Saturday, August 29, 2009
Should the Burqa Be Banned
This is a dope talk hosted in Australia as to whether the Burqa should be banned within the country. 3 VERY compelling arguments
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
brain chips and mind control, at your service
Andreas Vesalius / Corbis
Brain Boosters
Medicine may allow us to challenge our genetic inheritance and repair insults to the brain, whether as Alzheimer's sufferers or moody, forgetful people and hazy thinkers.
By David H. Freedman | NEWSWEEK
Published Jun 27, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jul 13, 2009
Daryl Kipke is showing off his company's latest prototype, a state-of-the-art electronic chip. It's not the sort likely to end up powering your iPod, but it does produce a beat you won't be able to get out of your head—because this device is designed to be surgically implanted deep in your brain, where the chip will deliver electric signals to specific clusters of cells. Kipke's firm, NeuroNexus Technologies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is developing and testing the device to deliver electric pulses that can relieve some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. "Deep-brain stimulation has been poorly understood," says Kipke, who is also a University of Michigan neuroscientist. "But with this technology we can improve neuron targeting and tuning."
Kipke's device is only one of many new treatments in the pipeline for major brain disorders, treatments guided in some cases by the explosion in genetic data in the past decade. These illnesses already cost the U.S. alone more than $1 trillion a year in health-care bills and lost income, and that figure is almost certain to skyrocket with an aging population. As a result, money has been pouring into brain research—$5 billion in 2008 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health alone, plus hundreds of millions more from big pharmaceutical companies, major foundations, and even the Department of Defense, which wants to offer better treatments to veterans who suffer brain trauma. The result is an array of new approaches to boosting mental acuity and memory and restoring emotional balance in the afflicted.
But history makes clear that when re-searchers come up with a new treatment that makes us feel or work better, it's usually not just the truly sick who end up going in for an upgrade. The market for Viagra has gone far beyond those with medically documented cases of erectile dysfunction, for example. Casey Lynch, managing director of the neuropharmaceuticals market-strategy firm NeuroInsights, notes that much the same has happened with antidepressants. Before the current generation of these pills came out in the late 1980s, depression was estimated to afflict one out of 20,000 people, but today the figure is considered to be about one in 10 (due to more frequent and quicker diagnoses). The progress in developing treatments for illnesses that ravage memory and thought raises an important question: might the same tools be used to improve the functioning of minds that by most standards are already running fairly smoothly? We may well be approaching an era of designer brains, in which those of us feeling a little foggy or dull can have our IQ, fast recall, and self-confidence ratcheted up via the prescription pad or scalpel. "Some brain-related conditions we think of as ordinary," says Lynch, "may eventually become disorders, too"—including perhaps less-than-razor-sharp thinking.
The notion of a prescription IQ lift is hardly new. According to polls, about one in 20 college students, and higher percentages of professors, already illicitly pop some form of Ritalin or modafinil—legitimately prescribed for attention-deficit disorder and narcolepsy, respectively—to augment alertness, concentration, and memory. But these drugs have proved only mildly effective on normal minds, and carry potentially severe side effects ranging from addiction to overstimulation. Estrogen and testosterone supplements have also been only vaguely associated with improved cognitive functioning, and more strongly with serious potential risks. Meanwhile, about 4 million Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide take the drug donepezil, known as Aricept, to slow their mental decline, but most don't seem to benefit much.
Scientists had originally hoped that the decoding of the human genome would lead quickly to small groups of genes that control major mental disorders and traits, be they Alzheimer's disease, intelligence, or personality. That hasn't been the case; individual genes turn out in most cases to only weakly affect the brain, with most illnesses emerging from the interaction of large, complex networks of hundreds of genes. That challenge hasn't kept researchers from tracking down many of the genes in these networks to chip away at the genetic roots of mental disorders—and to come up with possible treatments based on some of those findings.
The result is that medicine may allow us to challenge our genetic inheritance and repair environmental insults to the brain, whether as Alzheimer's sufferers or just moody, forgetful people and hazy thinkers. Techniques undergoing testing now include altering genes within brain cells, or even pushing genes into creating altogether new brain cells. Neuro-logix in Fort Lee, New Jersey, for example, is developing brain-related gene therapies, which involve injecting harmless viruses that insert custom-built genes into cells. Though other experimental gene therapies have in the past often caused severe and even fatal side effects, Neurologix hopes to avoid them by targeting the viruses only at those cells that need repairing. The firm has a treatment for Parkinson's disease in clinical testing now, with versions for Huntington's, epilepsy, and depression in the wings.
