A Daily Dose of Good News from Home and Abroad

2008: July 18th Good News: (

2008-07-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

Good Evening all,

Well, it's been a while since I've been on. I can't promise I'll be on again soon either. Unfortunately, with our second move, buying a new dog, being incredibly busy at work, and sponsoring a cadet in our home, I have not had time to devote to my blog. I have missed it terribly, and I have even gotten some emails from readers questioning where it went.

The best I can hope for this week is to be able to post once or twice. If I beat that best, that is awesome...but please understand if I can't, that I'm just caught, in life, with life...and busy. :)

Anyway, I want you all to know that good news is still happening every day. Here are the articles I found for you all that have already happened today. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Vet Reaches Inside Shark to Pull Grappling Hook (Atlanta Journal Contstitution)
2. Alzheimer's Drug Reverses cognitive Decline Over 12 Month Period in Early Human Testing (Science Daily)
3. Archaeologists Find 600 Year Old Chess Piece in Northwest Russia (RIA Novosti)
4. Woman Elbowing Her Way to Arm Wrestling History (The Denver Post)
5. Students Can Now Get Textbooks for Free (Inventorspot.com)

Honorable Mention:
1. Rock Port Missouri, First 100 Percent Wind Powered Community in US (Science Daily)

Today's Top 5:

1. Vet Reaches Inside Shark to Pull Grappling Hook
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/news/stories/2008/07/18/australia_shark_rescue_grappling_hook.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=15
Associated Press
Published on: 07/18/08

SYDNEY, Australia — A veterinarian in Australia plunged his arm up to his shoulder into the throat of a rare shark to save the animal after it swallowed a grappling hook.
The gray nurse shark is generally much smaller than the more aggressive great white. It is also not considered a threat to humans, but its bite could still do serious damage.
Divers spotted the shark Monday as it swam with a group of others near Byron Bay, 500 miles north of Sydney, Trevor Long of the Sea World marine park said Friday.
After the animal was captured and placed in a holding tank, rescuers pushed a stiff plastic pipe into the shark's throat. Blyde then reach down through the pipe to free the hook.
"As a veterinarian you often end up putting your hands in places that people find somewhat unattractive," Blyde told Seven Network television.
The gray nurse shark is one of Australia's most endangered marine species after being fished to near-extinction, with some estimates running as low a fewer than 300 animals left in the wild in waters off the country's east coast.

2. Alzheimer's Drug Reverses Cognitive Decline Over 12 Month Period In Early Human Testing
ScienceDaily
(July 18, 2008) —

A drug once approved as an antihistamine in Russia improved thinking processes and ability to function in patients with Alzheimer's disease in a study conducted there, said an expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The findings are published in the journal The Lancet.
"More research is needed, but we are encouraged by the effect the drug Dimebon had on Alzheimer's patients" said Dr. Rachelle Doody, professor of neurology at BCM and lead author of the study.
In the study, the authors noted that Dimebon is the first drug for Alzheimer's disease that demonstrated continued improvement in patients over a 12 month period. Other approved drugs do not have this effect.
Half of the 183 patients in the Russian study received Dimebon; the other half were given a placebo or an inactive pill. Clinicians at the study sites then monitored the patients' progress over the next year on five different outcomes. All of those in the study had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
"What we saw in the clinical trial is that people on the medication continued to improve over time," Doody said. "Those on placebo continued to decline."
Researchers believe the medication works by stabilizing mitochondria, the cellular components that produce energy, and possibly by inhibiting brain cell death. Researchers evaluated patients' thinking and memory ability, overall function, psychiatric and behavioral symptoms, and ability to perform daily activities.
"Usually at this point in a drug's development, we are happy to see improvement in one of the outcome measures," Doody said. "We saw improvement in all five."
Some participants complained of occasional dry mouth, but no one opted out of the study because of the side effects.
"As we continue research, we hope to replicate these results," Doody said. "My belief is that this drug will turn out to be useful for Alzheimer's disease, regardless of the stage of the disease."
Doody said this is only the first study looking into the effects of Dimebon on Alzheimer's disease. She also noted that it involved only a relatively small population from one specific region of the world. The ongoing Phase 3 study will include several international locations including the United States.
Other researchers who contributed to this study include: Dr. Svetlana I. Gavrilova, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Dr. Mary Sano, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, NY; Dr. Ronald G. Thomas, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA; Dr. Paul S. Aisen, formerly with Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC and now at the University of California, San Diego; ; Dr. Sergey O. Bachurin, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physiologically Active Compounds, Chernogolovka, Russia; Drs. Lynn Seely and David Hung, Medivation, Inc., San Francisco, CA.
Funding for this study came from Medivation, Inc., the company developing the drug worldwide. Doody is also a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory board for Medivation, Inc.

3. Archaeologists Find 600-year-old Chess Piece in Northwest Russia
http://en.rian.ru/culture/20080718/114352042.html
14:51 18/ 07/ 2008

VELIKY NOVGOROD, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - Archaeologists in northwest Russia have discovered a chess piece dating back to the late 14th century, a spokesman for local archaeologists said on Friday.
"The king, around several centimeters tall, is made of solid wood, possibly of juniper," the spokesman said.
The excavations are being carried out at the site of the Palace of Facets, in the Novgorod Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod. The palace is believed to be the oldest in Russia.
According to the city chronicles, chess as a competitive game emerged in Veliky Novgorod, the foremost historic city in northwest Russia, in the 13th century, but was banned in 1286 by the church.
However, besides the king, archeologists in the region have found a total of 82 chess pieces dating back to at least the 14th century, showing that the game remained popular among the local population despite the church ban.
In late May, archaeologists in the ancient city uncovered a number of medieval baby bottles. Medieval Slavs made feeding bottles by attaching leather bags to the wider part of a cow's horn. The babies drank milk from holes made in the tip of the horns.
The first historical mention of Veliky Novgorod was in 859 AD. City chronicles say that by 862 AD it was already a stop on the trading route between the Baltics and Byzantium.
The city will celebrate its 1150th anniversary in 2009.

4. Woman Elbowing Her Way to Arm Wrestling History
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9915967
By William Porter
Denver Post Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/18/2008 02:31:10 PM MDT

Arm-wrestler Brandy Stark does a static hold with a 40-pound dumbbell for one minute as husband Russell looks on. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )On the laundry list of things I might first notice about a woman — her eyes, her smile, whether she is aiming a large-bore handgun at me — biceps generally don't rank too high.
But when the woman is Greeley's Brandy Stark, one of America's greatest arm-wrestlers, well, I check out the muscles in her shirt sleeves.
We were in the weight room at Work Out West, Brandy's hometown gym. She was fresh from a grueling static hold with a 40-pound dumbbell, replicating the feel of locking down on an opponent's unfortunate arm.
Brandy assessed her bulging bicep. "You know, I have no idea how big my arms are. A lot of women don't have good upper-body strength, but for whatever reason I do."
Her beefy forearms taper into strong wrists and small, almost delicate, hands. In two weeks she hopes to have them wrapped around a big trophy.
Stark's goal is to be the first woman to win her sport's triple crown. She's one title away, needing only a victory at the U.S. Armwrestling Federation championships on Aug. 3 in Salt Lake City.
Stark also won major tourneys in May and June. In horse-racing terms, they were arm-wrestling's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. The USAF tourney is the Belmont — and the third jewel in the triple crown.
If she places first or second in Salt Lake, competing in the 176-pound-plus unlimited class, she makes Team USA and goes to the world meet.
"That's the dream," she said.
Stark is 35. She has the thick trunk and sturdy legs of a shot-putter, but was a volleyball player and sprinter growing up in Limon. Her spiked hair is streaked with blond.
On her right bicep is a tattoo: "Armwrestler."
"It's official," she said, grinning. "I can't quit now."
Brandy, a mother of three, began arm-wrestling in 2003.
"I just like the adrenaline rush and being able to compete one on one," she said. "Although I get nervous before meets. Like nauseous nervous.
"But that goes away after the first match."
There is little money in her sport, just bragging rights.
Her husband, Russell, introduced her to the sport. He, too, is a competitive arm-wrestler, though not quite at the elite level of his wife.
Russell is an easygoing guy and doting husband. Massaging Brandy's left shoulder, he proudly told me a story.
"I had some of my roughneck friends down one evening," said Russell, an oil-rig worker in Wyoming. "They wanted to arm-wrestle me, but I told them they'd have to wrestle Brandy first.
"She pinned them all. And these were big, strong dudes."
Little did the dudes know.
Along with iron biceps and forearms, arm-wrestlers develop unusual tendon strength. An average person's elbow tendon is the diameter of a pencil. A champion wrestler's might be as thick as a nickel.
Technique is crucial. Some competitors try to nail opponents out of the gate. Others lock their arm in place until the opponent tires, then slowly lever them over for the pin.
"It takes a certain personality to start arm-wrestling," Brandy said. "You have so many aches and pains."
Brandy wrestles as a righty and lefty, often exiting tourneys lugging two trophies. Nothing is left to chance: She scouts her opponents. "I don't know if they scout me, but if they don't, they should."
Brandy hoisted a barbell. Russell looked on, beaming.
Forget Beijing. History awaits in Utah, just a few pins away.
William Porter's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.

5. Students Can Now Get Textbooks For Free
http://inventorspot.com/articles/students_can_now_get_textbooks_for_free_15904
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Joshua Khan

Textbooks are a major expense college students wish they didn’t have to deal with. Despite being a stack of paper that will only be looked at once, they can cost individuals up to a $1000 a year. Some students try to fight the “system” by sharing textbooks, but disadvantages keep bombarding their plans. When you buy a textbook, you’ll be lucky to even sell it back for half of the original price.
The publisher Flat World Knowledge is hoping to help students by giving away textbooks for free. Based in New York, the firm recently launched a project to supply four business and economics textbooks online to undergraduates of 15 different campuses. It may seem like a small start, but the results can free a student from the textbook fiasco that binds them.
But will the textbooks have the same content as the thick ones located on campus?
Flat World Knowledge’s resources aren’t different at all. They have been reviewed by academics and are even unique in their own way as some text includes images and video. Since their based online, the textbooks are also open-source; they can be updated easily and changed to match a particular outline or curriculum.
Starting next January, Flat World Knowledge hopes to offer its textbooks to numerous institutions. It’ll be interesting to see how other bookstores and publishers react, since their plan is strongly affects a lot of organizations and companies.
As for the students, don’t be surprised if they never buy another book again.

Honorable Mention:
Rock Port, Missouri, First 100 Percent Wind-powered Community In U.S.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715165441.htm
ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) —

Rock Port Missouri, with a population of just over 1,300 residents, has announced that it is the first 100% wind powered community in the United States. Four wind turbines supply all the electricity for the small town.
Rock Port’s 100% wind power status is due to four wind turbines located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port (Atchison County). The city of Rock Port uses approximately 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year. It is predicted that these four turbines will produce 16 million kilowatt hours each year.
Excess wind generated electricity not used by Rock Port homes and businesses is expected to be move onto the transmission lines to be purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities for use in other areas.
University of Missouri Extension specialists say that there are excellent opportunities for sustainable wind power in northwest Missouri.
There are currently 24 wind turbines in Atchison County, 24 in Nodaway County and 27 in Gentry County. MU Extension specialists say the wind farms will bring in more than $1.1 million annually in county real estate taxes, to be paid by Wind Capital Group, a wind energy developer based in St. Louis.
"This is a unique situation because in rural areas it is quite uncommon to have this increase in taxation revenues," said Jerry Baker, MU Extension community development specialist.
The alternative-energy source also benefits landowners, who can make anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 leasing part of their property for wind turbines.
Other wind energy companies are looking at possible sites in northwest Missouri, Baker said.
A map published by the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that northwest Missouri has the state's highest concentration of wind resources and contains a number of locations potentially suitable for utility-scale wind development.
"We're farming the wind, which is something that we have up here," Crawford said. "The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it's as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin."
"It's a savings for the community in general, savings for the rural electric companies, and it does provide electricity service over at least a 20-year time period, which is the anticipated life of these turbines," Baker said.
Baker said the wind turbines attract visitors from all over, adding tourism revenue to the list of benefits.

2008: July 2nd Good News (George Washington's Boyhood Home Found; Certain Foods May Improve Intelliegence; more...)

2008-07-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all,

Here is yesterday's post. Todays will follow soon. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence (Eurekalert.org)
2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes (Yahoo News)
3. Long Sought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found (ABC News)
4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results (Bio-medicine.org)
5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative (University of Washington News)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests (National Geographic)
2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion (Earth Times)

Today's Top 5:

1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/foas-gsa070208.php
Public release date: 2-Jul-2008
Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

MIT researchers offer tantalizing evidence on how to make people smarter, naturally
New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to MIT scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve cognitive abilities.

"I hope human brains will, like those of experimental animals, respond to this kind of treatment by making more brain synapses and thus restoring cognitive abilities," said Richard Wurtman, MD, senior researcher on the project.

In the study, gerbils were given various combinations of three compounds needed for healthy brain membranes: choline, found in eggs; uridine monophosphate (UMP) found in beets; and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), found in fish oils. Other gerbils were given none of these to serve as a baseline. Then they were checked for cognitive changes four weeks later. The scientists found that the gerbils given choline with UMP and/or DHA showed cognitive improvements in tasks thought to be relevant to gerbils, such as navigating mazes. After these tests were concluded, the researchers dissected the mouse brains for a biological cause for the improvement. They found biochemical evidence that there was more than the usual amount of brain synapse activity, which was consistent with behaviors indicating higher intelligence.

"Now that we know how to make gerbils smarter," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "it's not too far a stretch to hope that people's intelligence can also be improved. Quite frankly, this can't happen soon enough, as every environmentalist, advocate of evolution and war opponent will attest."

###

This article is scheduled for final publication in the November 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), which is published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. FASEB comprises 21 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB advances biological science through collaborative advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and lead to improvements in human health.

2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/herpes_treatment_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Wed Jul 2, 5:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday they may have found a way to flush out herpes viruses from hiding -- offering a potential way to cure pesky and painful conditions from cold sores to shingles.

They discovered that a mysterious gene carried by the herpes simplex-1 virus -- the one that causes cold sores -- allows the virus to lay low in the nerves it infects.

It does so via microRNAs, little pieces of genetic material that regulate the activity of many viruses, the researchers report in the journal Nature.

It may be possible to "wake up" the virus and then kill it with standard antiviral drugs such as acyclovir, said Jennifer Lin Umbach of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the study.

"We are trying to go into animal trials," Umbach said in a telephone interview.

The Duke team is discussing a potential collaboration with Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc that specializes in microRNAs.

Herpes viruses cause permanent infections. They head straight to nerve cells, where they stay latent for the life of an animal or person, often causing periodic outbreaks.

Herpes simplex 1 or HSV-1 causes cold sores, HSV-2 causes genital herpes, while varicella causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles.

Acyclovir and related drugs can suppress symptoms but only when the virus is active.

IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL

"Inactive virus is completely untouchable by any treatment we have. Unless you activate the virus, you can't kill it," said Bryan Cullen, who oversaw the research.

Umbach said that for still unknown reasons, viruses infecting different neurons in the same body activate at different times, making it impossible to eradicate an infection.

Her team found that a gene called LAT controls microRNAs that turn off other genes in the virus.

"The presence of these active microRNAs keep the virus dormant," Umbach said. "When the virus is activated by stress like UV (ultraviolet) light or a wound, production of (other) genes goes up."

Then LAT is overwhelmed and unable to keep the virus in check. It wakes up and causes an outbreak.

A drug that would turn off the microRNAs could drive the virus out of hiding and allow all copies of the virus to be killed with acyclovir, she said.

"You would have one cold sore but you would get rid of it," she said. Curing something more painful, such as shingles, might be a little trickier, she added.

One class of drug called an antagomir might work, Umbach said. These chemically engineered oligonucleotides are short segments of RNA that can be made into mirror images of a targeted bit of genetic material -- such as the herpes microRNAs. They would attach and "silence" the microRNA.

The potential market is large. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have the HSV-1 virus that causes cold sores.

The CDC estimates there are a million cases of shingles every year in the United States alone.

3. Longsought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found
Discovery Offers Insight Into First President's Life
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5297035&page=1
By JOHN DONVAN
July 2, 2008

Nearly everyone has heard of George Washington's Mount Vernon, Va., estate, where tourists flock to visit the place where our first president lived and died.

Archeologists' discovery of George Washington's childhood home offers insight into the life of our nation's first president.
(AP Photo)Now, archeologists believe they have found the home where, according to legend, Washington, who could not tell a lie, chopped down the cherry tree.

The Ferry Farm site, located near Fredericksburg, Va., overlooking the Rappahannock River, just 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., which archeologists have excavated, is believed to be the house where Washington lived as a child, from the time he was 6 years old,.

After Washington moved away, the house rotted and was swallowed by time and grassland, preventing archeologists from finding its actual site until now.

The search for Washington's childhood home began seven years ago. First, researchers found remains of a home predating Washington's, and then they uncovered another home from the 19th century. Through trial and error, researchers found this area and excavated for three years, before verifying that it was the Washington's family home.

Related
The 'Real' George Washington EstateFloods Dash Historic Town's Tourism HopesNew D.C. Walking Tour Traces Lincoln's End"If George Washington did, indeed, chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Philip Levy, who is a historical archaeologist and professor at the University of South Florida.

"What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country," Levy said.

David Muraca, director of archeology at the George Washington Foundation, made the find. From the remains, they were able to debunk historical assumptions about Washington's first home.

While historians had long believed Washington lived in a small cottage, the foundation and cellars that were found prove that the house was one and a half stories. Evidence also shows that the fire that had been said to have driven the family from the home, was merely minor.

Also from the remains, archeologists unearthed thousands of artifacts that once belonged to the Washington family: fragments of ceramic tableware, the bowl of a clay pipe with Masonic markings, scissors and a set of 18th century wig curlers -- perhaps used by Washington himself.

The clay pipe bowl -- with the Masonic crest -- is especially exciting for archeologists, since Washington joined the Masons in 1753.

4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results
http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Ethanol-byproduct-produces-green-results-3864-1/
2 July 2008

PROSSER WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well tha...Enter dried distillers grains with solubles or DDGS. DDGS a byprod...Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface and mixed into...When mixed into the potting media however dried distillers grains we...[RSS]
http://www.bio-medicine.org/inc/biomed/biology-news.asp
http://feeds.bio-medicine.org/latest-biology-news
Email Subscription: Get Latest Biology News delivered by emailDate:7/2/2008[Outline] [RSS]

PROSSER, WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well that invasive, ubiquitous weeds cause trouble by lowering the value and deterring healthy growth of potted ornamental plants. To control weeds, many commercial nursery owners resort to the expensive practice of paying workers to hand-weed containers. Some growers use herbicides, but efficacy of herbicides is questionable on the wide range of plant species produced in nurseries, and many herbicides are not registered for use in greenhouses.

Enter "dried distillers grains with solubles", or DDGS. DDGS, a byproduct of converting corn to fuel ethanol, is typically used as livestock feed. Rick A. Boydston, Harold P. Collins, and Steve Vaughn, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, undertook a research study on the use of DDGS as a weed deterrent on potted ornamentals. The study results, published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience, evaluated the use of DDGS as a soil amendment to suppress weeds in container-grown ornamentals.

Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface, and mixed into the potting media of transplanted ornamentals. Applied to the soil surface after transplanting, DDGS caused no injury to plants. According to Dr. Boydston, an agronomist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), "grains applied to the surface at rates that gave good coverage of the soil (800 and 1600 g/m2) reduced the number of common chickweed and annual bluegrass. Weed control was not perfect, but could reduce the amount of hand-weeding typically required."

When mixed into the potting media, however, dried distillers grains were toxic to transplanted rose, coreopsis, and phlox plants. Researchers concluded that DDGS may be useful for reducing weed emergence and growth in container-grown ornamentals when applied to the soil surface at transplanting. Dr. Boydston noted that additional research is needed to identify and confirm the safety (of using DDGS) to ot
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Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Source:Eurekalert

5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42704
2 July 2008
Mary Guiden

UW Medical Center (UWMC) took part in an international broadcast and global launch of the World Health Organization's "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign Wednesday, June 25. UWMC is the only U.S. site of eight sites around the globe participating in the pilot phase of the project, which involves the use of a checklist for care before, during and after surgery.

Dr. E. Patchen "Patch" Dellinger, vice-chair of surgery, is directing UW efforts and implemented use of the checklist for all general surgical operations at UWMC starting in April. It will be used for all operations by all surgical specialties by fall 2008.

Dellinger's work coincides with Dr. David Flum's efforts on the state's Surgical Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program and is supported by groups including the Washington State Hospital Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington State Medical Association, Group Health and others. Flum is a UW associate professor of surgery.

What items are covered on the checklist? Before a patient is rolled into the operating room, medical center staff ask the patient to confirm his or her identity and the procedure. Once in the operating room (OR), all team members introduce themselves by name and role ("I'm Patch, and I'm the surgeon," is how Dr. Dellinger introduced himself before a recent surgery).

As a visual prompt, the checklist is poster-sized and hangs from an IV (intravenous) pole. The patient's identity is again confirmed as well as the site of the surgery and procedure due to be performed. The health-care team discusses any anticipated critical events and goes over an antibiotic redosing plan for cases that may last more than three hours. The OR checklist takes from one to four minutes to complete.

Dellinger said the UW "jumped at the chance to be a pilot site" for the WHO initiative. "A lot of us feel as if we don't know why the checklist hadn't been there" all along, he said. Not all reactions were initially positive, he admitted. "One surgeon said, ‘It sounds like a good idea as long as I don't have to do anything I'm not already doing,'" Dellinger said, with a chuckle.

Registered nurse Jodi Bloom said she was initially skeptical because she thought the checklist was cumbersome. "But now, when I go to other specialties, I feel as if something is missing," Bloom said. (She will no longer have that "missing" feeling as the checklist is rolled out more broadly at UWMC.)

Debby Lunde, also a registered nurse, described herself as perhaps the "biggest skeptic" when it came time to employ the checklist. "It was one more thing that we had to do," she explained. After a few months of using the checklist, however, Lunde said she is now one of the strongest supporters of the initiative. One of the things she appreciates is the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. "I love the way it brings us together in open communication and connection as a team, totally focusing on the patient," Lunde said.

The checklist has now been used in more than 500 operations at UWMC, and Dellinger estimates that it has helped to reduce patient safety errors by about half.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080630-oldest-shoes_2.html
Scott Norris
for National Geographic News

July 1, 2008
Humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative of habitual shoe-wearing, experts say.

A previous study of anatomical changes in toe bone structure had dated the use of shoes to about 30,000 years ago.

Now the dainty-toed fossil from China suggests that at least some humans were sporting protective footwear 10,000 years further back, during a time when both modern humans and Neandertals occupied portions of Europe and Asia.

Study author Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said the scarcity of toe bone fossils makes it hard to determine when habitual shoe-wearing became widespread.

However, he noted, even Neandertals may have been strapping on sandals.

"Earlier humans, including Neanderthals, show [some] evidence of occasionally wearing shoes," Trinkaus said.

Regular shoe use may have become common by 40,000 years ago, but "we still have no [additional] evidence from that time period—one way or the other," the scientist said.

The study by Trinkaus and Chinese co-author Hong Shang appears in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Tale of the Toes

In a previous study, Trinkaus found that shoe-wearing and barefoot human groups show characteristic differences in the size and strength of their middle toe bones.

Consistent shoe use results in a more delicate bone structure, because footwear reduces the force on middle toes during walking.

In his latest study, this anatomical evidence allowed Trinkaus to date the origin of shoes to a period long before the oldest known shoe remains.

Elizabeth Semmelhack curates the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. She said given what we know about the effects of shoe-wearing, Trinkaus' approach makes perfect sense.

"The simple act of wearing shoes alters the structure of our feet," Semmelhack said.

"It's interesting that [Trinkaus] is looking at these prehistoric remains and coming to the same conclusions."

Function vs. Fashion

The first forms of protective footwear probably evolved from simple wrappings used to insulate the feet from snow and freezing temperatures, experts say.

The oldest preserved shoe remains, dating to roughly 10,000 years ago from the western United States, are simple sandals woven of plant fibers.

But at some point shoes stopped being mere protection and become a fashion item.

Some anthropologists have suggested that even the earliest shoes may have served a more symbolic than protective function.

Beads found around the ankles and feet of human skeletons dated to 27,000 years ago suggest the presence of decorated footwear, Trinkaus said.

"History is replete with examples of impractical, irrational shoes," noted shoe museum curator Semmelhack.

"The actual first shoes may have been created out of necessity. But elements of irrationality probably crept in very early on," she said.

"Even these ancient people were probably trying to express something."

2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/216557,taiwan-power-co-to-plant-1-million-trees-in-exchange.html
Posted : Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:27:05 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Environment
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Taipei - The Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), after promising to plant 1 million trees, has won permission from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to expand one of its power plants, a newspaper said on Thursday. According to the Commercial Times, EPA gave approved Taipower's plan to expand its coal-fired power plant in Linkou, outside Taipei, after Taipower had promised to plant 1 million trees to compensate for green house emissions from the expanded plant.

In its report to EPA, Taipower detailed short-, mid- and long-term measures for environmental protection, and pledged to cut its 2020 greenhouse emission to the level of 2008, the daily said.

The state-run Taipower plans to install 3 more generators at the Linkou Power Plant to boost the plant's power generation capability from the current 1 million kilowatts to 2.48 million kilowatts.

Taipower will invite international tenders for the 3 generators, with the contract worth about 4.8 billion US dollars. The first generator is scheduled to go into operation in 2013, the Commercial Times said.

2008: July 1st Good News (World Becoming Happier; Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis; more...)

2008-07-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon All,

It's 5am here in Seoul. I've been up since 3 am, unable to sleep. I am not tired, and I hope I don't get tired later on today. Wish me luck. :)

Here are the news articles I have found for you today. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. World Becoming a Happier Place, Survey Says (ABC News)
2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine (Fox News)
3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis (Yahoo News)
4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance (United Press International)
5. A Boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii (Honlulu Star Bulletin)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution (Earth Times)
2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth (Yahoo News)

Today's Top 5:

1. World Becoming a Happier Place:
Denmark World's Happiest Country
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/wireStory?id=5281954
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.

New research shows that while Denmark leads the world in happiness, people in most other countries are also, on the whole, becoming happier.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.

Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.

It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed.

"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.

And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.

"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.

"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."

Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.

"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."

The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:

"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"
Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people.

2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374303,00.html
Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Prince Charles drives his Aston Martin Volante DB6 with wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
LONDON — Prince Charles' income grew last year, while his carbon footprint shrank.

The eco-friendly prince even has an Aston Martin that runs on wine.

An annual review of Charles' accounts released Monday said the prince made more than $32 million from property and investments between April 1, 2007 and March 31 this year, 7 percent more than in 2006-7. Charles paid $6.8 million in tax, $10,000 less than the year before.

The prince's office said greater use of green energy and fewer plane and car journeys helped Charles cut the amount of carbon dioxide he produced by 18 percent to 3,081 tons.

Charles has promised to reduce his emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent between 2007 and 2012.

The report said Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, traveled 37,000 miles on official duties and overseas travel accounted for the largest chunk of the prince's carbon footprint.

For domestic travel, the prince's Jaguars, Audi and Range Rover now run entirely on biodiesel made from used cooking oil, and his 38-year-old Aston Martin is fueled by bioethanol from surplus wine.

The prince has also installed wood-chip stoves at his country homes — the Highgrove estate, where he farms organically, and Birkhall in Scotland — and energy-efficient boilers at his Clarence House residence in London.

"I hope it shows a good picture," said royal aide Sir Michael Peat. "I really do believe that the contribution their royal highnesses make to national life continues to develop and broaden."

The 59-year-old heir to the throne receives private income from properties of The Duchy of Cornwall, the 136,000-acre estate established in 1337 by King Edward II to provide income for his heir.

Charles' official spending, including money spent on charitable work and official duties, was $20.8 million. His personal spending, which includes the salaries of 30 full-time staff, was $4.4 million, down from 2.6 million pounds.

However, Charles' thrifty gene appears to have skipped his oldest son. A British newspaper reported Monday that five helicopter flights taken by Prince William during training with the Royal Air Force cost taxpayers more than $100,000.

The most contentious was a flight to attend a stag party on the Isle of Wight off southern England, which cost just over $17,400, The Guardian reported.

The newspaper said it obtained the figures from the Ministry of Defense under a freedom of information request.

William also flew military aircraft to his girlfriend Kate Middleton's home, his father's country house and the royal residence at Sandringham.

The Ministry of Defense said "all flights undertaken by Flying Officer Wales were a legitimate part of his RAF training." But the ministry acknowledged there had been "a degree of naivety in the planning of the training sorties."

3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthussclerosis
Tue Jul 1, 12:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A strong cup of coffee may do more than just wake you up in the mornings. It could also help you stave off multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.

Scientists in Oklahoma found that mice which had been immunized to develop an MS-like condition appeared to be protected from the disease by drinking the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day.

"This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases," said Linda Thompson, from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation who worked in collaboration with Cornell University and Finland's University of Turku.

Caffeine prevented adenosine, one of the four building blocks in DNA, from mixing with its receptor in mice.

Adenosine is common molecule in humans and plays a large role in helping to control the biochemical processes for sleep and suppressing arousal.

When the molecule is blocked from binding with its receptor, the body's infection-fighting white cells cannot reach the central nervous system and trigger the reactions which lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal form of MS.

The findings could have important implications for other auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body's own defense systems turn against itself.

But Thompson, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned there was a lot more work to be done in fighting multiple sclerosis, a debilitating and progressive disease in humans.

"A mouse is not a human being, so we can't be sure caffeine will have the same effect on people prone to develop MS without much more testing," she said.

Further retrospective studies to track the caffeine intake of patients with MS and its effects might be the next major step.

"If you found a correlation between caffeine intake and reduced MS symptoms, that would point to further studies in humans," Thompson said.

Some 2.5 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from MS, a disorder of the central nervous system which leads to loss of muscle coordination.

4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/01/Malaysian_medicine_cuts_chemo_resistance/UPI-26631214920256/
Published: July 1, 2008 at 9:50 AM

MONTREAL, July 1 (UPI) -- A Canadian, U.S. and Austrian study has discovered a Malaysian folk medication reduces resistance to cancer chemotherapy treatments.

McGill University researchers said the study focused on a class of natural products known as cyclopenta benzofuran flavaglines, or CBFs. Working with mice genetically modified to mimic human leukemias, they found the CBF compound silvestrol can make tumors susceptible to the killing effects of anticancer drugs.

Silvestrol is a natural compound derived from a large genus of trees and shrubs found in Malaysia, South China and some Pacific islands, the scientists said. It's been used in Malaysian folk medicine for generations, but never as a cancer therapy.

The researchers cautioned trials in humans and possible treatments are still many years away.

The results of the study that included Boston University, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the University of Vienna and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

5. A boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/01/news/story09.html
By Nalea J. Ko
nko@starbulletin.com

Peddling on his BMX bicycle through Diamond Head crater with his family in tow, 12-year-old Kyle Williams' wish finally came true.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the help of the Hawaii Bicycling League, brought to fruition yesterday Kyle's dream to ride his bike in a volcano.

"In all reality, it's a miracle he's with us," said Kyle's mother, Ann Walden.

Last week, Kyle's Hawaiian vacation plans were nearly suspended again when he caught chickenpox.

Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that attacks infection-fighting cells, Kyle has been in recovery, waiting for more than a year to visit Oahu.

"I just really wanted to go to Hawaii," he said.

Kyle is one of about 100 children who asked to visit Hawaii in the month of June alone, according to an official with Make-a-Wish Foundation of Hawaii.

Since 1986 the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Kyle's home state of Washington granted 3,500 wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

"Until the time there are no more kids who get sick, I can't imagine one kid going through what they do and not getting a really fabulous wish," said Audrey Seale, a volunteer with the Washington chapter. She met the Williamses in 2006 when Kyle was at the Ronald McDonald House preparing for a bone marrow transplant.

To grant wishes like Kyle's, the foundation depends on a community of people.

Alaska Airlines flew Kyle's family - his father, mother and brother - from Washington state. Airline officials also waived fees to fly Kyle's BMX bike, which he received last summer at a luau in Washington.

Seale says the people of Hawaii really worked to make everything possible for Kyle.

"Everybody just really had that spirit of aloha to make it happen," said John Climaldi, events manager with the Hawaii Bicycling League. The league provided three bikes for the Williamses, but Climaldi credits the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for arranging yesterday's Diamond Head bike ride.

Ann said flying to Hawaii was what Kyle had wanted for a while. "I think it's important because, you know, it's an opportunity that he might not ever had before," she said.

In total, Kyle's wish is estimated to cost $5,800. But despite popular belief, the Make-a-Wish Foundation is not well funded, according to a statement released by the foundation. Children typically wait about four months before their wishes are granted.

The young Sonics fan's dream does not end with the bicycle ride. Kyle's family will visit Hanauma Bay, the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor. Set to drop by the Matsumoto Shave Ice store before returning home, Kyle said he is anxious to see more of Hawaii.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/215656,dragonflies-may-provide-alert-system-for-water-pollution.html
Posted : Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:43:02 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Nature (Environment)

Singapore - Dragonfly young could soon be the aquatic version of the canary in a coalmine, a researcher said in a published report on Sunday. Just as the singing birds were used by miners to warn them of toxic air, young dragonflies that live in reservoirs and ponds hold the potential of alerting humans to water pollution, The Straits Times said.

Researcher Nanthinee Jeevanandam, at the National University of Singapore, said she hopes to use their genetic fingerprint to help national water agencies like Singapore's Public Utilities Board determine the level of cleanliness in reservoir water.

Different dragonfly species have varied tolerance to pollutants such as lead and sulphate, the report said. Some require cleaner water or more oxygen.

Studying the species would be a quick and chemical-free method of evaluating water quality, Jeevanandam said.

She said she has collected DNA sequences for about a quarter of the city-state's 110 dragonfly species.

2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080628/896/twl-jordan-discovers-what-could-be-first.html
Sat, Jun 28 08:00 AM

Rihab (Jordan), June 28 (DPA) Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent epoch-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth.

'We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy,' archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told DPA.

Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University.

'The evidence we have indicates that this church sheltered 70 disciples of Jesus Christ and was built between 33 and 70 AD,' he said.

'We believe they remained in this cave until the Christian religion was endorsed by the Romans,' he added.

The chapel, which lies directly underneath the Saint Georgeous Church, was dug in an underground cave, the exterior outlet of which leads to a cluster of churches, which were built successively at different times, according to al-Hosan.

Therefore, Rihab, 60 km north-east of Amman, is called the town of 30 churches, he said.

Al-Hosan said that he 'deeply believed that Jesus Christ visited Rihab in the early days of Christianity'.

'According to authenticated history, Jesus Christ spent part of his life in Jordan's Ajloun area, 32 km north of Rihab, and was earlier baptised at a site 40 km south-west of Amman,' he said.

A mosaic inscription in Greek on the floor of St Georgeous Church described the early Christians as 'the 70 beloved by God and Divine'.

St. Georgeous is believed to be the oldest 'proper' church in the world, built in 230 AD, according to the inscription in the church.

Going three steps into the cave, one can see a circular area with a 2.5-metre radius, believed to be the apse, and several stone seats for the clerics.

The cave also includes the living places of the first Christians. 'A wall with an entrance is the only partition separating the altar from the living area,' said Hosan, who holds a doctorate in archaeology from Istanbul University.

'This tunnel is believed to have been used by the first 70 Christians as a gateway to their water system. We hope when we open the tunnel soon, we will get further evidence that this worship place is the first church on this globe,' he added.

Al-Hosan said that his excavation team had found pottery believed to have been brought by early Christians from Jerusalem 'because such products were not familiar to people in northern Jordan in that period'.

His team also found 'skeletons and bones' in a cemetery situated next to the chapel.

'It is divided into three parts, which we believe were devoted to men, women and children,' he said.

The City of Rehabis, as it was called during the Roman era, was one of the 10 allied cities, or Dekapolis, which were under the military control of the Roman empire but which were economically and religiously independent, al-Hosan said.

He reproduced letters from at least three churches in Jordan describing the discovery as an 'amazing event'.

Archimandrite Nektarious, bishop of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, called the discovery of the cave an 'important milestone for Christians all around the world'.

2008: June 30th Good News (Watermelon May Have Viagara Effect; Cardiff Begins Food Recycling; more...)

2008-06-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all,

I tried to upload photos today, but unfortunately I keep running into some sort of internal error. I will try to upload photos again during my lunch break.

Today I want to recommend the following articles. First, I found it hilarious, and awesome that Watermelon (yes, I said WATERMELON) may have Viagra Effects. Apparently, Watermelon has an effect on the blood vessels that is similar to Viagra. The benefits? Well, for one thing, Watermelon is an all natural product. Of course, since it's not a drug, the effect is likely to be less potent, but isn't it nice to know you can sit down on July 4th, enjoying a traditional American pasttime, and then be more ready to have some excitement with your loved one?

