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October 2007 Plenum News 2007 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2006 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Entire Year (minimal, early formats) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 You can write Comments or read the KeelyNet discussion list. Feel free to subscribe. Be aware in case any of these links don't respond, most will be available through the Wayback Machine, simply cut and paste the link to recall the 'lost' information. 10/30/07 - Creating Power out of Thin Air Syrdec is swinging for the fences when it comes to alternative energy. The Princeton, N.J.-based company is working on a material that, when combined with another substance, will generate electricity with ambient room heat, Andrew Surany, the company's president, told CNET News.com this week. Conceivably, one could take that material and fashion it into a passive fuel cell that can create power by just sitting in an ordinary room heated to about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to self-charging electronic devices. "It derives heat from the environment" and converts it to electricity, Surany said. "I'm talking about embedding cells into doors or the panels on a car. In a laptop, I am talking about embedding cells into the case." Theoretically, one could heat the material, too, to get better results. If you heated one square meter of the material to 100 degrees Celsius, or the boiling point of water, the material could absorb 1.2 kilojoules of heat energy. Converting 5 percent of that heat to electricity would give you enough energy to power a car, Surany asserted. So how does it work? Syrdec is trying to combine something called the Seebeck effect and the product of nuclear fusion. In the Seebeck effect, electric current can be generated from temperature differentials. Put metals or semiconductors near each other that exist in radically different energy states and you get power. It's not just theoretical: Germany's EnOcean, another energy-harvesting specialist, has come up with sensors that get power from the temperature differentials between the interaction material that makes up a pipe filled with hot gases and a material heated to room temperature. Now the nuclear fusion part: Syrdec says it understands a way to artificially alter the natural energy state of a particular undisclosed material. Instead of being in a "normal" energy state at room temperature, the altered material is in a normal energy state at, hypothetically, minus 40 degrees Celsius or colder. Thus, when this material is put into a room-temperature environment, it's excited. Put that next to a material with a much higher natural energy state and you get the Seebeck effect. Outlandish as it sounds, the CEA, the atomic energy agency of France, has already concocted a microgenerator that can produce electricity at ambient temperatures via the Seebeck effect. The thermoelectric generator in CEA's prototypes has an output of 4 milliwatts per centimeter square for every (Celsius) degree difference between the two materials. The India Institute of Science also has examined ways of generating power via the Seebeck effect with changes in pressure. - Source 10/30/07 - Heat Water through your Air Conditioner Inventors don't usually make housecalls, but for Philip Lee, his invention hopes to revolutionize how people live - one home at a time. Architect Mohammed Jaafar is one of these people. Lee has created a heat recovery system which channels waste heat from air conditioners to heat water. For Jaafar that means he and his family save energy and money while enjoying the cool comforts of air conditioning. The moment they turn on their air conditioner, the waste heat is harnessed. Within minutes, they have access to hot water, at no extra cost. For now, the small-scale production means the cost of the system runs high, as does the skepticism. “My wife said you're mad, it's just too costly, but i said i think this is going to be the trend, this is where we experiment, and be supportive of new ideas as coming on board,” says Jaafar. Singapore is less than two degrees from the equator, and its citizens are used to their air-conditioned lifestyle. In this urban maze, air conditioning units peer from virtually every high-rise home. The unit saves the owner, Seah How Chai, more than $250 a month on his electricity bills. “The machine is more than 10 years old, really old, but he was willing to give it a try. He said if he couldn't do it, he'd get me a new one,” says Seah. It’s still early days for his invention, but Lee says he's prepared to take on the skeptics, one person at a time. - Source 10/30/07 - Electricity From Waste Heat - Free From CO2 Emissions Electricity from waste heat - without the release of additional carbon dioxide. This conserves resources and saves money, benefits both climate and environment and provides fresh stimulus to the entire energy market. And it is exactly what has now been achieved by a German research company which had originally occupied itself with an entirely different but equally revolutionary technical process - generating drinking water from the air. "Our technology opens up a resource which has so far been unexploited - the moisture contained in the earth's atmosphere," is how Hubert Hamm, CEO of Aqua Society GmbH in Herten, Germany, explains his invention. "This process was originally used in the mining industry to cool the air below ground, where it produced condensation. We have now simply reversed the process: our equipment sucks in large amounts of air, cools it to the condensation point and in this way generates water which is then filtered and mineralized." This means that pure drinking water can be produced in any location where refrigeration or air conditioning is available. However, in order to reduce the energy costs involved in this water production the engineers at Aqua Society continued their researches and have now developed a system with which the waste heat created by the cooling process can be converted to electricity. Previously a large part of the heat energy created was simply allowed to escape into the air, which those who have a fridge or air conditioner experience for themselves every day. - Source 10/30/07 - Energy conscious construction Rensselaer has undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce our adverse environmental impact of which you should be aware. Rensselaer is actively taking the approach to reduce our energy usage, and at the same time, improve the quality of life for all students. By aligning our new construction projects with certifications exceed the norm, we are taking a major step in transforming our campus. Not only has administration supported these types of environmental goals, but many students have also. The Student Union will soon be undergoing a change on the third floor, where all the garbage receptacles will be removed and placed with multipurpose trash and recycling centers. The amount of garbage, from the Union, measured by weight, is approximately 50 percent paper, and we are looking to decrease that amount by as much as possible. Also, many off-campus groups and organizations including fraternities and sororities have begun to use fluorescent bulbs instead of the less energy-efficient incandescent bulbs. Many greek houses have also decided to use motion-activated light switches, further reducing our energy consumption. These changes, especially for the owners of these houses, have led to major decreases in operating costs and expenses. - Source 10/30/07 - The Patent Act is a Cheat on Americans When displaced American workers complain about outsourcing U.S. manufacturing jobs to take advantage of cheap Chinese factory labor, and about using low-paid Asians here on H-1B visas to take engineering and computer jobs, the globalists and multinational corporations have a ready answer. They recite in chorus: Don't worry, be happy, because American technology and innovation enable us to compete in the global market. But now those same globalists and multinationals are trying to outsource our technology and innovation advantage by delivering a body blow to our patent system. This plan comes under the deceptive label Patent "Reform" Act (H.R. 1908), and it's already been rushed through the U.S. House. A combination of foreigners who make a business of stealing our intellectual property, and the multinationals who want to avoid paying royalties to small inventors, have ganged up to get Congress to do their bidding. The battle is going on behind closed doors between the corporations with highly paid lobbyists vs. the small inventors and businesses who produce 40 percent of U.S. innovation. Item No. 1: The Patent "Reform" Act would change the rule for granting patents from the American first-to-invent requirement to the foreign procedure called first-to-file. This provision is arguably unconstitutional: The U.S. Constitution protects the ownership "right" for inventors, not filers. / Item No. 2: The Act would make it mandatory for the U.S. Patent Office to publish (i.e., post on the Internet) all inventions 18 months after date of application, thereby repealing the option now used by 37 percent of American inventors to prevent publication by agreeing not to file in foreign countries. / Item No. 3: The act would create post-grant review, a process that would enable patent infringers to challenge the validity of a patent after it is issued without going to court, thereby making the inventor's ownership vulnerable and reducing his ability to attract venture capital to produce it. The big winners would be the multinationals with lots of lawyers. / Item No. 4: The act would reduce the damages that a judge and jury can award to an inventor after proof that his invention has been stolen or infringed. Again, the winners would be the multinationals with big legal departments and deep pockets. / Item No. 5: The act would weaken protections under U.S. trade laws that prevent foreign pirates from exporting their products made with stolen intellectual property into the United States. The result would be a perverse incentive to export our technology and jobs to foreign countries. - Source 10/30/07 - Hand generator reaches 95 per cent Following on from the small generator that we described in the March 2007 edition of Eureka, which we then said was “nearly 90 per cent efficient”, the team developing it for use in Third World companies has now reached 95 per cent efficiency. Alexander Bushell, technical director of New Universal Products described the present generator as, “Modified heavily, in fact it is completely different”. The Uhuru Generator as it is now designated, measures 160mm wide by 150mm deep and 150mm high and acts both as a “Multi-functional power supply unit and an independent power generation system”. Bushell said that one power centre can be configured to power up to 20 2W “$100” laptops or power up to 30 LED spotlights. He was hand cranking it up and showing it able to power 10 such lamps at the British Invention Show. He said it produced 30W at present, “But we are hoping for 