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http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/53216-mine-could-ease-us-dependency-on-china-for-phone-components
"Within two years the mine could be producing 20% of the amount of rare earths we import from China."
by Emma Woollacott
A US company has received permission to reopen a large rare earths mine, easing fears that the country was becoming too dependent on Chinese imports of the substances needed for mobile phones, solar cells and other technologies.
While rare earths aren't actually particularly rare, they are hard to extract, and China currently enjoys a near-monopoly - over 90 percent of rare earths are mined and processed there.
During the autumn, the country warned that it was considering the introduction of stringent export regulations, leading to fears that this could seriously hamper the US tech industry. It's already raised export tariffs.
But now Molycorp says it's reopening its Mountain Pass mine in California, with the aim of producing as much as 20,000 tons of rare earths - equivalent to about 20 percent of China's output.
It's signed joint venture agreements with Hitachi Metals for the manufacture of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) alloys and magnets.
"These joint ventures are an integral part of Molycorp’s 'mine-to-magnets' business plan, and they move our Company and the United States one step closer to realizing the strategic goal of re-establishing a complete rare earth manufacturing supply chain in the US," said Mark Smith, Molycorp’s CEO.
Colorado-based Molycorp is the only rare earth oxide producer in the western hemisphere, but currently only produces around 3,000 metric tons of commercial
rare earth materials per year. The new mine and processing facility will increase this amount seven-fold over the next two years, producing high-purity oxides, metals, alloys, and permanent magnets.
More...
U.S. Rare Earth Mine Resumes Active Mining
By Michael Kan, IDG News
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/214938/us_rare_earth_mine_resumes_active_mining.html
Monday, December 27, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
New solar fuel machine 'mimics plant life'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12051167
By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News
A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel.
The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.
Conventional photovoltaic panels must use the electricity they generate in situ, and cannot deliver power at night.
Details are published in the journal Science.
The prototype, which was devised by researchers in the US and Switzerland, uses a quartz window and cavity to concentrate sunlight into a cylinder lined with cerium oxide, also known as ceria.
Ceria has a natural propensity to exhale oxygen as it heats up and inhale it as it cools down.
If as in the prototype, carbon dioxide and/or water are pumped into the vessel, the ceria will rapidly strip the oxygen from them as it cools, creating hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide.
Hydrogen produced could be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells in cars, for example, while a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used to create "syngas" for fuel.
It is this harnessing of ceria's properties in the solar reactor which represents the major breakthrough, say the inventors of the device. They also say the metal is readily available, being the most abundant of the "rare-earth" metals.
Methane can be produced using the same machine, they say.
Refinements needed
The prototype is grossly inefficient, the fuel created harnessing only between 0.7% and 0.8% of the solar energy taken into the vessel.
Most of the energy is lost through heat loss through the reactor's wall or through the re-radiation of sunlight back through the device's aperture.
But the researchers are confident that efficiency rates of up to 19% can be achieved through better insulation and smaller apertures. Such efficiency rates, they say, could make for a viable commercial device.
"The chemistry of the material is really well suited to this process," says Professor Sossina Haile of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). "This is the first demonstration of doing the full shebang, running it under (light) photons in a reactor."
She says the reactor could be used to create transportation fuels or be adopted in large-scale energy plants, where solar-sourced power could be available throughout the day and night.
However, she admits the fate of this and other devices in development is tied to whether states adopt a low-carbon policy.
"It's very much tied to policy. If we had a carbon policy, something like this would move forward a lot more quickly," she told the BBC.
It has been suggested that the device mimics plants, which also use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to create energy as part of the process of photosynthesis. But Professor Haile thinks the analogy is over-simplistic.
"Yes, the reactor takes in sunlight, we take in carbon dioxide and water and we produce a chemical compound, so in the most generic sense there are these similarities, but I think that's pretty much where the analogy ends."
The PS10 solar tower plant near Seville, Spain. Mirrors concentrate the sun's power on to a central tower, driving a steam turbine The PS10 solar tower plant near Seville, Spain. Mirrors concentrate the sun's power on to a central tower, driving a steam turbine
Daniel Davies, chief technology officer at the British photovoltaic company Solar Century, said the research was "very exciting".
"I guess the question is where you locate it - would you put your solar collector on a roof or would it be better off as a big industrial concern in the Sahara and then shipping the liquid fuel?" he said.
Solar technology is moving forward apace but the overriding challenges remain ones of efficiency, economy and storage.
New-generation "solar tower" plants have been built in Spain and the United States which use an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto tower-mounted receivers which drive steam turbines.
A new Spanish project will use molten salts to store heat from the Sun for up to 15 hours, so that the plant could potentially operate through the night.
http://www.cafepress.com/FallowFields/6743721
http://www.cafepress.com/FallowFields/6744051
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Parking lot note
I wrote to the driver of the Jeep Cherokee parked in front of me at the grocery store this morning, but fortunately never had to deliver:
Hoping the driver would return to their vehicle before I slipped my message under their wiper blade to avoid possible self incrimination, I looked up from my yellow pad as a red-haired, middle-aged woman walked up to the driver's side door. I stepped out of my car with a proud 'Excuse me, ma'am' and relayed my observation. She paused with a smirk and said "That must be the one I hit this morning, I'll deal with it when I get home" and drove away with Lucky, the wavering white feathers patched together with raspberry jam.
Hoping the driver would return to their vehicle before I slipped my message under their wiper blade to avoid possible self incrimination, I looked up from my yellow pad as a red-haired, middle-aged woman walked up to the driver's side door. I stepped out of my car with a proud 'Excuse me, ma'am' and relayed my observation. She paused with a smirk and said "That must be the one I hit this morning, I'll deal with it when I get home" and drove away with Lucky, the wavering white feathers patched together with raspberry jam.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Google launches Latin translation tool
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8034196/Google-launches-Latin-translation-tool.html
Google has added Latin to its list of languages on Google Translate
By Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor 11:07AM BST 30 Sep 2010
Google Translate supports more than 50 languages, including minority languages such as Welsh and Haitian Creole, and the addition of Latin is sure to please scholars and traditionalists.
In a blog post, written entirely in Latin, Jakob Uszkoreit, a senior engineer at Google, said that Latin was far from a “dead language”.
“There are many Latin language learners,” he wrote. “Over 100,000 American students take the National Latin Exam every year and many more learn Latin all of the world. And there is a wealth of information originally written in it.”
He said that while Google recognised that the Latin translation tool would rarely be used to decipher emails or captions on YouTube videos, it would enable web users to read many of the crucially important philosophical and scientific texts originally written in this language.
“There are tens of thousands of scanned books written in Latin on Google Books, and many more contain Latin quotes and proverbs,” he wrote.
Google has added Latin to its list of languages on Google Translate
By Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor 11:07AM BST 30 Sep 2010
Google Translate supports more than 50 languages, including minority languages such as Welsh and Haitian Creole, and the addition of Latin is sure to please scholars and traditionalists.
In a blog post, written entirely in Latin, Jakob Uszkoreit, a senior engineer at Google, said that Latin was far from a “dead language”.
“There are many Latin language learners,” he wrote. “Over 100,000 American students take the National Latin Exam every year and many more learn Latin all of the world. And there is a wealth of information originally written in it.”
He said that while Google recognised that the Latin translation tool would rarely be used to decipher emails or captions on YouTube videos, it would enable web users to read many of the crucially important philosophical and scientific texts originally written in this language.
“There are tens of thousands of scanned books written in Latin on Google Books, and many more contain Latin quotes and proverbs,” he wrote.
Friday, December 10, 2010
US cable: Cuba to be insolvent within 2-3 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101210/ap_on_bi_ge/cb_wikileaks_cuba_2
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Paul Haven, Associated Press – Fri Dec 10, 12:04 pm ET
HAVANA – A newly released confidential U.S. diplomatic cable predicted Cuba's economic situation could become "fatal" within two to three years, and detailed concerns from other countries' diplomats — including China — that the communist-run country has been slow to adopt reforms.
The cable was written in February, months before Cuban President Raul Castro announced a major revamp of the island's economy, laying out plans to fire a half-million state workers and open up the island to expanded forms of private enterprise.
The cable, sent by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, was released Friday by WikiLeaks. It was apparently written by America's chief diplomat on the island, Jonathan Farrar.
There was no immediate reaction from the Cuban government, but the cable's release is not likely to help improve U.S.-Cuban relations already strained by the long detention of an American contractor on suspicion of spying — not to mention 50 years of Cold War animus.
It details a breakfast meeting held by the Interests Section's chief economic officer with diplomats from some of Cuba's main trading partners, including China, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Italy, as well as France and Japan, both of which are among the island's top creditors.
"All diplomats agreed that Cuba could survive this year without substantial policy changes, but the financial situation could become fatal within 2-3 years," the cable said, adding that Italian diplomats cited sources within the Cuban government as predicting that the island "would become insolvent as early as 2011."
Even the Chinese diplomat expressed what the cable referred to as "visible exasperation." It said the Chinese were particularly annoyed by Cuba's insistence on retaining majority control of any joint venture.
"No matter whether a foreign business invests $10 million or $100 million, the GOC's (Government of Cuba's) investment will always add up to 51%," the cable quoted the unidentified Chinese commercial counselor as saying.
The Chinese also complained about problems getting loans repaid, and in particular a Cuban request to extend from one year to four years the amount of time it has to repay credit.
It is no secret that Cuba's financial situation is increasingly dire. Raul Castro has warned that the state can no longer afford to subsidize nearly all forms of Cuban life. The government provides free health care and education, and nearly free transportation, housing and utilities. All Cubans also receive a ration book that provides them with some basic food, though not enough to live on.
Most islanders work for just $20 a month in a state-dominated economic system riddled with inefficiency.
Yet the country has survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, which caused the near-failure of its economy, as well as a 48-year U.S. trade embargo, the retirement of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in 2006 and countless other bumps along the way.
And the cable's confidence that the government would not enact economic reforms did not pan out. The reforms announced by Raul Castro in September are considered the most significant in a generation. Still, it is unclear if they will be enough to save the island's perennially weak economy.
The cable said Cuba's attempts at agricultural and other reform up to that point had been ineffective, and said more changes were unlikely. It said the country seemed determined to give the more control over state-run businesses to the military, and particularly Agriculture Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro, whom the cable described as Raul Castro's most trusted general.
The cable said the situation would worsen dramatically should there be economic or political problems involving Cuba's top ally, Venezuela, which the dispatch said was "increasingly unstable." It quoted the French diplomat at the meeting as saying Hugo Chavez's country "is in flames" and "a source of serious concern for Cuba."
Cuba receives billions of dollars worth of oil a year from Venezuela at greatly subsidized prices in exchange for the services of Cuban doctors and other help.
"There is little prospect of economic reform in 2010 despite an economic crisis that is expected to get even worse for Cuba in the next few years," the cable said, citing Cuba experts. It closed with a scathing criticism of the leadership of a government ruled by aging brothers Fidel and Raul Castro since they overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
The government's "direction and leadership remains muddled and unclear, in great measure because its leaders are paralyzed by fear that reforms will loosen the tight grip on power that they have held for over 50 years," it said.
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Paul Haven, Associated Press – Fri Dec 10, 12:04 pm ET
HAVANA – A newly released confidential U.S. diplomatic cable predicted Cuba's economic situation could become "fatal" within two to three years, and detailed concerns from other countries' diplomats — including China — that the communist-run country has been slow to adopt reforms.
The cable was written in February, months before Cuban President Raul Castro announced a major revamp of the island's economy, laying out plans to fire a half-million state workers and open up the island to expanded forms of private enterprise.
The cable, sent by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, was released Friday by WikiLeaks. It was apparently written by America's chief diplomat on the island, Jonathan Farrar.
There was no immediate reaction from the Cuban government, but the cable's release is not likely to help improve U.S.-Cuban relations already strained by the long detention of an American contractor on suspicion of spying — not to mention 50 years of Cold War animus.
It details a breakfast meeting held by the Interests Section's chief economic officer with diplomats from some of Cuba's main trading partners, including China, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Italy, as well as France and Japan, both of which are among the island's top creditors.
"All diplomats agreed that Cuba could survive this year without substantial policy changes, but the financial situation could become fatal within 2-3 years," the cable said, adding that Italian diplomats cited sources within the Cuban government as predicting that the island "would become insolvent as early as 2011."
Even the Chinese diplomat expressed what the cable referred to as "visible exasperation." It said the Chinese were particularly annoyed by Cuba's insistence on retaining majority control of any joint venture.
"No matter whether a foreign business invests $10 million or $100 million, the GOC's (Government of Cuba's) investment will always add up to 51%," the cable quoted the unidentified Chinese commercial counselor as saying.
The Chinese also complained about problems getting loans repaid, and in particular a Cuban request to extend from one year to four years the amount of time it has to repay credit.
It is no secret that Cuba's financial situation is increasingly dire. Raul Castro has warned that the state can no longer afford to subsidize nearly all forms of Cuban life. The government provides free health care and education, and nearly free transportation, housing and utilities. All Cubans also receive a ration book that provides them with some basic food, though not enough to live on.
Most islanders work for just $20 a month in a state-dominated economic system riddled with inefficiency.
Yet the country has survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, which caused the near-failure of its economy, as well as a 48-year U.S. trade embargo, the retirement of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in 2006 and countless other bumps along the way.
And the cable's confidence that the government would not enact economic reforms did not pan out. The reforms announced by Raul Castro in September are considered the most significant in a generation. Still, it is unclear if they will be enough to save the island's perennially weak economy.
The cable said Cuba's attempts at agricultural and other reform up to that point had been ineffective, and said more changes were unlikely. It said the country seemed determined to give the more control over state-run businesses to the military, and particularly Agriculture Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro, whom the cable described as Raul Castro's most trusted general.
The cable said the situation would worsen dramatically should there be economic or political problems involving Cuba's top ally, Venezuela, which the dispatch said was "increasingly unstable." It quoted the French diplomat at the meeting as saying Hugo Chavez's country "is in flames" and "a source of serious concern for Cuba."
Cuba receives billions of dollars worth of oil a year from Venezuela at greatly subsidized prices in exchange for the services of Cuban doctors and other help.
