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09/30/07 - Entrepreneur Creates "Kinko's For Inventors!"
 The Tech Shop, located in Silicon Valley's Menlo Park, California, is a playground for grown-ups where you can make invention prototypes, fix your stuff, sew your products, or further artistic designs. Your "toys" are actually pretty big machines such as "lathes, plasma cutters, sheet metal equipment, drill presses, band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools," and, Jim Newton says, "pretty much everything you'd ever need to make just about anything all by yourself." Like he says, "a Kinko's for inventors." Newton put his Tech Shop playground together with mostly used equipment in a relatively low-rent area, making his start-up costs manageable, and when he opened his shop, he put his business plan to work. Offering one time entries and membership plans to inventors, hobbyists, artists, and dozens of other enthusiasts, Tech Shop operates much like a health club: you can come in anytime and use whatever equipment you want. With a long-term membership, you can even make advance reservations for the equipment you need. Hours? Not a problem. Tech Shop is open from 9:00 a.m. to midnight! Staff? Always someone there to help you out. And no need to let those big machines intimidate you either. For the safety of you and others, Tech Shop offers 18 classes in how to use the equipment it offers! A tremendous boost to DIY inventors are the CNC classes that teach you how to model your own prototypes from 3-D CAD designs. Inventors need this service, if only to get out of our cocoons. But, more practically, to legitimize our ideas, those we've had closeted for so long because we didn't have the time or the big bucks to act on them. - Source
09/30/07 - Invention Firm invented 60M scam, say feds
It's a challenge to transform an invention from an idea to a product on a store shelf. Just recently, a federal judge ordered the operators of multiple questionable invention promotion firms to pay $60 million in connection with a scheme that defrauded 17,000 inventors. For fees of $895 to $1,295, PTI and its related businesses promised to evaluate the marketability and patentability of inventors' ideas. But the firms gave virtually all inventions positive evaluations, so the assessments were meaningless, the Federal Trade Commission reported. PTI charged inventors up to $45,000 for alleged legal protection and assistance to obtain commercial licenses for their inventions. The inventors were also told that PTI would help them earn substantial royalties from their inventions. But investigators said PTI neither helped consumers license their inventions nor enabled clients to earn any royalties. Consumers who have complaints about PTI should call the FTC at (202) 326-2926 for more information. Other inventors should question the assurances of any promotion firm before entering into a contract, the FTC added.
Source
09/30/07 - Enablement in Patents
The enablement requirement of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 requires that the patent specification enable those skilled in the art to make and use the full scope of the claimed invention without undue experimentation based on the underlying facts. The specification must enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the claimed invention without undue experimentation. Thus, with respect to enablement the relevant inquiry lies in the relationship between the specification, the claims, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. If, by following the steps set forth in the specification, one or ordinary skill in the art is not able to replicate the claimed invention without undue experimentation, the claim has not been enabled as required by [section] 112, first paragraph. - Source / Failure To Enable Invention In Commercial Product - Ormco asserted four patents directed to the computer-aided design and manufacture of custom orthodontic appliances against Align, which counterclaimed by asserting two of its own patents. The trial court not only granted Align’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement, but also granted Align’s motion for summary judgment of non-enablement three months later. On appeal, the Federal Circuit found clear and convincing evidence that a person of ordinary skill in the art did not and could not accomplish automatic computer determination of teeth finish positions based upon the Ormco patents’ specification. The Court pointed to inventor testimony that a manual override had been used on all of the approximately forty cases treated using Ormco’s Insignia product and that, while it was a goal to have the Insignia software generate final tooth positions that would not require use of the override, variations in human anatomy had prevented the attainment of that goal. The Ormco inventor had further testified that he was unsure if the problems due to variations in human anatomy could be overcome. The Court concluded that an inventor’s failure to enable his invention in a commercial product that purports to be an embodiment of the patented invention is strong evidence that the patent specification lacks enablement. - Source
09/30/07 - Eggshells to make Hydrogen
 The patented process uses eggshells to soak up carbon dioxide from a reaction that produces hydrogen fuel. It also includes a unique method for peeling the collagen-containing membrane from the inside of the shells, so that the collagen can be used commercially. Eggshells mostly consist of calcium carbonate -- one of nature's most absorbent materials. It is a common ingredient in calcium supplements and antacids. With heat processing, calcium carbonate becomes calcium oxide, which will then absorb any acidic gas, such as carbon dioxide. In the laboratory, Fan and his colleagues demonstrated that ground-up eggshells could be used in the water-gas-shift reaction. Iyer performed those early experiments; recent graduate Theresa Vonder Haar also worked on the project for her bachelor's degree honors thesis. Calcium carbonate -- a key ingredient in the eggshells -- captures 78 percent of carbon dioxide by weight, Fan explained. That means, given equal amounts of carbon dioxide and eggshell, the eggshell would absorb 78 percent of the carbon dioxide. That makes it the most effective carbon dioxide absorber ever tested. "Eggshell alone may not be adequate to produce hydrogen for the whole country, but at least we can use eggshell in a better way compared to dumping it as organic waste in landfills, where companies have to pay up to $40 dollars per ton disposal cost," he said. Before they could grind up the egg shell, the engineers needed to remove the collagen-containing membrane that clings to the inside; they developed an organic acid that does the job. About 10 percent of the membrane consists of collagen, which sells for about $ 1000/gram. This collagen, once extracted, can be used in food or pharmaceuticals, or for medical treatments. Doctors use collagen to help burn victims regenerate skin; it's also used in cosmetic surgery. - Source
09/30/07 - Costly Insurgents
U.S.-led coalition forces have killed more than 19,000 insurgents in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003, USA Today reported Thursday. Under a Freedom of Information request, the U.S. military told the newspaper a database of "significant acts" showed 19,429 militants were killed in clashes with coalition forces, although the numbers don't include those killed during the first wave of the invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. If we assume that the war has cost $450 billion, this works out to $23 million per dead insurgent. It would have been cheaper to just offer each one a million dollars if they'll be nice. / Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly $10 billion every month. - Source
09/30/07 - Sloppy Science
A recent Wall Street Journal write-up discussed the findings of one Dr. John Ioannidis, who has posited that most of the thousands of peer-reviewed research papers published every year are full of flawed findings and analysis. The vast majority of mistakes, he says, aren't purposeful, but stem from miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis. The summary to his widely-cited essay states, "Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias." The WSJ article claims that "To root out mistakes, scientists rely on each other to be vigilant. Even so, findings too rarely are checked by others or independently replicated. Retractions, while more common, are still relatively infrequent. Findings that have been refuted can linger in the scientific literature for years to be cited unwittingly by other researchers, compounding the errors." An ironic question to ask: Is Dr. Ioannidis study subject to the same flaws he ascribes to the rest of the scientific community? If his findings are true, what does this mean for hot-button topics such as Global Warming? - Source
09/30/07 - Could a Computer Hypnotize You?
 While most people think of hypnosis as an entertaining parlor trick or a dubious way to quit smoking, a smattering of scientific studies suggest that the trance-like state could have medical benefits in calming anxiety and managing pain during medical procedures. According to Boyden, the problem with bringing hypnosis into clinical practice is that it's something of an art. Standardized scripts for inducing hypnosis don't allow the practitioner to adapt his or her approach to the patient. When researching the field, Boyden said that he noticed that hypnosis scripts tend to resemble computer programs. So he and his students designed a computer program that uses a quick personality survey to identify what the user finds relaxing; it then generates a customized set of suggestions to induce him or her into a state of hypnotic relaxation. Stay tuned for an online demo now in development! - Source
09/30/07 - Germany Looks to North Africa's Untapped Solar Thermal Potential
Flabeg has recently developed a mirror that can reflect 93 percent of the sun's rays. A study by the German Aerospace Center estimated that harnessing the sun's energy falling on just 6,000 square kilometers of desert in North Africa would supply energy equivalent to the entire oil production of the Middle East of 9 billion barrels a year. The study calculated that solar thermal power plants could supply 68 percent of North Africa's as well as Europe's electricity by 2050. The company recently developed a mirror that can reflect 93 percent of the sun's rays. The improved mirror can concentrate 99% of the sun's radiation onto an absorber tube with a diameter of 70 mm or less. Flabeg said that it expects to sell its high precision mirrors in Spain and North Africa as the solar thermal power plant market starts to take off in Europe. - Source
09/30/07 - Anyone Can Jam Your Cell Phone!