40W. We could take it up to 100W”. As well as having its hand cranked generator, it can also regulate other power inputs including solar photovoltaic panels and small wind turbines. In addition, it can be fitted with its own internal back-up battery. - Source 10/30/07 - Patent for Powerline Communications Systems Arkados (OTC BB: AKDS), known as ?the HomePlug® Applications Company,? announced today that it has been awarded a United States patent titled ?Coupling between Powerline and Customer in Powerline Communication Systems.? The US Patent Office awarded patent number 7,286,812 on October 23, 2007. "This invention offers an elegant and non-obtrusive way for utility companies or service providers to connect in-home powerline networks to communications signals running on the power grid," said Oleg Logvinov, president and CEO of Arkados. "This important award adds to the Portfolio of patents that Arkados has developed for the powerline communications industry. We are pleased that the Arkados patent portfolio continues to keep Arkados on the cutting edge of digital home technology." A powerline communications (PLC) network on a utility company?s medium-voltage power grid can send data to homes and businesses. Likewise, PLC devices in the home can be used for networking, entertainment, surveillance and other applications, and may access services from the utility company. The problem is routing the signals past a power transformer that was not designed for communication applications. The Arkados invention is focused on the way of coupling and offers a low-cost alternative for installation of powerline communications connections between the medium-voltage outdoor powerline distribution networks, and the low-voltage electrical wiring inside the home of a consumer. The invention also may help to simplify installations because the device uses inductive coupling and is designed to simply clamp onto the medium voltage wire. Therefore, installation requires no power shut-off, and does not expose the installer to dangerous voltages. The device can also be used to couple PLC signals around power meters or other such devices. Arkados silicon and SOFTWARE provides a number of solutions for whole-house synchronized audio, distributed video, and a host of other products for the digital home. More information can be found at http://www.arkados.com/products.html. - Source 10/30/07 - New Theory for Mass Extinction is Offered University of Southern California doctoral student Catherine Powers said stresses such as volcanic eruptions and global warming were the likely causes of a slow decline in the diversity of some common marine organisms. The study by Powers and Professor David Bottjer suggests the decline began millions of years before the disappearance of 90 percent of Earth's species at the end of the Permian era. The study also found organisms in the deep ocean started dying first, followed by those on ocean shelves and reefs, and finally those living near shore. Something has to be coming from the deep ocean, Powers said. Something has to be coming up the water column and killing these organisms. She and Bottj said they believe hydrogen sulfide might have been the culprit. They said previous studies, combined with their new data, support a model attributing the extinction to enormous volcanic eruptions that released carbon dioxide and methane, triggering rapid global warming. - Source 10/30/07 - Red Meat and Alcohol Increase Cancer Risk It's well documented that eating too much red meat and drinking too much alcohol can increase the risk of developing cancer. But, according to a new study carried out by a group of 21 international researchers, eating red meat and drinking alcohol even in small quantities could cause cancer. - Source 10/30/07 - The popular image of Gandhi is a myth Gandhi is idolized by people of all political stripes around the world, and his life is popularly considered a model for the American Civil Rights Movement. U.S. Senator Harry Reid called Gandhi “a giant in morality.” Former U.S president Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a “National Day of Recognition for Mohandas K. Gandhi.” South African leader Nelson Mandela called Gandhi “the archetypal anticolonial revolutionary” whose “nonviolent resistance inspired anticolonial and antiracist movements.” African-American Senator Obama reportedly keeps a picture of Gandhi in his office. Martin Luther King, Jr. associated Gandhi with the African-American struggle against inequality, segregation, and racism. Reverend King believed Gandhi was “inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward...peace and harmony.” When the Indian government paid to place a statue of Gandhi at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta, Mrs. King spoke about her husband's admiration for Gandhi, saying, “It is gratifying and appropriate that this statue is installed in this historic site.” Unfortunately, these people were never acquainted with the real, historical Mohandas Gandhi, who was a virulent racist. - Source 10/30/07 - Weary of Highway Bribery, Russians Take On the Police Kirill Formanchuk, like almost everyone who drives in Russia, was used to being pulled over by the police and cited for seemingly trumped up infractions. Yet instead of resigning himself to paying a bribe, he turned traffic stops into roadside tribunals, interrogating officers about their grasp of the law, recording the events and filing formal complaints about them. Motorists’ groups have held demonstrations against the police in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, and an Internet posting in support of Mr. Formanchuk has received nearly 200,000 hits from around the country. Even the national television networks, which are under the Kremlin’s control and tend to ignore news that reflects poorly on the government, have begun to focus on what happened to Mr. Formanchuk on the night of Oct. 12 in an isolated jail cell. One channel called his treatment “outrageous.” The affair, echoing the anger that erupted after the Rodney King case in the United States, suggests that resentment toward police misconduct is so widespread that the Russian government senses that it cannot immediately clamp down on the protests, as it usually does with the political opposition. - Source 10/30/07 - Battery Powered Tram Charges in 60 Seconds A new streetcar, powered by lithium battery, has been invented by the Railway Technical Research Institute in Kokubunji, Tokyo. The new transport is capable of speeds of 40 kph for 15 kilometers and can convert 70 percent of its deceleration energy into electricity which is then sent back to the battery which can recharge in under one minute. - Source 10/30/07 - Many States Seen Facing Water Shortages An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. Across America, the picture is critically clear - the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst. The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess. The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years. "Unfortunately, there's just not going to be any more cheap water," said Randy Brown, Pompano Beach's utilities director. It's not just America's problem - it's global. - Source 10/30/07 - Another Look at 1930's Cyclogyro Plane Design "Cyclogyros have the potential to be highly maneuverable flying robots due to their method of operation, making them potentially more suitable for complex tasks than helicopters and other micro air vehicles (MAVs) with less maneuverability. The biggest challenge in designing the cyclogyros is varying the angle of attack of the rotating wings. This ability would enable the plan to change altitude, hover, and fly in reverse. To achieve this quick angle variation, the researchers introduced an eccentric (rotational) point in addition to a rotational point connected to a motor." - Source 10/30/07 - Cash windfall can lead to downfall Roughly one-third of lottery winners find themselves in serious financial trouble or bankrupt within five years of turning in their lucky numbers, according to Chelmsford wealth counselor Szifra Birke. “For many people who come into wealth suddenly - whether they win the lottery, receive an insurance settlement or an unexpected inheritance - if they have not acquired good money skills prior to this windfall, often they struggle and make poor choices,” Birke said. - Source 10/28/07 - Medicinal clays may heal ulcers Plenty of clays are already on the market, touted as cures for various ailments. But few have any clinical data to back them up. That began to change five years ago when the late French humanitarian worker Line Brunet de Courssou reported that a French clay called Agricur was effective against the flesh-eating disease Buruli ulcer in Africa's Ivory Coast. Now an interdisciplinary team of microbiologists and mineralogists is trying to figure out exactly how the clay cures. "They would mix clay with water and make a paste and put it on the horrible wounds," says clay mineral researcher Associate Professor Lynda Williams of Arizona State University. When daily applications of the clay caused too much pain and appeared not to help, another French clay was used. "It was the second clay that killed [the bacteria], although the clays are mineralogically identical," Williams says. The researchers used several different clays, including sterile sand and the French clay used in the Ivory Coast, to see how well they killed a broad spectrum of bacteria. Several different kinds of well-known, dangerous bacteria - Salmonella typhimurium, Streptococcus sp, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas stutzeri - were exposed to the clays. "We found that bacterial cultures lost 90-99% of viability within 24 hours of exposure to the French Agricur clays," reports US Geological Survey researcher David Metge, who collaborated with Williams, Haydel and others. "These results contrasted to only 10-40% of reduced viability caused by other clays or sterile sand." clay therapy is reported to have cured more than 50 cases of Buruli ulcer to date, the team reports. "It not only stops the infection, but allows the body to regenerate tissues," says Giese. "The Holy Grail in all this is if you could figure this out, it opens up a whole new world of fighting pathogenic bacteria." Clays have long been used for stomach aches, paper processing, sealing wells and other applications. - Source 10/28/07 - Is Bush Psychotic? Forget impeachment. Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment. Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war. That would be with Iran, and you'd have to be deaf not to hear the war drums. Why would he do such a thing? Why not? They have nothing to lose -- they're out of office in 15 months anyway. - Source / Bunker Buster - Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran. The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP. The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders." - Source 10/28/07 - How U.S. gasoline is priced U.S. crude oil prices hit a record high above $92 a barrel on Friday, closing in on the inflation-adjusted high of $101.70 seen in 1980 in the wake of the Iranian revolution. But the rising costs have yet to fully filter through to U.S. consumers at the pumps. