscious. A father goes into a house engulfed in flames to save two of his children, then returns to save the family's pet.

These are examples of everyday people who, when confronted with a life-or-death situation, jumped in to do what they could -- and became rescuers and heroes.

CNN.com takes a look at some of the stories of heroic acts that happened throughout the country in the past 12 months.

NBA player saves woman from drowning

Donté Greene is used to being looked up to. He is a 6-foot-11 player for the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. But on Memorial Day he became a lifesaver.

Greene and some friends were on a boat in the American River near Discovery Park in Sacramento, California. Greene told CNN affiliate KCRA that he heard some yelling and then a splash.

A woman had been pulling a ladder onto her boat, and she was thrown into the water when the driver pulled away. Greene saw the woman flailing in the water and dived in.

"I honestly don't even think I was thinking -- I was just reacting," he told KCRA. "I was pretty confident in my swimming abilities."

Read the story at the KCRA web site

Off-duty EMT makes icy pond rescue

Tony Gerdom, an emergency medical worker from Iowa, was driving off-duty on December 7 when the van in front of him suddenly swerved off the icy road and fell into a pond. The cold weather had frozen the locks and windows on the van, trapping driver Kathy Van Steenvik.

Gerdom took a tire iron and smashed the van's passenger side window to free the driver. A second man, Brian Ford, held onto him with a rope while Gerdom descended into the pond. Each man shrugged off his hero label.

"I'm just the lucky idiot that jumped in first," Gerdom told CNN affiliate WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.

"No matter how cold the water was, it's this overwhelming feeling that I helped save a life. It's tremendous," Ford said.

All three were treated at a hospital for minor hypothermia.

Read the story at the WHO web site

Postman delivers CPR to save baby

In Sacramento, California, Robert Sweeney had just about finished delivering the mail on December 11, 2008, when he heard a panicked mother's cry for help.

Her baby, 19-month-old Kelly Jimenez, appeared lifeless. Sweeney took the child, placed her on the grass in front of the woman's home and performed CPR while neighbors called 911. Sweeney revived the child before paramedics arrived, CNN affiliate KCRA reported.

Sweeney told KCRA that the emotion of the moment didn't hit him until he got back in his truck to go home. That's when he started crying.

"You don't ever think you would be in a situation like that," he said.

Read the story at the KCRA web site

Father saves children, family dog from burning home

A Michigan father jumped through flames to save his two youngest sons when an electrical fire set their house ablaze December 7.

Investigators told CNN affiliate WZZM in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that sparks from an electrical outlet set a living room curtain on fire.

After climbing up pitch-black stairs to rescue his 4-year-old and 2-year-old boys, Jonathan Brito went back in the house and pulled out Punchy, the family's dog, who was unconscious. Brito performed CPR and revived the dog, Brito's wife, Charlene Hernandez, told the station.

"He got the dog to breathe," she said. "[Punchy] coughed up some smoke and took off running."

Brito and Hernandez's other two children were at school when the fire started. The couple, who both work night-shift jobs, lost their clothes, furniture and some Christmas presents.

"Thank goodness everybody got out of the house safely," Brito said. "If I've got to jump through fire to save my kids' lives, that's what I'm going to do."

Read the story at the WZZM web site

Men honored for saving driver from tanker fire

Truck driver Ronald Tobias, 73, of Syracuse, Indiana, was trapped after his propane tanker truck flipped on its side and exploded. But rather than running from the flames, two people headed toward them.

Lonnie Hood, 30, from Acton, Indiana, and Robert Skaggs, 49, from Fortville, Indiana, each decided they had to try to help save Tobias on October 22. Hood was working on a nearby construction job and ran over. Skaggs was in his car on Interstate 465 when he saw flames behind him, stopped, and put his car in reverse.

"I just jumped off [a second-story roof] and ran to it. I don't know, I was kind of feeling something telling me to get over there," Hood told CNN affiliate WRTV of Indianapolis.

"I just kicked [the window] real hard and it went right in, and I just grabbed him up, me and another guy, and pulled him up to higher ground."

Added Skaggs, "For some reason, I just jerked the car off to the side, threw it in reverse and took off backwards toward it."

For their actions, they were awarded the Governor's Heroism Award by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Read the story at the WRTV web site

Bomb suspect hailed for railroad track rescue

Michael Woodson had already made news in Brevard County, Florida, as a bombing suspect when he rushed to help a man about to be run over by a train in April.

Woodson, 21, had been accused of filling a liquor bottle with black powder and setting it off at Brevard Community College to get out of class.

But in April he saved Michael Chergosky, 75, who was trying to cross railroad tracks in a motorized scooter.

Chergosky's scooter had become stuck in gravel, and Woodson ran over to pull the man to safety as a train approached, reported CNN affiliate WFTV in Orlando, Florida.

"As soon as I got to him I grabbed him out by the back of his collar, pulled him out of his wheelchair. [The train] missed him by four or five inches," Woodson told the station.

Several witnesses saw the rescue, and police said there's no doubt Woodson saved Chergosky, the station reported.

Read more about the rescue at the WFTV web site

The station reported later that Woodson was sentenced to probation, 15 weekends of work at a sheriff's work farm and banned from the school in a plea deal. The heroic deed was not mentioned in court, the station said.

Woodson said he never intended for the device to blow up, that it was just supposed to let off some smoke. The judge, who could have sentenced him to 15 years in prison, told Woodson he was lucky no one was injured.

"I hope that each and every day when you are standing out there in the sun you contemplate where your life could have gone if something else had happened," the judge said.

Read more about the case at the WFTV web site

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/10/cnnheroes.salutes/index.html

Exploding Chewing Gum Blows Off Student's Jaw

2009-12-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

Exploding Chewing Gum Blows Off Student's Jaw

9:39am UK, Wednesday December 09, 2009

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

A chemistry student has been found dead with his jaw blown off by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum, reports have said.

Student may have dipped his gum in an explosive substance

The 25-year-old's disfigured remains were discovered at his parent's home in the northern Ukrainian city of Konotop, reports in the Eastern European country said.

The young man, who studied at Kiev Polytechnic Institute, was working at a computer late on Saturday when the alleged explosion happened.

"A loud pop was heard from the student's room," the ukranews.com website said, citing an aide to the city's police chief.

"When his relatives entered the room, they saw that the lower part of the young man's face had been blown off."

A forensic examination established that the chewing gum was covered with an unidentified chemical substance, thought to be some type of explosive material.

The student apparently had a bizarre habit of chewing gum after dipping it into citric acid, Russian news agency Ria Novosti said.

Officers found both citric acid packets and a similar-looking unidentified substance, believed to be some kind of explosive material, on a table near the body, the agency continued.

Investigators suspect that the student simply confused the packets and put gum covered with explosive material into his mouth.

Forensic experts were to travel from Kiev to investigate the substance, as local authorities feared it may explode if transported.

SOURCE: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Exploding-Chewing-Gum-Ukraine-Man-Killed-In-Konotop-After-Dipping-Gum-In-Unknown-Substance---Report/Article/200912215496442

Spiral UFO Puts Norway in a Spin

2009-12-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Stunning ... mystery light glows in the sky

Spiralling UFO

By VIRGINIA WHEELER
and VINCE SOODIN

Published: 09 Dec 2009

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A MYSTERIOUS giant spiral of light that dominated the sky over Norway this morning has stunned experts — who believe the space spectacle is an entirely new astral phenomenon.

Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute to ask what the incredible light — that could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles — could possibly be.

The phenomenon has been dubbed 'Star-Gate' — as the world's top scientists and the military lined up to admit they were baffled.

Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, 'black hole' and even alien activity were all proposed.

Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am, all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star.

A blue "streaming tail" appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light "exploded" into a rotating ring of white fire.

Phenomenon ... unexplained sighting

Jan Petter Jørgensen / Rex Features

The spiral spectacle — which lasted for two minutes — was seen by vast swathes of the Scandinavian country's almost five million population, with sightings as far north as Finnmark to Trondelag in the south.

Totto Eriksen, from Tromso, in northern Norway, was one of the thousands who bombarded Norwegian newspapers with sightings — after nearly crashing his car on spotting the spiral overhead.

He said: "I was driving my daughter to school when this light spun and exploded in the sky.

"We saw it from the Inner Harbour in Tromso. It looked like a rocket that spun around and around - and then went diagonally across the heavens.

"It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain - but then turned into something totally different.

Blue tail ... stunned Norwegians

Jan Petter Jørgensen / Rex Features

"People just stopped and stared on the pier - it was like something from a Hollywood movie."

Axel Berg, from Alta, also in the north of the country, added: "It was like a giant spiral - a shooting star that spun around and around.

"I initially thought it was a projector but then the 'tail light' left and the spiral remained spinning still."

Norway's most celebrated astronomer, Knut Jorgen Roed Odegaard, said he had never seen anything like the spiral before.

Mystery ... missile theory

Jan Petter Jørgensen / Rex Features

He said: "This was seen over an exceptionally large area of the country - in all of north Norway and the Trondelag.

"My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor - but it lasted far too long.

"It may have been a missile from Russia - but I can't guarantee that is the answer.

"I rang the Air Traffic Control tower in Tromse. They said it was over in two minutes. To me, that is far too long for this to be an astronomical phenomenon.

"This spiral shape is unique. It is definitely not a variation of the aurora borealis - northern lights."

Astonishing ... spinning UFO

Chief Scientist Erik Tandberg, at the Norwegian Space Centre, said that he too was "totally amazed" by the spiral.

He agreed with many other experts that the spiral pattern could have been caused by a missile from Russia — something the Russian military have strongly denied.

Dr Tandberg said: "I agree with everyone in the science community that this light was the weirdest thing. I have never seen anything like this ever.

"It may have been anything from an exploding missile whose launch went wrong - to a comet or other celestial object that for some reason has been behaving strangely.

"If it was a missile - most likely from the launch base in Pletsevsk in Russia or one of the Russian submarines or even from the European Space Agency base in Kiruna - then we are talking about a rocket launch that has gone wrong.

"The spiral suggests the object came off course and balance and entered the spiral movement. Leaking rocket fuel could account for the blue light.

"But I know that the military have denied this explanation. So we could be looking at an entirely new natural phenomenon."

Meanwhile, Nick Pope, former UFO analyst for the Ministry of Defence, yesterday added that the Norwegian sighting was a "real mystery".

He said: "My first thought was this was a meteor, a fireball, or debris from an old satellite burning up in the earth's atmosphere.

"But the spiral motion makes this unlikely. This is truly bizarre. It's a real mystery.

"A meteor or a fireball would simply travel in a straight line but for something to spiral in this way appears to go against the laws of physics.

"Some may think it is the Northern Lights but they illuminate the sky with a green glow.

"This is completely different from any image of the Northern Lights that I have ever seen.

"It's ironic that something like this should happen the very week after the MoD terminated its UFO project. It just goes to show how wrong that decision was."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2764647/Spiral-UFO-puts-Norway-in-a-spin.html#ixzz0ZGIiV24T

SOURCE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2764647/Spiral-UFO-puts-Norway-in-a-spin.html

10 Web trends to watch in 2010

2009-12-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

10 Web trends to watch in 2010

By Pete Cashmore, Special to CNN

December 3, 2009 1:52 p.m. EST

Mashable's Pete Cashmore says real-time communication, Internet TV and social gaming will be big in 2010.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Mashable's Pete Cashmore lists his 10 Web trends that we'll be talking about next year
Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time communications trend will grow
The cloud-computing movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010
2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market

RELATED TOPICS

Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media. He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com.

(CNN) -- As 2009 draws to a close, the Web's attention turns to the year ahead. What can we expect of the online realm in 2010?

While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Expect the following 10 themes to define the Web next year:

Real-time ramps up

Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what "Web 2.0" was to 2007. The term represents the growing demand for immediacy in our interactions. Immediacy is compelling, engaging, highly addictive ... it's a sense of living in the now.

But real-time is more than just a horde of new Twitter-like services hitting the Web in 2010 (although that's inevitable -- cargo cults abound). It's a combination of factors, from the always-connected nature of modern smartphones to the instant gratification provided by a Google search.

Why wait until you get home to post a restaurant review, asks consumer trends tracker Trendwatching, when scores of iPhone apps let you post feedback as soon as you finish dessert? Why wonder about the name of that song, when humming into your phone handset will garner an instant answer from Midomi?

Look out, too, for real-time collaboration: Google Wave launched earlier this year, resulting in both excitement and confusion. A crossover between instant messaging, e-mail and a wiki, Wave is a platform for getting things done together. Web users, however, remain baffled. In 2010, Wave's utility will become more apparent.

Location, location, location

Fueled by the ubiquity of GPS in modern smartphones, location-sharing services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Google Latitude are suddenly in vogue.

As I ruminated in this column two weeks ago, Foursquare and its ilk may become the breakout services of the year ... provided they're not crushed by the addition of location-based features to Twitter and Facebook.

What's clear is that location is not about any singular service; rather, it's a new layer of the Web. Soon, our whereabouts may optionally be appended to every Tweet, blog comment, photo or video we post.

Augmented reality

It's yet to become part of the consumer consciousness, but augmented reality has attracted early-adopter buzz in the latter part of 2009.

Enabled by GPS, mapping data from the likes of Google and the accelerometer technology in modern phones, AR involves overlaying data on your environment; imagine walking around a city and seeing it come to life with reviews of the restaurants you walk past and Wikipedia entries about the sights you see.

When using Layar, for instance, the picture from your phone's video camera is overlaid with bubbles of information from Yelp, Wikipedia, Google Search and Twitter. The challenge for such services is to prove their utility: They have the "cool factor," but can they be truly useful?

Content 'curation'

The Web's biggest challenge of recent years is that content creation is outpacing our ability to consume it: "Information overload" has become an increasingly common complaint.

In the attention economy, with its millions of daily status updates and billions of Web pages vying for our time, how do we best allocate that scarce resource? One solution has been algorithmic: Sites like Google News source the best stuff by technical means, but fall short when it comes to personalization.

In 2008, the answer revealed itself: Your friends are your filter. With the launch of its Facebook Connect program, Facebook allowed sites to offer content personalization based on the preferences of your network.

Meanwhile, Google's Social Search experiment is investigating whether Web searching is improved by using information gleaned from your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and the rest. Increasingly, your friends are becoming the curators of your consumption, from Web links to movies, books and TV shows.

Professional "curation" has its place, too: Who better to direct our scarce attention than experts in their fields? I explored this possibility in a CNN article last month titled "Twitter lists and real-time journalism" .

Cloud computing

Cloud computing was very much a buzzword of 2009, but there's no doubt this transition will continue. The trend, in which data and applications cease to reside on our desktops and instead exist on servers elsewhere ("the cloud"), makes our data accessible from anywhere and enables collaboration with distributed teams.

The cloud movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010 with the launch of "Office Web Apps," free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote released in tandem with Microsoft Office 2010.

Next year will also see the launch of Google's Chrome OS, a free, Web-centric operating system that forces us to ask: How many desktop applications do we really need?

Internet TV and movies

Is 2010 the year the majority of our television starts coming to us via the Internet? There's certainly more activity here than at any other time: Among the early-adopter set, Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV and Netflix's Roku box lead the field.

Hulu in particular has sustained remarkable growth this year, while the movie studios are getting on board with the launch of Epix, a Hulu for films.

Convergence conundrum

The outlook for devices in 2010 appears somewhat contradictory: While the convergence trend continues apace and many of our gadgets are folded into the smartphones we carry around every day, we're seeing a converse trend in which task-specific devices gain popularity.

GPS device maker TomTom recently introduced a $100 iPhone app that removes the need to buy a TomTom hardware device. Google then one-upped the company by releasing free turn-by-turn directions on devices running its Android operating system. Garmin and TomTom beware: Standalone GPS devices may meet their demise in 2010.

Also on the endangered gadgets list: Flip video cameras, which PC World declared dead upon the launch of the iPhone 3G S. Meanwhile, Apple executives say the iPhone is cannibalizing the iPod: Why carry two devices when you only need one?

Paradoxically, the e-book reader is seeing traction as a single-use device. With hard-to-read, power-hungry laptop screens proving impractical for reading, and smartphone screens proving too small, the Kindle and its competitors are gaining buzz.

However, I'd argue that the e-book reader is a fad: Carrying an extra device is never desirable, and the major factor preventing convergence is the lack of superior screen technology. Flexible, expanding low-power screens on cell phones might tip the balance.

The real power of Amazon's Kindle is its ease of use: a virtual bookstore so simple that it does for books what Apple's iTunes did for music. The devices will converge, but the "app store" model for books will persist across all devices. The technology won't be with us in 2010, however.

Social gaming

There's little risk of social gaming proving a bad bet in 2010 -- Zynga's FarmVille game on Facebook now counts more active users than Twitter, claims a Facebook executive. Meanwhile, rival Playfish was recently acquired by Electronic Arts in a deal valued at up to $400 million.

Of growing interest in 2010, however, will be the virtual currencies these games have spawned: In the allegedly unmonetizable world of social media, virtual buying and selling may be the route to riches for some social media sites -- a concept I outlined in this column under the title "Is Facebook the future of micropayments?"

Mobile payments

I'd wager that 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market. While much of Asia has embraced the technology, the U.S., in particular, has lagged. There's reason for optimism in 2010, however: From PayPalX to Amazon's mobile payments platform for developers, the big players are seizing the mobile payments opportunity.

Meanwhile, newcomer Square, founded by the creator of Twitter, began its rollout this week to much early-adopter excitement: The company enables merchants to accept payments via Apple's iPhone.

Fame abundance, privacy scarcity

Warhol was right: Fame is now abundant. Social media has birthed a galaxy of stars in thousands of niches: We're all reality stars now, on Facebook, Twitter and all the myriad online outlets where we hone our personal brands.

We're seeing the ongoing voluntary erosion of privacy through public sharing on Facebook and Twitter, the rise of location-based services and the inclusion of video cameras in a growing array of devices.

The incredible efficiency of Web-based communication and our Google-fueled appetite to know everything about everything (or everyone) right now are combining to make Tiger Woods the canary in the privacy coal mine. Expect personal privacy -- or rather its continued erosion -- to be a hot media topic of 2010.

SOURCEL http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/03/cashmore.web.trends.2010/index.html

The smartphone apps that could save your life

2009-12-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

London, England (CNN) -- There are a growing number of smartphone applications aimed at assisting medical professionals or improving personal health.