"There is little prospect of economic reform in 2010 despite an economic crisis that is expected to get even worse for Cuba in the next few years," the cable said, citing Cuba experts. It closed with a scathing criticism of the leadership of a government ruled by aging brothers Fidel and Raul Castro since they overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
The government's "direction and leadership remains muddled and unclear, in great measure because its leaders are paralyzed by fear that reforms will loosen the tight grip on power that they have held for over 50 years," it said.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
George Lucas Wants to Resuscitate Dead Actors Using Computers
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/George-Lucas-Wants-to-Resuscitate-Dead-Actors-Using-Computers-111400864.html?dr
From the horrible ideas department comes the news from George Lucas that he's buying "the film rights to dead actors." You know, so he can resurrect them virtually for upcoming movies. Oh, come on, George.
Yes, there may someday be yet another Star Wars reissue, but this time with Alec Guinness referencing Facebook to Luke. You know, so a new generation of kids will be able to "get it!"
Look for actors to start laying out their film rights in their wills to prevent this from happening pretty much ASAP. Because when you're dead, you don't have the power to say no to George Lucas.
On the contrary, what actor for money, would NOT want this kind of shot at true immortality? What an ego boost for this narcissistic egotistical crowd. Look for their agents to be negotiating the right price, and their press agents to be putting the best face on whatever the negotiations yield.
From the horrible ideas department comes the news from George Lucas that he's buying "the film rights to dead actors." You know, so he can resurrect them virtually for upcoming movies. Oh, come on, George.
Yes, there may someday be yet another Star Wars reissue, but this time with Alec Guinness referencing Facebook to Luke. You know, so a new generation of kids will be able to "get it!"
Look for actors to start laying out their film rights in their wills to prevent this from happening pretty much ASAP. Because when you're dead, you don't have the power to say no to George Lucas.
On the contrary, what actor for money, would NOT want this kind of shot at true immortality? What an ego boost for this narcissistic egotistical crowd. Look for their agents to be negotiating the right price, and their press agents to be putting the best face on whatever the negotiations yield.
Solar-Powered Hornet
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9254000/9254445.stm
Oriental hornets powered by 'solar energy'
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy, scientists have discovered.
The large wasp species has a special structure in its abdomen that traps the sun's rays, and a special pigment that harvests the energy they contain.
The discovery helps explain why these hornets have a large yellow stripe across their body and why they become more active as the day gets hotter.
It also changes our understanding of how insect metabolism can work.
Xanthopterin works as a light harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy
The discovery, reported in the journal Naturwissenschaften, was made by a team of researchers working in Israel and the UK, led by Dr Marian Plotkin of Tel-Aviv University.
Wasps are usually most active in the early morning, when they are around twice as active as at any other point in the day.
Oriental hornets (Vespa orientalis), which range from the Near East to India, are most active in the middle of the day.
Scientists have also long observed that Oriental hornet workers, which dig out nests underground, correlate their digging activity with the intensity of sunlight.
However, it was unclear why these Oriental hornets behave in this way.
Warming up
That was until one biologist, the late Professor Jacob S Ishay, proposed that the insects may somehow be capable of harvesting solar radiation.
Dr Plotkin's team has now tested this hypothesis, with remarkable results.
Using an atomic force microscope, they examined the fine structure of the hornet's cuticle, hard layers of which form the insect's outer body, or exoskeleton.
The part of the cuticle coloured brown is made from an array of grooves, with a height of just 160 nanometres.
The structure of the yellow part of the hornet's body is different.
This is made from a series of oval-shaped protrusions, each containing a pinhole-sized depression. Each protrusion is just 50nm tall and interlocks with another.
Further tests revealed what these structures do.
Essentially, say the researchers, they stop light being reflected off the hornet's body. Instead the light is trapped, and harvested for energy.
Oriental hornet (image: Dûrzan Cîrano)
The yellow pigment harvests light
The brown part of the insect's body has the best anti-reflectance properties, helping to split any sunlight that falls upon it into several beams travelling in different directions.
The cuticle also contains a second thin sheet-like structure, with a series of sheets stacked on top of each other, with decreasing thickness from top to bottom.
Stacked together in every layer are rod-like structures composed of chains of a polymer called chitin. These rods are embedded in a protein matrix.
This intricate structure further serves to trap light within the cuticle, forcing it to bounce between different layers.
Capturing the sun
But the ability of the hornets to harvest solar energy does not stop there.
Within this cuticle is a pigment that actually captures the energy of the sun's rays.
"The pigment melanin gives the hornet its dominant brown colour. The pigment xanthopterin, in the head and abdomen in a form of stripes and bands, gives the Oriental hornet its bright yellow colour," explains Dr Plotkin.
"Xanthopterin works as a light harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy."
The hornets' ability to convert sunlight in this way could explain why they become more active during the middle of the day, when the light intensity is highest.
"We assume that some of the energy is transformed in a photo-biochemical process which aids the hornets with their energy demanding digging activity," Dr Plotkin told the BBC.
The solar-powered hornets have one further unique claim.
Until now, insects were thought to perform metabolism in an organ known as the fat body, which performs a similar function to the human liver.
SOURCES
Visit the journal Naturwissenschaften to learn more about hornets harvesting solar energy
Most of the fat body is in an insect's abdomen surrounding the gut, where it can quickly take up absorbed nutrients, though some is scattered elsewhere.
"We have found that the main metabolic activity in the Oriental hornet is actually in the yellow pigment layer," says Dr Plotkin.
Oriental hornets powered by 'solar energy'
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy, scientists have discovered.
The large wasp species has a special structure in its abdomen that traps the sun's rays, and a special pigment that harvests the energy they contain.
The discovery helps explain why these hornets have a large yellow stripe across their body and why they become more active as the day gets hotter.
It also changes our understanding of how insect metabolism can work.
Xanthopterin works as a light harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy
The discovery, reported in the journal Naturwissenschaften, was made by a team of researchers working in Israel and the UK, led by Dr Marian Plotkin of Tel-Aviv University.
Wasps are usually most active in the early morning, when they are around twice as active as at any other point in the day.
Oriental hornets (Vespa orientalis), which range from the Near East to India, are most active in the middle of the day.
Scientists have also long observed that Oriental hornet workers, which dig out nests underground, correlate their digging activity with the intensity of sunlight.
However, it was unclear why these Oriental hornets behave in this way.
Warming up
That was until one biologist, the late Professor Jacob S Ishay, proposed that the insects may somehow be capable of harvesting solar radiation.
Dr Plotkin's team has now tested this hypothesis, with remarkable results.
Using an atomic force microscope, they examined the fine structure of the hornet's cuticle, hard layers of which form the insect's outer body, or exoskeleton.
The part of the cuticle coloured brown is made from an array of grooves, with a height of just 160 nanometres.
The structure of the yellow part of the hornet's body is different.
This is made from a series of oval-shaped protrusions, each containing a pinhole-sized depression. Each protrusion is just 50nm tall and interlocks with another.
Further tests revealed what these structures do.
Essentially, say the researchers, they stop light being reflected off the hornet's body. Instead the light is trapped, and harvested for energy.
Oriental hornet (image: Dûrzan Cîrano)
The yellow pigment harvests light
The brown part of the insect's body has the best anti-reflectance properties, helping to split any sunlight that falls upon it into several beams travelling in different directions.
The cuticle also contains a second thin sheet-like structure, with a series of sheets stacked on top of each other, with decreasing thickness from top to bottom.
Stacked together in every layer are rod-like structures composed of chains of a polymer called chitin. These rods are embedded in a protein matrix.
This intricate structure further serves to trap light within the cuticle, forcing it to bounce between different layers.
Capturing the sun
But the ability of the hornets to harvest solar energy does not stop there.
Within this cuticle is a pigment that actually captures the energy of the sun's rays.
"The pigment melanin gives the hornet its dominant brown colour. The pigment xanthopterin, in the head and abdomen in a form of stripes and bands, gives the Oriental hornet its bright yellow colour," explains Dr Plotkin.
"Xanthopterin works as a light harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy."
The hornets' ability to convert sunlight in this way could explain why they become more active during the middle of the day, when the light intensity is highest.
"We assume that some of the energy is transformed in a photo-biochemical process which aids the hornets with their energy demanding digging activity," Dr Plotkin told the BBC.
The solar-powered hornets have one further unique claim.
Until now, insects were thought to perform metabolism in an organ known as the fat body, which performs a similar function to the human liver.
SOURCES
Visit the journal Naturwissenschaften to learn more about hornets harvesting solar energy
Most of the fat body is in an insect's abdomen surrounding the gut, where it can quickly take up absorbed nutrients, though some is scattered elsewhere.
"We have found that the main metabolic activity in the Oriental hornet is actually in the yellow pigment layer," says Dr Plotkin.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
FCC Proposes Pay-as-you-go Internet option
http://bbedit.sx.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101208/NEWS0107/12080351/1011&nav_category=
Pay-as-you-go Internet option draws scrutiny
By Cecilia Kang / The Washington Post
Published: December 08. 2010 4:00AM PST
WASHINGTON — As details emerge about the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial proposal for regulating Internet providers, a provision that would allow companies to bill customers for how much they surf the Web is drawing special scrutiny.
Analysts say pay-as-you-go Internet access could put the brakes on the burgeoning online video industry, handing a victory to cable and satellite TV providers.
The practice is legal, but had been discouraged by the FCC and by protests from consumers and public interest groups. But wireless companies are moving rapidly in that direction — all major cell phone providers offer subscribers tiered data plans.
AT&T doesn’t offer flat-rate wireless plans for new customers.
And although FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said last week that his so-called Net-neutrality proposal would generally prohibit broadband service providers from tampering with Internet traffic, he added that he is open to new billing models that charge by how much data a user consumes.
Public interest groups say that trend will lead to a widening gap in Internet use in which the wealthiest would have the greatest access. And it could place limits on how much consumers use Web video, which eats up an enormous amount of bandwidth and could carry higher costs under a tiered pricing plan.
“The question is how this will be enforced because it has the potential to do a lot of harm,” said Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge.
By blessing tiered pricing practices, Genachowski said he wanted to strike a balance between consumer protection and promoting “network investment and efficient use of networks, including measures to match price to cost such as usage-based pricing.”
An FCC official said in a statement that it would be a “cop on the beat” for “arbitrary, anti-consumer, or anti-competitive tiered pricing plans.”
Vote set for Dec. 21
The FCC will vote Dec. 21 on the proposal, which could tilt fortunes toward cable and telecom companies battling to keep users from abandoning paid television services for new Internet options such as Apple TV and Hulu.com, analysts say. Those providers are struggling to manage overburdened networks that are seeing a surge in streaming video traffic from sites such as Netflix, which alone occupies 20 percent of all peak broadband traffic in the United States.
“If people are forced to pay per kilobit, it’s like they are forced to pay per word of a book,” said Todd Weaver, chief executive of Ivi, a Seattle-based video streaming company.
Craig Moffett, an analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that the impact of pay-as-you-go broadband access “can’t be overstated.”
“Usage-based pricing will preserve, and even enhance, the economics of cable’s infrastructure — even if consumers eventually get some, or even all, of their video content over the Web,” Moffett wrote.
At a UBS investors conference Tuesday, Comcast chief executive Neil Smit said the cable and Internet giant doesn’t have plans to move to usage based pricing. The firm, which is seeking regulatory approval for its merger with NBC Universal, has a cap on Internet use to 250 gigabytes — enough data to provide hours of streaming video viewing.
Kyle McSlarrow, president of the trade group Nation Cable and Telecommunications Association, wrote in a blog post that usage-based pricing gives cable companies the flexibility they need to experiment with new business models.
“A usage-based pricing model, for instance, might help spur adoption by price-sensitive consumers at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder,” he wrote.
It is also a way for cable firms to prevent users from “cutting the cord,” or canceling their television services, analysts say.
Genachowski’s draft proposal is vague on language about how broadband providers could charge partners to serve up their sites faster, according to one source at the FCC who has seen a draft of the rules. Known as “paid prioritization,” the FCC’s proposal could make it easier for Time Warner Cable, for example, to strike a deal to serve up faster downloads of Hulu.com.
Bandwidth hogs
With tiered usage caps, that could lead to higher Internet charges for subscribers of bandwidth-hogging sites such as Netflix.
“Usage-based pricing is a clear positive for cable, telecom and wireless providers, but it also might be a concern for Netflix,” said MF Global analyst Paul Gallant. “Depending on where the tiers were set, usage-based pricing on wire line broadband could end up deterring some people from dropping cable for over-the-top video.”
Netflix has argued against paid prioritization of services over the Web. In its third-quarter conference call, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said the company is watching usage pricing with concern.
“We have some vulnerability depending on cap usage and what happens,” he said.
Pay-as-you-go Internet option draws scrutiny
By Cecilia Kang / The Washington Post
Published: December 08. 2010 4:00AM PST
WASHINGTON — As details emerge about the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial proposal for regulating Internet providers, a provision that would allow companies to bill customers for how much they surf the Web is drawing special scrutiny.
Analysts say pay-as-you-go Internet access could put the brakes on the burgeoning online video industry, handing a victory to cable and satellite TV providers.
The practice is legal, but had been discouraged by the FCC and by protests from consumers and public interest groups. But wireless companies are moving rapidly in that direction — all major cell phone providers offer subscribers tiered data plans.
AT&T doesn’t offer flat-rate wireless plans for new customers.
And although FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said last week that his so-called Net-neutrality proposal would generally prohibit broadband service providers from tampering with Internet traffic, he added that he is open to new billing models that charge by how much data a user consumes.
Public interest groups say that trend will lead to a widening gap in Internet use in which the wealthiest would have the greatest access. And it could place limits on how much consumers use Web video, which eats up an enormous amount of bandwidth and could carry higher costs under a tiered pricing plan.
“The question is how this will be enforced because it has the potential to do a lot of harm,” said Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge.
By blessing tiered pricing practices, Genachowski said he wanted to strike a balance between consumer protection and promoting “network investment and efficient use of networks, including measures to match price to cost such as usage-based pricing.”
An FCC official said in a statement that it would be a “cop on the beat” for “arbitrary, anti-consumer, or anti-competitive tiered pricing plans.”
Vote set for Dec. 21
The FCC will vote Dec. 21 on the proposal, which could tilt fortunes toward cable and telecom companies battling to keep users from abandoning paid television services for new Internet options such as Apple TV and Hulu.com, analysts say. Those providers are struggling to manage overburdened networks that are seeing a surge in streaming video traffic from sites such as Netflix, which alone occupies 20 percent of all peak broadband traffic in the United States.