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week, national average retail gasoline prices of around $2.82 per gallon could have another 20 cents to climb before catching up to the surge in crude. Here's how a gallon of gasoline was priced in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Energy: Crude oil 53 percent / Federal and state taxes 19 percent / Refining and refiner profits 19 percent / Distribution, marketing, retail dealer costs 9 percent. - Source 10/28/07 - Biofuels 'crime against humanity' The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger. The growth in the production of biofuels has helped to push the price of some crops to record levels. The growth in the production of biofuels has been driven, in part, by the desire to find less environmentally-damaging alternatives to oil. The United States is also keen to reduce its reliance on oil imported from politically unstable regions. But the trend has contributed to a sharp rise in food prices as farmers, particularly in the US, switch production from wheat and soya to corn, which is then turned into ethanol. Mr Ziegler is not alone in warning of the problem. The IMF last week voiced concern that the increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could have serious implications for the world's poor. - Source 10/28/07 - Australian Hybrid Scooter Has Front-Wheel Motor Steven Ambrose and Vishy Karri at Australia's University of Tasmania have developed a hybrid scooter that uses an electric motor attached DIRECTLY TO THE FRONT WHEEL. The front brake generates juice and puts it back into the batteries. The system cuts the scooter's fuel use by 35%. Best of all, it's designed so that a conventional scooter could be retrofitted with the system by a factory for about $730 extra. - Source 10/28/07 - Mythbusters Confirm Drafting Improves Fuel Economy In the past, OmniNerd addressed a variety of techniques for saving fuel in the article "Improve MPG: The Factors Affecting Fuel Efficiency." One of those factors included the fuel saving effects of drafting tractor trailers, a dangerous practice. Going beyond the speculative mathematics of fluid dynamics equations, the Mythbusters demonstrated the principle scientifically in episode #80, confirming the improvements to fuel economy. Using a NASA wind tunnel, the Mythbusters used scale models to demonstrate wind resistance was reduced up to 93% (with a dangerously close simulation of a ten foot following distance). Following the wind tunnel experiment, the Mythbusters hooked a computer directly to the fuel injectors and tailed a truck in a controlled environment, demonstrating gains of 20-40% in fuel efficiency. - Source 10/28/07 - high power TVBGone [bladdo] wrote in to tell me that she put together an extra powerful kit version of the TVBgone. This one's supposed to be good for over 100 feet. If you really, really want to get your ass kicked during the super bowl, this baby in a sports bar should do the trick. There's an optional programming header, so you could program it to turn every TV onto the SciFi channel. - Source 10/28/07 - Nissan Adds Robot Helper To Its Concept Car "Nissan has mounted a robot passenger in the dashboard of its Pivo2 concept car whose job is to keep the driver happy, give spot-on directions, and even check your e-mail. 'We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always,' said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. 'This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'' Other features of this vehicle include a cabin that can turn through 360 degrees so you never have to worry about looking behind when you back up and wheels that can twist 90 degrees, eliminating the need to parallel park." - Source 10/28/07 - Using Old Medications to Defeat Tuberculosis "Antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is spreading like wildfire in the developing world. While many researchers are looking for new drugs to combat the disease, those efforts could take years to bear fruit. Meanwhile, two scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have learned how the drug clavulanate can destroy the defenses of tuberculosis, making it vulnerable to medications in the penicillin family. The best part: it has already been approved by the FDA so doctors can start using it immediately." - Source 10/28/07 - Failed futuristic predictions Here's a fine collection of 87 bad futuristic predictions from years gone by -- many of them are risible because of their skepticism (see the "telephones" section below), but I'm very fond of the optimistic ones, too, like "Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years" (Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955). # «This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.» A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876). # «The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.» Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878. # «It's a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?» Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. President, after a demonstration of Alexander Bell's telephone, 1876. # «A man has been arrested in New York for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires so that it will be heard by the listener at the other end. He calls this instrument a telephone. Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires.» News item in a New York newspaper, 1868. (via boingboing.net) - Source 10/28/07 - GPS Used As Defence In Radar Speeding Case "There is an article over at Ars Technica about an accused speeder contesting his speeding ticket based on his car's built-in GPS system's records. According to the article his car says he was going slower than the radar gun clocked him at. Contesting a ticket based on GPS data has never before been tested in court." - Source 10/28/07 - How-To: Introduction to soldering It's been a while since we've had a fresh How-To on the Hack-A-Day, and frankly we've missed them. To get things rolling, [Eliot] and I wanted to build a good knowledge base to help you hack your own stuff. I know that soldering won't be new to many of our readers, but everyone has to start sometime. Our hope is simple: that this new series of How-To's will help inspire new and experienced hackers alike. - Source 10/28/07 - Daily computer game boosts maths Playing a daily computer game has helped a class of primary school children improve their maths and concentration, a study says. The children played the game every day for 10 weeks with "dramatic" results. The 30 children from St Columba's primary school - all aged nine and 10 played Dr Kawashima's More Brain Training game on a Nintendo DS console every morning before lessons for about 15 minutes. The "game" is a collection of mini-games, such as number challenges, reading tests, problem-solving exercises and memory puzzles designed to exercise the brain by increasing blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex. Progress was compared to a school where 30 same-age pupils (from a similar socio-economic background) used a method called Brain Gym - a series of body exercises designed to increase brain activity and enhance learning - for three or four days a week over the 10-week assessment. and a control group which had no access to either Brain Gym or the DS game. All three groups were given a maths test at the start of the project and the same one again at the end. All groups had better scores after 10 weeks but the biggest improvement was in the Kawashima group, where the average score went up 10 points from 76/100 to 86/100. Children who had low scores in the first test did particularly well and one pupil with special needs jumped from 25 to 68/100. No-one dropped below 65/100. - Source 10/28/07 - Copwatch Documentary: These Streets Are Watching A great homespun documentary about the organization known as CopWatch. Lots of video footage from the organization's watchers, clips from news reports, etc. If you don't know already... (from the Wikipedia) The main function of most Copwatch groups is monitoring police activity. "Copwatchers" go out on foot or driving patrols in their communities and videotape interactions between the police and civilians. Some groups also patrol at protests and demonstrations to ensure that the rights of protesters are not violated by police officers. One Copwatch organization states that it has a policy of non-interference with the police, although this may not be true for all groups. Copwatch groups also hold "Know Your Rights" forums to educate the public about their legal and human rights when interacting with the police, and some groups organize events to highlight problems of police abuse in their communities. - Source 10/28/07 - Pentagon Robot Challenge Goes Corporate When the Pentagon's research arm first called for innovators to design and race a self-driving car to make warfare safer, a ragtag bunch of garage tinkerers, computer geeks and even high school students answered. No one won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's inaugural contest in 2004. An encore the following year produced five robots that crossed the finish line, and a team from Stanford University drove away with the $2 million prize. If yesteryear's contests evoked the Wild West, with teams working in the open desert on a shoestring budget, this year's is modern: The field is more savvy, the terrain is urban and corporate sponsors and public relations machines have entered the fray. - Source 10/26/07 - Buzzing Stops Fat Scientists have found a surprising way to turn off the process that creates fat cells - at least in mice. Results show growing mice exposed every day to a very slight vibration grew up leaner. The difference is that these mice are spending 15 minutes a day for 15 weeks being vibrated ever so slightly in a tub that rests on a platform that looks like a giant pizza box attached to electronics. The vibrations are very slight, so slight many people can't feel the vibration, only hear the hum. In tests at his lab at Stony Brook University lab, Rubin and his team showed that after the vibration regimen, the mice had 28 percent less fat in their torsos than another group of the same kind of mice who ate the same amount of food, and had the same amount of exercise. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rubin explained that the vibrations, "also reduced key risk factors in the onset of type II diabetes." Rubin explains that his interest is in how physical signals - outside influences of mechanical, electrical and thermal signals - can influence the body. What is noteworthy is how little vibration is needed to coax the stem cells in these growing mice to produce bone, instead of fat. Rubin says it's about, "one one-thousandth of the magnitude of a signal you might get while you're running." Rubin is quick to point out that they were not studying whether vibrations could burn any fat that's already present, but instead to inhibit production of new fat cells. He says that's important because, "If you never allow fat cells to be established, you can't get fat." - Source 10/26/07 - Harnessing the Power of the Sun - December 1930 DR. Georges Claude, brilliant French inventor, recently expended a million dollars and, after two unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in launching a mile long steel lube, some six feet in diameter, in the waters of the sea off Matanzas, Cuba. And most of the world is still wondering what he is trying to do. Seems strange to go down under the sea to capture the power of the sun, but if he succeeds in doing on a large scale what he has already demonstrated in a small way he may soon be generating enough power to run all Cuba, with a surplus to be exported by way of an undersea cable to Florida. The sun heats the surface ocean water in the tropics to temperatures as high as 28 degrees, Centigrade, while 400 meters down the sea is as cold as 4 degrees, Centigrade. If the two bodies at different temperatures could be brought together water could be boiled, in a partial vacuum, producing power equivalent to a 300-foot waterfall. In demonstrations before the Havana Academy of Science last year Dr. Claude showed that with the difference in temperature between ice at melting point and water at 68 degrees Fahrenheit-a difference ” of 36 degrees, sufficient vapor was released to run a small turbine at 5,000 r.p.m. Following the launching of the tube Prof. Claude announced that 4,000 cubic meters of deep sea water was being obtained each hour, at a temperature of 13 degrees Centigrade. The actual temperature at the lower end of the tube, 650 meters below the surface, was 10-1/2 degrees, so there was a temperature rise of only one and a half degrees as the cold water was brought up through the warmer layers above. In his power plant there is a huge tank filled with warm surface water. When the air in the tank is exhausted the water boils and provides the steam to operate the turbine driving the generator. The purpose of the cold water brought from the depths of the sea is simply to cool the exhaust steam at a rapid rate and so provide the vacuum to operate the air pump, which in turn exhausts the air from the warm water tank, and so converts the process into an endless chain. The present plant, with a 50 kilowatt generator, is only an experimental affair, and, if successful, probably will be abandoned in favor of a much larger one located at some other spot in Cuba. - Source 10/26/07 - Predict Your Baby's Gender Before Conception A man named Horatiu Terpe claims to have developed a tool called, "GenderClue" that will predict the sex of a baby before it has even been conceived. It's an algorithm based on a type of circadian cycle using the Father and the Mother's birth dates and displays the results in a calendar showing you what day to have sex on, to produce a boy (blue) or a girl (red). The beginning of a cycle has the highest probably of accuracy, while the end of a cycle has the lowest. The product's website says... The Y and X chromosomes (male and female) for each person have certain variations, different from each of the two chromosomes. The cycle of the two chromosomes start at birth. Genderclue's algorithm calculates the cycle for the Father and the Mother to be and compares the two cycles. Learn more about GenderClue here... http://www.genderclue.com - Source 10/26/07 - Electricity grid could become a type of Internet In the future everyone who is connected to the electricity grid will be able to upload and download packages of electricity to and from this network. At least, that is one of the transformations the electricity grid could undergo. Dutch researcher Jos Meeuwsen (Technical University Eindhoven) developed three scenarios for the Dutch electricity supply in the year 2050. The starting point is that in this year, 50% of the consumption will originate from sustainable sources. Three scenarios - Meeuwsen's three different scenarios for the future of the electricity grid mainly differ in the size of the electricity generation facilities. The scenario 'super networks' consists of large-scale production locations, transportation via high voltages, a considerable import of sustainable energy (in the form of biomass) and energy from offshore wind farms. The 'hybrid networks' scenario also includes large plants with high voltages that originate from offshore wind parks and large biomass stations. Additionally, small-scale generation takes place in and around cities and villages (wind, biomass and solar energy). Finally, in the 'local' scenario the number of local generators (in the form of micro-cogeneration units, solar energy panels, small-scale biomass plants at neighbourhood level and land-based wind turbines) is the greatest, yet large industrial processes and small consumers still make partly use of electricity from large-scale production resources. - Source 10/26/07 - Satellite photos hunt for Noah's Ark Three high-tech companies have joined technology in the search for evidence that a 980-foot-long feature on Turkey's Mt. Ararat might be what's left of Noah's Ark. The high-tech effort involves GeoEye, INTA Space Turk, along with the talents of Satellite Imaging Corporation. Satellite Imaging Corporation of Houston, Texas has created a 3D terrain model of the so-called "Mt. Ararat anomaly" -- making use of stereo IKONOS satellite image data to create a flyover of the site in remote northeastern Turkey. Porcher Taylor, an associate professor at the University of Richmond's School of Continuing Studies, has been at the forefront of utilizing Earth orbiting remote sensing spacecraft to study the Ararat Anomaly from space. "To be best of my knowledge, to date, only 2D satellite missions had been flown over the anomaly, not stereo missions," he explained in a press release. Taylor said GeoEye's IKONOS satellite serves as a "space-based Indiana Jones" over the anomaly. Furthermore, the GeoEye-1 - to be launched early next year - will make the controversial anomaly almost twice as visible due to that spacecraft's ultra-powerful 0.4 meter resolution. The purported anomaly lies surrounded by rugged strato-volcanic rock at the northwestern corner of Mt. Ararat’s western plateau. It sits mostly buried underneath a permanent glacier and drew attention because of its relatively smooth surface texture and unusual physical composition, according to some interpretations. The site occupied by the anomaly is located at 15,300 feet above sea level. - Source 10/26/07 - Human, animal parts assembly on horizon Topflight Mancunian scientists believe they will soon pioneer an improved technique for splicing together human nerves. This could offer a range of benefits, not least the ability to assemble huge, powerful bodies out of miscellaneous human parts and implanted brains harvested from condemned criminal maniacs. It seems that a team let by Dr Paul Kingham at the University of Manchester have found that they can grow nerve tissue using stem cells extracted from fat. They plan to join up nerve endings with a tube made of "biodegradable polymer" inside which their new cultured nerve tissue can grow, so creating a functioning nerve pathway. Once the nerve is strong enough, the tube will gradually dissolve away. Dr Kingham and his colleagues are playing down the Frankensteinian aspects of their research for some reason, preferring to focus on relatively humdrum stuff like reattaching severed limbs to their original owners. This could allow secretive government boffins bent on infiltrating wacky terrorist cells to swap people's living faces over, as in the film Face Off. Ultimately, assuming a suitably large stock of legs, arms, giblets, brains in bubbling jars etc., it ought to be feasible to custom-build complete Lurch-style butlers or other handy menials to order. Apparently the nerve-culturing caper has already been tried out with animals, raising the spectre of various chimerical creatures being put together out of random parts; or perhaps the addition of useful bits and pieces to humans. More adventurous ploys such as placing the brains of interesting, useful or valuable dead people in giant apes, boxing kangaroos and the like also spring to mind. Indeed, the long-sought monkey butler could finally be at hand. - Source 10/26/07 - Planners putting block on home green power plans A REVOLUTION in micro- energy schemes is being held back by costly red tape, campaigners said yesterday. Supporters and manufacturers of solar panels, micro-wind turbines and other renewable energy systems protested outside the Scottish Parliament yesterday, saying many people were put off installing them because of the complexity of the planning procedure and the cost. While the average cost for a standard planning application is £135, some councils can require householders to submit site- specific noise assessments and architects' drawings which increase the cost to nearly £1,000. Friends of the Earth Scotland, the Micropower Council and Association for the Conservation of Energy took part in yesterday's protest, calling on the Scottish Government to make micro-renewables "permitted development". Dave Sowden, of the Micropower Council, said: "The micropower industry has an important role in Scotland's fight against climate change. Planning rules put an unnecessary obstacle into the path of householders." The Labour MSP Sarah Boyack, who has put forward a member's bill to the parliament which would address many of the campaigners' concerns, said: "There are some daft rules here and we need to declutter the process." - Source 10/26/07 - Fossil link Mass Extinction Events with Climate Change Researchers at the Universities of York and Leeds have identified a close association between Earth's climate and mass extinction events in a study that examines the relationship between the two over the past 520 million years-almost the entire fossil record available. Matching data sets of marine and terrestrial diversity against temperature estimates, evidence shows that global biodiversity is relatively low during warm greenhouse phases and extinctions relatively high, while the reverse is true in cooler icehouse phases. - Source 10/26/07 - The hydrogen-powered motorbike that makes 'green' biking cool The Crosscage concept bike, due to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motorshow later this week, runs in complete silence and is powered by fuel cells developed by Loughborough-based technology firm Intelligent Energy. Intelligent Energy has provided the battery and electric propulsion system for the new motorbike, and the small hydrogen tank is located where the engine would normally be, underneath the rider. While details of the new concept bike have been kept strictly under wraps by Suzuki, the fact that the firm has chosen Intelligent Energy to develop its fuel cell engine gives some clues as to how the bike may work. In 2005 Intelligent Energy unveiled the world's first fuel-cell powered motorbike, the so-called ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) bike. The bike was powered by a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) type