Secondly, being an Idahoan, and having an Aunt who loves dressage, I couldn't help but enter the article about Debbie McDonald. She just recently became the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Way to go Debbie. :)

And, lastly, I'd like to point out the article about pine oil. This article claims that Ticks and Mosquitos may be warded off by a product made from pine oil MORE EFFECTIVELY than by using DEET (tm). It's good to know that yet another natural product is out there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's posts! :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Watermelon May Have Viagra Effect (Eurekalert.org)
2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea (Yahoo News)
3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge (Pocono Record)
4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil (Science Daily)
5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste (Wales Online)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein (Physorg.com)
2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics (Idaho Statesman)

Today's Top 5:

1. Watermelon May Have Viagra-effect
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/tau--wmh063008.php
Public release date: 30-Jun-2008
Contact: Dr. Bhimu Patil
BPatil@ag.tamu.edu
979-458-8090
Texas A&M University - Agricultural Communications

COLLEGE STATION -- A cold slice of watermelon has long been a Fourth of July holiday staple. But according to recent studies, the juicy fruit may be better suited for Valentine's Day.

That's because scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase libido.

"The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body," said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station.

"We've always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study."

Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions, Patil said.

In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline – whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.

Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said.

"The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes," said Patil. "Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it."

While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.

"Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra," Patil said, "but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects."

The benefits of watermelon don't end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies.

Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. As the rind is not commonly eaten, two of Patil's fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.

In addition to the research by Texas A&M, watermelon's phyto-nutrients are being studied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma.

As an added bonus, these studies have also shown that deep red varieties of watermelon have displaced the tomato as the lycopene king, Patil said. Almost 92 percent of watermelon is water, but the remaining 8 percent is loaded with lycopene, an anti-oxidant that protects the human heart, prostate and skin health.

"Lycopene, which is also found in red grapefruit, was historically thought to exist only in tomatoes," he said. "But now we know that it's found in higher concentrations in red watermelon varieties."

Lycopene, however, is fat-soluble, meaning that it needs certain fats in the blood for better absorption by the body, Patil said.

"Previous tests have shown that lycopene is much better absorbed from tomatoes when mixed in a salad with oily vegetables like avocado or spinach," Patil said. "That would also apply to the lycopene from watermelon, but I realize mixing watermelon with spinach or avocadoes is a very hard sell."

No studies have been conducted to determine the timing of the consumption of oily vegetables to improve lycopene absorption, he said.

"One final bit of advice for those Fourth of July watermelons you buy," Patil said. "They store much better uncut if you leave them at room temperature. Lycopene levels can be maintained even as it sits on your kitchen floor. But once you cut it, refrigerate. And enjoy."

2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_us_aid
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 30, 1:43 PM ET

SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of tons of food from the U.S. has started flowing into North Korea, the U.N. food agency said Monday, as aid groups warned that the impoverished nation faces food shortages not seen since 2001.

A freighter carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived Sunday night after North Korea agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid. The shipment was the first installment of 500,000 tons in assistance promised by Washington, the World Food Program said.

The aid, however, was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they do not use food for diplomatic coercion.

The shipment arrived just days after the North delivered an atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site, in a sign of its commitment not to make more plutonium for bombs.

In exchange, the U.S. lifted some economic sanctions and said it would remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was "zero linkage" between progress on nuclear talks and the food delivery's timing. He said the U.S. has spent months working with the WFP to make sure food delivery could be properly monitored.

"We do not link food assistance, whether that's to North Korea or Zimbabwe or any other country, to political considerations. We do that based on humanitarian concerns," Casey said.

Sunday's wheat shipment will be enough for the WFP to expand its operations to feed more than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million people now getting international aid. The WFP hopes to start distributing the U.S.-provided food within two weeks.

U.N. agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be completed in mid-July to determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports "indicate a high level of food insecurity."

The country's regular annual shortages were expected to worsen because of floods last summer that devastated the agricultural heartland. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea's cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, the largest food deficit since 2001.

Prices at the country's limited markets — where North Koreans who can afford it shop when public rations fall short — have skyrocketed due to shortages.

"Even if the situation is not dramatic right now, it could continue to deteriorate in the months to come so that's why we need to address the situation as quickly as possible," Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP's North Korea country director, told The Associated Press from Pyongyang.

De Margerie said observers had not yet seen evidence of a renewed famine. The North's food shortages in the 1990s — after it lost Soviet aid and poor harvests due to natural disasters and mismanaged farming — are believed to have killed as many as 2 million people.

The North has long bristled at the monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food reaches the needy. In 2005, the government sharply scaled back what foreign aid it would allow and requested only development assistance, saying there was no longer an emergency situation.

Pyongyang agreed to the new aid program Friday, the WFP said, the same day Pyongyang blew up the reactor tower.

The new aid agreement marks a return by the WFP to its earlier levels of assistance, but also with greater access to parts of the country where the agency has not previously worked, de Margerie said.

American relief groups will distribute 100,000 tons of the food in two northwestern provinces, and the WFP the rest.

North Korea also has allowed the WFP to send some 50 more international workers to the country for monitoring, its largest staff presence since starting operations there in 1996.

The U.S. is the largest donor to the WFP's current aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million.

3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NEWS/80630007/-1/rss01
June 30, 2008

OTTO, N.Y. (AP) -- Nine young hikers were rescued by helicopter from a western New York gorge Monday morning after they were forced to spend the night on a rock ledge because of rising creek waters.

State police Sgt. Thomas Kelly said an Erie County sheriff's helicopter plucked the hikers, ages 17 to 21, from a ledge about 20 feet above the rain-swollen Cattaraugus Creek in the Zoar Valley. The ledge was about 150 below the lip of the gorge, he said.

The helicopter made several trips to take the hikers out two at a time between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., Kelly said.

He said the group from suburban Buffalo was hiking Sunday when rising waters from heavy rainfall cut off their access to a trail leading out of the gorge, a popular hiking area located along the Erie-Cattaraugus county line 30 miles south of Buffalo.

Heavy rains fell Sunday across western New York. When that happens, water levels in the gorge "can rise 3-4 feet quite quickly," Kelly said.

Attempts to reach the group Sunday night were hampered by fog and darkness, and the rescue effort was put off until daylight, he said.

The group included three women and six men from Kenmore, Tonawanda and Williamsville.

The hikers, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, called 911 around 8 p.m. Sunday to report they were trapped in the gorge, Kelly said. Overnight temperatures dipped to the high 50s.

All nine were taken to Tri-County Hospital in Gowanda to be checked out, Kelly said.

4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080629080038.htm
ScienceDaily
June 30, 2008

A naturally-occurring compound prepared from pine oil that seems to deter mosquito biting and repels two kinds of ticks has been found by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.

A patent* was issued on May 27 for the compound, isolongifolenone, and partners are being sought to bring this technology to commercial production.

In laboratory tests, ARS chemist Aijun Zhang in the Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., and his colleagues discovered that the naturally occurring compound deters the biting of mosquitoes more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent DEET. The compound also repelled two kinds of ticks as effectively as DEET.

Insect repellents are used widely to prevent bites from mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks and other arthropods. For the most part, people apply repellents just to avoid discomfort, but there is a more serious side to the use of these products. Human diseases caused by blood-feeding ticks and mosquitoes represent a serious threat to public health worldwide.

Malaria is the chief threat, killing approximately two million people per year and threatening billions. Other diseases include dengue fever, chikungunya, Lyme disease and typhus. Some segments of the public perceive efficient synthetic active ingredients as somehow more dangerous than botanical compounds, giving additional importance to the discovery of plant-based isolongifolenone.

Zhang's team also developed an easy and efficient method to prepare this repellent. Many natural-product chemicals isolated from plants and essential oils have proven to have repellent effects. Most often, such compounds never attain commercial development and their use is limited or impractical because they are expensive and not available in pure and large quantities.

In contrast, this newly-discovered repellent can be prepared inexpensively from pine oil feedstock in ton quantities for large-scale commercial applications, giving it a significant advantage over many of the other natural-product repellent chemicals.

*Patent number: US 7,378,557 B1

Adapted from materials provided by USDA/Agricultural Research Service.

5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/30/recycling-revolution-for-your-food-waste-91466-21171182/
Jun 30 2008 by David James, South Wales Echo

PLANS to recycle leftover food will turn Cardiff into the “best recycling city in the UK”, the council claimed today.

The city council is planning to become one of the first cities in the UK to bring in weekly food waste recycling.

Residents will be asked to collect all food waste, from potato skins to chicken bones, and set it aside for collection once a week.

But there were immediate concerns raised about the scheme after similar proposals elsewhere led to a series of complaints about hygiene.

The weekly collections are a key part of the council’s hope of hitting the Assembly Government’s target of recycling 40% of all waste by 2010.

The city’s executive member for the environment, Margaret Jones, said every household in the city would receive a small plastic caddy and a supply of bio-degradeable bags.

She said: “It’s a brave move. We are leading the way.

“Every household will be given a kitchen caddy and small biodegradable bags for all their food waste free of charge.”

Several South Wales councils are carrying out trials of food waste collections in certain areas, including Rhondda Cynon Taf and Bridgend.

But Coun Jones said Cardiff would become the first city to introduce a collection service for all residents.

Merthyr Tydfil council introduced a similar food waste recycling scheme last year.

But John Morgan, 57, of Castle Park, said: “During the hot weather we had flies and awful smells. You can wash it out but you’ve still got the flies coming.

“I stopped using it after five weeks because it got so bad. It’s completely unhygienic.”

And photographer Rob Norman, of Magor, noticed a surge in rats when Monmouthshire council introduced an optional scheme.

He said: “You’re supposed to scrape everything in but it stinks. A couple of times we’ve opened it and there have been maggots inside.

“There are no bags so when the blokes come and chuck it in the lorry it doesn’t empty completely.

“We’ve had a rat in the garden and the guy who came to sort it out said there had been many more since the blue box scheme was introduced. He said we might as well serve the food on a plate to them.”

Unlike Monmouthshire, Cardiff’s scheme will use bags inside the caddies.

Food waste recycling is widely seen as the only way for councils across the UK to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill but there are concerns about the cost of collections and how willing residents will be to use the system.

Coun Jones said the biodegradable bags provided would be small enough for a single family meal and would be collected weekly with garden waste, which is currently collected fortnightly.

She said the council did not anticipate problems integrating the increased pick-ups into the city’s current recycling collection systems.

Unemployed Brian Watkins, 26, of Roath, Cardiff, welcomed the introduction of a scheme in the capital.

He said: “It’s a good idea but there needs to be some sort of control to avoid the smells and hygiene issues.

“Rats are here anyway so I don’t think it’s any more of a concern than with black bags.”

The waste collected will be composted at a dedicated recycling centre, called an in-vessel composting system, which will be built at the Lamby Way landfill and run alongside the existing windrow system for composting garden waste.

Coun Jones estimated that if the system was well used, it would help lift the council’s recycling rate to 10%.

All residents in Cardiff will be able to recycle food waste from October 10.

Everyone living in the city will be given a new ‘mini bin’ and asked to put out their leftovers for weekly collections.

But hygiene fears have been raised after residents in areas with similar schemes claimed the bags attracted rats and maggots.

david.james@mediawales.co.uk

What do you think? Email echo.newsdesk@mediawales.co.uk or call us on 029 2058 3622

Honorable Mentions:

1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein
http://www.physorg.com/news134064683.html
30 June 2008

View of the ATP/ADP carrier from the cytoplasm, with the ADP molecule (blue, aqua, red and white spheres) at the entrance, ready to be funneled into the carrier. Image courtesy of Emad Tajkhorshid and Yi Wang, U. of I.

You may not know what it is, but you burn more than your body weight of it every day. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a tiny molecule that packs a powerful punch, is the primary energy source for most of your cellular functions.

Now researchers at the University of Illinois have identified a key step in the cellular recycling of ATP that allows your body to produce enough of it to survive. Without this cycling of ATP and its low-energy counterpart, adenosine diphosphate (ADP), into and out of the mitochondrion, where ADP is converted into ATP, life as we know it would end.

Researchers have for the first time simulated the binding of ADP to a carrier protein lodged in the inner membrane of the mitochondrion. It is the first simulation of the binding of a molecule to a protein. Their findings appear this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As its name indicates, ATP contains three phosphate groups. The energy produced when one of these groups is detached from the molecule drives many chemical reactions in the cell. This process also yields ADP, which must go through the ADP/ATP carrier (AAC) to get into the mitochondrion to be converted back into ATP.

The AAC acts a lot like a revolving door: For each molecule of ADP going into the mitochondrion, one ATP gets booted out. These two activities are not simultaneous, however. The carrier is either shuttling ADP into the mitochondrion or ejecting ATP into the wider environment of the cell, where it can be put to use.

"The carrier is a reversible machine," said biochemistry professor Emad Tajkhorshid, who led the study which was conducted by biophysics graduate student Yi Wang. "Both ATP and ADP can bind to it and make it to the other side using this transporter."

Previous studies used X-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the carrier when it was ready to accept a molecule of ADP.

In the new analysis, the researchers developed a computer simulation of the interaction of a single molecule of ADP with the carrier protein. Thanks to better simulation software and larger and more sophisticated computer arrays than were available for previous studies, this simulation tracked the process by which ADP is drawn into the carrier. It also showed how ADP orients itself as it travels to the site where it binds to the carrier. (See movie.)

In the simulation, the researchers observed for the first time that ADP disrupts several ionic bonds, called salt bridges, when it binds to the carrier protein. Breaking the salt bridges allows the protein to open – in effect unlocking the door that otherwise blocks ADP's route into the mitochondrion.

The simulation included every atom of the carrier protein and ADP, as well as all of the membrane lipids and water molecules that make up their immediate environment – more than 100,000 atoms in all. It tracked the interaction over a period of 0.1 microseconds, an order of magnitude longer than what had been possible before. "Until two years ago 10 nanoseconds was really pushing it," Tajkhorshid said. "Now we are reaching the sub-microsecond regime, and that's why we are seeing more biologically relevant events in our simulations."

The longer time frame meant that the researchers did not need to manipulate the interaction between the molecules. They simply positioned the ADP at the mouth of the carrier protein, some 25 angstroms from the site where they knew it was meant to bind. (An angstrom is one ten-millionth of a meter. Most molecular binding interactions occur at less than 6 or 7 angstroms.) They even placed the ADP upside-down at the mouth of the protein carrier and saw it flip into an orientation that allowed it to bind to the carrier.

The identified binding pocket for ADP explained a lot of known experimental data, and revealed an unusual feature of the carrier protein: Its binding site and the entryway leading to it had an extremely positive electrical charge.

It had a much greater positive charge than any known protein transporter.

This positive charge appears to serve two functions, Tajkhorshid said. First, it allows the protein carrier itself to nestle tightly in the mitochondrial membrane, which contains a lot of negatively charged lipids. Second, it strongly attracts ADP, which carries a negative charge. More interestingly, through a bioinformatics analysis the researchers show that this unusual electrostatic feature is common to all mitochondrial carriers.

Other negatively charged ions can enter the carrier, Tajkhorshid said, but only a molecule with at least two phosphate groups can disrupt the salt bridges to activate it.

This simulation marks the first time that researchers have been able to describe in molecular detail how a protein binds to the molecule that activates it, Tajkhorshid said.
The findings shed light on a fundamental physiological process, he said.

"Any time you move anything in your body, you use ATP," he said. "Many enzymatic reactions also require ATP. In the central nervous system, the transport of hormones, neurotransmitters or other molecules, these are all ATP-dependent."

"It has been estimated that you burn more than your body weight in ATP every day," he said. "So that's how much ATP you have to carry across the inner mitochondrial membrane every day – through this guy."

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics; One More Shoots for Roster Spot Monday Night
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/429370.html
Staff and wire reports - Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 06/30/08

Debbie McDonald of Hailey and her 17-year-old Hanoverian mare Brentina, one of the top dressage teams in United States history, are headed to Beijing for their second straight Olympic appearance.

McDonald finished second Sunday at the USEF National Grand Prix Dressage Championships in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

In August, she will return to an Olympic venue, where she helped the Americans win a team bronze at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece. She finished fourth in the individual competition.

McDonald is the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Games. Boise cyclist Kristin Armstrong, a former world and national champion, qualified last summer and will be a medal-contending rider in August. She finished eighth in the Athens road race in 2004.

Steffen Peters of San Diego, Courtney King of New Milford, Conn., and Leslie Morse, of Beverly Hills, Calif., also earned Olympic berths in dressage Sunday. Peters and King believe the United States has a good chance to win a medal.

“In an Olympic year, everything is a little unpredictable,” Peters said. “Germany and Holland are very strong, but let’s not forget that New England didn’t win the Super Bowl and Big Brown didn’t win the Triple Crown.”

Added King: “There’s going to be a real fight for the bronze medal. The Danish can be pretty strong. The British can be pretty strong. We can be pretty strong. Steffen said, ’Yeah, that’s why we have to go for silver.’ “

Dressage is a series of sequential skills that trains a horse for riding by developing its athletic and performance abilities. It entered the Olympics at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

SYMMONDS RUNS MONDAY NIGHT

Bishop Kelly High graduate Nick Symmonds will run Monday night for his chance to land a spot on the Beijing team. He is in the finals of the 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.

Symmonds can qualify by finishing in the top three.

The final is scheduled to start at 9:25 p.m. MDT. Two-hour television coverage on the USA Network begins at 9:05 p.m.

2008: June 29th Good News (Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug; Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment; more...)

2008-06-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Good Evening all,

I have to update this later. It's been a busy day. Here's what I have so far. Hope you enjoy! :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug (Yahoo News)
2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs (Inventorspot.com)
3. Public Invited to See 500 Year Old Artifacts ( The News Herald)
4. "First" in Solar Heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii (Honolulu Star Bulletin)
5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder (Daily Mirror UK)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment (KHQ-Q6 News)
2. Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future (Science Daily)

Today's Top 5:

1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/ts_nm/cancer_nanoparticles_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
8 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies.

Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects.

They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.

Tests in mice showed it worked against a range of tumors, including breast cancer, neuroblastoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, brain tumors known as glioblastomas and uterine tumors.

It helped stop so-called primary tumors and also prevented their spread, Ofra Benny of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and colleagues reported.

"Using the oral route of administration, it first reaches the liver, making it especially efficient in preventing the development of liver metastasis in mice," they wrote in their report. "Liver metastasis is very common in many tumor types and is often associated with a poor prognosis and survival rate," they added.

'ALMOST CLEAN' LIVERS

"When I looked at the livers of the mice, the treated group was almost clean," Benny said in a statement. "In the control group you couldn't recognize the livers -- they were a mass of tumors."

The drug was known experimentally as TNP-470, and was originally isolated from a fungus called Aspergillus fumigatus fresenius.

Harvards's Donald Ingber discovered the fungus by accident while trying to grow endothelial cells -- the cells that line blood vessels. The mold affected the cells in a way known to prevent the growth of tiny blood vessels known as capillaries.

Ingber and Folkman developed TNP-470 with the help of Takeda Chemical Industries in Japan in 1990.

But the drug affected the brain, causing depression, dizziness and other side-effects. It also did not stay in the body long and required constant infusions. The lab dropped it.

Efforts to improve it did not work well. Then Benny and colleagues tried nanotechnology, attaching two "pom-pom"-shaped polymers to TNP-470, protecting it from stomach acid.

In mice, the altered drug, now named lodamin, went straight to tumor cells and helped suppress melanoma and lung cancer, with no apparent side effects, Benny said.

All untreated mice had fluid in the abdominal cavity, and enlarged livers covered with tumors. Mice treated with lodamin had normal-looking livers and spleens, the researchers said.

Twenty days after being injected with cancer cells, four out of seven untreated mice had died, while all treated mice were still alive, Benny's team reported.

"I had never expected such a strong effect on these aggressive tumor models," she said. The researchers believe lodamin may also be useful in other diseases marked by abnormal blood vessel growth, such as age-related macular degeneration.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs
http://inventorspot.com/articles/researchers_discover_material_absorbs_mercury_broken_fluorescent_15116
Posted June 29th, 2008
By Lisa Zyga

As more households are turning to fluorescent light bulbs for energy-efficient lighting, some people have been worried about the dangers of the mercury that is released into the air when a bulb breaks.

The 3-5 milligrams of mercury vapor inside the bulbs can pose minor health risks to small children and other susceptible individuals, and the area with the broken bulb needs to be carefully and thoroughly cleaned.

Recently, researchers at Brown University have discovered that a material called nanoselenium absorbs about 99% of mercury vapor. Based on this finding, the team has been creating prototypes of mercury-absorbent cloths and packaging that would make it much easier and safer to clean up broken bulbs.

As Engineering Professor Robert Hurt explains, when the selenium atoms bond with the mercury atoms, they form mercury selenide, which is a stable, benign nanoparticle compound. The mercury selenide could be safely discarded and recycled, without contamination or other environmental consequences.

One of the prototypes the researchers developed is a nanoselenium-coated cloth, encompassed by two exterior layers, that would hold the light bulbs in the box, and fully absorb the mercury if one should break during shipping and handling.

An extra cloth could also be included in the packaging, so that if a bulb should break when being screwed in, for example, people could simply lay the cloth on the spot where the bulb broke. The nanoselenium can absorb mercury on carpets, wood floors, and other surfaces.

Because the material is so effective, only a small amount is needed to capture the mercury vapor, making the researchers hope that the cloths could be relatively inexpensive.

"More work is needed," Hurt said, "but this appears to be an inexpensive solution that can remove most of the safety concerns associated with CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs."

via: Brown University

3. Public Invited to See 500-year-old Artifacts
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9039897047310103297&postID=5379989638942367583
BY SHARON McBRAYER
smcbrayer@morganton.com
Sunday, June 29, 2008

MORGANTON - People gathered around a woman and shouts of "hey, hey, hey" went up at the Berry archeological site on Thursday.
David Moore, lead archeologist at the site, was standing about 75 yards away. When he heard the shouts, he made his way over to the group.

What got the crowd excited was a find by Jeane Jones, of Dalton, Ga., of a tiny blue Spanish glass bead believed left behind from the first European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States.

It was the second glass bead found last week. One man found a piece of metal believed to be from the same era.

On July 12, the public will get a chance to take a look at the glass beads and other artifacts found at the site, as well as observe archaeologists at work. Archaeologists will be on hand to discuss the site and lead tours. Primitive skills experts also will demonstrate how native people crafted their weapons and tools.

Warren Wilson College and Western Piedmont Community College Archaeology Field School is sponsoring the open house.

The site will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 12. Admission is free.

Archaeologists believe the Berry site to be the location of the native town of Joara, at which the Spaniard Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan in 1567, 20 years before the "Lost Colony," according to information from field school.

The site is also believed to represent an ancestral Catawba Indian town.

The archaeology field school has concentrated on a one-acre area where 16th century Spanish artifacts and the remains of five burned buildings have been located. Archaeologists believe these burned structures may represent the remains of the Spanish compound, Fort San Juan.

For Jones, working at the Berry site and finding an artifact was thrilling. She and her husband, Walter, signed up to work for a week on the site. The couple has a summer home at Montreat in Black Mountain and kept hearing about the dig. She was screening dirt from an area where a compound structure once stood when she found the bead.

Moore said the Spanish used beads to trade with the natives. But Juan Pardo's group wasn't on a trade mission. They were on a work mission, Moore said.

The mission, Moore said, was to go from the east coast of the U.S. to Mexico, pacifying natives along the route, in order to build a road so silver could be transported from Mexico.

The fort in what is now Burke County was sacked and its buildings burned after relations between the Spaniards and natives soured, according to information from the school.

The site is located on Henderson Mill Road. To get there from downtown Morganton, take Green Street, which turns into N.C. 181. From the Kmart plaza, continue north on N.C. 181 4.1 miles to Goodman Lake Road on the right. Take Goodman Lake Road to the end (1.6 miles) and turn right on Henderson Mill Road. Follow Henderson Mill Road 1.9 miles to the Berry site. Turn right and follow parking signs.

4. ‘First’ in Solar-heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/29/editorial/editorial01.html
29 June, 2008

THE ISSUE
The governor has signed into law a bill requiring developers to install solar water heaters in new homes.

The 50th state is the first in the nation to require solar water heaters to be installed on new single-family homes, which certainly would seem logical to the rest of the country.
In fact, residents of the other 49 would have reason to ask why the state with such plentiful sunshine took so long to adopt the renewable resource for a basic advantage.

It's not for lack of trying. Lawmakers have entertained the idea for five years since Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser first introduced legislation. Environmental organizations, principally the Sierra Club of Hawaii, have been lobbying long and hard at the state Capitol to get enough support, tweaking and amending the measure to win acceptance.

But at least some of the success of the bill, which Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law this week, is due to the economics of oil. When Hooser proposed the bill, oil was selling at $40 a barrel. On Friday afternoon, a barrel traded at an incredible $142.

With Hawaii owning the dubious national distinction of paying the most for electricity -- with the ever-soaring fuel surcharges making up nearly half of the tab -- using the sun to heat water makes sense. Solar devices will cut an estimated $40 to $60 in power costs for a family of four or about 30 percent of a homeowner's monthly bill.

Not everyone is pleased, however. The Building Industry Association of Hawaii, representing developers and contractors, complained the law will increase home prices, but buyers will recoup the difference within a few years and save in the long run because electricity costs will continue to go up. Some smart homebuilders, recognizing consumers' desire for renewable energy systems, already include solar water heaters on their residential units.

Gov. Lingle believes the new law will eliminate state tax credits for older homes, but the bill clearly states that homes that were issued building permits -- which were necessary to put up the houses -- before January 2010, when the law takes effect, can still claim the credit.

Solar water heaters make sense for the island and for the environment. Hawaii should be proud of leading the way.

5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/28/exclusive-the-baby-docs-said-was-dead-after-ultrasound-blunder-89520-20623898/
By Jeremy Armstrong 28/06/2008

Little Leona-Lee Gray has defied all the odds - after her parents were told she had died following a hospital ultrasound blunder.

And yesterday proud mum Catherine Kent and dad Kevin Gray cuddled her and admitted: "She is our little miracle."

Seven weeks into her pregnancy Catherine, 27, who had suffered a miscarriage two years earlier, was told her baby was dead.

She was offered drugs or surgery to remove the foetus, but chose to wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally - a decision that saved Leona-Lee's life. She said: "My instincts were telling me something was wrong - I had the morning sickness and felt pregnant.

"I went back to Sunderland General Hospital and told them my concerns.

"I had another ultrasound. When I looked at the screen, I could make out a shape swimming about in the black and white lines. My baby was alive."

Six months on, Leona-Lee Gray was born weighing a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and is now settling in at the family home in Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham.

Her parents say she is the "spitting image" of big sister Chanelle, seven, and brother Kane, four, is "very excited".

Kevin, 28, said: "The baby is just champion. She is healthy as anything. But because we thought she had died it made the pregnancy a hundred times worse because of the stress."

Catherine shudders to think what might have been. "What if I had taken the tablets they offered me?," she said.

"They could have left my baby severely disabled, or it could have died. They could have aborted my baby while it was alive."

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust has launched an inquiry.

Honorable Mentions:
1.Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment
http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=8550979
Posted: June 24, 2008 07:03 PM
Updated: June 27, 2008 01:16 PM

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. - A Marine Reservist, a 17-year old teenager and his father are being called heroes after they saved two toddlers from a burning apartment building Tuesday night.

Fire officials say the fire broke out on the second floor of the apartment complex just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, near East 8th Avenue and South Pines.

One mother of two small children, a 2- and 3-year old, was in the shower when she saw smoke coming into the bathroom. She ran to find her kids but the smoke and heat forced her out of the building.

John Higginson, an ex-marine, was across the street at his apartment when he heard a smoke alarm sound and someone screaming, "Someone call 911!" After calling 911 he ran across the street where he heard a woman screaming, "My kids are up there!"

Higginson says he ran to investigate and found 17-year old Alex Suchanek and his father already trying to get into the building.

Suchanek says he'd just finished walking his girlfriend home when he noticed a mass of black smoke outside and heard his neighbor screaming there was a fire, and that her kids were trapped inside. He and his father sprang to action.

The intense heat and smoke inside the building forced the three towards the balcony outside. The marine and the teenager started climbing.

Suchanek broke down an outer door so they could get inside. Then, with a wet towel over his face, using a cell phone as a flashlight, Higginson went into the apartment and found the children by following coughing noises.

Higginson took each child to the balcony where Suchanek was waiting to drop them down to his father below.

Crews say one of the children was not breathing after being rescued, but was resuscitated on-scene and taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

One of the children, a girl, is listed in serious condition. The other, a boy, is listed in satisfactory condition. Both are expected to make a full recovery.

When asked what compelled him to risk his life to save the children, Suchanek said, "I was just concerned about the kids. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something...at least try to help the kids out."

When asked if he was comfortable being called a hero, Higginson chuckled and told reporters, "I served the last ten years in the Marine Corp Reserve. I just got back from Iraq and I still don't accept the title hero for that...I did what anybody should have done, just like Alex."

2.Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626145543.htm
ScienceDaily
June 28, 2008

Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.

K-State's Zhijian "Z.J." Pei, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Wenqiao "Wayne" Yuan, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, have received a $98,560 Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to study solid carriers for manufacturing algae biofuels in the ocean.

Algae are a diverse and simple group of organisms that live in or near water. Certain algal species are high in oil content that could be converted into such fuels as biodiesel, according to Pei and Yuan. Algae also have several environmentally-friendly advantages over corn or other plants used for biofuels, including not needing soil or fresh water to grow.

Pei and Yuan plan to identify attributes of algae and properties of materials that enable growth of certain algae species on solid carriers. Solid carriers float on the water surface for algae to attach to and grow on.

"Not all materials are equally suitable to make these carriers," Yuan said. "Some materials are better for algal attachment and growth than others, and we will be identifying what those 'good' materials are."

The project could help with the design of major equipment for manufacturing algae biofuels from the ocean, including solid carriers, in-the-ocean algae harvesting equipment and oil extraction machines, Pei said.

"This research aims to develop a cost-effective process for growing algae on solid carriers in the ocean for biofuel manufacturing," he said. "If successful, it will greatly benefit the energy security of the United States, as well as society in general."

The research will be conducted with a two-step approach.

"Selected algae species will be grown on solid carriers in a simulated ocean environment and will be evaluated for their ability to attach to solid carriers and grow in seawater, their biomass productivity, and their oil content," Pei said. "Top-ranked species in step one will be selected to test the performance of several carrier materials, including natural organic, synthetic organic and inorganic materials, with the same evaluation parameters as in step one."

Pei said the properties of the highly-ranked carriers also will be analyzed.

Yuan, who has studied biodiesel for several years, said the major problem with making the fuel has been finding sustainable oil and fat sources.

"Algae seems to be the only promising sustainable oil source for biodiesel production," he said. "In my lab, we have several different projects involving algae and we have been trying different ways to grow it. We have already obtained some encouraging results."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adapted from materials provided by Kansas State University, via Newswise.

2008: June 28th Good News (Transplant Recipient Completes Yosemite Ascent; Amsterdam Votes to Ban Polluting Cars from City Center; more...)

2008-06-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all,

I bet you've been wondering where I've been. Well, let's just say I had a 2 week "honeymoon" with my husband, who arrived in country (Korea) on the 13th. After not having seen him since February (and since it's the first time we'll be living together for longer than one month) we had a LOT to catch up on. So, although it was an unplanned sebattical, it was wonderful, and much needed! ;)

Anyway, I'm back and I have plenty of stories for you today, including one recommended by a reader. I hope you enjoy today's stories!

Today'S Good News:
1. Sick Children Get Royal Treatment (Tampa Bay Online)
2. Transplant Recipient Completes Yosemite Ascent (Yahoo News)
3. Biologist Rescues Black Bear (Florida Today)
4. 4,500 Year Old Mummies Discovered in Chile (Sify News)
5. Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming (Science Daily)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Amsterdam Votes to Ban Polluting Cars from City Centre (Earth Times)
2. Boaters Rescue Pilot after Pontoon Plane Flips on Columbia River (KGW.com)
3. New Fossils of Extremely Primitive 4 Legged Creatures Close the Gap Between Fish and Land Anmials (Science Daily)
4. Ancient Royal Structure Found in Northern Iran
5. Recyclers Get Bike for Needy Child (The Telegram)

Recommended by a Reader:
1. The Power of One is Greater than None (Fire Mountain Gems)

Unpublishable:
1. This Little Piggy was Rescued from the Middle of I-94 in St. Paul
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=516499
June 28, 2008
Copyright 2008 by KARE 11. All rights reserved
This is a story about a pig that fell out of the truck that was carrying it, and landed on a freeway. Someone in another vehicle saw the pig, stopped to rescue it, and took it to the animal shelter where the animal is recovering. It's a very cute story, complete with picture. I recommend stopping by the link for a look.

2. Dentist's Staff Saddle up to Beat Gas Costs
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25405842/
26 June 2008
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This article is about a Dentist office in Arlington Washington that took a stand against high gas prices, by deciding, as a group, to ride their horses into work.

Today's Top 5:
1. Sick Children Get Royal Treatment
http://northwest2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/28/nw-sick-children-get-royal-treatment/?news
By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 28, 2008

TAMPA - Almost a dozen pageant winners, dazzling in their stylish dresses and impeccable makeup, plunked themselves down across from sick young girls at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital last week. The pageant queens painstakingly painted nails and applied blush to the girls' faces.

Outside, Tampa Fire Rescue firefighters hoisted hospitalized young boys up onto a gleaming red truck. Some boys, yanked at the steering wheel, while others, in hospital pajamas and plastic firefighter helmets, climbed on the back. Some were still attached to IVs.

Two to three times a year, hospital administrators schedule a kids day like this.

"It's my job to make sure the kids are doing well," said Lisa Andrew, the hospital's child-life specialist, who coordinated the day.

And this day was a crowning achievement.

Girls, some not so sick, others very sick, got the full queen treatment. "It is queen for a day for the girls," she said, "and hero for a day for the boys."

Between 25 and 35 children were sprung from their rooms to go down to the lobby and take part in the party. They made arts and crafts and buddied up with blue-shirted firefighters and paramedics.

Two-year-old Austin Justice of Tampa just couldn't get enough of the fire truck. He falls into the "not very sick" category, having just had his tonsils out. He beamed as he sat behind the steering wheel of the truck.

"He loves fire trucks," said his mom, Micheal. "He loves to drive, too."

Leah Campanella runs the Tampa chapter of Queen for a Day, a nonprofit national organization. She said such events, in which pageant winners are called into service, happen several times a year. Pageant queens from as far away as Lakeland, Pasco County and Clearwater participated in the event.

"We're here to pamper the kids," she said.

At one table, 3-year-old Savannah Allison, bald from treatment for an undisclosed disease, had a serious look. She let Miss Pasco County Fair, Lisa Noury, paint on nail polish and brush on some blush, but Savannah wanted to dab on her own lipstick.

Noury, 19, said she has done about four such events during her tenure. She could only grin at her young charge as Savannah pursed her lips and looked into a mirror. "She's having a ball with that lipstick," Noury said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

2. Transplant Recipient Completes Yosemite Ascent
http://www.sofomo.com/US-English/dejanews/Top-News/Default.aspx
By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - A heart transplant survivor has added another first to her long string of mountaineering feats since getting a new heart 13 years ago — a dangerous 2 1/2-day climb up the sheer, 2,000-foot face of Half Dome,

Yosemite National Park's famed granite monolith.

Kelly Perkins, 46, and her husband, Craig, led by big-wall guide Scott Stowe, began the climb Thursday and reached the top of the iconic 8,842-foot-high dome Saturday afternoon.

The ascent completed an important circle for her. In 1996, 10 months out of the hospital with her new heart, she finished the first of many post-transplant climbs by hiking up the easier backside of Half Dome.

"I feel great. Physically, I feel I'm stronger than I've ever been," Perkins said by cell phone from the top of Half Dome.

"It was a great full circle for me to climb the other side. It was a tricky climb, but it also was a very interesting and beautiful climb."

Since 1996, Perkins has become the first person with another person's heart to summit some of the world's best-known peaks — California's Mount Whitney, Switzerland's Matterhorn, Japan's Mount Fuji, Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro and the face of Yosemite's El Capitan. She also climbed a remote peak in the Andes, near Argentina's border with Chile, and New Zealand's Mount Rolling Pin.

Perkins says she chose Half Dome for her latest climb "because it's broken in half but it still stands strong. There's a spirit-building message there. You may not be 100 percent, but you can still be as strong as others. I'm out there doing things and not worried about being within driving distance of the nearest hospital."

With each ascent, the 5-foot-2, 103-pound Perkins tries to get across the message that transplants can save lives and that transplant recipients can still lead active lives. She also wrote a book, published in 2007, about her struggles, achievements and goals.

Perkins' heart started failing in 1992 after she and her husband returned from a backpacking trip in Europe. The former Lake Tahoe resident, now living in Laguna Niguel, Calif., contracted a virus that made her so weak that Craig had to carry her around their home.

Found to have cardiomyopathy, which inflames heart muscles, Perkins got a new heart at UCLA Medical Center in November 1995 from a woman in her 40s who died in a fall from a horse.

Dr. Jon Kobashigawa, medical director of UCLA Medical Center's transplant program, said he knows of no other woman with a heart transplant who has achieved one high-elevation climb after another, as Perkins has. He likened her to "a type of Lance Armstrong."

Perkins faces problems not encountered by other mountaineers. Transplanted hearts usually lack nerves linking them to the brain, which means Perkins' heart doesn't know when her muscles need more oxygen. She suffers severe shortness of breath until she can establish a pace.

But Kobashigawa said Perkins, through an arduous exercise regimen, may have regrown some of those nerves, enabling a partial response to physical demands on her donor heart. "Sheer will" also is a key factor, he said.

On her ascents, she also has to bring something needed by few other climbers — a backpack crammed with prescription drugs, medical supplies and blood-pressure monitoring gear.