From AirStrip OB, which lets obstetricians remotely access real-time data about newborn babies, to Epocrates, a kind of drug encyclopedia for medics, phone apps have the potential to be lifesavers.

Then there are the apps aimed at improving people's general health, such as RunKeeper, designed to make it easier to keep fit, and Absolute Fitness, which could help you keep tabs on your diet.

We take a look at just a few of the health-related applications now showing on a smartphone near you.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/07/health.apps.smartphone/index.html

MIT wins $40,000 prize in nationwide balloon-hunt contest

2009-12-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

December 7, 2009 9:58 a.m. EST

Ten 8-foot-wide red weather balloons across the United States were the targets in Saturday's high-tech challenge.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

MIT team was first to discover the locations of 10 balloons scattered across U.S.
Contest tested use of Web-based techniques to achieve time-critical tasks
Challenge was announced on anniversary of first message sent on Internet's precursor
DARPA: Winning team discovered balloons' locations less than nine hours after launch

(CNN) -- A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won $40,000 in a high-tech scavenger hunt on Saturday by discovering the location of 10 red weather balloons.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced that the MIT team was the first group in the contest to report the latitude and longitude coordinates of all 10 balloons, which were scattered across the United States.

DARPA is the U.S. military's research arm. Saturday's challenge is the latest in a series that the agency has hosted since 2004.

This contest was designed to test the way social networking and lesser-known Web-based techniques can help accomplish a large-scale, time-critical task.

DARPA said in a written statement that the MIT team discovered the locations of the 8-foot-wide balloons less than nine hours after they launched, around 10 a.m. ET.

Video: Balloon-hunt contest

RELATED TOPICS

It did not say exactly when the task was completed or how many groups had participated.

Johanna Jones, a spokeswoman for DARPA, said the hunt was designed in part to give the military new ideas on ways to operate in a range of situations, from natural disasters to combat.

The agency said it plans to meet with teams to discuss their approaches and strategies used to build networks, collect information, and participate in the contest.

The challenge was announced on October 29 -- 40 years after the first message was sent on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. DARPA said it hopes the contest will lead to advances in the way the military communicates and coordinates activities among multiple geographically separated groups.

On MIT's Web site, a link was posted inviting people to sign up to help find the balloons and urging them to invite their friends. It said the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team "is interested in studying information flow in social networks, so if we win, we're giving all the money away to the people who help us find the balloons!"

It detailed a chain for giving away the money, beginning with $2,000 given to each person who first sent in the coordinates of each balloon.

iReporter on balloon challenge

"We're giving $2,000 per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but that's not all -- we're also giving $1,000 to the person who invited them. Then we're giving $500 whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on..." it said.

It was not immediately clear how many people participated for MIT.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/05/darpa.balloon.challenge/index.html

The hidden costs of identity theft

2009-12-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

By John Blake, CNN

December 7, 2009 9:40 a.m. EST

The identities of an estimated 9.1 million Americans have been stolen, according to a 2008 survey.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The toll of identity theft includes financial and emotional costs
An estimated 9.1 million Americans have had identities stolen, according to a 2008 survey
Security experts: Recovery takes months, if not years
The Internet has made identity theft easier and more widespread

RELATED TOPICS

(CNN) -- Debra Guenterberg doesn't have to go to a horror movie to get spooked. She says she's been living a nightmare for the past 13 years.

The Wisconsin woman says she's been stalked by two phantoms. Two men stole her name and her husband's Social Security number. They used the information to obtain credit cards, buy cars and three homes.

Like many horror movie villains, the bad guys keep coming back. Thirteen years after the men stole their names, the Guenterbergs are still being turned down for credit because of the damage done by the men, she says.

"It's a nightmare," Guenterberg says. "We both feel physically and mentally exhausted. We feel hopeless because we can't fix this."

Most people know about the financial hit identity theft victims take. But less attention is paid to the emotional costs they also pay. Victims often experience paranoia, depression, rage -- some even endure family breakups, security experts say.

There are many ways someone's identity can be stolen. Much of it now occurs online. A person's identity can be stolen from a social media site, through online banking or after they have clicked on a deceptive e-mail.

But no matter how it happens, the victim is going to pay -- financially and emotionally, cybersecurity officials say.

The Guenterbergs say they've battled the IRS, elected officials and local sheriffs to reclaim their name. They've also undergone counseling.

"We're angry," Debra Guenterberg says. "We can't sleep at night. ... We want to move on."

The hidden toll of ID theft

Moving on, though, often requires justice. And that can be elusive for victims of identity theft, security experts say.

The identities of an estimated 9.1 million Americans have been stolen by thieves lifting personal information off the Internet or through other means, according to a 2008 survey conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial services research firm.

But it often takes the average identity theft victim months, if not years, to resolve their case, security experts say. Some say that no matter what they do, they still encounter problems getting credit.

Robert Guenterberg tried to open a checking account earlier this year, but says the bank turned him down because it confused him with the men who had stolen his Social Security number.

"It never ends," Robert Guenterberg says.

The Guenterbergs say their ordeal began 13 years ago when Robert Guenterberg tried to buy a Ford truck but was rejected because of poor credit. He got the same answer when he tried to get a home loan and a credit card.

When the collection agencies started calling, the Guenterbergs say they finally discovered the source of their problem. They say two men had stolen the couple's name and Robert' Guenterberg's Social Security number.

The Guenterberg's situation was especially thorny because it involved the loss of his Social Security number.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit group that educates consumers about privacy protection, tells people that even if an imposter is using their Social Security number, the Social Security Administration will only issue a new number in extreme cases.

Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, says getting a new Social Security number is tough and can complicate an identity theft victim's life even more.

"They can [get a new Social Security number] but the hassle may not be worth it," Kaiser says.

What the scammers say after they've been caught

Even if victims of identity theft are able to clean up their financial records, some must learn how to overcome their bitterness. Linda Foley had to learn that lesson.

Foley had just started working as a restaurant reviewer for a San Diego magazine when her employer asked her to fill out tax forms to get paid.

Foley says her employer then used her Social Security number to obtain three credit cards and a cell phone. She says she uncovered the deception when one of her credit card companies called during a routine credit check to verify her change of address.

That's when Foley learned that her boss was living it up on credit cards with her name.

"She was getting gourmet meals home delivered," Foley says. "She was getting vitamins; she was going on shopping sprees at department stores."

Foley says she's not the same person she was before her identity was stolen.

"It changes your life," she says. "I don't trust the way I used to. I don't share things with people as much as I used to."

Foley says she never talked to the woman who stole her identity, but she always wanted to.

The woman was eventually caught and apologized to a judge in court for stealing Foley's identity. Foley was so angry that she wanted to personally confront the woman. But Foley says her lawyer restrained her.

"I came to understand that what she did was because of what she is," Foley says. "How could she explain that to anybody? They [scammers] live a different life; they live in a different world."

Foley says she and her husband, Jay, formed Identity Theft Resource Center, which educates individuals and businesses about identity theft. In her new role, Foley says she talked to identity theft scammers.

None of them saw themselves as criminals, she says.

"The reason they gave is, 'No one is going to get hurt,' '' Foley says. "They don't see this as a crime of victimization."

Some identity thieves are so cold-blooded that they even prey on their closest relatives, Foley says.

"I've worked with people whose parents have stolen their information for 25 years," Foley says. "They've had their parents jailed."

Tips for preventing identity theft are now well known. Only give out a Social Security number if you must; install a firewall on your home computer; don't use biographical information in your passwords.

Linda Foley's husband, Jay, co-founder of Identity Theft Resource Center, says one of the best precautions a person can take is something simple: Pay attention to what they click on the Internet.

"You get yourself into a big rush and something pops up in front of you, you deal with it and move and then you say, 'What did I just do?' " says Jay Foley.

Perhaps one of the best precautions is to remember the struggles of people like the Guenterbergs.

Losing money to a thief is not the same as losing one's identity, Debra Guenterberg says.

"If somebody steals your wallet and you notice what they've done on your credit report, you still have protection from that, though it's still a nightmare, '' Debra Guenterberg says.

"But when someone overtakes your life and becomes you -- that's insane."

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/07/identity.theft.costs/index.html

Discovery Brings Dinosaurs Roaring to Life

2009-12-07T18:50:00.001-08:00

Saturday, December 05, 2009
By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Discovery

Consulting anatomists and paleontologists let the show give a previously unexplored look at dinosaur tendons, muscles, and more

65 million years after they ruled the planet, dinosaurs are back.

A new four-part miniseries on the Discovery Channel peels back the millennia and the skin, revealing a never before seen look at the birth and death of dinosaurs.

Researchers have made incredible leaps in the last year or two, learning previously unknown details about how the giant creatures were born, smelled, thought, acted and more. This Sunday at 8 p.m., a new series captures those advances like never before.

"Dinosaur science really evolves on an annular basis. So much changes year after year," explains "Clash of the Dinosaurs" executive producer Bill Howard to FoxNews.com in an exclusive interview.

"The series sets out to gather the sum total of today's paleontology and scientific knowledge about dinosaurs, letting viewers see what these creatures were like as animals, not prehistoric monsters."

SLIDESHOW: A sneak peek at "Clash of the Dinosaurs"

There have also been mighty steps forward in computational power and computer-rendering ability. Discovery's artists used these advances in graphics to depict dinosaurs as never before, letting viewers to see deep inside the body of a dinosaur.

"We took apart the anatomy of the different dinosaurs themselves, and really got into the cutting edge of how they moved, appeared, and behaved," said Howard. To study the muscles, tissues, and brain functions of creatures dead for tens of millions of years, Discovery relied upon the expertise of consulting anatomists and paleontologists, giving a previously unexplored look at dinosaur tendons and tissue.

"We're starting to understand where muscle attached to bone, how skin looked, how it resembled (or didn't) modern animals," said Howard."We've taken walk cycle models and anatomy and put it together with the correct weight and mass and how the muscles would have to move in order to move the joints and so on. With photo-realistic computer graphics, you see what the animals would have looked like when they moved."

"When you see the animals move, you see the skin responding to their movements, the effects of rain hitting their hides," he gushes.

Beyond mere anatomy, the show explores new theories about these powerful animals. For example, conventional wisdom holds that the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex had a brain like a walnut, limiting its actions to reactions, fight or flight mechanisms. But modern science suggests the T. rex had a large brain capable of complex behaviors. The show depicts the incredibly maternal instincts and family bonding scientists now think was commonplace among the gigantic animals.

Flying reptile Quetzalcoatlus (named after the Aztec god) had a 40-foot wingspan. "We figured out how it's anatomy worked and how it was able to fly for extended periods," adds Howard. Given the creature's weight and size, paleontologists speculated that it lived in an area where it took off from cliffs and soared like a glider. "We've discovered that their leg muscles had the quick reflexes of a frog, so unlike a modern bird, it could leap into the air very readily." Howard also notes that the creatures had tremendous eyesight, seeing in ultraviolet to following the urine trails of its prey.

"These creatures are no longer mysterious, they're more closely related in how they see, think and move to modern animals than you might think."

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579519,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r2:c0.000000:b0:z5

Discovery Brings Dinosaurs Roaring to Life

2009-12-07T18:50:00.000-08:00

Saturday, December 05, 2009
By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Discovery

Consulting anatomists and paleontologists let the show give a previously unexplored look at dinosaur tendons, muscles, and more

65 million years after they ruled the planet, dinosaurs are back.

A new four-part miniseries on the Discovery Channel peels back the millennia and the skin, revealing a never before seen look at the birth and death of dinosaurs.

"Dinosaur science really evolves on an annular basis. So much changes year after year," explains "Clash of the Dinosaurs" executive producer Bill Howard to FoxNews.com in an exclusive interview.

SLIDESHOW: A sneak peek at "Clash of the Dinosaurs"

"When you see the animals move, you see the skin responding to their movements, the effects of rain hitting their hides," he gushes.

"These creatures are no longer mysterious, they're more closely related in how they see, think and move to modern animals than you might think."

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579519,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r2:c0.000000:b0:z5

Scientists, Lawyers Mull Effects of Home Robots

2009-12-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Nov. 24: Ryan Calo stands next to a robot that is being built for medical applications at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Eric Horvitz illustrates the potential dilemmas of living with robots by telling the story of how he once got stuck in an elevator at Stanford Hospital with a droid the size of a washing machine.

"I remembered thinking, `Whoa, this is scary,' as it whirled around, almost knocking me down," the Microsoft researcher recalled. "Then, I thought, `What if I were a patient?' There could be big issues here."

We're still far from the sci-fi dream of having robots whirring about and catering to our every need. But little by little, we'll be sharing more of our space with robots in the next decade, as prices drop and new technology creates specialized machines that clean up spilled milk or even provide comfort for an elderly parent.

Now scientists and legal scholars are exploring the likely effects. What happens if a robot crushes your foot, chases your cat off a ledge or smacks your baby? While experts don't expect a band of Terminators to attack or a "2001: A Space Odyssey" computer that takes control, even simpler, benign robots will have legal, social and ethical consequences.

"As we rely more and more on automated systems, we have to think of the implications. It is part of being a responsible scientist," Horvitz said.

Horvitz assembled a team of scientists this year when he was president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and asked them to explore the future of human-robot interactions. A report on their discussions is due next year.

For years, robots have been used outside the home. They detect bombs on the battleground, build cars in factories and deliver supplies and visit patients in hospitals.

But the past few years have seen the rise of home robots. Mainly they are used for tasks like vacuuming (think Roomba). There are also robotic lawn mowers, duct cleaners, surveillance systems and alarm clocks. There are robotic toys for entertainment, such as Furby. Robotic companions, like Paro the harbor seal, comfort the elderly. By 2015, personal robot sales in the U.S. will exceed $5 billion, more than quadrupling what they are now, according to ABI Research, which analyzes technology trends.

"You won't see Rosie from `The Jetsons,' but you're going to see more and more robots that help maintain your home. They'll pick up stuff off the floor, stock your fridge, carry stuff from the car," said Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot Corp., which makes the Roomba.

As such 'bots become more sophisticated, they could complicate questions about product liability. Ryan Calo, a fellow with Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, pointed out in a recent panel discussion at Stanford Law School that the original manufacturer might not always be liable if a robot went haywire.

"Robots are not just things the manufacturer builds and you go out and use them in a specific way. Robots can often be instructed, they can be programmed, you can have software that is built upon by others," he said.

There are no laws in the U.S. specifically governing robots, and discussion of them usually leads to science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which debuted in his 1942 short story "Runaround."

The first of Asimov's laws is that robots should do no harm. It's also one of the biggest considerations when manufacturing the next generation of personal robots.

"If a robot becomes increasingly autonomous and can make its own decisions, what happens if the robot does not carry out the exact wishes of the person?" said George Bekey, a robotics researcher and professor emeritus at University of Southern California.

As robots interact more closely with people, the bonds some people form with the machines — even ones that do not look like humans — might need to be considered.

Shoppers personalize their Roombas, naming and decorating them, for example. Angle recalled an incident when a soldier plucked a banged-up military robot nicknamed Scooby from an Iraqi battlefield and carried it to a depot to be fixed.

"It's doing you a service, you're going to get attached to it," Angle said.

Ronald Arkin teaches a course on robots and society at Georgia Tech and directs the school's Mobile Robot Laboratory. His most recent book is titled "Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots."

"There needs to be ethics embedded in the systems," he said. "It's not just making a system that assists someone. It's making a system that interacts with someone in a way that respects their dignity."

Horvitz said his panel will recommend more research into the psychological reactions humans have to robotic systems. The group, he said, also suggests machines be designed with the ability to explain their reasoning to humans.

While ethicists, lawyers and roboticists ponder how to best integrate humans and autonomous machines, there is some evidence that a balance is already beginning to be struck.

After returning to the Stanford hospital on another occasion, Horvitz noticed a sign hanging above the spot where he had his harrowing experience. It read: "Please Do Not Board The Elevator With The Robot."

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579556,00.html

A day in the 'normal' life of a Nobel Prize winner

2009-12-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

By Val Willingham, CNN Medical Producer

December 7, 2009 9:12 a.m. EST

Dr. Carol Greider, center, was feted by her son, daughter and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on October 5, the day it was announced that she won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Watch for Health Minute on HLN, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. ET weekdays.

Baltimore, Maryland (CNN) -- She was folding laundry when the call came at 5 a.m. After she hung up the phone, Dr. Carol Greider went upstairs to wake her children. She had to tell them, even if it meant getting them out of bed early.

"I said, 'By the way, I just won the Nobel Prize. You can go back to sleep now,' " she recalled.

Until this past October, many would have described Greider as your typical working woman. A molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the mother of two children -- Gwendolyn, 10, and Charles, 13 -- she splits her time between job and family. But "typical" no longer applies.

Winning the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine may help her career, but it hasn't changed her attitude about home life. "I could have basked in the moment, but I had to tell my kids first. And they were thrilled, but then they wanted to know, 'Do we have to go to school today?' " she said. "Of course I said, 'No, you don't.' And they came to work with me."

The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 41 times between 1901 and 2009. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honored twice. Ten women, including Greider, have received it for medicine, others for economics, physics, literature and chemistry; 12 have won the Nobel Peace Prize. But few have been single moms, whose thoughts are just as consumed by homework as by helices.

Watch more on Dr. Carol Greider's juggling act

Video: Single mom wins Nobel Prize

It's not like the Academy Awards, where you know you may be up for it. It just comes with a phone call.
--Dr. Carol Greider, Nobel Prize winner

Greider, 48, along with her mentor Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn from the University of California, San Francisco, and Harvard scientist Dr. Jack Szostak, were given the Nobel Prize for their work with telomeres, which are the bits of repeating DNA at the end of our chromosomes. Telomeres protect the chromosomes, much like the plastic tips on shoelaces keep lace from fraying.

The research team was also recognized for its discovery of telomerase, which is the enzyme that causes the chromosome ends to stay intact when they divide. Understanding telomerase is important when looking for clues about aging and cures for degenerative diseases and cancer.

Born into a family of scientists -- her mother was a biologist; her father was a physicist -- Greider knew her passion was in the lab. And although she suffered from dyslexia, her stellar grades got her into graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked with Blackburn.

Blackburn had been looking for an enzyme that helped telomeres stay intact. But it was Greider who had the "Eureka!" moment during routine research. She actually discovered the enzyme, telomerase, while making a random, small change in her experiment. The rest, as they say, is scientific history.