fuel cell - one of five different fuel cell types, all of which have different attributes in terms of size, robustness and ability to work at high temperatures. Each fuel cell is a multi-layered sandwich of plates and electrodes which use a chemical reaction to produce water and electricity from hydrogen and oxygen. - Source 10/26/07 - Bigelow Aerospace to offer $760 million for spaceship Bigelow Aerospace intends to spur development of a commercial space vehicle to take people into Earth orbit by offering to sign a contract worth $760 million with any company that can meet their criteria, company president Robert Bigelow says. The company plans to break ground in less than a year on a factory to mass-produce its inflatable space stations, but they are worried that without an affordable commercial crew launch vehicle, none of its potential customers will be able to pay to get to these space stations, Bigelow said. "We could find ourselves with a nice new facility, a number of modules on the floor ready to launch, and nowhere in sight is an affordable or even existing transportation vehicle - a capsule and a lifting vehicle that make economic sense," he said. The contract or purchase agreement would be worth $760 million in total for eight launches. To show that Bigelow Aerospace is serious, it will deposit $100 million in an escrow bank account up front if the plan goes forward. - Source 10/26/07 - Severely Restricted Diet Linked To Physical Fitness Into Old Age Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life, scientists have proved. New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of independence. The study, using a rat model of life-time caloric restriction, showed that the diet reduces the amount of visceral fat, which expresses inflammatory factors that in humans cause chronic disease and a decline in physical performance and vitality across the lifespan. - Source 10/26/07 - Video - Levitation at Whitehouse Here is a video of Wouter Bijdendijk, a Dutch magician who performs as Ramana, levitating outside the White House. He has, er, risen to the occasion in many famous locales, including Times Square. - Source 10/26/07 - Video - Gravity Speakers This video purports to show an amateur experiment in which someone created a small gravitational field "using a speaker and a generated sound wave." The instructions say that a Bose Companion 2 Series II speaker was used, and a "sine wave at 16 khz" was generated. Obviously it's fake. Audio speakers will not create a gravity field. But I'm not sure how they created the special effect. (Not that I know much about creating video effects.) Perhaps they used some kind of fancy editing software. Or perhaps they did it a really low-tech way -- moving the objects one frame at a time to make it appear as if they were sliding towards the speaker. If they did it the latter way, they managed to make the sliding effect look very smooth. Perhaps it's a viral ad for Bose speakers. - Source 10/26/07 - Plump Flattened Cushions in the Sun Your couch cushions half the height they were the day you bought 'em? Real Simple magazine offers an easy way to get them cushy again: Put them outside in the sun for a few hours, flipping them halfway through...The sun will help evaporate the moisture that gets into the filling over time, and the cushions should plump up nicely. Make sure you set a timer on this, though, because as the mag notes, leaving them out too long can fade the cushion fabric (especially for darker colors). (via lifehacker.com) - Source 10/26/07 - bmovies.com Here you’ll find hundreds of movies that have been lost in the wasteland of forgotten cinema. No sign-up or log-in needed, just hours and hours of B. All you’ll need is a broadband connection and hours to waste... Selections includes science fiction, kung fu, horror and Westerns. (Movies may feature up to 1 minute of advertisements before playing. Current version of in-line Flash player has no navigational controls.) - Source 10/24/07 - Static Field Converter - Machine taps new source of Energy The Static Field Converter (patented and patents pending) is an invention that converts the energy in a static magnetic field into usable electrical energy. The significance of the innovation is that the energy stored in some permanent magnet materials can be tapped. The magnitude of the energy is large enough to make a significant impact in reducing the U.S. addiction to oil as well as mitigate the destruction of the environment. Large amounts of electricity generated by the invention can produce large amounts of hydrogen. Hydrogen can be used as fuel in most applications that now require fossil fuels. It can also be used to power fuel cells. The exhaust is water. / Patent 5,710,531 issued in 1998. - Various attempts have been made to use the Meissner effect of superconductive materials to perform useful work. The Meissner effect occurs when a superconductive material is cooled to a temperature below its transition point. In a magnetic field, the lines of induction are then pushed out as if the superconductor exhibited perfect diamagnetism. Various devices have been developed which bring a superconductor in or out of the diamagnetic state or mechanically move a superconductive element in relation to a magnetic field and thereby produce or control mechanical, magnetic or electrical energy. In the present invention, a superconductive magnetic insulating/blocking device in the form of a hemisphere, rotates inside a responsive means such as a coil to periodically shield and unshield the responsive means from a magnetic field. The invention provides for the efficient transformation of the energy of the magnetic field into electrical energy and can thus be used as a dc transformer, a dc to ac converter, an electric generator or a very high energy density battery. - Source 10/24/07 - Blood May Help Us Think A MIT neuroscientist proposes that blood actively modulates how neurons process information, rather than just delivering “supplies” to neurons. The Hemo-Neural Hypothesis has clinical implications for diseases involving irregular vasculature like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. It also enriches the interpretation fMRI images from being just a marker of past brain activity to also being a predictor of future function. "We hypothesize that blood actively modulates how neurons process information," explains Christopher Moore, a principle investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, in an invited review in the Journal of Neurophysiology. "Many lines of evidence suggest that blood does something more interesting than just delivering supplies. If it does modulate how neurons relay signals, that changes how we think the brain works." According to Moore's Hemo-Neural Hypothesis, blood is not just a physiological support system but actually helps control brain activity. Specifically, localized changes in blood flow affect the activity of nearby neurons, changing how they transmit signals to each other and hence regulating information flow throughout the brain. Ongoing studies in Moore's laboratory support this view, showing that blood flow does modulate individual neurons. Moore's theory has implications for understanding brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. "Many neurological and psychiatric diseases have associated changes in the vasculature," says Moore, who is also an assistant professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. How could blood flow affect brain activity? Blood contains diffusible factors that could leak out of vessels to affect neural activity, and changes to blood volume could affect the concentration of these factors. Also, neurons and support cells called glia may react to the mechanical forces of blood vessels expanding and contracting. In addition, blood influences the temperature of brain tissue, which affects neural activity. To Moore's knowledge, the Hemo-Neural Hypothesis offers an entirely new way of looking at the brain. "No one ever includes blood flow in models of information processing in the brain," he asserts. One historical exception is the philosopher Aristotle, who thought the circulatory system was responsible for thoughts and emotions. Perhaps the ancient Greeks were on to something. - Source 10/24/07 - UK gov advisor proposes 'licence to smoke' A government advisor has suggested that the problem of Brits continuing to smoke themselves to death might be tackled by requiring nicotine addicts to obtain a £200 annual licence. Professor Julian le Grand, a "former advisor to Tony Blair" who is a lecturer in social policy at the London School of Economics and "advises ministers through his chairmanship of Health England", made his proposal this week as a Department of Health report said that while "smoking prevalence is falling among both males and females", far too many of us are popping our clogs as a result of coronary disease and other smoking-related ailments. - Source / The Cigarette That's Legal Indoors - The six-inch white plastic stick uses a battery-powered atomiser to create realistic puffs of "smoke," while the tip glows red with each suck. The smoker even gets a strong kick of nicotine from “nico-filter" cartridge. Its manufacturer, the Golden Dragon Group, say the invention has no harmful side-effects because there is no smoke or tar. - Source 10/24/07 - Patent Promises Oral Insulin for Treatment of Diabetes Syracuse University researchers have designed, tested and patented a new method of oral insulin delivery that can potentially help reduce daily insulin injections for millions of people with diabetes who require therapy for optimal glycemic control. The non-invasive, basal delivery of insulin has been a major goal for the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), which affects more than 21 million individuals in the United States. Basal therapy describes a low, continuous dosage of insulin (commonly administered through a slow-acting insulin injection) that replaces the lack of insulin output by the pancreas in diabetics. This works together with bolus therapy, which is a dosage of insulin intended to replace a meal or to make a large glucose-level correction. Up to this point, basal oral insulin deliveries have not been possible due to proteolytic degradation (digestion of proteins by cellular enzymes) and inefficient enteric uptake, meaning that free insulin delivered orally is never effectively delivered to the bloodstream because it is destroyed as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), before it reaches its necessary receptors. The team of SU researchers has now developed a method of oral insulin delivery that eliminates the breakdown of insulin in the GIT, allowing for the transport of insulin to the bloodstream. - Source 10/24/07 - New NASA Data Still Proves Global Warming is Real Yes, there's a glitch in NASA's data about U.S. air temperatures. But the corrected data still shows a warming trend that's unmistakeable. Many arguments against global warming require a carefully-slanted presentation of the statistics. Here's what global warming skeptics are saying - and the