"It's not that I'm a great climber or super-athletic," she said. "I just do my best. What it really represents is that I have the freedom and opportunity and good health to do this, to go out and fully live life, not sit back."

"Someone asked me how long I'm going to do this, now that I'm 46 years old. What am I supposed to do? Roll over and play dead? My time was up before. Now I'm fully functioning and stronger than I've ever been. I'm not slowing down in any way until my body finally tells me, 'No.'"

___

On the Internet:

Kelly Perkins: http://www.theclimbofmylife.com

3. Biologist Rescues Black Bear
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080628/BREAKINGNEWS/80628020/1086/rss07
ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 28, 2008

APALACHICOLA — A Florida Fish and Wildlife biologist pulled off a daring rescue Saturday in the Panhandle: He rescued a bear.

Officials say a 375-pound male black bear was seen roaming a residential neighborhood near Alligator Point. The bear was hit with a tranquilizer dart, but he managed to bolt into the Gulf of Mexico before he was sedated.

As the tranquilizer drugs took effect, FWC biologist Adam Warwick jumped in to keep the bear from drowning. He managed to get the bear to shore, and then a backhoe operator helped load the animal to a truck. The bear was relocated to Osceola National Forest near Lake City.

4. 4,500-year-old Mummies Discovered in Chile
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14704621
Saturday, 28 June , 2008, 10:55

Santiago: Eight perfectly preserved mummies, believed to be some 4,500 year old, were found by workers engaged in a restoration project in Chile's far north, Spain's EFE news agency reported on Saturday quoting media report.

"These mummies date back to between 2,000 BC and 5,000 BC." archaeologist Calogero Santoro told the daily El Mercurio.

The mummies are remains of individuals belonging to the Chinchorro culture, which was one of the first to practice mummification and the perfect condition in which the mummies were found is indicative of their advanced techniques. Three of the eight skeletons have been kept on the site in the Morro de Arica site for visitors to see while the other five were taken to Tarapaca University in northern Chile, where other mummies found in previous years are preserved.

Morro de Arica is known for its mummies. Several hundred of them, some as old as 7,000 years, were discovered in 1983 in the area. In 2005, University of Tarapaca archaeologists found 50 Chinchorro mummies, dating back to 4,000 B.C., during the demolition of a house.

The unusually large number of mummies found in the sector indicate that one of the oldest Chinchorro cemeteries may have been located there. The Chinchorros are presumed to have died out or migrated in the first century AD.

The mummies found in northern Chile date back even earlier than the ones discovered in Egypt, making them one of the world's oldest.

5. Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080627163041.htm
ScienceDaily
June 28, 2008

The battle to reduce carbon emissions is at the heart of many eco-friendly efforts, and researchers from the University of Missouri have discovered that nature has been lending a hand. Researchers at the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory in the Department of Forestry discovered that trees submerged in freshwater aquatic systems store carbon for thousands of years, a significantly longer period of time than trees that fall in a forest, thus keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.

“If a tree is submerged in water, its carbon will be stored for an average of 2,000 years,” said Richard Guyette, director of the MU Tree Ring Lab and research associate professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “If a tree falls in a forest, that number is reduced to an average of 20 years, and in firewood, the carbon is only stored for one year.”

The team studied trees in northern Missouri, a geographically unique area with a high level of riparian forests (forests that have natural water flowing through them). They discovered submerged oak trees that were as old as 14,000 years, potentially some of the oldest discovered in the world. This carbon storage process is not just ancient; it continues even today as additional trees become submerged, according to Guyette.

While a tree is alive, it has a high ability to store carbon, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. However, as it begins to decay, a tree’s carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Discovering that certain conditions slow this process reveals the importance of proper tree disposal as well as the benefits of riparian forests.

“Carbon plays a huge role in climate change and information about where it goes will be very important someday soon,” said

Michael C. Stambaugh, research associate in the MU Department of Forestry. “The goal is to increase our knowledge of the carbon cycle, particularly its exchange between the biosphere (plants) and atmosphere. We need to know where it goes and for how long in order to know how to offset its effects.”

This could be a valuable find for landowners. Although it is not yet common in North America, emissions trading has been gaining popularity in parts of Europe. Also known as cap and trade, emissions trading works to reduce pollution by setting a limit on the amount of pollutants an organization can emit into the air. If they exceed that number, the group is required to obtain carbon credits. One carbon credit equals one metric ton of carbon-dioxide or other equivalent greenhouse gases.

Carbon credits can be purchased in a variety of ways. Such as: planting new trees or harvesting old wood that has stored carbon; collecting methane from landfills; or purchasing credits from other companies who have a carbon surplus by staying below their emission requirements.

This week, the California Air Resources Board announced the consideration of a large plan to fight global warming. The recommendations include reducing emissions, in part by requiring major polluters to trade carbon credits.

“Farmers can sell the carbon they have stored in their trees through a carbon credit stock market,” Guyette said. “Companies that emit excess of carbon would be able to buy carbon credits to offset their pollution.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal reference:

Guyette et al. The Temporal Distribution and Carbon Storage of Large Oak Wood in Streams and Floodplain Deposits. Ecosystems,

2008; 11 (4): 643 DOI: 10.1007/s10021-008-9149-9
Adapted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Amsterdam Votes to Ban Polluting Cars from City Centre
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/215347,amsterdam-votes-to-ban-polluting-cars-from-city-centre.html
Posted : Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:08:04 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Environment

Amsterdam - Amsterdam City Council voted in favour of a bill Friday to ban polluting cars like sports utility vehicles (SUVs) from entering the old city centre. The opposition parties criticized the bill, which it called an "antisocial car plan, instead of a plan to improve the air quality in Amsterdam."

In several parts of Amsterdam city centre the air quality is below the acceptable level. Local politicians have been looking for ways to reduce car traffic.

By prohibiting polluting cars from entering the city, the air quality must improve within the next two years, the councillors said.

Minister for Infrastructure and Traffic Camiel Eurlings (Christian Democrat) said he favoured the government initiating a national policy to improve air quality rather than allowing individual Dutch cities to initiate their own policies.

Previously, the city of Leiden near The Hague prohibited SUVs from entering the city centre.

2. Boaters Rescue Pilot after Pontoon Plane Flips on Columbia River
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_062708_news_pontoon_plane_columbia.4663208d.html06:50 PM PDT on Friday, June 27, 2008
By kgw.com Staff
Pontoon plane flips RAINIER, Ore. -- Boaters helped rescue a pilot after his pontoon plane flipped on the Columbia River Friday afternoon.
Columbia River Fire said the plane flipped upside down while trying to land near the city docks around 5:30 p.m. The pilot was the only person onboard.
Boaters were able to pull the pilot to safety, he suffered minor injuries.

3. New Fossils of Extremely Primitive 4-Legged Creatures Close the Gap Between Fish and Land Animals
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140643.htm
ScienceDaily
June 27, 2008

New exquisitely preserved fossils from Latvia cast light on a key event in our own evolutionary history, when our ancestors left the water and ventured onto land.

Swedish researcher Per Ahlberg from Uppsala University and colleagues have reconstructed parts of the animal and explain the transformation in the new issue of Nature.

It has long been known that the first backboned land animals or "tetrapods" - the ancestors of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including ourselves - evolved from a group of fishes about 370 million years ago during the Devonian period.

However, even though scientists had discovered fossils of tetrapod-like fishes and fish-like tetrapods from this period, these were still rather different from each other and did not give a complete picture of the intermediate steps in the transition.

In 2006 the situation changed dramatically with the discovery of an almost perfectly intermediate fish-tetrapod, Tiktaalik, but even so a gap remained between this animal and the earliest true tetrapods (animals with limbs rather than paired fins).

Now, new fossils of the extremely primitive tetrapod Ventastega from the Devonian of Latvia cast light on this key phase of the transition.

"Ventastega was first described from fragmentary material in 1994; since then, excavations have produced lots of new superbly preserved fossils, allowing us to reconstruct the whole head, shoulder girdle and part of the pelvis", says Professor Per Ahlberg at the Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Uppsala University.

The recontructions made by Professor Ahlberg and Assistant Professor Henning Blom together with British and Latvian colleagues show that Ventastega was more fish-like than any of its contemporaries, such as Acanthostega. The shape of its skull, and the pattern of teeth in its jaws, are neatly intermediate between those of Tiktaalik and Acanthostega.

"However, the shoulder girdle and pelvis are almost identical to those of Aanthostega, and the shoulder girdle is quite different from that of Tiktaalik (the pelvis of Tiktaalik is unknown), suggesting that the transformation from paired fins to limbs had already occurred. It appears that different parts of the body evolved at different speeds during the transition from water to land", says Per Ahlberg.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal reference:

Per E. Ahlberg, Jennifer A. Clack, Ervins Luksevics, Henning Blom, Ivars Zupins. Ventastega curonica and the origin of

tetrapod morphology. Nature, 2008; 453 (7199): 1199 DOI: 10.1038/nature06991
Adapted from materials provided by Uppsala University.

4. Ancient Royal Structure Found in Northern Iran
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=61722§ionid=351020105
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:20:32

Iranian archeologists have unearthed an ancient royal structure in the city of Natel located in the northern Mazandaran Province. The quadrangular structure has a number of rooms, surrounded with porticos and a trench, which was filled with water and used to protect the building from attacks.

The monument was constructed with high quality materials and fortified with mortar and three-coat plastering. Findings show that the building previously had beautiful architectural decorations and was ruined during battles.

The first phase of Natel archeological excavations also yielded a six-meter deep trench, built with large stones, mud, lime and plaster, which surrounds the entire city. The city of Natel, located at the heart of Iran's northern forests and west of Mazanadran Province, was destroyed during the Safavid era.

TE/HGH

5. Recyclers Get Bike for Needy Child
http://www.telegram.com/article/20080626/NEWS/806260593/1004/NEWS04
Betty Lilyestrom (508) 892-3454
blilyestrom@telegram.com
Thursday, June 26th 2008

Leicester’s recycling guru, Ruth L. Kaminski, e-mailed the Notebook with a tale about a young immigrant boy whose life she had a hand in recycling.

It seems she heard about a 9-year-old who had just come to town from Santo Domingo with his mother, a former schoolteacher who had been in a bad accident and was handicapped and in a wheelchair. The boy knows no one and just sits on the steps of his apartment complex, watching the other children ride their bikes.

“I stood at Recycling last Saturday telling this story over and over,” she said. “And then John McNaboe brought us a bike that was perfect for a 9-year-old boy — but it needed a new tire. A lady who would not give her name left Recycling, went to cash in her returnable bottles and came back with enough money from the proceeds to purchase a new tire and to buy a helmet, too!

“This is why we keep coming back here for 17 years, every other Saturday,” Ms. Kaminski said. “Miracles happen all the time.”

For those who don’t know, the Recycling Center on Mannville Street is open from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first, third and fifth Saturdays each month.

And something else to warm your heart — the annual Summer Concert Series will begin next Wednesday on the concert stage at the Town Common. All the concerts will be held on Wednesday evenings unless it rains, in which case they will be held the following evening, in Town Hall if necessary. Concert hours are 7 to 9 p.m. in July, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in August.

The schedule:

July 2, Blackstone Valley Concert Band; Patriotic Concert July 9; Blackstone Valley Bluegrass Band, Bluegrass Night July 16;

The Little Big Band, 40s Swing Concert, July 23; The Pulaski Brass Band Polkas Show, Old Fashioned Band Concert, July 30;

Caribbean for Kids, Fun Program for Children, Aug. 6, Kathy’s Clown, 50s Rock n’ Roll and Cruise Night, Aug. 13; Changes in

Latitude, Buffet Concert, Aug. 20; Mickey Bones and the Hot Tamale Brass Band, Louisiana Jazz Night, Aug. 27.

The project is funded by a grant from the Leicester Arts Council, the Leicester Savings Bank Fund, the McKenna Insurance Co., Country Bank for Savings and audience donations.

Recommended by a Reader:

1. The Power of One is Greater than None:
Mission to Rescue Children from Slavery in Ghana
http://www.firemountaingems.com/aboutus/whatserupting_article.asp?docid=8556&WT.fmg_linksection=575EQO8K1B04&WT.mc_id=NL080624_2 24 June 2008 by Jamie S., Marketing Group

It all began during a school break in April 2007, when eight fourteen-year-old friends from Long Island, NY saw an Oprah episode titled "The Little Boy Oprah Couldn't Forget" featuring a story about enslaved children in Ghana, Africa.

In Ghana, hundreds of children are being sold for as little as $20 into a life of servitude in the fishing trade. They are forced to labor over 15 hours a day rowing huge boats and retrieving miles of filthy fishing nets from the deep waters. Alone, they must endure harsh, dangerous conditions. The children are lucky if they are fed one meal a day and they have no possessions, not even themselves. Their lives consist of excruciating work, fear and isolation.

After watching this moving Oprah episode, the girls were heartbroken knowing this kind of thing was happening, so they decided to raise money to help with the rescue efforts to free enslaved children. Even though they had limited financial and material resources, they were determined to make a difference. For months, the girls talked about starting a charity, but they couldn't answer all of the "who, what, when, where and how" questions. However, each one of them deeply understood the most important question, "Why?"

The girls learned about the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that established a program for people to sponsor the effort of rescuing trafficked children. The girls discovered that they would have to come up with $4,300 to save just one child. The $4,300 is used for initially rescuing one child from brutally dangerous and inhumane conditions. Any remaining money goes towards providing him/her with 2-1/2 years of safe shelter, food, warmth and invaluable education. Even so, it seemed like an insurmountable amount to the teenage girls, but they were determined to succeed.

As the girls worked together, they asked themselves, "What if we can only raise enough to save one child?" That was when they all agreed, "If all our efforts can only save one child, then one is better than none." This simple statement was the beginning of their name, One is Greater than None™ (1>0).

The 1>0 girls decided that the best way to raise money and awareness was by using their jewelry-making skills to make bracelets and necklaces to sell. With every sale, they would not only educate people on what is going on in fishing villages of Ghana, but they would also start to build the amount necessary to save that one child. Their necklace design features eight wooden beads, representing each girl in the 1>0 group, and a single recycled glass bead; made in Ghana; that sits in the center representing a child the 1>0 girls are working to set free.

Jewelry-making supplies can be expensive, and the large scope of raising $4,300 to save just one child made it hard to part with any money they had to buy beads and cord for making jewelry to sell. That was when the girls approached Fire Mountain Gems and Beads to help in any way they could. Fire Mountain Gems and Beads heartily responded to the 1>0 girls' cause by donating gemstone beads and stringing materials to get the girls started on their mission to save children.

All eight of the 1>0 girls committed themselves to making thousands of handmade bracelets and necklaces after school. Their jewelry was packaged on simple cards that shared the story behind their cause and directed people to their website, www.oneisbetterthannone.org where more information could be found about their mission and why they were doing it.

So many great things have come from what the 1>0 girls have started. A fantastic website was generously donated, which increased their ability to sell handmade jewelry and 1>0 clothing that tells the story of the enslaved children of Ghana. Other donations that helped them succeed in raising money included printing, legal consultation and photography by people wanting to contribute in any way they can to help save the trafficked children in Ghana.

Through overwhelming nationwide support, the girls were quickly able to raise enough money to save one child, then a second. Their cause was soon discovered and published by Teen Vogue, CBS News, ABC News and The Martha Stewart Show. After such support from the press, the 1>0 girls' proceeds were enough to save an amazing total of eight more children! Of the 36 children freed in the rescue mission in January of 2008, eight of them were sponsored by the effort spearheaded by the 1>0 girls. Shortly after that, they earned enough to return for two more children. Within six months, 1>0 raised enough money to save 10 more children, and the girls hope to sponsor a full rescue mission, a minimum of 25 children, soon.

There are still over 424 children working for 800 fishermen on five islands in Ghana. Through the sale of jewelry, 1>0 clothing and donations, they hope to be able to sponsor more rescues in the near future.

Throughout their website and in interviews, the girls say over and over, "Your support, whether it's a donation or a purchase, is telling these children that they have not been forgotten. It's because of YOU that a child will receive that soft tap on the shoulder by a rescuer telling them 'It's over. Your nightmare is over and we have come to take you home.' That $1 donation, that 1 bracelet or necklace, that 1 article of clothing from the apparel line is giving a child their life back."

The girls won't quit until every child is set free. You can help. A purchase of one bracelet can make a difference to these children. The 1>0 girls have proven that. They encourage each person to be a part of the equation. If you would like more information, updates or want to take part in the 1>0 efforts to free children in Ghana, visit their website at www.oneisgreaterthannone.org. The website has a link to a video on YouTube of the girls' first year, showing how the simple task of making jewelry turned into an amazing year of thousands of people becoming "part of the equation."

2008: June 14th Good News ($20 Million Biodiversity Protection in Madagascar; 1780 British Warship Found in Lake Ontario; more...)

2008-06-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

Good Evening all,

My husband arrived 2 nights ago. I'm so happy that he's finally here. Unfortunately for all of you, that means I am devoting much less time to the news. However, my husband fully supports my news blog, and I did find some articles for you today. :)

I hope you enjoy.

Today's Top 5:

1. Monumental Debt-for-Nature Swap Provides $20 Million to Protect Biodiversity in Madagascar (Science Daily)
2. US Coast Guard Rescues Charity Rowers (UK Reuters)
3. 1780 British Warship Found in Lake (Channel 14 News)
4. Dollar Rises Most Since 2005 as Bernanke Cites Reduced (Bloomberg)
5. Yemen Launches Restoration Project of Qishleh Building in Saada

Honorable Mention:
1. Mysterious Mountain Dino May be a New Species (Biology News)

Today's Top 5:

1. Monumental Debt-for-Nature Swap Provides $20 Million to Protect Biodiversity in Madagascar
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080612170515.htm
ScienceDaily
Jun. 14, 2008

The largest debt-for-nature swap agreement in Madagascar’s history was just signed between the Government of Madagascar and the Government of France, allocating roughly $20 million (13 million Euros) to preserve Madagascar’s rich biodiversity, WWF has announced.

“This initiative is an excellent example of innovative financing for sustainable development,” said Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, acting regional representative for WWF in Madagascar. “Increasing funding to the endowment of the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity means support for the protected areas' recurrent costs will be available long term. Stable and predictable revenues are critical to win the battle against deforestation and biodiversity loss in Madagascar.”

The new agreement is part of Madagascar’s ambitious national effort, pledged by President Ravalomanana, to triple the size of the country’s protected areas. The funds will be managed through the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity—a conservation trust fund established by WWF, Conservation International and the Government of Madagascar to support the country’s distinct ecosystems and extraordinary wildlife. With this agreement, the fund has reached its endowment target of $50 million.

Nearly 98 percent of Madagascar’s land mammals, 92 percent of its reptiles, and 80 percent of its plants are found nowhere else on earth. WWF has been active in Madagascar for more than three decades, providing local communities with the support necessary to manage natural resources effectively. Madagascar’s ecosystems provide essential services that support local communities and an array of economic activities. WWF’s vision is to protect, restore and maintain Madagascar’s unique biodiversity in harmony with the culture and livelihoods of the people who live there.

With 70 percent of Madagascar’s population living below the poverty line, the country is one of the poorest in the world. Burdened with high levels of debt, Madagascar has limited domestic resources to address environmental degradation and preserve its unique and globally significant biodiversity. Debt-for-nature swaps, such as this one, are designed to free up resources in debtor countries for much needed conservation activities.

This historic agreement demonstrates the commitment of both the French and Malagasy governments to protect biodiversity in Madagascar and serves as a prime example of a debt-for-nature swap success that other nations can follow.

About the Madagascar Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity

The Madagascar Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity was created in 2005 to support sustainable financing for protecting, maintaining and expanding Madagascar’s protected areas network, including certain buffer zones and ecological corridors, and ultimately to reduce the dependence on external project assistance. The Foundation is already widely recognized as a “model” foundation for Africa and an anchor for sustainable financing of Madagascar’s protected areas system.

As a founding partner, WWF has contributed to the Foundation’s capital and has played a leading role in establishing its legal and operational framework according to the best practices and the highest international standards for environmental funds.

2. U.S. Coast Guard Rescues Charity Rowers
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1459154220080614?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:47pm BST

(Reuters) - Four Britons attempting to row across the Atlantic for charity have been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after their boat capsized, British officials said.

The 29-foot boat of rowers Chris Jenkins, Tim Garrent, Wayne Davey and Joby Newton capsized 420 nautical miles east of Cape Cod early on Saturday, while the men were in the boat's two cabins.

"The crew have been taken aboard the Gulf Grace at 8 a.m. -- we understand all are relatively safe and well, but suffering slight hypothermia," British coastguards said in a statement.

The Britons had been attempting to row from New York to the Isles of Scilly to try to break the record of 55 days set in 1896 by George Harboe and Frank Samuelson on a route that has only been successfully completed six times.

The four men, who had been expected to each burn around 10,000 calories a day rowing two hours on, two hours off, day and night, had so raised nearly 75,000 pounds for four different charities after leaving New York on June 1.

(Reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Alison Williams)

3. 1780 British Warship Found in Lake
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/1780+british+warship+found+in+lake/2286357
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2008

A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario.

HMS Ontario was astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers said.

Shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville used side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible to locate the ship, which was lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale in 1780.

These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.

4. Dollar Rises Most Since 2005 as Bernanke Cites Reduced Risk
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aODhO7EgV6SE
By Bo Nielsen

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar rose the most against the euro since 2005 as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said economic risks have faded, raising speculation policy makers will increase borrowing costs this year to contain inflation.

The greenback rose to a one-month high this week as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson declined to rule out intervention to support the dollar and U.S. retail sales increased in May twice as much as economists forecast. Group of Eight finance ministers meeting today in Japan stuck to their practice of not making a joint comment on currencies when central bankers are absent from the talks.

``Risks to U.S. growth have been reduced, and the market is now thinking the Fed will hike in August,'' said Meg Browne, a senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. ``That's a big shift, and the effect on the dollar was positive.''

The dollar increased 2.5 percent to $1.5380 per euro, from $1.5778 on June 6. It touched $1.5303, the strongest level since May 8. The U.S. currency rose 3 percent to 108.19 against the yen, from 104.93, and touched 108.38, the highest since Feb. 14. It was the biggest gain since December 2004. Japan's currency fell for a fifth consecutive week against the euro, decreasing 0.6 percent to 166.35, from 165.64. It's the longest stretch of gains since October.

``We've seen a very sharp reversal of sentiment about the dollar,'' said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency research at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. ``The U.S. economy seems reasonably resilient, and the Fed is beginning to look hawkish.''

Chinese Yuan

The Chinese yuan rose for a second consecutive week versus the dollar, increasing 0.3 percent to 6.9022, on speculation policy makers are seeking a stronger currency to control inflation. The U.S. wants China to keep allowing its currency to rise against the dollar and will discuss that stance in talks next week in Maryland, said Alan Holmer, the U.S. Treasury's top China negotiator, in a briefing in Washington yesterday.

The Australian dollar fell 2.6 percent this week against its U.S. counterpart, the biggest decline in almost three months, and the New Zealand currency declined 2.4 percent, for its third consecutive weekly decrease. Traders speculated an increase in U.S. interest rates will narrow the yield advantage of Australian and New Zealand debt.

Fed funds futures on the Chicago Board of Trade show a 60 percent chance the U.S. central bank will increase the 2 percent target lending rate by at least a quarter-percentage point at its August meeting, compared with 9 percent odds a week ago. There are 21 percent odds policy makers will lift the rate to 3 percent by December.

Yield Spread

The yield advantage of a two-year German bund over a comparable Treasury note fell to 1.58 percentage points, making dollar-denominated assets more attractive. The difference was 2.26 percentage points on June 6, the widest since 1993.

``People are getting ahead of themselves'' betting on Fed rate increases, said David Powell, a currency strategist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. ``The dollar is a bit overshot at this stage.'' He predicted the Fed will raise borrowing costs to 2.25 percent this year.

U.S. retail sales increased 1 percent in May, following a revised 0.4 percent advance the prior month, the Commerce Department reported on June 12. Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent last month after a 0.2 percent increase in April, the Labor Department reported yesterday in Washington.

``The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished,'' Bernanke said in a speech at a Boston Fed conference on June 9. ``The Federal Open Market Committee will strongly resist an erosion of longer-term inflation expectations.''

Bernanke on Currency

Bernanke said on June 3 that he's aware of the impact a falling currency can have on price expectations. Paulson said in an interview with CNBC on June 9 that he would ``never'' rule out currency intervention.

The 15-nation euro weakened yesterday as Irish voters turned down the European Union's new governing treaty, a setback for the bloc's plans to strengthen its global voice.

Paulson and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde spoke in favor of a strong dollar at the Group of Eight meeting.

``A strong dollar is in our nation's interest,'' Paulson said. Lagarde said she was ``happy to hear'' that view. Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said intervention in the currency market wasn't discussed by the G-8 ministers.

The last time the major industrialized countries intervened was on Sept. 22, 2000, when they bought the euro after it tumbled 27 percent from its 1999 debut. They last propped up the dollar in 1995, when it sank almost 20 percent in four months against the Japanese yen to a post-World War II low of 79.95. Central banks intervene in currency markets by arranging purchases or sales of foreign exchange.

The yen weakened this week after Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his six colleagues left the overnight lending rate at 0.5 percent, the lowest among major economies, in a unanimous vote in Tokyo.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bo Nielsen in New York at bnielsen4@bloomberg.net

5. Yemen Launches Restoration Project of Qishleh Building in Saada
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news156626.htm
[14 June 2008]

SAADA, June 14 (Saba)- Governor of Saada Hassen Mana'a laid down on Saturday foundation stone for final phase of the Restoration Project of al-Qishleh Building, one of the most important historical monuments and archaeological cite of Saada at a cost of 25 million Riyals funded by the local council in province.

The governor said that al-Qishleh is one of the most important tourist attractions and destinations to attract a lot of tourists during their visit to the city of Saada which is located at the top of a hill at the center of the city.

It is one of the most prominent historical monuments and archaeological sites in Saada governorate.

SA/AM

Saba

Honorable Mention:

1. Mysterious Mountain Dino May be a New Species
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2008/06/12/mysterious_mountain_dino_may_be_a_new_species.html
June 12, 2008 06:18 PM Biology

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This composite shows what bones were found and what the Sustut dinosaur may have looked like 70 million years ago. A partial dinosaur skeleton unearthed in 1971 from a remote British Columbia site is the first ever found in Canadian mountains and may represent a new species, according to a recent examination by a University of Alberta researcher.

Researcher Victoria Arbour explores bones of a mysterious dinosaur found in the Canadian mountains. Discovered by a geologist in the Sustut Basin of north-central British Columbia 37 years ago, the bones, which are about 70 million years old, were tucked away until being donated to Dalhousie University in 2004 and assigned to then-undergraduate student Victoria Arbour to research as an honours project. She soon realized that the bones were a rare find: they are very well-preserved and are the most complete dinosaur specimen found in B.C. to date. They are also the first bones found in B.C.'s Skeena mountain range.

"There are similarities with two other kinds of dinosaurs, although there's also an arm bone we've never seen before. The Sustut dinosaur may be a new species, but we won't know for sure until more fossils can be found," said Arbour, who finished researching the bones while studying for her master's degree at the University of Alberta. "It's very distinct from other dinosaurs that were found at the same time in southern Alberta."

The seven shin, arm, toe and possible skull bones were found nestled in a dip between mountains in the Skeena range, and while the fragments resemble those from a small two-legged, plant-eating dinosaur, the rest of the creature's identity is a mystery, Arbour says.

The fossils are currently in the collection of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria and Arbour hopes to lead a U of A team to the site for future investigation.

2008: June 12th Good News (13 of 15 Stolen Art Objects Recovered; Paul Newman donates $120 Million; more...)

2008-06-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon All,

Today there are no photos, due to time constraints. However, I do have some great articles for you, and I will get back into doing photos soon, as I like seeing the blog with photos.

My husband arrives today! Yea! I'm so excited!

Anyway I hope you enjoy the articles!

Today's Top 5:
1. US Life Expectancy Tops 78 (Time)
2. Vitamin D: New Way to Treat Heart Failure? (Science Daily)
3. US Still Leads the World in Science and Technology (Eurekalert)
4. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officially Announce Recovery of 13 of 15 Objects Stolen from UBC Museum of Anthropology (Art Daily)
5. Pine Needles, Antlers and Bears - Oh My! (Inventor Spot)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Ailing Paul Newman Turns Over $120M to Charity (Fox News)
2. Students Collect Shoes for Charity (TV NZ)
3. Dell Recycles 100 Million Pounds of Equipment (Earth 911)
4. One Man's Mission to Rid India of its Dirtiest Job (Yahoo News)

Today's Top 5:

1. US Life Expectancy Tops 78
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1813589,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2008
By AP/MIKE STOBBE
(ATLANTA) — For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years, the government reported Wednesday, although the United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span.

The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005.

Japan has the longest life expectancy — 83 years for children born in 2006, according to World Health Organization data. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list.

"The international comparisons are not that appealing, but we may be in the process of catching up," said Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer. He is co-chairman of a National Research Council panel looking at why America's life expectancy is lower than other nations'.

The new U.S. data, released Wednesday, come from the National Center for Health Statistics. It's a preliminary report of 2006 numbers, based on data from more than 95 percent of the death certificates collected that year.

Life expectancy is the period a child born in 2006 is expected to live, assuming mortality trends stay constant.

The 2006 increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates for nine of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.

"I think the most surprising thing is that we had declines in just about every major cause of death," said Robert Anderson, who oversaw work on the report for the health statistics center.

The overall death rate fell from 799 per 100,000 in 2005 to about 776 the following year.

Health statisticians noted declines of more than 6 percent in stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease (including bronchitis and emphysema), and a drop of more than 5 percent in heart disease and diabetes deaths. Indeed, the drop in diabetes deaths was steep enough to allow Alzheimer's disease — which held about steady — to pass diabetes to become the nation's sixth leading cause of death.

The U.S. infant mortality rate dropped more than 2 percent, to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, from 6.9.

Perhaps the most influential factor in the 2006 success story, however, was the flu. Flu and pneumonia deaths dropped by 13 percent from 2005, reflecting a mild flu season in 2006, Anderson said. That also meant a diminished threat to people with heart disease and other conditions. Taken together, it's a primary explanation for the 22,000 fewer deaths in 2006 from 2005, experts said.

U.S. life expectancy has been steadily rising, usually by about two to three months from year to year. This year's jump of fourth months is "an unusually rapid improvement," Preston said.

Life expectancy was up for both men and women, and whites and blacks. Although the gaps are closing, women continue to live longer, almost to 81, compared to about 75 for men. Among racial categories, white women have the highest life expectancy (81 years), followed by black women (about 77 years), white men (76) and black men (70). Health statisticians said they don't have reliable data to calculate Hispanic life expectancy, but they hope to by next year.

Increases in female smoking are a major reason that men's life expectancy is catching up with the women's, Preston said. Improvements in the care of heart disease — a major health problem for black Americans — helps explain an improving racial gap, he said.

About 2.4 million Americans died in 2006, according to the report.

2. Vitamin D: New Way To Treat Heart Failure?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611135038.htm
ScienceDaily
Jun. 12, 2008

Strong bones, a healthy immune system, protection against some types of cancer: Recent studies suggest there’s yet another item for the expanding list of Vitamin D benefits. Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” keeps the heart, the body’s long-distance runner, fit for life’s demands.

University of Michigan pharmacologist Robert U. Simpson, Ph.D., thinks it’s apt to call vitamin D “the heart tranquilizer.”

In studies in rats, Simpson and his team report the first concrete evidence that treatment with activated vitamin D can protect against heart failure. Their results appear in the July issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.

In the study, treatments with activated vitamin D prevented heart muscle cells from growing bigger – the condition, called hypertrophy, in which the heart becomes enlarged and overworked in people with heart failure. The treatments prevented heart muscle cells from the over-stimulation and increased contractions associated with the progression of heart failure.

About 5.3 million Americans have heart failure, a progressive, disabling condition in which the heart becomes enlarged as it is forced to work harder and harder, making it a challenge even to perform normal daily activities. Many people with heart disease or poorly controlled high blood pressure go on to experience a form of heart failure called congestive heart failure, in which the heart’s inability to pump blood around the body causes weakness and fluid build-up in lungs and limbs. Many people with heart failure, who tend to be older, have been found to be deficient in vitamin D.

“Heart failure will progress despite the best medications,” says Simpson, a professor of pharmacology at the U-M Medical School. “We think vitamin D retards that progression and protects the heart."

The U-M researchers wanted to show whether a form of vitamin D could have beneficial effects on hearts that have developed or are at risk of developing heart failure. They used a breed of laboratory rats predisposed to develop human-like heart failure.

The researchers measured the effects of activated Vitamin D (1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3, a form called calcitriol) in rats given a normal diet or a high-salt diet, compared to control group rats given either of the same two diets, but no vitamin D treatment. The rats on the high-salt diet were likely to develop heart failure within months.

The rats on the high-salt diet, comparable to the fast food that many humans feast on, quickly revealed the difference vitamin D could make.

“From these animals, we have obtained exciting and very important results,” Simpson says.

After 13 weeks, the researchers found that the heart failure-prone rats on the high-salt diet that were given the calcitriol treatment had significantly lower levels of several key indicators of heart failure than the untreated high-salt diet rats in the study. The treated rats had lower heart weight. Also, the left ventricles of the treated rats’ hearts were smaller and their hearts worked less for each beat while blood pressure was maintained, indicating that their heart function did not deteriorate as it did in the untreated rats. Decreased heart weight, meaning that enlargement was not occurring, also showed up in the treated rats fed a normal diet, compared to their untreated counterparts.

Simpson and his colleagues have explored vitamin D’s effects on heart muscle and the cardiovascular system for more than 20 years. In 1987, when Simpson showed the link between vitamin D and heart health, the idea seemed far-fetched and research funding was scarce. Now, a number of studies worldwide attest to the vitamin D-heart health link (see citations below).

The new heart insights add to the growing awareness that widespread vitamin D deficiency—thought to affect one-third to one-half of U.S. adults middle-aged and older—may be putting people at greater risk of many common diseases. Pharmaceutical companies are developing anti-cancer drugs using vitamin D analogs, which are synthetic compounds that produce vitamin D’s effects. There’s also increasing interest in using vitamin D or its analogs to treat autoimmune disorders.

In more than a dozen types of tissues and cells in the body, activated vitamin D acts as a powerful hormone, regulating expression of essential genes and rapidly activating already expressed enzymes and proteins. In the heart, Simpson’s team has revealed precisely how activated vitamin D connects with specific vitamin D receptors and produces its calming, protective effects. Those results appeared in the February issue of Endocrinology.

Sunlight causes the skin to make activated vitamin D. People also get vitamin D from certain foods and vitamin D supplements. Taking vitamin D supplements and for many people, getting sun exposure in safe ways, are certainly good options for people who want to keep their hearts healthy. But people with heart failure or at risk of heart failure will likely need a drug made of a compound or analog of vitamin D that will more powerfully produce vitamin D’s effects in the heart if they are to see improvement in their symptoms, Simpson says.

Vitamin D analogs already are on the market for some conditions. One present drawback of these compounds is that they tend to increase blood calcium to undesirable levels. Simpson’s lab is conducting studies of a specific analog which may be less toxic, so efforts to develop a vitamin D-based drug to treat heart failure are moving a step closer to initial trials in people.

In addition to Simpson, other U-M authors include Peter Mancuso, Ph.D., of the U-M Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Ayesha Rahman, Ph.D., Stephen D. Hershey, M.D., Loredana Dandu and Karl A. Nibbelink, M.D. of the Department of Pharmacology in the U-M Medical School.

Funding for the study came from the National Institutes of Health.

Patents related to this research have been applied for by the U-M Office of Technology Transfer.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.

3. US Still Leads the World in Science and Technology
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/rc-usl061008.php
12 June 2008

Despite perceptions that the nation is losing its competitive edge, the United States remains the dominant leader in science and technology worldwide, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The United States accounts for 40 percent of the total world's spending on scientific research and development, employs 70 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners and is home to three-quarters of the world's top 40 universities.

An inflow of foreign students in the sciences -- as well as scientists and engineers from overseas -- has helped the United States build and maintain its worldwide lead, even as many other nations increase their spending on research and development. Continuing this flow of foreign-born talent is critical to helping the United States maintain its lead, according to the study.

"Much of the concern about the United States losing its edge as the world's leader in science and technology appears to be unfounded," said Titus Galama, co-author of the report and a management scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "But the United States cannot afford to be complacent. Effort is needed to make sure the nation maintains or even extends its standing."

U.S. investments in research and development have not lagged in recent years, but instead have grown at rates similar to what has occurred elsewhere in the world -- growing even faster than what has been seen in Europe and Japan. While China is investing heavily in research and development, it does not yet account for a large share of world innovation and scientific output, which continues to be dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan, according to RAND researchers.

However, other nations are rapidly educating their populations in science and technology. For instance, the European Union and China each are graduating more university-educated scientists and engineers every year than the United States.

Policymakers often receive advice from ad hoc sources. Although their viewpoints are valuable, they should be balanced by more complete and critical assessments of U.S. science and technology, said report co-author James Hosek, a RAND senior economist. The absence of a balanced assessment can feed a public misperception that U.S. science and technology is failing when in fact it remains strong, even preeminent.

"There is a pressing need for ongoing, objective analyses of science and technology performance and the science and technology workforce. We need this information to ensure that decision makers have a rigorous understanding of the issues," Hosek said.

