2008: April 18th Good News (Fireman Saves Baby from Blaze, Rare Giant Turtle Found in Vietnam, more...)

Good afternoon all,


Well I got a few good articles today, but actually one of my favorites is in the honorable mention section, as it was printed thursday. This article is about a very rare turtle, of which there are only 4 known in the world. Three of those turtles were known to live in captivity, and one was just discovered in the wild. This is an excellent article that brings hope about the future of these animals.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's articles! See you tomorrow!


Today's Top 5:
1. Small Town First to Produce More Renewable Energy Than It Consumes (Wired.com)
2. Era of In-flight Mobile Phone Use Begins in Europe (International Herald Tribune)
3. Hawaiian Plant, Thought to Be Newcomer, Actually Shaped Ecology of the Islands From the Beginning (Science Daily)
4. Is it Her Genes? Oldest Known Person Turns 115 on Sunday (Honolulu Advertiser)
5. Bronx Fireman Saves Baby from Blaze (New York Post)



Honorable Mentions:
1. Rare Giant Turtle Found in Vietnam (Boston Herald)
2. Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study (Science Daily)


Today's Top 5:

1. Small Town First to Produce More Renewable Energy Than It Consumes
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/american-town-f.html
By Alexis Madrigal
April 18, 2008 5:32:10 PM

A town in the United States is claiming to be the first in the country to be produce more renewable energy for the grid than it consumes. Thanks to a large wind farm operated by the Wind Capital Group, which begins operation next Friday, the city will produce 16,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year and has historically only used 13 kWh.
Good news, but it's the location of the city that's really surprising. The first nominally wind-powered town in America isn't in California or Florida or anywhere near a coast actually.
Instead, it's the state of Missouri, the country's bellwether, and the town of Rock Port, population 1,395 with a median income of $28,571, that are providing us with this glimpse into a piece of our renewable energy future.
The city is located about an hour north of Kansas City and happens to be positioned in the northwest corner of the state, where the wind density is the greatest (coded orange in the map below).
The local paper, the Maryville Daily Forum, has the most comprehensive story on the construction and municipal metering system that will be employed. The deeper history of the project was explored in a St. Louis Dispatch article archived on Wind Capital Group's site.




2. Era of In-flight Mobile Phone Use Begins in Europe
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/18/business/cell.php
By Stephen Castle
Published: April 18, 2008

Heading home from a business trip to Vienna last week, François Germain, a regional manager for BP in France, was using his mobile phone to check in with an assistant back at the head office in Paris.
Nothing unusual there, except that Germain was speaking from an altitude of 39,000 feet, or nearly 12,000 meters, onboard the first commercial aircraft in Europe to offer passengers the opportunity to use their mobile phones in flight.
The conversation, from seat 14C of an Airbus A318 operated by Air France, turned out to be brief.
"I told my assistant I was speaking from an airplane," said Germain, 45. "She replied: 'I'm not hearing you very well. It sounds like I'm talking to a small robot.' "
Imperfect it may be, but midair mobile telephone calls have arrived.
Today in Business with ReutersCitigroup records a loss and plans 9,000 layoffsEra of in-flight mobile phone use begins in EuropeOptimism over Citigroup's results spurred sharp gains in U.S. and European stocksRelatively unobtrusive data calls, like mobile e-mail and messaging, have been available for a while on airlines including Emirates, Qantas, JetBlue, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines.
But last month, Emirates became the first airline to enable in-flight mobile voice services, on an Airbus A340 from Dubai to Casablanca.
On April 2, Air France began offering voice calls on one of its jets on a trial basis, and BMI of Britain and TAP of Portugal plan to do the same.
Although U.S. airlines have shunned the service, Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost airline, is so confident mobile phoning will prove popular that it plans to start offering it in June without even bothering with a trial.
With the Air France trial, passengers only learn about the possibility of using their phone once they are on the plane. An announcement refers them to an instruction card in the seat pocket.
They are told to switch off their phones during take-off and landing - and a special icon has been added next to the seatbelt sign to indicate when phones can be turned on.
But there are still a number of hurdles to be overcome. The technology, which lets users make and receive calls through a satellite-linked, on-board base station, delivers a patchy quality that keeps most in-flight calls short and tinny.
So far, only 6 passengers on any given flight can get a signal at the same time, although that is due to be expanded to 12. And then there are the roaming charges of as much as €3, or $4.80, per minute.
Onboard a recent Paris-Vienna flight, Linda Woolard, 66, from Newark, Ohio, was firmly against calls on board.
"It's gone far too far," said Woolard, who was sitting not far from Germain. "Let's cut down the stress of life and go back to the way we lived without them."
Andrea Barany, a civil servant from Budapest who took the Air France test flight to Vienna, declined to snap open her phone.
"I don't need to be contactable all the time," she said. "I can wait until we land."
In fact, once the plane reached cruising altitude, there was no great rush to make calls. Several passengers had left their phones in their baggage, not knowing they would be able to use them.
A few did start experimenting with text messaging, which worked quite well. At the back of the cabin, Jurad Klukan from Prievidza, Slovakia, sent one to let his son know his arrival time.
"It's not very important but it's nice to be able to send text messages," he said.
Some passengers made voice calls of tolerable quality for brief conversations despite the aircraft noise. But during the two flights several attempts by people on the ground to call passengers in midair failed.
Several passengers reported that callers trying to reach them were being switched straight to voice mail - granting their fellow travelers a reprieve from annoying ring tones at least.
Two Blackberry users who tried to download their e-mail on the Vienna-Paris flight were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the development has divided the airline industry and regulators.
The European Commission on April 7 announced rules to unify licensing requirements and technical standards to cover phones as users cross multiple borders in the air.
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission bars the midair use of mobile phones, citing electronic interference with the aircraft and the potential of a terrorist threat. European regulators say GSM technology, the European standard, is advanced enough to resist use by terrorists.
The technology being tested by Air France links passenger phones to an onboard network connected to the ground via satellite. OnAir, the supplier, said transmission levels are low enough to avoid affecting the safety of aircraft equipment.
This article continues. For more information, visit the link noted above.