 A brand-new product called the Palm PHONE JAMMER is the first cell phone jammer that I'm aware of that's priced, sized and created like a mass-market consumer electronics device. The jammer is actually smaller than a cell phone, costs only $166 and shuts down GSM 850-, 900-, 1,800- and 1,900-MHz cell phone calls within a 30-foot radius. - Source
09/30/07 - Use a Digital Timer to Get Things Done
A self-made millionaire mom describes how she uses a digital timer to keep herself focused on getting work done during certain times of the day. As a "work"-from-home mom of a two-year-old, I find it necessary to structure my writing and blogging time according to her schedule and push to GET IT DONE. I write when she's sleeping in, napping, or enjoying one-on-one time with her daddy. - Source
09/30/07 - Cockroaches at Their Best at Night
(I have always worked best at night, less distractions and more insights. - JWD) "A new study has found that cockroaches are morons in the morning and geniuses in the evening in terms of their learning capacity. Previous studies suggest that the learning capacity of both people and rats are also affected by their internal biological clocks. But the effect is far more dramatic in cockroaches and it is the first time it has been found in insects. And, no, the researchers didn't try giving their cockroaches a sip of coffee to see if it revived them!" - Source
09/30/07 - Scopolamine - the Zombie Drug
 VBS.TV recently did a story on Scopolamine, a substance commonly referred to as "Devils Breath" in Colombia, where it is a common street drug. This stuff is as close to pure evil as it gets, a tiny amount of the powder administered to the victim causes one of two effects, a) death, or b) complete loss of free will. Criminals are usually hoping for the latter, as it enables them to tell victims to empty their bank accounts, give away their car, perform sex acts, basically whatever the criminal dictates. This is where Scopolamine has got its reputation as the "zombie drug", victims appear completely sober and rational, but they're really just automatons. Scopolamine recently popped up in the news as a treatment for bipolar disorder and depression. The drug also has history as a sort of truth serum administered in interrogation environments -- it was used by the CIA in the 1960s, during the MKULTRA program. - Source
09/30/07 - Migrating Birds May ''See'' Earth's Magnetic Field
Specialized neurons in the eye, sensitive to magnetic direction, have been shown for the first time to connect via a specific brain pathway to an area in the forebrain of birds responsible for vision, German researchers said on Wednesday. Scientists have known for many years, from behavioral experiments, that birds use an internal magnetic compass to navigate on their epic annual journeys. But exactly how the system works has been a mystery. Now work by Dominik Heyers and colleagues at the University of Oldenburg in Germany has started to unravel the mechanism at a neuroanatomical level -- and it shows the eye is key. Magnetic sensing molecules in the eye, known as cryptochromes, appear to stimulate photoreceptors depending on the orientation of the magnetic field. This strongly suggests migratory birds perceive the magnetic field as a visual pattern, the researchers said. - Source
09/30/07 - Improvising electronic devices is not a crime
 Supporters of Star Simpson -- the 19-year-old MIT student who inadvertently caused a total freaking flipout at Boston's Logan International Airport last week for wearing a sweatshirt with an attached homemade light-up device -- are selling these t-shirts to help cover her legal fees. Authorities in Massachussetts are throwing the "infernal machine" book at her, claiming the shirt was a "hoax device" intended to look like a fake bomb. Simpson denies this charge. - Source
09/30/07 - Banning Illegal Immigrants Causes City Economy to Tank
A little more than a year ago, the Riverside Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant. But no one realized the painful toll this would take. With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again. Meanwhile, the town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law. Legal bills began to pile up, straining the town’s already tight budget. Suddenly, many people - including some who originally favored the law - started having second thoughts. So last week, the town rescinded the ordinance, joining a small but growing list of municipalities nationwide that have begun rethinking such laws as their legal and economic consequences have become clearer. “I don’t think people knew there would be such an economic burden,” said Mayor George Conard, who voted for the original ordinance. “A lot of people did not look three years out.” In the past two years, more than 30 towns nationwide have enacted laws intended to address problems attributed to illegal immigration, from overcrowded housing and schools to overextended police forces. Most of those laws, like Riverside’s, called for fines and even jail sentences for people who knowingly rented apartments to illegal immigrants or who gave them jobs. In some places, business owners have objected to crackdowns that have driven away immigrant customers. And in many, ordinances have come under legal assault by immigration groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. - Source
09/30/07 - The Political Problem of Hindsight Bias
Are health insurance companies guilty of denying care or, as Shannon Brownlee's new book argues, are they failing to prevent Overtreatment? When it comes to surveillance and terrorism, are we not doing enough to prevent the next terrorist attack, or are we collecting too much unnecessary information? In the mortgage market, are we making it too difficult or too easy for first-time homebuyers to purchase homes? Would one have expected that the cost of restoring order after an invasion of Afghanistan to be relatively light compared to the cost of restoring order after an invasion of Iraq? Most people approach these issues with hindsight bias. In situations of uncertainty, hindsight bias causes a number of problems. - Source
09/30/07 - Germany to build first commercial Maglev train line
 Germany's richest state agreed Tuesday to build the country's first commercial high-speed magnetic levitation train line, but officials warned the price tag could be heftier than first thought. After months of talks, the Bavarian government, industry leaders and Deutsche Bahn rail company signed an agreement to build the line after a late-night deal capped with a champagne toast. Authorities said they had finalised 1.85 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) in financing for the next-generation train line, which is to connect the state capital Munich with its airport, 37 kilometres (23 miles) away. Starting in 2014, travellers will see the 40-minute trip cut to just 10 by the driverless Transrapid, or Maglev train, which is able to run at 450 kilometres (280 miles) per hour. - Source
09/30/07 - Alzheimer's disease as form of diabetes?
Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling -- crucial for memory formation -- would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.”) With other research showing that levels of brain insulin and its related receptors are lower in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the Northwestern study sheds light on the emerging idea of Alzheimer’s being a “type 3” diabetes. - Source
09/30/07 - Court rules school officials acted properly in strip search
Safford Middle School officials did not violate the civil rights of a 13-year-old Safford girl when they forced her to disrobe and expose her breasts and pubic area four years ago while looking for a drug, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The drug in question? Ibuprofen. - Source
09/30/07 - SSN leads to Suing Google
Here's a handwritten complaint filed in Pennsylvania: Dylan Stephen Jayne vs. Google (PDF). The claim: Dylan Stephen Jayne, plaintiff, has a social security number that when the social security number is turned upside down in it's entirety is a scrambled code that does spell the name Google. He wants $5 million. He'll probably settle for $2 million. - Source
09/28/07 - Contracting Wires Harness Sun’s Rays - November 1932
 The drawing illustrates the principles of operation of the new solar machine devised by a San Francisco inventor. Wires heated by the sun from the reflector contract suddenly when immersed in, causing dogs to engage notches in ratchet and making the drum rotate with power pulley. The long, exhausting search of scientists for a method of harnessing the rays of the sun has yielded the solar machine illustrated in the artist’s drawing above. Operation of the machine is based upon the principle of contraction and expansion of tungsten wires. These wires are arranged lengthwise of a revolving drum, and the sun’s rays are directed against them by means of a parabolic mirror on each side. As the drum rotates the wires pass out of the focal range of the sun’s rays and are doused in a trough of water at the bottom. Sudden cooling of the wires causes them to contract rapidly, pulling on a bell crank at the end of the drum. This action in turn causes the dogs to engage notches in the fixed ratchet and drive the drum around. Rotation of the drum causes the shaft to which it is fixed to revolve and operate the pulley on the same shaft. J. J. Warner, of San Francisco, is the inventor. - Source
09/28/07 - Heat Shock Response accelerates Cancer
(So does this mean by staying cool we lessen our chances for cancer? - JWD) An ancient mechanism for coping with environmental stresses, including heat and toxic exposures, also helps cancerous tumors survive, reveals a new report in the Sept. 21, 2007, issue of Cell, a publication of Cell Press. The scientists found that loss of the master controller of the "heat-shock response" dramatically limited the spontaneous formation of tumors in mice genetically predisposed to developing cancer, and those exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. Most importantly, they reported, depletion of the so-called heat-shock factor 1 (HSF1) in diverse previously established human cancer cell lines strongly impaired their growth and survival, while having little effect on normal cells. To find out, the researchers first looked to a common mouse model of skin cancer, in which the animals' are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. Mice unable to switch on the heat-shock response were "far more resistant" to tumor formation than normal mice were under those conditions, they found. It took the mutant mice five weeks longer to develop tumors. They were less likely to develop cancer and, when they did, had fewer and smaller tumors. The HSF1-deficient mice also lived longer. - Source
09/28/07 - Global Warming Fix: Help the Earth Cure Itself
 James Lovelock, environmentalist, futurologist and creator of the Gaia hypothesis and its view of Earth as a huge organism, proposes that we help the planet "cure itself" by artificially ramping up ocean mixing, which would stimulate the growth of carbon-munching algae, thereby sinking more carbon dioxide into the ocean. Lovelock's proposal, detailed in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature, is to use free-floating or tethered pipes to increase the mixing of the ocean by moving nutrient-rich deep waters up to replace the more barren waters of the surface. These nutrients would stimulate the growth of algae and create large blooms that would take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they photosynthesize. "And when they die, their bodies sink to the bottom of the ocean as calcium carbonate shells, and that gets rid of [the carbon] for good," Lovelock explained. - Source
09/28/07 - OAP Invents Car of the Future
 Willie Gallacher has devoted the last seven years of his life to creating an electro-magnetic drive motor which he believes could replace the combustion engine. And with the UK patent now confirmed, Willie has been in touch with engineers and car companies across the globe in the hope one will be able to help finance the creation of a full working model. Willie said: “The electro-magnetic car will still have all the normal characters - brakes, lights and so on. The only difference is the block to drive the car, with the crank shaft powered by magnets rather than combustion. “I have come up with something which no-one else in the world has. You can’t take energy from nothing, so when the car is at a standstill in a traffic jam there would be a problem powering it, but I have found the solution.” Balloch man Willie is remaining tight-lipped about exactly how this part works, his invention has already attracted interest from as far afield as China. To view Willie’s invention in full, log on to the Intellectual Property Office website at www.ipo.gov.uk and enter patent number GB2434255. - Source
09/28/07 - Neti Pots to clear Sinuses
Sales at the Himalayan Institute, a major U.S. neti pot manufacturer, have increased more than 400 percent in the past 10 years. And in the first eight months of 2007, they've seen a 100 percent increase over 2006, thanks in part to a plug from Dr. Oz on Oprah Winfrey's show early this year. Local natural foods stores, including Mississippi Market in St. Paul and the Wedge and Whole Foods in Minneapolis, all report a steady rise in year-over-year neti pot sales. "I've heard some pretty excellent feedback from [customers] that it's a nice alternative to taking a lot of medication," said Mindy Hauge of Whole Foods. After the Oprah show, "there were just multiple people a day coming in really wanting one, and now that it's getting to be the fall season, we still have at least one person a day." Park Nicollet Clinic allergist Brenda Guyer, M.D., has been recommending the nasal wash to patients for about six years. "Neti pots are really effective," she said. "They help with a host of problems." / Video (via poynter.org) - Source
09/28/07 - Growing Grass Turns Roof Into a Lawn - January 1933
 Covering a roof with growing grass might seem fantastic to most persons, but Louis Koefoed, an architect of East Rockaway, N.Y., has found it practical as well as decorative. Since he applied a roofing of sod over tar paper to his dwelling last fall he has experienced a welcome decline in his coal consumption. Moreover, he expects the heat-insulating covering to keep his home twenty degrees cooler next summer. Pipes along the peak of the roof spray the growing grass with water and keep the “lawn” roof green. - Source
09/28/07 - Who Owns the USA?