Among the study's recommendations:

- Establish a permanent commitment to fund a chartered body that would periodically monitor and analyze U.S. science and technology performance and the condition of the nation's science and engineering workforce.

- Make it easier for foreigners who have graduated from U.S. universities with science and engineering degrees to stay indefinitely in the United States.

- Make it easier for highly skilled labor to immigrate to the United States to ensure the benefits of expanded innovation are captured in the United States and to help the United States remain competitive in research and innovation.

- Increase the United States' capacity to learn from science centers in Europe, Japan, China, India and other countries.

- Continue to improve K-12 education in general, and science and technology education in particular.

The inflow of foreign students, scientists and engineers has been a key factor that has enabled the U.S. science and engineering workforce to grow faster than the U.S. is graduating native-born scientists and engineers, according to the report. Researchers found that foreign-born scientists and engineers are paid the same as native born, suggesting their quality is on par.

But a recent reduction in the cap on skilled immigrant visas (H1-B) has the potential to reduce the inflow of foreign science and engineering workers, and the report argues that curtailing the supply of these scientists and engineers can lead U.S. firms to outsource more research and development to foreign countries and locate new facilities overseas. Rather than protecting jobs, this could lead to reduced investment and employment at home.

Among potential weaknesses faced by the United States are the persistent underperformance of older, native-born K-12 students in math and science and the heavy focus of federal research funding on the life sciences versus physical sciences. Another unknown is whether an increasing U.S. reliance on foreign-born workers in science and engineering makes the U.S. vulnerable. In recent years, about 70 percent of the foreign scientists and engineers who receive PhDs from U.S. universities choose to remain here, but the stay rate could fall as research conditions and salaries improve abroad.

###

The RAND report was sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness and conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps., the defense agencies and the defense Intelligence Community.

The report, "U.S. Competitiveness in Science and Technology," can be found at www.rand.org.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. To sign up for RAND e-mail alerts: http://www.rand.org/publications/email.html

4. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officially Announce Recovery of 13 of 15 Objects Stolen from UBC Museum of Anthropology
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=24684
12 June 2008

VANCOUVER.- At a press conference on June 10 at 2:00 pm, RCMP Supt. McGowan, Operations Officer and Assistant District Commander of the Lower Mainland District and Insp. FitzPatrick, Operations Officer E Division Major Crime Unit, announced that thirteen of the fifteen objects stolen from the UBC Museum of Anthropology on May 24, 2008 have been recovered safely.

The objects, which included twelve original works by renowned Haida artist Bill Reid and three items of Mexican jewellery, were the subject of an intense recovery effort initiated by the RCMP immediately following the break-in. Among the recovered items are Bill Reid’s extraordinary gold box with a sculptured, three-dimensional eagle on top, his gold Frog brooch, and two bracelets. An argillite pipe and an eagle brooch, also by Bill Reid, are still missing.

“We are extremely grateful to the RCMP for their efforts to locate these cultural treasures, and to all those who assisted in their investigation,” said Moya Waters, who represented Museum Director Dr. Anthony Shelton at the press conference. “We were devastated by their loss, and profoundly grateful for their safe return.” Dr. Shelton, who is out of town on business, also conveyed his thanks to the RCMP. “We are very appreciative of the extraordinary efforts of all concerned in the search for and recovery of the majority of these precious objects.”

According to Supt. McGowan and Insp. FitzPatrick, the RCMP have “worked tirelessly and around the clock investigating this crime that has attracted international attention…. While we are satisfied that we have recovered most of the stolen items, the RCMP would like to seek the public’s assistance in recovering the last two items which we have reason to believe are still in the Lower Mainland area….If anyone has information as to the whereabouts of these pieces of the collection, please contact 778.886.2870 or Crime Stoppers.” (1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or www.bccrimestoppers.com)

5. Pine Needles, Antlers and Bears - Oh My!
http://inventorspot.com/articles/pine_needle_art_14447
Posted June 12th, 2008 by Diana Eid

Artist Richard Carpenter makes life-size bears out of pine needles. Hundreds of thousands of pine needles to be exact.

Mountain Magic - A New Life
It took over 8 months to make this life-size bear. One of these bears weighs anywhere from 40 to 60 pounds. The cub took about 3 months. The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed and hand-woven.

Richard Carpenter lives in Salmon, Idaho near the Salmon River. When he moved there to take care of his Dad, he needed to find a way to make a living other than a minimum wage job. So he brought his creative talents into the picture. He was inspired by his surroundings and started using the natural elements to create his artwork.

He also makes gorgeous carvings from antlers of various animals, whatever he can find. He uses antler from deer, moose and elk, which are shed every year.

What an environmentally friendly guy, using natural products to create his bears. And animal activists, take note, he waits for the animal to shed its antlers.

I would say that this artist has a ton of patience. If it were me, I would have given up after gathering the pine needles off of the ground.

What do you think of this pine needle and antler artwork?

#

Several nice photos can be viewed by clicking the inventorspot link.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Ailing Paul Newman Turns Over $120M to Charity
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365221,00.html
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
By Roger Friedman

Ailing Paul Newman Turns Over $120m To Charity Coldplay, Beatles Lose Leader Spielberg's Gift; Diddy Graduation; Polanski Update; World Turns Slower; Old Lox

Ailing Paul Newman Turns Over $120m To Charity

Movie star Paul Newman has quietly turned over the entire value of his ownership in Newman’s Own — the company that makes salad dressing and cookies — to charity.

Completed over a two-year period in 2005 and 2006, the amount of his donations to Newman’s Own Foundation Inc. comes to an astounding $120 million.

This is unprecedented for any movie star or anyone from what we call Hollywood. Of course Newman and actress wife Joanne Woodward have never been Hollywood types. They’ve lived their lives quietly in Westport, Conn., for the last 50 years. (They were married in January 1958. And people said it wouldn’t last!)

This column learned about this extraordinary gift as news started coming out recently about Newman’s battle with lung cancer. This is not news to my readers. I told you several months ago that Newman — who has five grown daughters — was seeing an oncologist, that he’d been in and out of Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital on many visits from Westport. Like everything else, the Newmans tried to keep Paul’s illness a private matter.

But a tip-off that he was maybe not doing so well came in late May. Newman announced that he would not direct a production of “Of Mice and Men” later this summer at the Westport Country Playhouse, where Woodward is the artistic director.

News of his illness seems to have been exacerbated by none other than neighbor Martha Stewart. She recently published pictures of Paul on her Web site from a party she hosted. He looks gaunt but nevertheless smiling his trademark smile. Nothing will set him back. This racecar driver and adventurer should not be written off as “dying.”

“He’s a fighter,” one of his close friends told me Tuesday morning. “And he’s going to keep fighting.”

In the meantime, I also told you last August that in Botswana, the Newman name is known not for being a movie star. It’s known for his famous Hole in the Wall Gang camps. The camps go to Africa every summer to run programs for impoverished and ill children. It’s the same program they run in dozens of similar camps all over the United States.

The Hole in the Wall camps are just a few of the places the hundreds of millions of dollars have gone that Newman has raised since he got the idea to bottle salad dressing for charity.

According to Newman’s Own federal tax filing for 2006, the actor personally gave away $8,746,500 to a variety of groups that support children, hurricane relief in the Gulf Coast, education and the arts.

Some of Newman’s recipients are well-known: He gave Rosie O’Donnell’s children's program $5,000 and even donated $25,000 to his pal Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. But most of them are for the kinds of programs that we never hear about, the kind that simply keep people alive.

But don’t think that Newman — who received his Kennedy Center honor in 1992 and deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom — did this because he suddenly thought he was dying. When he set up the new foundation, he hadn’t yet been diagnosed with lung cancer. It was just in honor of his 80th birthday, and an acknowledgment that he wanted to make sure his charities would continue receiving his largesse.

2. Students Collect Shoes for Charity
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1842224
Jun 11, 2008 6:59 PM

A Christchurch school is making sure its students appreciate all the small things in life, like a simple pair of shoes.

Cobham Intermediate students have been collecting and cleaning old footwear, so they can be sent for use in impoverished countries.

Over 2000 pairs of shoes, slippers, boots, jandals and pretty much shoes of all different sizes and colours have been collected, all in the name of charity.

The collected shoes are then cleaned by the students before they are sent to a charity in the USA called "Share your Soles", which then sends them to countries around the world where people cannot afford them.

Nick Leith, a Cobham Intermediate teacher, says the teachers are trying to teach the students how they can make a contribution to society: "&so even though they're young and think there're at the mercy of everything around them, they're actually able to achieve so much by working together".

The students say getting the footwear was the easy part. Now they have to make plans on how they are going to raise $5000 to ship them, and they may just have one.

They are organising a letter writing campaign to big businesses all across the country, asking them to fund their charity.

And for the students, every shoe they can send overseas will be a step in the right direction.

3. Dell Recycles 100 Million Pounds of Equipment
http://earth911.org/blog/2008/06/11/dell-recycles-100-million-pounds-of-equipment/
by Ashley Schiller on June 11th, 2008
June 11th 2008

With 100 million pounds of equipment recycled, 2007 marked a new record for Dell as the year with the largest product recycling volume. This is a 20 percent increase from 2006.

“Our customers and stakeholders are inspiring us to lead a new era of environmental responsibility,” said Director of Sustainable Business Tod Arbogast in a news release. “We are at a historic point in time when the combined efforts of companies, customers, employees and suppliers will make the critical changes to protect our shared Earth.”

Dell offers free home pick-up for obsolete company products and has 370 drop-off locations around the country. It is also the only computer manufacturer to offer free recycling worldwide, according to the Dell site.

Do you have electronics to recycle? FInd out the manufacture’s take-back options or use Earth 911’s recycling locator to find a drop-off in your community.

Dell has its own (copywrited) news release on its green activities, which was printed on 5 June 2008. To visit that website click the following link: http://www.prdomain.com/companies/D/Dell/newsreleases/20086657856.htm

4. One Man's Mission to Rid India of its Dirtiest Job
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/oplumbing
By Mian Ridge
Wed Jun 11, 5:00 AM ET

Alwar, India - Usha Chaumar, a gregarious 40-something with an enormous grin, can pinpoint the exact day she stopped being one of the "untouchables," the Hindu caste that was supposedly abolished in 1950.

It was 2003, and Ms. Chaumar was on her way to work when Bindeshwar Pathak stopped her. She recalls being amazed that a "nicely dressed" man would even speak with someone like her: a manual scavenger. As such, it was her job to clean human waste, by hand, from homes that lack flushing toilets in this dusty town in the state of Rajasthan.

Usually, neighbors crossed the street when they saw her coming with the tools of her trade: a metal pan and wire brush. And even when she had finished her gut-churning work and scrubbed her body clean, she was treated as a pariah.

But Dr. Pathak asked her why she covered her face with her shawl and why she seemed ashamed to talk to him. At the time, Chaumar had no idea she was speaking to the man whose mission it was to end manual scavenging and who would eventually change her life.

Pathak founded an organization called Sulabh in 1970 to eradicate the practice by replacing unplumbed toilets with affordable flush ones, and by giving scavengers training for other jobs.

"Shopkeepers would drop the rice to me – they wouldn't touch me," Chaumar remembers, losing her smile for a moment. "And they made me put my money down, away from them. They threw water over it before taking it."

Today, she earns a living selling homemade pickles and embroidered cloths.

Manual scavenging was banned in India in 1993, by a law that forbids the construction of dry toilets and requires existing ones to be destroyed. But in India, such laws tend to be implemented slowly. There are thought to be several hundred thousand manual scavengers still working; a recent report found there were over 1,000 in Delhi alone.

Sulabh has built 1.2 million affordable hygienic toilets throughout India and helped 60,000 former manual scavengers move into other jobs.

All those jobs are held by members of the Valmiki community, a substratum of the Dalit caste – formerly known as untouchable – at the bottom of the ancient Hindu caste system. The term untouchable – along with, theoretically, the stigma attached to it – was made illegal by India's Constitution in 1950.

In Alwar, in 2003, Pathak set up a retraining program for the town's manual scavengers which has given more than 50 women vocational training. The center, where women learn to read and write, make clothes, and train as beauticians, is housed in a prosperous area of Alwar.

"At first they felt uncomfortable coming here, but we wanted to give them a different perspective," says Suman Chahar, who runs the center.

In one room, Lalita Nanda is making wicks for oil lamps in Hindu temples. The priests who buy them did not let Lalita into the temple until recently, she says, smiling.

One of the first things Pathak did with Alwar's scavengers was usher them into the town's biggest Hindu temple. He also took a group out to dinner at the Maurya Sheraton, a five-star hotel in Delhi.

The manager was so appalled he tried to stop the women entering. Pathak promised to pay for anything that was broken or stolen; nothing, of course, was; and as the party left, the manager apologized to them.

Sulabh's transformation of manual scavengers would not be possible without the other part of its work, the development of cheap hygienic toilet technology.

"The toilet is a tool of social change," declares Pathak, who defies the stereotype of the scruffy Gandhian activist dressed in rough-spun cotton. He is wearing, instead, a starched white pajama suit with a smart jacket; his hair is dyed black, and he wears a fine gold ring.

Born into a family of Brahmins – the highest of all the castes - in a village in Bihar, Pathak remembers, as a little boy, being intrigued by the notion that the ordinary-looking woman who sold kitchen utensils to his family could be "untouchable."

"So I touched her," he says, "Just to see. And my grandmother made me drink a mixture of cow urine, cow dung, and Ganges water." That combination is meant as both cleanser and punishment.

Later, Pathak joined a committee established to celebrate the centennial of Mahatma Gandhi's birth. During this period he was struck by what Mr. Gandhi had said about scavengers: "I may not be born again, but if it happens I will like to be born into a family of scavengers, so that I may relieve them of the inhuman, unhealthy, and hateful practice of carrying night soil."

Curious, Pathak went to live in a community of scavengers for three months. At this point, he says, he was not yet inspired by their cause. But two experiences changed this.

The first, he says, was when he saw a newly married girl being forced by her mother-in-law to clean human waste by hand. "I can't describe how awful her crying was," he says. The second was when he saw a small boy being attacked by a bull. People rushed to save him, but when someone cried out that he came from the Valamiki caste, they left him, and he was killed.

"These things still happen," says Pathak. "But we have everything we need to change things. It is so, so simple, if people only have the will."

2008: June 11th Good News (Honolulu No. 1 Place to Live in US; US Scientist Wins Finnish Award for Drug Delivery Systems; more...)

2008-06-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all!!

Today I have added some pictures to my blog. I figured out how to do it without messing up the format. It's a slower process, but it's doable, so I'm going to try to include some pictures from now on. Not all articles have pictures, but I tried to get as many pictures as I could. I hope you all enjoy them! Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of the page. :)

Today, I would like to point out something interesting to me. I have noticed that often a person's name somehow relates to a point in their life when they are featured in the news (their 15 minutes of fame). For instance, today there is an article about a young man named Jake Falls. He is featured because he helped save a young woman who was in danger of being swept into a dam. The picture of the dam looks like man made water falls. And so we see that Jake Falls 15 minutes of fame is coincidentally (cosmically?) connected to his fate.

I may not be able to post tomorrow, though I will try. Tomorrow evening my husband arrives...so I may get a little tied up. ;) Anyway, I hope you all enjoy today's articles and pictures. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Opting Out Revolution a Myth: Study Shows Steep Gains for Women, Mothers (Eurekalert.org)
2. US Scientist Wins Finnish Award for Drug Delivery Systems (New Kerala)
3. Honolulu No. 1 Quality Place to Live in US (Honolulu Star Bulletin)
4. Fossils Found in Tibet by FSU Geologist Revise History of Elevation, Climate (esciencenews.com)
5. Phoenix Lander Has an Oven Full of Martian Soil (Physorg.com)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Scenes of Nature Trump Technology in Reducing Low Level Stress (University of Washington News)
2. Teenager Keeps His Cool as he Rescues Girl from Rushing water (The Yarmouth County Vanguard)
3. Size 12 Woman Wins Miss London, Will Compete for Miss England Title (Daily Mail UK)

1. Opting Out Revolution a Myth: Study Shows Steep Gains for Women, Mothers
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/asa-oor061008.php
11 Jun 2008

Sociological research debunks “opting out” trend; shows rising employment rates for professional women with children
WASHINGTON, DC — Contrary to the popular perception of a so-called "opting out revolution," new sociological research from the June issue of the American Sociological Review reveals that professional women's employment rates have continually pushed higher over time, and that the employment gap between mothers and childless women is shrinking.

To determine the truth behind the opting out phenomenon described in mass media reports, sociologist Christine Percheski examined trends among college-educated women born between 1906 and 1975 and found that professional women's employment levels have made steep gains over time, especially for mothers of young children and women in historically male professions.

Despite anecdotal reports of successful working women returning to the home to assume child care responsibilities, less than 8 percent of professional women born since 1956 leave the workforce for a year or more during their prime childbearing years, according to the study.

Percheski's research shows that the number of women with young children who work full-time year-round has increased steadily, growing from a rate of 5.6 percent of women born 1926 to 1935 (referred to as the "Baby Boom Parents" by Percheski), to 38.1 percent of women from Generation X (born 1966 to 1975). More professional Generation X mothers of young children were working full-time year-round than their counterparts in any previous generation.

Percheski finds that among mothers of older children (those age 6 to 18), full-time employment is the norm for professional women of Generation X.

When examining general labor force participation rates, Percheski finds even more drastic growth. About a third of women with young children from the Baby Boom Parents group participated in the labor force while their children were under age 6, but the rate increased to a little more than three-quarters for Generation X mothers of young children.

According to Percheski, the employment gains of recent cohorts do not seem to have been achieved through reductions in fertility, as fertility levels have remained similar across women born from 1946 to 1975.

Not only are more women with children working, but Percheski's research shows a trend of women working longer hours. The percentage of professional women working more than 50 hours a week increased from less than 10 percent of women born before 1935 to more than 15 percent for most women born after 1956. Long hours were more common even for mothers of young children. Ten percent of Generation X mothers with young children worked more than 50 hours a week; but just over 1 percent of their Baby Boom Parent counterparts worked more than 50 hours a week. For those with older children, the rate was 15 percent of Generation Xers working long hours versus about 2 percent of Baby Boom Parents doing so.

Percheski also examined the characteristics of professional, college-educated women in their main reproductive years, ages 25 to 39, who were not employed or enrolled in school the previous year. Although the vast majority of non-working women have children at home, Percheski found that an increasing percentage of women in the younger groups she studied did not. Fewer of these non-working women were married as well. Percheski asserts that this is evidence of the weakening influence of children and marriage on women's employment rates.

"Contrary to an opt-out revolution, professional women—including mothers of young children—are working more than ever," said Percheski. "Despite this increase in women's employment, we can not assume that combining professional work and family life is easy for most women. Indeed, many working women successfully combine these roles by making great personal sacrifices, including curtailing their sleep, civic involvement or leisure time."

Percheski used cross-sectional data from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey to examine trends by 10-year birth cohorts of college-educated professional and managerial women in the United States from 1960 to 2005. She analyzed labor force participation; full-time, year-round employment; and work hours exceeding 50 hours per week. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

Sociologists have also studied the factors that affect the decisions of the small percentage of women who do "opt out" of the workforce. The fall 2007 issue of the American Sociological Association's Contexts magazine included sociologist Pamela Stone's examination of "The Rhetoric and Reality of Opting Out," in which Stone describes the home and workplace dynamics that contribute to these decisions. This article is available online at http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Fall07CNTFeature.pdf.

###
Contact Jackie Cooper (202-247-9871, jcooper@asanet.org) to request an interview or a copy of Percheski's study from the June issue of the American Sociological Review, the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association.

The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions and use of sociology to society.

2. US Scientist Wins Finnish Award for Drug Delivery Systems
http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=71889
11 June 2008

Helsinki, June 11 : Bioscientist Robert Langer of the US Wednesday won the Finnish Millennium Technology Prize for his contributions to developing drug delivery systems.

In all, six researchers in four categories were nominated for the prize worth a total of 1 million euros ($1.5 million).

Langer collected 800,000 euros ($1.2 million), becoming the third winner of the prize that was created in 2004, and is awarded every two years. The first winner was Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the worldwide web.

In 2006, Japanese scientist and inventor Shuji Nakamura won the award for work on various light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and developing the blue laser which can be used in CD and DVD players.

A prolific inventor and institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technnology (MIT), Langer's systems are used to treat cancer, heart disease and other diseases.

Langer, 59, was also credited with making advances in tissue engineering, including synthetic replacements for biological tissues such as artificial skin.

Stig Gustavson, chairman of Technology Academy Finland, said the Millennium Technology Prize aimed to "recognise and inspire innovations offering solutions that promote quality of life and sustainable development".

3. Honolulu No. 1 Quality Place to Live in US
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/11/business/story01.html
June 11, 2008
By Nina Wu
nwu@starbulletin.com

While European cities dominated the top of the global list, Honolulu was the highest-ranked U.S. city in the annual "Worldwide Quality of Living Survey" this year conducted by Mercer, a New York consulting firm.

Below is a list of the top U.S. and global cities based on quality of living:

Top U.S. cities
1. Honolulu (28)
2. San Francisco (29)
3. Boston (37)
4. Chicago (44)
5. Washington, D.C. (44)
6. New York (49)
7. Seattle (50)
8. Los Angeles (59)
9. Cleveland (59)
10. Houston (62)
Source: Mercer

Top Global Cities

1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Munich, Germany
7. Frankfurt, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia
28. Honolulu

Honolulu, at No. 28, was the top U.S. city on the list for overall quality of living, followed by San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Mercer's rankings are based on a survey of 215 cities across the globe during September and November 2007, and conducted in an effort to help companies evaluate international assignments for their employees.

Rebecca Powers, Mercer principal, said Honolulu's top ranking should come as no surprise.

Honolulu's top U.S. ranking has been consistent for the last three years, although it slipped from No. 27 in both 2006 and 2007 to No. 28 in 2008.

"Honolulu does tend to score a little better, and the natural environment helps," said Powers.

She said the studies were developed to assist companies evaluate compensation and whether their employees are going to experience some reduction in the quality of life in moving to another location.

Another Mercer study evaluates cost of living across global cities. Only two U.S. cities -- New York City and Los Angeles -- made the top 50 most expensive cities to live in globally in 2007. Honolulu was not among that group.

For the quality-of-life study, Mercer grouped a total of 39 key quality-of-life variables into the following categories: Political and social environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, health and sanitation, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreation, availability of consumer goods, housing and natural environment.

Powers said that the political and social environment -- which include political stability, crime and law enforcement -- accounted for about 25 percent of the factors weighed.

Zurich, Switzerland, sat at the top of worldwide cities in quality of life with a score of 108, while Baghdad bottomed out the list, with a score of 3.8.

Switzerland ranks particularly high in medical care, while much of western Europe and Canada scored well because of their reliable and clean public transportation systems.

Honolulu ranked particularly high in the recreation and natural environment categories. The recreation category includes variety of restaurants, theaters, sports and leisure activities. Natural environment includes climate and record of natural disasters.

Powers said most of western Europe, Canada and the U.S. actually fall pretty close together in quality of life, with only a few points difference between them.

Cities with the lowest quality of living were Ndjamena, Chad, at No. 211, followed by Khartoum, Sudan; Brazzaville, Congo; and Bangui, Central African Republic. The war-torn Baghdad came in last, at No. 215.

In the Asia Pacific, Auckland, New Zealand, got the top score for best quality of living, followed by Sydney, Australia; Wellington, New Zealand; and Singapore. In the Americas category, Canadian cities actually dominated the rankings, with Vancouver in the top position at No. 4, followed by Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Among the lowest-ranked U.S. cities in the 2008 study were Atlanta at 67, along with Detroit, St. Louis, Miami and Houston.

Mercer also conducted a survey based on personal safety, and found Canadian cities topped that list. In the U.S., Honolulu also topped the list, at the same ranking as Chicago; Houston; Lexington, Ky.; San Francisco and Winston-Salem, N.C.

"Canadian cities rank higher than U.S. cities on personal safety because of a relatively low crime rate and a stable political environment," said Powers. "Traffic congestion and pollution may have reduced air quality, which may undercut the otherwise pleasant living standards in some U.S. cities."

The most dangerous cities, apart from Baghdad, include Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Karachi, Pakistan; and Nairobi, Kenya.

4. Fossils Found in Tibet by FSU Geologist Revise History of Elevation, Climate
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/06/11/fossils.found.tibet.fsu.geologist.revise.history.elevation.climate
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 13:49 in Earth & Climate

Courtesy of Associate Professor Yang Wang, Florida State University Department of Geological SciencesAbout 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates. Back at the FSU-based National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes in the fossils revealed the animals' diet (abundant plants) and the reason for their demise during the late Pliocene era in the region (a drastic climate change). Paleo-magnetic study determined the sample's age (a very young 2 or 3 million years old).

That fossil evidence from the rock desert and cold, treeless steppes that now comprise Earth's highest land mass suggests a literally groundbreaking possibility:

Major tectonic changes on the Tibetan Plateau may have caused it to attain its towering present-day elevations -- rendering it inhospitable to the plants and animals that once thrived there -- as recently as 2-3 million years ago, not millions of years earlier than that, as geologists have generally believed. The new evidence calls into question the validity of methods commonly used by scientists to reconstruct the past elevations of the region.

"Establishing an accurate history of tectonic and associated elevation changes in the region is important because uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has been suggested as a major driving mechanism of global climate change over the past 50-60 million years," said Yang, an associate professor in FSU's Department of Geological Sciences and a researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. "What's more, the region also is thought to be important in driving the modern Asian monsoons, which control the environmental conditions over much of Asia, the most densely populated region on Earth."

The fossil findings and implications are described in the June 15, 2008 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The journal can be accessed online at www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl.

Yang co-authored the paper ("Stable isotopes in fossil mammals, fish and shells from Kunlun Pass Basin, Tibetan Plateau: Paleoclimatic and paleoelevation implications") with paleontologists from the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing). The collaborative research project, which since 2004 has featured summer field study on the remote Tibetan Plateau, is funded by a grant from the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

"The uplift chronology of the Tibetan Plateau and its climatic and biotic consequences have been a matter of much debate and speculation because most of Tibet's spectacular mountains, gorges and glaciers remain barely touched by man and geologically unexplored," Yang said.

"So far, my research colleagues and I have only worked in two basins in Tibet, representing a very small fraction of the Plateau, but it is very exciting that our work to-date has yielded surprising results that are inconsistent with the popular view of Tibetan uplift," she said.

This summer, Yang and her colleagues from Los Angeles and Beijing will conduct further fieldwork in areas near the Tibetan Plateau. "The next phase of our work will focus on examining the spatial and temporal patterns of long-term vegetative and environmental changes in and around the region," she said. "Such records are crucial for clarifying the linkages among climatic, biotic and tectonic changes."

There is much still to learn and understand about those changes.

"Many of the places we've visited in Tibet are now deserts, and yet we found those thick deposits of lake sediments with abundant fossil fish and shells," Yang said. "This begs the question: What came first and caused the disappearance of those lakes? Global climate change? Or, tectonic change?"

Source: Florida State University

5. Phoenix Lander Has An Oven Full Of Martian Soil
http://www.physorg.com/news132419371.html
Published: 1 hour ago, 16:09 EST, June 11, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager took this image on Sol 14 (June 8, 2008), the 14th Martian day after landing.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with Martian soil. "We have an oven full," Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said today. "It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved."

Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument, or TEGA, for Phoenix. The instrument has eight separate tiny ovens to bake and sniff the soil to assess its volatile ingredients, such as water.

The lander's Robotic Arm delivered a partial scoopful of clumpy soil from a trench informally called "Baby Bear" to the number 4 oven on TEGA last Friday, June 6, which was 12 days after landing.

A screen covers each of TEGA's eight ovens. The screen is to prevent larger bits of soil from clogging the narrow port to each oven so that fine particles fill the oven cavity, which is no wider than a pencil lead. Each TEGA chute also has a whirligig mechanism that vibrates the screen to help shake small particles through.

Only a few particles got through when the screen on oven number 4 was vibrated on June 6, 8 and 9.

Boynton said that the oven might have filled because of the cumulative effects of all the vibrating, or because of changes in the soil's cohesiveness as it sat for days on the top of the screen.

"There's something very unusual about this soil, from a place on Mars we've never been before," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're interested in learning what sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump and stick together."

Plans prepared by the Phoenix team for the lander's activities on Thursday, June 12 include sprinkling Martian soil on the delivery port for the spacecraft's Optical Microscope and taking additional portions of a high-resolution color panorama of the lander's surroundings.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Scenes of Nature Trump Technology in Reducing Low Level Stress
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42419
June 10, 2008
Social Science
Joel Schwarz
joels@u.washington.edu
University of Washington

A college student looks at a plasma screen showing a natural scene. The same view seen through a window was shown to be more effective in lowering people's heart recovery rate than the plasma screen.

Technology can send a man to the moon, help unlock the secrets of DNA and let people around the world easily communicate through the Internet. But can it substitute for nature?
Apparently not, according to a new study that measured individuals' heart recovery rate from minor stress when exposed to a natural scene through a window, the same scene shown on a high-definition plasma screen, or a blank wall. The heart rate of people who looked at the scene through the window dropped more quickly than the others. In fact, the high-definition plasma screen had no more effect than the blank wall.

In addition, the research done through the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the University of Washington showed that when people spent more time looking at the natural scene their heart rates tended to decrease more. That was not the case with the plasma screen.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, is published in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

"Technology is good and it can help our lives, but let's not be fooled into thinking we can live without nature," said Peter Kahn, a UW associate professor of psychology who led the research team.

"We are losing direct experiences with nature. Instead, more and more we're experiencing nature represented technologically through television and other media. Children grow up watching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. That's probably better than nothing. But as a species we need interaction with actual nature for our physical and psychological well-being."

Part of this loss comes from what the researchers call environmental generational amnesia. This is the idea that across generations the amount of environmental degradation increases, but each generation views conditions it grew up with as largely non-degraded and normal. Children growing up today in the cities with the worst air pollution often, for example, don't believe that their communities are particularly polluted.

"This problem of environmental generational amnesia is particularly important for children coming of age with current technologies," said Rachel Severson, a co-author of the study and a UW psychology doctoral student. "Children may not realize they are not getting the benefits of actual nature when interacting with what we're calling technological nature."

To see how people reacted to nature and a technological representation of it, the researchers recruited 90 college students to participate in an experiment that had them work on four mental tasks while sitting at a desk in an office. With 30 of the students, the desk faced a window overlooking a campus scene that included a large fountain and trees. For a second group of 30 students, the window was replaced with the plasma screen that showed the same nature scene in real time. For the remaining 30 students, curtains covered the plasma screen and the desk faced a blank wall.

Participants were tested individually. Each was welcomed by a researcher, hooked up to a heart rate monitor and told to wait for five minutes while the researcher stepped out of sight. A camera mounted on the wall near the window or plasma screen was synchronized with the heart monitor and tracked participants' eye movements. At the end of the waiting period, the researcher returned, explained the first task and stepped out of sight. This was repeated for the remaining three tasks and then the subject was told to wait again for five minutes.

Heart recovery rate was based on how quickly each participant's heart rate dropped in the 60 seconds after being told to wait or to have one of the tasks explained. Each person's performance was tallied on the basis of six measurements, once after every task and the two waiting periods. Low-level stress was created by having to deal with another person in a social situation and the anticipation or performance anxiety each might have experienced to do well on the four tasks.

The researchers found that participants with the plasma screen actually looked at it just as often as did those who had the window. However, the window held the students' attention significantly longer than the plasma screen did. When participants spent more time looking at the window, their heart rates decreased faster than on tasks when they spent less time looking at the window. This was not true with the plasma screen.

"I was surprised by this," said Kahn. "I thought the plasma screen would come somewhere between the glass window and the blank wall. This study is important because it shows the importance of nature in human lives and at least one limitation of technological nature.

"In the years ahead, technological nature will get more sophisticated and compelling. But if it continues to replace our interaction with actual nature, it will come at a cost. To thrive as a species, we still need to interact with nature by encountering an animal in the wild, walking along the ocean's edge or sleeping under the enormity of the night sky."

Co-authors of the study are Batya Friedman, Jennifer Hagman, Erika Feldman and Anna Stolyar of the UW, Brian Gill of Seattle Pacific University, Nathan Freier of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Sybil Carrẻre of California State University, San Bernardino. Freier and Carrẻre were both at the UW when they worked on the study.

###

For more information, contact Kahn at (206) 616-9395 or pkahn@u.washington.edu before June 17. After that contact Severson at (206) 616-6986 or raches@u.washington.edu

More information about the Human Interactions with Nature and Technological Systems Lab is available at http://depts.washington.edu/hints/

2. Teenager Keeps His Cool as He Rescues Girl From Rushing Water
http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-221492-Teenager-keeps-his-cool-as-he-rescues-girl-from-rushing-water.html
Article online since June 10th 2008, 16:53

Eighteen-year-old Jake Falls points to the area on the Nova Scotia Power hydro dam at Lake Vaughan in Tusket Falls where he laid to help pull a girl to safety who was clinging to the concrete post below him. Tina Comeau photo View all pictures Teenager keeps his cool as he rescues girl from rushing water
"You realize you don't have the world to wait"
By Tina Comeau

Like many people in Yarmouth County on Monday, cooling off was on Jake Falls mind when the 18-year-old and his grandmother pulled up to a beach area near the dam in Tusket Falls. The temperature was exceptionally hot for June 9 and Falls had decided to go for a swim.

Keeping cool, in turned out, was exactly was Falls ended up doing.

And for that a 16-year-old girl owes him her thanks, if not her life.

Falls and his grandmother had literally just pulled up when some young people came running over, frantically looking for help for their friend who had been pulled in a spillway of the Nova Scotia Power hydro dam by a strong undercurrent. With the water powerfully rushing past her, she was clinging to a concrete post, which was the only thing preventing her from plunging into the concrete spill box below, where more swirling water threatened her harm.

“I was looking at the situation, saw her hanging on the pole, her friends looked a little lost, they had this rope, I was looking at it seeing how tight it was. They were saying they were afraid it might rip. I thought, that’s not good for us,” Falls said in an interview on Tuesday. “But it got worse for her, she started slipping.”

As his grandmother called 911, Falls knew he had to spring into action. But getting to where the girl was wasn’t easy. The area is fenced off, with locked gates – their purpose being to keep people out of an area that is considered quite dangerous. Falls had to get around the fence, cross over a fish ladder and climb over the gate to get to the top of the dam where the girl was.

“I laid down and I could see her…and I saw that I could grab her. I grabbed one of her arms, grabbed the other one, got my feet going and just pulled her up,” says the Grade 12 Yarmouth high student.

It may sound simple, but it was far from that. Falls estimates it probably took five minutes to pull the girl to safety. The rushing water, he said, was so powerful. The girl kept slipping.

“At first it looked like an easy situation. She was there, waiting for some help. But as time went by she slipped around, she was on the edge, and that’s when you realize you don’t have the world to wait,” Falls said.

He knew his grandmother was calling for help, but he had no idea how long it would take for help to arrive. And with the gates seemingly separating the world from where he was lying on the dam – and not being able to communicate with his grandmother as she was on the phone – he knew when it came to saving the girl, he was it.

Asked if she was panicking, he said she seemed scared.

“She was really worried when I was holding her and her feet were touching the water as it was rushing by. She was just screaming but I told her, ‘I’ve got you’, and I just pulled her up.

“I remember when I had both her hands and her feet were dangling against the water it just hit you again, the situation…Afterwards it was just ‘Wow.’ I sat down for a little bit, thinking about what could have happened.”

The girl, who Falls doesn’t know, thanked and hugged him.

After Falls pulled the girl to safety, he saw volunteer firefighters coming towards them and police arriving on the scene.

While thankful this incident had a fortunate outcome, police, fire department and Nova Scotia Power officials are using it as a means of reminding the public about the danger associated with swimming close to the dam.

Falls himself said that’s an area of water he never ventures into, opting instead for a safer swimming option further away. He also thinks people should exercise extreme caution around the dam.

“When you’re looking around and you see a dangerous area, it’s not the best place to be,” he said.

Meanwhile, the next morning at school Falls’ friends were pretty impressed with his heroics.

“They all came up to me and said, ‘Oh Mr. Hero, what’s going on?’ They were all asking me for the story,” he said

Asked how he feels about being called a hero, Falls said it’s a pretty big title, but he feels his actions can live up to it.

“I was helping somebody in need, that’s a big thing,” he said. “You never think you’ll ever do that.”

(See related story in Yarmouth County section of NovaNewsNow.com about the rescue and the safety warnings officials are issuing.)

3. Size 12 Woman Wins Miss London, Will Compete for Miss England Title
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1025639/The-size-12-girl-big-model-wins-beauty-title.html
By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 3:30 PM on 11th June 2008

Healthy attitude: Aspiring size 12 model Leah Green, who was told she needed to lose weight by modelling agencies, has now been crowned Miss London
An aspiring model who was rejected by leading model agencies for being a size 12 has beaten 200 other girls to be crowned Miss London.

Leah Green, 22, will next month compete for the Miss England title with regional finalists from across the country.

Today she told how she was rejected by several model agencies, despite being two dress sizes smaller than the average British woman. Her experiences follow the debate over the trend for size-zero models - equivalent to a British size four.

"I have tried to get into modelling," she said. "But I have been turned away as I'm apparently too big to be a regular model. I've been told I'm too fat and I need to lose weight. One agent told me I would have to work hard to achieve the gaunt look he was after.

"If you have to be the size of Victoria Beckham or Girls Aloud to even get a look in, then it just isn't for me."