“If people are forced to pay per kilobit, it’s like they are forced to pay per word of a book,” said Todd Weaver, chief executive of Ivi, a Seattle-based video streaming company.
Craig Moffett, an analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that the impact of pay-as-you-go broadband access “can’t be overstated.”
“Usage-based pricing will preserve, and even enhance, the economics of cable’s infrastructure — even if consumers eventually get some, or even all, of their video content over the Web,” Moffett wrote.
At a UBS investors conference Tuesday, Comcast chief executive Neil Smit said the cable and Internet giant doesn’t have plans to move to usage based pricing. The firm, which is seeking regulatory approval for its merger with NBC Universal, has a cap on Internet use to 250 gigabytes — enough data to provide hours of streaming video viewing.
Kyle McSlarrow, president of the trade group Nation Cable and Telecommunications Association, wrote in a blog post that usage-based pricing gives cable companies the flexibility they need to experiment with new business models.
“A usage-based pricing model, for instance, might help spur adoption by price-sensitive consumers at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder,” he wrote.
It is also a way for cable firms to prevent users from “cutting the cord,” or canceling their television services, analysts say.
Genachowski’s draft proposal is vague on language about how broadband providers could charge partners to serve up their sites faster, according to one source at the FCC who has seen a draft of the rules. Known as “paid prioritization,” the FCC’s proposal could make it easier for Time Warner Cable, for example, to strike a deal to serve up faster downloads of Hulu.com.
Bandwidth hogs
With tiered usage caps, that could lead to higher Internet charges for subscribers of bandwidth-hogging sites such as Netflix.
“Usage-based pricing is a clear positive for cable, telecom and wireless providers, but it also might be a concern for Netflix,” said MF Global analyst Paul Gallant. “Depending on where the tiers were set, usage-based pricing on wire line broadband could end up deterring some people from dropping cable for over-the-top video.”
Netflix has argued against paid prioritization of services over the Web. In its third-quarter conference call, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said the company is watching usage pricing with concern.
“We have some vulnerability depending on cap usage and what happens,” he said.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Our Guilt-Trigger Consumer Society
I first noticed this annoying pose pervasive in stock photography at least seven years ago. Yet, I ran across it again today and decided it was time to make a declaration against this visual meme.
Almost as clichéd and yet diametrically opposed to the post WWII McCarthy era man holding his chin, I ask rhetorically because we certainly already know, what does this pose intend to suggest about the woman? Oh my, a 50-60% divorce rate and a down economy, should I? The cake, the ring on her finger, and the tucked-away tagline 'Live the Moment'- naughty, naughty. Eat that apple.
The reluctant subject should be wearing all black with white gloves, face painted white as they mime the desired effect so loudly that we are pummeled by the ad's desperate attempt to manipulate their intended target. The model who is dressed as a bride shares a pose commonly depicted by those intended to portray naughty catholic school girls.
There must be a secret committee of accountants and marketers who have carved stone tablets entitled 'best practices' which decree a list of formulas that are believed necessary for achieving bottom line. I'm really starting to think so, the more I hear the same sequences of music occurring in jingles as in 'new' pop music, jargon used in news and political campaigns, 'actors' overused in remakes of movies and songs that were successful in the past, recycled and guerilla fashion that leaves nothing to the imagination. The intended assault on the consumer is to bend them into permanent submission through addiction and trance, but the punches are so telegraphed that consumers are starting to point at the Emperor's new clothes.
"THINK was a one-word slogan developed by IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. It appeared in IBM offices, plants and company publications in the 1920s and in the early 1930s began to take precedence over other slogans in IBM..."
Nothing wrong with 'Think Different', thanks, Apple...but...
Endulge? Isn't that how we got fat in the first place?
So, I offer one small contribution to the deconstruction of our stagnating culture, from here on out, let no photographer make use of the finger hook-to-bottom lip/teeth pose, for the sake of humanity and the free world.
Aging Reversed In Mice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans
Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans
Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs
Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.
The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.
An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.
"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
"This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."
The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.
The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.
At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing.
"These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.
Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.
DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.
David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."
Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."
DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.
Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers."
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html
Telomerase reverses ageing process
Dramatic rejuvenation of prematurely aged mice hints at potential therapy.
Ewen Callaway
telomeresProtecting chromosome tips doesn't just prevent ageing. It can reverse it.Peter Lansdorp/Visuals Unlimited/Corbis
Premature ageing can be reversed by reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes, a study in mice suggests.
Mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, become prematurely decrepit. But they bounced back to health when the enzyme was replaced. The finding, published online today in Nature1, hints that some disorders characterized by early ageing could be treated by boosting telomerase activity.
It also offers the possibility that normal human ageing could be slowed by reawakening the enzyme in cells where it has stopped working, says Ronald DePinho, a cancer geneticist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who led the new study. "This has implications for thinking about telomerase as a serious anti-ageing intervention."
Other scientists, however, point out that mice lacking telomerase are a poor stand-in for the normal ageing process. Moreover, ramping up telomerase in humans could potentially encourage the growth of tumours.
Eternal youth
After its discovery in the 1980s, telomerase gained a reputation as a fountain of youth. Chromosomes have caps of repetitive DNA called telomeres at their ends. Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompts them to stop dividing and die. Telomerase prevents this decline in some kinds of cells, including stem cells, by lengthening telomeres, and the hope was that activating the enzyme could slow cellular ageing.
Two decades on, researchers are realizing that telomerase's role in ageing is far more nuanced than first thought. Some studies have uncovered an association between short telomeres and early death, whereas others have failed to back up this link. People with rare diseases characterized by shortened telomeres or telomerase mutations seem to age prematurely, although some tissues are more affected than others.
“They are not studying normal ageing, but ageing in mice made grossly abnormal.”
David Harrison
Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine
When mice are engineered to lack telomerase completely, their telomeres progressively shorten over several generations. These animals age much faster than normal mice — they are barely fertile and suffer from age-related conditions such as osteoporosis, diabetes and neurodegeneration. They also die young. "If you look at all those data together, you walk away with the idea that the loss of telomerase could be a very important instigator of the ageing process," says DePinho.
To find out if these dramatic effects are reversible, DePinho's team engineered mice such that the inactivated telomerase could be switched back on by feeding the mice a chemical called 4-OHT. The researchers allowed the mice to grow to adulthood without the enzyme, then reactivated it for a month. They assessed the health of the mice another month later.
"What really caught us by surprise was the dramatic reversal of the effects we saw in these animals," says DePinho. He describes the outcome as "a near 'Ponce de Leon' effect" — a reference to the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who went in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth. Shrivelled testes grew back to normal and the animals regained their fertility. Other organs, such as the spleen, liver and intestines, recuperated from their degenerated state.
The one-month pulse of telomerase also reversed effects of ageing in the brain. Mice with restored telomerase activity had noticeably larger brains than animals still lacking the enzyme, and neural progenitor cells, which produce new neurons and supporting brain cells, started working again.
"It gives us a sense that there's a point of return for age-associated disorders," says DePinho. Drugs that ramp up telomerase activity are worth pursuing as a potential treatment for rare disorders characterized by premature ageing, he says, and perhaps even for more common age-related conditions.
Cancer link
The downside is that telomerase is often mutated in human cancers, and seems to help existing tumours grow faster. But DePinho argues that telomerase should prevent healthy cells from becoming cancerous in the first place by preventing DNA damage.
David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, agrees there is evidence that activating telomerase might prevent tumours. If the treatment can be made safe, he adds, "it could lead to breakthroughs in restoring organ function in the elderly and treating a variety of diseases of aging."
Other researchers are less confident that telomerase can be safely harnessed. "Telomere rejuvenation is potentially very dangerous unless you make sure that it does not stimulate cancer," says David Harrison, who researches ageing at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Harrison also questions whether mice lacking telomerase are a good model for human ageing. "They are not studying normal ageing, but ageing in mice made grossly abnormal," he says. Tom Kirkwood, who directs the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, UK, agrees, pointing out that telomere erosion "is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause" of ageing in humans.
DePinho says he recognizes that there is more to ageing than shortened telomeres, particularly late in life, but argues that telomerase therapy could one day be combined with other therapies that target the biochemical pathways of ageing. "This may be one of several things you need to do in order to extend lifespan and extend healthy living," he says.
Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans
Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs
Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.
The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.
An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.
"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
"This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."
The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.
The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.
At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing.
"These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.
Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.
DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.
David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."
Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."
DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.
Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers."
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html
Telomerase reverses ageing process
Dramatic rejuvenation of prematurely aged mice hints at potential therapy.
Ewen Callaway
telomeresProtecting chromosome tips doesn't just prevent ageing. It can reverse it.Peter Lansdorp/Visuals Unlimited/Corbis
Premature ageing can be reversed by reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes, a study in mice suggests.
Mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, become prematurely decrepit. But they bounced back to health when the enzyme was replaced. The finding, published online today in Nature1, hints that some disorders characterized by early ageing could be treated by boosting telomerase activity.
It also offers the possibility that normal human ageing could be slowed by reawakening the enzyme in cells where it has stopped working, says Ronald DePinho, a cancer geneticist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who led the new study. "This has implications for thinking about telomerase as a serious anti-ageing intervention."
Other scientists, however, point out that mice lacking telomerase are a poor stand-in for the normal ageing process. Moreover, ramping up telomerase in humans could potentially encourage the growth of tumours.
Eternal youth
After its discovery in the 1980s, telomerase gained a reputation as a fountain of youth. Chromosomes have caps of repetitive DNA called telomeres at their ends. Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompts them to stop dividing and die. Telomerase prevents this decline in some kinds of cells, including stem cells, by lengthening telomeres, and the hope was that activating the enzyme could slow cellular ageing.
Two decades on, researchers are realizing that telomerase's role in ageing is far more nuanced than first thought. Some studies have uncovered an association between short telomeres and early death, whereas others have failed to back up this link. People with rare diseases characterized by shortened telomeres or telomerase mutations seem to age prematurely, although some tissues are more affected than others.
“They are not studying normal ageing, but ageing in mice made grossly abnormal.”
David Harrison
Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine
When mice are engineered to lack telomerase completely, their telomeres progressively shorten over several generations. These animals age much faster than normal mice — they are barely fertile and suffer from age-related conditions such as osteoporosis, diabetes and neurodegeneration. They also die young. "If you look at all those data together, you walk away with the idea that the loss of telomerase could be a very important instigator of the ageing process," says DePinho.
To find out if these dramatic effects are reversible, DePinho's team engineered mice such that the inactivated telomerase could be switched back on by feeding the mice a chemical called 4-OHT. The researchers allowed the mice to grow to adulthood without the enzyme, then reactivated it for a month. They assessed the health of the mice another month later.
"What really caught us by surprise was the dramatic reversal of the effects we saw in these animals," says DePinho. He describes the outcome as "a near 'Ponce de Leon' effect" — a reference to the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who went in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth. Shrivelled testes grew back to normal and the animals regained their fertility. Other organs, such as the spleen, liver and intestines, recuperated from their degenerated state.
The one-month pulse of telomerase also reversed effects of ageing in the brain. Mice with restored telomerase activity had noticeably larger brains than animals still lacking the enzyme, and neural progenitor cells, which produce new neurons and supporting brain cells, started working again.
"It gives us a sense that there's a point of return for age-associated disorders," says DePinho. Drugs that ramp up telomerase activity are worth pursuing as a potential treatment for rare disorders characterized by premature ageing, he says, and perhaps even for more common age-related conditions.
Cancer link
The downside is that telomerase is often mutated in human cancers, and seems to help existing tumours grow faster. But DePinho argues that telomerase should prevent healthy cells from becoming cancerous in the first place by preventing DNA damage.
David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, agrees there is evidence that activating telomerase might prevent tumours. If the treatment can be made safe, he adds, "it could lead to breakthroughs in restoring organ function in the elderly and treating a variety of diseases of aging."
Other researchers are less confident that telomerase can be safely harnessed. "Telomere rejuvenation is potentially very dangerous unless you make sure that it does not stimulate cancer," says David Harrison, who researches ageing at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Harrison also questions whether mice lacking telomerase are a good model for human ageing. "They are not studying normal ageing, but ageing in mice made grossly abnormal," he says. Tom Kirkwood, who directs the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, UK, agrees, pointing out that telomere erosion "is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause" of ageing in humans.
DePinho says he recognizes that there is more to ageing than shortened telomeres, particularly late in life, but argues that telomerase therapy could one day be combined with other therapies that target the biochemical pathways of ageing. "This may be one of several things you need to do in order to extend lifespan and extend healthy living," he says.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
China, Russia Quit Dollar
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-11/24/content_11599087.htm
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.
The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.
"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.
Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.
The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.
Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.
Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.
Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.
Wen's trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world's biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.
Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".
Over the past year, "our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level," Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.
"China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power," he said.
"The modernization of China will not affect other countries' interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries."
Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.
Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.
Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.
Wen arrived in the northern Russian city on Monday evening for a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government.
He left St. Petersburg for Moscow late on Tuesday and is set to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.
Agencies and Zhou Wa contributed to this story.
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.
The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.
"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.
Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.
The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.
Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.
Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.
Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.
Wen's trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world's biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.
Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".
Over the past year, "our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level," Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.
"China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power," he said.
"The modernization of China will not affect other countries' interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries."
Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.
Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.
Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.
Wen arrived in the northern Russian city on Monday evening for a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government.
He left St. Petersburg for Moscow late on Tuesday and is set to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.
Agencies and Zhou Wa contributed to this story.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
iPad competitors: The top 20 to watch
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=6460
by Jason Hiner
The Apple iPad has re-energized the market for tablet computers but it has gone nearly all of 2010 without a serious challenger. That’s changing. Here’s is my updated list of the top 20 upstarts that are taking aim at the iPad.
The best way to view this list is the companion slide show so that you can get a look at each of the tablets. Otherwise, you can get a quick summary in the list below. I’ve only featured tablets that have at least 7-inch screens and that have been officially announced (in most cases). The list also serves as a ranking. I’ve put the ones that are the most promising and the most likely to actually make it to market at the top of the list.
1. Samsung Galaxy Tab
Based on a similar design to the Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, this 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet is loaded with strong specs and will be available on many different carriers, including all of the big four in the US. It is the iPad’s most serious competitor to arrive in 2010.