Brain Boosters
Medicine may allow us to challenge our genetic inheritance and repair insults to the brain, whether as Alzheimer's sufferers or moody, forgetful people and hazy thinkers.
By David H. Freedman | NEWSWEEK
Published Jun 27, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jul 13, 2009
Daryl Kipke is showing off his company's latest prototype, a state-of-the-art electronic chip. It's not the sort likely to end up powering your iPod, but it does produce a beat you won't be able to get out of your head—because this device is designed to be surgically implanted deep in your brain, where the chip will deliver electric signals to specific clusters of cells. Kipke's firm, NeuroNexus Technologies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is developing and testing the device to deliver electric pulses that can relieve some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. "Deep-brain stimulation has been poorly understood," says Kipke, who is also a University of Michigan neuroscientist. "But with this technology we can improve neuron targeting and tuning."
Kipke's device is only one of many new treatments in the pipeline for major brain disorders, treatments guided in some cases by the explosion in genetic data in the past decade. These illnesses already cost the U.S. alone more than $1 trillion a year in health-care bills and lost income, and that figure is almost certain to skyrocket with an aging population. As a result, money has been pouring into brain research—$5 billion in 2008 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health alone, plus hundreds of millions more from big pharmaceutical companies, major foundations, and even the Department of Defense, which wants to offer better treatments to veterans who suffer brain trauma. The result is an array of new approaches to boosting mental acuity and memory and restoring emotional balance in the afflicted.
But history makes clear that when re-searchers come up with a new treatment that makes us feel or work better, it's usually not just the truly sick who end up going in for an upgrade. The market for Viagra has gone far beyond those with medically documented cases of erectile dysfunction, for example. Casey Lynch, managing director of the neuropharmaceuticals market-strategy firm NeuroInsights, notes that much the same has happened with antidepressants. Before the current generation of these pills came out in the late 1980s, depression was estimated to afflict one out of 20,000 people, but today the figure is considered to be about one in 10 (due to more frequent and quicker diagnoses). The progress in developing treatments for illnesses that ravage memory and thought raises an important question: might the same tools be used to improve the functioning of minds that by most standards are already running fairly smoothly? We may well be approaching an era of designer brains, in which those of us feeling a little foggy or dull can have our IQ, fast recall, and self-confidence ratcheted up via the prescription pad or scalpel. "Some brain-related conditions we think of as ordinary," says Lynch, "may eventually become disorders, too"—including perhaps less-than-razor-sharp thinking.
The notion of a prescription IQ lift is hardly new. According to polls, about one in 20 college students, and higher percentages of professors, already illicitly pop some form of Ritalin or modafinil—legitimately prescribed for attention-deficit disorder and narcolepsy, respectively—to augment alertness, concentration, and memory. But these drugs have proved only mildly effective on normal minds, and carry potentially severe side effects ranging from addiction to overstimulation. Estrogen and testosterone supplements have also been only vaguely associated with improved cognitive functioning, and more strongly with serious potential risks. Meanwhile, about 4 million Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide take the drug donepezil, known as Aricept, to slow their mental decline, but most don't seem to benefit much.
Scientists had originally hoped that the decoding of the human genome would lead quickly to small groups of genes that control major mental disorders and traits, be they Alzheimer's disease, intelligence, or personality. That hasn't been the case; individual genes turn out in most cases to only weakly affect the brain, with most illnesses emerging from the interaction of large, complex networks of hundreds of genes. That challenge hasn't kept researchers from tracking down many of the genes in these networks to chip away at the genetic roots of mental disorders—and to come up with possible treatments based on some of those findings.
The result is that medicine may allow us to challenge our genetic inheritance and repair environmental insults to the brain, whether as Alzheimer's sufferers or just moody, forgetful people and hazy thinkers. Techniques undergoing testing now include altering genes within brain cells, or even pushing genes into creating altogether new brain cells. Neuro-logix in Fort Lee, New Jersey, for example, is developing brain-related gene therapies, which involve injecting harmless viruses that insert custom-built genes into cells. Though other experimental gene therapies have in the past often caused severe and even fatal side effects, Neurologix hopes to avoid them by targeting the viruses only at those cells that need repairing. The firm has a treatment for Parkinson's disease in clinical testing now, with versions for Huntington's, epilepsy, and depression in the wings.