"At the time we made this discovery, it was just a fundamental, curiosity-driven question," she said. "But we've been able to link that up to important medical consequences."

Although the initial discovery happened 25 years ago, Greider knew there was always a chance the Nobel Committee could recognize her accomplishments. "Every year or so, I was told maybe this year, it could happen, this could be the year," she said. "But there are no nominees -- it's not like the Academy Awards, where you know you may be up for it. It just comes with a phone call."

I live a pretty normal life.
--Dr. Carol Greider, Nobel Prize winner

RELATED TOPICS

So when the call did come, it was a shock to Greider -- but a pleasant one. She is taking 16 friends and relatives to Stockholm, Sweden, to be with her when she receives her prize December 10. There will be parties and seminars to attend, and she wants it to be a special moment for everyone, especially for her children: "I want to pick the best events for them so they aren't bored and they can always remember it and be able to share the moment with me."

As for the money -- she'll split the $1.4 million purse three ways -- she's still not sure what she'll do with it. "I'd like it if it could give me more freedom to work in the lab, which is my first love. And I'd like to imagine all the wonderful things it could bring to my future," Greider said, before returning to reality. "But right now, my kids are in school, and I still have to make them lunches and dinners. And all that will keep me grounded."

"I live a pretty normal life," she says. Still, it's not everyone who can think back to the morning of October 5, when the Nobel Committee made its call.

"I got a big kick out of telling my spinning instructor I couldn't make it to class that day. I sent her a an e-mail saying, 'Sorry, can't make spinning. I just won the Nobel Prize!' "

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/07/nobel.prize.mom.telomeres/index.html

People Type With Just Thoughts

2009-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

People Type With Just Thoughts

Sunday, December 06, 2009
By Charles Q. Choi

By focusing on images of letters, people with electrodes in their brains can type with just their minds, scientists now reveal.

These findings make up one more step on the road to mind-machine interfaces that may one day help people communicate with just their thoughts. Researchers have recently employed brain scans to see numbers and maybe even pull videos from inside people's heads.

The neuroscientists were monitoring two patients with epilepsy for seizure activity with electrodes placed directly on the surface of their brains to record electrical activity generated by the firing of nerve cells. This kind of procedure requires a craniotomy, a surgical incision into the skull.

How it works

Lead investigator Jerry Shih, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Fla., wanted to test how well their fledgling mind-machine interface functioned in these patients. He reasoned it would perform better when electrodes were placed directly on the brain instead of when placed on the scalp, as is done with electroencephalography, or EEG.

Most studies of mind-machine interaction have employed EEG, Shih explained.

"The scalp and bony skull diffuses and distorts the signal, rather like how the Earth's atmosphere blurs the light from stars," Shih said. "That's why progress to date on developing these kind of mind interfaces has been slow."

The patients sat in front of a screen that displayed a 6-by-6 grid with a single letter inside each square. Every time a square with a certain letter flashed and the patient focused on it, the electrodes relayed the brain's response to a computer. The patients were then asked to focus on specific letters, and the computer recorded that data as well.

After the system was calibrated to each patient's specific brain waves, when the patient focused on a letter, the letter appeared on the screen.

"We were able to consistently predict the desired letters for our patients at or near 100 percent accuracy," Shih said. "While this is comparable to other researchers' results with EEGs, this approach is more localized and can potentially provide a faster communication rate. Our goal is to find a way to effectively and consistently use a patient's brain waves to perform certain tasks."

How to use it

Once the technique is perfected, its will require patients to have a craniotomy, although it remains uncertain how many electrodes would have to be implanted. The computers would also have to calibrate each person's brain waves to desired actions, such as movement of a prosthetic arm, Shih said.

"Over 2 million people in the United States may benefit from assistive devices controlled by a brain-computer interface," Shih said. "This study constitutes a baby step on the road toward that future, but it represents tangible progress in using brain waves to do certain tasks."

These patients would have to use a computer to interpret their brain waves, "but these devices are getting so small, there is a possibility that they could be implanted at some point," Shih said. "We find our progress so far to be very encouraging."

The scientists detailed their findings Sunday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579598,00.html

17-Year-Old American Defeats Sharapova at U.S. Open

2009-09-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,547103,00.html?test=latestnews
Saturday, September 05, 2009

Sept. 5: Melanie Oudin of the U.S. shakes hands with Maria Sharapova of Russia after her victory during the U.S. Open in New York City.

NEW YORK — She sat there in shock. Then, the tears started falling.

Believe it or not, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin is the toast of the town at the U.S. Open.

Gritting her way through a shaky third set, the 70th-ranked player from Marietta, Ga., pulled off her second upset of the Open on Saturday, defeating a more-seasoned, more-famous, more-moneyed opponent — 29th-seeded Maria Sharapova, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

"I don't even know what to say right now," Oudin said, choking back tears in her postmatch interview in Arthur Ashe Stadium. "Thank you so much for cheering for me."

Sharapova, who has won this tournament once, usually gets those cheers. But on this cloudless day in Queens, the fans were rooting for a new potential queen — the one who stamped the word "Believe" on her shoes, but probably didn't see this coming so soon.

"My goal was to make the top 50," she said. "But if I keep playing like this, who knows? Hopefully, I can get as high as anything."

She added this upset to one over No. 4 Elena Dementieva in the second round and a win over former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic earlier this year at Wimbledon.

Sharapova, though, was the biggest name in the bunch. Oudin's confidence is growing as quickly as her resume, and suddenly, it does seem like anything is possible.

"Yeah, why not?" Sharapova said. "I think with experience and playing tournaments and being in situations where she's playing these kind of matches, considering her age, she certainly has a great amount of potential."

Oudin's fourth-round match is against No. 13 Nadia Petrova of Russia, though there's a sense she may have already knocked out the two toughest players on her side of the draw. No. 5 Jankovic is also gone, along with No. 11 Ana Ivanovic. No. 1 Dinara Safina is still there, but she has been playing poorly.

The Williams sisters are on the other side of the draw and it may not be too early to dream about the third-best American, Oudin, going against one of the two best for the U.S. title.

"I learned, once again, proved to myself that I can compete with these top girls," Oudin said. "And if I believe in myself and my game, then I can beat them."

In men's play, No. 1 Roger Federer extended his winning streak to 37 at the U.S. Open, overcoming some shaky play for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 31 Lleyton Hewitt.

It was Federer's 14th straight victory over Hewitt, a former No. 1 who won the U.S. Open in 2001.

"I just had to believe that I could still turn this around," Federer said. "And with the great streak I have against him, I knew that if I could get back into the match then I could get back on a roll, because I've done it so many times against him."

Other winners on the men's side included 15th-seeded Radek Stepanek, 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, and fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic, who ended 276th-ranked American Jesse Witten's surprising run. Also gone is 22nd-seeded Sam Querrey, a 6-2, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 loser to No. 12 Robin Soderling.

Oudin and Sharapova followed Federer onto the show court but Sharapova did not put on a headliner's performance.

She served 21 double-faults — the equivalent of five-plus games — committed 63 unforced errors and clearly hasn't rounded fully into form after nearly 10 months off with a shoulder injury that forced her to miss the trip to Flushing Meadows last year.

Sharapova and Oudin traded three breaks each through the first eight games of the third set, then Oudin got a fourth break to go ahead 5-4. She responded by holding serve, closing the match with a cross-court winner off a short counterpunch from Sharapova.

Oudin dropped her racket and choked back tears, shook hands with Sharapova and walked to her chair, shaking, clearly having trouble believing what had taken place.

But, yes, that happened.

"Someone asked me this question at Wimbledon, 'How I would describe the whole experience,'" she said. "There's not really one word. Everything about it is just unbelievable. But basically I love to play tennis, and that's why I'm here. I'm loving it."

People With Thin Thighs Die Sooner, Study Finds

2009-09-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546500,00.html?test=latestnews

Friday, September 04, 2009

People who have agonized over their fat thighs might be able to relax a bit — Danish doctors said on Thursday they found patients with the thinnest thighs died sooner than the more endowed.

Obesity, age, smoking and other factors did not reduce the effect, the researchers reported in the British Medical Journal.

"Our results suggest that there might be an increased risk of premature death related to thigh size," Berit Heitmann of Copenhagen University Hospital and Peder Frederiksen of Glostrup University Hospital wrote.

The explanation may lie in many different studies that suggest where you gain your weight is a strong factor in how it affects health. People with lots of abdominal fat — wrapped in and around the internal organs — appear to be at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other ills.

So-called pear-shaped people may have lower risks, even if they have more body fat overall.

Heitmann and Frederiksen studied 1,436 men and 1,380 women taking part in a larger medical research study who were examined in 1987 and 1988, then watched them for more than 12 years.

Men and women whose thighs were less than 24 inches in circumference were more likely to die during those 12 years, they found.

Those with the thinnest thighs — less than 18 inches — were more than twice likely to have died within 12 years, they reported in the study, published at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.b3292.

Dozens of studies have shown waist size can also be a good predictor of heart disease and death.

Women with a waist circumference of greater than 35 inches and men whose waists are more than 40 inches have a much higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and early death than people with smaller waists — regardless of how much body fat they have overall.

This is again linked to abdominal fat. Fat laid down under the skin, as when it is found on the legs, may be healthier for the body, although the mechanism is unclear.

The Danish team said they hoped thigh measurements might be an equally good indicator. But Dr. Ian Scott of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, disagreed, saying the statistics in the Danish study were too limited.

He said larger studies would need to be done before doctors could decide that thigh measurement was any kind of good predictor of health.

"It seems unlikely that thigh circumference will be clinically useful," Scott wrote in a commentary.

Tim Olds, a professor of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia, saw some value in the study, however.

"This is a very interesting line of research, because it would suggest that interventions which protect or increase muscle mass (such as weight training) may be effective in reducing cardiovascular disease even if no loss of body fat occurs," Olds said in a statement.

MIT engineers create new school of robotic fish

2009-08-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/31/robotic.fish.mit/index.html

By Shelby Lin Erdman

Story Highlights
Engineers at MIT have created a new generation of robotic fish
'Robofish' could be used to map the ocean floor, inspect submerged boats or pipes
MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, "Robotuna," in 1994
New robofish are modeled after bass and trout and cost only a few hundred dollars

(CNN) -- Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say.

Nice catch! MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi displays two of his robot fish.

MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish.

And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school.

"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance," Alvarado said. "Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements."

MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, "Robotuna," in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation -- modeled after bass and trout -- cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in R

At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans.

"Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside," said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. "We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply."

The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level.

The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish.

MIT's mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander.

Research duo finds cause for disorders

2009-08-28T06:21:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2009/08/28/News/Research.Duo.Finds.Cause.For.Disorders-3758761.shtml

by MARIANNE ENGLISH

Issue date: 8/28/09

A University professor and graduate student pinpointed a cause of chromosome defects in corn - a major agricultural breakthrough that may further scientific understanding of chromosome disorders such as Down syndrome in humans.

Plant biology professor Kelly Dawe and recently graduated doctoral student Xuexian Li led the research, both spending years on the project, Dawe said.

"This project was one of my ideas I had in my first grant proposal," he said. "It took a while to organize the tools, methods and people."

The pair's hard work paid off, and the research was featured in the advance online publication of the journal Nature Cell Biology this month.

In the study, Dawe and Li found that the loss or degradation of key proteins found in the kinetochore - a protein structure that pulls chromosomes apart - can increase the chance of chromosomes not dividing correctly during meiosis.

Meiosis is the process by which a cell halves the number of chromosomes from 46 to 23 to divide and create sperm and egg sex cells. The final stages of chromosome separation may not happen correctly if the egg is fertilized later in life, Dawe said.

Other researchers are intrigued by the overall implications of the study as well.

"These findings provide new directions on how to conduct similar research in mammals," said Patricia Hunt, Washington State University professor and specialist in reproductive biology and meiosis. "We're riding on the coattails of researchers like Kelly [Dawe] with these big discoveries."

Hunt said Dawe and Li's developments provide new information about the first stage of meiotic division - a complex process scientists are working to understand better.

Since Hunt's interest is in human models, she said analyzing similar structures in human eggs in vitro (examined outside of the body in a laboratory setting) can further enhance researchers' understanding of how some individuals end up with too few or too many chromosome copies.

"These problems arise in the egg. Approximately 10 percent of human pregnancies are chromosomally-abnormal," Hunt said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

"By the time a woman is in her 40s, around half of her eggs are chromosomally-abnormal."

Because women carry their eggs from birth, Dawe and Hunt said eggs degrade and sometimes fail to function properly, much like other aging cells.

Above all, Dawe and Li's research directly influences genetic engineering in agriculture and corn production.

"The research helps to achieve my goal of creating an 'artificial chromosome vector' for crop improvement - a method of adding traits to crops in novel ways," Dawe said. "The idea is to identify all the pieces of a normal chromosome, and then to reconstruct them in a small chromosome that can carry genes of interest."

At the fungal farmer's market, only the best cyanobacteria are for sale

2009-08-28T06:19:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/ajob-atf082109.php

Lichen study has implications for ecosystem research



		IMAGE: Cyanobacterial photobionts of tropical cyanolichens of the genera Acantholichen, Coccocarpia, Dictyonema, and Stereocaulon, belong to a previously unrecognized, exclusively lichenized, novel lineage with the name Rhizonema. These photobionts are shared... Click here for more information.

Lichens are the classic example of a symbiotic relationship. Both the fungal and photobiont components of the lichen benefit from the relationship and often are unable to survive without each other. Recent research by Dr. Robert Lücking (The Field Museum, Chicago), Dr. James Lawrey (George Mason University, Virginia) and a team of colleagues from around the world has put a new spin on this relationship.

In a paper published in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany (www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/96/8/1409), Lücking et al. explore the possibility of lichens as domesticators, similar to early farmers domesticating grains. By investigating the evolutionary history of a group of cyanobacteria associated with lichens, Lücking and Lawrey and their team have made some surprising conclusions.

Although lichen fungi represent more than 1000 genera, most are associated with photobionts that represent only four genera, one of them believed to be the common and widely distributed cyanobacterial genus Scytonema. However, the identity of photobionts thought to be Scytonema has never been confirmed. Lücking and his colleagues used DNA sequence data to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among free-living members of Scytonema and putative Scytonema photobionts associated with three major fungal lineages.

They discovered that these lichenized photobionts are not members of the genus Scytonema, but form a novel, previously unrecognized, entirely lichenized, lineage of cyanobacteria. The members of this novel lineage, which bears the name Rhizonema, physically appear very similar to free-living members of the genus Scytonema, and members of the two genera can be found close to each other—one lichenized, the other not. Apart from being the first discovery of a completely novel photobiont lineage in lichens using molecular phylogenetics, this find has important implications for ecosystem research because a large proportion of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria previously believed to occur in both lichenized and free-living forms now appear to be restricted to lichen symbioses.

Lücking et al. also found that a wide range of lichen fungi that are distantly related with each other but co-occur in the same habitats are associated with members of Rhizonema. This implies that the fungi "share" the cyanobacteria among them, as opposed to evolving in concert with the cyanobacteria, a process that would result in similar evolutionary patterns in the fungal and cyanobacterial components of the lichen.

The authors propose that photobionts are selected based on their compatibility with the mycobionts and their ability to contribute to the establishment and growth of the lichen. This results in an increase in the frequency of particular mycobiont-photobiont pairs, and likewise an increase in the frequency of particular photobionts, which then leads to an increase in the availability of these photobiont strains for other lichen associations. This process may be compared to crop domestication, where farmers develop improved crop varieties and share them with other farmers, leading to higher yields for the farmers and proliferation of the most widely-used varieties. Indeed, the North American lichenologist Trevor Goward has defined lichens as "fungi that discovered agriculture," and this study not only supports this view but adds a further dimension to it.

Aptamer research of Andrew Ellington

2009-08-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://ellingtonlab.org/main/static.php?page=aboutus

My research focuses on using evolutionary techniques to engineer biopolymers and cells. Researchers in my lab select binding species (aptamers) and ribozymes from random sequence populations. We then attempt to apply the selected species to solve real-world problems. For example, we have selected aptamers that can interact tightly and specifically with the Rev protein of HIV-1, and are exploring how these aptamers can be used to block viral replication. Similarly, we have selected ribozymes that can be allosterically activated by a variety of effectors, including proteins, and are using these ribozymes to design and build biosensors that may be useful in diagnosing disease. We also have developed methods for evolving proteins with novel functions, and re similarly attempting to use the evolved proteins in medical or biotechnological applications. For example, we have evolved RNA polymerases that can utilize modified nucleotides. Finally, we have extended our evolutionary approaches to whole organisms, and are attempting to evolve 'unnatural' E. coli (unColi) that can augment their genetic codes with unnatural amino acids. It is hoped that strains of unColi will allow us to generate enzymes with previously unknown or inaccessible structures or activities. While we have largely used evolutionary engineering to effect these changes, we are increasingly relying upon bioinformatics, modeling, and rational design to accelerate evolutionary processes.

Kary Mullis outmaneuvers drug resistant bacteria

2009-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Kary-Mullis-outmaneuvers-drug-resistant-bacteria/biotechniques-174085.html?utm_source=BioTechniques+Newsletters+%26+e-Alerts&utm_campaign=c7a42c20a4-BTN_DAILY&utm_medium=email

08/27/2009

Erin Podolak

Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis has developed a new technique for combating deadly drug-resistant bacteria.

Kary Mullis has a way to combat drug-resistant bacteria, he claims, and likens the technique to the illegal possession of marijuana.

“It’s kind of like when you get stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A. and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car and then charges you with possession of marijuana,” said the Nobel Laureate. “It’s a very fast, very efficient way to get people off of the street.” Mullis’ technique is comparable to the drug possession scenario because it plants a foreign molecule onto bacteria, which makes the complex an immediate target for an immune response.

The technique is based on the alpha gal epitope, a molecule found in other living organisms that the human immune system does not recognize, and consequently attacks. According to Mullis, this molecule is the reason why organ transplants from pigs are often unsuccessful. However, he claims he has discovered the molecule’s value to humans. “Our immune system can eat it,” said Mullis “The cells in our immune system are always hungry.”