3. BlackBerry PlayBook
Aimed at stopping the iPad’s momentum with executives and business professionals, the 7-inch BlackBerry tablet will be built on its own QNX operating system and is flush with power with a 1 GHz dual core CPU and 1 GB of RAM. But, battery life could be an issue and the PlayBook won’t arrive until 2011. RIM recently said the PlayBook will sell for under $500, which will make it a tempting enterprise device.
4. Cisco Cius
Primarily an enterprise communications and collaboration device, the Cisco Cius is an 7-inch Android tablet with a heavy layer of Cisco customization on top. Consumers won’t be interested, but existing Cisco customers who want a corporate-controlled tablet might be.
2. HP Slate 500
Announced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010 in January, this HP “Slate PC” running Windows 7 was intended to preempt Apple’s iPad announcement later that month. It was reportedly canceled in mid-2010 when HP bought Palm and said it was going to create a webOS tablet instead. Then, the HP Slate 500 was revived this fall. HP recently admitted that demand for the Slate 500 has been stronger than the company anticipated.
5. Toshiba Libretto
One of the more innovative tablet competitors is the Libretto with its dual 7-inch multi-touch screens. One screen can be used entirely as a virtual keyboard while you work on the other. It runs Windows 7 acts a little more like a netbook than a tablet but it’s an interesting concept.
6. ViewSonic ViewPad 100
This 10-inch tablet dual boots Windows 7 and Android 1.6. It has an LED display, 1 GB of RAM, a 1.66 GHz CPU, and a 16 GB onboard SSD drive.
7. ASUS Eee Pad
Now one of the world’s top five computer makers and one of the leaders in design, ASUS has talked throughout the year about launching various iPad competitors (branded “Eee Pad”) from 9-inch to 12-inch models, running Windows 7, Windows Embedded Compact, or Android. ASUS has promised a tablet will be coming in the first quarter of 2011.
8. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
One of the big hits of CES 2010, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a convertible tablet with a multi-touch screen that detaches from a hardware keyboard. The main system runs Windows 7 but the detachable 11.6-inch screen turns into a standalone tablet running Linux. It has been delayed until 2011, but Lenovo says the standalone tablet will also be released separately as the Lenovo LePad.
9. Archos 10.1
Archos is a PDA and tablet company that has been trying to break into this market for a couple years with several different form factors and operating systems. The company could have a moderate success with its 10-inch tablet running Android 2.2
10. Toshiba Folio 100
This 10-inch tablet runs on the Nvidia Tegra processor and Android 2.2. Unlike the Toshiba Libretto, this is a standard slate form factor. It’s a vanilla tablet that Toshiba will try to price as low as possible.
11. LG Android tablet
We don’t know much about this one other than it will run Android, have “high-end features,” focus on productivity, and LG executive Chang Ma said ”Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”
12. MSI WindPad 100
This one is expected to come in both Windows 7 and Android versions. The Windows version has heavy specs with an Intel Atom processor, 2 GB of RAM, 2 USB ports, an HDMI port, and a 32 GB SSD drive.
13. Notion Ink Adam
One of the more intriguing iPad alternatives is the Adam from Notion Ink. It features a very slim, attractive design in a 10-inch tablet with a unique Pixel Qi display, Nvidia Tegra2, and Android 2.2.
14. NEC LifeTouch
This 7-inch Android 2.1 tablet is primarily aimed at accessing apps over the network and will be launched first in Japan. It will be sold to enterprises rather than consumers and NEC envisions it being used for health care, sales, and logistics work.
15. ExoPC Slate
This is a minimalistic tablet running Windows 7, an 11-inch display, and an Intel Atom processor. It has its own custom UI running on top of Windows and is focused primarily on multimedia.
16. Motion J3500
Motion has been on the most effective Tablet PC makers for niche industries, even as Microsoft let the Tablet PC platform languish in recent years. The J3500 is a ruggedized tablet that can run up to a Core i7 processor and Windows 7. It has both Microsoft’s traditional pen technology as well as capacitive touchscreen. It’s expensive but powerful.
17. Viliv X70 EX
The X70 EX looks less like the iPad and more like the Windows Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) of the past. It’s a 7-inch tablet made to operate with two hands. It’s a Windows + Intel device that is also made to easily mount in your car as a GPS.
18. EnTourage eDGe
Like the Toshiba Libretto, the enTourage eDGe features dual screens, but the eDGe has an e-ink e-reader on one side and an Android tablet OS on the other side.
19. Nefonie WeTab
This tablet (formerly called the “WePad”) runs the MeeGo OS in an 11-inch form factor and is powered by an Intel Atom processor.
20. Augen Gentouch78
Also known as the “K-Mart tablet,” the Gentouch78 is perhaps best known for its low price - $150. However, considering this Android tablet is barely functional, even 150 bucks might be too much to spend on this 7-incher.
by Jason Hiner
The Apple iPad has re-energized the market for tablet computers but it has gone nearly all of 2010 without a serious challenger. That’s changing. Here’s is my updated list of the top 20 upstarts that are taking aim at the iPad.
The best way to view this list is the companion slide show so that you can get a look at each of the tablets. Otherwise, you can get a quick summary in the list below. I’ve only featured tablets that have at least 7-inch screens and that have been officially announced (in most cases). The list also serves as a ranking. I’ve put the ones that are the most promising and the most likely to actually make it to market at the top of the list.
1. Samsung Galaxy Tab
Based on a similar design to the Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, this 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet is loaded with strong specs and will be available on many different carriers, including all of the big four in the US. It is the iPad’s most serious competitor to arrive in 2010.
3. BlackBerry PlayBook
Aimed at stopping the iPad’s momentum with executives and business professionals, the 7-inch BlackBerry tablet will be built on its own QNX operating system and is flush with power with a 1 GHz dual core CPU and 1 GB of RAM. But, battery life could be an issue and the PlayBook won’t arrive until 2011. RIM recently said the PlayBook will sell for under $500, which will make it a tempting enterprise device.
4. Cisco Cius
Primarily an enterprise communications and collaboration device, the Cisco Cius is an 7-inch Android tablet with a heavy layer of Cisco customization on top. Consumers won’t be interested, but existing Cisco customers who want a corporate-controlled tablet might be.
2. HP Slate 500
Announced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010 in January, this HP “Slate PC” running Windows 7 was intended to preempt Apple’s iPad announcement later that month. It was reportedly canceled in mid-2010 when HP bought Palm and said it was going to create a webOS tablet instead. Then, the HP Slate 500 was revived this fall. HP recently admitted that demand for the Slate 500 has been stronger than the company anticipated.
5. Toshiba Libretto
One of the more innovative tablet competitors is the Libretto with its dual 7-inch multi-touch screens. One screen can be used entirely as a virtual keyboard while you work on the other. It runs Windows 7 acts a little more like a netbook than a tablet but it’s an interesting concept.
6. ViewSonic ViewPad 100
This 10-inch tablet dual boots Windows 7 and Android 1.6. It has an LED display, 1 GB of RAM, a 1.66 GHz CPU, and a 16 GB onboard SSD drive.
7. ASUS Eee Pad
Now one of the world’s top five computer makers and one of the leaders in design, ASUS has talked throughout the year about launching various iPad competitors (branded “Eee Pad”) from 9-inch to 12-inch models, running Windows 7, Windows Embedded Compact, or Android. ASUS has promised a tablet will be coming in the first quarter of 2011.
8. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
One of the big hits of CES 2010, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a convertible tablet with a multi-touch screen that detaches from a hardware keyboard. The main system runs Windows 7 but the detachable 11.6-inch screen turns into a standalone tablet running Linux. It has been delayed until 2011, but Lenovo says the standalone tablet will also be released separately as the Lenovo LePad.
9. Archos 10.1
Archos is a PDA and tablet company that has been trying to break into this market for a couple years with several different form factors and operating systems. The company could have a moderate success with its 10-inch tablet running Android 2.2
10. Toshiba Folio 100
This 10-inch tablet runs on the Nvidia Tegra processor and Android 2.2. Unlike the Toshiba Libretto, this is a standard slate form factor. It’s a vanilla tablet that Toshiba will try to price as low as possible.
11. LG Android tablet
We don’t know much about this one other than it will run Android, have “high-end features,” focus on productivity, and LG executive Chang Ma said ”Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”
12. MSI WindPad 100
This one is expected to come in both Windows 7 and Android versions. The Windows version has heavy specs with an Intel Atom processor, 2 GB of RAM, 2 USB ports, an HDMI port, and a 32 GB SSD drive.
13. Notion Ink Adam
One of the more intriguing iPad alternatives is the Adam from Notion Ink. It features a very slim, attractive design in a 10-inch tablet with a unique Pixel Qi display, Nvidia Tegra2, and Android 2.2.
14. NEC LifeTouch
This 7-inch Android 2.1 tablet is primarily aimed at accessing apps over the network and will be launched first in Japan. It will be sold to enterprises rather than consumers and NEC envisions it being used for health care, sales, and logistics work.
15. ExoPC Slate
This is a minimalistic tablet running Windows 7, an 11-inch display, and an Intel Atom processor. It has its own custom UI running on top of Windows and is focused primarily on multimedia.
16. Motion J3500
Motion has been on the most effective Tablet PC makers for niche industries, even as Microsoft let the Tablet PC platform languish in recent years. The J3500 is a ruggedized tablet that can run up to a Core i7 processor and Windows 7. It has both Microsoft’s traditional pen technology as well as capacitive touchscreen. It’s expensive but powerful.
17. Viliv X70 EX
The X70 EX looks less like the iPad and more like the Windows Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) of the past. It’s a 7-inch tablet made to operate with two hands. It’s a Windows + Intel device that is also made to easily mount in your car as a GPS.
18. EnTourage eDGe
Like the Toshiba Libretto, the enTourage eDGe features dual screens, but the eDGe has an e-ink e-reader on one side and an Android tablet OS on the other side.
19. Nefonie WeTab
This tablet (formerly called the “WePad”) runs the MeeGo OS in an 11-inch form factor and is powered by an Intel Atom processor.
20. Augen Gentouch78
Also known as the “K-Mart tablet,” the Gentouch78 is perhaps best known for its low price - $150. However, considering this Android tablet is barely functional, even 150 bucks might be too much to spend on this 7-incher.
Soros: China has better functioning government than U.S., Murdoch Warns Of China Economic Prowess
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/16/soros_china_has_better_functioning_government_than_us
Posted By Joshua Keating
If nothing else, Glenn Beck probably has his top story set for tonight's show:
"There is a really remarkable, rapid shift of power and influence from the United States to China," Mr. Soros said, likening the U.S.'s decline to that of the U.K. after the Second World War.
Because global economic power is shifting, Mr. Soros said China needs to change its focus. "China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests," he said. "They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well."
Mr. Soros even went so far as to say that at times China wields more power than the U.S. because of the political gridlock in Washington. "Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States," he said, a hard statement for him to make because he spent much of his life donating to anti-communist groups in Eastern Europe.
Soros's statement is similar to the frequent "China-for-a-day" musings of columnist Tom Friedman.
On a related subject, Kay King of the Council on Foreign Relations has a new report out on the U.S. congress's impact on national security. King's critiques of congressional procedure, in particular the filibuster, won't be news to anyone who's read recent critiques of congressional dysfunction, but she makes a compelling case that because of limited public interest, congress is effectively abandoning its oversight role on national security affairs. Issues like energy, trade, and immigration are typically treated as purely domestic issues by congress, while membership on foreign affairs committees appeal only to members positioning themselves for higher office or those dependent on ethnic or business special interests.
King writes:
When Congress fails to perform, national security suffers thanks to ill-considered policies, delayed or inadequate resources, and insufficient personnel. Without congressional guidance, allies and adversaries alike devalue U.S. policies because they lack the support of the American people that is provided through their representatives in Congress.
King provides a number of ideas for reform which will hopefully be a bit more palatable to U.S. sensibilities than taking cues on good governance from Beijing.
Murdoch Warns Of China Economic Prowess
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/your_money/murdoch-warns-of-china-economic-prowess-20101116-ncx
NewsCore - The US faces an immense economic challenge from China's explosive economic growth, free trade has gotten a bad rap, and President Barack Obama will have trouble getting reelected, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch told FOX Business Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview.
Speaking with Fox Business' Liz Claman, Murdoch also explained that the US is still in the middle of a very bad recession and defended the motives of the up-and-coming Tea Party.
"What was really scary," Murdoch said, "was when Larry Summers, the chief economic adviser of the President, said, when we look back at the end of the century, people are not going to talk about this recession, they are going to talk about the rise of China."
China, Summers pointed out in a speech earlier Monday at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council in Washington, has doubled its standard of living in less than ten years, compared to the US where it has doubled every thirty years over the last century.
"They [China] have enormous economic power," Murdoch added. "I'm not saying they would use it to hurt people, they would use it to certainly help themselves."
Saying that China's staggering population of 1.3 billion will continue to drive the country's economy, Murdoch added that, "They [China] are not going to give up on expanding and manufacturing jobs, service jobs -- anything at all -- so they can lift the standard of living of the whole population."
The News Corp. chairman also lamented recent discourse on free trade.
"There is a lot of ignorant talk this morning about how free trade has become a dirty word with the public," Murdoch said. "If we don't have free trade, we don't have Walmart, we don't have low prices, we don't have non-inflation.
"We have got to use free trade to sell more to these developing countries like Brazil, like China, like Vietnam and I think it is happening," he added.
On the Tea Party, the political movement that helped energize Republican efforts to retake the House earlier this month, Murdoch said, "People talk about them being extremists. They're not extremists, they're moderate centrists. They simply say that we ought to have a balanced budget with a smaller government and people ought to take more responsibility for themselves and their own lives."
And as to whether Obama will be re-elected president in 2012, Murdoch said, "I don't know."
"He's talking the talk. Will he walk it -- is the big question. I think he has a real problem. I think if he does the sort of things which his commissions are suggesting, then he would be in great danger of losing his left wing base."
And as for the economy, "We're still in a very deep recession," Murdoch said.
"We have got a long way to go and there are a lot of people that are hurting. For a long time we have been living way beyond our means," he added.
"The old-fashioned thing is you used to have to save before you bought your first house," Murdoch said. "That all went by the board. That was all too easy. We have been on an enormous spending and borrowing spree, which is related right into people's lives. Now it is going to be paid for and it is going to be tough on all people, wealthy people as well as poor people."