The top five holders of our debt are (in order from the top) Japan, China, the UK, Oil exporting countries, and Brazil. - Source
09/28/07 - Architect Designs Cotton Houses - February 1933
 Photos show a five room house, with roof and wall of canvas, which cost $1,500 to build and a weekend house of cotton designed to be raised eight feet from the ground, having a parking space and playground beneath it. Houses of cotton are proposed by Lawrence Kocher, noted architect, to solve the low-cost housing problem. Models of two types; a $1,500 five-room home and a week-end house, have been designed. A weatherproof exterior is provided by a roof and walls of fireproofed cotton ducking stretched over a wooden structural frame. Inner walls are also of cotton. Insulating material may be added to exclude heat and cold. Since the canvas is flexible, it is adaptable to any shaped surface. - Source
09/28/07 - Background noise may help unruly pupils pay more attention
Scientists found "white noise" helped children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder concentrate. The same was true for children with no behavioural disorder but who under-achieved at school. In contrast, brighter pupils, without ADHD, were put off by noise and performed better in silence. Researcher Goran Soderlund of Stockholm University, who led the study, said: "The discovery is surprising, since previous research has indicated that children with ADHD are easily disturbed in distracting environments." A possible explanation for the findings, published in the journal Psychological Review, involves dopamine, a neuro-chemical that helps control brain activity. Low achieving and ADHD children are deficient in dopamine, said the scientists. For them, noise appears to stimulate the brain just enough to make it function better. But the brains of children with normal levels of dopamine may be over-stimulated, lowering their ability to concentrate and remember. - Source
09/28/07 - Town Tests Cars Driven By Computers, Lasers
 The Northamptonshire, UK, town of Daventry is being used as a guinea pig to test driverless "CYBERCARS" controlled by computers. The small electric cars, which use lasers to avoid crashing into things, are summoned by pressing a button along the route. The cars follow a pre-programmed route, like a bus. The project is part of the European Commission's research group CityMobil. - Source
09/28/07 -
List of the "World's Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories"
• Stephen King killed John Lennon. (Steve Lightfoot) • WWII was staged. It never really happened. The Illuminati employed elaborate special effects, stage magic, and phony journalism to scare the world into pacifism. (Donald Holmes) • The doomed Franklin Expedition was sent to the Arctic not only to find the Northwest Passage, but to secretly investigate UFO sightings that had been reported since the 1700s. The men were captured, experimented upon, and eaten by giant aliens. (Jeffrey Blair Latta) • The 1939 War of the Worlds radio broadcoast was a psychological warfare study funded by C.D. Jackson on behalf of the Rockefeller Foundation, designed to find out how Americans would react to an enemy invasion. Funny... in a trailer for his mockumentary F is for Fake, Orson Welles did say the WoW broadcast had "secret sponsors". (Daniel Hopsicker) • Aspartame, flouride, genetically modified foods, and vaccines are used specifically to keep us sick and open to suggestion, and/or as part of a secret depopulation plan designed by the world's elite. - Source
09/28/07 - Space Station Partners Bicker Over Closure Date
 "The current partners in the ISS are in discussion regarding the closure date of the space station, even though it still has not been fully assembled. 'The United States insists it will pull out of the station at the end of 2015 while Russia wants its life prolonged, said European Space Agency (ESA) chief Jean-Jacques Dordain at an astronautics congress in Hyderabad, southern India. NASA administrator Michael Griffin has told space station partners that the US agency has no plans for "utilization and exploitation" of the science research lab for more than five years after it is completed, Dordain said.'" - Source
09/28/07 - Did Donald Duck foil a patent application?
There is a famous story (among patent attorneys, at least) about a Donald Duck story being used as prior art against a patent on a method of raising a sunken ship. A 1949 Donald Duck story used the same technique. How do you quickly raise a sunken ship full of sheep? The Danish inventor Karl Krøyer came up with a very creative solution: pump buoyant bodies into the ship to achieve sufficient upward lift to bring the ship back to the surface. The solution was so creative he got a patent on it. In a 1949 Donald Duck story, titled The Sunken Yacht a ship is raised by stuffing it full of ping-pong balls. That kind of prior art could kill the patent. But whether the story was actually used by a patent office to refuse the patent (application) remains unclear. - Source
09/28/07 - Clean Inkjet Printer Cartridges with WD-40
 Dried ink on printer cartridges can render your expensive ink unusable, but blogger Bucky decided not to toss the cartridges out and instead soaked the base of the cartridge in WD-40. The result: a cartridge that works again. "I got a brain-storm of an idea the other day and decided to try soaking the base of the cartridge in WD-40 to see if it would soften and clean the dried ink and holy crap - it worked!!! (I soaked it over-night and then wiped it off good before reinstalling it in the printer.)" (via lifehacker.com) - Source
09/28/07 - Storing Solar Power Efficiently
Thermal-power plants could solve some of the problems with solar power by turning sunlight into steam and storing heat for cloudy days. Solar proponents love to boast that just a few hundred square kilometers' worth of photovoltaic solar panels installed in Southwestern deserts could power the United States. Their schemes come with a caveat, of course: without backup power plants or expensive investments in giant batteries, flywheels, or other energy-storage systems, this solar-power supply would fluctuate wildly with each passing cloud (not to mention with the sun's daily rise and fall and seasonal ebbs and flows). Solar-power startup Ausra, based in Palo Alto, thinks it has the solution: solar-thermal-power plants that turn sunlight into steam and efficiently store heat for cloudy days. David Mills, Ausra's founder and chairman says that solar-thermal plants are the solution because storing heat is much easier than storing electricity. Mills estimates that, thanks to that advantage, solar-thermal plants capable of storing 16 hours' worth of heat could provide more than 90 percent of current U.S. power demand at prices competitive with coal and natural gas. "There's almost no limit to how much you can put into the grid," he says. What distinguishes Ausra's design is its relative simplicity. In conventional solar-thermal plants such as Solel's, a long trough of parabolic mirrors focuses sunlight on a tube filled with a heat-transfer fluid, often some sort of oil or brine. The fluid, in turn, produces steam to drive a turbine and produce electricity. Ausra's solar collectors employ mass-produced and thus cheaper flat mirrors, and they focus light onto tubes filled with water, thus directly producing steam. Ausra's collectors produce less power, but that power costs less to produce. - Source
09/26/07 - To Mars and Beyond - Improving on Space Propulsion
 This coming January, Ad Astra Rocket Company will test the VX-200, a full-scale ground prototype of the variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMIR), first conceived in 1979 by the company's president and CEO, astronaut and plasma physicist Franklin Chang Diaz. The rocket is an attempt to improve on current space-propulsion technologies, and it would use hot plasma, heated by radio waves and controlled by a magnetic field, for propulsion. Chang Diaz believes that the system would allow rockets to travel through space at higher speeds, with greater fuel efficiency. Franklin Chang Diaz: I've always said that in order for us to conduct a serious space-exploration program, we need to develop two things: power and propulsion. Power in space is still severely limited. Mainly, we use solar power. This is fine as long as we stay near the sun, but the issue remains that for Mars and beyond, we will need to develop nuclear electric power. If we don't, we might as well quit. We're not going to get anywhere without it. Power is life in space. Propulsion is the other pillar which I think is lacking. FCD: Someday, the earth will be a place humanity will come back to, sort of like our national park. I don't mean to get rid of the earth like an old shoe. We need to protect it so that we can always come back to it. TR: What's the purpose of investing money trying to leave the planet? Shouldn't we focus on fixing problems at home? FCD: We're investing in our survival. Like John Young says also, we are a species with no redundancy. If something ever happens to our planet, it could be the end of our civilization. Investing a few dollars to ensure the survival of the human species--I don't think that's too much. Source
09/26/07 - Natural Inventors - Novelty in Disguise
 A considerable number of innovators, whom you may call disguised scientists, have the ability to discover new technology and transform the way we live, says Amal Mandal. A section of so-called under-qualified populace in India has the knowledge and creativity to come up with the down-to-earth ideas that are more useful and practicable than those generated in the mainstream research labs. Common people, driven by hardships and inadequacy of technology, adapt the available equipment to their specific needs and develop innovative mechanisms out of sheer ingenuousness. Their innovations are user-specific. But such innovations can serve the common interest and be a solution to various problems of our society. Despite the marvels of technology, mainstream research has either evaded or is insensitive to the vast field of agriculture. It has not concerned itself with growing of different crops, rearing animals or post-harvesting operations. Therefore, ordinary people use their own brains to solve the problems they encounter in their day-to-day life. For instance, Gurucharan Pradhan of Orissa has contrived Navaratna Machine that performs ten different functions at a time: cutting chaff, wood and grass; thrashing paddy and groundnuts; pumping water and generating electricity. A farmer made a land tilling equipment out of an ordinary bicycle. A student who had dropped out from school in Assam developed a turbine that generates electricity and pumps water for irrigation. Producing matchsticks out of jute will surely save precious wood and regenerate jute cultivation. One villager in Purulia has crafted a unique screw that gets into wood without cracking it. Think of Bibhuti Bhusan Chakraborty of Andaran Fulbari, Tufanganj. He has worked out a contraption-like mechanism that produces electricity when cars speed over it. Thus, rows of moving cars which otherwise add to pollution and global warming can be turned into a source of electricity to be used for street lighting and other purposes. He has, with the help of National Innovation Foundation ~ an autonomous organisation under Department of Science and Technology, Government of India ~ applied for a patent on his invention and when his Road Current model is put to large-scale use, the conventional electricity consumption will be reduced and more importantly, it will be proved that most human activities can be turned into sources of energy. However, Bibhuti’s model is different from Kanak Gogai’s that works only on speed breakers. Bibhuti has many inventions up his sleeves. An extremely low-cost water filter is one of them. Being worried by high iron content in the water in his locality, he has developed a simple water filtering equipment that is portable and no less effective than those available in the market. Some other of his inventions include a stove that consumes the least amount of kerosene and a clip worth Rs 5 that permanently prevents dislocation of by-cycle chains. Every innovator who either has already evolved alternative ways of fulfilling requirements of common people or has overcome technological challenges or simply has an idea that may prove useful for the society must be supported in their endeavours. Obscure innovators are scientists in disguise. More often than not, the out of box formulations they come up with are convenient, cost-effective and environment-friendly. The ideas of these innovators are mostly crude. They need to be worked on and improved. To market their ideas is beyond the capacity of the ordinary innovators. They need public support to materialise their ideas. Because the innovators are impoverished, scientifically under-qualified and naïve in business deals, they must get protection from possible appropriation and exploitation of their intellectual property.