Scientists have not been able to halt the immune response triggered by the molecule. “So why don’t we use it?” said Mullis. According to Mullis, if you can attach the molecule to bacteria, an immune response will eliminate the bacteria, even if the bacterium is resistant to other therapeutics.

Mullis attached an antibody to the alpha gal epitope, which he then attached to pathogenic bacteria. The technique hastened the time needed for the body to produce an immune response to infection in mice. The body can tap into an immune response that is either preexistent or will develop quickly.

Speaking at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, CA earlier this year, Mullis declared success over drug-resistant bacteria. TED is a nonprofit organization that sponsors conferences and talks about controversial or groundbreaking issues. “I feel now like George Bush, mission accomplished,” said Mullis. “I might be doing something dumb like he was at the time, but we’ve gotten it to work.”

According to Mullis researchers from his company, Altermune, tested the technique on mice infected with anthrax. “They all survived. They lived 14 or 28 days until we finally killed them and took them apart to find out what went wrong and why they didn’t die,” said Mullis. ”They didn’t die because they didn’t have anthrax anymore.”

Mullis undertook the project after a close friend died last year of a Staph infection when powerful antibiotics failed to work. Mullis has been working to develop DNA aptamers that can bind to target sites on bacteria. The alpha gal epitope is attached the DNA aptamer, which then binds with the bacteria. The aptamer is programmed to seek out the bacteria and initiate an immune response.

In April, Mullis told an audience of San Jose State University students and faculty that he had a cure for the H1N1 flu. Mullis, who won the Nobel Prize in 1993 for discovering polymerase chain reaction, is a controversial figure in science and known for his strong opinions.

Getting by on six hours of sleep? It’s genetic

2009-08-14T07:46:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32406256/ns/health-behavior/

updated 4:25 p.m. CT, Thurs., Aug 13, 2009

Most of us need about eight or so hours of sleep a night to perform optimally during the day. But scientists have found a mother and daughter who naturally snooze just six nightly hours, waking up bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

Sleep logs revealed the 44-year-old woman and her 69-year-old mother have been "natural short sleepers" for most of their lives. They both go to bed at about 10 p.m. and rise at 4 or 4:30 a.m.

While that might sound a lot like your schedule, there's a catch: Besides catching fewer Z's, the two family members are also very active. For instance, the mother travels internationally often and dances three or four times a week.

"They really have shorter sleep requirements," said study researcher Ying-Hui Fu, a professor of neurology at the University of California at San Francisco, Mission Bay.

It turns out, the pair are genetically programmed for such abbreviated sleep. They both carry a genetic mutation to the gene DEC2 that Fu and her colleagues found is at least partly responsible for the sleep pattern and probably contributes to so-called sleep homeostasis (how much sleep we need).

Scientists think sleep is controlled by at least two processes, one called circadian rhythm that sets the timing of when we go to sleep and when we wake up, turning some into night owls, for instance. The second is a homeostatic process, which regulates the length of shut-eye.

Though Fu isn't sure how many people carry such a genetic mutation, she said it's probably rare as the researchers found no other carriers in a sample of 250.

To figure out how the genetic mutation impacts sleep, Fu and her colleagues genetically engineered mice to have either two copies of the mutant gene or just one copy.

Compared with the normal mice, those with one mutant gene slept about 1.2 hours less, and mice with two mutant genes slept 2.5 hours less. The mutant mice also bounced back faster than the normal mice from sleep deprivation.

While the results, which will be detailed in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Science, may not let the habitually late snoozers catch fewer snores, they could ultimately lead to treatment for individuals with sleep disturbances, the researchers note.

Next, Fu and her colleagues hope to find other genes related to sleep homeostasis.

"This is something that gives us a clue that there is a gene that is regulating human sleep homeostasis," Fu told LiveScience. "After we find several [genes], we can get a picture of how this sleep homeostasis mechanism works, how our body regulates how much sleep we need."

Computer Scientist Reveals The Math And Science Behind Blockbuster Movies

2009-08-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220145641.htm

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2007) — On Feb. 19 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, movie lovers got a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the physics-based simulations that breathe life into fantasy.

"It is an exhaustive task to prescribe the motion of every degree of freedom in a piece of clothing or a crashing wave," says Ron Fedkiw, an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford who will speak about computations used to make solids and fluids more realistic in feature films. "Since these motions are governed by physical processes, it can be difficult to make these phenomena appear natural. Thus, physically based simulation has become quite popular in the special effects industry. The same class of tools useful for computational fluid dynamics is also useful for sinking a ship on the big screen."

Fedkiw's talk is part of a symposium titled "Blockbuster Science: Math and Science Behind Movies and Entertainment," which brought together leaders from industry and academia. The other speakers included Tony DeRose of Pixar in Emeryville, Calif., and Doug Roble of Digital Domain in Venice, Calif. Math Professor Tony Chan of the University of California-Los Angeles will moderate the symposium.

Science at the Oscars

This year, two of the three movies nominated for a special effects Oscar--Poseidon and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, both made by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)-- required heavy numerical simulation, says Fedkiw, who has consulted for ILM for six years. Most recently, the PhysBAM (for Physics Based Modeling) core math engine he developed helped to create realistic water in Poseidon and Davy Jones' tentacles in Dead Man's Chest.

Computer graphics (CG) experts used to have to make a Catch-22 decision. They could run inferior algorithms on many processors or run the best algorithm on only one processor. The problem is that many algorithms do not scale well to larger numbers of processors. But about a year and a half ago Fedkiw figured out how to run a star algorithm on many processors, resulting in special effects unprecedented in their realism.

He designs new algorithms for diverse applications including computational fluid dynamics and solid mechanics, computer graphics, computer vision and computational biomechanics. The algorithms may rotate objects, simulate textures, generate reflections or mimic collisions. Or they may mathematically stitch together slices of a falling water drop, rising smoke wisp or flickering flame to weave realism into CG images.

Fedkiw received screen credits for his work on Poseidon, on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines for the liquid terminator and the nuclear explosions and on Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith for explosions in space battle scenes. "My first love is computational physics and most of my career has been dedicated to that," says Fedkiw, who has published more than 75 research papers in computational physics, computer graphics and vision, as well as a book on level set methods with UCLA's Stanley Osher. Recently he has grown interested in applying computational physics to virtual surgery and modeling of the human face.

Fedkiw is the recipient of a National Academy of Sciences award for innovations in the modeling and numerical simulation of flows and pioneering contributions to physically based computer graphics. He also received a David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship for simulations of humans and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.

Going Hollywood

Research universities like Stanford play big roles in training the next generation of CG specialists and developing the science and technology that gets applied in movies in innovative ways.

"The simulation of gases, liquids and combustion for scientific reasons quickly translates into the ability to make animations of smoke, water and fire," Fedkiw says. "Similar statements hold for soft biological tissues, muscles, fractures and other solid material problems. Once the scientific numerical simulations are worked out, interesting animations can be made shortly thereafter."

Most of Fedkiw's students double-major in math and computer science. "Graphics itself is a bit less important, and many of them don't take their first graphics class until their junior or senior year of college," Fedkiw says. "I started [learning computer graphics] rather late, working in pure mathematics until I was 23 years old, and then switching to applied mathematics after that. I didn't know anything about computer graphics until 1998. And although I did work on engineering-related problems, I didn't do any work in computer science until I started working with a company in 1998 to learn more about graphics."

Fedkiw earned his doctorate in applied mathematics from UCLA in 1996 and did postdoctoral work at UCLA in mathematics and at Caltech in aeronautics before joining Stanford's Computer Science Department in 2000. He wrote his first two papers for the 2001 SIGGRAPH (short for Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics), an annual CG conference convened by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 2005, ACM SIGGRAPH honored him with its Significant New Researcher Award for contributions to the computer graphics community.

Getting research experience is important for anyone applying to Stanford's computer science doctoral program. "Connecting with a research group is quite important to do in addition to taking classes," Fedkiw says. He and his students have worked closely with ILM, Pixar, Intel, Honda and Sony Imageworks. "This collaboration with industry is a two-way street and has produced a number of academic papers--as well as some screen credits," he says. "Both the companies and group at Stanford think of this as a highly synergistic relationship."

Fedkiw's favorite movie employing CG is Revenge of the Sith. "When I watched the first [Star Wars movie] at 9 years old, I never dreamed that I'd eventually be helping to make the last one."

Math In The Movies Mathematicians To Thank For Great Graphics

2009-08-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0503-math_in_the_movies.htm

May 1, 2007 — 100 powerful supercomputers perform geometrical, algebraic and calculus-based calculations to animate Pixar's characters. The laws of physics that inform the dynamics of fabric movement are most used in the computations.

Most students in high school dread their math classes and wonder when they will ever use the information in "real life." Now, with so much work being done on computers, the algebra and trigonometry learned in high school is actually being put to good use.

The animation industry is one that can be a math teacher's best friend. It is high school math that can actually help bring animated movies to life. Tony DeRose, a computer scientist at Pixar Animation Studios, realized his love of mathematics could transfer into a real world, real interesting job by bringing the pretend world of animation to life. He told DBIS, "Without mathematics, we wouldn't have these visually rich environments, and visually rich characters."

Advances in math can lead to advances in animation. Earlier math techniques show simple, hard, plastic toys. Now, advances in math help make more human-like characters and special effects. DeRose explains the difference a few years can make, "You didn't see any water in Toy Story, whereas by the time we got to Finding Nemo, we had the computer techniques that were needed to create all the splash effects."

How exactly do the high school math classes help with the animation? Trigonometry helps rotate and move characters, algebra creates the special effects that make images shine and sparkle and calculus helps light up a scene. DeRose encourages people to stick with their math classes. He says, "I remember as a mathematics student thinking, 'Well, where am I ever going to use simultaneous equations?' And I find myself using them every day, all the time now."

The American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

BACKGROUND: Pixar Animation Studios is undergoing a digital revolution thanks to advances in areas such as computer technology, computational physics, and approximation theory. Tony Derose provided a behind-the-scenes look at the role that geometry plays in the revolution using examples drawn from Pixar's feature films, such as Toy Story I and II. Upcoming movie characters will be animated using a new advancement in geometry recently developed at Pixar.

ABOUT ANIMATION: The term animation refers generally to graphical displays in which a sequence of images with gradual differences results in the same effect as a photographed movie. Computer generated animations are getting more and more common, replacing hand drawn images and other special techniques. There are several ways to generate dynamic changes in computer graphics. Geometry animation is the most complex, and requires changing the geometric elements of a scene dynamically. This is also what most people generally refer to when using the term "animation," evidenced by motion pictures like "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life."

HOW PIXAR DOES IT: Perhaps the most difficult aspect of animation is making people and clothing look real. Pixar's software is based on complex studies of how cloth moves when draped on a character, based on the laws of physics. For instance, drape a bedsheet between two points, and the center will hang downward, adjusting itself until it comes to rest in a state of pure tension. The animators begin with drawings of the characters, which they use to build computer puppets, later adding digital "strings" that correspond to various geometric points on the puppet. These strings serve as animation controls, ensuring that as each string is "pulled," the puppet's movements reflect what would occur in real life. Color and lighting effects are added last before the puppet is "animated." Pixar uses 100 powerful supercomputers that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It still takes the computers five to six hours to render a single frame lasting 1/24th of a second. For every second of film, it takes the computer six days.

WHAT IS GEOMETRY? Geometry is the field of mathematical knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. The earliest written records -- dating from Egypt and Mesopotamia about 3100 BC -- demonstrate that ancient peoples had already begun to devise mathematical rules and techniques useful for surveying land areas, constructing buildings, and measuring storage containers. Beginning about the 6th century BC, the Greeks gathered and extended this practical knowledge and from it generalized the abstract subject now known as geometry, from the combination of the Greek words geo ("Earth") and metron ("measure") for the measurement of the Earth.

'Bacterial Computers': Genetically Engineered Bacteria Have Potential To Solve Complicated Mathematical Problems

2009-08-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090723194321.htm

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2009) — US researchers have created 'bacterial computers' with the potential to solve complicated mathematics problems. The findings of the research demonstrate that computing in living cells is feasible, opening the door to a number of applications. The second-generation bacterial computers illustrate the feasibility of extending the approach to other computationally challenging math problems.

A research team made up of four faculty members and 15 undergraduate students from the biology and mathematics departments at Missouri Western State University in Missouri and Davidson College in North Carolina, USA engineered the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria, creating bacterial computers capable of solving a classic mathematical problem known as the Hamiltonian Path Problem.

The research extends previous work published last year in the same journal to produce bacterial computers that could solve the Burnt Pancake Problem.

The Hamiltonian Path Problem asks whether there is a route in a network from a beginning node to an ending node, visiting each node exactly once. The student and faculty researchers modified the genetic circuitry of the bacteria to enable them to find a Hamiltonian path in a three-node graph. Bacteria that successfully solved the problem reported their success by fluorescing both red and green, resulting in yellow colonies.

Synthetic biology is the use of molecular biology techniques, engineering principles, and mathematical modeling to design and construct genetic circuits that enable living cells to carry out novel functions. "Our research contributed more than 60 parts to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, which are available for use by the larger synthetic biology community, including the newly split red fluorescent protein and green fluorescent protein genes," said Jordan Baumgardner, recent graduate of Missouri Western and first author of the research paper. "The research provides yet another example of how powerful and dynamic synthetic biology can be. We used synthetic biology to solve mathematical problems; others find applications in medicine, energy and the environment. Synthetic biology has great potential in the real world."

According to Dr. Eckdahl, the corresponding author of the article, synthetic biology affords a new opportunity for multidisciplinary undergraduate research training. "We have found synthetic biology to be an excellent way to engage students in research that connects biology and mathematics. Our students learn firsthand the value of crossing traditional disciplinary lines."

Journal references:

Jordan Baumgardner, Karen Acker, Oyinade Adefuye, Samuel THOMAS Crowley, Will DeLoache, James O Dickson, Lane Heard, Andrew T Martens, Nickolaus Morton, Michelle Ritter, Amber Shoecraft, Jessica Treece, Matthew Unzicker, Amanda Valencia, Mike Waters, A. M. Campbell, Laurie J. Heyer, Jeffrey L. Poet and Todd T. Eckdahl. Solving a Hamiltonian Path Problem with a bacterial computer. Journal of Biological Engineering, (in press) [link]
Haynes et al. Engineering bacteria to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem. Journal of Biological Engineering, 2008; 2 (1): 8 DOI: 10.1186/1754-1611-2-8

Adapted from materials provided by BioMed Central, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Algebra Adds Value To Mathematical Biology Education

2009-08-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090730141605.htm

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2009) — As mathematics continues to become an increasingly important component in undergraduate biology programs, a more comprehensive understanding of the use of algebraic models is needed by the next generation of biologists to facilitate new advances in the life sciences, according to researchers at Sweet Briar College and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech.

VBI Professor Reinhard Laubenbacher and Sweet Briar College Mathematical Sciences Professor Raina Robeva have highlighted algebraic models as one of the diverse mathematical tools needed in the professional development of up-and-coming life scientists in a new article in Science. Despite this critical need, the authors explain, algebraic models have played a less substantial role in undergraduate curricula than other methods.

Future generations of biologists will routinely use mathematical and computational approaches to develop and frame hypotheses, design experiments, and analyze results. Sound mathematical models are essential for this purpose and are currently used in the field of systems biology to understand complex biological networks. Two types of mathematical models, in particular, have been successfully used in biology to reproduce network structure and dynamics: Continuous-time models derived from differential equations (DE models) focus on the kinetics of biochemical reactions, while discrete-time algebraic models built from functions of finite-state variables focus on the logic of the connections of network variables. According to Laubenbacher and Robeva, while DE models have been included more often in undergraduate curricula integrating mathematics and biology, algebraic models should also be viewed as an important training component for students at all education levels.

"Discrete-time algebraic models created from finite-state variables, such as Boolean networks, are increasingly being used to model a variety of biochemical networks, including metabolic, gene regulatory, and signal transduction networks," says Laubenbacher. "Often, researchers do not have enough of the information required to build detailed quantitative models. Algebraic models need less information about the system to be modeled, making them useful for instances where quantitative information may be missing. All the work that goes into building them can then be used to construct detailed kinetic models, when additional information becomes available. In addition, algebraic models are much more intuitive than differential equations models, which makes them more easily accessible to life scientists."

Using algebraic models is a relatively quick, easy and reliable way for students to integrate mathematical modeling into their life sciences coursework. Creating algebraic models of biochemical networks requires only a modest mathematical background, which is usually provided in a college algebra course. Without the complexities involved in teaching students how to construct more complicated models, algebraic models make the introduction of mathematical modeling into life sciences courses more accessible for faculty members as well.

According to Robeva, "The exciting thing about algebraic models from an educational perspective is that they highlight aspects of modern-day biology and can easily fit in both the biology and mathematics curricula. At the introductory level, they provide a quick path for introducing biology students to constructing and using mathematical models in the context of contemporary problems such as gene regulation. At the more advanced level, the general study and analysis of such models often require sophisticated mathematical theories. This makes them perfect for inclusion into mathematics courses, where the biology can provide a meaningful framework for many of the abstract structures. As educators, we should actively be looking for the best ways to seize this opportunity for advancing mathematical biology."

World's Smallest Computers Made of DNA and Other Biological Molecules Made to 'Think' Logically

2009-08-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

SOUREC: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803092606.htm
ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2009) — Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, remote from the regular computer user. Nonetheless, Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, research students in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Chemistry, and Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments have found a way to make these microscopic computing devices ‘user friendly,’ even while performing complex computations and answering complicated queries.

Shapiro and his team at Weizmann introduced the first autonomous programmable DNA computing device in 2001. So small that a trillion fit in a drop of water, that device was able to perform such simple calculations as checking a list of 0s and 1s to determine if there was an even number of 1s. A newer version of the device, created in 2004, detected cancer in a test tube and released a molecule to destroy it. Besides the tantalizing possibility that such biology-based devices could one day be injected into the body – a sort of ‘doctor in a cell’ locating disease and preventing its spread – biomolecular computers could conceivably perform millions of calculations in parallel.

Now, Shapiro and his team, in a paper published online August 3 in Nature Nanotechnology, have devised an advanced program for biomolecular computers that enables them to ‘think’ logically.