Posted By Joshua Keating
If nothing else, Glenn Beck probably has his top story set for tonight's show:
"There is a really remarkable, rapid shift of power and influence from the United States to China," Mr. Soros said, likening the U.S.'s decline to that of the U.K. after the Second World War.
Because global economic power is shifting, Mr. Soros said China needs to change its focus. "China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests," he said. "They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well."
Mr. Soros even went so far as to say that at times China wields more power than the U.S. because of the political gridlock in Washington. "Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States," he said, a hard statement for him to make because he spent much of his life donating to anti-communist groups in Eastern Europe.
Soros's statement is similar to the frequent "China-for-a-day" musings of columnist Tom Friedman.
On a related subject, Kay King of the Council on Foreign Relations has a new report out on the U.S. congress's impact on national security. King's critiques of congressional procedure, in particular the filibuster, won't be news to anyone who's read recent critiques of congressional dysfunction, but she makes a compelling case that because of limited public interest, congress is effectively abandoning its oversight role on national security affairs. Issues like energy, trade, and immigration are typically treated as purely domestic issues by congress, while membership on foreign affairs committees appeal only to members positioning themselves for higher office or those dependent on ethnic or business special interests.
King writes:
When Congress fails to perform, national security suffers thanks to ill-considered policies, delayed or inadequate resources, and insufficient personnel. Without congressional guidance, allies and adversaries alike devalue U.S. policies because they lack the support of the American people that is provided through their representatives in Congress.
King provides a number of ideas for reform which will hopefully be a bit more palatable to U.S. sensibilities than taking cues on good governance from Beijing.
Murdoch Warns Of China Economic Prowess
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/your_money/murdoch-warns-of-china-economic-prowess-20101116-ncx
NewsCore - The US faces an immense economic challenge from China's explosive economic growth, free trade has gotten a bad rap, and President Barack Obama will have trouble getting reelected, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch told FOX Business Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview.
Speaking with Fox Business' Liz Claman, Murdoch also explained that the US is still in the middle of a very bad recession and defended the motives of the up-and-coming Tea Party.
"What was really scary," Murdoch said, "was when Larry Summers, the chief economic adviser of the President, said, when we look back at the end of the century, people are not going to talk about this recession, they are going to talk about the rise of China."
China, Summers pointed out in a speech earlier Monday at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council in Washington, has doubled its standard of living in less than ten years, compared to the US where it has doubled every thirty years over the last century.
"They [China] have enormous economic power," Murdoch added. "I'm not saying they would use it to hurt people, they would use it to certainly help themselves."
Saying that China's staggering population of 1.3 billion will continue to drive the country's economy, Murdoch added that, "They [China] are not going to give up on expanding and manufacturing jobs, service jobs -- anything at all -- so they can lift the standard of living of the whole population."
The News Corp. chairman also lamented recent discourse on free trade.
"There is a lot of ignorant talk this morning about how free trade has become a dirty word with the public," Murdoch said. "If we don't have free trade, we don't have Walmart, we don't have low prices, we don't have non-inflation.
"We have got to use free trade to sell more to these developing countries like Brazil, like China, like Vietnam and I think it is happening," he added.
On the Tea Party, the political movement that helped energize Republican efforts to retake the House earlier this month, Murdoch said, "People talk about them being extremists. They're not extremists, they're moderate centrists. They simply say that we ought to have a balanced budget with a smaller government and people ought to take more responsibility for themselves and their own lives."
And as to whether Obama will be re-elected president in 2012, Murdoch said, "I don't know."
"He's talking the talk. Will he walk it -- is the big question. I think he has a real problem. I think if he does the sort of things which his commissions are suggesting, then he would be in great danger of losing his left wing base."
And as for the economy, "We're still in a very deep recession," Murdoch said.
"We have got a long way to go and there are a lot of people that are hurting. For a long time we have been living way beyond our means," he added.
"The old-fashioned thing is you used to have to save before you bought your first house," Murdoch said. "That all went by the board. That was all too easy. We have been on an enormous spending and borrowing spree, which is related right into people's lives. Now it is going to be paid for and it is going to be tough on all people, wealthy people as well as poor people."
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/iran-venezuela-plan-to-build-rival-to-panama-canal-1.324173
Sources tell Haaretz that the recent Nicaragua-Costa Rica border incident was a trial balloon by the creators of a plan to build a new canal in Latin America.
By Shlomo Papirblat
The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal.
Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River – the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred.
Sources in Latin America have told Haaretz that the border incident and the military pressure on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are the first step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with funding and assistance from Iran, to create a substitute for the strategically and economically important Panama Canal.
The plan has aroused concern in Washington, and the U.S. has started behind the scenes efforts to foil it.
Panama is a country with a distinctly pro-American orientation. Since its construction was completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has served as an irreplaceable link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 14,000 ships pass through the canal annually and recently the one millionth ship passed the canal since its opening.
In recent years, the amount goods passing through the canal in each direction totaled about 190 million tons. The transit fees paid by the ships and other canal-related activities account for 75 percent of the annual revenues of Panama's economy. The Panamanian economy and Panamanian stability would be in real danger of collapse if another canal took away its monopoly on shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
In recent years, the government of Ortega, a former Sandinista underground member, has tried to gain control of the San Juan River, which lies on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Costa Rica brought the issue before the international court in The Hague, which after careful examination of historic maps, past agreements and terrain features, determined in July 2009 that the river belonged to Nicaragua, and that the border is located on the southern bank of the river. The court also ruled that Costa Rica had the right of free passage on the river.
However, the results of this ruling are not enough to allow for the implementation of the plan formulated by Venezuela and Nicaragua. In order to build a new canal linking the two oceans, they would also need to control the southern bank of the river and the point where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Several weeks ago, Nicaraguan foreign ministry official informed Costa Rica of Nicaragua's plans to do work to deepen the channel of the San Juan River in order to improve shipping on the waterway. Costa Rica did not oppose the plans, on the condition that the work did not harm the river or the bank on the Costa Rican side of the river.
The apparent engineering project was surprisingly placed under the supervision of Eden Pastora, better known as "Commandante Cero", a hero of the former Sandinista underground. This was a hint that the work had more than a simple engineering purpose.
Two weeks ago, Pastora went to a farm of a Costa Rican citizen in the Calero Island area and told the farm owner that the area belonged to Nicaragua. The farm owner objected and subsequently farm workers were allegedly beaten and farm animals were allegedly killed. The farm owner called Costa Rican police who arrived and reported to their commanders that Nicaraguan troops had entered Costa Rican territory and raised a Nicaraguan flag.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla last week called for a special session of the Organization of American States, located in Washington, but, after a day of talks, no resolution was reached. During the talks, Venezuela supported Nicaragua's position while Panama strongly opposed it.
Chincilla announced on Wednesday that she plans to raise the issue before the United Nations Security Council and again demanded that Nicaraguan soldiers withdraw from Costa Rican territory.
Sources in Latin America consider these events, and the power demonstrated by Nicaragua, as a trial balloon by the creators of the "New Canal Plan" – Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua. Western intelligence agencies are closely following the path of heavy machinery equipment to Nicaragua as well as the activities of Iranians in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.
A U.S. State Department official told Haaretz's Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya on Wednesday that the U.S. is not aware of any plans to build a new canal in Latin America.
In 2007, Chavez announced a plan to build a $350 million road connecting the two oceans and the Iranians have expressed an interest in constructing a port on the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. did not express concern about either of those initiatives.
Sources tell Haaretz that the recent Nicaragua-Costa Rica border incident was a trial balloon by the creators of a plan to build a new canal in Latin America.
By Shlomo Papirblat
The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal.
Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River – the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred.
Sources in Latin America have told Haaretz that the border incident and the military pressure on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are the first step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with funding and assistance from Iran, to create a substitute for the strategically and economically important Panama Canal.
The plan has aroused concern in Washington, and the U.S. has started behind the scenes efforts to foil it.
Panama is a country with a distinctly pro-American orientation. Since its construction was completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has served as an irreplaceable link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 14,000 ships pass through the canal annually and recently the one millionth ship passed the canal since its opening.
In recent years, the amount goods passing through the canal in each direction totaled about 190 million tons. The transit fees paid by the ships and other canal-related activities account for 75 percent of the annual revenues of Panama's economy. The Panamanian economy and Panamanian stability would be in real danger of collapse if another canal took away its monopoly on shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
In recent years, the government of Ortega, a former Sandinista underground member, has tried to gain control of the San Juan River, which lies on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Costa Rica brought the issue before the international court in The Hague, which after careful examination of historic maps, past agreements and terrain features, determined in July 2009 that the river belonged to Nicaragua, and that the border is located on the southern bank of the river. The court also ruled that Costa Rica had the right of free passage on the river.
However, the results of this ruling are not enough to allow for the implementation of the plan formulated by Venezuela and Nicaragua. In order to build a new canal linking the two oceans, they would also need to control the southern bank of the river and the point where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Several weeks ago, Nicaraguan foreign ministry official informed Costa Rica of Nicaragua's plans to do work to deepen the channel of the San Juan River in order to improve shipping on the waterway. Costa Rica did not oppose the plans, on the condition that the work did not harm the river or the bank on the Costa Rican side of the river.
The apparent engineering project was surprisingly placed under the supervision of Eden Pastora, better known as "Commandante Cero", a hero of the former Sandinista underground. This was a hint that the work had more than a simple engineering purpose.
Two weeks ago, Pastora went to a farm of a Costa Rican citizen in the Calero Island area and told the farm owner that the area belonged to Nicaragua. The farm owner objected and subsequently farm workers were allegedly beaten and farm animals were allegedly killed. The farm owner called Costa Rican police who arrived and reported to their commanders that Nicaraguan troops had entered Costa Rican territory and raised a Nicaraguan flag.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla last week called for a special session of the Organization of American States, located in Washington, but, after a day of talks, no resolution was reached. During the talks, Venezuela supported Nicaragua's position while Panama strongly opposed it.
Chincilla announced on Wednesday that she plans to raise the issue before the United Nations Security Council and again demanded that Nicaraguan soldiers withdraw from Costa Rican territory.
Sources in Latin America consider these events, and the power demonstrated by Nicaragua, as a trial balloon by the creators of the "New Canal Plan" – Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua. Western intelligence agencies are closely following the path of heavy machinery equipment to Nicaragua as well as the activities of Iranians in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.
A U.S. State Department official told Haaretz's Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya on Wednesday that the U.S. is not aware of any plans to build a new canal in Latin America.
In 2007, Chavez announced a plan to build a $350 million road connecting the two oceans and the Iranians have expressed an interest in constructing a port on the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. did not express concern about either of those initiatives.
Somali pirates free UK couple Paul and Rachel Chandler
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11752027
A retired British couple have been released by Somali pirates after being held captive for more than a year.
Paul, 60, and Rachel Chandler, 56, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, briefly stopped in Adado, central Somalia, en route to Mogadishu, and then Kenya.
Mrs Chandler said: "I'm enjoying being free". The couple appeared to be in good health.
Pirates boarded their yacht near the Seychelles on 23 October 2009. The BBC has held off reporting their release.
It observed the terms of an injuction obtained by the Chandlers' family which was intended to stop news organisations reporting their release until they were safely out of Somalia.
The couple are now reported to be under the protection of the self-proclaimed administration of Himan and Heeb.
Reports say they have been given mobile phones to allow them to contact relatives and friends in the UK.
'Delighted'
Mrs Chandler, speaking before the flight to Nairobi, Kenya, said: "I'm fine... I'm enjoying being free, although we're still in Somalia.
"The niceities of how we've been kept... are not terribly important. But we are delighted now that we are in the process of being freed and we hope to be out of Somalia, as I said, later in the day."
In Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed met the couple and said the government was pleased they had been freed.
He said the government had "exerted every humanly possible effort to bring you back to your loved ones."
It is not clear if any ransom was paid to secure the couple's release.
In June the couple asked Prime Minister David Cameron whether he was willing to negotiate with the kidnappers.
But the Foreign Office said at the time that the UK government's policy of "not making or facilitating substantive concessions to hostage-takers, including the payment of ransoms, is long-standing and clear".
Earlier this year their captors threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) were not met.
A retired British couple have been released by Somali pirates after being held captive for more than a year.
Paul, 60, and Rachel Chandler, 56, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, briefly stopped in Adado, central Somalia, en route to Mogadishu, and then Kenya.
Mrs Chandler said: "I'm enjoying being free". The couple appeared to be in good health.
Pirates boarded their yacht near the Seychelles on 23 October 2009. The BBC has held off reporting their release.
It observed the terms of an injuction obtained by the Chandlers' family which was intended to stop news organisations reporting their release until they were safely out of Somalia.
The couple are now reported to be under the protection of the self-proclaimed administration of Himan and Heeb.
Reports say they have been given mobile phones to allow them to contact relatives and friends in the UK.
'Delighted'
Mrs Chandler, speaking before the flight to Nairobi, Kenya, said: "I'm fine... I'm enjoying being free, although we're still in Somalia.
"The niceities of how we've been kept... are not terribly important. But we are delighted now that we are in the process of being freed and we hope to be out of Somalia, as I said, later in the day."
In Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed met the couple and said the government was pleased they had been freed.
He said the government had "exerted every humanly possible effort to bring you back to your loved ones."
It is not clear if any ransom was paid to secure the couple's release.
In June the couple asked Prime Minister David Cameron whether he was willing to negotiate with the kidnappers.
But the Foreign Office said at the time that the UK government's policy of "not making or facilitating substantive concessions to hostage-takers, including the payment of ransoms, is long-standing and clear".
Earlier this year their captors threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) were not met.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Future soldiers may be wearing 'Iron Man' suits
***
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/11/iron.man.suit/index.html
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Raytheon is developing a wearable robotic "Iron Man" suit for the military
* The suit gives its wearer 17 times more strength and could be used to lift heavy supplies
* The "Iron Man" suit is projected to cost around $150,000
Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- A lunchtime crowd is gathering beside the parking lot at Raytheon Sarcos, the defense contractor, on a recent day in Salt Lake City. White-collar workers from nearby office parks stand with their yogurt cups and sandwiches, watching with quiet awe as a man in a metal suit -- sort of half-man, half-robot -- performs superhuman feats of strength.
This may be the closest these people will get to a real-life "Iron Man," the character from the comic books and hit movies.