Companies looking to spur the growth of new brain cells—a feat that until recently most scientists believed was impossible—include Seattle-based Sound Pharmaceuticals, which has restored hearing in mice by blocking a protein that keeps cells from growing, so that the mice grow new auditory sensory cells. "We've seen some neuronal generation, too," says Sound CEO Jonathan Kil. Other firms are promoting neuron regeneration to boost cognition and combat senility, while others are working to restore the white-matter cells that are savaged by Alzhei-mer's and other diseases. Stem cells—sort of generic proto-cells that can be coaxed into maturing into any specific type of cell—have also been employed to replace damaged neurons, with some encouraging results. Anders Haegerstrand, chief scientific officer of Stockholm-based Neuro-Nova, predicts his company will have a stem-cell-based Parkinson's treatment on the market by 2013. "I wouldn't dare speak of a human cure for the disease," he says, "but we've cured it in many monkeys."
We won't necessarily have to turn to these more radical therapies to sharpen our thinking. The genetic and other new scientific insights into the brain are also helping to point the way to new drugs targeted at brain disorders—drugs that may also end up being taken as smart drugs by many of us without serious disorders. About one in five clinical drug trials currently underway address brain-related illnesses, including some 300 drugs for Alzheimer's alone—and at least 40 of these candidate drugs have the potential to end up as IQ- or memory-boosting drugs. Among the many small companies that have sprung up to focus on such brain-tuners are CoMentis, a South San Francisco firm trying to develop a drug that offers the mind-sharpening effects of nicotine without its addictive and other unhealthy aspects; San Diego–based Helicon Therapeutics, which is working with a protein that links short- and long-term memories; and San Diego–based Ceregene, which is looking at injectable viruses that activate invigorating "nerve growth factors" in brain cells. Accera in Broomfield, Colorado, already markets an FDA-approved, prescription-only "medical food" designed to get extra energy to brain cells, and it has been shown in studies to slight-ly boost cognitive test scores for some Alzheimer's sufferers and others. "The scores start improving within 30 minutes of drinking it," boasts Accera CEO Steve Orndorff.
The lineup of drugs is likely to lengthen rapidly in the coming years as new discoveries spill out of the lab. In just the past year researchers have found that a protein known as "death receptor 6," which plays a role in the normal development and selective "pruning" of brain and other cells, also appears to wreak wholesale havoc in the brains of those suffering from Alzheimer's and other disorders, causing brain cells to essentially commit suicide. Chemicals that block DR6 have already shown promise in the lab as a way of preserving cognition and memory by interrupting the chemical signals that appear to trigger the mass suicides. The biotech company Genentech in South San Francisco has already achieved some success with DR6 blockers in slowing brain disease in mice, and may be ready to start human trials next year. In theory, such blockers might also eventually prove useful in slowing memory loss and confusion even in normal aging brains. Other research has turned up molecules in the brain that appear to be critical for forming memories, and studies have shown that injecting these chemicals into brains can improve memory in mice. Labs have even demonstrated drugs that block memories, a technique that could in theory restore and sharpen minds by helping to selectively erase traumatic and distracting thoughts—an idea that seemed farfetched when fictionally showcased in the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. "It would be great to have this sort of drug in the toolbox for working with traumatic memories that don't respond to other techniques," says Naomi Mael Litrownik, a Needham, Massachusetts, therapist who works with traumatized patients.
Some of the most striking results in altering brain function have come not from genomic science as much as from advanced imaging techniques, which give scientists a view of how the brain functions. Until about five years ago, scientists were sure higher intelligence was mostly seated in the front section of the outer layer of the brain, but now it's clear that the sides and back of this "gray matter" contribute as well—in fact, the more gray matter a person has anywhere in the skull, the higher his or her IQ is likely to be, as a rough rule. The amount and quality of the "white matter" underneath, which harbors the physical connections between brain cells, are linked to intelligence as well. Knowing this brain structure in detail has allowed scientists to experiment with applying electric signals directly to various parts of the brain via implanted wires and devices. Neuro-Nexus, for in-stance, hopes to improve its spinal-cord chip therapy by enabling doctors to adjust, via trial and error, which of thousands of nodes on the chip are activated, fine-tuning patient response as different brain cells get juiced. Such deep-brain stimulation has not only been shown to smooth tremors and fend off seizures, but has also in many cases been associated with cognitive and personality changes, holding out the possibility that mental acuity and mood could someday be fine-tuned as well. It may not even require brain surgery, notes Will Rosellini, CEO of MicroTransponder, a Dallas startup that's on the way to bringing to market a device that stimulates the vagus nerve in the neck. "It's a way of reprogramming the cortex from outside the brain, and some of the results are very exciting," he says.