The train of deduction used by this futuristic device is remarkably familiar. It was first proposed by Aristotle over 2000 years ago as a simple if…then proposition: ‘All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.’ When fed a rule (All men are mortal) and a fact (Socrates is a man), the computer answered the question ‘Is Socrates Mortal?’ correctly. The team went on to set up more complicated queries involving multiple rules and facts, and the DNA computing devices were able to deduce the correct answers every time. At the same time, the team created a compiler – a program for bridging between a high-level computer programming language and DNA computing code. Upon compiling, the query could be typed in something like this: Mortal(Socrates)?. To compute the answer, various strands of DNA representing the rules, facts and queries were assembled by a robotic system and searched for a fit in a hierarchical process. The answer was encoded in a flash of green light: Some of the strands had a biological version of a flashlight signal – they were equipped with a naturally glowing fluorescent molecule bound to a second protein which keeps the light covered. A specialized enzyme, attracted to the site of the correct answer, removed the ‘cover’ and let the light shine. The tiny water drops containing the biomolecular data-bases were able to answer very intricate queries, and they lit up in a combination of colors representing the complex answers.

Prof. Ehud Shapiro’s research is supported by the Clore Center for Biological Physics; the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial Charitable Fund; the Phyllis and Joseph Gurwin Fund for Scientific Advancement; Sally Leafman Appelbaum, Scottsdale, AZ; the Carolito Stiftung, Switzerland; the Louis Chor Memorial Trust Fund; and Miel de Botton Aynsley, UK. Prof. Shapiro is the incumbent of the Harry Weinrebe Chair of Computer Science and Biology.

How 6 people accidentally found a fortune

2009-08-12T15:43:00.001-07:00

Story Highlights
Man buys Martin Johnson Heade painting for $30 and sells it for $1.2 million
Woman with metal detector found crucifix priced at more than $63,000
Arkansas park is the only diamond site in the world that's open to the public
Possible Jackson Pollock painting bought for $5 may be worth $100 million

By Rob Lammle

(Mental Floss) -- We've all been there: a week until payday, the rent is due, and you're rummaging in your parents' attic to find Dad's Mickey Mantle rookie card.

Only 36 of 200 official copies of the Declaration of Independence have been found intact since 1820.

If you're in need of some quick cash, here are six stories of people who found a fortune when -- and where -- they least expected it.

1. Lose a hammer, find a horde

In November 1992, a farmer living near the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England, lost a hammer in one of his fields, so he asked Eric Lawes to use his metal detector to search for it.

While looking for the hammer, Lawes happened upon something else of interest -- 24 bronze coins, 565 gold coins, 14,191 silver coins, plus hundreds of gold and silver spoons, jewelry, and statues, all dating back to the Roman Empire.

As required by British law, the so-called "Hoxne Hoard" was reported to the local authorities, who declared it a "Treasure Trove," meaning it was now legally the property of Britain.

However, the government is required to pay fair market value for a treasure trove, meaning the farmer and Lawes split a cool £1.75 million (about $2.8 million).

The Hoxne Hoard is now on permanent display at the British Museum, drawing thousands of people every year.

Sadly, there is no word on whether or not the hammer was ever found.

2. Arkansas is a girl's best friend

W.O. Bassum found a giant of a gemstone in 1924 -- a 40.23 carat diamond.

It might surprise you to hear that he wasn't digging in one of the famous South African diamond mines at the time, but was near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, at a site that is now the Crater of Diamonds State Park.

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Sitting on top of a volcanic pipe (a geologic tube formed by an ancient underground volcanic explosion), the park is the only diamond site in the world that is open to the public.

Best of all, the park's policy is: "You find it. You keep it. No matter how valuable it is."

Bassum's big find -- nicknamed "The Uncle Sam Diamond," the largest diamond ever discovered in North America -- was later cut down to 12.42 carat and sold for $150,000 in 1971 (About $800,000 today).

But his wasn't the last valuable rock dug out of that Arkansas soil.

In 1964, "The Star of Murfreesboro" was discovered at the same site, weighing in at 34.25 carat.

Then, in 1975, came the 16.37 carat "Amarillo Starlight Diamond."

The 6.35 carat "Roden Diamond" was found in 2006.

And the crown jewel of the park has been the "Strawn-Wagner Diamond," a comparatively small 3.09 carat diamond, that was dug up in 1990, and expertly cut down to 1.90 carat.

Despite its smaller size, the Strawn-Wagner stands out because it was given a "Perfect" rating by the American Gem Society -- the first diamond to ever receive such a high grade.

But don't think this list of big gems means the site has been tapped out. On average, two diamonds are found every day at Crater of Diamonds.

They're not all as big as The Uncle Sam Diamond, but maybe you'll get lucky. There's only one way to find out... Mental Floss: 10 diamond-encrusted things you don't need

If getting your hands dirty isn't your idea of fun, maybe you should start hitting garage sales and thrift stores to find valuables buried among the castoff bread machines and Members Only jackets.

Sometimes, one man's trash really is another man's treasure.

3. The Declaration of (financial) Independence

We've all heard of the man who bought a $4 painting at a garage sale, found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence inside, and sold it for $2.4 million. A once-in-a-lifetime story, right?

Not so much, actually.

Michael Sparks was visiting a Nashville thrift store, where he bought a candleholder, a set of salt and pepper shakers, and a yellowed print of the Declaration of Independence.

Sparks figured the document was a worthless, modern reprint, so he paid the asking price -- $2.48 -- and headed home.

After looking over the document for a few days, he wondered if it might be older than he initially thought.

So he hopped on the Internet to do some research and soon realized he had purchased one of only 200 official copies of the Declaration of Independence commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820.

Of those 200, 35 had been found intact; he had number 36.

It took a year for Sparks to have the print authenticated and preserved, and then he put it up for auction, netting a final sale price of $477,650.

The salt and pepper shakers, on the other hand, were still worthless.

4. A good Heade for bargains

One day, an employee at a tool-and-die company in Indiana spent $30 for a few pieces of used furniture and an old painting of some flowers.

When he got his new stuff home, he decided to strategically hang the picture to cover up a hole in the wall that had been bugging him.

Some years later he was playing a board game called Masterpiece in which players attempt to outbid one another for artwork at an auction.

Much to his surprise, one of the cards in the game featured a painting of flowers that looked a lot like the one he had on his wall.

So he went online and found that his painting was similar in style to the work of Martin Johnson Heade, an American still-life artist best known for landscapes and flower arrangements.

Through his research he found the Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan, which handles many of Heade's works, and asked them to take a look at his painting.

They agreed and were able to verify that the piece of artwork covering the hole in his wall was a previously unknown Heade painting, since named Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth.

In 1999, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston purchased the painting for $1.2 million dollars.

I emailed the Museum to ask if the painting was covering a hole in the wall, but I didn't get a reply. Mental Floss: 6 really strange truck spills

As you go in search of your nest egg, keep in mind the old adage: "It's only worth what the market will bear."

Sometimes finding treasure is the easy part; finding someone willing to buy it can be the real challenge.

5. It's nice, but it's no Middleham Jewel...

Every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years, Mary Hannaby had gone for a walk with her metal detector.

She'd never really found anything of value, but she liked getting the exercise, so she kept at it.

On one Sunday in June 2009, her detector beeped, and she bent down to dig up what she thought was going to be another common coin or old nail. Instead, she uncovered a postage stamp-sized gold pendant featuring an intricate carving of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Maybe she had finally hit the jackpot.

Upon inspection by the British Museum, the pendant was described as "an important find," and they estimated the market value to be around £4,000 (about $6,600).

Still, they decided not to purchase it for their collection, so Mary took the pendant to Sotheby's.

The experts at the auction house felt the piece was much more valuable, because it was believed to be one of only three similar items known to exist. Their initial estimate was £250,000 ($415,900), but said it could easily sell for as much as £2.5 million ($4.1 million) thanks to its resemblance to another English treasure also found with a metal detector, the Middleham Jewel.

But as the saying goes, "Never count your millions until the auctioneer bangs his gavel."

Sotheby's put the pendant up for auction on July 9, 2009, making it the highlight of a large lot of antique sculptures.

Clearly the expectations were high. The bidding started at £30,000 (about $49,900), but as the final call was made, the best offer was only £38,000 (about $63,200) -- far below the reserve price to make a sale. Mental Floss: 6 articles of clothing that caused riots

6. A possible Pollock

In 1992, Teri Horton, a retired truck driver, went to her local thrift store to buy a depressed friend a gag gift.

She found a rather large painting -- 66 inches by 47 inches -- that she thought was pretty amusing because it was, in her opinion, so ugly. When she asked the thrift store employee the price, they said $8. She haggled and only paid $5.

In the end, her friend didn't want it (she, too, thought it was ugly, plus it wouldn't fit through the door of her trailer), so Teri took it home and tried to unload it at her garage sale.

A local art teacher saw the painting and suggested it could very well be a Jackson Pollock. In response, Teri famously asked the teacher, "Who the f*** is Jackson Pollock?"

Since that day, Teri Horton has been struggling to prove that her thrift store treasure is a lost piece of artwork potentially worth well over $100 million.

However, due to the painting's lack of verifiable history of ownership (called "provenance"), the piece is disputed by many fine arts experts as simply another artist's work inspired by Pollock.

To find proof of Pollock, Teri had the work examined by a forensic specialist who claims to have found a fingerprint that matches one in Pollock's studio.

But even the fingerprint evidence has been disputed by the art world, leaving the painting, as yet, unsold.

Teri, her painting, and her battle with the art world elite became the subject of a 2006 documentary called, appropriately, Who the *$&% is Jackson Pollock?

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/08/12/mf.buried.treasure/index.html

Apple cakes save home from foreclosure

2009-08-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Story Highlights
New Jersey actress turned to baking apple cakes to avoid foreclosure
The idea came from brainstorming with a consumer credit counselor
She resolved to sell 100 cakes in 10 days at $40 each to pay mortgage, debts
So far, she's sold about 200 cakes, attracting the attention of an Internet retailer

By Allan ChernoffCNN Senior Correspondent

TEANECK, New Jersey (CNN) -- Actress Angela Logan has played many roles off-stage to earn a living. She's worked as a teacher, model and hairdresser and is studying to be a nurse.

A contractor promised to renovate Logan's home. Instead, she says he took the money and left the job unfinished.

3 of 3

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But when she fell into foreclosure on her Teaneck, New Jersey, home, Logan turned to baking an apple cake her family had always loved.
"It was a flash of desperation," Logan said. "I thought, 'Wow. We could sell these cakes, they're so good.' "
Logan named her delicacy Mortgage Apple Cake and resolved to sell 100 in 10 days at $40 each to meet a mortgage payment, pay off bills and qualify for a federal program that could lower her monthly payments.
She advertised the cake to everyone she knew, including her classmates.
"The hardest part was saying, 'Can you buy my cakes, this is my problem,' because admitting to your friends that you're in foreclosure, and that you need their help, that's a hard thing to say," Logan said.
Two years ago, a contractor promised to renovate Logan's brick-and-stucco home. But instead, Logan says he took the money and did only a portion of the work -- leaving the entire second floor bare to the beams and plastic wrap still covering much of the exterior.
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Logan's financial squeeze tightened when one of the actress' talent agencies shut down without paying her for commercial work.
The 55-year-old divorced mother of three fell far behind on her mortgage and other debt payments, leading her to seek help from Consumer Credit Counseling of New Jersey. Counselor Pamela Glass brainstormed with Logan to envision potential extra sources of income.
"We put our heads together to make extra money," Glass said. "I said, 'Take a look at what you can do.' She said, 'I bake once in a while'. I said, 'Well, maybe you can do some baking.' "
When Logan asked, neighbors, fellow church congregants and classmates responded. Soon she was baking night and day, two cakes at a time. Al Hamdi, general manager of the Hilton in nearby Hasbrouck Heights, heard of Logan's plan and offered the hotel's four giant ovens, letting her accelerate production.
"She was going to do something out of the box to save her home and her family. That was the inspiring part for us," Hamdi said.
Logan figures she's baked about 200 cakes -- double her goal. And since qualifying for the federal Make Home Affordable program, her monthly mortgage payment is dropping by nearly 20 percent
Other Americans in a financial bind can also find creative answers to their cash crunch, Logan said.
"Find your talent. Find something you can do that will help," she said. Watch as Logan describes the circumstances that led her to bake the Mortgage Apple Cake »
Many hobbies have the potential to generate extra cash: teaching a skill like playing an instrument or speaking a foreign language; home repairs for those who are handy; even dog-walking or pet-sitting for animal lovers.
"Some people have extra skills they don't use," Glass said.
Internet retailer Bake Me A Wish! got a whiff of the Mortgage Apple Cake and is preparing to mass-produce it and share the proceeds with Logan. The company says it already has 650 Mortgage Apple Cake orders.
"We're going to be baking cakes together, develop a whole line of cakes, Angela Logan Cakes," said Josh Kaye, president of Bake Me A Wish!
Escaping foreclosure could propel Logan to a new career in baking. But she's still studying nursing, knowing from experience never to depend upon just one role.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/05/mortgage.apple.cakes/index.html

Six things to do if they take the job offer back

2009-08-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Story Highlights
With recession, job offers are rescinded or starting dates pushed back
Be professional -- how you react may determine if the offer returns
Expert: Do not stop looking for work until your first day at a new job
Before accepting a job, ask about the employer's financial health

by Rachel ZupekCareerBuilder.com writer

Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com.

"Your reaction to the retraction of a job offer may determine whether the offer is ever returned.

Fired before you're hired
is a trend that's becoming more common as with the stagnating. As companies downsize and institute hiring freezes, job seekers are finding start dates pushed back and job offers withdrawn completely.

"Job offers are rescinded for a variety of reasons. Some [are] external, such as the overall economy, some [are] internal such as a department's funding is cut," says Laura George, author of "Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting." "There are also times when it's determined that a person is needed but it would be more cost-effective to hire one person to work in two or more departments and spread the costs."
No matter the reason your job offer is repealed, experts agree that you should respond to the situation in a professional manner and get to the bottom of what happened.
"If your offer has been rescinded, you must find out what the exact reasons behind the decision were. Were they economically based or due to a background, drug or reference check?" says Jonathan Mazzocchi, partner and general manager of the New York accounting and finance division of Winter, Wyman. "As hard as it is, gather the facts. Try to separate the people you interviewed with from the organization's decision, and keep all of your interactions professional."
In Graham's case, for example, when the first offer was revoked, the company never explained what was going on; they just said the paperwork was in and they were waiting. In the meantime, she lived off her savings and put her job search on hold. The second company, which told her the job was placed on hold "indefinitely," said they would keep her mind for the future, but she hasn't heard anything yet.
"Once I found out that my offer was no longer viable, I quickly started to search for another position, but it was more difficult to find something by that time," she says.
Now what?
Unfortunately, you don't have many legal rights in this situation. Most states have employment-at-will policies, which means employees can be terminated at any time, for any reason. You should think long and hard before pursuing legal action if a job offer is revoked -- litigation costs will be extensive and you will undoubtedly burn bridges with your would-be employer. Consult an HR expert or lawyer in your area about your options.

It's important to handle the situation professionally if you find yourself with a rescinded job offer. Here are six steps you can take to protect yourself:
1. Find out why
Find out the exact reason behind the withdrawn offer.
2. Be open and honest
" If you are still interested in the job, let them know your finances. Can you wait six months to start?"
Or, let the employer know you will wait for the full-time position.
"If you simply can't wait for the position to re-open, don't be shy about it," Luzar says. "You came looking for a job because you needed one. Respectively tell them so that if you are looking for a job again in the future, they will still have a high opinion of you."
3. Prepare yourself
"Graham says the biggest lesson she learned was that nothing is a done deal until you are sitting in your new office or cubicle.
4. Do your homework
Doughtery says, "Before accepting a job offer, it's important to ask if the position is approved, Ask if an offer was ever withdrawn and if so, what was done in the past. If the withdrawal of a vacant position is a real threat, ask if your offer letter can state what the company will do if the job offer is withdrawn."
5. Negotiate
If you left an old job to work for a new company , you can try to negotiate unemployment benefits or a severance package from the employer, Mazzocchi says. Or, you can try negotiating for a lower salary or position.
6. Move on
Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions, says"If nothing comes from negotiating with your would-be employer.contact companies others taht expressed interest in the past and let them know you are still available". Don't badmouth the organization that pulled back your offer.
In the meantime, continue your job search, going to school to maintain and enhance your skills, volunteering with nonprofit organizations and growing your own business.
"Keep positive. Something viable will eventually come your way if you don't give up."
Read the details at:
SOURCE:http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/07/29/cb.where.did.my.job.go/index.html

Farmer saves $200,000 with poo power

2009-07-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

By Ayesha Tejpar
CNN

ROCKWOOD, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Four generations of Saylors have worked the family's dairy farm for nearly a century, but for the past three years, the cows have been doing something besides providing milk: They've been helping power the place.

"The farm used to get a lot of complaints," says farmer Shawn Saylor. "It used to stink a lot."

Growing up on the sprawling spread 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, 36-year-old farmer Shawn Saylor developed into a self-described science buff.

So it was no surprise that, when faced with rising energy costs, Saylor turned to technology.

He tapped into an abundant and easily accessible energy source: manure from about 600 cows. Watch how cow poo powers the farm »

"It's a pretty simple process. There's not really a lot to it," Saylor said. "Manure comes from the cows, and there's energy left in the manure."

The process is known as anaerobic digestion, and here's how it works:

With the help of a mechanical scraper in the barn, manure drops into a 19,000-gallon tank. The slurry then moves into the digestor, which is 16 feet deep and 70 feet in diameter. It's heated there for about 16 days while the bacteria break down the organic matter in order to produce methane gas. That gas is burned in two engine generators to make electricity. See an interactive explaining the process »

Heat created by the generators keeps the digestor hot, heats the buildings around the farm and helps provide hot water.

The electricity is used to power this farm and a dozen neighboring homes, Saylor said. And there's still some left over, which he sells back to the grid.

Overall, the poo power helps Saylor's bottom line.

"In savings, there's $200,000 a year, in either extra income from sale of electricity or cost offsets," he said.

"So you're talking about system project costs of over a million dollars to build the system but a payback of five years or less."

Before he installed the system, the pungent smell from the cows could linger for three to four days, Saylor said. "The farm used to get a lot of complaints from motorists, which is understandable. It used to stink a lot."

Now, the digestors reduce 98 percent of all odor, although he admits that if the wind blows, you still "get a whiff."