09/26/07 - Splitting Water with Sunlight
Researchers from the German Max Planck Institute have now developed a catalyst that may do just that. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, titanium disilicide splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. And the semiconductor doesn’t just act as a photocatalyst, it also stores the gases produced, which allows an elegant separation of hydrogen and oxygen. One aspect of this system that is particularly interesting is the simultaneous reversible storage of hydrogen. The storage capacity of titanium disilicide is smaller than the usual storage materials, but it is technically simpler. Most importantly, significantly lower temperatures are sufficient to release the stored hydrogen. The oxygen is stored as well, but is released under different conditions than the hydrogen. It requires temperatures over 100°C and darkness. “This gives us an elegant method for the easy and clean separation of the gases,” explains Demuth.
09/26/07 - DOE Patents online
 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the launch of a website, DOepatents, which allows search and retrieval of information from a collection of more than 20,000 patent records. The database represents a growing collection of patents resulting from R&D supported by DOE and demonstrates the Department’s considerable contribution to scientific progress from the 1940s to the present. “From helping the blind to see again to identifying hidden weapons through holographic computerized imaging technology, the U.S. Department of Energy has supported and will continue to support research addressing some of the world’s most pressing scientific challenges,” Under Secretary for Science Dr. Raymond L. Orbach said. “Content within DOepatents represents a truly impressive demonstration of DOE research and development and technological innovation.” Highlighted at DOepatents is a compilation of noteworthy DOE innovations from the past few decades. These technologies have improved quality of life and provided national economic, health and environmental benefits. One such invention is the Artificial Retina, a collaborative research project between DOE national laboratories, universities and the private sector aimed at restoring vision to millions of people blinded by retinal disease. Another invention is the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s pioneering multi-junction solar cell. A cell based on this design set a world efficiency record in converting sunlight to electricity. The DOepatents database also includes inventions of Nobel Laureates associated with DOE or its predecessors such as Enrico Fermi, Glenn Seaborg and Luis Alvarez, along with other distinguished scientists. DOepatents consists of bibliographic records, with full text where available via either a PDF file or an HTML link to the record at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The DOepatents database is updated quarterly with new patent records. The website is updated on a regular basis with news and information about significant and recent inventions. Resource links for inventors are included at the site, as well as Recent Inventions and Patent News pages.
09/26/07 - Pseudo Hybrid truck conversion for Electrical Power
Robert Jordan, Overdrive magazine’s 2006 Trucker of the Year, was one of 20 entrepreneurs in the semifinals of Forbes.com’s first Boost Your Business contest. But the online vote, which decides the five finalists, did not fare in Jordan's favor. The grand prize is $100,000 for the winning entrepreneur to invest in his or her business. Jordan, of Juneau, Wis., was one of nearly 1,000 people to enter the contest. Jordan has built his business, Idle Free Systems, around a patent he owns. Jordan’s invention is an aftermarket device that makes a Class 8 tractor run somewhat like a hybrid. Energy generated by normal engine use is stored in five sealed, absorbed glass mat batteries, housed beneath the sleeper’s bunk. That reserve power then runs heating and air conditioning when the truck is stopped. The reserve batteries also can be charged by shore power and by reefer engines.
09/26/07 - Snow Breeze - DIY Cooler
 M. B. Lal has devised a way to keep his room cool, even when the rest of the city seethes under the post-summer heat and humidity. Toying with the idea since that June day, Lal invented his ice-cooled air-conditioner over the past fortnight. “I can’t take the Delhi heat any more,” he says. “That day, I asked my wife to bring me a tub of water but, instead, she brought all the ice from the fridge. And the entire room cooled down.” “We took a wooden box and created spiral grooves in it,” Lal says. “We later put metal foil on them and placed a metal box full of ice in it.” With the help of a small but powerful fan, the air was forced to move around the cold metal box, in a spiral dictated by the grooves. “By the time the fan pushed out the air it was actually cold.” But his experimenting didn’t stop there, for Lal wanted to make his contraption even more efficient. So, with further assistance from the carpenter, Lal was able to change the ice-cooler to fit it smugly into a large plastic drum. Today, it stands proudly in his room, blowing cold air with a reassuring hum. “Everything I used was locally available. Even the fan, which is very powerful, uses less than half the energy of a 60-watt bulb.” Put together, the ice cooler is able to quickly bring down temperature by around seven degrees centigrade, for Lal that difference is a lifesaver. “Getting the ice is also not a problem. If you can’t freeze it yourself, you can buy it from vendors; there are plentiful of those everywhere.” Although ‘snow breeze’, as he has dubbed the ice-cooler, can chill a room for almost six hours on eight kilogrammes of ice, Lal says it can be used all over the country with minimal electricity. A Gandhian, Lal doesn’t want to patent his ‘snow breeze’. “Anyone can make one of these coolers, and only if they do will we know how to improve it.”
09/26/07 - The Importance of Getting a "Patent Pending" for Your Invention
A patent pending (applied for and waiting for approval), consists of the patenting agent or attorney first doing a "patent search" to see if inventions of the same concept or design have already had patents applied for them. If it is found that patents have already been applied for, an inventor who attempts to market a very similar product would risk legal liability for patent infringement (having a copycat product) should they continue an attempt to market their invention. It is obvious to see how this first step towards getting a patent pending is valuable. Also, keep in mind that once you have a patent pending, this can be noted in print on your product-invention’s packaging and protects you while the patenting process is being completed. Even if for some reason a patent is later denied, this is not usually determined for many months and gives an inventor a protected jump on any competition that might try to crop up in the mean time. Some companies and also retail outlets, who look at new products for consideration to market them actually require that they have a patent pending status or they will not review them! Keep in mind that patent law states that you cannot disclose your product to the public, more than one year prior to applying for a patent or you may not be allowed to obtain a patent pending for it.
09/26/07 - Living On A River
Now you can buy a condo on a riverboat: River Cities. Explore The USA From The Comfort Of Home. If your retirement dream includes travel and variety, River Cities is your ticket to a unique river lifestyle. Purchase one of our River Cities condominiums and make the river your home. Choose full or part time cruising options as you follow the seasons to your next adventure. Cruise America's 6,600 miles of inland waterways on a slow boat to everywhere. Wake each morning to a new bend in the river as River Cities brings the world to your doorstep. Purchase prices start at $299,000 for a 528 sq-ft condo. Plus $13,200 in annual fees to cover maintenance, insurance, fuel, etc. If living on a river full-time seems like too much, you can also purchase a half-share.
09/26/07 - Seaweed Forests Bring Hope for Marine Life
Temperate water kelp forests, like coral reefs, are havens for marine biodiversity and could be vital as global warming increasingly affects the oceans. The seaweed is traditionally not thought to be an obvious tropical "resident" because it requires cool water and lots of light. But scientists from California, Canada and Ecuador developed a model to determine if regions of the tropics had the light, nutrients and low temperatures kelp needs to survive. According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they combined data about kelp's physiological requirements with oceanographic data from the surface to the seabed. The results revealed an area of more than 8,880 square miles in which sunlight and nutrients were intense enough for kelp to flourish, and the temperature was not too high. The study said: "The existence of deep-water refuge for tropical kelp has profound biogeographical and evolutionary consequences."
09/26/07 - The Granite Man’s liftoff
 David Hamel passed away from us a week ago. He was the subject of the book The Granite Man and the Butterfly: The David Hamel Story, which Pierre Sinclaire researched and I finished writing in 1995. Pierre published it through his Project Magnet, which was named for the Project Magnet of the distinguished Canadian Wilbert Smith. He spent the past three decades building models of an advanced technology he was shown in 1976 or so, but the only time he achieved “lift-off” was many years ago in Maple Ridge, BC. At that time an unmanned disk that he had built - and set into oscillation - suddenly built up an ionized glow around itself and shot up into the sky, never to be seen again. David was ticked off because there went all his savings - all the magnets he had bought and the careful machining work. Jeanne Manning writes, "I’ll be sending flowers to McConnell Funeral Home in Medoc, Ontario (ph 613-473-2833 if you want to do the same), but I won’t be able to attend the memorial at the cemetery at Gilmore, Ontario, on Saturday October 6." / Hamel Files Index page and Alien Microfilm a Fake.