Inside a prosthetic shell of metal and hydraulics, Raytheon test engineer Rex Jameson is putting an XOS-2 exoskeleton through its paces.
As the crowd watches, Jameson uses his robot hydraulic arm to shadowbox, break three inches of pine boards and toss around 72-pound ammunition cases like a bored contestant on the "World's Strongest Man."
The suit moves as he moves and amplifies his strength 17-fold. It doesn't fly though.
Gallery: Deploying 'Iron Man' suit
RELATED TOPICS
* Raytheon Company
* Tony Stark
* Iron Man (Movie)
* DC Comics Inc.
"You don't have this immense feeling of strength," Jameson says. "It's just when you go to do something that you couldn't do without it, then that's when you notice it."
Jameson is part of a team designing in real life what comic books and Hollywood have promised for years: bringing an "Iron Man"-like suit to the battlefield.
Raytheon is seeking to develop the suits to help the U.S. military carry supplies, and claims that one operator in an exoskeleton suit can do the work of two to three soldiers. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to see "Iron Man" suits deployed in the field by 2015.
"The logistics personnel in the military typically move 16,000 pounds a day, which is an awful lot of load," said Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon Sarcos. The XOS-2 suit can be used in tight spaces where a forklift cannot.
And with the extra of strength the robot gives the operator, "that means you exert one pound, and it exerts 17. That's a major amplification of strength and that's all load the person doesn't have to carry themselves," Smith said.
Jameson may be about the furthest thing from the fictional designer of "Iron Man," playboy billionaire Tony Stark. "I roll in a minivan," said the married father of three.
The painted black, steel, aluminum and hydraulic pumps of the wearable robotic suit wrap around Jameson's slight frame, mirroring the human skeleton in form. Its structure runs up the side of Jameson's legs and arms. Its backbone carries the load of the machine, and on this day is tethered to hydraulic power and a team of engineers.
Jameson straps into the suit, stomps his feet into the exoskeleton's modified boots and straps down the snowboardlike bindings.
"I'd describe it as feeling like wearing a backpack -- a light pack -- and really big shoes. It kind of clomps around a bit," he said shortly after the power came on and the suit jerked to life.
"It reacts to the force of your feet, so you want it to react immediately," he added, pulling the bindings tight.
Jameson's hands grip actuators in a fist. Technicians can attach grips and hooks to the robot's hands, some of which look like they would be more useful for combat than for loading supplies.
Jameson said the response time from his movements to the robot reacting is less than 10 milliseconds. He marches around, balances on his tiptoes and kicks a soccer ball around. The peanut gallery at the edge of the parking lot loves it. A woman with a yogurt cup shakes her head in disbelief.
Raytheon's Smith also sees soldiers using the robot in a modified form -- from the waist down -- to help carry equipment and take the strain off their legs during long marches.
One big obstacle, however, is how to power the suit. Raytheon is working on reducing the energy load; the version demonstrated on this day runs off hydraulic power from the Sarcos shop. Smith said chemically powered batteries such as lithium ions are not powerful enough to run the suit for eight to 24 hours at a time.
Batteries also raise concerns over safety.
"If they get breached, they aren't gentle in the way they explode," Smith said. A single-cylinder gas or diesel-powered engine may do the trick instead, he said.
The wearable robotics suit is now in its second iteration. XOS-2 has all its wires and hydraulics fully enclosed, unlike the first prototype, whose innards were more exposed. That would be problematic in places such as Afghanistan or Iraq, where a sand-encrusted robot would mean a dead robot.
"Sand, water, mud are all things we like to keep out of the system, and these current [robotic suits] include sealing strategies that basically exclude them." Smith said.
While the suit has obvious military applications, Smith also sees broader commercial possibilities -- and a shorter timetable. He said if orders come in and production ramps up, within three years you could have your very own $150,000 "Iron Man" suit to help push boxes around your warehouse.
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/11/iron.man.suit/index.html
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Raytheon is developing a wearable robotic "Iron Man" suit for the military
* The suit gives its wearer 17 times more strength and could be used to lift heavy supplies
* The "Iron Man" suit is projected to cost around $150,000
Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- A lunchtime crowd is gathering beside the parking lot at Raytheon Sarcos, the defense contractor, on a recent day in Salt Lake City. White-collar workers from nearby office parks stand with their yogurt cups and sandwiches, watching with quiet awe as a man in a metal suit -- sort of half-man, half-robot -- performs superhuman feats of strength.
This may be the closest these people will get to a real-life "Iron Man," the character from the comic books and hit movies.
Inside a prosthetic shell of metal and hydraulics, Raytheon test engineer Rex Jameson is putting an XOS-2 exoskeleton through its paces.
As the crowd watches, Jameson uses his robot hydraulic arm to shadowbox, break three inches of pine boards and toss around 72-pound ammunition cases like a bored contestant on the "World's Strongest Man."
The suit moves as he moves and amplifies his strength 17-fold. It doesn't fly though.
Gallery: Deploying 'Iron Man' suit
RELATED TOPICS
* Raytheon Company
* Tony Stark
* Iron Man (Movie)
* DC Comics Inc.
"You don't have this immense feeling of strength," Jameson says. "It's just when you go to do something that you couldn't do without it, then that's when you notice it."
Jameson is part of a team designing in real life what comic books and Hollywood have promised for years: bringing an "Iron Man"-like suit to the battlefield.
Raytheon is seeking to develop the suits to help the U.S. military carry supplies, and claims that one operator in an exoskeleton suit can do the work of two to three soldiers. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to see "Iron Man" suits deployed in the field by 2015.
"The logistics personnel in the military typically move 16,000 pounds a day, which is an awful lot of load," said Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon Sarcos. The XOS-2 suit can be used in tight spaces where a forklift cannot.
And with the extra of strength the robot gives the operator, "that means you exert one pound, and it exerts 17. That's a major amplification of strength and that's all load the person doesn't have to carry themselves," Smith said.
Jameson may be about the furthest thing from the fictional designer of "Iron Man," playboy billionaire Tony Stark. "I roll in a minivan," said the married father of three.
The painted black, steel, aluminum and hydraulic pumps of the wearable robotic suit wrap around Jameson's slight frame, mirroring the human skeleton in form. Its structure runs up the side of Jameson's legs and arms. Its backbone carries the load of the machine, and on this day is tethered to hydraulic power and a team of engineers.
Jameson straps into the suit, stomps his feet into the exoskeleton's modified boots and straps down the snowboardlike bindings.
"I'd describe it as feeling like wearing a backpack -- a light pack -- and really big shoes. It kind of clomps around a bit," he said shortly after the power came on and the suit jerked to life.
"It reacts to the force of your feet, so you want it to react immediately," he added, pulling the bindings tight.
Jameson's hands grip actuators in a fist. Technicians can attach grips and hooks to the robot's hands, some of which look like they would be more useful for combat than for loading supplies.
Jameson said the response time from his movements to the robot reacting is less than 10 milliseconds. He marches around, balances on his tiptoes and kicks a soccer ball around. The peanut gallery at the edge of the parking lot loves it. A woman with a yogurt cup shakes her head in disbelief.
Raytheon's Smith also sees soldiers using the robot in a modified form -- from the waist down -- to help carry equipment and take the strain off their legs during long marches.
One big obstacle, however, is how to power the suit. Raytheon is working on reducing the energy load; the version demonstrated on this day runs off hydraulic power from the Sarcos shop. Smith said chemically powered batteries such as lithium ions are not powerful enough to run the suit for eight to 24 hours at a time.
Batteries also raise concerns over safety.
"If they get breached, they aren't gentle in the way they explode," Smith said. A single-cylinder gas or diesel-powered engine may do the trick instead, he said.
The wearable robotics suit is now in its second iteration. XOS-2 has all its wires and hydraulics fully enclosed, unlike the first prototype, whose innards were more exposed. That would be problematic in places such as Afghanistan or Iraq, where a sand-encrusted robot would mean a dead robot.
"Sand, water, mud are all things we like to keep out of the system, and these current [robotic suits] include sealing strategies that basically exclude them." Smith said.
While the suit has obvious military applications, Smith also sees broader commercial possibilities -- and a shorter timetable. He said if orders come in and production ramps up, within three years you could have your very own $150,000 "Iron Man" suit to help push boxes around your warehouse.
Future soldiers may be wearing 'Iron Man' suits
***
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/11/iron.man.suit/index.html
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Raytheon is developing a wearable robotic "Iron Man" suit for the military
* The suit gives its wearer 17 times more strength and could be used to lift heavy supplies
* The "Iron Man" suit is projected to cost around $150,000
Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- A lunchtime crowd is gathering beside the parking lot at Raytheon Sarcos, the defense contractor, on a recent day in Salt Lake City. White-collar workers from nearby office parks stand with their yogurt cups and sandwiches, watching with quiet awe as a man in a metal suit -- sort of half-man, half-robot -- performs superhuman feats of strength.
This may be the closest these people will get to a real-life "Iron Man," the character from the comic books and hit movies.
Inside a prosthetic shell of metal and hydraulics, Raytheon test engineer Rex Jameson is putting an XOS-2 exoskeleton through its paces.
As the crowd watches, Jameson uses his robot hydraulic arm to shadowbox, break three inches of pine boards and toss around 72-pound ammunition cases like a bored contestant on the "World's Strongest Man."
The suit moves as he moves and amplifies his strength 17-fold. It doesn't fly though.
Gallery: Deploying 'Iron Man' suit
RELATED TOPICS
* Raytheon Company
* Tony Stark
* Iron Man (Movie)
* DC Comics Inc.
"You don't have this immense feeling of strength," Jameson says. "It's just when you go to do something that you couldn't do without it, then that's when you notice it."
Jameson is part of a team designing in real life what comic books and Hollywood have promised for years: bringing an "Iron Man"-like suit to the battlefield.
Raytheon is seeking to develop the suits to help the U.S. military carry supplies, and claims that one operator in an exoskeleton suit can do the work of two to three soldiers. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to see "Iron Man" suits deployed in the field by 2015.
"The logistics personnel in the military typically move 16,000 pounds a day, which is an awful lot of load," said Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon Sarcos. The XOS-2 suit can be used in tight spaces where a forklift cannot.
And with the extra of strength the robot gives the operator, "that means you exert one pound, and it exerts 17. That's a major amplification of strength and that's all load the person doesn't have to carry themselves," Smith said.
Jameson may be about the furthest thing from the fictional designer of "Iron Man," playboy billionaire Tony Stark. "I roll in a minivan," said the married father of three.
The painted black, steel, aluminum and hydraulic pumps of the wearable robotic suit wrap around Jameson's slight frame, mirroring the human skeleton in form. Its structure runs up the side of Jameson's legs and arms. Its backbone carries the load of the machine, and on this day is tethered to hydraulic power and a team of engineers.
Jameson straps into the suit, stomps his feet into the exoskeleton's modified boots and straps down the snowboardlike bindings.
"I'd describe it as feeling like wearing a backpack -- a light pack -- and really big shoes. It kind of clomps around a bit," he said shortly after the power came on and the suit jerked to life.
"It reacts to the force of your feet, so you want it to react immediately," he added, pulling the bindings tight.
Jameson's hands grip actuators in a fist. Technicians can attach grips and hooks to the robot's hands, some of which look like they would be more useful for combat than for loading supplies.
Jameson said the response time from his movements to the robot reacting is less than 10 milliseconds. He marches around, balances on his tiptoes and kicks a soccer ball around. The peanut gallery at the edge of the parking lot loves it. A woman with a yogurt cup shakes her head in disbelief.
Raytheon's Smith also sees soldiers using the robot in a modified form -- from the waist down -- to help carry equipment and take the strain off their legs during long marches.
One big obstacle, however, is how to power the suit. Raytheon is working on reducing the energy load; the version demonstrated on this day runs off hydraulic power from the Sarcos shop. Smith said chemically powered batteries such as lithium ions are not powerful enough to run the suit for eight to 24 hours at a time.
Batteries also raise concerns over safety.
"If they get breached, they aren't gentle in the way they explode," Smith said. A single-cylinder gas or diesel-powered engine may do the trick instead, he said.
The wearable robotics suit is now in its second iteration. XOS-2 has all its wires and hydraulics fully enclosed, unlike the first prototype, whose innards were more exposed. That would be problematic in places such as Afghanistan or Iraq, where a sand-encrusted robot would mean a dead robot.
"Sand, water, mud are all things we like to keep out of the system, and these current [robotic suits] include sealing strategies that basically exclude them." Smith said.
While the suit has obvious military applications, Smith also sees broader commercial possibilities -- and a shorter timetable. He said if orders come in and production ramps up, within three years you could have your very own $150,000 "Iron Man" suit to help push boxes around your warehouse.
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/11/iron.man.suit/index.html
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Raytheon is developing a wearable robotic "Iron Man" suit for the military
* The suit gives its wearer 17 times more strength and could be used to lift heavy supplies
* The "Iron Man" suit is projected to cost around $150,000
Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- A lunchtime crowd is gathering beside the parking lot at Raytheon Sarcos, the defense contractor, on a recent day in Salt Lake City. White-collar workers from nearby office parks stand with their yogurt cups and sandwiches, watching with quiet awe as a man in a metal suit -- sort of half-man, half-robot -- performs superhuman feats of strength.
This may be the closest these people will get to a real-life "Iron Man," the character from the comic books and hit movies.
Inside a prosthetic shell of metal and hydraulics, Raytheon test engineer Rex Jameson is putting an XOS-2 exoskeleton through its paces.
As the crowd watches, Jameson uses his robot hydraulic arm to shadowbox, break three inches of pine boards and toss around 72-pound ammunition cases like a bored contestant on the "World's Strongest Man."
The suit moves as he moves and amplifies his strength 17-fold. It doesn't fly though.
Gallery: Deploying 'Iron Man' suit
RELATED TOPICS
* Raytheon Company
* Tony Stark
* Iron Man (Movie)
* DC Comics Inc.
"You don't have this immense feeling of strength," Jameson says. "It's just when you go to do something that you couldn't do without it, then that's when you notice it."
Jameson is part of a team designing in real life what comic books and Hollywood have promised for years: bringing an "Iron Man"-like suit to the battlefield.
Raytheon is seeking to develop the suits to help the U.S. military carry supplies, and claims that one operator in an exoskeleton suit can do the work of two to three soldiers. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to see "Iron Man" suits deployed in the field by 2015.