Many of these experimental drugs and treatments are likely to wash out due to side effects, and even if they don't, government regulators aren't likely to approve their use for anyone who doesn't suffer from a serious disorder. Some researchers are hoping to develop more natural methods that could have the same IQ-boosting effect in healthy people as drugs and other treatments. The adult brain has turned out to have a surprising ability to extensively reconfigure its connections through mental exercises. Most of us have parts of our brains that are relatively neglected, says Daniel Siegel, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School, and we can restore them by techniques such as focusing on nonverbal cues when we're conversing with other people, being more aware of what we're thinking, and easing up on the multitasking. "When you do several things at once you tend to do them on autopilot, and fail to engage the parts of the brain that form strong neural connections," explains Siegel. For many people, however, the temptation of neuroenhancers may be hard to resist. The ethical dilemma it poses is a side effect of our new knowledge of the cell.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Science Can't Explain Why Women Sleep Around
Science Still Cannot Explain Why Women Sleep Around
A study published today in Science details a series of careful experiments Swedish researchers conducted on mating seed beetles (pictured). They want to find out what the benefits were to females who mated with multiple males, given that multiple matings could be dangerous to their health for a variety of reasons. The accepted wisdom is that females mate with many men because they can choose which sperm fertilize their eggs after mating. Basically, more men equals a bigger and better smorgasbord to choose from in the genetics department.
If this hypothesis were true, females would always choose sperm from the fittest males to fertilize their eggs. But they didn't. If you measure male fitness as the ability to produce a great number of offspring who themselves produce a great number of offspring, then the fittest males always lost. Inevitably, the females chose sperm from unfit males.
Why would these insects have sex with so many different men, only to choose the crappiest sperm? The researchers admit that they are baffled. Their experiment was only intended to determine whether females favored sperm from fit males – not to plumb the depths of the psychology behind female insect promiscuity.
However, what these Swedish researchers have done is eliminate one possible reason why female insects mate with multiple males. They're not doing it because of genetic benefits that come from the males. They are not picking sperm that have direct or indirect benefits on their offspring, as far as the researchers could tell. Though they do float the possibility that these females may be choosing sperm that are beneficial exclusively to female offspring. In other words, genes that make fathers fit may not make daughters who are fit.
According to researcher Göran Arnqvist:
The results support the suggestion that genes that are good for males may often be bad for their mates. Therefore, in beetles at least, multiple mating does not award females with genetic benefits.
So if multiple mating does not award females with genetic benefits, what exactly does it award them with? Is it possible that they're sleeping around just for fun?
via Science and Uppsala University
Buzz Aldrin & Snoop push it to the outer limits
Buzz Aldrin and Snoop Dogg reach for the stars with Rocket Experience
Snoop Dogg describes Buzz Aldrin's rapping skills as 'hot'
new chemicals to avoid
as if we needed MORE! here's a new release from the happy state of california
Male Reproductive Toxicants
1. n-Butyl glycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins with a number of uses in common products
2. Carbaryl, a household pesticide used to kill a range of insects, and sold as Sevin by GardenTech and Bayer (also a developmental toxicant)
3. 2-Chloropropionic acid, a chemical used to make herbicides
4. Dichloroacetic acid, which forms in drinking water as a byproduct of disinfection using chlorine
5. Diglycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins
6. Ethylene oxide, a chemical mainly used in the manufacturing of chemicals like antifreeze and polyester (also a developmental toxicant)
7. Ethyl-tert-butyl ether, a common gasoline additive
8. Methyl chloride, a chemical used primarily to make silicone polymers, but also used in other processes, including the oil refining
9. Methyl n-butyl ketone, an industrial solvent
10. Phenyl glycidyl ether, an industrial chemical
11. 1,3,5-Triglycidyl-s-triazinetrione, a constituent of some paints
12. 4-Vinyl-cyclohexene, a chemical used in the production of epoxy resins (also a female reproductive toxicant)
Carcinogens
1. Amsacrine, a chemotherapy drug
2. Bleomycins, antibiotics used in chemotherapy treatments
3. Chlorophenoxy herbicides, including 2,4-D, are common weedkillers sold for lawn and garden use
4. Marine diesel fuel
5. Progestins, synthetic hormones found in some birth controls
6. Styrene, an ingredient in many plastic and foam products
7. Toxins derived from Fusarium moniliforme (Fusarium verticillioides), a fungus
8. Vinyl acetate, a compound used to make polymers used in plastics, films, lacquers, adhesives, inks, water-based emulsion paints, floor tiling, safety glasses, cosmetics and personal care products and other goods
9. Wood dust
10. Zalcitabine, an HIV drug sold as Hivid
11. Zidovudine (AZT), an HIV drug