evidence from NASA's most recent statistics. There's always going to be a freakishly hot year - which is why NASA also calculated the mean temperature over a five-year period of time. If you graph those, you see a pretty clear pattern. Even with the new data, 7 of the hottest 10 five-year periods have still occurred in the last ten years. And we don't have five-year means centered around 2005 and 2006 yet - though 2006 has already proven itself to be one of the 10 hottest years (again, using the updated statistics.) - Source 10/24/07 - Positive outlook doesn't beat cancer The power of positive thinking has been dealt a blow by a study that shows cancer patients' state of mind has no influence on their survival chances. US researchers reporting online in the journal Cancer say that people who are depressed about their cancer are no more likely to die early than people who keep a positive outlook. Cancer patients are often encouraged to stay as happy as possible and many people believe that a positive outlook helps recovery and survival. They analysed data from two studies of the emotional states of 1093 patients with head and neck cancer. Over the time of the two studies, 646 patients died. The analysis showed that emotional status was not associated with survival rate. A person's emotions were not associated with survival even after taking into account other factors, such as gender, tumour site or disease stage. "The hope that we can fight cancer by influencing emotional states appears to have been misplaced," Coyne says. "If cancer patients want psychotherapy or to be in a support group, they should be given the opportunity to do so. There can be lots of emotional and social benefits. "But they should not seek such experiences solely on the expectation that they are extending their lives." - Source 10/24/07 - NASA cuts funding to private spaceship developer NASA has terminated an agreement with Rocketplane Kistler, one of two private companies that had won agency funding to develop supply ships for the International Space Station. Now, it plans to use the money it had set aside for RpK to fund competing proposals. In August 2006, the agency agreed to provide $207 million to RpK, based in Oklahoma City, and $278 million to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), based in El Segundo, California, from then until 2010 - providing they met certain milestones along the way. But in May 2007, Rocketplane Kistler - which was working on a reusable rocket called K-1 - failed to meet its fourth milestone, which required the company to raise $500 million in private financing. NASA warned the company in early September that its funding was in jeopardy, and on Thursday it formally terminated the agreement. To date, RpK has received about $32 million in NASA funding. The $175 million that would have gone to RpK had it continued to meet its goals - which included a demonstration flight to the space station in 2009 - will now be used to fund one or more proposals in a new COTS competition, Lindenmoyer said. "We are now at the point where we're able to consider reinvesting this money." - Source 10/24/07 - Golden Zone Theory Predicts Location Of Oil And Gas Reserves The Golden Zone is the name of a an underground zone where temperatures range between 60 and 120 C. The name refers to a new discovery that 90 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves are to be found just there. The theory has been tested and verified against a global database containing 120 000 oil fields under production, This gives geologists a tool that makes it simpler and cheaper to find new offshore oil and gas reserves. Outside this interval of 60 to 120 C, particularly above 120 C, the chances of finding oil and gas are much slimmer. Earlier it was assumed that the formation of oil and gas was related to temperature. The new discovery is that temperature decides where most of the lighter oil and gas is trapped in the reservoirs. The increase of temperature downward into the reservoirs varies from place to place. Therefore the zone is to be found at different depths. On the Norwegian continental shelf it is located at depths ranging from two to four kilometers, while in other reservoirs it may be found somewhere between one to two km. These are the so-called warm reservoirs. In cold reservoirs the zone is located at about four to eight kilometers down. The fact that oil and gas coexist within the same temperature zone is a new discovery and a surprise. Gas is formed at higher temperatures than oil. Consequently it has been a standard rule that there should be more gas than oil the deeper one drilled into the reservoir. The reason why this is not the case is covered by the new theory which predicts that both oil and gas escape through fissures formed at 120 C. But nobody had checked it, Bjørkum says. - Source 10/24/07 - Hypnotherapy Helps Stop Smoking Habit A new study shows that smokers given free hypnotherapy to help them quit smoking after hospitalization were more likely to be nonsmokers about six months later than those who used nicotine replacement therapy alone, such as gum or patches, or who went cold turkey. Researchers say hypnotherapy has been promoted as a way to help people quit smoking, but the reliability of this method has not been confirmed. These results suggest that it may be a useful tool for helping motivated smokers to quit. The study also shows that the smokers who were hospitalized for heart-related problems were more likely to quit smoking than those admitted for lung-related reasons. In the study, researchers followed 67 smokers who were hospitalized for heart or lung problems. All of the patients were offered help to quit smoking in the form of hypnotherapy, nicotine replacement therapy, or hypnotherapy plus nicotine replacement therapy -- or they could choose to try to quit cold turkey. Twenty-six weeks after leaving the hospital, the results show that 50% of smokers who used hypnotherapy alone or in combination with nicotine replacement therapy -- compared with 16% who used nicotine replacement therapy alone -- became nonsmokers. In comparison, 25% of those who went cold turkey had kicked the habit. In addition, researchers found smokers admitted to hospitals for heart-related reasons were more likely to quit smoking than those who were hospitalized for lung problems (46% vs. 16%). - Source 10/24/07 - What NASA Won't Tell You About Air Safety "According to a report out of Washington, NASA wants to avoid telling you about how unsafe you are when you fly. According to the article, when an $8.5M safety study of about 24,000 pilots indicated an alarming number of near collisions and runway incidents, NASA refused to release the results. The article quotes one congressman as saying 'There is a faint odor about it all.' A friend of mine who is a general aviation pilot responded to the article by saying 'It's scary but no surprise to those of us who fly.'" - Source 10/24/07 - Floating toxic plastic garbage island twice the size of Texas "A little-known island continent of floating toxic plastic garbage, TWICE the size of Texas, is growing in the pacific between Califormnia and Hawaii. Officially known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, until it can be taxed, U.S. officials will continue to ignore it. I heard of it once many years ago, but it apparently has been growing tenfold each decade since the 1950's, and now consists of 80% plastic. It has also been called Gilligan's Island, from the trashy TV sitcom that won't go away." The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii. ... The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco. - Source (via boingboing.net) 10/24/07 - Nigerian's DIY helicopter A northern Nigerian college student built his own helicopter from an old Toyota car engine and scavenged parts from a Boeing 747 that crashed near his town of Kano. Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, 24, has already briefly flown it four times and is now constructing a new model based on a motorcycle engine. He says it will fly for several hours at the low attitude of 15 feet. Abdullahi says he was inspired to build his choppers from watching action movies and learned to fly by reading about it online. From AFP: The (current model's) cockpit consists of a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrust, a joystick that provides balance and bearing. A small screen on the dashboard connects to a camera underneath the helicopter for ground vision, a set of six buttons adjusts the screen's brightness while a small transmitter is used for communication. "You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin. The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rmp you press the joystick and it takes off," Abdullahi explained from the cockpit. - Source (via boingboing.net) 10/24/07 - Rock rentals: Study says addicts loaning cars for crack It ain't Avis or Hertz, but apparently in some circles you can rent a car for as little as a couple of rocks of crack. Of course, that amount may only get you a couple of hours in your borrowed car, but with no credit checks it seems like less of a hassle than mainstream car renting. This newly-emerging trend of alternative car rentals is discussed in a study by The University of Alabama that was published last Friday in the British Journal of Criminology. The UA researchers learned of rock rentals during interviews with Louisiana prison inmates, then confirmed it by talking to several non-imprisoned drug users. One person interviewed as part of the study said, "That's how we used to ride when we were young. To have a rock rental was like having a brand new car in the neighborhood." - Source 10/24/07 - Micro-Vett Converting Fiat Doblò Station Wagons to Electric Vehicles With a range of approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) the all electric Micro-Vett Fiat Doblò 5 seat station wagon, powered by a 18 kWh Altairnano NanoSafe® battery pack is undergoing field trials in Oslo, Norway. The battery pack was recharged three times, in less than ten minutes using a high voltage rapid charging system, for a total of three times to travel a total of 186 miles (300 km) at a top speed of 72 mph (120 kM/h). Go Green expects to ship up to 20 Micro-Vett vehicles to customers in the next several months, and an additional 250 vehicles are planned for shipment in 2008. - Source 10/24/07 - Scientists a step closer to steering hurricanes The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather. Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds. Computer simulations of the forces at work in the most violent storms have shown that even small changes can affect their paths - enabling them to be diverted from major cities. But the hurricane modifiers are fighting more than the weather. Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead. Hurricane Katrina caused about $41 billion in damage to New Orleans. Hurricanes form when air warmed over the ocean rises to meet the cool upper atmosphere. The heat turns to kinetic energy, producing a spiral of wind and rain. The greater the temperature differences between top and bottom, and the narrower the eye of the hurricane, the faster it blows. Moshe Alamaro, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Sunday Telegraph of his plans to "paint" the tops of hurricanes black by scattering carbon particles - either soot or black particles from the manufacture of tyres - from aircraft flying above the storms. The particles would absorb heat from the sun, leading to changes in the airflows within the storm. Satellites could also heat the cloud tops by beaming microwaves from space. "If they're done in the right place at the right time they can affect the strength of the hurricane," Mr Alamaro said. - Source 10/22/07 - Radio-Fuelled Autos may solve gas problem - August 1936 AUTOS operated on radio fuel may become a reality if the present consumption of oil continues and no new oil sources are discovered. One engineer boldly suggests a network of “radio highways” consisting of huge broadcast transmitters capable of sending out signals which would be converted into motive power. Provided with special radio energy converters automobiles would be silently operated by powerful electric motors. By simply throwing a switch on the dash the motors would be put into motion, eliminating starters, noise and dangerous carbon monoxide gas. Fortunately, science has delved into the fuel problem and found a solution for a matter which has for years been on the verge of confronting automotive engineers. - Source 10/22/07 - Heat-recovery tech for drains hits Home Depot Power-Pipe technology is basically copper tubing that wraps around a residential drain pipe. Cold water is pumped through the tubing and captures the heat from drain water after it comes out taps, dishwashers, washing machines, etc.... The warmed up water from the tube is then sent to the residential hot water tank, which doesn't have to burn as much natural gas or use as much electricity now because the water has been pre-heated by several degrees. It's a simple system, sold in a variety of designs by a number of different companies, that should be required in every home. The company claims the system will pay for itself in two to five years, it can be used in new and old homes, and it can reduce home energy consumption by 5 to 10 per cent. Not bad when you consider the hot water portion only accounts for 20 to 30 per cent of total home energy use. The Power-Pipe comes in three models -- 36-inch, 48-inch and 60-inch long tube models ranging from $600 to $1,000 (Canadian) and including the cost of installation. Just type in "Power-Pipe" in the HomeDepot.ca search engine. "The typical 60-inch Power-Pipe unit can bring you cold water temperature up from 10 degrees C to as much as 24 degrees C," the company says. - Source 10/22/07 - Wind energy on demand Compressing air for energy isn't a new idea, but its use for wind energy is. When energy demand is low, energy from wind turbines can force air into an underground aquifer. When demand is high, a utility can expand the pressurized air and transform it back into electricity by pumping it to the surface and running it through a turbine. Two compressed-air energy-storage (CAES) installations exist-one in Huntorf, Germany, and the other in McIntosh, Ala.-but neither relies on wind energy for compression or expansion. The project, created by IAMU, is dubbed the Iowa Stored Energy Park. The $200 million undertaking aims to harness about 75 megawatts (MW) of power from wind turbines across Iowa, supplemented with electricity bought at off-peak times delivered by existing power lines. The energy would power motors to compress air and force it 2000 feet below ground into a natural aquifer near Dallas Center, in central Iowa. The Iowa plant should produce 268 MW when running at full capacity, which is enough to power about 75,000 homes. Most of the energy will be used by the municipal utilities in Iowa and in surrounding states that invest in the park. The rest will be sold on the grid. General Compression plans to offer its dispatchable wind turbine system for sale to turbine operators within the next 3 years. The system features a compressed-air wind turbine, a pipeline network that collects and stores compressed air, and a mini power plant of expanders and generators, says Michael Marcus, the company's president. The blowing wind lifts the turbine blades, spinning the compressor. In turn, the compressor pressurizes air and pumps it down the tower into an underground network of pressurized pipes. The pipes collect and store 6-12 hours of wind-generated energy. For longer storage, the technology can also pump compressed air into a nearby salt dome, aquifer, limestone cavern, or depleted gas field, Marcus says. To retrieve that power, the compressor is configured as an expander, which turns the change in pressure as air is released into rotary motion. The expanders are connected to electrical generators. - Source 10/22/07 - REGI US Completes Prototype RadMax Pump REGI US, Inc. and Reg Technologies have completed a prototype, proof-of-concept pump that is suitable for customer demonstrations. The RadMax Rad Max, based on RandCam/RadMax sliding-vane rotary engine technology (earlier post), is a 12-vane device that produces 48 pump actions every revolution. As a pump for water or fuel, the prototype 140-pound RadMax Rad Max has a theoretical displacement of more than 2,000 gpm at 3,600 rpm. The solution is scalable with minimal design changes, and many of the parts are interchangeable between different sized pumps. - Source 10/22/07 - Raw Seafood Consumption May Cause Round Worm Lovers of sushi and sashimi, beware. Consumption of raw or undercooked seafood may cause anisakiasis (round worm) infection that can lead to cramping, diarrhea, vomiting and possible small bowel obstruction. While anisakis larvae cannot survive in a human host when ingested, it can produce intestinal problems so severe it requires treatment at the emergency room. - Source 10/22/07 - Earthdiving Looking up through the glass visor on his spacesuit, Joseph Kittinger could see only the huge, fragile, gossamer-thin silver balloon towering 200ft over his tiny gondola. This helium-filled balloon, Excelsior, had taken him to the edge of space, bathed in solar ultraviolet radiation and in temperatures of -70C. The air pressure was lower than that on the surface of Mars - essentially a vacuum. At that height, there was no wind, no sound ... nothing. And then Kittinger took a last look at the tiny gondola and did something unthinkable: he jumped. From an altitude of 102,800ft, or 20 miles (more than three times the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner or the height of Mount Everest), Kittinger plunged into the void, attaining speeds of more than 700mph as he hurtled towards the earth. Despite breaking a seal on his spacesuit, he survived, landing gently by parachute 13 minutes and 45 seconds later. That extraordinary jump on August 16, 1960, broke the record for the highest parachute jump which stands to this day, a daredevil achievement that makes the antics of today's bungee-istes and base-jumpers look like nursery games. But it may not be a record which stands for much longer. In New Scientist magazine this week, a bizarre project has been revealed which, if it comes to fruition, will not only see Kittinger's extraordinary and little-known record smashed, but will open up near-space to a new breed of extreme sportsmen and women - people keen to get the ultimate kick by jumping not from 20, but from 30 or even 60 miles above the Earth. Led by a consortium of extreme sports enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, the project envisages a small unmanned rocket delivering a human cargo to the edge of the earth's atmosphere - a living cargo which will then leap into the void equipped with nothing but a spacesuit and a parachute. So far, some 460 people have left the Earth's atmosphere, and of those, 22 have been killed either during the flight or in tests - a five per cent fatality rate, far higher than just about any other military or aviation pursuit. - Source 10/22/07 - New Hearing Mechanism Discovered MIT Professor Dennis M. Freeman, working with graduate student Roozbeh Ghaffari and research scientist Alexander J. Aranyosi, found that the tectorial membrane, a gelatinous structure inside the cochlea of the ear, is much more important to hearing than previously thought. It can selectively pick up and transmit energy to different parts of the cochlea via a kind of wave that is different from that commonly associated with hearing. In short, the ear can mechanically translate sounds into two different kinds of wave motion at once. These waves can interact to excite the hair cells and enhance their sensitivity, "which may help explain how we hear sounds as quiet as whispers," says Aranyosi. The interactions between these two wave mechanisms may be a key part of how we are able to hear with such fidelity - for example, knowing when a single instrument in an orchestra is out of tune. "We know the ear is enormously sensitive" in its ability to discriminate between different kinds of sound, Freeman says. "We don't know the mechanism that lets it do that." The new work has revealed "a whole new mechanism that nobody had thought of. It's really a very different way of looking at things." The tectorial membrane is difficult to study because it is small (the entire length could fit inside a one-inch piece of human hair), fragile (it is 97 percent water, with a consistency similar to that of a jellyfish), and nearly transparent. In addition, sound vibrations cause nanometer-scale displacements of cochlear structures at audio frequencies. "We had to develop an entirely new class of measurement tools for the nano-scale regime," Ghaffari says. - Source 10/22/07 - Ships pollute more than planes Ships pump out twice as much carbon dioxide as planes, according to new figures from the maritime industry body Intertanko. The body also warns that the industry should brace itself for the attentions of various governments. Bill Box, from Intertanko, told the Independent newspaper: "Shipping has not yet been regulated and for politicians it is the last low hanging fruit." Previous studies from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) have shown that ships emitted levels of CO2 similar to those from the aviation industry. But Intertanko says emissions have risen steeply over the last six years as ships are sailed faster to meet the demands of the planet's growing economy. It said there had also been a general increase in global trade which contributed to the increase in emissions. Ships transport some 90 per cent of goods around the world. The shipping industry is also under pressure to reduce the amount of these other pollutants it produces, such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and sulphuric acid. - Source 10/22/07 - Daily sex can help to repair sperm, says fertility doctor A study of men attending a fertility clinic revealed that genetic defects in their sperm fell substantially after going on a programme that required them to engage in sexual activity daily for a week. Fertility