"The logistics personnel in the military typically move 16,000 pounds a day, which is an awful lot of load," said Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon Sarcos. The XOS-2 suit can be used in tight spaces where a forklift cannot.
And with the extra of strength the robot gives the operator, "that means you exert one pound, and it exerts 17. That's a major amplification of strength and that's all load the person doesn't have to carry themselves," Smith said.
Jameson may be about the furthest thing from the fictional designer of "Iron Man," playboy billionaire Tony Stark. "I roll in a minivan," said the married father of three.
The painted black, steel, aluminum and hydraulic pumps of the wearable robotic suit wrap around Jameson's slight frame, mirroring the human skeleton in form. Its structure runs up the side of Jameson's legs and arms. Its backbone carries the load of the machine, and on this day is tethered to hydraulic power and a team of engineers.
Jameson straps into the suit, stomps his feet into the exoskeleton's modified boots and straps down the snowboardlike bindings.
"I'd describe it as feeling like wearing a backpack -- a light pack -- and really big shoes. It kind of clomps around a bit," he said shortly after the power came on and the suit jerked to life.
"It reacts to the force of your feet, so you want it to react immediately," he added, pulling the bindings tight.
Jameson's hands grip actuators in a fist. Technicians can attach grips and hooks to the robot's hands, some of which look like they would be more useful for combat than for loading supplies.
Jameson said the response time from his movements to the robot reacting is less than 10 milliseconds. He marches around, balances on his tiptoes and kicks a soccer ball around. The peanut gallery at the edge of the parking lot loves it. A woman with a yogurt cup shakes her head in disbelief.
Raytheon's Smith also sees soldiers using the robot in a modified form -- from the waist down -- to help carry equipment and take the strain off their legs during long marches.
One big obstacle, however, is how to power the suit. Raytheon is working on reducing the energy load; the version demonstrated on this day runs off hydraulic power from the Sarcos shop. Smith said chemically powered batteries such as lithium ions are not powerful enough to run the suit for eight to 24 hours at a time.
Batteries also raise concerns over safety.
"If they get breached, they aren't gentle in the way they explode," Smith said. A single-cylinder gas or diesel-powered engine may do the trick instead, he said.
The wearable robotics suit is now in its second iteration. XOS-2 has all its wires and hydraulics fully enclosed, unlike the first prototype, whose innards were more exposed. That would be problematic in places such as Afghanistan or Iraq, where a sand-encrusted robot would mean a dead robot.
"Sand, water, mud are all things we like to keep out of the system, and these current [robotic suits] include sealing strategies that basically exclude them." Smith said.
While the suit has obvious military applications, Smith also sees broader commercial possibilities -- and a shorter timetable. He said if orders come in and production ramps up, within three years you could have your very own $150,000 "Iron Man" suit to help push boxes around your warehouse.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big Bang'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11711228
By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News
Dr David Evans: "From conception to design and building this, it's taken about 20 years."
The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.
The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November.
The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border near Geneva.
Up until now, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator - which is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - has been colliding protons, in a bid to uncover mysteries of the Universe's formation.
Proton collisions could help spot the elusive Higgs boson particle and signs of new physical laws, such as a framework called supersymmetry.
But for the next four weeks, scientists at the LHC will concentrate on analysing the data obtained from the lead ion collisions.
This way, they hope to learn more about the plasma the Universe was made of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.
One of the accelerator's experiments, ALICE, has been specifically designed to smash together lead ions, but the ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments have also switched to the new mode.
'Strong force'
David Evans from the University of Birmingham, UK, is one of the researchers working at ALICE.
He said that the collisions obtained were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment.
"We are thrilled with the achievement," said Dr Evans.
ALICE experiment, CERN The ALICE experiment has been designed specifically for lead ion collisions
"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment, generating incredibly hot and dense sub-atomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
"At these temperatures even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms, melt resulting in a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a quark-gluon plasma."
Quarks and gluons are sub-atomic particles - some of the building blocks of matter. In the state known as quark-gluon plasma, they are freed of their attraction to one another. This plasma is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang.
He explained that by studying the plasma, physicists hoped to learn more about the so-called strong force - the force that binds the nuclei of atoms together and that is responsible for 98% of their mass.
After the LHC finishes colliding lead ions, it will go back to smashing together protons once again.
By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News
Dr David Evans: "From conception to design and building this, it's taken about 20 years."
The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.
The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November.
The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border near Geneva.
Up until now, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator - which is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - has been colliding protons, in a bid to uncover mysteries of the Universe's formation.
Proton collisions could help spot the elusive Higgs boson particle and signs of new physical laws, such as a framework called supersymmetry.
But for the next four weeks, scientists at the LHC will concentrate on analysing the data obtained from the lead ion collisions.
This way, they hope to learn more about the plasma the Universe was made of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.
One of the accelerator's experiments, ALICE, has been specifically designed to smash together lead ions, but the ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments have also switched to the new mode.
'Strong force'
David Evans from the University of Birmingham, UK, is one of the researchers working at ALICE.
He said that the collisions obtained were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment.
"We are thrilled with the achievement," said Dr Evans.
ALICE experiment, CERN The ALICE experiment has been designed specifically for lead ion collisions
"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment, generating incredibly hot and dense sub-atomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
"At these temperatures even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms, melt resulting in a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a quark-gluon plasma."
Quarks and gluons are sub-atomic particles - some of the building blocks of matter. In the state known as quark-gluon plasma, they are freed of their attraction to one another. This plasma is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang.
He explained that by studying the plasma, physicists hoped to learn more about the so-called strong force - the force that binds the nuclei of atoms together and that is responsible for 98% of their mass.
After the LHC finishes colliding lead ions, it will go back to smashing together protons once again.
Scientists turn skin into blood
http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20101107/3430/mcmaster-scientists-turn-skin-into-blood.htm
In an important breakthrough, scientists at McMaster University have discovered how to make human blood from adult human skin.
The discovery, published in the prestigious science journal Nature today, could mean that in the foreseeable future people needing blood for surgery, cancer treatment or treatment of other blood conditions like anemia will be able to have blood created from a patch of their own skin to provide transfusions. Clinical trials could begin as soon as 2012.
Mick Bhatia, scientific director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have also shown that the conversion is direct. Making blood from skin does not require the middle step of changing a skin stem cell into a pluripotent stem cell that could make many other types of human cells, then turning it into a blood stem cell.
"We have shown this works using human skin. We know how it works and believe we can even improve on the process," said Bhatia. "We'll now go on to work on developing other types of human cell types from skin, as we already have encouraging evidence."
The discovery was replicated several times over two years using human skin from both young and old people to prove it works for any age of person.
In an important breakthrough, scientists at McMaster University have discovered how to make human blood from adult human skin.
The discovery, published in the prestigious science journal Nature today, could mean that in the foreseeable future people needing blood for surgery, cancer treatment or treatment of other blood conditions like anemia will be able to have blood created from a patch of their own skin to provide transfusions. Clinical trials could begin as soon as 2012.
Mick Bhatia, scientific director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have also shown that the conversion is direct. Making blood from skin does not require the middle step of changing a skin stem cell into a pluripotent stem cell that could make many other types of human cells, then turning it into a blood stem cell.
"We have shown this works using human skin. We know how it works and believe we can even improve on the process," said Bhatia. "We'll now go on to work on developing other types of human cell types from skin, as we already have encouraging evidence."
The discovery was replicated several times over two years using human skin from both young and old people to prove it works for any age of person.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Ed Emberley
This month's Juxtapoz magazine features an interview with Ed Emberley, one of my favorite children's book authors. The article shows one illustration created in his own natural illustrative style, which is distinct from the style of his 'how to draw' books.
The article also mentions an out-of-print book which Emberley considers his master work entitled "Suppose You Met a Witch". I remember seeing the book and found it used on Amazon, most of the copies are expensive but I found one in decent condition for about $15. Sample images from the witch book here and also on this other blog by Tom Karpe.
Here is a video and interview with Ed from the recent exhibition of his work:
http://vimeo.com/16097411
Amazon's Ed Emberley store
Emberley's site is http://edemberley.com
The article also mentions an out-of-print book which Emberley considers his master work entitled "Suppose You Met a Witch". I remember seeing the book and found it used on Amazon, most of the copies are expensive but I found one in decent condition for about $15. Sample images from the witch book here and also on this other blog by Tom Karpe.
Here is a video and interview with Ed from the recent exhibition of his work:
http://vimeo.com/16097411
Amazon's Ed Emberley store
Emberley's site is http://edemberley.com
Friday, November 5, 2010
Regenerative Medicine
***
Full article in this month's Wired Magazine.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/tag/regenerative-medicine/
All Natural: Why Breasts Are the Key to the Future of Regenerative Medicine
Who needs implants? How tissue engineering and a new kind of stem cell can help the body rebuild itself.
Photo: David Slijper
To be in the company of Chris Calhoun is to encounter breasts, and encounter the damn things anytime, anywhere—including over a plate of spaghetti in a bustling Manhattan restaurant.
On this spring afternoon, the 44-year-old CEO of San Diego-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics pulls out his laptop, launches a PowerPoint presentation, and there they are: conical and cantaloupy, As through Ds, beige and pink and taupe and tan, more breasts than you might see in a women’s locker room, never mind in the middle of a lunch table.
A passing waiter does a double take at this lively slide show, but Calhoun is oblivious. He’s talking excitedly about how these women’s bodies led him and his team of scientists to a discovery in tissue engineering, a process that could well be one of the most momentous medical advances of the 21st century: the use of stem cells—specifically stem-cell-enriched adipose (fat) tissue—to enhance, heal, and rebuild injured or damaged organs.
A few taps on his laptop reveal the unsettling “before” images of these seemingly normal breasts. There: a breast with a divot the size of a plum taken out of the bottom from a lumpectomy. There: a chest as flat as a floor mat from a double mastectomy. There: one so misshapen after a partial mastectomy, it’s possible to determine what it actually is only because of its healthy companion. “We realized that for these women there was a huge unmet need for a disruptive change in technology,” Calhoun says of the work that has consumed his team of researchers and surgeons for the past eight years. “It’s the first practical cell therapy.” He pauses. “And it’s breasts.” Which means cancer victims with breasts mutilated by surgery—as well as women who are simply unhappy with their natural assets—can now grow a new and improved pair, with raw materials harvested from their own body fat.
But breast augmentation is just one development (so to speak) in the company’s more ambitious plan: to introduce stem cell medicine to the mass market—and not using the ethically fraught kind of stem cells from human embryos. Instead, based on almost a decade of trials that Cytori and its academic partners have performed on cell cultures, lab rodents, and now humans, they believe their engineered flab cells can treat more organs than you find in a French butcher shop. Chronic heart disease? Check: In human studies released in May, the cells improved patients’ aerobic capacity and shrank the size of the infarct (tissue killed by lack of blood). Heart attack? Check: A human clinical trial, also reported in May, found that the cells increased both the blood supply to damaged heart muscle and the volume of blood that the heart pumped. Kidney injury as a result of cancer therapy? Check: In recent rat studies, the cells improved kidney function. Incontinence after prostatectomy? Check: Another recent study reported that, by 12 weeks after injection, the cells had decreased the amount of urine male volunteers were leaking by 89 percent. If Calhoun and his scientists succeed, they won’t just create more cleavage. They’ll make practical a whole new field, one that medical visionaries have dreamed of for decades: regenerative medicine.
It makes sense to apply Cytori’s technology to enhance breasts instead of, say, repair urinary sphincters as a strategic way to move the patented technology out of rats and into people as soon as possible. Hearts, kidneys, and even sphincters have to work in order for us to survive. But we can live just fine without breast tissue, and, outside of feeding offspring, breasts don’t have to do much. The fact is, the scientific and regulatory hurdles to getting Cytori’s cells into clinical use will be easier to clear for breasts than for other tissue: Breasts simply aren’t as necessary as other organs, so the bar for proving to regulators that the technology works will be lower.
It’s also a booming market. In 2009, women forked over $964 million to plastic surgeons for breast augmentation, which edges out nose jobs as the most commonly performed plastic surgery in the US.
Photo: Robyn Twomey
If Calhoun and his team succeed, they won't just create more cleavage. They'll make possible a whole new field: regenerative medicine.
Photo: Robyn Twomey
More is driving that trend than just media-hyped views of beauty. Breast cancer is a major factor. Incidence of the disease has risen from 105 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 125 per 100,000 today (though it peaked at 141 per 100,000 in 1999), and the survival rate has increased: 75 percent of women diagnosed in 1975 lived at least five more years, compared with 90 percent today. That means more women will live more years after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Most of these survivors would just as soon live those years with something that resembles what they had before, thank you very much. Yet only 30 percent of women facing mastectomy are even offered a consultation with a plastic surgeon, notes Michael McGuire, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and an associate professor of surgery at UCLA. And only 25 percent of women who lose a breast to cancer get a new one. (In 2009, there were 86,424 breast reconstructions.)
There is also demand from a burgeoning demographic no one would have predicted 15 years ago: young women choosing bilateral prophylactic mastectomy after testing positive for mutations in genes—known as BRCA1 and BRCA2—that increase the risk of breast cancer by a factor of five compared with that for women without the mutations. Others are diagnosed with cancer in one breast, have a mastectomy, and decide to have the healthy breast removed as well. In a 2009 study of women undergoing all forms of surgery for breast cancer, published in Annals of Surgical Oncology by researchers led by surgical oncologist Todd Tuttle of the University of Minnesota, 29 percent opted for this “contralateral prophylactic mastectomy.” Among just mastectomy patients (that is, excluding those who had a lumpectomy or other breast-sparing surgery), the rate of taking out the good with the bad was an astounding 56 percent—even though studies find no survival advantage in removing the healthy breast. Yet Tuttle hears it all the time: I never want to go through this again. “Younger and more- educated women are the ones choosing to go this route,” he says. And despite the improvements in silicone implants, they’re still vulnerable to ruptures and may eventually need to be replaced. What’s more, inserting a single implant after cancer surgery can leave a woman asymmetric: It stays put while the surviving breast sags. It’s no wonder, then, that women all over the world are desperate for a better option.
Full article in this month's Wired Magazine.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/tag/regenerative-medicine/
All Natural: Why Breasts Are the Key to the Future of Regenerative Medicine
Who needs implants? How tissue engineering and a new kind of stem cell can help the body rebuild itself.