Developmental Toxicants
1. Tert-Amyl methyl ether, a common fuel additive
2. Carbaryl, a household pesticide used to kill a range of insects, and sold as Sevin by GardenTech and Bayer (also a male reproductive toxicant)
3. Chloroform, which is used in the manufacturing of other chemicals, and which can form in drinking water as a byproduct of disinfection using chlorine
4. N,N-dimethylacetamide, a solvent used in industries ranging from fibers and adhesives to pharmaceuticals and plasticizers
5. Ethylene oxide, a chemical mainly used in the manufacturing of chemicals like antifreeze and polyester (also a male reproductive toxicant)
6. 2-Ethylhexanoic acid, a chemical associated with phthalates and PVC plastics
7. p,p’-Oxybis (benzenesulfonyl hydrazide), an industrial chemical
8. Phenylphosphine, an industrial chemical
Female Reproductive Toxicants
1. Toluene, a constituent of oil, is found in gasoline and is used to make paints, paint thinners, fingernail polish, lacquers, adhesives and rubber
2. 4-Vinyl-cyclohexene, a chemical used in the production of epoxy resins (also a male reproductive toxicant)
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/toxic-chemicals-47061601#ixzz0LxPyRLKZ
Buzz up!
California, the state with the nation's most strict chemical reporting laws, is poised to identify another 30 chemicals that could cause cancer or reproductive and developmental health problems, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which led a coalition of labor and environmental groups seeking greater protection from suspect chemicals.
The newly listed chemicals are being made public as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature, facing a budget crisis, plan to dissolve the office that tests chemicals.
They include several chemicals that people are likely to come into contact with -- including household weed killers and insecticides, and gasoline additives; as well as many industrial chemicals used to manufacture plastics, adhesives, other chemicals and a variety of other products.
Below is a list of the newly listed chemicals, how each is used, and the health issue California researchers associated with it. The grim accounting: 12 compounds that may harm the male reproductive system; 11 that may cause cancer; eight that may interfere with the normal development of fetuses, babies and children; and two that may harm the female reproductive system. (Note: Chemicals are listed twice if they have effects on more than one body system.)
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/toxic-chemicals-47061601
Male Reproductive Toxicants
1. n-Butyl glycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins with a number of uses in common products
2. Carbaryl, a household pesticide used to kill a range of insects, and sold as Sevin by GardenTech and Bayer (also a developmental toxicant)
3. 2-Chloropropionic acid, a chemical used to make herbicides
4. Dichloroacetic acid, which forms in drinking water as a byproduct of disinfection using chlorine
5. Diglycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins
6. Ethylene oxide, a chemical mainly used in the manufacturing of chemicals like antifreeze and polyester (also a developmental toxicant)
7. Ethyl-tert-butyl ether, a common gasoline additive
8. Methyl chloride, a chemical used primarily to make silicone polymers, but also used in other processes, including the oil refining
9. Methyl n-butyl ketone, an industrial solvent
10. Phenyl glycidyl ether, an industrial chemical
11. 1,3,5-Triglycidyl-s-triazinetrione, a constituent of some paints
12. 4-Vinyl-cyclohexene, a chemical used in the production of epoxy resins (also a female reproductive toxicant)
Carcinogens
1. Amsacrine, a chemotherapy drug
2. Bleomycins, antibiotics used in chemotherapy treatments
3. Chlorophenoxy herbicides, including 2,4-D, are common weedkillers sold for lawn and garden use
4. Marine diesel fuel
5. Progestins, synthetic hormones found in some birth controls
6. Styrene, an ingredient in many plastic and foam products
7. Toxins derived from Fusarium moniliforme (Fusarium verticillioides), a fungus
8. Vinyl acetate, a compound used to make polymers used in plastics, films, lacquers, adhesives, inks, water-based emulsion paints, floor tiling, safety glasses, cosmetics and personal care products and other goods
9. Wood dust
10. Zalcitabine, an HIV drug sold as Hivid
11. Zidovudine (AZT), an HIV drug
Developmental Toxicants
1. Tert-Amyl methyl ether, a common fuel additive
2. Carbaryl, a household pesticide used to kill a range of insects, and sold as Sevin by GardenTech and Bayer (also a male reproductive toxicant)
3. Chloroform, which is used in the manufacturing of other chemicals, and which can form in drinking water as a byproduct of disinfection using chlorine
4. N,N-dimethylacetamide, a solvent used in industries ranging from fibers and adhesives to pharmaceuticals and plasticizers
5. Ethylene oxide, a chemical mainly used in the manufacturing of chemicals like antifreeze and polyester (also a male reproductive toxicant)
6. 2-Ethylhexanoic acid, a chemical associated with phthalates and PVC plastics
7. p,p’-Oxybis (benzenesulfonyl hydrazide), an industrial chemical
8. Phenylphosphine, an industrial chemical
Female Reproductive Toxicants
1. Toluene, a constituent of oil, is found in gasoline and is used to make paints, paint thinners, fingernail polish, lacquers, adhesives and rubber
2. 4-Vinyl-cyclohexene, a chemical used in the production of epoxy resins (also a male reproductive toxicant)
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/toxic-chemicals-47061601#ixzz0LxPyRLKZ
Buzz up!