One of the agencies that rejected Miss Green, of Primrose Hill, North London, over her size was Models 1. Only a plus-size agency showed any interest.

The London College of Fashion graduate, who works as a design assistant at French Connection, said the industry was fixated with thin models and was responsible for many girls developing eating disorders.

"I helped out with London Fashion Week last year and many of the models looked like they were about to keel over and die," she said.

A spokeswoman for Models 1 said it did not employ models larger than size 10, but it was not the agency that labelled Miss Green "fat" or told her to lose weight.

Storm Model Management also rejected Miss Green but its owner said it was not because of her size.

Sarah Doukas said she had not been aware of Miss Green's case but added: "I think she has a fantastic figure. We have four girls on our books who are more than a size 12. If she was rejected, it might simply be that her look wasn't right for us. I'm shocked that anybody would say such terrible things."

Miss Green hopes to offer women an alternative role model by competing in Miss England. "I saw it as a chance to get my message across," she said.

The Miss England final takes place on 18 July at the Troxy, in Stepney, London.

2008: June 10th Good News (Woolly Mamoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory; 3 Internet Providers to Block Child Porn; more...)

2008-06-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all!

Today I have a few good articles to share with you. First I would like to mention the Wooly Mammoth Study. I am always impressed by the way that Theories are changed when new scientific discoveries are made. The intriguing portions of this article were that:
A) Human hunting was not a contributing factor to the extinction of the Wooly Mammoth;
B) The Wooly Mammoth Population was split into two distinct groups.
C) Wooly Mammoths have a more complete mitochodrial genome sequence than Elephants in Africa and India;
D) In case you didn't hear the news last year (I didn't) genes are better protected in hair samples than in other body tissues.

The second article I'd like to mention is about a woman who went into action and saved her two children when her car slid backwards into a river. With the help of a nearby security guard, she was able to get her children out before the car became submerged. Thank goodness for quick thinking moms!

Anyway, here's the line up today. I hope you enjoy these articles!

Today's Top 5:
1. Wooly-Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory (Physorg)
2. 3 Internet Providers Agree to Block Child Porn (Yahoo News)
3. Poland Plans Open Air Opera Festivals (Earth Times)
4. River Car Tots Rescued (New York Post)
5. Pleasantville Student's Home Biz Nets Him $40,000 Scholarship (The
Journal News)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Longer Life For Paraplegic Patients With Superman Bicycle (Science Daily)
2. Disabled Teenager Rescues Elderly Woman (WBIR.com)
3. Ancient Cave Found Under Church (MSNBC)

Today's Top 5:

1. Woolly-Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory
http://www.physorg.com/news132330361.html
Published: 47 Minutes ago, 15:26 EST, June 10, 2008

A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity.

"The population was split into two groups, then one of the groups died out 45,000 years ago, long before the first humans began to appear in the region," said Stephan C. Schuster, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and a leader of the research team. "This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction." The discovery will be published later this week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The research marks the first time scientists have dissected the structure of an entire population of extinct mammal by using the complete mitochondrial genome -- all the DNA that makes up all the genes found in the mitochondria structures within cells. Data from this study will enable testing of the new hypothesis presented by the team, that there were two groups of woolly mammoth -- a concept that previously had not been recognized from studies of the fossil record.

The scientists analyzed the genes in hair obtained from individual woolly mammoths -- an extinct species of elephant adapted to living in the cold environment of the northern hemisphere. The bodies of these mammoths were found throughout a wide swathe of northern Siberia. Their dates of death span roughly 47,000 years, ranging from about 13,000 years ago to about 60,000 years ago.

Schuster and Webb Miller, professor of biology and computer science and engineering at Penn State, led the international research team, which includes Thomas Gilbert at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and other scientists in Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The team includes experts in the fields of genome evolution, ancient DNA, and mammoth paleontology, as well as curators from various natural-history museums.

Another important finding for understanding the extinction processes is that the individuals in each of the two woolly-mammoth groups were related very closely to one another. "This low genetic divergence is surprising because the woolly mammoth had an extraordinarily wide range: from Western Europe, to the Bering Strait in Siberia, to Northern America," Miller said. "The low genetic divergence of mammoth, which we discovered, may have degraded the biological fitness of these animals in a time of changing environments and other challenges."

Our study suggests a genetic divergence of the two woolly-mammoth groups more than 1-million years ago, which is one quarter the genetic distance that separates Indian and African elephants and woolly mammoths," Miller said. The research indicates that the diversity of the two woolly-mammoth populations was as low centuries ago as it is now in the very small populations of Asian elephants living in southern India.

"The low genetic divergence of the elephants in southern Indian has been suggested as contributing to the problems of maintaining this group as a thriving population," Schuster said. Intriguingly, the mitochondrial genomes revealed by the researchers are several times more complete than those known for the modern Indian and African Elephants combined.

Whereas studies before this research had analyzed only short segments of the DNA of extinct species, this new study generated and compared 18 complete genomes of the extinct woolly mammoth using mitochondrial DNA, an important material for studying ancient genes. This achievement is based on an earlier discovery of the team led by Miller, Schuster, and co-author Thomas Gilbert, which was published last year and that revealed ancient DNA survives much better in hair than in any other tissue investigated so far. This discovery makes hair, when it is available, a more powerful and efficient source of DNA for studying the genome sequences of extinct animals. Moreover, mammoth hair is found in copious quantities in cold environments and it is not regarded as fossil material of enormous value
like bone or muscle, which also carries anatomical information.

"We also discovered that the DNA in hair shafts is remarkably enriched for mitochondrial DNA, the special type of DNA frequently used to measure the genetic diversity of a population," Miller said. The team's earlier study also showed that hair is superior for use in molecular-genetic analysis because it is much easier than bone to decontaminate. Not only is hair easily cleaned of external contamination such as bacteria and fungi, its structure also protects it from degradation, preventing internal penetration by microorganisms in the environment.

An important aspect of the new study is that the hair samples it used had been stored in various museums for many years before being analyzed by the researchers, yet the scientists were able to obtain lots of useful DNA from them. "One of our samples originates from the famous Adams mammoth, which was found in 1799 and has been stored at room temperatures for the last 200 years," Schuster said. This research technique opens the door for future projects to target interesting specimens that were collected a long time ago and are no longer available from modern species, the scientists said. Even the molecular analysis of entire collections seems now possible, an effort that the team calls "Museomics."

"We plan to continue using our techniques to untangle the secrets of populations that lived long ago and to learn what it might have taken for them to survive," Schuster said. "Many of us also have a personal interest in learning as much as we can about how any species of large mammal can go
extinct."

2. 3 Internet Providers Agree to Block Child Porn
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080610/ap_on_hi_te/tec_cuomo_child_pornography
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jun 10, 12:52 PM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. - Internet providers Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to child pornography and eliminate the material from their servers, New York's attorney general said Tuesday.

The companies also will pay $1.1 million to help fund efforts to remove the online child porn created and disseminated by users through their services, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. The changes will affect customers nationwide.

Investigators said they found 88 newsgroups devoted to child pornography in an investigation over six to eight months. More than 11,000 images were collected using software that identifies child pornography by tracking patterns in the pixels of the images, Cuomo's office said.
Cuomo said the companies acted immediately when told of the concern. He said it was essential to work with the Internet providers rather than trying to prosecute thousands of users."There's no doubt this is a tough issue," Cuomo said at a news conference.

"People are very creative and there is a market for this filth," he said. "We have to work together."

The agreements follow an undercover investigation of child porn newsgroups. Cuomo said in a prepared statement that his investigation of other service providers is continuing. He has used similar probes and the possibility of civil or criminal charges to extract concessions on Internet safety in the past.

Time Warner Cable acted as soon as it learned that users were posting objectionable material and eliminated the newsgroups, a mainstay of the Internet from its early days, said spokesman Alex Dudley.

He emphasized that Time Warner didn't host or provide any of the content and was simply a portal, allowing groups to be created with content provided by the users. "As soon as we were made aware of the issue ... we took steps to correct," Dudley said Tuesday.

Verizon acted immediately to shut down the sites, Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said.

"There are people doing whatever they do on the Internet all the time and we can't possibly scan every use group," he said. "But there are some things we can do and as soon as it's brought to our attention, we work very quickly."

"The tension there is between allowing customers the ability to communicate with their privacy rights protected, and preventing people from doing things that are illegal," Rabe said.

Verizon and Time Warner Cable are two of the five largest internet service providers in the world. Verizon has 8.2 million subscribers and Time Warner Cable's Road Runner has 7.9 million. Sprint is one of the three largest wireless companies in the United States.

"We are doing our part to deter the accessibility of such harmful content through the internet and we are providing monetary resources that will go toward the identification and removal of online child pornography," said Sprint spokesman Matthew Sullivan. "We embrace this opportunity to build
upon our own long-standing commitment to online child safety."

3. Poland Plans Open-air Opera Festivals
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/211239,poland-plans-open-air-opera-festivals.html
Posted : Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:09:01 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Travel (General)

Berlin - A number of Polish cities are holding open-air opera festivals this summer, the Polish National Tourist Office announced in Berlin. The festival in the southern city of Krakow runs from June 15 to July 11.
Among its highlights will be "The Gypsy Baron" by Johann Strauss, Jr. The operetta will be performed in the hippodrome next to Niepolomice Castle, about 25 kilometres from the city centre.

"Othello" by Giuseppe Verdi is on the programme in Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland. Performances on a floating stage in the Oder River begin at 10 pm on the weekends of June 13-15 and June 20-22. Tickets cost between 20 and 120 zloty (about 9 to 55 dollars).

On June 28, the northwestern city of Szczecin will hold its annual Great Contest of Tenors outside the castle that once was home to Pomeranian dukes. Polish as well as foreign tenors vie for the favour of the audience, whose members are given roses and vote for the one they like best by placing the flower in the singer's basket.

4. River Car Tots Rescued
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102008/news/regionalnews/river_car_tots_rescued_114869.htm
By CATHY BURKE
June 10, 2008

Watching in horror as her infant twins, strapped in her runaway car, slid into a muddy river yesterday, a Long Island mom dashed into the water, plucked her wailing babies through an open car window, and handed them off to a good Samaritan.

"We pulled 'em right out," James Cariddi, 45, a retired New York City correction officer who works security at Dowling College, said of the heart-racing 3 p.m. drama on the Oakdale campus.
"The mother was right there and went through the window, handing one child to me. Then she said, 'I have twins!' and she reached in and got the other one."

Colleen Charles' 11-month-old boy and girl were crying but unhurt, he said. Charles, 30, who works keeping geese off college property, had inadvertently left the car in neutral or drive, Suffolk cops said.

"Her baby sitter told her she couldn't make it today, so she had to take the kids with her," said Cariddi. "She had put the car in the shade, and then was taking the border collie out to go to work when it started to roll."

Charles screamed for help as she was chasing the car, and Cariddi sprang into action. "Good thing the window was open because the door was locked," Cariddi said. "By the time I left there at 4:30 p.m., that car was submerged in the mud.

"I feel bad for her, but she did great," Cariddi said of the petrified mom. "She helped save them."

5. Pleasantville (NY) Student's Home Biz Nets Him $40,000 Scholarship
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080610/NEWS02/806100353/1024/RSS0105
By Chris Serico
The Journal News • June 10, 2008

PLEASANTVILLE, NY - Byram Hills High School senior Zachary Lynn has charged customers $1,000 for his video production services, but he happily accepted an additional $40,000 for college through a scholarship rewarding his entrepreneurial spirit.

The New York City-based McKelvey Foundation selected Lynn as one of 100 high school seniors to receive its Entrepreneurial Scholarship, awarded to students who launch a business or nonprofit.

"I was just happy to receive recognition for the work that I was doing," Lynn said last week.

Christine McKelvey, the foundation's president, said about 900 students applied for the scholarship.
"What we want to do is to create a vast network of young entrepreneurs and for them to be able to learn from each other, to grow personally and professionally through this network," she said.

Six years before accepting the scholarship as president of Illusion Montages, Lynn was just another Pleasantville kid making amateur movies with his friends.

Using a small Sony ZR-40 video camera his grandparents gave him for his 13th birthday, Lynn filmed and edited action sequences inspired by movies ("The Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings"), television ("CSI") and video games ("Halo"). He whittled down about 48 hours of this footage into a 10-minute montage that was shown at his bar mitzvah.

When people at the reception learned Lynn produced the segment, they commissioned him to do similar montages. He founded Illusion Montages, which produces videos that combine photos, music and animation for special occasions, and hired classmate Jeremy Blum - an Intel Science Talent Search finalist who also runs a computer repair business.

To improve his product, Lynn upgraded his video camera to a Canon XL1S and trained himself to use computer software, including PhotoShop, 3D Studio MAX and Adobe Premiere.

As his skills improved and word-of-mouth spread, his fee jumped from $400 to about $1,000, Lynn said. Dedicating 12 to 15 hours of labor to an average project, Lynn worked last week on montages inspired by fairy tales and sports. Clients visiting his home-based office sit on his bedroom couch to view works-in-progress on his computer.

"The most fun part is the creative part of it, where I get to use the skills and everything I've learned over the years," he said.

His mother, Pam Lynn, said she was thrilled the McKelvey Foundation rewarded Zachary's efforts with the scholarship."He's one of the hardest-working people I know," Pam said.

The foundation's Entrepreneurial Scholarship awards recipients up to $10,000 per academic year for four years at an accredited American college or university."(Recipients) have to show somewhere and express to us that they're really determined to be lifelong entrepreneurs," McKelvey said.

Lynn said he would continue to fulfill orders for Illusion Montages when he attends Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the fall. There, he plans to major in both computer science and electronic media. He has aspirations to work for Pixar, whose computer-animated feature films include "Ratatouille" and this summer's "Wall-E."

"I'd love to work at an animation studio and get a lot of experience there," Lynn said, "and then, maybe, eventually start my own company."

Another one, that is.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Longer Life For Paraplegic Patients With Superman Bicycle
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603172558.htm
ScienceDaily
June 10, 2008

A new type of exercise equipment can prevent serious lifestyle illnesses in paraplegic patients. The equipment, which was partly developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, was first designed for the American actor Christopher Reeve.
Patients who are unable to walk after a spinal injury have a poorer quality of life and a shortened lifespan than their non-paralysed counterparts. Sitting passively in a chair makes people susceptible to weight and digestion problems, lower bone density, diabetes – and last but not least, heart and circulation problems.

“It’s the circulation problems that are the most difficult for them, and it’s circulation problems that kill them”, says Jan Hoff, a professor of medicine at NTNU.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. A new type of exercise equipment, partly developed at NTNU, combined with a new training plan, makes it possible for spinal patients to exercise themselves back to health – at least as far as the heart is concerned.

In an exercise study completed last year, patients who were paralysed from the chest or waist down experienced an average increase in their oxygen uptake by 25 per cent and in their heart pumping volume by fully 37 per cent – after just eight weeks of training.

Never before has so much improvement or such impressive results been documented in this patient group.

Not just a stationary bike
This clever training equipment is called Ergys 2, and was originally designed in the United States. It was Christopher Reeve – who himself played Superman in films, but who became a quadrapelgic after a riding accident – who financed the development of the rehab equipment, in the hopes of improving his own health. But that didn’t quite happen, and the actor died of heart failure when he was just 52 years old. Nevertheless, his efforts gave the world’s spinal injury patients a useful piece of rehabilitation equipment.

The Ergys 2 is a stationary training bicycle, where the patient’s legs and feet are strapped to a leg holder and pedals. Electrodes are then fastened to the patient’s thigh and seat muscles, and electrical impulses trigger the muscles to contract and relax. The impulses are computer controlled to guarantee the best possible effect.

Even though it may seem like artificial training, it is real enough – it’s the patient’s own muscles that are working. And it is movement that demands energy: the blood flow increases, and the pulse goes up. The exercise has an effect on muscle mass, muscle strength, oxygen uptake and the heart’s pumping volume.

Hard workouts, few repetitions
But it’s not enough to focus on the legs and buttocks, if this kind of training is going to make a real difference. The more muscle groups that are involved, the greater the blood flow, and the greater the benefits for the heart. That’s where NTNU researchers come into the picture. They’ve found a way to supplement the Ergsys 2 with an arm cycle, intended for patients who can use their arms without help.

The patients who participated in the training study were also able to simultaneously exercise their shoulders, arms, rump and legs, in a high intensity interval 4 x 4 pattern. That translates to four minutes of hard exercise followed by three to four minutes of easier training – with the entire procedure repeated four times per session, three days a week.

NTNU’s Professor Jan Hoff developed this interval approach several years ago, along with his colleague Jan Helgerud. He uses this interval technique for most types of physical training.
“Hard workouts, few repetitions. There is no other training approach that gives better results in improving oxygen uptake or muscle strength than that”, he says.

A preventative approach
Never before has research documented such a significant effect on the heart and circulation in patients with spinal injuries, as the study has shown. There has been relatively little research overall on spinal patients and exercise, in terms of what kinds and how much exercise actually give beneficial results.

The patients in this study were so out of shape when they started that they were unlikely to reach a normal level. But Hoff doesn’t think it’s an impossible goal.

“We really don’t know, but there’s no reason to believe that the improvements will stop where they are now”, he says.

Hoff doesn’t want to speculate on the implications of his research on the treatment of Norwegian patients paralysed from spinal injuries.

“We’re researchers, not therapists” he says. “But it’s clear that what we’re doing has consequences, both for Norway and for the world. And that gives us a great opportunity to prevent lifestyle related illnesses”.

Unplugged?
Under Hoff’s guidance, Berit Brurok conducted the study for her master’s thesis in exercise physiology. Brurok is continuing her work in this area as a part of her PhD research, in cooperation with Dr. Tom Tørhaug at St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim.

Because the Ergys 2 is expensive, and because it also requires assistance to use, the researchers are looking to see if the results from the study can be transferred to other activities. Would it be possible to do something similar in a wheelchair? Could it be done without electricity?

If they succeed, it could mean a better quality of life and a longer life for many people. In Norway alone there are 5000 spinal injury patients, while in the USA that number may be closer to 500,000.

2. Disabled Teenager Rescues Elderly Woman
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=59182&provider=rss
Posted By: Yvette Martinez
6/9/2008 9:54 PM EDT
11 hrs ago

A tight-knit neighborhood is praying for a neighbor who had a stroke this weekend, while also celebrating a young hero who came to her rescue.

"I was visiting with her, having some Coke and chocolate," Eli Scarborough III remembered. Sixteen-year-old Eli Scarborough III was checking on his neighbor Beverly at her home on Stonewood Drive in Northwest Knoxville on Sunday afternoon.

"All the sudden, she just stood there. I didn't know what she was doing," Eli said. "All the sudden, she moves this foot just a little bit, and then I knew what was happening."

Eli, also known as "Little E" took some big steps to quickly get to his wheelchair and get his dad, who is a former nurse.

"I got him, and he ran over here over to Bev's and called the ambulance," Eli said. "Well, my first thought was she had a stroke, and turns out, I think that's what she diagnosed with," Eli's father, Eli Scarborough Jr. said.

Within minutes, Beverly was on her way to the hospital thanks to Eli. "My heart was racing 55 miles an hour," he said.

Neighbors say "Little E" is well known for his compassion and willingness to help those living in the community around him.

"He came by to check on my mom when she was very ill, to check on her and see how she was doing," neighbor Ron Maples said. In fact, Maples went on to say Eli and his dad are helping him remodel his home this week.

"If he can do it, he will do it, or at least he'll give it a try," Maples said.

Eli's cerebral palsy will not keep him from making the rounds in his neighborhood. He says he's more committed than ever to check on his elderly friends, just in case they need him.

"I just can't say enough about him," Maples said. "He's a good guy. He's an exceptional 16 year old guy."

Eli and his family are hoping for the best for Beverly. Her family members say she is still in intensive care in critical condition.

3. Ancient Cave Found Under Church
Built in 230 A.D., church is one of Christianity's oldest in the world
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25061134/
updated 5:05 p.m. ET June 9, 2008

AMMAN, Jordan - Archaeologists in Jordan said Monday they have discovered a cave underneath one of the world's oldest churches that may have once been an even more ancient site of Christian worship.

Archaeologist Abdel-Qader Hussein, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, says the cave was unearthed in the northern Jordanian city of Rihab after three months of excavation and shows evidence of early Christian rituals.

The cave lies under St. Georgeous church, built in 230 A.D., making it one of the oldest churches in the world, along with one unearthed in the Jordanian southern port of Aqaba in 1998 and another in Israel discovered in 2005.

2008: June 9th Good News (US Military Supercomputer Sets Record; Chinese Food Good for Your Heart; more...)

2008-06-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all,

Well, I am so excited I can barely sleep. My Husband gets here in 4 days! (I better figure out a sleep schedule before then, because I don't want to be exhausted when he gets here).

Anyway, today I would like to mention two articles. First, there is an article about a young boy (age 9) who decided, after recovering from cancer, that he wanted to help others with cancer. Then, he wrote a book. So far, two books have been written. All proceeds go to supporting cancer research.

The second article I'd like to bring to your attention is about a recycling program in the phillipines where billboards and signs are turned into school childrens bags. Additionally, while making these bags, women from the local villages are taught how to sew. :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy the posts!

See you tomorrow! :)

Today's Top 5:
1. US Military Supercomputer Sets Record!
2. Turning Billboards into Bags (CNN)
3. "I Want to Help Other People with Cancer" Says 9 Year old Cancer Survivor (IC Wales)
4. US Rescues 70 People Stranded Off Yemen (Yahoo News)
5. Pen-Type Device Displays Characters Written in Air on Monitor (Tech On)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Study Finds Chinese Food Good for Your Heart (Eurekalert.org)
2. The 14-month-old Girl Who Can Hear for the First Time (Daily Mail UK)

Today's Top 5:

1. US Military Supercomputer Sets Record!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/technology/09petaflops.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: June 9, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — An American military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

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I.B.M.
The Roadrunner supercomputer costs $133 million and will be used to study nuclear weapons.
The new machine is more than twice as fast as the previous fastest supercomputer, the I.B.M. BlueGene/L, which is based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The new $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner in a reference to the state bird of New Mexico, was devised and built by engineers and scientists at I.B.M. and Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in Los Alamos, N.M. It will be used principally to solve classified military problems to ensure that the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons will continue to work correctly as they age. The Roadrunner will simulate the behavior of the weapons in the first fraction of a second during an explosion.

Before it is placed in a classified environment, it will also be used to explore scientific problems like climate change. The greater speed of the Roadrunner will make it possible for scientists to test global climate models with higher accuracy.

To put the performance of the machine in perspective, Thomas P. D’Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that if all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day.

The machine is an unusual blend of chips used in consumer products and advanced parallel computing technologies. The lessons that computer scientists learn by making it calculate even faster are seen as essential to the future of both personal and mobile consumer computing.

The high-performance computing goal, known as a petaflop — one thousand trillion calculations per second — has long been viewed as a crucial milestone by military, technical and scientific organizations in the United States, as well as a growing group including Japan, China and the European Union. All view supercomputing technology as a symbol of national economic competitiveness.

By running programs that find a solution in hours or even less time — compared with as long as three months on older generations of computers — petaflop machines like Roadrunner have the potential to fundamentally alter science and engineering, supercomputer experts say. Researchers can ask questions and receive answers virtually interactively and can perform experiments that would previously have been impractical.

“This is equivalent to the four-minute mile of supercomputing,” said Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee who for several decades has tracked the performance of the fastest computers.

Each new supercomputing generation has brought scientists a step closer to faithfully simulating physical reality. It has also produced software and hardware technologies that have rapidly spilled out into the rest of the computer industry for consumer and business products.

Technology is flowing in the opposite direction as well. Consumer-oriented computing began dominating research and development spending on technology shortly after the cold war ended in the late 1980s, and that trend is evident in the design of the world’s fastest computers.

The Roadrunner is based on a radical design that includes 12,960 chips that are an improved version of an I.B.M. Cell microprocessor, a parallel processing chip originally created for Sony’s PlayStation 3 video-game machine. The Sony chips are used as accelerators, or turbochargers, for portions of calculations.

The Roadrunner also includes a smaller number of more conventional Opteron processors, made by Advanced Micro Devices, which are already widely used in corporate servers.

“Roadrunner tells us about what will happen in the next decade,” said Horst Simon, associate laboratory director for computer science at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Technology is coming from the consumer electronics market and the innovation is happening first in terms of cellphones and embedded electronics.”

The innovations flowing from this generation of high-speed computers will most likely result from the way computer scientists manage the complexity of the system’s hardware.

Roadrunner, which consumes roughly three megawatts of power, or about the power required by a large suburban shopping center, requires three separate programming tools because it has three types of processors. Programmers have to figure out how to keep all of the 116,640 processor cores in the machine occupied simultaneously in order for it to run effectively.

“We’ve proved some skeptics wrong,” said Michael R. Anastasio, a physicist who is director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “This gives us a window into a whole new way of computing. We can look at phenomena we have never seen before.”

Solving that programming problem is important because in just a few years personal computers will have microprocessor chips with dozens or even hundreds of processor cores. The industry is now hunting for new techniques for making use of the new computing power. Some experts, however, are skeptical that the most powerful supercomputers will provide useful examples.

“If Chevy wins the Daytona 500, they try to convince you the Chevy Malibu you’re driving will benefit from this,” said Steve Wallach, a supercomputer designer who is chief scientist of Convey Computer, a start-up firm based in Richardson, Tex.

Those who work with weapons might not have much to offer the video gamers of the world, he suggested.

Many executives and scientists see Roadrunner as an example of the resurgence of the United States in supercomputing.

Although American companies had dominated the field since its inception in the 1960s, in 2002 the Japanese Earth Simulator briefly claimed the title of the world’s fastest by executing more than 35 trillion mathematical calculations per second. Two years later, a supercomputer created by I.B.M. reclaimed the speed record for the United States. The Japanese challenge, however, led Congress and the Bush administration to reinvest in high-performance computing.

“It’s a sign that we are maintaining our position,“ said Peter J. Ungaro, chief executive of Cray, a maker of supercomputers. He noted, however, that “the real competitiveness is based on the discoveries that are based on the machines.”

Having surpassed the petaflop barrier, I.B.M. is already looking toward the next generation of supercomputing. “You do these record-setting things because you know that in the end we will push on to the next generation and the one who is there first will be the leader,” said Nicholas M. Donofrio, an I.B.M. executive vice president.

By breaking the petaflop barrier sooner than had been generally expected, the United States’ supercomputer industry has been able to sustain a pace of continuous performance increases, improving a thousandfold in processing power in 11 years. The next thousandfold goal is the exaflop, which is a quintillion calculations per second, followed by the zettaflop, the yottaflop and the xeraflop.

2. Turning Billboards into Bags
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/eco.billboards/index.html?eref=rss_latest
June 9, 2008 -- Updated 0436 GMT (1236 HKT) Share this on:

(CNN) -- Binggirl Clemente has worked in environmental advocacy in the Philippines for the past eight years. Today, she leads a project to recycle old billboards into bags backed by local NGO, the Earth Day Network.

The project also promotes environmental education and funds clean-up projects in the local community. Recently, she spoke with CNN.

CNN: How did you come up with the idea?

Clemente: Last year was the election period in the Philippines and there were a lot of advertising banners and campaign banners actually. It's really proliferating all over the country and since our advocacy is solid waste management, we already started talking about how are we going to address all this waste around us in the country?

Since my business is in the sewing industry, I thought why don't we try to sew it and make it into something. So we got one and tried to sew it, if the needle could go through it and it did. So I said maybe we could try to make something out of it, at first it was purses, and then eventually since it was May, and June is the start of the school year suggested why don't we make school bags out of it for the children in the public schools.

This became a concept in my company, and also be a good corporate social responsibility activity, so we started gathering [the old billboards]. It became a private activity for my company and some of our friends who involved themselves in there. So that's how it started making school bags and giving it away.

CNN: How did it become a community based project?

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Clemente: Somebody came to me, an artist, and said, "why are you inverting [the bags], why is it all white?" I said it was because we have a white thing so we can print what we want to say, "manage waste, goodbye garbage". And one more thing is that we don't want the faces of the politicians coming out in the bag! Since we've been sewing, we've been advocating in our environmental group, it's not only about the environment, it's also about poverty alleviation, women empowerment and employment.

So when we started this at just a small scale it just struck my mind why don't we make this as a community based. Instead of us making our bags, why don't we go out there and see if the women who aren't working if they'd like to learn how to sew. Teaching is not our business, sewing is our business, but there is a compatibility. I brought it up in the Earth Day Network program. They said, "yes that is a brilliant idea" It struck me that our priorities are empowerment, employment, poverty alleviation, so that's how we started thinking about it.

CNN: Why do they call Metro Manila the "billboard jungle"?

Clemente: Metro Manila is all about billboards and banners, billboards and banners. There is no standard size, you can go as big as you want or as small as you want. But no one wants to go small, they want big. There is no strict regulation as to where to install the billboards, this makes me sad because I came from that industry; I left 7 years ago. It would be nice to have a practice in one industry where there is a strict regulation, but what happened in the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila, there was no regulation at all.

Everybody can just put up their own structures anywhere for as long as they get approval from the land owner. Then it became cluttering, then people put them side by side, then on top of each other. There are a lot already, but that's not what gave us in concept. It was really the political banners that pushed us to say this is too much.

CNN: What are the greater environmental problems affecting the Philippines?

Clemente: Our problem here in Manila is we just dump our waste, we dump it everywhere. We don't have proper waste management, we have a law, but it's not being strictly followed. What we are doing here with the tarp bag is just one of the many wastes that is being generated in the country. Normally you recycle the paper, bottle and cans you can take back to factory, but these billboards have no factory to return to make a new tarpaulin.

CNN: What's your goal for this project?

Clemente: We're trying to make this whole system as good as we can, so we can set up others in different provinces, so that we will address the waste where it occurs. We are hoping to duplicate this in different provinces, so that every tarpaulin billboard in every province has its own management system, so it doesn't have to go back to Metro Manila to us here.

CNN: Who were you first clients?

Clemente: We wanted to touch base with the corporations who are using tarpaulins as their advertising banners, after they've used the tarpaulins as their advertising banners we want them to send it over to our village where we will make it into bags back for them. It's like buying back their waste and they can use them as their corporate giveaway bags.

CNN: How do you support the local community?

Clemente: These communities are being supported by the proceeds that we've received, we make the bags, the corporations buy them, we make a little profit, then those profits are used to fund all our projects like today and on Sunday, we will be giving away school bags. It didn't come from anybody's money anymore, it came from the money we have already generated, from our own activities.

CNN: What's the message you're trying to say with this project?

Clemente: What we're actually doing is information and we teach and campaign for a clean environment. We are teaching people to manage their waste so it will not create garbage. When you start mixing your waste, it will become garbage, it will be rubbish, but when you segregate it, it will be a resource.

People will have to start thinking that we need to recycle our waste, we don't just have to dump it. That's the main lesson we want to share with the whole world that when you're done with one thing, please don't throw it away, save it, it could be useful to some other people, it could be useful to your future needs. The more you save it, the more you're saving resources, you're saving it for the future needs.

3. ‘I want to help other people with cancer’
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/09/i-want-to-help-other-people-with-cancer-91466-21044780/
Jun 9 2008 by Cathy Owen, South Wales Echo

A NINE-YEAR-OLD who beat cancer after being given just a 25% chance of surviving has written a book about his ordeal.

Sam Viney, from Peterston-Super-Ely, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form of cancer which attacks the nerve cells in young children, when he was just 18 months old.

His parents, Janet and Ian, were warned he had only a one-in-four chance of survival as he underwent months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

But the brave Peterston-Super-Ely primary school pupil, who is one of triplets, beat the disease and despite still having some side effects he is now in Year Four.

Despite his love of drumming, snorkelling and sailing, Sam’s favourite pastime is writing stories.

The idea of writing the first book, called The Lost Egg, was developed with his tutor, Mavis Ingram, who is also a cancer survivor and has been helping him catch up with school work after his illness.

He has sold the book to friends and family at 50p a time and managed to raise £200, which he handed over to Cancer Research UK Senior Nurse in Wales Barbara Moore at Cardiff’s Velindre Hospital, where he had some of his treatment.

While the first book has gone on sale at the Cancer Research shop in Whitchurch, Cardiff, Sam has written another called The Dinosaur’s Egg.

Sam, who also has an older brother, said he had been keen to give the money from his first book to Cancer Research UK.

“I didn’t want to keep it as I would have lots of money,” he said.

“Because I had cancer, I want to help other people with cancer.”

Mrs Ingram, 67, from St Fagans, near Cardiff, said that she had been tutoring Sam twice a week for around 18 months.

“He was a bit behind with his work because of his illness, but he is catching up brilliantly,” she said.

“I like to capture the imagination of children and Sam has very creative ideas, so I suggested the book as a way to get them down on paper and help his grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.”

Mum Janet said: “We are so proud of him.”

Copies of the book will be available in the Cancer Research UK shop in Merthyr Road, Whitchurch.

cathy.owen@mediawales.co.uk

4. US Rescues 70 People Stranded Off Yemen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080609/wl_africa_afp/somaliayemenusimmigration
2 hours, 41 minutes ago

DUBAI (AFP) - A US Navy destroyer operating in shark-infested waters between Somalia and Yemen has rescued a boat in distress which was loaded with about 70 people, the US Navy said on Monday.

The USS Russell responded to a distress call on Sunday from the boat that had been adrift for two days after experiencing engine problems, said the US Navy Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

"There were approximately 70 personnel on board the vessel, some of whom were in need of immediate medical attention," a statement said, adding that the boat and passengers were being towed to Somalia to be turned over to the authorities.

The statement did not identify the people on board, but similar journeys are frequently made by desperate African migrants using small poorly-equipped vessels.

In April, 22 migrants drowned off the coast of Yemen after they were forced overboard by smugglers who were transferring around 120 people across the Gulf of Aden.

More than 1,400 clandestine immigrants died trying to cross from Africa in 2007, while more than 28,300 managed to reach the Yemeni coast, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in December.

The crossing takes two days at best and is made especially dangerous by shark-infested waters, strong currents and inhumane conditions on poorly maintained vessels open to the elements.

The USS Russell, a guided missile destroyer, is part of a task force operating in the Arabian Sea to "help develop security in the maritime environment", the US Navy said.

The waters off Somalia -- which has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity -- are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world due to frequent piracy attacks.

5. [TEXPO] Pen-type Device Displays Characters Written in Air on Monitor
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080609/153010/
Jun 9, 2008 17:01
Shinya Saeki, Nikkei Electronics

SMK's "Wireless Input Pen"
SMK Corp developed "Wireless Input Pen," which can transmit characters written in the air and displays them on a monitor.

The pen was exhibited at the company's exhibition "TEXPO 2008," which took place in Shinagawa, Tokyo from June 4 to 6, 2008.

The pen has a built-in triaxial acceleration sensor and the Bluetooth function. The sensor detects the positional information and recognizes the inputted characters. The characters are wirelessly transmitted to a monitor via Bluetooth. The maximum transmission distance is reportedly about 10m. It is expected that the pen will be used in place of a laser pointer in sales presentations.

According to SMK, it is the world's first pen-type device that can transmit characters written in the air to a monitor and the company is currently applying for a patent. Thus far, Anoto AB of Sweden and CandleDragon Inc have prototyped a pen that can transfer characters written on paper to a monitor, etc.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Study Finds Chinese Food Good for Your Heart
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/tju-ras060508.php
Contact: Rick Cushman
richard.cushman@jefferson.edu
215-955-2240
Thomas Jefferson University
Public release date: 9-Jun-2008

Chinese red yeast rice reduces repeat heart attacks/mortality rates
(PHILADELPHIA) – A clinical study on patients who have suffered a heart attack found that a partially purified extract of Chinese red yeast rice, Xuezhikang (XZK), reduced the risk of repeat heart attacks by 45%, revascularization (bypass surgery/angioplasty), cardiovascular mortality and total mortality by one-third and cancer mortality by two-thirds. The multicenter, randomized, double-blind study, was conducted on almost 5,000 patients, ranging in age from 18-70 over a five-year period at over 60 hospitals in the People's Republic of China. Corresponding author David M. Capuzzi, M.D., Ph.D, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program at Jefferson's Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine and Zonliang Lu, M.D., Ph.D, from the Fuwai Hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Science report their findings in the June 15th edition of the American Journal of Cardiology.

"It's very exciting because this is a natural product and had very few adverse side effects including no abnormal blood changes," said Capuzzi. "People in the Far East have been taking Chinese red yeast rice as food for thousands of years, but no one has ever studied it clinically in a double-blind manner with a purified product against a placebo group until now and we are pleased with the results. However, people in the United States should know that the commercially available over-the-counter supplement found in your average health food store is not what was studied here. Those over-the-counter supplements are not regulated, so exact amounts of active ingredient are unknown and their efficacy has not been studied yet."

The study looked at patients who had suffered a heart attack in the previous year. Study participants were given two-300-milligram XZK capsules or a placebo and tracked over a five-year period. The XZK capsules contained a combination of lovastatin, lovastatin hydroxyl acid, ergosterol and other components.

"I think it is surprising that a natural product like XZK would have this great an effect," said Capuzzi. "If further testing and study prove true, my hope is that XZK becomes an important therapeutic agent to treat cardiovascular disorders and in the prevention of disease whether someone has had a heart attack or not. But it is important to recognize the fact we do not know exactly how Chinese red yeast rice works. The exact ingredients from the XZK capsules have not been isolated and studied yet. Still the results were so profound, even out performing statins prescribed in numerous western populations, that further study should certainly be investigated."