3. Hawaiian Plant, Thought to Be Newcomer, Actually Shaped Ecology of the Islands From the Beginning
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415210623.htm
ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2008)

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution have discovered data that suggests one of Hawaii's most dominant plants, Metrosideros, has been a resident of the islands far longer than previously believed.
Metrosideros, commonly called "ohi'a" in the Hawaiian Islands, has puzzled researchers for years. Although previously thought to be a newcomer to the islands, these plants are well integrated into the islands' ecosystems.
However, scientists from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian's National Zoo now are able to show, through molecular research, that Metrosideros may have colonized the islands soon after they formed. If so, these plants would have played an important role in shaping the ecology of the islands from the beginning.
The isolated Hawaiian Islands are home to many unique and endemic species of plants and animals. To know how these species came to interact with one another and form functioning ecosystems, scientists must first know how and when each species came to be on the islands. This is particularly important in the case of Metrosideros--many species of birds and insects are specialized to coexist and feed on these plants. Knowing when Metrosideros dispersed and colonized the islands also will give scientists a better understanding of how and when the fauna that rely on them evolved.
Until now, no definitive phylogeographical study (combining evolutionary history with current distribution patterns in order to understand both) has been done on ecologically dominant species in this island group.
"What we are finding," said Scott Miller, a Smithsonian scientist working on the project, "is a distinct geographical pattern that supports a hypothesis that these plants colonized the Hawaiian Islands sequentially as they formed." This could prove that Metrosideros played a far more important role in Hawaii's ecology than once thought.
Scientists at the Smithsonian will continue to research Metrosideros in Hawaii to further determine the plant's historical colonization pattern and its influence and role in the biodiversity of the islands.
Their findings are being published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B in London on April 16.




4. Is it Her Genes? Oldest Known Person Turns 115 on Sunday http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLDEST_HUMAN_RESEARCH?SITE=HIHAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 18, 7:24 PM EDT