09/26/07 - Open Philanthropy
How you can steer the future of humanity. How can you solve the problems that really matter to you? If you're like most people, among these problems are terrifying, often fatal diseases: Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, stroke. Other problems you care about concern understanding and improving our humanity--understanding our consciousness, empowering citizens in democracies, and preserving dying languages, just to name a tiny few. One obvious way to focus resources on a problem you care about is to become rich and create or steer an institute--placing bets on specific researchers and on specific research agendas. But if you're like most people, you're not a billionaire. That means you have to be entrepreneurial about your idea, raising the funds through visionary leadership and strategic planning--a full-time job if there ever was one. One possibility is that if there were an open market for philanthropy, which would connect dollars with ideas, then you might be able to find researchers working on the problems you care most about, evaluate the investigators and their approaches, and empower them directly with funding. Such a system would also mean that you could solve the problems you care about earlier in your life, allowing you to benefit from them directly. You wouldn't have to wait until you're old and wealthy to start funding research to solve the Big Questions. If just 5 percent of the 60 million obese people in the USA desired to pool their resources to study ways of tackling metabolic impairments, and thereby improve health, and each contributed just $1.25 a month to researchers who focus exactly on the problems of most pressing interest, that would be $45 million a year.
09/26/07 - Lack Of (or too much) Sleep Doubles Risk Of Death
 Researchers from the University of Warwick, and University College London, have found that lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However they have also found that point comes when too much sleep can also more than double the risk of death. In research to be presented to the British Sleep Society, Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School will show the results of a study of how sleep patterns affected the mortality of 10,308 civil servants in the "Whitehall II study."
09/26/07 - Spaceflight Changes Bacteria Into More Infectious Pathogen
"Bacteria that became more dangerous in space may help scientists design better antibiotics on Earth, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They found that a type of Salmonella that causes food poisoning became more virulent after spending 12 days at near-zero gravity in the space shuttle, killing more mice than Earthbound bacteria and killing them more quickly. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might help protect both astronauts and people infected on the ground, said Cheryl Nickerson of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University."
09/26/07 - In the Philippines, Ex-Judge Consults
Three Wee Friends
 (Interesting story, could there be an alternate dimension reality involved here? Especially because of the malefic 'coincidences.' - JWD) As a trial-court judge, Florentino V. Floro Jr. acknowledged that he regularly sought the counsel of three elves only he could see. The Supreme Court deemed him unfit to serve and fired him last year. Helping him, he says, are his three invisible companions. "Angel" is the neutral force, he says. "Armand" is a benign influence. "Luis," whom Mr. Floro describes as the "king of kings," is an avenger. The Supreme Court says its medical clinic determined that Mr. Floro was suffering from psychosis. Even so, a series of disturbing incidents appear to have the nation's top jurists rattled. According to local newspaper reports, a mysterious fire in January destroyed the Supreme Court's crest in its session hall, and a number of members of the court and their close family members have developed serious illnesses or have fallen victim to car accidents. Enough bizarre things have happened that in July, the Supreme Court issued an en banc resolution asking Mr. Floro to desist in his threats of "ungodly reprisal." The Supreme Court's spokesman declined to elaborate. Mr. Floro says he is not suffering from psychosis, and that he's not to blame for the incidents. He points the finger squarely at "king of kings" elf Luis, who Mr. Floro says is bent on cleaning up what he says is the Philippines' corrupt legal system. Mr. Floro says he never consulted the invisible elves over judicial decisions and the fact that he puts faith in them should make no difference to his career. "It shouldn't matter what I believe in, whether it's Jesus, Muhammad, or Luis, Armand and Angel," he says in an interview.
09/26/07 - Acupuncture works for back pain
Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than usual care, German researchers have found. Almost half the patients treated with acupuncture needles felt relief that lasted months. In contrast, only about a quarter of the patients receiving medications and other Western medical treatments felt better.
09/24/07 - Video - The Hexayurt Project
 The Hexayurt is a novel, easy and very cheap to build minimal house design for emergency and even permanent shelter. The price for construction ranges from $200-$300 for the basic verson and of course more depending on size and complexity. The video suggests the design to be a mix of Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion/Geodesic housing with Ghandhi's desire to help poor people worldwide to improve their living conditions. / Additional information - The Rich/Poor Divide - The Rocket Stove - The Wood-Gas Stove.
09/24/07 - Parallel universes make quantum sense
 If you think of yourself as unique, think again. The days when physicists could ignore the concept of parallel universes may have come to an end. If that doesn't send a shudder down your spine, think of it this way: our world is just one of many. You are just one version of many. David Deutsch at the University of Oxford and colleagues have shown that key equations of quantum mechanics arise from the mathematics of parallel universes. "This work will go down as one of the most important developments in the history of science," says Andy Albrecht, a physicist at the University of California at Davis. In one parallel universe, at least, it will - whether it does in our one remains to be seen. The "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics was proposed 50 years ago by Hugh Everett, a graduate student at Princeton University.
09/24/07 - ZAP Signs with China's Largest Luxury Bus Manufacturer
 In 2004, with the support of the Chinese government, Youngman was awarded a license to manufacture automobiles. Earlier this year Youngman made auto industry headlines by awarding Lotus Engineering a number of vehicle development projects, and more recently by signing a vehicle distribution and technology licensing agreement with Proton (the Malaysian national car company), estimated to be worth several billion US dollars. The strategic partnership with ZAP will allow the joint venture company to bring highway capable electric and hybrid vehicles to the market like the ZAP-X crossover SUV. "This is the most significant relationship that ZAP has ever entered into," said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider. "This joint venture will provide a platform for both ZAP and Youngman to focus each other's strengths to develop solutions that have the potential to transform the industry. Our energy will not stop at the vehicle engineering level. Using renewable energy to provide a cost effective recharging infrastructure to customers, we can change the world, one vehicle at a time," said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider. Youngman's portfolio of products includes luxury motor coaches, inter-urbans, city and airport buses as well as premium commercial trucks for long distance, local distribution, heavy-duty building and special services. Youngman manufactures its motor coaches and trucking at a million square foot factory in Jinhua. Youngman is building new factories in Shandong province with the backing of the Chinese government to expand its automotive manufacturing capacity.
09/24/07 - Students help others find buried dreams
What would you like to do before you die? Four Canadian college students are on a mission to help people find out. The students, who were inspired by a poem, have compiled their collective list of 100 goals and have set out on a two-month, 10-city American trip dubbed ‘The Buried Life Tour’ to accomplish them, and to help 100 strangers fulfill their dreams. "I think our main mission is to ask people not to be afraid of living life and not to be afraid of challenging themselves to go after the things they’re most passionate about," Jonnie Penn, 20, said. He started the project in August 2006 with his brother Duncan, 23, and friends Dave Lingwood, 21, and Ben Nemtin, 23, as a way of discovering their passions in life. The idea originated from an 1852 Matthew Arnold poem entitled The Buried Life. The quartet from Victoria in British Columbia are travelling in a retro 1970 purple bus and are filming a documentary about the project. "The name of the project is called Buried Life because everybody has these big dreams they hold so dear," said Penn. "But it’s so easy in this modern world to get buried and forget (about them)." Their list of "100 things to do before I die" on their website (www.theburiedlife.com) includes kissing the Stanley Cup and partying with a rock star, which they’ve done. They are still trying to dance with television host Ellen DeGeneres, throw out the first pitch at a baseball game and compete in a soapbox derby.
09/24/07 - Will China Beat the United States Back to the Moon?
 "During an address on the space economy to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the space age, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin made the assertion that China would beat the United States back to the Moon. 'Americans will not like it, but they will just have to not like it. I think we will see, as we have seen with China's introductory manned space flights so far, we will see again that nations look up to other nations that appear to be at the top of the technical pyramid, and they want to do deals with those nations. It's one of the things that made us the world's greatest economic power. So I think we'll be reinstructed in that lesson in the coming years and I hope that Americans will take that instruction positively and react to it by investing in those things that are the leading edge of what's possible."'"
09/24/07 - Homeland Security's Tech Wonders
"The multi-billion dollar budget of the Department of Homeland Security has spawned a myriad of new, whiz-bang technology that includes things like keychain-size, remote-controlled aerial vehicles designed to collect and transmit data for military and homeland security uses. It also includes infrared cameras that capture license plate images to match them in milliseconds to police records. "Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle," says Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies."
09/24/07 - Drugs that prod bacteria to self-immolate
 How would it be, if we devise a method that would prod the bacterium to kill itself - one that would involve a fundamental step that does not care about any of the biochemical pathways of replication, metabolism or growth? Controlled burning - One such step is to simply burn the bug to death. But it will have to be controlled burning at ordinary temperature, called metabolic oxidation. And it would have to be done by the bacterium itself, namely self-immolation. This way, the body of the human host and its endogenous symbionts would not be harmed - no collateral damage. Such a step has indeed been discovered, and not with any new drug but by the existing molecules such as the floxacin and the ampicillin classes of drugs. Professor James Collins and his colleagues at the Boston University School of Medicine have unravelled a new and additional effect that these drugs have on bacteria, which was not known until now. Glycolytic cycle - Writing in the September 7, 2007 issue of the journal Cell, they show that these drugs tamper with the fundamental biochemistry of bacteria, namely the glycolytic cycle, which is the starting step in the digestion of food. As they tamper this cycle, they release considerable amount of positively charged iron atoms, which produces the ‘flame’ called hydroxyl radicals. These radicals, as the Professor’s student Michael Kohanski put it: “will damage DNA, proteins, lipids in the membrane, pretty much anything. They are equal opportunity damagers.” They literally burn the bacterium to death. What is nice is that this hidden pathway to bacterial self-immolation is prompted by already discovered and widely used bacteriocides.
09/24/07 - Method for $1/Watt Solar Panels Will Soon See Commercial Use
"A method developed at Colorado State University for crafting solar panels has been developed to the point where they are nearly ready for mass production. Professor W.S. Sampath's technique has resulted in a low-cost, high-efficiency process for creating the panels, which will soon be fabricated by a commercial interest. 'Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity and could power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity. Sampath has developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11% to 13%) at a very high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies.'"