The study was sponsored by Beijing Peking University WBL Biotech Co. Ltd (WPU), in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Dr. Capuzzi has no financial interest in this company.

2. The 14-month-old Girl Who Can Hear for the First Time
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLR_enUS253US253&q=Ava+Parson+can+hear+for+the+first+time
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:16 AM on 06th June 2008

Comments (1) Add to My Stories
Enlarge Magic moment: Ava Pearson with mother Lauren. Her first world was 'mama'
A baby girl who was born deaf can now hear after becoming one of the youngest people in Britain to have a cochlear implant.

Ava Pearson, 14 months old, can listen to bedtime stories and jiggle about to music thanks to the life-changing operation.

She is even starting to speak after being given an implant in one ear when she was nine months old and a second one in the other ear three months later.

Ava's speech therapist says her language skills are now ahead of other children the same age.

Her mother, Lauren, 31, from Belsize Park, said: "One week after the operation she started dancing to music and then four weeks later she said her first word, 'mama', which was huge for me.

"I realised she could hear when she kept pushing the top of a toy which played music and she started swaying to the tune. I couldn't believe it. Previously a siren could have gone past and she wouldn't have reacted.

"When she started babbling it was amazing - before that she only made guttural noises that she could feel in her chest." Mrs Pearson, a book publisher, and her husband Chris, a 31-year-old finance manager, first realised Ava was deaf when she didn't react to routine hearing tests at the age of three weeks.

Mr Pearson said: "We were very upset and it was a complete shock - there was no history of deafness in the family.

"Lauren started scouring the internet and discovered cochlear implants. We knew if you have them young it is better for speech and language development."

The couple decided to pay to have the implants at the private Portland hospital in the West End.

The cost, plus a year of speech therapy at the hospital and back-up equipment, is almost £52,000 and is being paid out of the family's health insurance.

Mr Pearson said: "We knew that time was of the essence and that it wouldn't be as fast on the NHS."

Speech therapist Natalie Opitz, who works at the Portland, said: "Ava is the youngest baby I have seen have the operation in this country. This is a remarkable case but it could be the norm for all deaf children."

A spokeswoman for the Royal National Institute for Deaf people said children are typically given the implants on the NHS aged between one and three but waiting lists for the operation vary across the country.

She added: "The RNID wants to see a national framework that gives equal access to all those who would benefit more from a cochlear implant than from hearing aids."

A cochlear implant is made up of a receiver, which is surgically implanted behind the ear with electrodes inserted into the cochlea. A speech processor is magnetically attached to the outside of the head and sends electrodes to the inner ear. These send a signal through the auditory nerve to the brain, where it is perceived as sound.

Ava's second implant allows her to tell the direction from which sound is coming.

2008: June 8th Good News (Surgeons Save Unborn Baby's Legs; Church from Underwater City Found; more...)

2008-06-09T04:02:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all,

Here are the posts for Sunday, June 8th. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Surgeons Save Unborn Baby's Legs (Australian Broadcasting Company)
2. Cuba's Urban Farming Program a Stunning Success (Sun Star Network Online)
3. New Method of Managing Risk in Pregnancy Leads to Healthier Newborns, Better Outcomes for Moms (Science Daily)
4. Scientists ID Brain Pathway that Stops Seizures (Yahoo News)
5. Tiny Scottish Island Claims Victory in its War on Rats (International Herald Tribune)

Honorable Mention:
1. Rescued Lions Enjoy New Home (News 24)
2. Church from Underwater City Found (BBC News)

Today's Top 5:

1. Surgeons Save Unborn Baby's Legs
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/08/2268374.htm
Posted Sun Jun 8, 2008 11:50am AEST
Updated Sun Jun 8, 2008 2:28pm AEST

Leah Bowlen is now two months old and is expected to make a full recovery. (Supplied: file photo)

Map: Melbourne 3000
Surgeons at two Melbourne hospitals have saved the legs of an unborn baby with a rare and delicate procedure.

Kylie Bowlen was 22 weeks pregnant when surgeons from Melbourne's Monash Medical Centre removed amniotic bands from above her baby's left ankle.

After Leah Bowlen was born, surgeons at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital were able to remove amniotic bands from her right leg, which was at risk of being amputated.

The surgery inside the womb is the fifth case in Australia and is thought to be the earliest in utero surgery of its type in the world.

Leah Bowlen is now two months old and is expected to make a full recovery.

Editor's note: This story has been amended to say that Leah Bowlen's mother was 22 weeks pregnant when the surgery occurred, not that Leah was 22 months old.

2. Cuba's Urban Farming Program a Stunning Success
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net/2008/06/08/cuba.s.urban.farming.program.a.stunning.success.(9.a.m.).html
Sunday, June 08, 2008

HAVANA -- For Miladis Bouza, the global food crisis arrived two decades ago. Now, her efforts to climb out of it could serve as a model for people around the world struggling to feed their families.

Bouza was a research biologist, living a solidly middle-class existence, when the collapse of the Soviet Union - and the halt of its subsidized food shipments to Cuba - effectively cut her government salary to US$3 a month. Suddenly, a trip to the grocery store was out of reach.

So she quit her job, and under a program championed by then-Defense Minister Raul Castro, asked the government for the right to farm an overgrown, half-acre lot near her Havana home. Now, her husband tends rows of tomatoes, sweet potatoes and spinach, while Bouza, 48, sells the produce at a stall on a busy street.

Neighbors are happy with cheap vegetables fresh from the field. Bouza never lacks for fresh produce, and she pulls in between 2,000 to 5,000 pesos (US$100-250) a month - many times the average government salary of 408 pesos (US$19).

"All that money is mine," she said. "The only thing I have to buy is protein" - meat.

Cuba's urban farming program has been a stunning, and surprising, success. The farms, many of them on tiny plots like Bouza's, now supply much of Cuba's vegetables. They also provide 350,000 jobs nationwide with relatively high pay and have transformed eating habits in a nation accustomed to a less-than-ideal diet of rice and beans and canned goods from Eastern Europe.

From 1989-93, Cubans went from eating an average of 3,004 calories a day to only 2,323, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, as shelves emptied of the Soviet goods that made up two-thirds of Cuba's food. Today, they eat 3,547 calories a day - more than what the U.S. government recommends for American citizens.

"It's a really interesting model looking at what's possible in a nation that's 80 percent urban," said Catherine Murphy, a California sociologist who spent a decade studying farms in Havana. "It shows that cities can produce huge amounts of their own food, and you get all kinds of social and ecological benefits."

Of course, urban farms might not be such a success in a healthy, competitive economy.

As it is, productivity is low at Cuba's large, state-run farms where workers lack incentives. Government-supplied rations - mostly imported from the U.S. - provide such staples as rice, beans and cooking oil, but not fresh produce. Importers bring in only what central planners want, so the market doesn't correct for gaps. And since most land is owned by the state, developers are not competing for the vacant lots that can become plots for vegetables.

Still, experts say the basic idea behind urban farming has a lot of promise.

"It's land that otherwise would be sitting idle. It requires little or no transportation to get (produce) to market," said Bill Messina, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "It's good anyway you look at it."

And with fuel prices and food shortages causing unrest and hunger across the world, many say the Cuban model should spread.

"There are certain issues where we think Cuba has a lot to teach the world. Urban agriculture is one of them," said Beat Schmid, coordinator of Cuba programs for the charity Oxfam International.

Other countries have experimented with urban farming - Cuba's initial steps were modeled after a green belt surrounding Shanghai.

But nowhere has urban farming been used so widely to transform the way a country feeds itself.

"As the global food crisis receives attention, this is something that we need to be looking at," Murphy said. "Havana is an unlikely, really successful model where no one would expect one to come from."

Now that Raul Castro is president, many expect him to expand the program he began as an experiment in the early 1990s.

One of the first plots he opened was the "organoponico" on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street in the ritzy Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The half-block farm - owned by a government agency - is surrounded by apartment buildings and houses, but also offices of foreign companies, a Spanish bank and the South African Embassy.

Long troughs brim with arugula, spinach, radishes and basil, and few of the 20,000 square feet (1,850 square meters) are wasted.

One technician tends compost that serves as natural fertilizer, while another handles natural protection from pests, surrounding delicate spinach shoots with strong-smelling celery to ward off insects. Such measures have ecological benefits but were born of necessity: Neither commercial fertilizer nor herbicide is reliably available.

Three workers tend the crops and another three sell them from a brightly painted stall.

Key to the operation is something once unheard of in Cuba: 80 percent of the profits go straight to the workers' pockets, providing them an average of 1,500 pesos (US$71) a month.

"Those salaries are higher than doctors, than lawyers," said Roberto Perez, the 58-year-old agronomist who runs the farm. "The more they produce, the more they make. That's fundamental to get high productivity."

Customers say the farm has given them not only access to affordable food, but also a radical change in their cuisine.

"Nobody used to eat vegetables," said David Leon, 50, buying two pounds (about a kilo) of Swiss chard. "People's nutrition has improved a lot. It's a lot healthier. And it tastes good."

3. New Method of Managing Risk in Pregnancy Leads to Healthier Newborns, Better Outcomes For Moms
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602163837.htm
ScienceDaily
Jun. 8, 2008

An alternative method for obstetric care has led to lower neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission rates, higher uncomplicated vaginal birth (UVB) rates, and a lower mean Adverse Outcome Index (AOI) score, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The alternative method is known as Active Management of Risk in Pregnancy at Term, or AMOR-IPAT, for short. AMOR-IPAT uses "risk-based preventative labor induction to ensure that each pregnant woman enters labor at a gestational age that maximizes her chance for vaginal delivery," says lead researcher, James M. Nicholson, MD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at Penn.

"Over the past decade, the rates of cesarean delivery have climbed above 30%," says Dr. Nicholson. "Cesarean delivery, when compared with vaginal delivery, is associated with higher rates of postpartum hemorrhage, major postpartum infection and hospital readmission," he adds.

Unlike previous retrospective studies of labor induction, this study attempted to minimize confounding factors by using a randomized prospective design. The study included 270 women who were recruited when they were between 32 and 37½ weeks into their pregnancy. Women who remained undelivered at 37 weeks 4 days of gestation were randomized to either AMOR-IPAT or usual care. Three facilities within the University of Pennsylvania Health System recruited women, including the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Obstetrics Clinic, the Pennsylvania Hospital Obstetrics Clinic, and Penn Family Care.

Risk factors for the AMOR-IPAT exposed group were identified and categorized as either interfering with placental growth or accelerating fetal growth. Each of these factors is associated with a published odds ratio for cesarean delivery, which, in turn, is used to determine the optimal time of delivery. If a woman in the exposed group did not experience spontaneous labor as she approached the end of this time frame, preventative labor induction was scheduled. In the AMOR-IPAT group, the greater the number and severity of risk factors, the earlier preventative labor induction was offered within the term period (38 -- 41 weeks of gestation).

The findings of this study suggest that the AMOR-IPAT approach to obstetric risk lead to healthier babies and better birth outcomes for mothers. In addition, the results challenge the current belief that a greater use of labor induction necessarily leads to higher rates of cesarean delivery. In order to further explore the potential benefits of the AMOR-IPAT method of care, further research involving larger randomized clinical trials in more diverse populations is needed.

This study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and by a research grant from the First Hospital Foundation. Forest Pharmaceuticals provided dinoprostone pledgets for use at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

4. Scientists ID Brain Pathway That Stops Seizures http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080609/hl_hsn/scientistsidbrainpathwaythatstopsseizures
SUNDAY, June 8
HealthDay News

A brain pathway that stops seizures has been found by Iowa researchers.

Applying modern genetics and molecular biology to clinical observations made more than 80 years ago, a team from the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System found that increased acid (pH) activates an ion channel in the brain that shuts down seizure activity. The findings were expected to be published online June 8 in Nature Neuroscience.

"Although this work provides insight into how seizures normally stop and might help us learn more about how to terminate those seizures that don't stop, it will take more work to turn the finding into a new therapeutic approach," senior study author Dr. John Wemmie, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of Iowa's Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, said in a prepared statement. "We will be working with colleagues in neurology and neurosurgery to try and translate the findings to treatments."

Clinical experiments from the first half of the 20th century show breathing carbon dioxide, which creates more acid in brain tissue, helps stop epileptic seizures while the seizures themselves lower brain pH. The modern discovery of an acid-activated ion channel (ASIC1a) in the brain helped the team piece the puzzle together.

"We found that ASIC1a does not seem to play a role in how a seizure starts, but as the seizure continues, and the pH is reduced, ASIC1a appears to play a role in stopping additional seizure activity," study co-lead author Adam Ziemann, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the university, said in a prepared statement.

Researchers found that seizures are more severe and longer in mice lacking the ASIC1a gene than those with the gene. Also, chemically blocking ASIC1a causes the seizures to be longer and more severe in mice with the gene, while increasing ASIC1a in mice protects them from severe seizures.

"One of the most exciting aspects of the work is that it highlights the potent anti-epileptic effects of acid in the brain -- effects that have been recognized for nearly 100 years but until recently have been poorly understood -- and it identifies ASIC1a as a key player in mediating the anti-epileptic effect of low pH," Ziemann said.

Seizures occur when brain neurons work out of synch, causing physical spasms or convulsions and even disrupting vital functions, such as breathing. Most seizures stop by themselves, but if they don't, a life-threatening condition called status epilepticus that claims a mortality rate of up to 20 percent could occur.

It is thought that 2 percent to 4 percent of people will have a seizure at some time. People who have epilepsy experience repeated seizure activity.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about seizures.

5. Tiny Scottish Island Claims Victory in its War on Rats
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/07/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Scotland-Rats.php
The Associated PressPublished: June 7, 2008

LONDON: The tiny Scottish isle of Canna has won a three-year war against the island's rat population, environmental officials said Saturday.

The island's soaring cliffs are ideal nesting grounds and host about 15,000 seabirds from 14 different species, according to the National Trust for Scotland, which manages Canna.

But the birds found themselves under threat when brown rats, accidentally introduced to the island hundreds of years ago, began appearing in greater and greater numbers, something the trust said was probably due to warmer winters.

The rats were devouring the birds' eggs, killing their chicks and devastating many of their colonies. Some birds, like the long-winged Manx Shearwater, were almost driven from the island entirely.

In 2005, the trust brought in a team of pest-eradication experts from New Zealand. Working with volunteers, they laid 4,388 traps out in a carefully plotted grid across the eight kilometer-long (five-mile-long) island, rappelling down the sides of cliffs to reach the more inaccessible areas.

Some 23 metric tons (25 U.S. tons) of rodenticide was shipped in to arm the traps, and by early 2006 the island's estimated 10,000-strong rat population had largely disappeared.

Authorities and volunteers have since been monitoring the island by leaving chocolate-flavored wax around Canna and keeping an eye out for rats' distinctive nibble marks. With no confirmed rat sightings in more than two years, the British Environment Minister Mike Russell declared the island "officially rat-free."

Canna, more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) off Scotland's western coast, is home to about a dozen people.

Honorable Mention

1. Rescued Lions Enjoy New Home
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2336782,00.html
07/06/2008 21:06 - (SA)

Bethlehem - The wide-eyed lion cub inched slowly to the edge of the wooden crate. He stared around him, then with a growl from the older cub behind him, he leapt out onto the grass.

They were among nine cubs, along with an adult lion and a tiger, rescued from bleak Romanian zoos and released on Saturday into their new home - a sanctuary in Bethlehem that was once a notorious game lodge where lions were bred to be hunted.

When another of the crates was opened, the cubs disappeared inside but came out again, rolling and playing with two other young lions.

From the third and fourth crates came more frightened cubs who looked suspiciously around them, their bodies crouched low and ready to pounce.

Sticking close to each other, the cubs sniffed the grass, the air and after a while began purring loudly, finally safe from harm.

"It is wonderful to see these animals take their first steps on African soil," said Amir Khalil, director of Lionsrock, which was established by Austrian-based international animal welfare organisation Vier Pfoten (Four Paws).

46 lions

The latest arrivals brings to 46 the number of lions at the 1 100 hectare sanctuary.

In 2006, the organisation bought the game lodge, including 25 lions, one tiger, two leopards and a host of buck. Another 11 lions were rescued in November from a safari park in Austria that had gone bankrupt and the sanctuary was officially opened in February.

"The new habitat is a really perfect place for them to live out their lives with the peace and dignity they deserve," Khalil said.

The cubs that arrived on Saturday, aged from six months to just over a year, were removed from their mothers at the run-down, financially crippled Braila Zoo in Romania.

"They could have died from neglect or sold on to individuals and put into small cages," Fiona Miles, operational director for Vier Pfoten in SA. "Their fate was unknown."

Malnutrition

In Romania, the cubs were kept in small cages with concrete floors and metal bars. They had very little bedding and no grass, and were fed and watered to a minimum with little stimulation.

Jazz, the adult lion will be reunited with his mate Mavi, while Aline, an 11-month-old female tiger, who was found badly injured shortly after birth, will become a companion for Coda, the 2-year-old male tiger already at Lionsrock.

Miles said the animals were suffering from malnutrition and neglect when they were rescued, but their conditions have quickly improved. Aline was kept in a 4-square-metre cage.

"When we were sent pictures of them, we were saddened and shocked," she said, tears welling in her eyes as she watched the cubs playing with each other. "To see them like this - healthy and well - leaves me speechless."

2. Church from Underwater City Found
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7441759.stm
Page last updated at 13:41 GMT, Saturday, 7 June 2008 14:41 UK

Sonar, underwater cameras and scanning equipment are being used
A medieval church which tumbled from an eroding cliff into the sea has been rediscovered by marine archaeologists.

They believe the ruins they have found are St John's church, the biggest in Dunwich which was lost to the sea off the coast of Suffolk.

Dunwich was once a thriving community before being swallowed up by the North Sea more than 500 years ago.

Experts are using the latest acoustic imaging technology to uncover clues about the lost city in the North Sea.

Stuart Bacon, director of Suffolk Underwater Studies, said: "We've found the ruins of a medieval church called St John's, which was the biggest in Dunwich.

"I've been looking for it for about 35 years so it's very exciting."

Searching for years

Mr Bacon, working alongside a team from the University of Southampton, led by Professor David Sear, said the 13th Century church tumbled down the cliffs in about 1540.

"Over the years, I've had hundreds of divers accompany me to look for it.

"We knew roughly where it was but have never been able to uncover it until now," he said.

Mr Bacon said the team had been hindered by thick layers of silt, up to two metres deep, covering the debris.

"It's like doing a survey from the air when there has been a thick covering of snow - only the tallest structures stick out," he said.

"We've got a lot more work to do to analyse the data we've collected before we can say what else is down there."

Thriving city

Dunwich was founded by Felix, a bishop sent by the Pope to convert the pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes who had colonised Suffolk in the 7th Century.

It grew into a prosperous trading port and thriving city but was prone to the North Sea drift which eroded the cliffs.

By 1086, just 20 years after the Norman conquest, Dunwich was a thriving town of 3,000 people.

It had six parish churches with at least two other chapels.

It has now virtually disappeared and all that remains are a graveyard and a few old houses in the present village of Dunwich, which continues to be under threat from the sea.

Acoustic imaging identifies different densities of material on the sea bed and this helps experts to spot rocks which may be from buildings. This is how the ruins were first spotted and excavation has revealed the church.

2008: June 3rd Good News (B.C. Researchers Rescue Whale; Lioness Bears Cubs at Zoo Atlanta; more...)

2008-06-07T04:04:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all,

Here is the retroactive post for June 3rd. :) I'm going to do June 7th next. :) Hope you enjoy!

Today's Top 5:
1. B.C. Researchers Make a Whale of a Rescue (The Globe and Mail)
2. Biodesign's Rittmann Offers Promising Perspectives on Society's Energy Challenge (Eurekalert.org)
3. Lioness Produces Cubs at Zoo Atlanta (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
4. Arlington Outhouse Yeilds Old Treasures
5. A Survivor in Greenland: A Novel Bacterial Species is Found Trapped in 120,000-Year-Old Ice (Physorg.com)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Recovered Stolen Items On HPD Website (KHON News)

Today's Top 5:

1. B.C. Researchers Make a Whale of a Rescue
Trapped in 100 metres of fishing line, a young humpback is freed by volunteer rescuers after 45 minutes of painstaking work
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080603.wbcwhale03/BNStory/National/home
By KEVEN DREWS
The Canadian Press
June 3, 2008 at 4:47 AM EDT

TOFINO, B.C. — John Forde knew the juvenile humpback whale, entangled in seven bright orange-and-white crab floats and nearly 100 metres of line, was fighting for its life in these remote waters off Clayoquot Sound.

The floats kept the one-to two-year-old mammal close to the water's surface, tiring it out and preventing it from diving deep to get free.

The gear scarred its back. Blubber and flesh were easily visible.

Even a crab line was caught in the eight-metre-long animal's mouth.

"He was in big trouble," Mr. Forde said yesterday. "It's pretty disheartening. It's pretty tough because you just want to help."

Just after 6:20 p.m. on Sunday, Mr. Forde and four other volunteer rescuers associated with the Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society went to work in the cold, choppy waters off Cow Bay near Flores Island and Ahousat, B.C.

Working from an open-decked Boston Whaler, Mr. Forde heaved on the ropes and brought the mammal close enough to the gunnels so other volunteers could cut the gear with a pole equipped with a hooked knife.

After 45 minutes of hard and dangerous work, the volunteers removed six of the seven floats and all the rope except a piece attached to the mammal's left pectoral fin.

When almost all the ropes were removed, the whale took off, covering huge distances and leaving the rescuers too far behind to finish their work.

Lisa Spaven, a marine mammal research co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the volunteers likely saved the mammal.

"I'm very pleased with the outcome," she said. "With that amount of gear encumbering the animal, it would have been eventually unable to feed and continue normal life processes, leading to its likely death."

Incidents like this are nothing new to the Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society, a Tofino-based, non-profit organization that performs rescues under the authority of the DFO.

Mr. Forde said over the years, he's participated in eight to 10 rescues, of which five or six have been successful.

On May 18, Mr. Forde received a call that another whale was dragging a crab float and was tangled in the rope near Tofino. The whale hasn't been seen since.

Rescuers were originally called about the young humpback on Saturday morning, but after 90 minutes of searching, they came up short.

Then around 5 p.m. on Sunday, Robin Orr, an employee of Jamie's Whaling Station, reported seeing the distressed whale at Cow Bay. He agreed to stay on the scene.

At 5:30 p.m., Mr. Forde and fellow rescuers Rod Palm, Jens Kalwa, Tony Heald and Adrien Mullin left Tofino.

They arrived at Cow Bay within the hour and by that time, Mr. Forde said the whale was fully entangled and showed signs of distress.

As Mr. Heald drove the boat, Mr. Forde pulled on the ropes, Mr. Mullin cut the lines, Mr. Kalwa readied equipment, and Mr. Palm oversaw safety and managed excess lines.

Luckily, the rescuers didn't have to battle a large ocean swell, just a chop, but at one point, the whale swam under the boat.

"I had to watch out for the tail," Mr. Forde said.

Mr. Palm said such rescues are dangerous and people have died attempting them.

But he said he and his colleagues put aside any concerns about themselves because it was so clear the whale was suffering.

"You've just got to get in there and get on the job and do the right thing. You have this desire to help this fellow mammal," he said.

Mr. Palm said the rescuers recovered registration numbers from the floats, which appear to have come from Washington state.

Ms. Spaven said fisheries officers are investigating.

Yesterday, the remains of the gear sat in a heap on the docks at Strawberry Island.

"Yup, it is an awful lot of gear," Mr. Palm said. "We're feeling pretty good about it."

As the whale swam away, Mr. Palm said the rescuers shook hands and slapped backs

2. Biodesign's Rittmann Offers Promising Perspectives on Society's Energy Challenge
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/asu-bro060208.php
Public release date: 3-Jun-2008
Contact: Joe Caspermeyer
joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
480-727-0369
Arizona State University

Perhaps there is no greater societal need for scientific know-how than in finding new ways to meet future energy demands. Skyrocketing gas prices, an uncertain oil supply, increasing demand from around the world, and the looming threat of climate change have made identifying and developing realistic energy alternatives a national priority.

For Biodesign Institute researcher Bruce Rittmann, the threat of global warming also presents a significant opportunity for innovation and fresh solutions to today's energy challenges.

"Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, the unprecedented expansions of human population and economic activity have been based on combusting fossil fuels," said Rittmann. "Today, fossil fuels provide 80 percent of the energy needs to run human society worldwide: 34 percent petroleum, 32 percent coal, and 14 percent natural gas."

In a new Perspective article published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Rittmann points the way toward developing bioenergy as the best realistic alternative to meet our current and future energy needs while cutting back on the use of fossil fuels. Rittmann directs the Center for Environmental Biotechnology and is a professor in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"The only way that human society has a realistic way of slowing and reversing global warming is bioenergy; and it has to be bioenergy that is done right," said Rittmann, who leads many of Biodesign's sustainability-themed research projects. "Most critically, we need to be able to have bioenergy sources that work on a very, very large scale."

Besides the scalability issues of bioenergy, any technologies developed must also be able to produce energy while minimizing damage to the environment or affecting the world's food supply.

For Rittmann, the most obvious renewable-energy solution – one that passes the tests of scalability, environment, and food – stems from the very factor that makes life on Earth possible: the sun.

"The good news is that we have plenty of energy from the sun. Every day, the sun sends to the earth's surface about 173,000 terawatts of energy, or more than 10,000 times more that is used by human society. So, we have a lot of what we like to call 'upside potential' for capturing sunlight energy."

Up to now, harnessing the energy of the sun has proven to be technically and socially challenging. In particular, approaches to make biofuels from crops such as corn have been met with skepticism in recent days.

"When people think of capturing sunlight energy in biomass, they focus on plants, which are familiar. However, plants are quite inefficient at capturing sunlight energy and turning it into biomass that can be used a fuel," Rittmann explains. As a result, plants could provide only a tiny fraction of our society's energy needs. "Obviously, we need the plants for producing food and sustaining natural ecosystems. Plants simply fail the scalability, environmental, and food tests."

In contrast, microoganisms, the smallest forms of life on Earth, can meet the scalability and environmental tests. Rittmann sees a vast untapped potential of using microbes in service to society to meet our energy challenges.

"Photosynthetic bacteria can capture sunlight energy at rates 100 times or more greater than plants, and they do not compete for arable land," Rittmann said. This high rate of energy capture means that renewable biofuels can be generated in quantities that rival our current use of fossil fuels.

In addition, non-photosynthetic microorganisms are capable of converting the energy value of all kinds of biomass, including wastes, into readily useful energy forms, such as methane, hydrogen, and electricity.

"Microorganisms can provide just the services our society needs to move from fossil fuels to renewable biofuels," said Rittmann. "Only the microorganisms can pass all the tests, and we should take full advantage of the opportunities that microorganisms present."

Rittmann's Biotechnology and Bioengineering article, "Opportunities for renewable bioenergy using microorganisms," is published in the June 1 issue of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Volume 100, Issue 2, pages 203-212 (2008). It can also be found online at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117930825/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

To learn more about solar-based microbial biofuel initiatives at ASU, go to: biofuels.asu.edu

To learn more about ASU bioenergy initiatives, go to: http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/news/green-initiatives

A KAET Spotlight video featuring ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" biodiesel project can also be found on the "Alternative Energy" sidebar on the same Web page

3. Lioness Produces Cubs at Zoo Atlanta
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/living/stories/2008/06/03/zoo_atlanta_lions.html
By LEON STAFFORD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/03/08

They're cute, they're cuddly and their roar doesn't have any teeth behind it. At least for now.

This is the first time that the zoo has had lion clubs since 1997.

Zoo Atlanta's African lioness, Kiki, has given birth to three lion cubs, and for the first 20 days, they won't have any molars, according to Rebecca Snyder, curator of carnivores.

The cubs -- which officials guess are 3 to 5 pounds each -- also won't open their eyes at least until today or sometime next week, Snyder said. And their roar is more birdlike than "King of the Jungle."

"It's a very harsh, noisy vocalization," Snyder said. "It's pretty loud."

The cubs, whose genders are not yet known, were born early Saturday morning. They are the first for Kiki and a feather in the zoo's cap. African lions are listed as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species because of declining populations in the wild, Zoo Atlanta officials said.

This is the first time that the zoo has had lion clubs since 1997. The cubs will be on display when they are between 7 to 12 weeks old.

"We're ecstatic to have lion cubs here at Zoo Atlanta," Dennis Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Zoo Atlanta, said in a release. "This is a proud moment for all of Atlanta."

Zoo Atlanta has experienced a baby boom of late. Motherhood has come to the attraction's warthogs, Malayan great argus and black and white ruffed lemurs over the last few months. Officials also hope giant panda Lun Lun, who was artificially inseminated in April, is expecting.

Snyder said Kiki gave birth to her first cub around 1 a.m. Saturday and four others over the next three to four hours. Two of the cubs were stillborn.

The surviving trio are estimated to be between 3 and 5 pounds, though an exact weight could not be determined because zoo officials are keeping their distance to allow Kiki maternal care.

One cub is being watched carefully because it is smaller than the others, but is otherwise healthy, Snyder said.

The first day after they were born, Zoo officials only went in to provide food for Kiki. Since then, they have gone in to clean an adjacent cage that the lioness uses as a bathroom, but have stayed away from her children.

"We are trying to leave her alone as much as possible," Snyder said.

Kiki was born in February 2004 at Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens and arrived at Zoo Atlanta in December 2005. Kamau, her mate and father of her cubs, was born September 2004 and came to Zoo Atlanta from the Denver Zoological Garden in October 2005.

Kamau is currently separated from Kiki and cubs, but he will be introduced in about six weeks.

4. Arlington Outhouse Yields Old Treasures
http://heraldnet.com/article/20080603/NEWS01/318259208/1032/LIVING05
Archaeologists dig up the 115-year-old site, which is in the path of a new sewage plant.
By Gale Fiege, Herald Writer

Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008
ARLINGTON -- They found shoes, old pennies, buttons, broken plates and a pipe that looks like something Sherlock Holmes would have smoked.

An archaeological team excavated a 115-year-old outhouse in Arlington near the Stillaguamish River where the city is now planning to expand its sewer treatment plant.

About 8,700 artifacts were recovered from the archaeological dig, which cost $53,000 and was required by the state as part of a grant requirement.

Other items found in the old privy included medicine bottles, original Mason jars and a clay flute from the 1879 Sydney, Australia, World's Fair.

Hired by the city, Northwest Archaeological Associates excavated, cleaned, analyzed and cataloged the artifacts, which now will be sent to the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. The museum is the state's storage facility for archaeological artifacts.

The city hopes later to arrange to have some of the artifacts permanently lent to the Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Museum, city utilities manager James Kelly said.

In January, a 5-foot-by-5-foot pit was excavated and workers sifted more than 200 cubic feet of material, layer by layer, through a ¼-inch mesh screen to find the artifacts.

The archaeologists who investigated the privy figure that the outhouse was part of the home of Calvin and Mertella Teager, who lived on the site near the Stillaguamish River in the late 19th century. Records show that he was a doctor and a dentist and that she was a pharmacist and a schoolteacher.

Why would archaeologists get excited about an outhouse pit?

An intact privy can provide valuable economic, historical and social information, said Bill White, who was part of the archaeological team from the Seattle-based Northwest Archaeological Associates.

In the years before indoor plumbing, outhouse toilets often doubled as garbage dumps. Sometimes things accidentally fell through the privy hole. Other times material was tossed in as part of the fill when a privy was closed and the outhouse moved to another site, White said.

The archaeologists also looked for any evidence of American Indian artifacts on the city's property but nothing was found, Kelly said.

Any municipal building project using state funding must also include an archaeological dig, Kelly said. Archeological sites are protected and can't be disturbed without a permit issued by the state.

The privy was in the middle of the building site for the $33.1 million sewage treatment plant expansion, Kelly said.

The city's goal is to complete the improvements by fall 2010.

The technologically advanced improvements to the sewer treatment facility will help the plant meet stricter environmental standards and will be able to treat twice as much sewage waste as the city treats now, Kelly said.

The improvements are expected to help Arlington accommodate population growth. City planners predict Arlington's population will nearly double to around 30,000 by 2025.

Treated sewage from Arlington flows into the Stillaguamish River and the city is working to keep the Stillaguamish River -- and the entire Puget Sound region -- clean, Kelly said.

After the sewer treatment plant is built, who knows what archeologists will find in it 115 years from now?

Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.

5. A Survivor in Greenland: A Novel Bacterial Species is Found Trapped in 120,000-Year-Old Ice
http://www.physorg.com/news131712233.html
Published: 11:43 EST, June 03, 2008

A scanning electron microscope image of the Chryseobacterium greenlandensis bacteria found in a Greenland glacier. Credit: Jennifer Loveland-Curtze, Penn State

A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles. The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat makes it particularly useful for studying how life, in general, can survive in a variety of extreme environments on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system.

The work will be presented by Jennifer Loveland-Curtze, a senior research associate in the laboratory led by Jean Brenchley, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State, at the 108th American Society for Microbiology General Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts today.

This new species is among the ubiquitous, yet mysterious, ultra-small bacteria, which are so tiny that the cells are able to pass through microbiological filters. In fact, some species have been found living in the ultra-purified water used for dialysis. "Ultra-small cells could be unknown contaminants in media and medical solutions that are thought to have been sterilized using filters," said Loveland-Curtze.

The ultra-small size of the new species could be one explanation for why it was able to survive for so long in the Greenland glacier. Called Chryseobacterium greenlandensis, the species is related genetically to certain bacteria found in fish, marine mud, and the roots of some plants. The organism is one of only about 10 scientifically described new species originating from polar ice and glaciers.

To study the bacterium in the laboratory, the research team, which also includes Senior Research Associate Vanya Miteva, filtered the cells from melted ice and incubated them in the cold in low-nutrient, oxygen-free solutions. The scientists then characterized the genetic, physiological, biochemical, and structural features of the species. The team hopes that its studies of this species, as well as others living in the Greenland glacier, will reveal more about how cells survive and how they may alter their biochemistry and physiology over time.

"Microbes comprise up to one-third or more of the Earth's biomass, yet fewer than 8,000 microbes have been described out of the approximately 3,000,000 that are presumed to exist," said Loveland-Curtze. "The description of this one species is a significant step in the overall endeavor to discover, cultivate, and use the special features held by these organisms."

Source: Penn State

Honorable Mention:

1. Recovered Stolen Items On HPD Website
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/19477564.html
Story Updated: Jun 2, 2008 at 5:52 PM HDT
By Manolo Morales

HPD laid out just some of the goods confiscated from a pawn shop.

Lots of jewelry, some sports memorabilia, and even a vacuum cleaner. Officers say there are more than 17-hundred items in all.

"We chose mostly the unique stuff that probably would catch your eye and you guys can take a look at just to see. We're just tipping the iceberg here," said Clem Enoka, Honolulu Police Deaprtment.

The goods were confiscated from the Holoholo Pawn Shop in August last year. Police officers raided the store on Kalakaua Avenue and arrested the owner after three months of investigation.

"Our plain clothes, our crime reduction units were pretty much the forefront in that and the information we got back was that the owner of the shop was possibly buying stolen items," said Enoka.

HPD would like to give back the stolen property to the rightful owners. From now through August 2nd, the public is asked to go to HPD's website and click on Online Property Viewing.

The items on display will be numbered and those who want to claim it must refer to that number.

"One good point is that they look at everything. Try and look through as much as possible because that way you get a vision of what's there and what you're looking for," said Enoka.

Anyone who wants to claim ownership must then make an appointment with a detective to see the item in person. HPD says that person must have filed a police report before August 3rd of last year, which is when the pawn shop was raided. Officer Enoka says this raid confiscated more goods than usual.

"This one had a lot more unique stuff. If you look the kimono, that was kinda weird and some sports memorabilia, the statues and stuff like that," said Enoka.

Check the HPD's website to look at the stolen items.

2008: June 2nd Good News (4th Grader Names New Gecko Species; Quadriplegic Rescued After Rolling into Lake; more...)

2008-06-07T02:44:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

I promised I'd try to go back and get the articles for the 2nd and 3rd. Here are the articles for the 2nd. :) Hope you enjoy!

Today's Top 5:
1. 4th Grade Student Names New Species of Gecko (Red Orbit)
2. New Experiment Empowers Students to Help Save the Environment One Snack at a Time (Yahoo News)
3. Quadriplegic Rescued After Rolling into Lake (The Rocky Mountain News)
4. Newly Discovered Extrasolar Planet is the Smallest Known, and has Smallest Host Star (Physorg.com)
5. Idaho Student Accepted for NASA Goddard Earth Science Internship (Space Ref)

Honorable Mention:
Ancient Greek Women Equal to Men (Manchester Evening News)

Today's Top 5:

1. 4th Grade Student Names New Species of Gecko
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1411835/4th_grade_student_names_new_species_of_gecko/index.html?source=r_science
Posted on: Monday, 2 June 2008, 06:00 CDT

After its discovery by Dr. Aaron Bauer on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, a new gecko species remained nameless, until now. New Jersey fourth grader, Gemma Farquhar has given the once nameless species of gecko an identity. As the grand prize winner of the nationwide contest, Project Gecko presented by Zilla, Farquhar's name Bavayia periclitata will be given to the new species.

"Bavayia periclitata was chosen for its accurate and artistic description. Gemma was able to combine scientific language with creative intellect forming a name that depicts the importance of taking care of the animals that share our world with us," said Dr. Aaron Bauer, Villanova professor of biology.