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- Maybe it was a lifetime of chores on the family farm that accounts for Edna Parker's long life. Or maybe just good genes explain why the world's oldest known person will turn 115 on Sunday, defying staggering odds.
Scientists who study longevity hope Parker and others who live to 110 or beyond - they're called supercentenarians - can help solve the mystery of extreme longevity.
"We don't know why she's lived so long," said Don Parker, her 59-year-old grandson. "But she's never been a worrier and she's always been a thin person, so maybe that has something to do with it."
On Friday, Edna Parker laughed and smiled as relatives and guests released 115 balloons into sunny skies outside her nursing home. Dressed in pearls, a blue and white polka dot dress and new white shoes, she clutched a red rose during the festivities.
Two years ago, researchers from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University took a blood sample from Parker for the group's DNA database of supercentenarians.
Her DNA is now preserved with samples of about 100 other people who made the 110-year milestone and whose genes are being analyzed, said Dr. Tom Perls, an aging specialist who directs the project.
"They're really our best bet for finding the elusive Holy Grail of our field - which are these longevity-enabling genes," he said.
Only 75 living people - 64 women and 11 men - are 110 or older, according to the Gerontology Research Group of Inglewood, Calif., which verifies reports of extreme ages.
Parker, who was born April 20, 1893, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest of that group last August after the death of a Japanese woman four months her senior.
A widow since her husband, Earl, died in 1938 of a heart attack, Parker lived alone in their farmhouse until age 100, when she moved into her son Clifford's home. She cheated death a few months later.
One winter night, Clifford and his wife returned home from a high school basketball game to find her missing. Don, their son, says he discovered his grandmother in the snowy darkness near the farm's apple orchard. He scooped up her rigid body and rushed back to the house.
"She was stiff as a 2-by-4. We really thought that was the end of her," he said.
But Parker recovered fully, suffering only frostbitten fingertips.
Fifteen years later, her room at the Heritage House Convalescent Center in Shelbyville, Ind., about 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis, is adorned with teddy bears and photos of her five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great grandchildren. She's outlived her two sons, Clifford and Earl Jr.
During a visit this week, Parker was captivated by a new album of photos and documents from her life that Don's wife, Charlene, had assembled.
"That's the boys," she said hoarsely, tapping a photo of her two late sons in their youth. "Clifford and Junior."
Her two sisters also are deceased. Georgia lived to be 99, while her sister Opal was 88 when she died.
Parker's long-lived sisters are typical of other centenarians, according to Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Institute for Aging Research in New York. Nearly all of them have a sister, mother or other relative who lived a long life, he said.
"Longevity is in the family history," Barzilai said.
He and other scientists have found several genetic mutations in centenarians that may play a role in either slowing the aging process or boosting resistance to age-related diseases.
Perls said the secret to a long life is now believed to be a mix of genetics and environmental factors such as health habits. He said his research on about 1,500 centenarians hints at another factor that may protect people from illnesses such as heart attacks and stroke - they appear not to dwell on stressful events.
"They seem to manage their stress better than the rest of us," he said.



5. Bronx Fireman Saves Baby from Blaze
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04182008/news/regionalnews/bx__fireman_saves_baby_from_blaze_106999.htmBy John Mazor and Philip Messing
April 18, 2008

A firefighter saved an infant from the flames of a firebombed Bronx house yesterday after the panicked father came close to dropping the baby from an upper floor.
Michael Tompkins, 31, arrived with Ladder Co. 39 at 4057 Lowerre Place in Williamsbridge, where thugs had tossed Molotov cocktails, police said.
Tompkins arrived to find the man dangling his 9-month-old out of a third-story window, desperate to get the child to safety.
Tompkins said that all he heard was " 'I'm going to drop the baby, I'm going to drop the baby,' but I just kept telling him not to jump and to hang on."
"Just give me a couple seconds and I'll be there," he recalled shouting.
"Another 20 seconds, he would have jumped."
Tompkins said he climbed up a wobbly ladder and, though still three to five feet short, was able to grasp the child by the back of the neck.
The family was treated at Jacobi Hospital.