09/24/07 - The final triumph of Saint Che
 Forty years after his death in Bolivia, Guevara is a living force in the town where his body was paraded. It was here in Vallegrande, 40 years ago, that the corpse of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara lay on display, eyes open, in the hospital laundry. And it is here that his unofficial sainthood is becoming firmly established. 'For them, he is just like any other saint,' Father Agustin says ruefully. 'He is just like any other soul they are praying to. One can do nothing.' On a bench in the square, Freddy Vallejos, 27, says: 'We have a faith, a confidence in Che. When I go to bed and when I wake up, I first pray to God and then I pray to Che - and then, everything is all right.' Freddy wears a cap bearing Alberto Korda's iconic image of Guevara. 'Che's presence here is a positive force. I feel it in my skin, I have faith that always, at all times, he has an eye on us.' In this region, images of Che hang next to images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Pope John Paul II and Bolivia's President Evo Morales. Stories of miracles have mushroomed.
09/24/07 - Flat battery? Try a bit of paper power
It's no accident that the battery resembles a piece of paper. Cellulose - the same plant cells used in news print, photocopier paper and books - makes up more than 90 percent of the device. The mechanism is engineered at a molecular level from particles no larger than a virus. Carbon nano-tubes embedded on one side of the cellulose give the battery its black color and act as electrodes. Lithium oxide on the other side of the sheet works as an electrolyte. Having integrated components makes the battery stronger and more flexible than a conventional battery. "If you cut the battery in half it would be like cutting a piece of paper in half. It functions no matter how many times you cut it because it is molecularly integrated," Linhardt told CNN. Not only can you cut the battery - you can roll it, fold it or mould it. The batteries can also be stacked like a ream of printer paper, which multiplies energy output. As well as outputting low amounts of energy steadily over a long period, the mechanism can also be built as a supercapacitor, emitting a massive burst of energy in less than a second. And a completely new invention, a hybrid device, can do both. Potential applications for the new battery and supercapacitor device include hybrid cars. Combining the work of two separate engine components at molecular level makes it 25 percent more efficient. Its flexibility means it could be shaped into pieces of the car -- like inside door panels -- that wouldn't normally be associated with batteries. Looking into the future, if the device can be successfully scaled up it could be used to power electric aircraft and boats. The device will work well in extreme conditions because it contains no water, so there is nothing to freeze or evaporate, according to Linhardt, like in the space program or the North Pole.
09/24/07 - Alkaline vegetables to keep you fit
 (I have seen it noted that cancer and many diseases cannot live in an alkaline environment. - JWD) About 80 per cent of our food intake should be alkaline vegetables and alkaline fruits and no more than 20 per cent of the entire food intake should be acidic. Alkaline vegetables help maintain the ph balance of the body at 7.3. They can be included to form part of your diet and should be substituted for most of the acid food. The greener the vegetable, the more alkaline it is said to be. So when looking for alkaline vegetables, choose greens more. Broccoli is a good alkaline vegetable and can be consumed in plenty by just boiling it and adding some salt and lemon to it for flavour. Bamboo shoots also fall in the alkaline vegetables category. Keep the bamboo shoots dipped in some lemon syrup for about 30 min. Peel and cut a few potatoes and add a large tomato and a glass of water and the bamboo shoots to the vessel. All these are alkaline vegetables. Boil all the ingredients for half an hour add spices according to taste and simmer for another 20 minutes, you will have a lovely soupy dish to be eaten with rice or just consumed as it is. Garlic is very good for cleansing the body of toxic wastes and should be added to most of the meals for it’s alkalising effect. Egg plant though not a green vegetable is still an alkaline vegetable. Eggplants can be consumed in a variety of ways. Eggplants with a few potatoes can make a lovely alkaline vegetable dish. For children try out mashed eggplant as a side dish. The alkaline vegetable list is unending. Cabbages, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peas, pepper bells, parsley, radish, cucumber and almost all vegetables are all alkaline vegetables. So go out there and skip the meat section and walk into health and vigour. With an alkaline vegetable diet plan, you cannot go wrong.
09/24/07 - Hacker Finds Serious Flaw in Adobe PDF
The security researcher said he would not release code that shows how a PDF attack works until Adobe provided a patch for the problem. The hacker who discovered a recently patched QuickTime flaw affecting the Firefox browser says he has found an equally serious flaw in Adobe Systems Inc.'s PDF file format. "Adobe Acrobat/Reader PDF documents can be used to compromise your Windows box. Completely!!! Invisibly and unwillingly!!!," wrote Petko Petkov, in a breathless Thursday blog posting. "All it takes is to open a PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one." Petkov said he had confirmed the issue on Adobe Reader 8.1 on Windows XP and that other versions may be affected. The security researcher said he would not release code that shows how this attack works until Adobe provided a patch for the problem, but he has already sent other software developers scrambling for bug fixes over the past week. On Sept. 12, Petkov reported that attackers could run unauthorized software on a Firefox user's PC by exploiting a flaw in Apple Inc.'s QuickTime media format. Mozilla Corp. offered a partial fix for this problem on Tuesday but said Apple would ultimately have to address the issue in its QuickTime media player.
09/24/07 - Swirled to the Left or Right? Nanofibers Align in Stirred Liquid
 Is the vortex in a stirred liquid swirling clockwise or counterclockwise? A zinc porphyrin dendrimer-a branched molecule with a central zinc atom-can answer this question. As Japanese researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the optical activity of a solution containing this substance changes rapidly when the direction of stirring is changed. It is possible that vortexes in the distant past were responsible for breaking the symmetry in nature to give us the “handed” life we see today, which has clear preferences for “left-” or “right-handed” molecular building blocks like sugars and amino acids. Vortexes in liquids clearly twist either one way or the other, as do screws, our hair, or snail shells. They can be related to each other like mirror images or left and right hands. This is called “handedness” (chirality). Vortexes are very complex structures, containing many regions with currents moving in completely different directions. For example, if a liquid is stirred in a cuvette, a dense circular current forms at the center while a loose spiral-shaped flow is present in the outer regions of the vortex. A research team headed by Takuzo Aida and Akihiko Tsuda has now synthesized a zinc porphyrin dendrimer that makes these individual local currents observable by spectroscopy. The highly branched zinc-containing molecules aggregate in solution to form long nanofibers. If the solution is not stirred, it is not optically active. As soon as it is stirred, it becomes optically active: The stirred solution rotates right- and left-circularly polarized light to different degrees. This difference (circular dichroism), when measured over all wavelengths, results in a characteristic spectrum. If the direction of stirring is changed, the sign of the circular dichroism switches. In addition, the magnitude of the circular dichroism increases with increased stirring. Like a flag waving in the breeze, the individual fibers are directed by the current. Along the beam of light shining through the cuvette, the different currents within the vortex drive the fibers into a helical arrangement-a structure reminiscent of certain liquid-crystalline phases. When the direction of stirring is changed, the helical structure also changes the direction it twists.
09/24/07 - HIV sequences cannot prove guilt
People infected with HIV might well want to know who gave it to them - but the genetic sequence of their virus won't tell them. The virus is now routinely sequenced in each infected person to uncover drug-resistance genes, but virus sequences have also been used in several high-profile court cases by lawyers seeking to show who infected whom. This has led some HIV carriers to wonder if they might be able to do the same. "HIV sequences have been used by lawyers seeking to show who infected whom” "The data won't work for that," warns Deenan Pillay of University College London - because HIV evolves too fast. This means that even though the viruses from two people may look similar, other local viruses may even be more alike. Analysing them can't show whether A infected B or vice versa, whether it went through a third person or whether both were infected by another person.
09/24/07 - Bats may use magnetic polarity for navigation
 Researchers have found that bats have a special ability to detect the polarity of a magnetic field, meaning that the creatures can tell the difference between north and south. The only other animal known to have this ability is the mole rat, while birds, fish, amphibians, and all other non-mammals possess a different version of the magnetic compass. In their experiment, the scientists studied the reactions of Nyctalus plancyi bats in an experimental chamber when exposed to an altered magnetic field. The team recorded the hanging positions of the bats with an infrared camera, and then used Helmholtz coils to generate a magnetic field that aligned with the local geomagnetic axis at Beijing, where the experiment took place, with twice the intensity of Earth’s magnetic field. After exposing the bats to the induced magnetic field for several days, the researchers then altered the horizontal and vertical components of the field, both simultaneously and independently. As the group explained, altering the vertical field affects the magnetic inclination, while altering the horizontal field affects the magnetic polarity. Many birds and other non-mammals are known to react to inclination, meaning that they can use information about the different angles that the Earth’s magnetic field is tilted toward the Earth to determine relative latitude. For example, inclination is 90 degrees at the poles (perpendicular to the Earth) and 0 degrees at the equator (parallel to the Earth)-similar to the pattern that lead filings make when placed around a bar magnet. Some birds, like the Arctic Tern, use inclination to annually navigate all the way from the North Pole to the South Pole and back. However, unlike birds, the bats did not react to a change in the vertical field, implying that they do not use inclination when roosting or navigating. On the other hand, when the researchers altered the horizontal field, the bats changed their hanging positions, switching from the northern to the southern end of their basket.
09/24/07 - Testes may be man's repair kit
 Dr Shahin Rafii of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute say they've found a way of teaching mice stem cells that normally make sperm to make other tissues as well and to grow those cells into batches big enough to use medically. This provides a new source of stem cells, the body's master cells, which experts hope can be used to treat injuries, replace diseased tissue and perhaps even regenerate organs. They are hoping to find the same potential source of adult stem cells in humans. The testes are among many new potential sources of adult stem cells. Other researchers, for example, have found them in blood, bone marrow and other tissue. Other, more primitive cells have been found in the placenta and amniotic fluid. In general, the more primitive the stem cell, the more flexible it is and the more various tissues it can be used to make. A small little sample of flesh from the testicles should provide enough cells to work with, Rafii says.