doctors commonly advise men trying for a baby to abstain from sexual activity for two to three days, because it boosts the number of sperm they produce. The latest finding suggests that men who have healthy sperm counts but poor quality sperm can improve the genetic material in the cells by engaging in sex more often. Dr Greening, who spoke at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in Washington yesterday, said: "I'm convinced that ejaculating more frequently, ie daily, improves sperm DNA damage in most men by a decent amount." He believes that the longer sperm are held in the tube that leads from the testicles the more genetic damage they accumulate from free radicals circulating in the body. Allan Pacey, senior andrologist at Sheffield University and secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "If you ejaculate every day then you're preventing the sperm being in the reproductive tract for too long, so it makes sense that they're less exposed to damage and it's fresher." In 2003 another team of Australian fertility researchers reported that men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer by masturbating frequently. The team, at the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, believed that ejaculating prevented the buildup of cancer-causing chemicals in the prostate. - Source 10/22/07 - Criminal Element Has the Clean Air Act done more to fight crime than any other policy in American history? That is the claim of a new environmental theory of criminal behavior. In the early 1990s, a surge in the number of teenagers threatened a crime wave of unprecedented proportions. But to the surprise of some experts, crime fell steadily instead. Many explanations have been offered in hindsight, including economic growth, the expansion of police forces, the rise of prison populations and the end of the crack epidemic. But no one knows exactly why crime declined so steeply. Jessica Reyes found that the rise and fall of lead-exposure rates seemed to match the arc of violent crime, but with a 20-year lag - just long enough for children exposed to the highest levels of lead in 1973 to reach their most violence-prone years in the early ’90s, when crime rates hit their peak. Such a correlation does not prove that lead had any effect on crime levels. But in an article published this month in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Reyes uses small variations in the lead content of gasoline from state to state to strengthen her argument. If other possible sources of crime like beer consumption and unemployment had remained constant, she estimates, the switch to unleaded gas alone would have caused the rate of violent crime to fall by more than half over the 1990s. If lead poisoning is a factor in the development of criminal behavior, then countries that didn’t switch to unleaded fuel until the 1980s, like Britain and Australia, should soon see a dip in crime as the last lead-damaged children outgrow their most violent years. - Source 10/22/07 - Taking The Heat Off Inefficient Engines An incredible 60 percent of the energy that goes into an automotive combustion cycle is lost, primarily to waste heat through the exhaust and radiator system. It's no surprise then that physicists are looking at how to harness this wasted thermal energy and convert it into electricity via thermoelectric devices. Speaking at the NanoTX '07 conference, Clemson University physicist Terry Tritt told attendees that even at the current efficiencies of thermoelectric devices (7 to 8 percent), more than 1.5 billion gallons of diesel could be saved each year in the U.S. if thermoelectric generators were used on the exhausts of heavy trucks. "Thermoelectric energy conversion is a solid-state technology that is environmentally friendly. One of the more promising 'down-to-earth' applications lies in waste-heat recovery in cars." - Source 10/22/07 - Fish Kiss Skin Cleansing At Dr Fish Spa, customers with dry skin relax in a pool filled with warm water as little Garra Rufa fish numbering in the thousands feed on the dead skin. “The fish, measuring between two and four centimeters each, are nature’s answer to having smooth, clear and rejuvenated skin,” said Dr Fish Spa owner Cecilia Choong. “I had freckles on my face but after allowing Dr Fish to treat me, the freckles turned lighter and are not as visible on my face anymore,” said Choong, adding that the treatment could also lighten skin pigmentation. “The fish even got rid of my corn and cracked heels.” “The fish are toothless and they use their suction power to remove the dead skin. Another customer said “Once I step out of the pool after a one-hour session, I can feel that my skin is lighter and smoother.” - Source 10/22/07 - 22 Natural Ways to Prevent Colds and the Flu The flu season is just around the corner. And while those flus won’t kill you, they can weaken your immune system to the point that other, more dangerous, germs can take hold in your body. Just think how many times your cold turned into bronchitis or a sinus infection. And given that the average adult suffers two to three colds a year, that’s a lot of opportunities for serious illness - and just as many to prevent one! ... All these are simple ways to help you avoid the flu - but they are not substitutes for medical treatment or advice. Remember that the flu is something that everyone gets once in a while, and there is no 100% guarantee to prevent it. But if you want to decrease your chances of being stuck at home with a pesky flu, use these tips. That doesn’t mean you can’t still call in sick once in a while… - Source 10/22/07 - The music that animals like New world monkeys such as the marmoset and the cotton-top tamarins dislike music, but if they are forced to hear music, they prefer slow tempos rather than fast ones. Further, when presented with a choice between slow tempo music (say lullabies) and silence, they prefer silence. In contrast humans, when similarly tested, prefer music over silence. Birds like music too. He points out to the work by the Japanese duo S. Watanabe and K. Sato in 1998 and 1999, which showed that some sparrows like music, and prefer music of the classical composer J. S. Bach to that of the modern composer Schoenberg. They prepared a chamber with three perches. One of the end perches had music by Bach playing while the other perch had Schoenberg. Here again the bribe was a few grains of millet and some water. The birds stayed significantly longer on the Bach perch, and retained their preference to other compositions of Bach, and again avoided other pieces of Schoenberg. These results suggest that sparrows have musical preferences. - Source 10/22/07 - Are Boys An Endangered Species? Half as many boys as girls are being born in some places around the world-and pollution is the prime suspect. Among the Chippewas of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community living on the shores of the St. Clair River outside Sarnia, Ontario, tribal leaders were puzzling over a variety of health problems-from asthma to cancer to miscarriages-plaguing their families. The Aamjiwnaang-the name means “at the spawning stream”-were shaken when they realized that there was a dramatic disproportion of girls to boys among them. Jim Brophy, director of the Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers’ Sarnia branch, remembers the look of shock on their faces when they suddenly made the connection. “It was like a deep family secret getting out,” Brophy recalls. “They had enough girls for three baseball teams, but not enough boys for even one boy team.” And now, in a number of villages at the northernmost reaches of the Arctic Circle-seemingly remote from any hazardous chemicals-scientists have found a similar syndrome: populations spawning twice as many girls as boys. Based on preliminary data released in September 2007, researchers are blaming high levels of man-made chemicals that have made their way up the food chain, through fish and other marine species, and into indigenous seafood diets. Indigenous Arctic peoples show high levels of chemical contamination, researchers say, because they depend on local fish, marine animals, seabirds and reindeer meat, which are significantly more contaminated than imported food by persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, dioxin and DDT. Also alarming is the decline in male births around the world, a trend some scientists find troubling. In the United States, more boys are being born than girls, but the gap between the two has declined in the last 30 years. - Source 10/20/07 - Above-sea ride sends inventor over the moon It's neither a plane nor a boat, but the latest invention of Nelson's very own Flying Dutchman has people fascinated. Hira resident Rudy Heeman, a mechanic who has spent the last 11 years building hovercraft in his spare time, has come up with a model that does more than skim the surface. Over the past year, Mr Heeman has built a "wing in ground effect vehicle" - a hovercraft able to fly because of a peculiar set of aerodynamic principles. He said the "hoverwing", which is almost complete, has drawn Atawhai Drive residents out of their houses and motorists out of their cars to watch test flights over the Haven. Mr Heeman said the project had cost tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours of his time. He had built a new workshop, learnt how to become a fibreglass laminator and modified a Subaru car engine to power the vehicle. The hoverwing was an extremely efficient method of transport, and Mr Heeman said the optimum height for it was about 1.5m above the water - he reached 98kmh on his last speed test. Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson said a wing in ground effect vehicle was considered to be a maritime craft and fell under maritime law. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said the vehicle was not classed as an aircraft because it used an air cushion which relied on water. - Source 10/20/07 - Invention prevents Cancer Dr. Mark Johnston works at Lancaster Gastroenterology. More than 10 years ago he invented a machine he calls the cyroablater. He built it in his garage but, just recently a handful of hospitals have purchased the technology. It freezes cells in the esophagus that can lead to cancer. It’s used on people with a condition called Barrett's Esophagus, a condition that effects three million Americans. "Barrett's Esophagus has a significantly increased risk of turning into esophageal cancer, which is the fastest growing cancer in the United States," says Dr. Johnston. - Source 10/20/07 - ‘Nanospikes’ Add New Dimension to Microelectronics Research Through the creation of nano/micro laser texturing and “nanospikes” on the surfaces of semiconductors and metals, Mool C. Gupta, Langley Distinguished Professor in U.Va.’s Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is adding a new dimension to these materials’ effectiveness. Gupta, who is also the director of the National Science Foundation’s Laser Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, has long studied the nano- and micro-textures on a variety of materials, such as