In her contest submission, Farquhar, a student at Oaklyn Elementary School in Oaklyn, NJ, dared to be different and strayed away from using typical Latin names that describe the gecko's habitat or physical features. Bavayia periclitata means "endangered" in Latin. Farquhar says she chose this name to help emphasize the importance of taking care of geckos, other endangered species as well as our environment in general.

"I chose this name because it means endangered and it will make people think about how our geckos are disappearing and are on the endangered list. I hope people will try harder to protect our geckos," said Farquhar. "Winning Project Gecko means a lot to me because I named a whole new species of gecko for eternity and giving the gecko this name may mean there's a better chance to help other species."

The contest organizers Zilla, manufacturer of reptile products, believe Farquhar's name is perfect for the new species. "We were thrilled to read about why Gemma chose this name for the gecko," said Daniel Lorica, Zilla brand manager. "She recognizes that we all have a responsibility to preserve the endangered species of animals with whom we share our world. And her appreciation for the environment is what made her entry stand out from the others."

Farquhar, her teacher Linda Hess, and fellow students were honored at a celebration at PETCO in Sewell, NJ. They were given a party with food, a reptile show and a Q&A session with Dr. Bauer on Saturday, May 31.

A panel consisting of three judges - educators and reptile experts - evaluated each entry submitted in the contest. The entries were judged based on creativity, explanation of name, adherence to rules, grammar and spelling.

As the grand prize winner, Farquhar was presented with a $1,000 savings bond from NARBC (North American Reptile Breeders Conference & Trade Show). Plus, she and her family received a trip to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa, FL. Linda Hess, Farquhar's teacher at Oaklyn Elementary School, received a Lenovo Laptop and reptile books for the class. REPTILES Magazine also donated subscriptions to the students.

In addition to Farquhar, the panel of judges for Project Gecko also selected individual grade student winners Madilyn Bragg of West Monroe, LA for the fifth grade and Daniel Carr of Tampa, FL for the sixth grade.

About Zilla(TM)

Zilla(TM) products are produced by Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ:CENT), a company that innovates, markets and manufactures quality branded aquarium and terrarium equipment. For more information, please visit www.zilla-rules.com.

2. New Experiment Empowers Students to Help Save the Environment One Snack at a Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080602/20080602006537.html?.v=1
Monday June 2, 5:14 pm ET

IXG Education Foundation kicks off "Green School Experiment", educates students and families on how to reduce waste at school and home

WALPOLE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IXG Education Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting sustainable, impactful pro-green behaviors in children, families and communities, today announces the official launch of its “Green School Experiment” educational program. Using grade-appropriate, standards-based activities and materials, the “Experiment” is designed to help students at participating schools adopt eco-friendly behaviors while saving money for families and communities by understanding the impact of waste on our environment and our wallets.

Beginning tomorrow, Fisher Elementary School in North Walpole, Mass., will kick off the first official Green School Experiment. Over the next two weeks, Fisher Elementary’s more than 500 students and staff will take part in the educational program to discover how they can personally make a measurable difference in reducing the volume of trash generated by their school.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), since 1960, the amount of waste produced in the United States annually has tripled, from 88.1 million tons in 1960 to 251 million tons in 2006. The per-capita generation of waste per-year has doubled from 2.7 pounds per-person/per-day to 4.6 pounds per-person/per-day. An astounding 33.9 percent of this trash results from paper or paper products associated with packaging.

“The environment simply cannot sustain the increasing waste generated by individual packaging. By helping our children adopt very simple pro-green behaviors we can make a dramatic impact on the volume of waste produced within our communities, while at the same time helping families save money by reducing the need to purchase more expensive individually packaged foods,” said Victoria Waters, founder, IXG Education Foundation. “The IXG Education Foundation is committed to helping children make a positive impact on the environment through education. Through generous support of sponsor companies like Stop & Shop, donors, and the students, parents and staff involved, our goal is to take the Green Experiment to communities across the country.”

IXG Education Foundation will provide each Fisher Elementary student and staff member with an IXG Green Pack — reusable water bottle, drink thermos, bottle brush cleaner, snack containers, organic cotton tee shirt, reusable shopping bag and instructional insert — to help make it easy for students and their families to achieve the Experiment’s goal of reducing school trash by 50 percent. During the two-week Experiment, students will be encouraged to:

1) Bring snacks in their reusable snack pack containers to eliminate individual snack packaging.
2) Use their thermoses to pack the right amount of milk they need for the day to reduce waste from milk cartons and left-over milk.
3) Shop for bulk-packaged snacks and drinks with their reusable shopping bags to reduce plastic and paper bag waste.
4) Participate in home-based activities that reinforce green education principles.
5) Use water bottles during and after school to eliminate waste from throwaway beverage containers and unconsumed drinks.
6) Calculate with their families the value of purchasing drinks and snacks in bulk rather than in individually-packaged containers.

The Experiment concludes on June 16, at which time IXG Education Foundation will work with school and community officials to measure the success of the program. Measurement criteria will include volume of trash for the two-week period before and the two-week period during the experiment; cost of trash removal for the two-week period before and the two-week period during the experiment; and the financial impact it would have for the town over a year if these green practices were sustained at all of its schools. Results from the Experiment will be available on the IXG Education Foundation website at www.ixgef.org.

About IXG Education Foundation

The IXG Education Foundation's mission is to provide educational resources to promote sustainable, impactful pro-green habits and practices in children, families, and communities. Because IXG Education Foundation believes children are in the best position to impact the future with habitually green behaviors, the IXG Green Schools Experiment, one of the Foundation’s educational programs, demonstrates how simple, eco-friendly decisions can significantly reduce the mountains of trash regularly produced in schools. This experiment will be replicated in elementary schools nationwide to demonstrate how students, parents, and communities working together can institute personal and systemic environmentally-sound practices that have measurable and sustainable impact on global environmental issues. Using grade-appropriate, standards-based educational resources, the experiment helps students at participating schools adopt eco-friendly behaviors while saving money for families and communities by understanding the impact of waste on our environment and our wallets. For more information, please visit www.ixgef.org.

What does IXG stand for? I Live Green, I Play Green, I Work Green, I X Green, IXG.

Contact:
PAN Communications
Jeff Dillow/Shannon Palmer, 978-474-1900
ixg@pancomm.com
Source: IXG Education Foundation

3. Quadriplegic Rescued After Rolling into Lake
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/02/quadriplegic-rescued-after-falling-lake/
Rocky Mountain News
Originally published 01:52 p.m., June 2, 2008
Updated 01:57 p.m., June 2, 2008

A quadriplegic was rescued from a northwest Denver lake Monday after his wheelchair rolled down the embankment and left him helpless in five feet of water.

The man, whose age and name were not immediately released, was on a group excursion to Berkeley Lake Park, 4501 W 46th Ave., when he asked to be moved near to the water to look at some fish.

As an aide from Laradon Hall maneuvered him closer, one of the handles of the chair came loose and the wheelchair rolled down the slope.

The aide, whose name was not available, jumped into the lake and held the man's head above the water. Shortly thereafter, Capt. Dave Hart of the Denver Fire Department, who was performing routine duties in there area, responded to the call. Hart also jumped in the water to help the aide.

"The chair was like an anchor," and they felt they were losing ground, he said.

At this point, a Denver Public Works driver ipulled up. He climbed a fence and entered the lake. He and Hart were able to lift the chair and the man out of the water.

The man was sent to an area hospital. His injuries were not believed to be life threatening.

4. Newly Discovered Extrasolar Planet is the Smallest Known and has Smallest Host Star
http://www.physorg.com/news131631686.html
Published: 13:21 EST, June 02, 2008

Astronomers have discovered an extrasolar planet only three times more massive than our own, the smallest yet observed orbiting a normal star. The star itself is not large, perhaps as little as one twentieth the mass of our Sun, suggesting to the research team that relatively common low-mass stars may present good candidates for hosting Earth-like planets.

Led by David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame, the international research team presents its findings in a press conference Monday, June 2, 2008 at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

"Our discovery indicates that that even the lowest mass stars can host planets," says Bennett. "No planets have previously been found to orbit stars with masses less than about 20 percent that of the Sun, but this finding indicates that even the smallest stars can host planets."

The astronomers used a technique called gravitational microlensing to find the planet, a method that can potentially find planets one-tenth the mass of our own.

The gravitational microlensing technique, which came from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, relies upon observations of stars that brighten when an object such as another star passes directly in front of them (relative to an observer, in this case on Earth). The gravity of the passing star acts as a lens, much like a giant magnifying glass. If a planet is orbiting the passing star, its presence is revealed in the way the background star brightens. A full explanation of the technique follows this release.

"This discovery demonstrates the sensitivity of the microlensing method for finding low-mass planets, and we are hoping to discover the first Earth-mass planet in the near future," said Bennett.

Using standard nomenclature, the star hosting the newly discovered planet is dubbed MOA-2007-BLG-192L with MOA indicating the observatory, 2007 designating the year the microlensing event occurred, BLG standing for bulge, 192 indicating the 192nd microlensing observation by MOA in that year and the L indicating the lens star as opposed to the background star further in the distance. The planet maintains the name but adds a letter designating it as an additional object in the star's solar system, so it is called MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb.

MOA-2007-BLG-192L resides 3,000 light years away and is classified as either a low-mass hydrogen burning star, one that sustains nuclear reactions in its core as our Sun does, or a brown dwarf, an object like a star yet without the mass to sustain nuclear reactions in its core. The researchers were unable to confirm which category the star fits into due to the nature of the observations and the margin of error.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bennett has been one of the pioneers in using gravitational microlensing for detecting low mass planets. He has been working with collaborators around the world to find a number of planets that are ever closer in size to our own.

For the most recent discovery, the research collaborators took advantage of two international telescope collaborations: Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA), which includes Bennett, and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE).

Researchers in New Zealand made the initial measurements of the new planet and its star using the new MOA-II telescope at the Mt. John Observatory. The observatory's MOA-cam3 camera, in one observation, can capture an image of the sky 13 times larger than the area of the full moon. Researchers in Chile made follow-up observations using high angular resolution adaptive optics images at the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory. Data from the observations was analyzed by scientists around the world hailing from five continents.

"This discovery is very exciting because it implies Earth-mass planets can form around low-mass stars, which are very common," said Michael Briley, NSF astronomer and the officer who oversees Bennett's grant. "It is another important step in the search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of other stars, and it would not have been possible without the international collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers devoted to measuring these signals."

A paper describing this result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and is scheduled for publication in the Sept. 1 edition.

Source: National Science Foundation

5. Idaho Student Accepted for NASA Goddard Earth Science Internship
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25566
Date Released: Monday, June 2, 2008
Source: Goddard Space Flight Center - Comments

Ryan Sheridan, a student from Moscow, Idaho, will spend this summer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. as a participant of the NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP). Sheridan is an engineering student at the University of Idaho.

NASA-USRP is a 15-week program designed to provide undergraduate students hands-on experience within a NASA environment. While at Goddard Sheridan will be surrounded by some of the world's premier scientists and engineers devoted to research in Earth science, space science, technology and space communications. He will be able to gain valuable research experience under the supervision of a NASA mentor.

"I have always thought that working for NASA would be a great job," Sheridan said. "It is ideal for me because of my interest in remote sensing and how the Earth or other planets can be studied."

Competitively selected students must have at least a 3.0 grade-point- average and major in engineering, science (physics, chemistry, biology) math, computer science or other areas of interest to the aerospace program.

"This is a wonderful experience for a student," said Dr. Vigdor Tepiltz, chief of Higher Education for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. "NASA's space program is just about the greatest show on Earth if you are a technical person and having young eager people with fresh points-of-view and questions is good for NASA. It makes for a productive summer for all."

The summer program begins today and runs through Aug. 8.

"This internship will give me valuable 'real world' experience," Sheridan said. "I feel that I will be better prepared to apply to graduate school and begin work on a research thesis."

Interested media should contact Dewayne Washington at the phone number listed above.

For more information visit: http://education.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Honorable Mention:

Ancient Greek Women Equal to Men
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1052109_greek_women_equal_to_men?rss=yes
2/ 6/2008

WOMEN in Ancient Greece had as much power as men, say Manchester historians.

Although home to the world's earliest democracy, the 4,000-year-old society was previously believed to be rigidly male-dominated, with only men having the right to vote.

But researchers at Manchester University have uncovered evidence that high-born women had the same status as men.

They have been studying a 3,600-year-old burial site at Mycenae and discovered that one body in a richly-decorated grave was that of a woman.

The team also used forensic techniques to reconstruct the faces of seven bodies found on the site, including those of a brother and sister, which are now on view at Manchester Museum.

2008: June 6th Good News (Europe's Oldest Man Celebrates 112th Birthday; Brazil to Protect More of Amazon; more...)

2008-06-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon all,

Here are today's top news stories. For the story "11th Century Jain Statue Found in India", I have modified the english grammar a bit, for easier reading. If you would like to read the original, please follow the link posted below the title.

Hope you enjoy the articles! See you tomorrow. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Brazil to Protect More of Amazon (The Courrier Mail)
2. Europe's Oldest Man Celebrates His 112th Birthday - with an RAF Flypast (Daily Mail UK)
3. Rare Books, Including One from 900 A.D., on Display at Kennesaw State University (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
4. 94-year-old to Receive Diploma from McKinney Boyd High School (Dallas News)
5. Japan Officially Recognizes Ainu as Indigenous People for First Time (International Herald Tribune)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Widow's Lunch Treat for 100,000 People (The Scotsman)
2. Two Painters Rescued from Inside Water Tower (Shreveport Times)
3. Dole Food Company, Inc. Announces World Environment Day Tree-Planting and Climate Change Awareness Campaign
4. 11th Century Jain Statue Found in India (Times of India)
5. Building on Pyramids of Trash (Eurekalert.org)

Today's Top 5:

1. Brazil to Protect More of Amazon
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,23819634-5003402,00.html?from=public_rss
By Ana Nicolaci da Costa in Brasilia
June 06, 2008 08:25am

BRAZILIAN President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, under pressure over his stewardship of the Amazon rainforest, has unveiled plans to create three protected reserves covering an area the size of the US state of Vermont.

In a speech marking World Environment Day, Mr Lula said the steps aimed at combating a spike in deforestation would take time to work, and foreigners did not have the moral authority to tell Brazil how to manage the world's largest forest.

"It's not easy to discuss the environment, thinking that the mere creation of a law or a decree will solve the problem," he said.

"Sometimes a thing that seems so consensual can take two or three years to materialize because we have to respect institutions."

At least 23 million hectares of the rainforest are already protected. The new reserves in Para and Amazonas state would expand the area by 2.6 million hectares.

Mr Lula's proposal has to be approved by Congress and could face challenges in the Supreme Court.

The resignation last month of renowned Amazon defender Marina Silva as environment minister raised worries among environmentalists that Mr Lula is siding with farming and industrial interests that want to develop the forest.

The measures were welcomed by Denise Hamu, the head of the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, who said it was a positive step.

2. Europe's Oldest Man Celebrates His 112th Birthday - with an RAF (Royal Air Force) Flypast
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024744/Europes-oldest-man-celebrates-112th-birthday--RAF-flypast.html
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:31 PM on 06th June 2008

Henry Allingham lunched with dignitaries including Air Vice Marshal Peter Dye, before a Lancaster bomber, Spitfire and Hurricane honoured his achievement with a flypast at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

Mr Allingham is the last founder member of the RAF. His life has spanned three centuries and six monarchs.

The parachute display by the RAF Falcons was cancelled due to low cloud but the team jumped out of a Chinook helicopter instead to present Mr Allingham with a birthday card signed by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy.

After the presentation, a Lancaster bomber flanked by two spitfires flew over the college lawn in front of Mr Allingham and his 44 guests, who included his great-great-grandchildren Erik Carlson, two, and four-month-old Lila Rose Gray.
Mr Allingham, dressed in a beige suit, pink striped shirt and RAF tie, posed for photographs with RAF cadets.

A two-seater single-engine Tutor aircraft then performed an acrobatic display above the college's main building for the assembled guests.

The aircraft is the first used by cadets when they arrive for training at the college.
It performed a number of stunts, including flying upside down.

Asked for the secret of long life Mr Allingham said: "I don't think there's a particular reason. The only thing I can say is all my life I have lived within my limitations, take life slowly, don't get any stress or strains. The more birthdays I enjoy the longer I live.

"The fly past was a very nice gesture and I want to show my appreciation for what you have done. My best wishes to you all."

He added: "I really enjoyed it, I wasn't too tired which was a good thing actually."

Mr Allingham serenaded reporters with a rendition of Take Me In A Taxi, a music hall hit from the early 20th century, before the press then returned the compliment and sang him Happy Birthday.

He then posed for photographs with his four-month-old great-great-granddaughter Lila Rose Gray.

Air Vice Marshal Peter Dye paid tribute to Mr Allingham's achievement of reaching 112.

"Henry is a most modest man but I also think he is the most incredible of individuals.

"He has a passion and a determination to tell people about his experiences and to bear witness to those who served like him in World War One.

"He recognises that he was incredibly lucky to survive the experience and he knows he is only one of a few surviving veterans but he is determined to talk about his experiences and about what it meant."

David Gray, 59, from northern Michigan, said his grandfather, Mr Allingham, was the joint-second oldest person in the world. The oldest person in the world is nine months older than Mr Allingham, he said.

Mr Gray said: "It's remarkable. Not only has he lived to this long but he has still got his mental faculties intact. Our whole family are very proud of him and we keep track of him on the internet and also through media coverage.

"It's pretty special that the RAF put on this kind of celebration but I think in part they are trying to outdo the Royal Navy so each year it gets better and better but we are very appreciative of what they have done for him."

Mr Allingham was presented with a birthday card and cake by children from Cranwell Primary School.

The RAF prepared a three-course lunch of smoked salmon, chicken breast and orange tart for Mr Allingham and his 44 guests, including his grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

The event was also attended by Vice Admiral Sir Adrian Johns (Second Sea Lord and commander-in-chief Naval Home Command).

Many of Mr Allingham's family had flown over from America to watch the celebrations, in what is the 90th anniversary year of the RAF.

Before setting off to Lincolnshire today from St Dunstan's care home for blind ex-service personnel in Ovingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex, he spoke about reaching such a grand age.

Mr Allingham said yesterday: "I feel on the crest of a wave. What man wouldn't with all the good souls I have looking after me here.

"I'm a lucky guy. I am looking forward to a wonderful day and to seeing the family.

People ask me how I've done it, and I just say that I look forward to another tomorrow."

He was accompanied on the visit by close friend Dennis Goodwin, who is also founder of the First World War Veterans' Association. He said Mr Allingham's favourite tipple was a cup of tea with one sugar every morning.

Mr Allingham is just one of three known UK survivors from the First World War.

The other two are ex-Royal Navy stoker Bill Stone, 107, who was born in Devon but now lives in Oxfordshire, and 109-year-old Harry Patch, who lives in Wells, Somerset, the last surviving Tommy to have served on the Western Front.

The Government announced two years ago that the death of the last known First World War veteran would be marked by a national memorial service at Westminster Abbey.

The decision was warmly welcomed by veterans and by MPs who have campaigned for a service to mark the final passing of the generation who fought in the 1914-18 conflict.

It was said the service would reflect the events of November 11, 1920, when the unknown warrior was laid to rest and the Cenotaph unveiled in Whitehall.

Mr Allingham, who has five grandchildren, 12 great- grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, joined the Royal Naval Air Service in September 1915 before transferring to the RAF in April 1918.

As well as being the last founder member of the RAF, he is also the sole survivor of the Battle of Jutland.

He has been awarded a string of accolades including the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest military honour.

In April 2006 he was given the Freedom of Eastbourne, the East Sussex seaside town where he retired in the 1960s.

He lived a relatively independent life alone in the resort but with his eyesight fast deteriorating, he moved to St Dunstan's where he can receive round-the-clock care.

3. Rare Books, Including One from 900 A.D., on Display at Kennesaw State University
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/cobb/stories/2008/06/06/kennesaw_rare_book_exhibit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13
By KAREN ROSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/06/08

Come face to face — literally — with a volume of the first Mayan book made in 1,000 years at Kennesaw State University's new rare book exhibition.

The eerie face with hollow eyes appears on the cover of a book constructed in 1997 out of recycled and natural materials such as crushed marigolds.

It's too fragile to open, but visitors can peek inside other rare books in the exhibition "Book Art; Art in Books; Books as Art," at the Sturgis Art Gallery.

The display examines typography, illustrations and bindings in about 300 items from the Bentley Rare Book Gallery. It opened Thursday and will run through July 19 in the lower level of the Sturgis Library.

"One of the great pleasures for all of us was rolling up our sleeves, getting into the collection and finding these wonderful things," said Rita Impey-Imes, assistant curator.

Librarian Mary Platt, an expert on typographic printing, said her favorite is a Nuremberg woodcut from 1493.

"The fact that we have this makes my heart go pitter-patter," she said.

Books are displayed behind glass, but pages have been scanned and prints mounted on the walls.
"Then, you can get your nose up to it," Impey-Imes said.

Yes, there's a Gutenberg Bible, but it's a facsimile reprint produced in 1985. It's still worth about $100,000, Impey-Imes said.

The huge volume is such a faithful reproduction of the Mazarin Library Copy from the 1450s that each page has a microdot to differentiate it from an authentic page worth $70,000.

In about 200 years, it'll be hard to tell the difference without the microdot, Impey-Imes said.

Robert B. Williams, curator of the rare book gallery, was taken aback by a print from one of gallery's treasures.

"I said, 'Who tore that out of the book?" he said. "The copies are so good."

The items on the wall behind glass are originals.

The most valuable book is in the temperature-controlled Bentley Rare Book Gallery, which is just across the hall from the exhibition.

It's titled — in Middle English — "The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer" and is worth $1.6 million, Impey-Imes said.

The volume from 1542 is one of just five copies of this Chaucer version in existence. The others are at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Wellesley College.

It's worth more than three times the value of the $500,000 collection donated in 1988 to KSU by Marietta's Fred D. and Sara Bentley.

The Chaucer can be seen by appointment. So can the oldest item in the collection, a colorful page of parchment from a woman's prayer book dating back to the year 900.

Visitors to the art exhibit will be more familiar with illustrations, including those from books by Charles Dickens, organized by Dewi Wilson; and children's books, assembled by Rita Spisak, that include "The Wizard of Oz," "Gulliver's Travels" and "Alice in Wonderland."

Examples of "fore-edge painting" books from the 1800s are rolled, so you can see the hidden painting on the edge.

Some of Impey-Imes' favorite books are bound with leather that has gold-tooled engraving that makes them look like Oriental rugs.

KSU students visit the rare book gallery during classes and are allowed to handle some of the books.

"We use 500-year-old books for our demonstrations," Impey-Imes said, "because they're better made. They can stand all that handling."

The students do wear gloves.

"That's because," she said, "I can't line them all up and have them wash their hands — and keep it within class time."

They get more than a tactile sensation, too. When Impey-Imes opens a Shakespeare folio from 1688, students get a strong whiff of the London of the time.

"The air in London was very dirty, and the pages of the book soaked it up," she said.

The Mayan book, "Conjuros y ebriedades," is so brittle that it has to stay closed.

Impey-Imes did have to move it from its former place on a shelf in the rare book room.

"I have to come in there in the dark to undo the alarm system," she said. "and it would always give me the willies."

If you go

Where: Sturgis Library Gallery; 1000 Chastain Road, Building .17; Kennesaw State University
Hours: Monday-Thursday noon to 6 p.m.; Saturday: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Friday and Sunday
Admission: Free
Website: http://www.kennesaw.edu/library/exhibit/about.html
For group tours or more information, call 770-423-6535.

4. 94-year-old to Receive Diploma from McKinney Boyd High School
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/060708dnmetgrad.70bb888.html
04:01 PM CDT on Friday, June 6, 2008
From Staff Reports

This evening, Ridgell M. McKinney, 94, will be the first graduate of McKinney’s Boyd High School to walk across the stage and collect his diploma — a replica of the document he should have received back in 1934.

Mr. McKinney left high school just before he was to graduate because he did not want to tell on a friend who cracked his knuckles and disrupted class.

School officials realized the great, great grandson of Collin McKinney — an area settler who signed and helped draft the Texas Declaration of Independence — had never received the diploma and held a graduation ceremony for him at McKinney High School last fall.

School officials decided to again honor Mr. McKinney in a larger event this evening as the first graduate of the new Boyd high school, which bears the same name as the school he attended back in the '30s. This time, he will be bestowed with replicas of his class ring and the 1934 diploma. He has also been submitted to the Guinesss World Records for collecting his diploma more than 70 years after the fact.

5. Japan Officially Recognizes Ainu as Indigenous People for First Time
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/06/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Indigenous-People.php
The Associated Press
Published: June 6, 2008

TOKYO: Japan's parliament voted Friday to recognize the Ainu ethnic group as the country's indigenous people for the first time and urged steps to reverse a century of discrimination and poverty.

The votes in both houses of the Diet, Japan's parliament, overcame a long-standing refusal to acknowledge that any other race predated the appearance of the Japanese in the archipelago.

The resolution is not binding, but is expected to lead to more concrete measures. It follows a law passed in 1997 that promoted Ainu culture and language but stopped short of bestowing indigenous status.

"This is a first step toward improvement in areas such as education ... and financial restitution," said Teruki Tsunemoto, director of the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University.

The Ainu, the original inhabitants of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and nearby areas, have long been victims of the country's steady march to modernization, particularly when Hokkaido was settled by Japanese in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Today in Asia - Pacific
2 bus bombings in Sri Lanka kill at least 23Pakistanis say they foiled a new bomb plotWith a king deposed, question of appointing a deity in Nepal
The Diet also linked the resolution to next month's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Hokkaido. Japan is eager to avoid protests that have surrounded previous G-8 summits.

Japan has long portrayed itself as a racially homogenous country. Unlike in the U.S., where Native Americans were moved to reservations largely separate from mainstream society, Ainu were forced to give up their land and language to assimilate into Japanese culture.

Current government estimates indicate about 25,000 Ainu remain in Hokkaido, though the number could be several times larger due to those who have not been counted or who hide their status to avoid prejudice.

Japan is also home to other minorities, including Okinawans who inhabit the southern islands and ethnic Chinese and Koreans, some whom were forced to move to Japan during its colonial rule of Korea.

Itsuki Nakamura, director of The Ainu Museum in Hokkaido, said the resolution could help with disputes over land and precious metals in areas previously populated by Ainu, but would also provide a sense of heritage.

"It will allow our children to have a real identity as Ainu people," he said.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Widow's Lunch Treat for 100,000
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Widow39s-lunch-treat-for-100000.4161030.jp
Last Updated: 06 June 2008 1:14 PM
Source: Edinburgh Evening News
Location: Edinburgh

A RICH Indian widow has spent a huge chunk of her wealth on a feast for 100,000 people, in the hope it would please the gods and open the doors of heaven for her.

People from surrounding villages and towns were fed lunch over two consecutive days by 80-year-old Phuljharia Kunwar, at a reported cost to her of more than £19,000 ($37,500 US).

2. Two Painters Rescued from Inside Water Tower
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080606/NEWS01/806060333/1002/NEWS
By Kristi Richie
krichie@gannett.com
June 6, 2008

VIVIAN — Two men are lucky to be alive after they passed out while painting the inside of a water tower Thursday.

AMS Painting contractor workers Fredrick Griffin, 39, of Bolivar, Tenn., and Paul Childress, 47, of Florence, Miss., were overcome by paint fumes at about 3:20 p.m. and had to be rescued by firefighters.

Griffin and Childress were inside the drained water tower, and a third man was working outside, all about 160 feet in the air, Shreveport Fire Department spokesman Brian Crawford said.

The only access into the water tower is a hole in the top.

"While they were painting, they became disoriented and passed out. There is some type of air cleaning system in there, but apparently it was not working or malfunctioned," Crawford said.

Inhaling the fumes is similar to carbon monoxide poisoning, Crawford said. "It's a gradual process that doesn't happen all at once. It's so deceptive by the time they realized what was happening, they were already in trouble and couldn't get out."

The third worker looked into the hole atop the tower to check on the men and saw them lying in the bottom. He called 911, and Caddo Fire District 8 responded.

"The firefighters went inside and realized the severity of the situation and called for mutual aid," Crawford said. "The firefighters had a couple of extra tanks and put vent masks on the men because they couldn't lift them out. That probably saved these guys' lives."

About 20 minutes later, the men felt able to scale a ladder out of the water tower. Once outside, firefighters contemplated repelling the men down the tower, but they were able to climb down themselves.

"They felt comfortable to scale the tower, so we attached safety lines to them and they were able to climb down safely," Crawford said.

The men were safe on the ground by about 5:20 p.m.

Caddo Fire District 7 and Shreveport Fire Department also responded.

"We have great mutual aid in Caddo Parish. All the different parish fire departments and Shreveport Fire Department have great reliance on one another," Crawford said. "No matter where you are in the parish in the event of an emergency of this magnitude, we will always have resources available."

3. Dole Food Company, Inc. Announces World Environment Day Tree-Planting and Climate Change Awareness Campaign
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/dole-food-company-inc-announces,423037.shtml
Posted : Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:00:59 GMT
Author : DOLE/ENVIRONMENT-DAY
Category : Press Release

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. - (Business Wire) Dole Food Company, Inc. and its operating divisions in Latin America celebrated World Environment Day yesterday by organizing tree-planting events and environmental awareness campaigns with communities, employees and local officials to motivate participants to work toward environmental protection and mitigation of climate change.

Jonathan Bass, President of Dole Latin America, stated, “I am pleased to see and share in the excitement that these World Environment Day events have produced with our employees and workers and particularly within the communities in which our production units operate. We all have an important role to play in protecting the environment.”

In Costa Rica, the event is also linked to the official opening of Dole’s organic pineapple plantation reaffirming the company’s leading position in organic agriculture and alternative production methods. The activity includes the planting of 5,000 trees provided by the National Electricity Institute as part of the Costa Rican Government’s pledge to plant 7 million trees in the year 2008. School children, local government regulators, field workers, office employees, neighbors and the region’s congresswoman will plant trees at the organic plantation to commemorate World Environment Day and demonstrate the effectiveness of private, public and community partnership.

The reforestation events are also part of Dole’s commitment to work toward carbon neutrality. It is estimated that for every ten trees approximately 5 tons of C02 per year can be captured from the atmosphere. The activities held in Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica serve as an opportunity for participating employees and neighbors to compensate for the emissions produced by their own vehicles, creating awareness to take action to alleviate climate change.

“This grass roots reforestation event brings many benefits including helping to reduce erosion, protecting water sources, and contributing to biodiversity. In addition, the carbon dioxide emissions from the agricultural machinery used in pineapple production will be compensated by the carbon fixed by the trees,” commented Richard Toman, Vice-President of Pineapple Operations for Dole Fresh Fruit International Ltd.

Dole Food Company, Inc., with 2007 revenues of $6.9 billion, is the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers. Dole markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research.

Dole Food Company, Inc.
U.S. Contact:
Marty Ordman, (818) 874-4834
or
Europe Contact:
Sylvain Cuperlier, +33-1-44-17-30-60

4. 11th century Jain Statue Found in India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Jaipur/Pushkar_11th_century_Jain_statue_found/articleshow/3104476.cms
6 Jun 2008, 0455 hrs IST,Kshitiz Gaur,TNN

AJMER: A medium-sized black stone statue of 17th Jain Tirth-ankar Kuntunath, dating back to 11th century, has emerged during excavations in holy town of Pushkar.

The statue is one of the more than 36 statues found in last one year at old Pushkar and Ghat areas of the region. The discoveries confirm that a religious congregation was held at the place some time in the medieval period.

Eighteen more such statues have been discovered in old Pushkar alone, including a Shivling of nearly one thousand year old, rare statue of god Kartikeya, a statue of Vishnu and more Jain Tirthankar statues.

The statue of Jain Tirthankar Kuntunath in a meditating posture appeared when renovation work was going on at the famous Varaha temple in Pushkar. It bears characteristics of Jain architecture - curly hair, sharp features on the face, etc. The style of meditation is also peculiar to Jain philosophy.

The statues are being housed in the government museum at Akbar Fort in Ajmer. Archaeologists and historians are studying different perspectives of new scripts of Chouhan dynasty of 11th century.

Two months ago, more than 20 statues were found during construction work on private land near Jat Vishramsthali behind the famous Bramha temple. The works contain scriptures in Ingal and Pingal, local dialects spoken during 10th century, and representing the meditation postures, and date between 6th and 11th centuries.

"These new discovery show that Jainism flourished well at the time of Hindu ruler Prithvi Raj Chouhan,"said Akbar Fort museum superintendent Syeed Ajam Hussein. "Pushkar has the importance of multi-religious studies. The statues are in very good condition,"he said, adding that the statues bear pure art of Jain sculptures and therefore are of significant value to scholars and archaeologists.

About 8 years ago, a metallic statue pertaining to Jain religion was also found in the area which dated back more than two thousand years. "The period is important to note because that was the time when the region was ruled by Hindu kings, and Ghajnis invaded the land,"added Ajam.

"Pushkar is an ancient city. There are clues that Vikramaditya of 6th century had studied in Pushkar. The land has more treasure buried under it,"said a Pushkar-based archaeologist Rajendra Yagnik.

"More than 4 times, the university at Pushkar was ruined by the invaders. This university was unique with Samkhya, Yoga and Jain philosophies being taught there,"he said, adding, "A group of Italian archaeologists also visited the place and gathered information of scriptures found here."

5. Building on Pyramids of Trash
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/ip-bop060508.php
Public release date: 5-Jun-2008
Contact: Roelof Schuiling
schuiling@geo.uu.nl
Inderscience Publishers

A novel solution to the growing problem of waste
A Dutch engineer has devised a simple solution to the growing amounts of waste society generates. Writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Roelof Schuiling of Geochem Research BV, suggests solidifying waste in a concrete-type material and using the resulting slabs to build pyramids that not only deal with waste disposal but could become tourist traps and major landmarks for our cities.

Great and award-winning works of art have been made from the most outlandish of materials from Chris Ofili's depiction of the Holy Virgin Mary encrusted with elephant dung and Damien Hirst's pickled tiger shark representing life and death to the unmade bed of Tracey Emin and the unspeakable bodily fluids of avant garde duo Gilbert & George. But all of these works will pale into insignificance if a plan to dispose of solid domestic and even toxic industrial waste by building solid monuments to waste is undertaken.

Schuiling suggests that it is "dangerous and unsustainable" to simply bury solid toxic waste in lined deposits underground, which is current best practice. He says that such waste should first be immobilized by mixing with a cement and immobilizing additives to reduce the possibility of toxic materials leaching into the earth and ground water.

Moreover, if this solidifying material were shaped into slabs, these might be stacked to form a pyramid surrounded by a lined ditch. "Such a system is sustainable, easy to control, and does away with the need for an extensive and 'eternal' monitoring system," Schuiling explains. He points out that a water-repellent coating would keep any leaching of materials from the pyramids to an absolute minimum, while periodic monitoring of the runoff could be used to control any potential hazardous leakage.

"These pyramids, erected in prominent places, could serve as a tourist attraction and become a source of income rather than a continuing financial burden," Schuiling adds. He even suggests that these large-scale structures might be used as the foundation for building dwellings, office buildings, and leisure facilities, particularly in flood-prone regions. Either way, they would be monument to the vast amounts of waste generated by the throwaway society in which we live.

2008: June 5th Good News (6 Year Old Boy Rescues Drowning Friend; Drinking Alcohol Cuts Arthritis Risk by Half; more...)

2008-06-05T15:55:00.001-07:00

Good Afternoon All,

Today there are tons of articles to browse. :) It's hard for me to pick which ones to highlight...but I guess I'll go with these three. First, on Mount McKinley, a climber fell more than 2000 feet on Wednesday. He survived, and called for help on his cell phone. After being airlifted to the hospital, it was discovered that he had (even after such a lengthy tumble) only minor injuries!

Second, this one is for those of you who have arthritis, or who have an increased genetic risk of developing arthritis. The latest studies show that drinking alcohol reduces the likelihood of getting arthritis by at least 50%. However, for those of you who smoke while you drink, you'll have to cut the smoking habit, because smoking appears to increase your risk.

Lastly, I'd like to highlight a 6 year old hero in Georgia. While swimming with friends he noticed a dark spot at the bottom of the pool. He called for help when he realized that spot was his friend, who was unconscious at the bottom of the pool. His friend was taken to a hospital, and recovered.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy today's articles! I'll see you tomorrow. :)

Today's Top 5:
1. Chopper Lifts Rescued Climber off McKinley (Anchorage Daily News)
2. "Plastic" Brain Outsmarts Experts (National Science Foundation)
3. NOAA Study Shows Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean Dolphin Populations Improving (Eurekalert.org)
4. Drinking Alcohol Cuts Arthritis Risk by Half (Daily News Analysis India)
5. Detroit Church's Stolen Jesus Statue Recovered (freep.com)

Honorable Mentions:
1. 6-year-old Rescues Drowning Friend (United Press International)
2. Inflatable Electric Car Can Drive up to 2,500 Miles on a Single Charge (Physorg)
3. Indonesian Couples Told to Plant Trees Before Marrying (Otago Daily Times)
4. ‘Green Wave’ Aims to Sweep Hispanics into Cause (Las Vegas Sun)
5. Fish and Chips Fuel "Green" Revolution (Yahoo News)

Today's Top 5:

1. Chopper Lifts Rescued Climber off McKinley
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/427696.html
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK

Published: June 5th, 2008 12:19 PM
Last Modified: June 5th, 2008 12:19 PM

A Canadian climber who tumbled up to 2,000 feet from Mount McKinley's West Buttress on Tuesday was airlifted off the mountain Wednesday night and quickly discharged from an Anchorage hospital.