California, the state with the nation's most strict chemical reporting laws, is poised to identify another 30 chemicals that could cause cancer or reproductive and developmental health problems, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which led a coalition of labor and environmental groups seeking greater protection from suspect chemicals.
The newly listed chemicals are being made public as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature, facing a budget crisis, plan to dissolve the office that tests chemicals.
They include several chemicals that people are likely to come into contact with -- including household weed killers and insecticides, and gasoline additives; as well as many industrial chemicals used to manufacture plastics, adhesives, other chemicals and a variety of other products.
Below is a list of the newly listed chemicals, how each is used, and the health issue California researchers associated with it. The grim accounting: 12 compounds that may harm the male reproductive system; 11 that may cause cancer; eight that may interfere with the normal development of fetuses, babies and children; and two that may harm the female reproductive system. (Note: Chemicals are listed twice if they have effects on more than one body system.)
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/toxic-chemicals-47061601
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Matter & Beyond - metaphysics
this is ill to think about
consciousness doesn't have particulate matter, but we know it exists...
thanks khari
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Further Justice for Oscar Grant
Mehserle judge rules some testimony hearsay
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | 12:22 PM
OAKLAND, CA -- An Alameda County Superior Court judge said today he won't allow witnesses to testify that they overheard former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle mention using his Taser stun gun before he fatally shot Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day.
At least one witness for the defense in Mehserle's preliminary hearing on a murder charge was expected to testify that Mehserle said he planned to use a Taser on Grant.
The defense has contended that Mehserle, 27, meant to fire his Taser gun when he shot and killed 22-year-old Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station.
Mehserle's attorney, Michael Rains, said this morning the testimony should be admissible because it would help show Mehserle's state of mind at the time of the shooting.
However, Judge C. Don Clay decided not to allow the testimony, concluding that it would amount to hearsay.
Clay also opted to allow the defense to present a short segment of slow-motion video of the interaction between Grant and the BART officers just before the shooting.
The defense claims the enhanced video will show that Grant was resisting the officers. The prosecution contends Grant was cooperative.
The shooting occurred after Mehserle and other officers were called to the Fruitvale station to respond to reports of a fight on a train.
Mehserle's partner, Officer Jon Woffinden, began testifying last week and was being cross-examined this morning. BART Officer Tony Pirone is expected to testify later today.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Before you judge my gold grill...
Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists
May 18, 2009—The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.
Ancient peoples of southern North America went to "dentists"—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (such as the skull above, found in Chiapas, Mexico).
Scientists don't know the origin of most of the teeth in the collections, which belonged to people living throughout the region, called Mesoamerica, before the Spanish conquests of the 1500s.
But it's clear that people—mostly men—from nearly all walks of life opted for the look, noted José Concepción Jiménez, an anthropologist at the institute, which recently announced the findings.
"They were not marks of social class" but instead meant for pure decoration, he commented in an e-mail interview conducted in Spanish.
In fact, the royals of the day—such as the Red Queen, a Maya mummy found in a temple at Palenque in what is now Mexico—don't have teeth decorations, Jiménez said.
Other evidence of early Mesoamerican dentistry—including a person who had received a ceremonial denture—has also been found.
Knowledgeable Dentists
The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone.
"It's possible some type of [herb based] anesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain," Jiménez said.
The ornamental stones—including jade—were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, such as plant sap, which was mixed with other chemicals and crushed bones, Jiménez said.
The dentists likely had a sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy, Jiménez added. For example, they knew how to drill into teeth without hitting the pulp inside, he said.
"They didn't want to generate an infection or provoke the loss of a tooth or break a tooth."