Once isolated, they grew the mouse cells into blood vessel, heart and muscle cells. These could provide a perfectly matched transplant for the patient himself and perhaps others as well. "They can also be transferred to other individuals who are a genetic match. You could even give it to a sister if they are genetically compatible," Rafii says.
09/24/07 - Salmon sperm LEDs
Prof Andrew Steckl says, "Biological materials have many technologically important qualities - electronic, optical, structural, magnetic." "But certain materials are hard to duplicate, such as DNA and proteins."It seems that DNA - quite apart from its other well-known properties - is especially useful as an electron trap in LEDs. "It allows improvements in one to two orders of magnitude in terms of efficiency, light, brightness - because we can trap electrons longer," explains Steckl. You or I, not being top scientists, would perhaps be stumped if asked to find a source of DNA - in industrial quantities, mind - which fulfilled these requirements. But not Steckl, who came up with sperm. "Salmon sperm is considered a waste product of the fishing industry - it's thrown away by the ton," the Prof says, thankfully without going into detail.
09/22/07 - Eyeshield for Sleeping
 (Link courtesy of Bob Paddock. - JWD) Good sleep quality and quantity is important to a healthy life. This invention combines the functions of an eyeshade, speakers, timer, microphone, and voice recognition software to provide a restful environment for the user for a controlled period of time. Naps when traveling or in sleep rooms at work are potential applications, but the device can also be used at home - for example, when one spouse works very different hours from the other. In operation, the timer creates an awakening sound when the set time expires. The user can control the device using commands issued to the voice recognition system. By connecting the device to a media or communications appliance such as a cell phone, computer, or digital audio player, music or other sounds can play through the speakers. The included voice recognition system can also be used to control a connected appliance, such as a computer. Benefits Summary - o Promotes healthful and beneficial sleep. o Shields the eyes against intrusive light, for example, from a person entering a darkened room and turning on the lights while someone else in the room is sleeping. o Provides a timer function to wake the user. o Provides one or more audio speakers to help create a restful and soothing environment to promote restful sleep, such as soft music or white noise, from a cell phone, computer, or DAP. o Incorporates voice recognition software to allow controlling a connected appliance.
09/22/07 - Jettison-D®: diesel emission reducer and fuel economizer
(Link courtesy of Bob Paddock. - JWD) The Jettison D® is a revolutionary ionizer that works in conjunction with a diesel engine’s emission control system to decrease the amount of pollutants emitted while improving fuel economy, reducing maintenance and enhancing engine performance. It changes unburned oil droplets and vapors emitted from the engine into light, very burnable hydrocarbons and returns them to the engine’s intake manifold to be burned. The Jettison’s small size, light weight and easy installation make it the ideal solution for use on a wide range of diesel engines. The Jettison-D dramatically decreases the amount of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxide (NO) and particulate matter (PM) emitted by diesel engines while improving fuel economy and engine performance. Development Summary - The first round of independent testing has been completed for a small diesel engine application. Additional testing and refinement of the device, including defining optimal installation and operating conditions, are needed before commercialization. The Company recently modified the Jettison for diesel applications and in the first quarter of 2007 completed the first round of testing in an EPA-certified emissions testing laboratory. Test results showed dramatic reductions in HC (-8.5%) and PM (-12.3%), small reductions in CO (-2.3), NOX (-1.1) and, with slight increase in power (+.5) and increases in fuel economy that ranged from 5% - 6%.
09/22/07 - Solar-Powered Laser
 A new kind of efficient, solar-powered laser has been developed by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in Japan. They hope to use the laser to help them realize their goal of developing a magnesium combustion engine. The idea, says Takashi Yabe, a professor of mechanical engineering and science at the Tokyo Institute, is to make a powerful laser capable of combusting the magnesium content of seawater. In the process, large amounts of heat and hydrogen are given off. Magnesium has great potential as an energy source because it has an energy storage density about 10 times higher than that of hydrogen, says Yabe. It is also highly abundant, with about 1.3 grams found in every liter of seawater, or about 1,800 trillion metric tons in our oceans, he says. Moreover, the magnesium oxide resulting from the reaction can be converted back into magnesium, says Yabe. The catch? Recycling the magnesium oxide back into magnesium requires temperatures of 4,000 kelvins (3,726 ºC)--hence the need for a laser to generate such temperatures on a small spot. The other innovation of Yabe's laser is the use of a small Fresnel lens instead of large mirror lenses. Fresnel lenses reduce the size and amount of material needed to build a lens by breaking it into concentric rings of lenses. Typically, 10 percent of incident light is focused on the crystal, whereas with the Fresnel, it's around 80 percent. "In our case, we used only 1.3 meter squared and achieved 25 watts," says Yabe. Although this is only a threefold increase, the laser output exponentially increases with the increasing area. "So we are expecting 300 to 400 watts with the four-meter-squared Fresnel lens," he says.
09/22/07 - Can Magnets Boost Ethanol Production?
Brazilian researchers report that exposure to magnetic fields increased ethanol yields by as much as 17 percent. Brazil gets a third of its fuel from sugarcane-based ethanol, and ethanol producers want to increase that figure by refining the fermentation process. The researchers at the University of Campinas, in Brazil, say that they boosted ethanol yield 17 percent and shaved two hours off of a 15-hour fermentation process simply by circulating the fermentation brew past six magnets, each about the size of an overstuffed wallet. "The fermentation time can be reduced, and consequently, the production cost can also be reduced," says Victor Haber Perez, the University of Campinas food engineer who led the research team. In 2003, Brazilian researchers at the Federal University of Pernambuco, in Recife, created a stir with a report that a static magnetic field caused marked increases in the growth of yeast and the ethanol concentration in laboratory-scale fermentations that used Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (S. cerevisiae is the yeast most commonly used in the Brazilian biofuels industry to produce ethanol from sugarcane.) A year later, however, Spanish radiobiologists at the University of Malaga threw that work into doubt, reporting that they had observed no stimulation of S. cerevisiae when it was subjected to a (much weaker, admittedly) magnetic field. They also failed to observe any impact from the alternating magnetic fields used in some earlier studies. Perez and his colleagues set out to settle the matter, using controlled experiments in a state-of-the-art industrial bioreactor. They diverted the fermentation mixture of sugarcane molasses and yeast out of the reactor via stainless-steel pipes that passed between six magnets with a combined field strength of 20 milliteslas--roughly halfway between the strengths of the magnets employed in previous tests. The results confirmed the 2003 report from the group in Recife: a static magnetic field increased the yeast's rate of sugar metabolism and boosted ethanol production by 9 percent. The higher 17 percent increase was observed when Perez employed a solenoid--basically, a wire coil around the magnets--to alternate the 20-millitesla field.
09/22/07 - Saint Sells Homes
With home sales falling to five-year lows, homeowners desperate to sell their homes are looking for a little divine intervention. Dawn Hoernemann of Minneapolis, Minnesota, had her one-bedroom home on the market for four months. Every weekend there was an open house. But there were no offers. That's until she took her mom's advice and buried a statue of St. Joseph upside down in her front yard. The next week, she had three offers and her home was sold. "I couldn't believe it. I don't know what it is about it. It worked. It's some sort of a miracle," says Hoernemann. This "miracle" has it roots in Catholicism. According to the tradition, burying St. Joseph began hundreds of years ago in Europe. St. Teresa of Avila, a nun in the 16th century, buried a medal of the saint and prayed to St. Joseph to help secure land for a convent. The ritual is said to have worked, and so the trend of burying St. Joseph has caught on. Just ask Phil Cates of Modesto, California. His online retail site, StJosephStatue.com, offers the "Underground Real Estate Agent" home-selling kits. For $9.95, the 4-inch statue comes with a burial bag and a burial instruction booklet. There's even an 8-inch version of the statue for larger homes. Sales have increased 100 percent in the past two years, according to Cates.
09/22/07 - Rapeseed biofuel ‘produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petrol’
Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists found that the use of biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised. The research team found that 3 to 5 per cent of the nitrogen in fertiliser was converted and emitted. In contrast, the figure used by the International Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the extent and impact of man-made global warming, was 2 per cent. The findings illustrated the importance, the researchers said, of ensuring that measures designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are assessed thoroughly before being hailed as a solution.
09/22/07 - Police probe 'Superman' flying man sighting
 (Thanks to Bill Ward for this headsup. This could be a hoax using a radio controlled man shaped balloon, based on the description of being slow moving. I don't have the video link to study and couldn't find it on the net yet. Such cases need to exhibit novel flight characteristics that can't be explained with known technology. - JWD) Police are investigating after villagers in Romania claimed to see a Superman-like figure flying through the sky. Almost 20 villagers, from Gemeni, Mehedinti county, claim the UFO was wearing a shiny blue suit, just like Superman's. Police officers took written statements from all of the witnesses and say they described the figure in the same way. Local policeman Ion Anuta said: "We talked to people of different ages who are all reliable citizens in our village. "They all said they saw this strange creature who flew over their houses in his shiny blue costume. We'll just have to see what happens next." Villager Constantin Toader, 41, said: "He looked like Superman and was flying slowly at about 100 yards from the ground in a standing position. He didn't make any smoke or sound. Just cruising around." / Personal Flight - some accounts including flying carpets. / Grebennikov's Platform - a natural gravity deflecting material used for flight.
09/22/07 - Do You Need a Permit to Land on the Moon?
"With the recent announcement of Google's X-prize for a successful private landing of a robot on the Moon, someone has asked the Explainer at Slate.com if permission is required to land something on the Moon? Turns out that while there is no authority that regulates landing objects on another world, getting there does require the permission of the national government from where the launch takes place. This is in accordance with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by 91 nations, which regulates the uses of outer space by the nations of Earth. Specifically, Article VI enjoins: 'The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty.' Start your paperwork!"