The farm's leftover solid waste is sold to the community.

"We use it for bedding for the animals," according to Saylor. "A lot of people like to get it for their gardens ... because it doesn't smell much."

Farm-based digestors became popular in the United States during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. But the technology didn't catch on, possibly because of the high operational costs and declining energy prices, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Although Saylor had been interested in digestors for years, his dream didn't become reality until 2006. That's when he received a $600,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection.

But Saylor's work isn't done. He intends to make his farm entirely self-sufficient by using waste vegetable oil to make biodiesel fuel.

He said his goal is to waste nothing.

"In a biodiesel system, all the waste products can either be used or fed back into the digestor to make more gas," he said. "I've always looked at new technologies and believed you kind of have to work with that stuff to stay with the future."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/31/cow.power/index.html

Rolling out RNA-primed RCA for cell-free cloning

2009-07-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Patrick Lo, Ph.D., Kristie Nybo, Ph.D.
07/28/2009

Researchers at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (Ibaraki, Japan) investigated whether random RNA primers could effectively promote MPRCA and block synthesis of the unwanted byproducts observed with the random DNA primers.

In situations where certain DNA sequences cannot be cloned by the traditional method of insertion into a vector and growth in a biological host (for example, due to their length or repetitive nature), cell-free cloning is an attractive alternative. A recent and innovative technique for cell-free cloning uses multiply primed rolling circle amplification (MPRCA), which can amplify DNA molecules in submicroliter reaction volumes and is flexible in terms of the length or sequence to be amplified.

MPRCA is based on rolling circle amplification primed by random DNA primers, which afford the technique its flexibility, but also contribute to its main disadvantage. When the quantity of DNA template is very low, the majority of the amplification product arises from undesired DNA synthesis derived solely from the primers, producing amplicons that are found in control reactions lacking template DNA.

H. Takahashi, S. Sugiyama, and their colleagues at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (Ibaraki, Japan) investigated whether random RNA primers could effectively promote MPRCA and block synthesis of the unwanted byproducts observed with the random DNA primers.

Their hypothesis was based on the fact that the bacteriophage φ29 DNA polymerase used in RCA can use RNA as a primer for DNA synthesis but not as a template. They found that MPRCA using thiophosphate-linked RNA primers can efficiently amplify circular DNA molecules without creating byproducts or requiring submicroliter reaction volumes, allowing for the 1012-fold amplification of a single copy of a plasmid. The researchers then demonstrated that MPRCA using RNA primers is suitable for some types of cell-free cloning if a specific dephosphorylation/ligation strategy is first employed. Under these conditions, unwanted ligation products would be linear and easily eliminated by exonuclease treatment. The desired circular products would then be amplified, yielding sufficient product even if the ligation efficiency was low.

The complete paper was published in the July 2009 issue of BioTechniques.

SOURCE:http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Rolling-out-RNA-primed-RCA-for-cell-free-cloning/biotechniques-172552.html?utm_source=BioTechniques+Newsletters+%26+e-Alerts&utm_campaign=e5487aaef9-BTN_DAILY&utm_medium=email

Juices, tea and energy drinks erode teeth

2009-07-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

By Madison Park

(CNN) -- For years, dentists have warned patients about the decaying effects of cola and sugary, fizzy drinks on their teeth.

Acidic drinks that are healthier than soda caused tooth erosion in dental experiments.

Research shows that other drinks thought to be better --fruit juices, teas and energy drinks-- can also have harmful effects on teeth, turning the pearly whites to shrinking, spotted yellows marred with pockmarks.

Dentists say sipping fluorescent-colored sports drinks, carbonated beverages and citric fruit juices bathe the teeth in harmful acids. The constant exposure strips the hard, protective layer of the tooth called the enamel and could dissolve the entire tooth.

"We all became aware of the sugar on your teeth. What most of us don't know is the acid," said Dr. Mohamed Bassiouny, a restorative dentistry professor at Temple University. "Cavities form when bacteria in the mouth mixes with sugar, leading to decay. Erosion occurs when chemicals strip the mineral off the teeth.

"The seriousness of the erosion is far more than decay," said Bassiouny. "Erosion affects all teeth at once, as you can imagine acidic fluid is running through the entire mouth."

This causes hypersensitivity, discoloration and cracks on the teeth. Serious cases require crowns or even dentures if entire teeth have disintegrated.

Research in Europe has linked that acidic beverage consumption to increasing tooth erosion. A person who has bulimia or acid reflux disease could get tooth erosion, because of stomach acids in their mouth, but the more common culprits are often beverages, Bassiouny said. Here are some of them:

Energy drinks

Researchers at the University of Iowa's College of Dentistry found that energy drinks and sports drinks, such as Gatorade and Red Bull, eroded the enamel more than soda and fruit juices. In a 2008 study published in the journal Nutritional Research, the dentists soaked extracted human teeth in various liquids for 25 hours, and then measured the structural changes, or lesions.

"Power drinks can be quite acidic, usually because there is an addition of citric acid to those to give it tartness that is desired by some consumers," said Dr. Clark Stanford, the associate dean for research at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. "It's important to look at the label and see if citric acid has been added."

Soda (including diet)

Dentists have warned for years the perils of carbonated beverages. But don't disregard diet drinks. The lack of sugar in these products doesn't mean they don't erode the teeth, Bassiouny said. Carbonation could make the drink more acidic, he said.

A patient whom Bassiouny examined had drunk a liter of diet soda every day for the last three years. He likened her teeth to those of a methamphetamine user. The corrosive chemicals from the drug can cause extensive oral damage commonly known as "meth mouth," in which teeth decay, crack and crumble.

Citric juices

A study published this year in the Journal of Dentistry showed that orange juice decreased enamel hardness by 84 percent. Lemon, orange and grapefruit juice can strip away the enamel with their acidity.

"We encourage adults if they're going to have kids drink fruit juices, which is good in a way, that they consume it all at once instead of sipping on it all day long," Stanford said.

Lemon juice showed the highest erosion, according to Bassiouny's study, which was published in the May-June issue of General Dentistry.

"We're not saying, 'Don't drink orange juice," Bassiouny said. "Don't drink orange juice then go to the office, then have a diet soda at lunchtime. You are asking for trouble because of the frequency of the contact and the challenge of the acid contact to your teeth."

Tea

The drink sometimes considered a super food because of its antioxidant content can cause tooth erosion, but not as much as citric juices, soda and energy and sports drinks.

In Bassiouny's study, human teeth were soaked in unsweetened green and black tea, and they did not erode until the 16th week. Teeth soaked in lemon juice, vinegar, and soda showed physical changes by the second week. Teeth soaked in black tea eroded more rapidly than those in green tea.

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"Tea is controversial," Stanford said. "Certain types of tea can actually stabilize the amount of tooth loss or demineralization of the surface. Others, if they have a low pH, can cause natural erosion of the tooth surface."

This doesn't mean people should avoid tea or citric juices, Bassiouny said. The key is to practice moderation. He suggested keeping acidic beverages to fewer than five servings a week and avoiding sugary canned teas.

Limitations

Dentists acknowledge that the methodology of the erosion studies have flaws. The teeth were soaked in beverages because it's impossible to re-create the human mouth in a laboratory. And the experiments do not take into consideration the natural defense humans have against acid -- their saliva.

"Saliva naturally protects teeth to reverse the acid attack," Stanford said.

While the studies have limitations, this should not discount the findings, Bassiouny said. The dental studies attempt to show the accelerated effect of a person drinking common beverages. "We adopted a lab setup to simulate the number of hours that the patient has been exposed to that challenge and to magnify that," he said.

Basic tips to avoid tooth erosion

Drink the acidic beverage at once, instead of sipping it all day

Use a straw to avoid the teeth from being immersed in liquid

Substitute acidic beverages with water

Rinse mouth with water after drinking acidic beverage instead of brushing. The bristles of the toothbrush may damage the enamel.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/23/teeth.erosion.drinks/index.html

Study: Sunbeds as harmful as cigarettes

2009-07-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

Story Highlights
Sunbeds pose a similar cancer risk as cigarettes and asbestos, experts say
The use of sunbeds has been described as "carcinogenic to humans"
Melanoma is the second most common cancer in women aged 20 - 29.5

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sunbeds pose a similar cancer risk as cigarettes and asbestos, according to an international cancer research agency.

The use of sunbeds has been described as "carcinogenic to humans"

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) had previously classified sunbeds as being a "probable" cause of cancer.

However, the agency is now recommending that tanning machines should be moved to "the highest cancer risk category" and be labeled as "carcinogenic to humans".

It followed a review of research that concluded that the risk of melanoma -- the most deadly form of skin cancer -- was increased by 75 percent in people who started using sunbeds regularly before the age of 30.

The IARC also says there is evidence of a link between melanoma of the eye and the use of sunbeds.

In an article in medical journal The Lancet, WHO oncology expert Dr Fatiha El Ghissassi said: "The use of UV-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women.

"Analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75 percent when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age.

"Studies provide consistent evidence of a positive association between the use of UV-emitting tanning devices and ocular melanoma -- skin cancer of the eyelid.

"Therefore, we raised the classification of the use of UV emitting tanning devices to Group 1 - carcinogenic to humans."

However the UK's Sunbed Association says there is no proven link between using sunbeds and cancer.

"We would dispute the IARC classification that sunbeds are "carcinogenic to humans," the organization wrote on its Web site.

"The relationship between UV exposure and an increased risk of developing skin cancer is only likely to arise where over-exposure and burning in particular has taken place."

The use of sunbeds is more prevalent in northern Europe and the United States than most other regions.

Melanoma is the second most common cancer in women aged 20 - 29.5, according to the America Melanoma Foundation.

The World Health Organization also estimates that as many as 60,000 people a year worldwide die from too much sun, mostly from malignant skin cancer.

Of these deaths, 48,000 are from melanoma, and 12,000 are from other skin cancers. About 90 percent of these cancers are caused by ultraviolet light from the sun.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/29/sunbeds.cancer.study/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Tanning Beds as Deadly as Mustard Gas, Arsenic

2009-07-29T09:34:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Rosie McDavid, 17, who has been using tanning beds since she was 14, prepares a tanning bed for a session in Tallahassee, Fla.

International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.

For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as "probable carcinogens."

A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30. Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal.

The new classification means tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

The research was published online in the medical journal Lancet Oncology on Wednesday, by experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization.

"People need to be reminded of the risks of sunbeds," said Vincent Cogliano, one of the cancer researchers. "We hope the prevailing culture will change so teens don't think they need to use sunbeds to get a tan."

Most lights used in tanning beds give off mainly ultraviolet radiation, which cause skin and eye cancer, according to the International Agency for Cancer Research.

The classification of tanning beds as carcinogenic was disputed by Kathy Banks, chief executive of The Sunbed Association, a European trade association of tanning bed makers and operators.

"The fact that is continuously ignored is that there is no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer," Banks said in a statement. She said most users of tanning beds use them less than 20 times a year.

But as use of tanning beds has increased among people under 30, doctors have seen a parallel rise in the numbers of young people with skin cancer. In Britain, melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, is now the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their 20s. Normally, skin cancer rates are highest in people over 75.

Previous studies found younger people who regularly use tanning beds are eight times more likely to get melanoma than people who have never used them. In the past, WHO warned people younger than 18 to stay away from tanning beds.

Cogliano cautioned that ultravoilet radiation is not healthy, whether it comes from a tanning bed or from the sun. The American Cancer Society advises people to try bronzing or self-tanning creams instead of tanning beds.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535220,00.html?mrp

City Aids Homeless With One-Way Tickets Home

2009-07-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

By JULIE BOSMAN

Published: July 28, 2009

They are flown to Paris ($6,332), Orlando ($858.40), Johannesburg ($2,550.70), or most frequently, San Juan ($484.20).

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Hector Correa and Elisabeth Mojica were at Kennedy Airport on Tuesday to fly home to Puerto Rico, to stay with her father.

Justin Little and Eugenia Martin, with Inez, returned to North Carolina after only a few days when relatives paid their back rent.

They are not executives on business trips or couples on honeymoons. Rather, all are families who have ended up homeless, and all the plane tickets are courtesy of the city of New York (one-way).

The Bloomberg administration, which has struggled with a seemingly intractable problem of homelessness for years, has paid for more than 550 families to leave the city since 2007, as a way of keeping them out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. All it takes is for a relative elsewhere to agree to take the family in.

Many of them are longtime New Yorkers who have come upon hard times, arrive at the shelter’s doorstep and jump at the offer to move at no cost. Others are recent arrivals who are happy to return home after becoming discouraged by the city’s noise, the mazelike subway, the difficult job market or the high cost of housing.

“I didn’t expect the city to be the way it is,” said Hector Correa, who was in a homeless shelter last week and flew home to Puerto Rico on Tuesday. “I was expecting something different, something better.”

Mr. Correa and his companion, Elisabeth Mojica, and their two young sons, both also named Hector, arrived in New York in May to live with his mother. But after they failed to find jobs and the bills began to mount, his mother threatened to kick them out. Out of cash, they checked into the city intake center for homeless families in the Bronx.

“The person I spoke to in the shelter informed me that if I have a person I could stay with in Puerto Rico, that I could get help to go,” said Mr. Correa, who worked as a mechanic in Carolina, on the north shore of the island. They will stay with Ms. Mojica’s father. “I feel very happy because I’m going to be able to get back to do the things that I know how to do,” he said.

At the intake center, social workers ask families about their housing options in other places. If a family says that they have relatives who might be willing to take them in, and social workers confirm their report, the family could be on a plane, bus or train within hours, although the city will sometimes wait a few days to avoid the expense of last-minute fares. The Correas flew to San Juan for less than $1,000.

The city, which spends $500,000 a year on the program, employs a local travel agency, Austin Travel, to book one-way tickets for domestic trips. Department of Homeless Services employees do all the planning for international travel.

City officials said there were no limits on where a family can be sent, and families can reject the offer and stay in city shelters. So far, families have been sent to 24 states and 5 continents, most often to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

“We want to divert as many families as we can that need assistance,” said Vida Chavez-Downes, the director of the Resource Room, a city office with 11 social workers, two managers and an administrative assistant who help relocate families. “We have paid for visas, we’ve gone down to the consulate, we’ve provided letters, we’ve paid for passports for people to go. Anyone who comes through our door.”

One family with 10 children accepted an offer to go to Puerto Rico on a nonstop JetBlue flight. An adventurous but ultimately unlucky Michigan couple drove to the city in search of jobs and a new life. They got $400 in gas cards to drive back.

One set of parents agreed to move to France with their three children to be with the mother’s family. The $6,332 travel cost included five plane tickets to Paris and five train tickets to the town of Granville, in the northwest.

In the past, the city contracted with the Salvation Army for a now-defunct program called Homeward Bound, but only for single adults and couples, not families with children. Both versions followed the example of Travelers Aid, a 150-year-old nonprofit organization that provides stranded and homeless people emergency aid so they could return to their homes, and which still exists today. Other cities have experimented with similar programs, but they are largely focused on adults without children.

The Hawaii Legislature recently rejected a plan to send homeless people on one-way flights to live with relatives on the mainland, because of the cost.

Once a family leaves New York, homeless services officials say they follow up with a phone call to make sure they arrive safely, then make a few more calls over the next two to three weeks. In rare cases, they will advance the family up to four months’ rent, a one-month security deposit, a furniture allowance and a broker’s fee.

City officials said that none of the families that have been relocated have returned to city shelters.

The program fails to address the underlying problems that brought the families here in the first place, said Arnold S. Cohen, the president and chief executive of the Partnership for the Homeless, an advocacy group in New York.

“The city is engaged in cosmetics,” Mr. Cohen said. “What we’re doing is passing the problem of homelessness to another city. We’re taking people from a shelter bed here to the living room couch of another family. Essentially, this family is still homeless.”

Sometimes the journey to and from New York is quick. Justin Little and Eugenia Martin, both 20, owed back rent on their apartment in Fayetteville, N.C., so they came to New York on Saturday with their 5-month-old, Inez. They planned to stay in shelters while they looked for jobs, and went straight to the intake center.

Then relatives of Mr. Little, who worked at a telephone center serving insurance customers, scraped up enough money to pay their back rent, and homeless services workers confirmed that his mother would be around to help. By Monday night, they were waiting outside Gate 73 at the Port Authority Bus Terminal to board their 7:15 p.m. Greyhound to Greensboro.

“We were going to come here and then find work, you know, because there’s always work in New York,” Ms. Martin said, as Inez bounced on her knee.

Mr. Little said, “Once we found out we could keep our apartment, there was no point in staying here, because I can go back to my job in North Carolina.”

SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/nyregion/29oneway.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Blue Food Dye Used in M&M's May Treat Spinal Cord Injuries

2009-07-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Courtesy: Takahiro Takano

A common and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in rats showed the dye, called brilliant blue G, a close relative of the common food dye Blue no. 1, crossed into the spinal fluid and helped block inflammation, Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues reported.

"We have no effective treatment now for patients who have an acute spinal cord injury," Dr. Steven Goldman, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"Our hope is that this work will lead to a practical, safe agent that can be given to patients shortly after injury, for the purpose of decreasing the secondary damage that we have to otherwise expect."

When nerve cells in the brain or spine are damaged, they often release a spurt of chemicals that causes nearby cells to die. No one is sure why, and stopping this process is key to preventing the damage that continues to build after a stroke or spinal cord injury.

One of the chemicals is ATP. Nedergaard's team looked for something that would interfere with this and found the blue dye, which they called BBG, would do this via the P2X7R receptor or doorway.

"We found that IV administration of the P2X7R inhibitor BBG significantly reduced the severity of spinal cord damage without any evident toxicity," they wrote.

"Remarkably, BBG is a derivative of the widely used food additive FD&C Blue number 1. Currently, more than 1 million pounds of FD&C blue dye No. 1 are consumed yearly in the United States, corresponding to a daily intake of 16 mg per person."

The only known toxicity is in patients with blood infections known as sepsis.

Nedergaard cautioned that tests in humans are likely still years away. Treatment would have to be immediate, she added - because the damage to nerve cells is irreversible.

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535142,00.html?test=latestnews

Cell phone fluorescent microscopes

2009-07-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

07/23/2009

Kate Farley

The researchers have added fluorescent microscopy capabilities to their original bright-field cell phone attachment.

Researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley have developed a compact fluorescent microscope that attaches to an ordinary camera phone. The CellScope made its debut in April when the research team announced their original bright field microscope model. The latest prototype adds fluorescent microscopy capabilities.

“Fluorescence microscopy requires more equipment - such as filters and special lighting - than a standard light microscope, which makes them more expensive,” said Dan Fletcher, UC Berkeley professor of bioengineering and head of the research team. “In this paper, we’ve shown that the whole fluorescence system can be constructed on a cell phone using the existing camera and relatively inexpensive components.”

The CellScope uses compact microscope lenses attached to a holder that snaps onto a camera phone. The fluorescent microscopy model uses a light-emitting diode (LED) as the light source. Filters restrict the LED to 460 nm, the wavelength that excites the green fluorescent dye that labels the tuberculosis-causing bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The researchers have successfully captured fluorescent images of this bacterium, as well as bright-field images of sickle-shaped red blood cells and Plasmodium faceiparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans. The images taken with a 3.2 megapixel mass-market camera phone achieved a spatial resolution of 1.2 micrometers.

The phone is designed for field use in areas with poor health care. The images recorded can be analyzed immediately or wirelessly transmitted to clinical centers for remote diagnosis.

The team is currently developing sturdier CellScope prototypes that will be used in more extensive field testing

The findings are published in “Mobile Phone Based Clinical Microscopy for Global Health Applications,” available online at PLoS ONE.

SOURCE: http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Cell-phone-fluorescent-microscopes/biotechniques-172218.html?utm_source=BioTechniques+Newsletters+%26+e-Alerts&utm_campaign=0eb80c0aec-BTN_DAILY&utm_medium=email

The 10-year-old who helped Apollo 11, 40 years later

2009-07-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/07/20/apollo11.irpt/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

By Rachel Rodriguez
CNN

(CNN) -- On July 23, 1969, as Apollo 11 hurtled back towards Earth, there was a problem -- a problem only a kid could solve.

At age 10, Greg Force reaches his arm into a tiny hole to fix an antenna crucial to Apollo 11

It sounds like something out of a movie, but that's what it came down to as Apollo 11 sped back towards Earth after landing on the moon in 1969.

It was around 10:00 at night on July 23, and 10-year-old Greg Force was at home with his mom and three brothers. His father, Charles Force, was at work. Charles Force was the director of the NASA tracking station in Guam, where the family was living.

The Guam tracking station was to play a critical role in the return of Apollo 11 to Earth. A powerful antenna there connected NASA communications with Apollo 11, and the antenna was the only way for NASA to make its last communications with the astronauts before splashdown. But at the last minute on that night, a bearing in the antenna failed, rendering it nearly useless.

To properly replace the bearing would have required dismantling the entire antenna, and there was simply no time. So Charles Force thought of a creative solution: If he could get more grease around the failed bearing, it would probably be fine. The only problem was, nobody at the station had an arm small enough to actually reach in through the two-and-a-half inch opening and pack grease around the bearing.

And that's when Greg was called in to save the day. Charles Force sent someone out to his home to pick up Greg. Once at the tracking station, Greg reached into the tiny hole and packed grease around the failed bearing. It worked, and the station was able to successfully complete its communications role in the mission. Apollo 11 splashed down safely the next day.

At the time, Greg didn't think what he was doing was a big deal, and 40 years later, he's still modest about his role in the mission.

"That's all I did, was put my hand in and put grease on it," he says. If he hadn't been there, NASA would not have been able to make its last communications with the mission before splashdown, but Greg says "it wasn't life or death, [from] my understanding."

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"My dad explained to me why it was important," he says, "but it kind of caught me by surprise afterwards, all the attention." iReport.com: Read Greg's firsthand account

That attention came from the media and even the astronauts themselves. Greg's small but important part in Apollo 11 was a story told by news outlets around the world. He even got a nice thank-you note from Neil Armstrong, whom he met when Armstrong went on a tour of NASA stations with the other astronauts to thank the staff after the mission. "To Greg," reads the note, which Armstrong wrote on a newspaper clipping of Greg's story, "with thanks for your help on Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong."

Perhaps not surprisingly, like many other kids who grew up during the Apollo era, Greg dreamed of becoming an astronaut. He says he remembers visiting his dad's office to listen to astronauts communicating with NASA officials on the ground.

"We could sit and listen to the actual communication with the astronauts as it was happening, and it was hard to understand, but I loved to do that," he says. "On Guam we didn't have good television coverage, so I think I listened to the [moon] landing on the radio. To me it was a huge thing."

Greg pursued his dreams of space exploration all the way through college, where he majored in physics. Unfortunately, he was unable to pass the vision test for the space program because of his colorblindness, but even that couldn't squelch his interest. Greg went on to get his pilot's license, and even though his career now as a gymnastics school owner isn't exactly space-related, he says that "ever since then, I've followed the space program."

And as a lover of space exploration, Greg hopes to see more missions to the moon.

"I think it would be an important step as far as going further, like to Mars," he says. "I would love to see us go back to the moon."

But for now, on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, he can remember the small but crucial role he played in bringing Apollo 11 home safely.

"It kind of caught me by surprise," he says, "but I'm real proud to have been even a little tiny part of it."

2009-07-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

SOURCE:http://www.usnews.com/blogs/professors-guide/2009/06/17/10-reasons-to-pick-a-community-college.html

10 Reasons to Pick a Community College

June 17, 2009 02:19 PM ET | Lynn F. Jacobs, Jeremy S. Hyman | Permanent Link | Print

One of the fastest-growing and most important segments of the American college scene is the community college (in some cases called two-year, junior, or technical colleges). Including such institutions as Miami-Dade College, Broward College, Northern Virginia Community College and the many campuses of the Maricopa Community Colleges (Phoenix), City College of San Francisco, City College of New York, Los Angeles Community College District, and Houston Community College Systems, community colleges enroll a full 44 percent of U.S. undergraduate students. That's 6.7 million credit students, plus 5 million students who are not candidates for a degree, at 1,177 urban, suburban, and rural institutions. To find out what the main differences are between the community college and the four-year liberal arts institution—and whether you should consider applying to a community college—we invited visiting blogger George R. Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges and former president of Palomar College (a two-year college in California), to offer his thoughts. Here's what he has to say:

With family budgets now under the microscope, community colleges have become attractive alternatives to the more expensive four-year colleges and universities. There are many reasons that nearly half of American undergraduates choose to start their higher education in a community college. Here are the top 10:

1. Affordability. Average annual tuition and fees for a full-time student at community colleges average $2,402, versus $6,585 at a public four-year college or university and $25,143 at a private institution. In addition, students can live at home and save on housing and food. To help meet even these reduced expenses, community college students often find they qualify for financial aid while attending. And in many cases, the colleges offer work-study or part-time jobs for students.

2. Convenience. Community colleges offer classes at times and locations that are convenient for students. Classes are often offered at off-campus locations and in the evenings or on weekends in addition to the more traditional day classes. An abundance of online classes provides yet another alternative to make education convenient to those who must fit school around work or family responsibilities. And students can choose to attend on a full-time or a part-time basis.

3. Open access. Community colleges do not have exclusive admissions standards that require high scores on an admissions test or a certain grade-point average from high school. Anyone with a high school diploma or equivalent can enroll. Some students even enroll while in high school to get a head start on college. Starting at a community college gives students a chance to improve a high school record before transferring to a university. However, open access does not mean that students can take any course; students usually are given placement examinations and then advised or placed into developmental courses if they are not up to college-level work.

4. Teaching quality. Community college classes are taught by faculty who care about teaching and student learning, not by teaching assistants. The faculty members are fully committed to teaching and are not pulled away by research interests or the need to publish in order to get tenure. And community colleges are accredited by the same agencies that accredit major universities.

5. Class size. Class sizes at community colleges are much smaller than those found in the freshman and sophomore year at public universities. Most classes have fewer than 35 students and provide more opportunities for students to interact with teachers and other students. Faculty members are accessible and want to help their students be successful.

6. Support services. Community colleges offer a variety of services to help students, and the wise ones learn how valuable these services can be. Services that are often found at community colleges include counseling, advising, tutorials, health care, financial aid, and library services. There are usually computer labs on campus to make it easier for students to complete assignments.

7. Choices. Community colleges offer both vocational programs and academic transfer programs. For example, community colleges prepare most of the nation's registered nurses, police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and advanced-skill technicians. Of course, community colleges also offer courses that transfer into universities and count toward a bachelor's degree. Certificate programs can be completed in a year or less, while associate degree programs take two full years of course work. Of course, it's always important to check with a counselor to be sure that the courses count toward the degree that the student is seeking and that they transfer to the university program the student has identified.

8. Diversity. Community colleges serve the most diverse group of students in higher education. Students differ by age, ethnicity, degree of disability, socioeconomic status, and in many other ways. International students add yet another perspective. The opportunity to interact with and to learn from other students from many different backgrounds and with a variety of life experiences is another big advantage of starting at a community college.

9. Access to modern technology. Because of their strong partnerships with business and industry, community colleges often have cutting-edge equipment that is used by students in the classroom. Employers want job candidates who have experience with the equipment being used by industry, including the most modern computers and scientific instruments. Since community colleges offer classes only at the freshman and sophomore levels, the use of the best equipment isn't reserved for juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

10. Good company. In case a student feels discouraged by the prospect of attending a local community college rather than his or her first-choice university, here are some people who are glad that they started in a community college: J. Craig Venter, the person who mapped the human genome; Richard Carmona, former U.S. surgeon general; Eileen Collins, the first NASA female space shuttle commander; Nick Nolte, actor; Harry Reid, Senate majority leader; and Nolan Ryan, retired baseball pitcher. Several Nobel laureates, state governors, members of Congress, famous sports figures, famous actors, and distinguished business executives got their start in community colleges, but so have many thousands of nurses, skilled technicians, artists, police officers, firefighters, and EMTs.

For more info about community colleges, visit the American Association of Community Colleges.

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10 Reasons to Pick a Community College

June 17, 2009 02:19 PM ET | Lynn F. Jacobs, Jeremy S. Hyman | Permanent Link | Print

For more info about community colleges, visit the American Association of Community Colleges.

Tags: community colleges | students | education

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Reader Comments

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I notice two things about this article. One is that it is based on the views of a guy whose job is to promote community colleges. He is hardly an unbiased source. Second, most of the comments seem to come from people who work at or run community colleges. Naturally, they have a high opinion of their abilities and their institutions. They may not be the best judges.

Naturally, with tens of millions of people having gone to community colleges, one might expect at least a few hundred successful people would be among their attendees.

While community colleges may sound cheap, they are heavily subsidized by taxpayers -- the real cost is much higher.

Teaching quality can't be measured by the fact that teachers get paid to teach and don't have to do original work in research. Bureaucracies generally hire and keep people -- community colleges are no different from other government-run schools. There are some fine teachers, many mediocre ones, and some incompetents or misfits.

As for diversity, as Thoreau observed, the most valuable thing you get at college costs nothing: a chance to associate with other brilliant students. As a rule, nearly all community college students are from the same town, they come from poorer families, and they were in the bottom half of their high school classes. This may explain why so many politicians are among the acclaimed graduates of community colleges.

A better route for those interested in a cheaper, more convenient education with no admissions process or no community college bureaucracy to deal with, is self-education. You can choose the best books, watch videos like the Teaching Company lectures by professors considered the best in top US universities (available at good public libraries for free), and hire a tutor for any special assistance you may need. The class size is one and pace is ideal, since you set it yourself. The only reason for preferring community college is to get a piece of paper that says you have an education. As a result of the increasing bureaucratization of our society, you now need a diploma for work that high school graduates or even capable dropouts can do.

As for practical knowledge, get a job in the field that interests you -- you'll get paid for learning how things are really done, instead of paying teachers to tell you how they think things are done. Albert Einstein skipped his physics classes, because he felt the teacher was seventy years behind the times. Warren Buffett dropped out of Wharton because the teachers weren't worth the money. It would be foolish to think that typical community college teachers will be better.

Among the famous self-educated (non-college graduates) are Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Tom Cruise, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), and about one out of six of the Forbes 400 richest people in America.

Fredric Dennis Williams of XX
Jul 16, 2009 10:29:17 AM [permalink] [report comment]

would like to leave Mia and go to school in CA

I really like CA and would like to move there. I am tired of living in Miami and sick of the mosquitos, humidity, and suffocating heat. I am looking at different schools in CA for me and my kids. Any suggestions for a Grad School, Community College and High School for me and my daughters. I would like to move into an area that is in the middle of all three or relatively in the area. My oldest teenager and I are pursuing Psychology and youngest teenager is entering 10th grade.

Gloria M. Taborda of CA
Jul 14, 2009 10:43:03 AM [permalink] [report comment]

Quality Instruction/Great Place to Work

No one so far has mentioned the often wonderful quality of the instruction. As English department chair at Oakland Community College, and former dean of academics, I know how dedicated and intelligent the community college faculty can be. Students get a great education from highly motivated faculty. For example, many of my students have gone on to publish in magazines and journals; one even has his first book published. Several students have earned their MFA's in creative writing.

As a place to work, the community college is a great environment. I can publish and do research without the overbearing pressure, knowing my job does not depend upon my output. My job depends upon me being a good teacher, motivating students, holding high standards, and creating growth in people. What a wonderful set of duties...

David James

English

Oldest Bible made whole again online

2009-07-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31761140/ns/tech_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

1,600-year-old texts include numerous revisions, additions and corrections

3032075180

updated 4:51 p.m. CT, Mon., July. 6, 2009

LONDON—

The surviving parts of the world's oldest Bible were reunited online Monday, generating excitement among scholars striving to unlock its mysteries.

The Codex Sinaiticus was handwritten by four scribes in Greek on animal hide, known as vellum, in the mid-fourth century around the time of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who embraced Christianity.

Not all of it has withstood the ravages of time, but the pages that have include the whole of the New Testament and the earliest surviving copy of the Gospels written at different times after Christ's death by the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Bible's remaining 800 pages and fragments — it was originally 1,400 pages long — also contain half of a copy of the Old Testament. The other half has been lost.

"The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's greatest written treasures," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library.

"This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and firsthand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," he said.

The texts include numerous revisions, additions and corrections made during its evolution down through the ages.

"The Codex ... is arguably the oldest large bound book to have survived," said McKendrick, pointing out that each page is 16 inches tall by 14 inches wide (40 by 35 centimeters).

"Critically, it marks the definite triumph of bound codices over (papyrus) scrolls — a key watershed in how the Christian Bible was regarded as a sacred text," he said.

Four-year project
The ancient parchments, which appear almost translucent, are a collection of sections held by the British Library in London, the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt, the National Library of Russia and Leipzig University Library in Germany.

Each institution owns different amounts of the manuscript, but the British Library, which digitized the delicate pages of the entire book in London, holds by far the most.

The four-year joint project, which began in 2005 with the aim of "virtually reunifying" and preserving the Bible as well as undertaking new research into its history, has shed new light on who made it and how it was produced.

Importantly, experts at the British Library say, the project has uncovered evidence that a fourth scribe — along with the three already recognized — worked on the texts.

The assembly and transcription of the book includes previously unpublished pages of the Codex found in a blocked-off room at St. Catherine's Monastery, at the foot of Mount Moses, Sinai, in 1975, some of which are in a poor condition and have been difficult to study.

But there are still many unanswered questions about how the book came to be, said the British Library's Juan Garces, project manager of Greek manuscripts, who worked on the digitization.

For instance, where was it made? Which religious order commissioned it? And how long did it take to produce?

"The limits on access to this manuscript previously have meant that people (academics) have tended to dip, so that they have seized on particular things" to advance theories, McKendrick told Reuters.

He said the Web site will enable research to be carried out in a holistic way for the first time, forcing top scholars to view their theories in context.

A good example, he said, was evidence advanced by some academics pointing to the theory that it could have been made in the ancient city of Caesarea in Israel.

"It is our hope this will provide the catalyst for new research and it is already creating great interest," Garces told Reuters.

The Bible, which can be viewed online free, includes modern Greek translations and some sections translated into English.

Amoebas turn to family during tough times

2009-07-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27915075/ns/technology_and_science-science/

When food supplies run low, the organisms cluster together

This image shows how two genetically different strains of an amoeba species (shown in red and green) begin to cluster together as the cells clump into an aggregate or multi-cellular organism.

By Jeanna Bryner

updated 4:55 p.m. CT, Tues., Nov . 25, 2008

When times are tough, many of us turn to family and develop closer ties. So, too, with amoebas.

Some of these single-celled organisms tighten family bonds and cooperate when food is in short supply, new research shows.

The research, published this week in the journal PLoS Biology, shows how one amoeba species can distinguish genetically similar individuals, and how an incredibly simple life-form can display some sophisticated, social behaviors. (Not only is an amoeba a single cell, it reproduces asexually. So one parent cell divides into two daughter cells, which can continue to divide and produce more amoebas.)

"These single cells aggregate based on genetic similarity, not true kinship," said researcher Gad Shaulsky, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Shaulsky added that this demonstrates a discrimination between "self" and "non-self" that is similar to that seen in the immune systems of higher organisms.

Amoeba community
Called Dictyostelium discoideum, this amoeba species generally keeps to itself when living in a healthy environment with enough grub.

But when food supplies run low, the free-living organisms clump together into a community of individuals. The result is a multi-cellular organism. Each amoeba takes on one of two roles in this organism: They either become spores, which can survive and reproduce, or they die and the dead cells form stalks that lift the spores above the ground to increase the chances the spores will disperse to more favorable environments.

Only cells that form spores can pass on their genetic information to future amoebas. So the preferred position is spore. About 20 percent of the cells, however, do turn into stalks.

Previous research has shown that Dictyostelium cells sometimes cheat and ditch stalk duty. Instead, they turn into spores while reaping the benefits (passing on genes) provided by other stalks.

Chummy cells
Perhaps there's a way to avoid being cheated, the researchers wondered. If being a stalk means one amoeba could ensure the survival and success of genetically similar individuals, evolutionarily, it makes sense to take one for the family.

To find out, the researchers mixed cells from genetically distinct strains of the amoebas. They found that the amoebas segregated into clusters of genetically similar individuals once they congregated into a multi-cellular formation.

In this way, the researchers determined that Dictyostelium reduces the likelihood that it will become a stalk cell that will die to assist in the survival of a genetically distant individual.