Honorable Mentions:

1. Rare Giant Turtle Found in Vietnam
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/asia_pacific/view.bg?articleid=1087824&srvc=rssThursday, April 17, 2008 - Updated 1d 5h ago
E-mail Printable (0) Comments Text size Share (0) Rate CLEVELAND - Researchers from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo have discovered a rare giant turtle in northern Vietnam, giving scientists hope for the species they believed was extinct in the wild.
The three other known Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtles are in captivity, said experts from the Zoo’s Asian turtle program. The discovery represents hope for the species, said Doug Hendrie, the Vietnam-based coordinator of the zoo program.
Turtle expert Peter Pritchard, president of the Chelonian Research Institute, confirmed the find based on a photo Hendrie showed him.
"It looked like pretty solid evidence. The animal has a pretty distinctive head," Pritchard said.
The turtle remains in the lake and researchers have notified the Vietnamese government of its existence, Hendrie said.
There have been rumors for years of a mythical creature living deep in the waters of a northern Vietnam lake. Some in a village west of Hanoi claimed to be blessed by catching a glimpse of its concave shell as it crested above the surface of their lake.
A national legend tells of a giant golden turtle that bestowed upon the Vietnamese people a magic sword and victory over Chinese invaders in the 16th century.
"This is one of those mythical species that people always talked about but no one ever saw," said Geoff Hall, zoo general curator.
Of the other three Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtles, two are in Chinese zoos and the other is cared for in the Hoan Kiem ("Returned Sword") Lake in downtown Hanoi _ the lake in which the legendary turtle appeared to reclaim the sword from the emperor.
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo began its effort to preserve and protect Asian turtles in 2003 amid reports of increased killings for food or to make traditional medicine from their bones. Development and pollution also led to loss of nesting habitats along rivers, zoo officials said.



2. Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145645.htm
ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2008)

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have uncovered the first clues about the ancient origins of a mother's intricate lifeline to her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients critical to the baby's health.
The evidence suggests the placenta of humans and other mammals evolved from the much simpler tissue that attached to the inside of eggshells and enabled the embryos of our distant ancestors, the birds and reptiles, to get oxygen.
"The placenta is this amazing, complex structure and it's unique to mammals, but we've had no idea what its evolutionary origins are," said Julie Baker, PhD, assistant professor of genetics. Baker is senior author of the study, which will be published in the May issue of Genome Research.
The placenta grows inside the mother's uterus and serves as a way of exchanging gas and nutrients between mother and fetus; it is expelled from the mother's body after the birth of a baby. It is the only organ to develop in adulthood and is the only one with a defined end date, Baker said, making the placenta of interest to people curious about how tissues and organs develop.
Beyond being a biological curiosity, the placenta also plays a role in the health of both the mother and the baby. Some recent research also suggests that the placenta could be a key barrier in preventing or allowing molecules to pass to the unborn baby that influence the baby's disease risk well into adulthood.
"The placenta seems to be critical for fetal health and maternal heath," Baker said. Despite its major impact, almost nothing was known about how the placenta evolved or how it functions.
Baker and Kirstin Knox, graduate student and the study's first author, began addressing the question of the placenta's evolution by determining which genes are active in cells of the placenta throughout pregnancy in mice.
They found that the placenta develops in two distinct stages. In the first stage, which runs from the beginning of pregnancy through mid-gestation, the placental cells primarily activate genes that mammals have in common with birds and reptiles. This suggests that the placenta initially evolved through repurposing genes the early mammals inherited from their immediate ancestors when they arose more than 120 million years ago.
In the second stage, cells of the mammalian placenta switch to a new wave of species-specific genes. Mice activate newly evolved mouse genes and humans activate human genes.
It makes sense that each animal would need a different set of genes, Baker said. "A pregnant orca has different needs than a mouse and so they had to come up with different hormonal solutions to solve their problems," she said. For example, an elephant's placenta nourishes a single animal for 660 days. A pregnant mouse gestates an average of 12 offspring for 20 days. Clearly, those two pregnancies would require very different placentas.
Baker said these findings are particularly interesting given that cloned mice are at high risk of dying soon after the placenta's genetic transition takes place. "There's obviously a huge regulatory change that takes place," she said. What's surprising is that despite the dramatic shift taking place in the placenta, the tissue doesn't change in appearance.
Understanding the placenta's origins and function could prove useful. Previous studies suggest the placenta may contribute to triggering the onset of maternal labor, and is suspected to be involved in a maternal condition called pre-eclampsia, which is a leading cause of premature births.
Baker intends to follow up on this work by collaborating with Theo Palmer, PhD, associate professor of neurosurgery; Gill Bejerano, PhD, assistant professor of developmental biology, and Anna Penn, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics. Together, the group hopes to learn how the placenta protects the growing brain of the unborn baby, a protection that seems to extend into adulthood.
The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes and Stanford's Medical Scientist Training Program.