—John Roach
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Girl Racer on Hamiltons tail!
Alice Powell on racing into the record books at Brands Hatch
A 16-year-old Oxfordshire girl has become the youngest person ever to compete in the Michelin Formula Renault UK Championships at Brands Hatch.
Alice Powell, who does not have even a provisional driving licence, raced for Lewis Hamilton's former team in the Formula Renault Championship.
She came 13th and 15th in her two races on Sunday.
The competition launched the careers of Formula One stars Hamilton and Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen.
Alice's ambition is to become the first successful female in Formula One racing and has said she wants to be a role model for girls entering motor sport.
A 16-year-old Oxfordshire girl has become the youngest person ever to compete in the Michelin Formula Renault UK Championships at Brands Hatch.
Alice Powell, who does not have even a provisional driving licence, raced for Lewis Hamilton's former team in the Formula Renault Championship.
She came 13th and 15th in her two races on Sunday.
The competition launched the careers of Formula One stars Hamilton and Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen.
Alice's ambition is to become the first successful female in Formula One racing and has said she wants to be a role model for girls entering motor sport.
I thank my grandma for keeping it alive with small notes in the mail
The slow death of handwriting
Christmas cards, shopping lists and what else? The occasions in which we write by hand are fewer and fewer, says Neil Hallows. So is the ancient art form of handwriting dying out?
A century from now, our handwriting may only be legible to experts.
For some, that is already the case. But writer Kitty Burns Florey says the art of handwriting is declining so fast that ordinary, joined-up script may become as hard to read as a medieval manuscript.
"When your great-great-grandchildren find that letter of yours in the attic, they'll have to take it to a specialist, an old guy at the library who would decipher the strange symbols for them," says Ms Florey, author of the newly-published Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting.
FAMOUS HANDWRITING
- King Henry VIII wrote this love letter to Anne Boleyn (pic: British Library)
She argues that children - if not this generation then one soon to come - may grow up using only a crude form of printing for the rare occasions in life they need to communicate by pen.
The way handwriting is taught has undoubtedly changed. At Ms Florey's school in 1950s America, a nun beat time with a stick as the class copied letters from the blackboard. It was not a place for individuals. There was a right way to form letters and very many wrong ways.
For much of the last century British schools ran in a similar way. At my primary school in the 1970s, whole classes were devoted to work being "written up for best" and I remember a story coming back unmarked because I had crossed out a single word. I wonder what my teachers would have made of a James Joyce manuscript.
Crossing 7s
Many found the experience tedious, but for left-handers it could be torture. Often they were forced to write with their right, while their "bad" hand was tied down.
More than a century of children turning out letters by the yard produced a great conformity. In the 1940s Ealing drama, Went The Day Well?, a contingent of German soldiers sets up camp in the English countryside, disguised as Royal Engineers. One reason they get rumbled is that a soldier writes a "7" with a line through it. "Why should they form their figures in a continental way?" a villager asks.
 |  If everything we do still had to be done by hand, there would not be enough hours in the day 
Registrar Ruth Hodson 
|
These days, the shape of a child's ovals, loops and slants matters less than what they write. "Content is everything," says Mark Brown, head teacher of St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Axminster, Devon. "The emphasis is much more on having a go, and expressing yourself, and getting the ideas down."
He says letter formation is still taught in the early years of primary school, but the appearance of handwriting takes less of a priority as children get older, provided it remains legible.
Some parents expect handwriting to be drilled in the same way as they experienced themselves, but Mr Brown argues the content of children's writing has significantly improved as a result of the change in emphasis, and that they write far more at school than they will as adults.
Scrawling
So once we leave school, does it really matter? Apart from the odd shopping list, do people still need to use a pen?
Some do. Registrars of births, deaths and marriages have been recording life's significant events in their usually impeccable writing since 1837.
 Writer's hand: Not a word crossed out in this instance of Neil Hallows' writing |
"All registrars are conscious that they follow a long and noble tradition," says Ruth Hodson, interim registration manager for Peterborough City Council.
But even their fountain pens will soon barely be heard scratching on the registers. Under a modernisation programme, an increasing amount of the information is being entered directly on to a computer.
Ms Hodson is unsentimental. "If everything we do still had to be done by hand, there would not be enough hours in the day."
But perhaps handwriting gains its greatest importance when it is least legible. The reputation of doctors for scrawling was enhanced by a study in the British Medical Journal which found medics' writing was considerably worse than other healthcare workers or administrative staff. Poor writing has often been blamed for medication errors.