"The big thing we found is that Dictyostelium discoideum have social behavior," said researcher Mariko Katoh of Baylor College of Medicine. "We didn't really know if they could discriminate when the genetic differences were small. That was the surprising part."

Amoebas, along with plants, animals, protists and fungi, are considered eukaryotes by biologists. Sociality has also been detected among the other major group of organisms, prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), which are generally single-celled organisms.

The amoeba research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training of the Gulf Coast Consortia.

Mashed-up genomes could produce biofuels

2009-07-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31767229/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Dependency of ants, fungi and bacteria gives clues on producing energy

By Eric Bland

updated 5:45 p.m. CT, Mon., July 6, 2009

The genomes of 17 different ants, fungi and bacteria that eat through hundreds of pounds of leaf matter a year could ultimately lead to new techniques for making biofuels.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin, the Joint Genome Institute and Emory University are sequencing the first-ever community genome, searching for clues to how what's essentially a 50 million-year-old bioreactor operates.

"These leaf cutter ants, fungi and bacteria can plow through over 400 kilograms [880 pounds] of dry leaves each year," said Garret Suen, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is working on the project.

"We believe that the whole community effort helps achieve this," Suen told Discovery News.

In the wild, armies of leaf cutter ants fan out across the rainforest floor searching for leaves. Using their powerful jaws, they cut out sections of leaves and then carry them back to their underground nests, where they feed the leaves to carefully tended gardens of fungi.

The fungi secrete enzymes onto the leaves that break down various molecules, leaving behind sugar that the ants use as food.

Once the fungi have broken down all they can, the ants remove the leaf pieces from the fungal garden, carry them to the surface and discard them in heaps around the nest. Bacteria continue to break down the leftover leaves, so the waste doesn't overwhelm the ant colony.

Exactly which molecules the fungi and the bacteria break down is still under investigation.

Only two other insect species have evolved such a close symbiotic relationship with fungi. Without the fungi, the ant colonies die. Without the ants, the fungi cannot survive. The bacteria are dependent on both for their food.

Over the last 50 million years, the three groups of organisms have optimized their relationship to squeeze the maximum amount of energy out of the leaves. How the community does this is still a mystery — one the scientists hope to unravel using a grant from Roche to sequence the genomes of all 17 organisms, including three different leaf cutter ant species.

Scientists estimate that there are roughly 1.5 billion base pairs spread out across the 17 different organisms. The human genome alone contains about 3 billion base pairs.

Locked inside the community genome could be clues that could eventually lead scientists to new enzymes or techniques that could enable humans to produce biofuels more efficiently.

"A systems approach is important for the biofuels field, because the breakdown of lignocellulosic with enzymes is still too expensive and cumbersome," said Lars Angenent, a scientist who studies how various microorganisms break down cellulose to produce biofuels at Cornell University.

"I think the work at Wisconsin should be applauded, because it does not sequence individual bacteria or insects, but rather the entire biological system," said Angenent.

Do you know where your condiments come from?

2009-07-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/homestyle/07/03/mf.where.condiments.come.from/index.html

By Ethan Trex

(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever wondered about the origins and namesakes of our favorite spreads, sauces, and dressings? Here are a few stories that you can use to regale your friends the next time you chow down.

Peppers were imported from the Mexican state of Tabasco to make spicy Tabasco sauce, giving the condiment its name.

1. Thousand Island Dressing

Is the delicious dressing that gives a Reuben its tanginess named after an actual chain of islands? You bet it is. The Thousand Islands are an archipelago that sits in the Saint Lawrence River on the U.S.-Canada border, and there are actually 1,793 of them, some of which are so small that they contain nothing more than a single home.

So why is the dressing named after an archipelago? No one's quite sure. Some people claim that early film star and vaudevillian May Irwin, who summered on the Thousand Islands, named it, while others contend that George Boldt, the famed proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria, gave the dressing its name because of his own summer place in the region. No matter who named it, it's tough to beat on a sandwich.

2. Ranch Dressing

Yep, the beloved dressing and dipping sauce actually got its start on a real ranch. When Steve and Gayle Henson opened a dude ranch in California in 1954, they had an ace up their sleeves: a delicious dressing that Steve had concocted while the couple was living in Alaska.

The couple did a nice business at their Hidden Valley Ranch, but guests were always flipping out over just how tasty Steve's dressing was. Eventually, the Hensons started bottling the stuff, and the popularity grew so quickly that they had to hire a twelve-man crew just to help mix up each batch. Steve's culinary creativity turned out to be lucrative; in 1972 Clorox forked over $8 million for the recipe. Mental Floss: Foods named after people

3. A1 Steak Sauce

According to the brand's Web site, A1 has been around for quite a while. Henderson William Brand worked as the personal chef for King George IV from 1824 to 1831, and at some point during this employment mixed up a new sauce for the king to use on his beef. George IV allegedly took one bite of Brand's creation and declared that it was "A1." Brand then left the king's employ in order to go peddle his new sauce.

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4. Tabasco Sauce

Tabasco sauce is perhaps the most famous of all hot sauces, but where did it get its name? When Edmund McIlhenny, a former banker, invented the sauce in Louisiana in 1868, he didn't have a huge supply of chili peppers at his disposal. To keep cooking, he imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco and slapped the region's name on his bottles. Mental Floss: The origins of salt, pepper and other popular spices

5. Heinz 57

Legend has it that Heinz 57 takes its name from H.J. Heinz's company formerly marketing 57 products at once, and except for the number, the story holds up. Heinz's Web site tells a story that Henry John Heinz was riding a train when he saw a billboard advertising 21 varieties of shoes. He so liked the idea he wanted to try it with his own condiment company. Thus, he started touting Heinz's 57 varieties.

There was only one catch: Heinz marketed well over 60 products at the time. So where did the 57 come from? Heinz thought the number was lucky. Five was Heinz's lucky number, and seven was his wife's. He mashed the charmed digits together, got 57, and never looked back.

6. Tartar Sauce

Fish's best friend is named after an alternate spelling of the word "Tatar," which was how Western Europeans once referred to almost anyone of Mongolian or Turkic descent. Many of these Tatars/Tartars ran roughshod over Europe in the time of Genghis Khan, but they knew how to cook. One of the dishes they left behind, beef tartare, came back into fashion in 19th-century France. These helpings of steak tartare came with a number of garnishes, including the creamy white stuff that eventually became generically known as tartar sauce. Mental Floss: The history of utensils (spork included)

7. Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise, the lemon-butter-and-egg yumminess that Eggs Benedict can't live without, isn't actually Dutch. Instead, it's one of the most well known French sauces. The sauce first appeared in French cooking in the 17th century, and is apparently named both because it somewhat resembles an old Dutch sauce and because the Dutch had such thriving butter and egg industries that provided two of the sauce's main ingredients.

Pitcher plant doubles as toilet for tree shrews

2009-06-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

SOURCE:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31507593/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Jug-shaped plants use the shrew's feces as a much-needed nitrogen source

Mountain tree shrews (Tupaia montana), like this one, feed on the nectar coating the undersides of pitcher plant leaves. Conveniently, they can also defecate into the pitcher, leaving nitrogen-rich feces for the plant to consume.

By Jeanna Bryner

updated 11:11 a.m. CT, Tues., June 23, 2009

When you gotta go you gotta go, and for small tropical mammals called tree shrews, a pitcher plant serves as a handy toilet, new video research finds.

The jug-shaped plants make out just fine, too: They use the shrew's feces as a much-needed nitrogen source.

Most pitcher plants are carnivorous, trapping ants and other insects that slip down the sides of the pitcher into a pool of digestive enzymes. The new finding, published online June 10 in the journal Biology Letters, reveals at least one type of pitcher plant "feeds on" the poop from tree shrews in lieu of insects.

"Basically it's a toilet complete with a feeding station," said study team member Jonathan Moran of Royal Roads University in British Columbia.

Team member Ulrike Bauer of the University of Cambridge in England set up video cameras that recorded activities around several Nepenthes lowii pitcher plants in a mountainous cloud forest on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia.

The researchers focused on the mature N. lowii plants. While the immature plants of this species grow on the ground and trap unsuspecting ants and other insects, the mature plants attach to vines and other vegetation. It's this aerial type the researchers observed was likely devouring feces rather than insects.

Sure enough, video observations showed mountain tree shrews (Tupaia montana) jumping onto the plants, licking nectar from the underside of the leaf that sits atop each plant's opening and defecating into the pot. The video even showed that tree shrews mark the plants with their scent by rubbing their genitals onto the lid before scrambling away. The tree shrews often visit the same "circuit" of pitchers when feeding.

"We've found little to no evidence of invertebrate prey in the aerial pitchers," Moran said, referring to insect prey. "They've effectively lost the capacity to trap animals."

Perfect powder rooms
Closer examination of the plants showed they have adapted to make for perfect powder rooms.

"Lowii has modified their aerial pitcher to be a toilet," Moran said. For instance, the rim of the pitcher is not slippery like it is in the insect-trapping varieties such as the ground-lying, terrestrial N. lowii pitchers. That way, tree shrews stay safe from a spill while eating and pooping.

"It's very tough, there's lots of reinforcement, because [the pitcher is] hanging off the end of a leaf and it has to be able to support a tree shrew," Moran told LiveScience, adding the animals can weigh less than half a pound (150 grams).

N. lowii also produces the largest known quantity of nectar of any Nepenthes species, enough to fill the bellies of hungry tree shrews, Moran explained.

And there's no way for the animals to miss the hole. The shape of the pitcher opening and orientation of the leaf lid that's coated with nectar ensure a tree shrew will position its hindquarters over the orifice while feeding.

"[The tree shrew] licks the lid, and if it needs to take a bathroom break then it's positioned perfectly for that," Moran said. "Plus it's a funnel so the next time it rains the feces will be washed into the pitcher."

The adaptations for feces-feeding make sense in this mountainous environment, where insect prey is scarce, Moran said.

Both the ground and aerial types of this pitcher plant ultimately suck out the nitrogen from their meals, using it to grow. But while the ground plants feed on the crumbs, the aerials feed to their heart's content as tree shrews (and their feces) are plentiful at such high altitudes in Borneo.

In fact, the new research showed the aerial pitchers get between 57 percent and 100 percent of their nitrogen from feces.

This partnership is likely an old one. "The fact that the aerial pitchers are so tailored to the shape and activities of the tree shrew suggests this has been going on for a long time," Moran said.

CNN Heros for 2009: Shin Fujiyama

2009-06-16T07:08:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/11/cnnheroes.shin.fujiyama/index.html

Fighting poverty one campus at a time

Story Highlights
Shin Fujiyama's Students Helping Honduras aids children and families in need
The campaign has grown to 25 campuses and raised more than $750,000
Group members are helping to rebuild a village devastated by a 1998 hurricane
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Shin Fujiyama's life has been highlighted by second chances.

Shin Fujiyama's organization, Students Helping Honduras, has raised more than $750,000.

Born in a fishing village in Japan, Fujiyama, 25, recalls a childhood dominated by health concerns. Doctors told his parents that he had a hole in his heart and "they didn't think I had lot longer to live." But during a later visit to the doctor, Fujiyama says, his family learned the hole had closed.

"Somehow I was cured and I became a normal kid," Fujiyama says. "And I had a second chance."

During his sophomore year at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, he volunteered in Honduras with a campus group and was struck by the extreme poverty he saw -- barefoot children collecting cans and sleeping in the streets. Fujiyama says he realized he could help give other children their own second chance.

Today, his organization, Students Helping Honduras, brings education and community projects to children and families in need through student service trips and fundraisers. Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes

"Seeing the country and being able to make a difference really opened my eyes to a lot of things," he says. "I saw such a great need. I wanted to keep helping."

He started by telling his friends about his experience and collecting spare change at his two campus jobs, but Fujiyama found that organizing other students didn't happen so easily.

"When I had my very first meeting, I got all dressed up. And only two people showed up," he says. "I knew I had to keep fighting."

He enlisted his younger sister, Cosmo, then a student at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, to the cause.

"She's dynamite," he says. "When she talks in front of a crowd, she can move mountains. Knowing that she was behind it, I knew I could do anything."

Since 2006, the siblings' grass-roots campaign to help Honduras has grown to 25 campuses and raised more than $750,000 to fund projects, including the construction of two schools and the establishment of scholarships to help young women attend college.

Fujiyama says students are deeply committed to the organization because they are involved on every level: They raise money and then travel to Honduras to help build houses.

"We make friends with all the kids, all the families -- no matter where we're from. We've had people from all over the world come to Honduras with us. And it's a great network we've made," he says. Watch Fujiyama and his group in action »

While Fujiyama spends his summers in Honduras working alongside volunteers, he spends a large portion of the year on the road visiting colleges to organize chapters and raise funds. Cosmo Fujiyama, 23, lives in Honduras full time to coordinate the group's building efforts on the ground.

Students Helping Honduras is working with community members of Siete de Abril to build a new village. Many of the families lost their belongings to Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

"A lot of them are single mothers. They don't own the land. They all live in cardboard houses. They don't have access to clean water [or] health care, and they didn't have a school," Shin Fujiyama says.

Fujiyama's group helped villagers purchase a new plot of land to rebuild. Its members have helped build 44 homes in the village that has been newly named Villa Soleada ("Sunshine Village"). The organization also is raising funds to build a water tower, an eco-friendly sanitation system and a library and to help provide electricity. Watch Fujiyama describe how the village came to be »

For Fujiyama, who deferred medical school to dedicate himself to his mission in Honduras, the lifestyle is a far cry from private practice, but he says he loves what he is doing. Watch Fujiyama describe how a second chance and a trip to Honduras changed his life »

"I feel like we're making a huge impact. Some people might think that you have to be somebody famous or a millionaire or a doctor to do something," he says. "But we're just everyday students -- people in their 20s. We can do so much. We've got so many things going for us. ... It's just about leveraging what we have. And we have done a great job at that."

Want to get involved? Check out Students Helping Honduras and see how to help.

CNN Heros for 2009: Andrea Ivory

2009-06-16T07:06:00.001-07:00

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/04/23/andrea.ivory/index.html

Army of volunteers saves lives with clipboards, high spirits

Story Highlights
Breast cancer survivor founds group to educate women about the disease
Andrea Ivory, 50, and her volunteers have visited nearly 18,000 homes
Since '06, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes

WEST PARK, Florida (CNN) -- "We are an army," says Andrea Ivory of the group gathered with her early on a Saturday morning.

Breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory is on a mission to educate Florida communities about the disease, one door at a time.

Armed with clipboards, leaflets and high spirits, the energetic Ivory leads them into the neighborhood, where they start knocking on doors. The mood is lighthearted, but their mission is serious: to save lives, one house at a time.

They're volunteers from the Florida Breast Health Initiative, or FBHI, and they are waging war against breast cancer. It's an effort started by Ivory, 50, herself a survivor of the disease.

Every weekend in the spring and fall, she and her volunteers -- who include college students, senior citizens and suburban moms, all wearing matching T-shirts -- fan out across low-income communities in southern Florida, educating women about breast health.

They especially seek out uninsured women age 35 and older, who statistics show are twice as likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and thus more likely to die from the disease.

For Ivory, comparing this work to a battle isn't overblown.

"The only thing that we have to fight this disease and lower the mortality rate is early detection," she says. "We are the troops on the front lines."

Since 2006, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms to eligible women.

Ivory herself had always been diligent about getting annual mammograms, but when the breast cancer diagnosis came in 2004, she took it in stride.

"I just knew that it was for a higher purpose," she recalls.

Ivory says that purpose became clear during her cancer treatment. Reflecting on how lucky she was to have health insurance and to have gotten annual mammograms, she realized that thousands of women without health care were likely falling through the cracks and putting themselves at risk.

"Those women don't even have a fighting chance," she says. "The mission became reach[ing] those women."

Ivory started FBHI to do just that. Her mantra: "Early detection is the best protection." Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes

The operation runs like clockwork. The first three Saturdays of each month are devoted to outreach -- distributing educational materials and signing up women for free mammograms. She and her volunteers have visited nearly 18,000 homes.

"I love knocking on doors," Ivory says with a smile. "I like to think of us as little pixies spreading breast cancer awareness."

On the last Saturday of each month, a large mobile mammography van from a partner hospital rolls into the neighborhood, bringing screening technology directly to women who need it.

As they line up around the van, the excitement is palpable. Since many have never had a mammogram, Ivory and her team try to make the experience fun -- providing refreshments, smiles and support.

One mammogram recipient said the "convenience factor" of the free screenings made the offer too easy to refuse.

"Ultimately this is the reason we do the work that we do," says Ivory, "because we want to screen women who would not ordinarily have [the] opportunity." Watch Ivory and her army in action »

Telmilda Ariza, 62, always had health insurance, but after losing her job, her annual mammogram became a financial burden. She smiles when recalling the volunteers' first visit to her home.

"They knocked on my door and, wow! It was [a] miracle, coming from the sky," she says. "It's something I really needed."

Ariza was so grateful that she started volunteering and knocking on doors herself. Watch Ariza describe how she went from recipient to volunteer »

Charlene Thomas, another of Ivory's regular volunteers, considers herself living proof of the program's impact. Uninsured, she'd paid for her mammogram out of her own pocket, but when she needed a follow-up, she kept putting it off because it was so expensive.

"I had other priorities. It seems stupid now," she admits. "But I didn't think anything was wrong with me."

She finally asked Ivory for help and FBHI paid for the screening. It led Thomas to a cancer diagnosis and ultimately a mastectomy.

"The fact that I was diagnosed and am cancer free -- there's no way I would've done it without the Florida Breast Health Initiative," says Thomas, who was back knocking on doors three weeks after surgery. "Now I feel more of a sense of urgency. I'm knocking on doors trying to find myself."

Stories like this only deepen Ivory's commitment to her cause. For her, every day is a chance to educate women about fighting the disease and Ivory says she's determined to expand her efforts around Florida and far beyond the boundaries of her state. Watch Ivory's group bring mobile mammography to the neighborhoods »

"In the future, we want a fleet of mammogram vans. We'd love to do outreaches all over the country," she says. "No woman needs to die from breast cancer. I can't be a doctor, but I know I can save a life. Every time I knock on the door, it's a chance to do that."

Want to get involved? Check out The Florida Breast Health Initiative and see how to help