09/20/07 - GTG aids Israeli firm to produce water from air
An Israeli company will soon launch a device for producing water from air. This revolutionary Israeli invention, could meet the all household drinking water needs, and with the addition of solar energy, produce substantially greater quantities.
09/20/07 - 21st-century pack mule: MIT's 'exoskeleton' lightens the load
 Their invention, known as an exoskeleton, can support much of the weight of a heavy backpack and transfer that weight directly to the ground, effectively taking a load off the back of the person wearing the device. In the September issue of the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, the researchers report that their prototype can successfully take on 80 percent of an 80-pound load carried on a person's back, but there's one catch: The current model impedes the natural walking gait of the person wearing it. "You can definitely tell it's affecting your gait," said Conor Walsh, a graduate student who worked on the project, but "you do feel it taking the load off and you definitely feel less stress on your upper body." "Our dream is that 20 years from now, people won't go to bike racks--they'll go to leg racks," he said. Exoskeleton devices could boost the weight that a person can carry, lessen the likelihood of leg or back injury and reduce the perceived level of difficulty of carrying a heavy load. The person wearing the exoskeleton places his or her feet in boots attached to a series of tubes that run up the leg to the backpack, transferring the weight of the backpack to the ground. Springs at the ankle and hip and a damping device at the knee allow the device to approximate the walking motion of a human leg, with a very small external power input (one watt). Other research teams have produced exoskeleton devices that can successfully carry a load but require a large power source (about 3,000 watts, supplied by a gasoline engine). When the MIT researchers tested their device, they found that although the load borne by the wearer's back was lightened, the person carrying the load had to consume 10 percent more oxygen than normal, because of the extra effort to compensate for the gait interference.
09/20/07 - Greenswitch shuts down unused devices
GreenSwitch, a wireless energy control system that turns off all electronics in standby mode in your home. It was originally designed for hotels, but can save "25 to 45% in energy costs" depending on how much standby stuff you have in your house, which still draws power even when not on. Stick the nonessential stuff (TV, DVD player, PS3, space heater) in one outlet controlled by GreenSwitch, and essential stuff (DVR) in another, so you can flip everything off when you leave the house.
09/20/07 - Worm Infestation - Good For Your Health?
 Blood-sucking hookworms seemed to make people healthier. Earlier this year in Nottingham, Prof Pritchard received a shipment of Necator americanus for a worldwide first trial using hookworms as a treatment for auto-immune diseases, in which the immune system goes into overdrive. Initial results presented yesterday to the British Association for the Advancement of Science's conference in York, show that the hookworms appear to "down regulate" the immune system. Trials with hay fever sufferers confirmed that the hookworms stimulate the body to produce white blood cells called regulatory T-cells, that dampen down the immune response. Volunteers are being recruited for a second trial with asthma sufferers and there are plans for studies on Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis. Prof Pritchard, who has infected his body with 50 hookworms, said yesterday that asthma tended to be concentrated in the developed world. "If you superimpose a map of where hookworms are found, you will see that asthma and hookworms seem to be mutually exclusive," he said. "Similarly, Crohn's disease seems to be a disease of the developed world." Necator americanus is estimated to infect one billion people in tropical and subtropical countries. It attaches itself to the intestinal wall, sucking blood, and can remain in the body for five years. Prof Pritchard said that after the hookworms migrated to his gut he felt "a dull ache under the rib cage". It was decided the correct dosage was ten - any more resulted in discomfort; any fewer and the immune-suppressing effects were not strong enough. The worms cannot reproduce inside the body and are eradicated with tablets.
09/20/07 - Anti-HIV Pill Could Save Millions
The drug in question is tenofovir, one of the cocktail of anti-retroviral medications given to HIV patients. In studies on monkeys, the drug has been shown to be very effective in protecting them against the simian version of the human immunodeficiency virus that can lead to AIDS, and it is now being tested in humans. US health authorities are funding five separate trials involving high risk groups such as gay and bisexual men, sex workers and intravenous drug users, on four continents. The researchers looked at three different scenarios. In the first they assumed that the drug was effective 90 percent of the time, and that 75 percent of the sexually active population (15-49 year-olds) could be persuaded to pop a daily pill to protect themselves from HIV. If that rosy scenario panned out, the strategy could potentially cut new HIV infections by a whopping 74 percent over a decade, according to the computer projections. If the drug was only effective 60 percent of the time and used by just 50 percent of the sexually active population, the reduction fell to about 25 percent over the same time period. Finally, the researchers modelled a scenario where the drug was effective 30 percent of the time and only a quarter of the target population used it, yielding a reduction in new cases of a mere 3.3 percent. Even assuming that the drug does prove as effective in humans as it was in monkeys in protecting healthy individuals from infection, it is "never going to be feasible to treat the entire population," Abbas noted. But even if governments or aid agencies were able to find the funds to supply the drug to the most sexually active individuals - an estimated 18 percent of the population - it could still make a big dent in the problem, slashing the infection rate by almost 30 percent over a decade. That translates to 3.2 million cases.
09/20/07 - Temporarily Pin Documents with Your Stapler
 (Wow, I never knew this! - JWD)
Blogger Jacob Grier discovers what Wikipedia calls "the least known stapling method": pinning. If you rotate the plate on the bottom of your stapler, it will bend staples outward instead of inward to fasten things temporarily. Easily remove a pinned staple by pulling it along the plane of the document. Many modern staplers don't have this feature any more, so pick up an old-school model to try it out. (via lifehacker.com)
09/20/07 - Haptic Radar Headband Gives Wearer "Sixth-Sense"
 "New Scientist reports on a headband developed at the University of Tokyo that allows the wearer to feel their surroundings at a distance - as if they had cats whiskers. Infrared sensors positioned around the headband vibrate to signal when and where an object is close. There are also a few great videos of people using it to dodge stuff while blindfolded." / The system is composed of an array of "optical-hair modules", each of which senses range information and transduces it as an appropriate vibro-tactile cue on the skin directly beneath it. An analogy for our artificial sensory system in the animal world would be the cellular cilia, insect antennae, as well as the specialized sensory hairs of mammalian whiskers. In the future, this modular interface may cover precise skin regions or be distributed in over the entire body surface and then function as a double-skin with enhanced and tunable sensing capabilities. In a word, what we are proposing here is to build artificial, wearable, ligh-based hairs (or antennae). The actual hair stem will be an invisible, steerable laser beam. In the near future, we may be able to create on-chip, skin-implantable whiskers using MOEMS technology. Results in a similar direction have been already achieved in the framework of the smart laser scanner project in our lab. Our first prototype (headband configuration) provides the wearer with 360 degrees of spatial awareness and had very positive reviews in our proof-of-principle experiments.
09/20/07 - Antimatter Molecule Should Boost Laser Power
"Molecules made by combining an electron with their anti-particle positron have been created by researchers at the University of California Riverside. The team's long term goal is to use the exotic material to create 'an annihilation gamma ray laser', potentially one million times more powerful than existing lasers. 'An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule ... '"
09/20/07 - Journalist Test Drives The Pain Ray Gun
 Journalist Michael Hanlon recently got the opportunity to experience the Army's new not-so-secret weapon, dubbed "Silent Guardian". The Silent Guardian is essentially (even though the creators prefer you not refer to it as such) a ray gun, emitting a focused beam of radiation similar to your microwave tuned to a specific frequency to stimulate human nerve endings. "It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile. Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury. But anyone in the beam's path will feel, over their entire body, the agonizing sensation I've just felt on my fingertip. The prospect doesn't bear thinking about."
09/20/07 - Aerosol Spray to Identify Bombing Suspects
"Forensic chemists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a color-changing spray that can identify people suspected of making or planting bombs. The chemical turns from yellow to bright red when it comes into contact with urea nitrate, an explosive residue that may be left behind on the hands of someone who has handled an improvised device."
09/20/07 - Video - 32 AA batteries for $5?
Don't want to spend a wad of cash on AA batteries to power your gadgets? Trim down your spending by cracking open the case of a single 6 volt battery which sells for about $5. Inside you'll find a whopping 32 AA batteries! Considering that you can get 8 watch batteries from a 12-volt battery and 6 AAA batteries from a 9-volt battery, this isn't surprising, but since AA batteries are the most popular among the three, this should yield considerable savings. (via lifehacker.com)
09/20/07 - Intelligent, even Chatty Machines
 A new company called Cognitive Code has built software that it believes will let everyday gadgets talk with humans. At the Techcrunch40 conference in San Francisco on Monday, the startup unveiled a developer's studio with a set of algorithms that convert strings of words into concepts and formulate a wordy response. The developer's studio could let businesses, such as cell-phone manufacturers and toy makers, use the technology to add conversational abilities to a product. Some computer programs are already able to parse basic information from inputs that don't match exact commands. Well-known examples are chatbots such as Alice and Jabberwacky, programs that simulate a conversation via text input. Spring claims that Cognitive Code's product, SILVIA (which stands for symbolically isolated, linguistically variable intelligence algorithm), is more advanced than chatbots for a couple of reasons. First, SILVIA remembers and understands the context of a conversation. For instance, if you're talking about the movie Star Wars and ask what the plot is, the system refers to earlier pieces of the conversation to retrieve an explanation of the movie's plot instead of giving a general definition of plot, or the plot of some other movie or book that was discussed before Star Wars. The other key aspect of SILVIA that makes it different, says Spring, is its ability to comprehend concepts that are worded in a variety of ways and produce uniquely worded responses. "You can speak to SILVIA using whatever phrase you want," says Spring, "and it extracts meaning. And on the reverse end, we have algorithms that can put [responses] back into human language. Sometimes we're surprised at the way SILVIA creates these things." The system work |