Photo: David Slijper
To be in the company of Chris Calhoun is to encounter breasts, and encounter the damn things anytime, anywhere—including over a plate of spaghetti in a bustling Manhattan restaurant.
On this spring afternoon, the 44-year-old CEO of San Diego-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics pulls out his laptop, launches a PowerPoint presentation, and there they are: conical and cantaloupy, As through Ds, beige and pink and taupe and tan, more breasts than you might see in a women’s locker room, never mind in the middle of a lunch table.
A passing waiter does a double take at this lively slide show, but Calhoun is oblivious. He’s talking excitedly about how these women’s bodies led him and his team of scientists to a discovery in tissue engineering, a process that could well be one of the most momentous medical advances of the 21st century: the use of stem cells—specifically stem-cell-enriched adipose (fat) tissue—to enhance, heal, and rebuild injured or damaged organs.
A few taps on his laptop reveal the unsettling “before” images of these seemingly normal breasts. There: a breast with a divot the size of a plum taken out of the bottom from a lumpectomy. There: a chest as flat as a floor mat from a double mastectomy. There: one so misshapen after a partial mastectomy, it’s possible to determine what it actually is only because of its healthy companion. “We realized that for these women there was a huge unmet need for a disruptive change in technology,” Calhoun says of the work that has consumed his team of researchers and surgeons for the past eight years. “It’s the first practical cell therapy.” He pauses. “And it’s breasts.” Which means cancer victims with breasts mutilated by surgery—as well as women who are simply unhappy with their natural assets—can now grow a new and improved pair, with raw materials harvested from their own body fat.
But breast augmentation is just one development (so to speak) in the company’s more ambitious plan: to introduce stem cell medicine to the mass market—and not using the ethically fraught kind of stem cells from human embryos. Instead, based on almost a decade of trials that Cytori and its academic partners have performed on cell cultures, lab rodents, and now humans, they believe their engineered flab cells can treat more organs than you find in a French butcher shop. Chronic heart disease? Check: In human studies released in May, the cells improved patients’ aerobic capacity and shrank the size of the infarct (tissue killed by lack of blood). Heart attack? Check: A human clinical trial, also reported in May, found that the cells increased both the blood supply to damaged heart muscle and the volume of blood that the heart pumped. Kidney injury as a result of cancer therapy? Check: In recent rat studies, the cells improved kidney function. Incontinence after prostatectomy? Check: Another recent study reported that, by 12 weeks after injection, the cells had decreased the amount of urine male volunteers were leaking by 89 percent. If Calhoun and his scientists succeed, they won’t just create more cleavage. They’ll make practical a whole new field, one that medical visionaries have dreamed of for decades: regenerative medicine.
It makes sense to apply Cytori’s technology to enhance breasts instead of, say, repair urinary sphincters as a strategic way to move the patented technology out of rats and into people as soon as possible. Hearts, kidneys, and even sphincters have to work in order for us to survive. But we can live just fine without breast tissue, and, outside of feeding offspring, breasts don’t have to do much. The fact is, the scientific and regulatory hurdles to getting Cytori’s cells into clinical use will be easier to clear for breasts than for other tissue: Breasts simply aren’t as necessary as other organs, so the bar for proving to regulators that the technology works will be lower.
It’s also a booming market. In 2009, women forked over $964 million to plastic surgeons for breast augmentation, which edges out nose jobs as the most commonly performed plastic surgery in the US.
Photo: Robyn Twomey
If Calhoun and his team succeed, they won't just create more cleavage. They'll make possible a whole new field: regenerative medicine.
Photo: Robyn Twomey
More is driving that trend than just media-hyped views of beauty. Breast cancer is a major factor. Incidence of the disease has risen from 105 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 125 per 100,000 today (though it peaked at 141 per 100,000 in 1999), and the survival rate has increased: 75 percent of women diagnosed in 1975 lived at least five more years, compared with 90 percent today. That means more women will live more years after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Most of these survivors would just as soon live those years with something that resembles what they had before, thank you very much. Yet only 30 percent of women facing mastectomy are even offered a consultation with a plastic surgeon, notes Michael McGuire, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and an associate professor of surgery at UCLA. And only 25 percent of women who lose a breast to cancer get a new one. (In 2009, there were 86,424 breast reconstructions.)
There is also demand from a burgeoning demographic no one would have predicted 15 years ago: young women choosing bilateral prophylactic mastectomy after testing positive for mutations in genes—known as BRCA1 and BRCA2—that increase the risk of breast cancer by a factor of five compared with that for women without the mutations. Others are diagnosed with cancer in one breast, have a mastectomy, and decide to have the healthy breast removed as well. In a 2009 study of women undergoing all forms of surgery for breast cancer, published in Annals of Surgical Oncology by researchers led by surgical oncologist Todd Tuttle of the University of Minnesota, 29 percent opted for this “contralateral prophylactic mastectomy.” Among just mastectomy patients (that is, excluding those who had a lumpectomy or other breast-sparing surgery), the rate of taking out the good with the bad was an astounding 56 percent—even though studies find no survival advantage in removing the healthy breast. Yet Tuttle hears it all the time: I never want to go through this again. “Younger and more- educated women are the ones choosing to go this route,” he says. And despite the improvements in silicone implants, they’re still vulnerable to ruptures and may eventually need to be replaced. What’s more, inserting a single implant after cancer surgery can leave a woman asymmetric: It stays put while the surviving breast sags. It’s no wonder, then, that women all over the world are desperate for a better option.
Masked man nabbed on flight to B.C. from Asia
***
Click for Full Image:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/04/bc-elderly-man-disguise-air-canada.html
A young Asian male has been intercepted by authorities in Vancouver after boarding a flight from Hong Kong disguised as an elderly white man, officials say.
Canada Border Services Agency officers boarded the Air Canada plane after it landed Oct. 29 and took the man into custody, the agency said in a statement issued by its Pacific region.
The alert did not specify where the flight landed, but Air Canada officials have confirmed to CBC News that it was Vancouver.
The man quickly made a claim for refugee protection after his arrest, the agency said.
Air Canada security alerted the CBSA during the 12-hour flight about a passenger who "was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young-looking hands," the agency statement said.
"During the flight, the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian male that appeared to be in his early 20s."
Canadian Border Services had the man don his disguise for this photograph after he arrived in Vancouver. Canadian Border Services had the man don his disguise for this photograph after he arrived in Vancouver. (CBSA)
A search of the man's baggage turned up a "disguise kit" consisting of a silicone head and neck mask of an elderly white male, a brown leather cap, glasses and a brown sweater, the CBSA said.
Masks with similar facial features can be found for sale on the internet for about $700.
The CBSA release said the man had switched boarding passes with another man before getting on the aircraft, but it was not clear why the swap was done or why he disguised himself.
The man is in immigration detention in Vancouver.
A CBSA official said he would appear before an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing.
His name, the date of his hearing and his reason for seeking refugee status have not been made public.
Click for Full Image:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/04/bc-elderly-man-disguise-air-canada.html
A young Asian male has been intercepted by authorities in Vancouver after boarding a flight from Hong Kong disguised as an elderly white man, officials say.
Canada Border Services Agency officers boarded the Air Canada plane after it landed Oct. 29 and took the man into custody, the agency said in a statement issued by its Pacific region.
The alert did not specify where the flight landed, but Air Canada officials have confirmed to CBC News that it was Vancouver.
The man quickly made a claim for refugee protection after his arrest, the agency said.
Air Canada security alerted the CBSA during the 12-hour flight about a passenger who "was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young-looking hands," the agency statement said.
"During the flight, the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian male that appeared to be in his early 20s."
Canadian Border Services had the man don his disguise for this photograph after he arrived in Vancouver. Canadian Border Services had the man don his disguise for this photograph after he arrived in Vancouver. (CBSA)
A search of the man's baggage turned up a "disguise kit" consisting of a silicone head and neck mask of an elderly white male, a brown leather cap, glasses and a brown sweater, the CBSA said.
Masks with similar facial features can be found for sale on the internet for about $700.
The CBSA release said the man had switched boarding passes with another man before getting on the aircraft, but it was not clear why the swap was done or why he disguised himself.
The man is in immigration detention in Vancouver.
A CBSA official said he would appear before an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing.
His name, the date of his hearing and his reason for seeking refugee status have not been made public.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Writing on small devices, in a fast and natural way
http://www.the8pen.com/index.html
"The 8pen allows for the replacement of the conventional keyboard on all devices capable of detecting gestures, in particular mobile phones with touch screens, modern remote controls or game controllers. Its advantage lies mainly in the fact that it is possible to input text faster than using conventional layouts on small devices, while at the same time mimicking human hand-writing. Moreover, the simplicity of the gestures involved greatly reduces the problem of mistyping that frequently occurs with the classical layout due to the lack of space. For the same reason, it is possible to write without viewing, as only the central region is needed as a reference for starting and ending a movement."
How it works
The basic movement - Producing a character is easy, fast, and feels like hand-writing. Once familiar with the position of the letters, writing can even be done without viewing.
A characters is produced by pressing down in the centre, entering any of the 4 sectors, and then passing through either 1, 2, 3 or 4 adjacent sectors in either clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, before returning to the centre. The order of the letters along the edges, and the side on which they are placed, indicate the number of sectors to be passed through, and the direction of the movement, respectively.
For example, the placement of the letter "a", as the innermost letter on the top edge of the right sector, indicates the associated signature "Centre-Right-Top-Centre", while to the letter "r", the second letter from the centre on the same edge, is associated to the signature "Centre-Right-Top-Left-Centre". Thus words can be entered in a continuous motion; moreover the "space" character is inserted whenever the pointer is released from the centre.
Special and uppercase characters - Special characters, such as é, ø, ß or § are produced almost like the standard ones, but by pausing the movement in the appropriate sector. For uppercase characters, there is a little trick.
Special characters - Some characters, such as "e", "o" or "s" have associated "special" characters, such as "é", "è", ... for "e"; "ó", "ø", ... for "o" and so on. These are obtained by starting the gesture to produce the parent character ("e", "o", "s", ...), but just before returning to the centre, the gesture is paused for a little while in the last sector. Then the special characters will show up, replacing all existing characters, and the gesture can be continued through adjacent sectors to select the appropriate special character, and completed by returning to the centre.
For example, the letter "ö" is obtained by the gesture "Centre-Right-Bottom", then pausing; once the special characters appear, the gesture is reversed to "Right-Top-Centre".
Several punctuation marks are found as special characters associated to the period character. Moreover, common smileys are obtained as special characters associated to the comma character. Many more are found under the numeric keypad.
The delay before special characters are shown can be adjusted in the keyboard preferences.
Uppercase characters - As you would expect, pressing the "Shift" key will turn all the characters into their uppercase version, and pressing it once again, before producing a character, will turn on Caps Lock. However, an alternative way to produce a single uppercase character consists in pressing down a bit harder while performing a gesture. This will turn the keyboard into its shifted state without needing to stop an ongoing gesture.
The pressure threshold can be adjusted in the keyboard preferences.
Custom gestures - Gestures started outside of the central region can be used to quickly produce custom character sequences, such as your name or a commonly used phrase.
Under the 8pen settings, go to the gesture library to store gestures and assign custom character sequences to them, such as your name or a commonly used phrase. Back to the 8pen, a gesture started outside of the central region is compared to the ones you have stored. If recognized, your custom character sequence will be inserted.
"The 8pen allows for the replacement of the conventional keyboard on all devices capable of detecting gestures, in particular mobile phones with touch screens, modern remote controls or game controllers. Its advantage lies mainly in the fact that it is possible to input text faster than using conventional layouts on small devices, while at the same time mimicking human hand-writing. Moreover, the simplicity of the gestures involved greatly reduces the problem of mistyping that frequently occurs with the classical layout due to the lack of space. For the same reason, it is possible to write without viewing, as only the central region is needed as a reference for starting and ending a movement."
How it works
The basic movement - Producing a character is easy, fast, and feels like hand-writing. Once familiar with the position of the letters, writing can even be done without viewing.
A characters is produced by pressing down in the centre, entering any of the 4 sectors, and then passing through either 1, 2, 3 or 4 adjacent sectors in either clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, before returning to the centre. The order of the letters along the edges, and the side on which they are placed, indicate the number of sectors to be passed through, and the direction of the movement, respectively.
For example, the placement of the letter "a", as the innermost letter on the top edge of the right sector, indicates the associated signature "Centre-Right-Top-Centre", while to the letter "r", the second letter from the centre on the same edge, is associated to the signature "Centre-Right-Top-Left-Centre". Thus words can be entered in a continuous motion; moreover the "space" character is inserted whenever the pointer is released from the centre.
Special and uppercase characters - Special characters, such as é, ø, ß or § are produced almost like the standard ones, but by pausing the movement in the appropriate sector. For uppercase characters, there is a little trick.
Special characters - Some characters, such as "e", "o" or "s" have associated "special" characters, such as "é", "è", ... for "e"; "ó", "ø", ... for "o" and so on. These are obtained by starting the gesture to produce the parent character ("e", "o", "s", ...), but just before returning to the centre, the gesture is paused for a little while in the last sector. Then the special characters will show up, replacing all existing characters, and the gesture can be continued through adjacent sectors to select the appropriate special character, and completed by returning to the centre.
For example, the letter "ö" is obtained by the gesture "Centre-Right-Bottom", then pausing; once the special characters appear, the gesture is reversed to "Right-Top-Centre".
Several punctuation marks are found as special characters associated to the period character. Moreover, common smileys are obtained as special characters associated to the comma character. Many more are found under the numeric keypad.
The delay before special characters are shown can be adjusted in the keyboard preferences.
Uppercase characters - As you would expect, pressing the "Shift" key will turn all the characters into their uppercase version, and pressing it once again, before producing a character, will turn on Caps Lock. However, an alternative way to produce a single uppercase character consists in pressing down a bit harder while performing a gesture. This will turn the keyboard into its shifted state without needing to stop an ongoing gesture.
The pressure threshold can be adjusted in the keyboard preferences.
Custom gestures - Gestures started outside of the central region can be used to quickly produce custom character sequences, such as your name or a commonly used phrase.
Under the 8pen settings, go to the gesture library to store gestures and assign custom character sequences to them, such as your name or a commonly used phrase. Back to the 8pen, a gesture started outside of the central region is compared to the ones you have stored. If recognized, your custom character sequence will be inserted.
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