The solo climber, Claude Ratte, 44, of Montreal, was described in serious but stable medical condition after a helicopter completed a rescue stalled for a day by bad weather, lifting him off the mountain about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to officials at the Denali National Park Talkeetna ranger station.

But sometime that night, after arriving at the Alaska Regional Hospital emergency room, he was discharged.

"I guess he wasn't in as serious (shape) as originally thought. He's gone," said Kjerstin Lastufka, a hospital spokeswoman. "I'm as surprised as you are."

Ratte was flown to the hospital from Talkeetna in a small plane, said Dave Kruetzer, a helicopter manager for the Talkeetna ranger station.

Ratte lost his footing on the West Buttress ridge sometime Tuesday, falling and tumbling 2,000 feet down a snow and ice slope onto the upper Peters Glacier. He suffered facial trauma and leg and ankle injuries yet was able to remove his crampons, crawl into a sleeping bag and call state troopers on his satellite phone around noon Tuesday, according to Park Service officials.

It took the rangers three to four hours traveling on foot to reach Ratte. After a medical assessment, they secured him in a rescue litter and raised him 2,000 feet to the West Buttress Ridge before lowering him 2,000 feet down the other side of the ridge to the camp, where he received medical attention.

Ratte remained on the mountain all day Wednesday because of bad weather, according to ranger station spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin.

But at 7:30 p.m., conditions cleared and the Park Service helicopter plucked him off, Kruetzer said.

The ground-based rescue party launched around noon Tuesday and got him to the camp by 10:30 p.m., McLaughlin said.

The rope-raising of Ratte to the West Buttress ridge was the longest raising operation in Denali mountaineering history, she said.

At least 10 climbers have had a serious fall on the Peters Glacier, including three who died in separate accidents in 1998, she said.

So how did Ratte survive such a big fall?

For one thing, he didn't free-fall down the mountain, McLaughlin said.

He misstepped, tried to self-arrest with an ice ax several times and ended up tumbling down a 35- to 40-degree slope, she said.

It's not the first time a climber has survived such a fall.

In 2006, a skier tumbled 2,600 feet through a chute notorious for fatal accidents -- along Denali's Orient Express route -- and emerged with scratches and bruises but no broken bones.

The skier, Ed Maginn, started walking down to the 14,200-foot camp before rescuers reached him.

2. "Plastic" Brain Outsmarts Experts
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111659&org=NSF
Training a person's working memory may increase his or her general intelligence.
June 5, 2008

Can human beings rev up their intelligence quotients, or are they stuck with IQs set by their genes at birth? Until recently, nature seemed to be the clear winner over nurture.

But new research, led by Swiss postdoctoral fellows Susanne M. Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl, working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, suggests that at least one aspect of a person's IQ can be improved by training a certain type of memory.

Most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence--crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory.

Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, draws on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts, independent of any previous knowledge or skills, to solve new problems. The research shows that this part of intelligence can be improved through memory training.

"When it comes to improving intelligence, many researchers have thought it was not possible," says Jaeggi. "Our findings clearly show this is not the case. Our brain is more plastic than we might think."

Jaeggi, Buschkuehl and Walter Perrig from Bern University, Switzerland, along with Jon Jonides, their National Science Foundation-supported colleague from the University of Michigan, reasoned that just as crystallized intelligence relies on long-term memory, fluid intelligence relies on short-term memory, or "working memory," as it is more accurately called. This is the same type of memory people use to remember a phone number or an e-mail address for a short time, but beyond that, working memory refers to the ability to both manipulate and use information briefly stored in the mind in the face of distraction.

Researchers gathered four groups of volunteers and trained their working memories using a complex training task called "dual n-back training," which presented both auditory and visual cues that participants had to temporarily store and recall.

Participants received the training during a half hour session held once a day for either eight, 12, 17 or 19 days. For each of these training periods, researchers tested participants' gains in fluid intelligence. They compared the results against those of control groups to be sure the volunteers actually improved their fluid intelligence, not merely their test-taking skills.

The results were surprising. While the control groups made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, the trained groups improved considerably more than the control groups. Further, the longer the participants trained, the larger were their intelligence gains.

"Our findings clearly show that training on certain memory tasks transfer to fluid intelligence," says Jaeggi. "We also find that individuals with lower fluid intelligence scores at pre-test could profit from the training."

The results are significant because improved fluid intelligence scores could translate into improved general intelligence as measured by IQ tests. General intelligence is a key to determining life outcomes such as academic success, job performance and occupational advancement.

Researchers also surmise that this same type of memory training may help children with developmental problems and older adults who face memory decline. But, that remains to be seen, because the test results are based on assessments of young, healthy adult participants.

"Even though it currently appears very hard to improve these conditions, there might be some memory training related to intelligence that actually helps," says Jaeggi. "The saying 'use it or lose it' is probably appropriate here."

Since it is not known whether the improvements in fluid intelligence last after the training stops, researchers currently are measuring long-term fluid intelligence gains with both laboratory testing and long-term field work. Researchers say it will be some time before a complete data set is available to draw any conclusions.

University of Bern professor Walter J. Perrig also co-authors this study along with University of Michigan professor John Jonides. The Swiss National Science Foundation funds Jaeggi and Buschkuehl's visiting scholar status.

Media Contacts
Bobbie Mixon, NSF (703) 292-8485 bmixon@nsf.gov
Joe Serwach, University of Michigan (734) 647-1844 jserwach@umich.edu

Program Contacts
Douglas Whalen, NSF (703) 292-7321 dwhalen@nsf.gov

Principal Investigators
Susanne Jaeggi, University of Michigan (734) 763-2229 sjaeggi@umich.edu

3. NOAA Study Shows Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean Dolphin Populations Improving
2 dolphin stocks may be recovering from tuna fishing practices
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/nnmf-nss060508.php
Public release date: 5-Jun-2008
Contact: Jim Milbury
jim.milbury@noaa.gov
562-980-4006
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
The numbers of Northeastern offshore spotted and eastern spinner dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are increasing after being severely depleted because of accidental death in the tuna purse-seine fishery between 1960 and 1990, according to biologists from NOAA's Fisheries Service.

"These estimates are encouraging because they are consistent with what we would expect to see if these stocks are recovering, now that reported fishery mortality has been dramatically reduced," said Dr. Lisa Ballance, director of NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center protected resources division. "However, we have to be careful not to jump to final conclusions. We need to resolve the uncertainties around these estimates before we can definitively say these stocks are recovering."

Between 1960 and 1990, the northeastern offshore spotted and eastern spinner dolphin populations dropped to 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of their pre-fishery levels when dolphins were caught and died in tuna purse-seine nets. Since the early 1990s, however, the number of reported dolphin deaths has been very low because of severe restrictions on the fishery.

"We expected to see these populations begin their recovery years ago, because fishermen have been so successful at reducing dolphin deaths," said Tim Gerrodette of NOAA's Fisheries Service. "The new data are the first to indicate the beginning of a recovery, but these initial indications are not enough to be confident that the populations will continue to grow."

Researchers emphasize the need to continue to monitor dolphin populations at sea through comprehensive ecosystem research cruises, and to conduct an updated dolphin stock assessment that will include not only these most recent abundance estimates, but also additional information on dolphin life history, fishery mortality, and the ecosystem. This assessment will enable a more definitive interpretation of whether these abundance estimates indicate Eastern Tropical Pacific dolphins are recovering and the degree to which the fishery and other factors affect the conservation of these stocks.

Today's report stems from a series of research cruises conducted since 1986. It presents new estimates of abundance for 10 dolphin stocks for each survey year between 1986 and 2006. A summary of 2006 ETP dolphin abundance estimates may be found at, http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=PRD&ParentMenuId=228&id=12816

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-422 - "Estimates of 2006 dolphin abundance in the eastern

4. Drinking Alcohol Cuts Arthritis Risk by Half
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1169022
Thursday, June 05, 2008 18:37 IST

LONDON: Drinking alcohol is not only good for heart, it's good for joints too. In fact, regular guzzling could halve the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have found alcohol protects against the painful joint condition by reducing inflammation within the body, in a similar way to how red wine helps protect the heart.

According to them, teetotallers are the most likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis but its risk decreases the more people drink -- best is to down five or more alcoholic drinks beverages a week, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

"Our findings point to the possibility that alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis," Henrik Kallberg, who led the study, said.

The Swedish team came to the conclusion after looking at the results of two major researches involving 2,750 people in Scandinavia, which analysed environmental and genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis.

They found the more alcohol people regularly drank, the less likely they were to develop the condition. Those who drank more than five drinks every week cut their chances of developing it by between 40 and 50 per cent.

In fact, the effect was found to be the same for both men and women in the north European countries.

However, teetotallers had a slightly raised chance of developing the disease, while low drinkers, those whose intake was between one and five drinks a week, had an average risk, the study found.

In addition, it revealed that smoking raised the risk in those with a genetic susceptibility to the joint condition -- the results of the study have been published in the 'Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases' journal.

5. Detroit Church's Stolen Jesus Statue Recovered
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/NEWS01/80605071
June 5, 2008

An 8-foot-statue of Jesus Christ stolen from the cross at the Church of the Messiah on Detroit’s east side has been found in an alley near the church.

Rev. Barry Randolph said Patricia Bower, a woman who lives in the neighborhood, decided to take a shortcut home when she found Jesus “in a bush, between two trees” Wednesday night. He and another church member went to pick up Jesus, finding the green-hewed weather beaten statue with only its hand missing.

“We are truly grateful,” Randolph said Thursday.

But in another twist – someone advertised the statue for sale on the classifieds website Craigslist Wednesday. Then, presumably, the same person called the church, trying to sell it to back to them for $1,000. Randolph said he declined. The statue had already been found.

The statue is made of a strong plaster, but a thief or thieves may have mistaken for copper. A parishioner called church staff Tuesday morning and told them the statue was missing from the 107-year-old Episcopal church at 231 E. Grand Blvd. The cross on the side of the building was badly damaged.

“We got calls from all over the world,” Randolph said, about how fast the news of the stolen statue spread.

The church will have the statue and cross repaired, and will host a “resurrection celebration” when they return it to the church. Randolph said they will also post a sign next to it: “Jesus is not copper. Do not take him off the cross.”

Honorable Mentions:

1. 6-year-old Rescues Drowning Friend
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/06/04/6-year-old_rescues_drowning_friend/1357/
Published: June 4, 2008 at 8:48 PM

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga., June 4 (UPI) -- A 6-year-old Georgia boy said he was simply being a good friend when he rescued his 5-year-old buddy from drowning in a pool.

Fayetteville, Ga., resident Haden Stusak said he was trying to find out what was making a dark spot at the bottom of the pool Sunday when he found his friend Josiah Buddah, 5, unconscious in the water.

It turned out Buddah sank after removing his water wings, WSB-TV, Atlanta reported Wednesday.

Stusak said he called for help after finding his friend.

"They took me to the hospital. I was dead and couldn't breathe," Buddah told reporters.

A doctor and two nurses performed CPR on Buddah after Stusak pulled him out of the water.

"Were friends. That's what friends do," the young hero said.

2. Inflatable Electric Car Can Drive up to 2,500 Miles on a Single Charge
http://www.physorg.com/news131804347.html
by Lisa Zyga

It's hard to say what the most intriguing thing about XP Vehicles' inflatable car is. Maybe it's that the car can travel for up to 2,500 miles on a single electric charge (the distance across the US is roughly 3,000 miles).

Or maybe it's the fact that you buy the car online, it gets shipped to you in two cardboard boxes, and the estimated assembly time is less than two hours. Perhaps it's that the car is made out of "airbags" - the same polymer materials used to cushion NASA's rovers when they landed on Mars. Then again, it could be the company's claim that you can drive the car off a cliff without serious injury, and that it will float in a flood or tsunami.

Together, these features characterize the Whisper, XP Vehicles' solution to the oil crisis. The company doesn't expect the car to be in production until 2010 at the earliest, but when it is, it will hopefully be an extremely affordable $10,000 or less. XP Vehicles envisions four body styles, along with a special low-priced model for the Southeast Asian market.

As the San Francisco-based start-up explains on its Web site, the miracle behind the 2,500-mile range is a "hot-swap XPack Multi-Core Battery/Fuel Cell power plant" invented by the founders of XP Vehicles. Or, without the hot-swap technology, the car can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge, thanks to its light weight.

XP Vehicles hopes to have a prototype developed by the end of the year, and will begin working on built-to-order vehicles for its OEM partners only. Later, it plans to sell to dealers, who will assemble the vehicle before selling to consumers.

In the future, individuals may also order online, pick out their desired features as if customizing a PC, and receive the car by a common carrier. Options will include iPod mounts, 20 colors, trim, decals, roof/no roof, car covers, solar mounts, stereos, integrated pumps, home connections, GPS, battery clubs, alarms, and more. Two adults with a high school education should be able to unpack and inflate the car in less than two hours, according to the company. And, if you don´t have enough room in the garage, some models even fold up after assembly for storage. Other models "can change bodies" (details on that are sparse).

Different models of the car will be made of various polymers, carbon fiber, and/or other strong, ultra-light-weight materials - the same stuff that protected the Mars rovers´ sensitive electronics as they fell and bounced along the planet´s surface. XP Vehicles claims that the car will be one of the safest on the road for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.

"Research shows that the metal in your car is the largest cause of death and injury," the company explains on its Web site. "The shrapnel, body compression immobility, lung compression, dismemberment and other serious results of a crash are most often caused by the inflexibility of metal and the permanent deformation of the body of the metal car around or into your body. Hence the need for, and name of, the Jaws of Life."

For another thing, the car won´t "blow off the road," due to a special ballast and aerodynamic design features which make the car very stable. An inflatable car might even provide additional safety measures in certain circumstances, such as if someone were to accidentally drive it off a cliff - although the company says that it´s not intended for this use.

If you´re concerned that an inflatable car may be too tempting for a tire-slashing juvenile delinquent, XP Vehicles says that their car bodies are actually pretty difficult to pierce. The cars have multiple chambers, so a single slice wouldn´t pop it like a balloon - "somebody would really have to go at it" to cause major damage, the company says. And, in the case of vandalism, you can repair it yourself.

Whether it´s legal to drive an inflatable car on the road will depend on local ordinances, which dealers or individual buyers will be responsible for knowing. But, as XP Vehicles estimates a $200 billion market for alternative energy vehicles, changes in regulations seem inevitable.

XP Vehicles is not releasing specific vehicle data until an official launch, which will be announced after the company receives various safety certification papers.

More information: http://www.xpcarteam.com/

2. Indonesian Couples Told to Plant Trees Before Marrying
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/8467/indonesian-couples-told-plant-trees-marrying
Wed, 4 Jun 2008

Prospective newlyweds in an Indonesian province are being given one more promise to honour: planting trees to help slow the rapid deterioration of the country's forests.

As Indonesia marks World Environment Day on Thursday, husbands- and brides-to-be in Gorontalo, a rugged mountainous province on Sulawesi island, are being required to plant 10 seedlings supplied by the local government, said Hasyim Alidrus, head of the religious affairs office.

It is part of a nationwide "re-greening" initiative launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Bali Conference in Bali last November when million of trees were planted across the vast archipelago.

The programme, critics say, is largely symbolic in a nation that is losing its forests at one of the fastest rates in the world due to illegal logging, mining, new oil palm plantations and slash-and-burn land clearing.

Conservationists say deforestation on Borneo island has claimed an area the size of some European countries and continues virtually unabated.

That has hardly dampened the enthusiasm of 27-year-old Khairul Baso and his fiancee, Andini, who received two 6-month-old teak trees along with palm, fruit and flower seedlings ahead of their wedding this weekend.

The couple is just one of nearly 900 that this year received trees from Gorontalo's religious affairs office, where they are required to register their marriage documents. Couples are required to plant the trees to receive their legal paperwork, Alidrus said, although it was unclear how the rule would be enforced.

4. ‘Green Wave’ Aims to Sweep Hispanics into Cause
National environmental group hopes free concert will boost anti-coal agenda
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jun/04/green-wave-aims-sweep-hispanics-cause/
By Timothy Pratt
Wed, Jun 4, 2008 (2 a.m.)

A pair of uncombed, college-aged Mexican pop singers tonight will usher in the first attempt by a national environmental organization to target Nevada’s Hispanics.

A free concert by Latin Grammy winners Jesse and Joy at the Rio is the hook for la onda verde, or “green wave,” a campaign being launched here by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The idea is to draw a few thousand Hispanics to listen to the wispy duo’s harmonies and then persuade the crowd to dash off notes to Gov. Jim Gibbons protesting three coal power plants planned for rural Nevada.

The hope is the campaign, which is also being promoted in Spanish-language TV and radio spots, will sow the seeds for a groundswell of support for renewable energy among the state’s largest and fastest-growing minority population.

It’s the latest example of Nevada’s more than 600,000 Hispanics’ drawing increasing attention, a phenomenon seen in recent years in advertising and electoral politics.

“This is something that’s spreading, and it’s tied to their numbers,” said Nora Vargas, executive director of the California-based Latino Issues Forum, a policy and advocacy group.

Andres Ramirez, vice president of Hispanic projects at the Washington, D.C.-based NDN, formerly the New Democrat Network, said the green wave campaign is the first full-blown effort by a national environmental group to reach Hispanics in Nevada. Ramirez compared the move to the Democratic Party’s choice of Nevada as an early caucus state. The selection of the state was in part due to its Hispanic population, party leaders said. The campaign also hopes to reverse what experts and its promoters say is a popular misconception: that Hispanics don’t care about the environment.

Last month, the Sierra Club released what it said was the first national survey of Hispanic voters on energy and environmental issues. The main conclusion: 80 percent said those issues have “a lot” or “some” impact on their quality of life, with the same percentage saying that global warming — a focus of la onda verde — is a major problem.

Low-income Hispanics, in particular, are “disproportionately affected by health and environmental concerns” because they often live close to sources of pollution, Oliver Bernstein, spokesman for the Sierra Club, said.

At the same time, however, “for far too long, the Hispanic community has been ignored or not invited to participate in environmental issues,” Bernstein said.

La onda verde may help change that. “We’re going to see more and more of this,” Bernstein said.

Adriana Quintero, spokeswoman for the campaign, said many Hispanics bring from their native countries what she called “a love and connection with the environment” that they lose track of in the day-to-day struggle for survival in the United States.

“We have to begin to communicate with Hispanics about this subject,” she said.

She wouldn’t say how much money is to be spent on the campaign, which hopes to persuade Nevada’s Hispanics to oppose three coal-fired energy plants on the drawing board and to support solar, wind and geothermal energy.

Advocates for the coal plants contend the plants are the only realistic route to ensure the state has enough reliable and affordable electricity in the immediate future.

They plan to court Hispanics, too. The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity says it is going to focus on the Hispanic community in an effort to make more people aware of the group and its support for coal.

“Our group is reaching out to anyone interested in keeping electricity prices affordable, and that certainly includes Hispanics,” spokesman Brad Jones said.

The environmentalists are pitching a different economic motive. Quintero said the Hispanic community, which is younger than other ethnic groups, has “an opportunity to be part of a new green economy.”

Tony Sanchez, corporate senior vice president of Nevada Power and former president of the local Latin Chamber of Commerce, seemed less than impressed by the green campaign.

“From our standpoint, it’s another out-of-state special interest group coming in,” he said. “We’re not going to fight with them ... we’re not engaged in a debate.”

“Our No. 1 concern is providing a reasonable, predictable price to our customers.”

He added that his company has increased advertising in Spanish, going from 1 percent of its budget for advertising in 2006 to 6 percent this year, as well as including information in Spanish on its Web site.

Quintero allows that being the first to target Nevada’s Hispanics with an environmental campaign might not be easy. “The community hasn’t been involved in advocacy,” she said.

Vargas said the best way to turn the tide is to get Hispanics to understand the impact that issues such as energy choices have on their lives through, say, global warming.

Having a couple of good-looking pop stars onboard can’t hurt either.

5. Fish and Chips Fuel 'Green' Revolution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080604/wl_uk_afp/britainenergyfoodbiofuelsinflation
by Lucie Godeau
Wed Jun 4, 9:30 AM ET

WINSLOW (AFP) - Faced with soaring prices at the petrol pumps, ecologically-minded Britons are turning to fish and chips to run their cars -- transforming the leftover frying oil into "green" fuel.

Deep in the southern English countryside, an environmental group spent last weekend teaching 12 men how to transform the abundant vegetable oil from fish and chip shops, but also pubs and restaurants, into biodiesel.

One of the participants, Mike Kempton, who runs a business hiring out limousines, said the prospect of cheap fuel was extremely attractive at a time when oil prices have reached historic highs.

"I want to save money, I don't want to be in a position where I'm isolated from fuel and where I can't drive my vehicle.

"And I genuinely am concerned about what we're doing to the environment," he said.

The courses are organised by the Low Impact Living Initiative (LILI), a group which has already trained more than a thousand people, and applicants for the scheme increase every time the price of fuel rises.

In an added incentive, the government does not tax the production of biodiesel, providing it does not exceed 2,500 litres per person a year.

In a low-tech shed in Winslow near Oxford, Jon Halle, a tutor from the non-profit making company Goldenfuels, gives the participants an elementary chemistry lesson.

By mixing a litre of vegetable oil with methanol and several other ingredients and heating it, he produces a litre of basic biodiesel.

"Some people don't have a clue, some people on the course are chemists but everybody will be able to go away and do it if they spend the time," Halle said.

He insists the danger is low even to people without a scientific background.

"The risks are, you use some dangerous chemicals, you also use electricity so you could have potentially dangerous scenarios but you just have to take care.

"It's not rocket science, it's like cookery but on a big scale."

It is not as easy as Halle makes it look -- some of the participants struggle to properly measure the amount of fatty acids in the oil that must be neutralised for it to become fuel.

But when properly done, the biodiesel can be used in diesel engines without any modification and without the vehicle suffering any loss of performance.

Biodiesel made from vegetable oil contains 75 percent less carbon than its mineral equivalent.

Another participant on the course, Matthew Stephens, from Lincolnshire in eastern England, admitted using the "green" fuel was good for his conscience.

"I have to use the car to work a lot, Lincolnshire doesn't have public transport in a meaningful way," he said.

"And if I use biodiesel, it will make me feel an awful lot better because it's virtually carbon-free."

The re-processing of vegetable oil is relatively rare in Britain, meaning there is a huge glut of raw material and the process does not require much-needed agricultural land to be set aside to growing biofuels crops such as rapeseed.

There is one hitch though -- the basic equipment to turn the oil into fuel costs between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds (1,250 euros and 2,500 euros or 1,950 dollars and 3,900 dollars) and the necessary chemicals cost 15 pence per litre of biodiesel.

That means an individual user would need to produce biodiesel for more than a year to absorb the initial investment.

Colin Hygate, the director of Greenfuels, which claims to be Europe's biggest seller of the re-processing equipment, said business was booming as people take a long-term approach.

"We see an acceleration whenever there is an issue about fuel security or the cost of fuel at the fuel station," he said.

"We are growing year-on-year. Over a four-year period, we have gone from a turnover of less than 100,000 pounds a year to a turnover this year that is looking more like two million pounds.

"The number of people inquiring about our products has increased from about 10 to 15 contacts a day to between 40 to 50 people and we have had to employ additional sales people to try to cope with the increasing demand."

2008: June 4th Good News (HIV Breakthrough: "Natural Condom" Could Stop HIV; Dog Finds Maternal Instinct Raising Kittens; More...)

2008-06-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all,

Well, I'm playing catch up. The last few days have been very busy. On June 2 and 3, we hosted an event here in Seoul that the Secretary of Defense attended. I attempted to post yesterday, but I was so exhausted I fell to sleep on the 4th of today's top 5. So, today I looked up the remaining articles (may post a couple more under honorable mentions later, once I get caught up fully), and prepared the news. :)

Here are your news articles for 4 June 2008. I will post today's news articles next. If I end up with a lot of time, I will try to do historic entries for the 2nd and 3rd of June.

I hope you enjoy today's posts! :) See you tomorrow (really).

Today's Top 5:
1. University of Pennsylvania Receives $50M Gift from Nine West Founder
2. Largest Cambodian Buddha Resurrected in Siem Reap (Xinhua News)
3. Agent in Red Wine Found to Keep Hearts Young (Physorg.com)
4. HIV Breakthrough for Men (The West Australian)
5. Dog Finds Maternal Instincts with Kittens (Honolulu Star Bulletin)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Rat Bones Show First New Zeelanders Settled 700 Years Ago (Earth Times)
2. Steps Being Taken to Safeguard Rock Carvings in Northern Areas of Pakistan (Associated Press of Pakistan)

Today's Top 5:
1. University of Pennsylvania Receives $50M Gift from Nine West Founder
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_on_re_us/penn_50_million_gift
Wed Jun 4, 12:40 AM ET

PHILADELPHIA - The founder of women's shoe company Nine West has given $50 million to the University of Pennsylvania, one of the largest donations in school history.

Jerome Fisher, a 1953 Penn alumnus, and his wife Anne donated the funds to help build a biomedical research facility on the university's campus in West Philadelphia. Fisher is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Nine West Group Inc., which makes women's shoes and accessories.

Slated to open in 2010, the Anne and Jerome Fisher Translational Research Center will emphasize an accelerated pace for converting laboratory discoveries into medical therapies.

Each floor will be the size of a football field, dramatically increasing Penn's research space, university officials said. It will house about 100 principal researchers and 900 additional staff.

The donation also includes a professorship in hematology and oncology named in honor of the Fishers' daughter, Jodi Fisher.

It is one of the largest gifts in the history of the Ivy League school and the second-largest to Penn's medical system.

"Anne and I love Penn, and we have long felt that investing in this world-class university is investing in the future of humankind itself," Jerome Fisher said.

The couple's previous gifts to Penn total more than $14 million.

2. Largest Cambodian Buddha Resurrected in Siem Reap
http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/04/content_8311123.htm
2008-06-04 10:56:22

PHNOM PENH, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The largest reclining Buddha in Cambodia, part of the Baphuon Temple at Angkor in Siem Reap province, has just opened to the public, the Mekong Times newspaper said Wednesday.

The Buddha is a 16th century addition to the west face of the 11th century Hindu Baphuon temple, the newspaper said, adding that it marks a religious schism between the Brahmanic Angkor society and the Buddhist culture that arose later.

The Buddha is one of the final stages of the reconstruction of the temple, with the three tiered monument slated to be fully open to the public by the end of 2009.

The restoration of the temple has been an epic journey, begun by the well-known French organization Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO) before the civil war in 1970. The project was interrupted by the war and resumed by the EFEO in 1995.

The Reclining Buddha, a representation of the Buddha after attaining enlightenment, is 70 meters long and 12 meters high. The French have undertaken nine years of "complex work" on the statue, which is one of the "most astonishing" archeological remains of the post-Angkorian period, according to a French Embassy press release.

3. Agent in Red Wine Found to Keep Hearts Young
http://www.physorg.com/news131777919.html
05:58 EST, June 04, 2008

How, scientists wonder, do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats?

The answer to the so-called "French paradox" may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.

Writing this week (June 3) in the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers report that low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of aging and may confer special protection on the heart.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the effects of what is known as caloric restriction - diets with 20-30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet - that in numerous studies has been shown to extend lifespan and blunt the effects of aging.

"This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode," says senior author Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medicine and a researcher at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. "At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction."

Previous research has shown that resveratrol in high doses extends lifespan in invertebrates and prevents early mortality in mice given a high-fat diet. The new study, conducted by researchers from academia and industry, extends those findings, showing that resveratrol in low doses and beginning in middle age can elicit many of the same benefits as a reduced-calorie diet.

"Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of caloric restriction at the gene expression level," says Tomas Prolla, a UW-Madison professor of genetics and a senior author of the new report.

The group explored the influence of the agent on heart, muscle and brain by looking for changes in gene expression in those tissues. As animals age, gene expression in the different tissues of the body changes as genes are switched on and off.

In the new study - which compared the genetic crosstalk of animals on a restricted diet with those fed small doses of resveratrol - the similarities were remarkable, explains lead author Jamie Barger of Madison-based LifeGen Technologies. In the heart, for example, there are at least 1,029 genes whose functions change with age, and the organ's function is known to diminish with age. In animals on a restricted diet, 90 percent of those heart genes experienced altered gene expression profiles, while low doses of resveratrol thwarted age-related change in 92 percent. The new findings, say the study's authors, were associated with prevention of the decline in heart function associated with aging.

In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent "a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging," the authors note.

That finding may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.

The new resveratrol study is also important because it suggests that caloric restriction, which has been widely studied in animals from spiders to humans, and resveratrol may govern the same master genetic pathways related to aging.

"There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways," explains Prolla. "And resveratrol seems to activate some of these master pathways as well."

The new findings, according to Weindruch and Prolla, provide strong evidence that resveratrol can improve quality of life through its influence on the different parameters of aging such as cardiac function. However, whether the agent can extend lifespan in ways similar to caloric restriction will require further study, according to the new report's authors.

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison

4. HIV Breakthrough for Men:
Australian Researchers Say 'Natural Condom' Could Stop HIV
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=158&ContentID=76962
4th June 2008, 15:15 WST

Australian researchers say they have unlocked the key to blocking HIV infection in men in a breakthrough which could arrest the global AIDS epidemic.

The ground-breaking study uses the female hormone, oestrogen, to create a “living condom” in men, shielding them from the virus.

The development is being touted as a critical step in reducing sexually transmitted HIV, particularly in uncircumcised men, who are more at risk of infection.

University of Melbourne researchers Dr Andrew Pask and Professor Roger Short said their discovery had the potential to cut the spread of HIV in half.

And the research underpinning their work could spark calls for a revival of circumcision.

Dr Pask and Prof Short have discovered that by applying oestrogen to the vulnerable inner foreskin they can boost the body's natural defences against HIV.

The oestrogen cream, Oestriol, works by quadrupling the thin layer of keratin, a defensive protein, in the skin.

“By using keratin we can increase the body's natural defence ... and then the virus can't physically inject itself through that barrier to infect the cells underneath,” Dr Pask said.

Circumcision provides up to 80 per cent protection from HIV and oestrogen would fill the gap, he said. In uncircumcised men it is a living barrier against HIV.

“It's not a contraception ... but it is a living condom and a perfect protection against HIV,” Prof Short said.

Forty million people have HIV worldwide.

Every year there are five million new infections and three million people die.

The treatment, details of which appeared today in the medical journal, PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science, has worked in laboratory tests and will undergo clinical trials in Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS epidemic.

“Mathematical models would predict that within say 50 or 60 years that the level of HIV in the world would be significantly reduced as an effect of this,” Dr Pask said.

“The studies that they've shown on circumcision showed that within 50 to 60 years it would be less than half of what we have now, so it is a massive reduction.

“And then of course it would continue to drop exponentially from there until hopefully, if everybody in the world was to be circumcised or was to use the treatment, then eventually the epidemic would just completely disappear.”

Dr Pask said it was a simple, cheap and effective guard against HIV that could be applied once a week in cultures where circumcision and safe sex were not practised.

But it does not protect against sexually transmitted infections. Oestrogen is currently used to treat prolapse in woman and in small, external doses would have virtually no side effects in men.

It could eventually have applications in condoms and lubricants.

MELBOURNE
AAP

5. Dog Finds Maternal Instincts with Kittens
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/04/news/story04.html
June 4, 2008
Ewa Beach sixth-grader Megumi Schultz was astounded when her cat-hating dog started breast-feeding feral kittens they found in her garden shed.
"I was quite shocked when she started nursing them," she recalled as she related how her dog morphed into a tender, doting mother.

Megumi was walking Snowie, her 3-year-old white Shiba-Inu, one morning when they heard meowing coming from the garden shed.

Snowie sniffed under the shed door and was scratched, apparently by a feral cat. When the girl returned with her father, Frank Schultz, they opened the shed to find a litter of four kittens. The feral mother cat darted away and hasn't returned.

"Snowie normally hates cats," said Frank Schultz. "She goes nuts. When we go for a walk, she'll chase 'em down the road. One time she chased one four blocks up into a tree and then tried to climb the tree. If she's not on the leash, she'll attack them."
The Schultz family took the kittens home and began feeding them with kitten formula via eyedroppers.

Then, "kidding around," Schultz's wife, Miyuki, placed one of the kittens on Snowie's teat.

"She looked shocked," said Schultz. "She was looking at us as to say, 'Huh?'"

Then the other kittens started suckling her.

"Snowie just laid there and let them nurse," said Megumi. Now she is producing milk and feeding the kittens four to six times a day. She has never been pregnant or nursed before, but it is possible for females to lactate from nipple stimulation alone.

"I think it's a miracle because you don't normally see dogs nursing cats," said Megumi.

A Google search revealed similar cases elsewhere.

"It's not terribly unheard of ... there's tigers that will suckle pigs," said Ken Redman, director of the Honolulu Zoo. "So somewhere along the line maternal instinct kicks in."

Kawehi Yim of the Hawaiian Humane Society said there also have been cases of cats adopting puppies.

Dr. Eric Ako of the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association said such cases are "not infrequent," adding, "There's even wider species variations that have been documented ... a monkey has adopted a puppy."

Megumi, who has named the kittens Tabby, Ginger, Momo and Casey, said the accidental mom seems content with her brood.
"She always licks them and follows them everywhere. She protects them. She's really happy, I think, because she doesn't have any companion. I think the kittens will act like dogs, because they are always following her and doing what she does."

Added Frank Schultz: "Usually, we take a long walk at night with Snowie, but now she drags me home so she can take care of the kittens. "

At night, the kittens snuggle up to sleep with Snowie.

Schultz said he's not sure whether they will keep the cats. Some acquaintances have already asked about adopting them when they get big enough, he said.

Honorable Mentions:

1.Rat bones show first New Zealanders settled 700 years ago
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/209653,rat-bones-show-first-new-zealanders-settled-700-years-ago.html
Posted : Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:23:00 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Science (Technology)

Wellington - Humans first settled in New Zealand around the late 13th century and not more than 2,000 years ago as had been thought, according to research published Tuesday that used radiocarbon dating on rat bones. The research in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences rejected earlier radiocarbon dating suggesting the first migrants arrived about 200 BC.

A team of international researchers led by Dr Janet Wilmshurst of New Zealand's Landcare Research spent four years studying bones of the Pacific rat, known to the indigenous Maori people as kiore, and native seeds the animals gnawed.

They said earlier research published in the journal Nature in 1996 that dated rat bones from about 200 BC was faulty and re-examination suggested they originated in the period 1280 to 1300.

"As the Pacific rat or kiore cannot swim very far, it can only have arrived in New Zealand with people on board their canoes, either as cargo or stowaways," Wilmshurst said.

"Therefore, the earliest evidence of the Pacific rat in New Zealand must indicate the arrival of people," she said.

Wilmshurst said the new dating of rat bones was supported by examination of more than 100 woody seeds with distinctive telltale bite marks, which had been preserved in peat and swamp sites on both New Zealand's main islands.

According to Maori legend, the Polynesian people came to New Zealand on a fleet of large canoes from their mythical Pacific homeland of Hawaiki.

Wilmshurst said the new radiocarbon dating was consistent with other evidence suggesting the Maoris arrived in the late 13th century, including the oldest dated archaeological sites, oral legends, widespread forest clearance by fire and the start of declining populations of marine and land-based fauna.

2. Steps Being Taken to Safeguard Rock Carvings in Northern Areas of Pakistan
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40151&Itemid=2
2 June 2008
Sherry Rehman

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Minister for Culture Ms Sherry Rehman informed the National Assembly on Monday that various steps have been taken for safeguarding rock carvings in various parts of the Northern Areas. Replying to a question from MNA Marvi Memon during the Question Hour, she said that more than 50,000 rock carvings, and over 5000 inscriptions in 39 different languages have been found so far along the Karakoram Highway in the Northern Areas.
The research survey is continuing in various parts of the Northern Areas by the Department of Archaeology and Museums in collaboration with Heidelberg Rock Art Project led by Dr Harald Hauptmann. Sherry Rehman said that WAPDA has allocated Rs 31 million for relocation of carvings. She said that it is estimated that 30,907 rock carvings,including 3,290 inscriptions,will be submerged due to the proposed Basha-Diamir Reservoir. She further said that the Culture Ministry has decided to request the Water and Power Ministry to allocate special funds for payment of compensation and for employment of hi-tech equipment for cutting,performing three dimensional scanning,photography and sketches of the impressions and production of replicas which would be saved in museums in Gilgit and Chilas.

While replying to a question by Abdul Qadir Patel,MNA she said that the Prime Minister has approved establishment of National Film Academy.The academy would train aspirants who would spearhead the direction and production of quality films at home and abroad.

To a question from Palwasha Khan she said that the Department of Archaeology and Museums under the Ministry of Culture is the main custodian of country’s cultural heritage.

She said that the department has protected 401 sites and monuments under the Antiques Act 1975 and established 13 museums in the country.

To a supplementary she said that provincial governments help has been sought for removal of encroachments from archaeological sites and their preservation.

She said that during the current financial year Rs 118.180 million has been allocated in the Annual Development Fund for the 15 ongoing projects prepared by the department for preservation of historic monuments sites.

She said out of these schemes,four would be completed during this financial year while the rest would be completed during next fiscal.

She called for allocation of more funds for Archaeological department so that historic monuments could be preserved as per international standards.