Gwyn Williams, a junior doctor in Carmarthen, says that despite technological advances, a great deal of clinical communication is still handwritten.
 Remember this? |
"We have to write so much, on so many occasions, with the clock ticking. The end result is so difficult to interpret that even I have to concentrate on occasions to work out what [I have written].
"There doesn't seem to be any other logical way of doing it. Typing clinical notes on a computer seems so cumbersome in the limited time available that I can't see how it would work."
In many jobs though, a person can go for months, even years, writing only the odd phone message in their own script.
Nevertheless, some employers still ask for a handwritten application, or a sample of writing, although the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development warns employers they need to be clear about the reason for that, to avoid accusations of discrimination.
10-page letters
There are those who see handwriting's slip in educational priority and increasingly eccentric role in the workplace as evidence that, in the West at least, we are forgetting an ancient art form.
A panic, perhaps, and one witnessed every time the dominant style of writing changed or a new form of technology seemed to threaten it. An early typewriter led the Scientific American in 1867 to marvel that "the weary process of learning penmanship in schools will be reduced to [writing] one's own signature and playing on the literary piano".
| Maybe a couple of times a week [pupils] could produce something handwritten that is judged partly on its legibility, or even its beauty
Kitty Burns Florey |
But look at the decline in letter writing. The students I knew two decades ago who knocked out 10-page letters during a morning in bed have probably not yet written 10 pages of handwritten prose of any kind this year.
For Ms Florey, the answer should start in the classroom. Not a return to the nuns with sticks, but for children to value handwriting by learning a simple, legible, attractive script from the start - in her view a form of italic - and then keep reinforcing it beyond the early years.
"Maybe a couple of times a week [pupils] could produce something handwritten that is judged partly on its legibility, or even its beauty."
Adults too can improve their writing, in a matter of weeks with a textbook and expert advice. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has said that if he had not taken a calligraphy course at college, he would not have thought of putting multiple typefaces on the Mac.
Perhaps the best argument for keeping our pens is that otherwise, in a society that is recorded in more detail than any which came before it, we will leave plenty of data but very little of our personalities behind.
Our descendants may struggle to read our letters, but they'll never even see most of our texts and e-mails.
| SHOW US YOUR HANDWRITING  1. Here are three examples of handwriting, courtesy of the Magazine team (in ascending order of readability) 2. We've written the pangram: "How quickly daft jumping zebras vex" and underneath our name and age 3. Now we want you to write the same sentence, with your name and age underneath 4. E-mail a picture or scan of your handwriting to yourpics@bbc.co.uk with the subject line "HANDWRITING", and we'll feature as many as possible next week |
It's Your Turn: Male Contraception
New male contraceptive injection appears effective
Updated Tue. May. 5 2009 1:11 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
An injection for men appears to be just as effective at preventing pregnancy as the birth control pill, finds new research that could revolutionize contraception.
In testing in China, only one man in 100 fathered a child while on the injections, the study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports.
The contraceptive is a form of testosterone that is injected into the buttocks once a month. It works by temporarily blocking sperm production.
Chinese researchers injected 1,045 healthy Chinese men aged 20 to 45 years with a 500 mg of testosterone undecanoate in oil, once a month for 24 months. All of the study participants had had at least one child and all their female partners, aged 18 and 38 years, also had normal reproductive function.
They found the contraceptive was almost 99 per cent effective, with a failure rate of only 1.1 per 100 men.
There were no serious side effected reported in any of the men, unlike previous studies on hormonal male contraceptive. Some of the side effects of those formulations have been mood swings and a lowered sex drive.
In all but two of the men in this study, reproductive function returned to normal range within six months of stopping the injections.
"For couples who cannot, or prefer not to use only female-oriented contraception, options have been limited to vasectomy, condom and withdrawal," said Dr. Yi-Qun Gu, of the National Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing, China.
"Our study shows a male hormonal contraceptive regimen may be a potential, novel and workable alternative."
It should be noted though that almost a third of the 1,045 men in the 30-month trial did not complete the study. No reason was given.
Gu says while the results of this trial are encouraging, more long-term testing needs to be done on the safety of the regimen, with a focus on cardiovascular, prostate and behavioral safety.
Gu said if further tests proved successful, the treatment could become widely available in five years.
**** right, so if you guys can't take minor mood swings and lowered sex drives, how do you think we feel, our list is longer.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Eminem is back (It's about time)
Eminem - We Made You from Black Sheep on Vimeo.
random thought: how come shit talking works for Em, but not the far more eloquent Chino XL?
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