Strange organism has unique roots in the tree of life

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47225834#.T56Ib47fPIR

This protozoan is so unique, it belongs to a whole new kingdom, say researchers

By Jennifer Welsh

Talk about extended family: A single-celled organism in Norway has been called "mankind's furthest relative." It is so far removed from the organisms we know that researchers claim it belongs to a new base group, called a kingdom, on the tree of life. 

"We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species," study researcher Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, said in a statement.

The primordial animal from As lake, 30 km south of Oslo, does not fit on any of the main branches of the tree of life. Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi had to create a new main branch, called Collodictyon. 

The organism, a type of protozoan, was found by researchers in a lake near Oslo. Protozoans have been known to science since 1865, but because they are difficult to culture in the lab, researchers haven't been able to get a grip on their genetic makeup. They were placed in the protist kingdom on the tree of life mostly based on observations of their size and shape.

In this study, published March 21 in the journal Molecular Biology Evolution, the researchers were able to grow enough of the protozoans, called Collodictyon, in the lab to analyze its genome. They found it doesn't genetically fit into any of the previously discovered kingdoms of life. It's an organism with membrane-bound internal structures, called a eukaryote, but genetically it isn't an animal, plant, fungi, algae or protist (the five main groups of eukaryotes).

"The microorganism is among the oldest currently living eukaryote organism we know of. It evolved around one billion years ago, plus or minus a few hundred million years. It gives us a better understanding of what early life on Earth looked like," Shalchian-Tabrizi said.

Mix of features What it looked like was small. The organism the researchers found is about 30 to 50 micrometers (about the width of a human hair) long. It eats algae and doesn't like to live in groups. It is also unique because instead of one or two flagella (cellular tails that help organisms move) it has four.

The organism also has unique characteristics usually associated with protists and amoebas, two different eukaryotic kingdoms. This left researchers wondering where the microorganism fits into the tree of life. They analyzed its genetic code to see how similar it is to organisms that have already been genetically catalogued.

Professor Dag Klaveness has spent the last 40 years specializing in breeding microorganisms. Large quantities are required to analyze the genes.

"We are surprised," said study researcher Dag Klaveness, also of the University of Oslo, because the species is unique. They compared its genome with those in hundreds of databases around the world, with little luck. In all that looking they "have only found a partial match with a gene sequence in Tibet."

New life The researchers think this organism belongs in a new group on the tree of life. Researchers can't say for certain if other organisms previously classified as protozoans are in this same branch without their genetic information. Its closest known genetic relative is the protist Diphylleia, though other organisms that haven't been analyzed genetically may be closer relatives.

"It is conceivable that only a few other species exist in this family branch of the tree of life, which has survived all the many hundreds of millions of years since the eukaryote species appeared on Earth for the first time," Klaveness said.

Because it has features of two separate kingdoms of life, the researchers think that the ancestors of this group might be the organisms that gave rise to these other kingdoms, the amoeba and the protist, as well. If that's true, they would be some of the oldest eukaryotes, giving rise to all other eukaryotes, including humans.

Escaped Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng speaks out [Video]

 

After escaping from house arrest, blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng issued a dramatic video message calling on Premier Wen Jiabao to protect his family, punish the people who had attacked them and combat corruption, recounting alleged abuses he and his family suffered at the hands of police.

"Premier Wen, so many people do not know whether such illegal acts are the acts of corrupt local officials or commanded by the central authority. I think you must thoroughly investigate the truth and give your people a clear answer," Chen said. "If you continue to ignore this and do nothing, what will the people think?"

Chen, a 41-year-old lawyer, was jailed for four years after exposing forced sterilization and other abuses carried out by Chinese family-planning authorities, then placed under house arrest once his prison term was over. He escaped last weekend in a rescue operation mounted by his supporters.

"I finally escaped," Chen began his Friday video message to Wen.

Chen asked Wen to investigate and punish police officers who he said had repeatedly attacked his home, robbing and assaulting his family. In one instance, more than 10 men had pinned him to the ground, and beat and kicked him for four hours, Chen said.

His wife was beaten so badly that her eye socket bone was broken, but she was never allowed to call for medical treatment, he said. Chen said his child was followed to school every day by three officers. He said his mother was grabbed by the arm and thrown to the ground on her birthday, her head hitting a door.

"She accused them of the shame of hurting the old. And they actually said back to her: 'Yes, this is true! ... You old ones can’t beat the young.'" Chen said. "This is evil. Inhuman. Intolerable.
"You must see to the bottom of this," the activist said. "Even though I am free, my family ... are still in their grasp. While I was there, they were repeatedly harmed. Now that I'm gone, I can only imagine how it has blown up."

Chen's rescue appears to have been timed to coincide with U.S.-China discussions on human rights this week. His case has attracted global attention.

Sun's Twin Discovered -- the Perfect SETI Target?

http://news.discovery.com/space/suns-twin-is-an-optimum-seti-target-120426.html

Analysis by Ray Villard

There are 10 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy that are the same size as our sun. Therefore it should come as no surprise that astronomers have identified a clone to our sun lying only 200 light-years away.

Still, it is fascinating to imagine a yellow dwarf that is exactly the same mass, temperature and chemical composition as our nearest star. In a recent paper reporting on observations of the star -- called HP 56948 -- astronomer Jorge Melendez of the University of San Paulo, Brazil, calls it "the best solar twin known to date."

WATCH VIDEO: What does it take to find a planet 63 light-years from Earth?

SLIDE SHOW: Exquisite Exoplanetary Art
His team combined observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Keck Telescope, and Hobby Eberly Telescope to characterize the star and look for planets. Though fast orbiting large planets weren't found it still begs the question: could HP 56948 have a twin solar system too?

The majority of planetary systems discovered to date make our solar system look like the exception and not the rule. For example, the sun-like star 55 Cancri, only 41 light-years away, has a mix of close-in hot Jupiters, followed by terrestrial planets an then more Jupiters.

In some systems the planets are in much more elliptical orbits than found around our sun. Epsilon Eridani for example has a planet that swings as close to the star as Venus is from our sun, and then climbs out to the orbital radius of Jupiter.

The good news is that astronomers have not detected the short-period wobble of HP 56948 that would indicate a hot Jupiter was tugging on it. This leaves the inner few million miles around the star safe territory for the presence of one or more terrestrial planets. Earth-mass worlds would pull so weakly on the star that they have not yet been detected.


But the chemical composition of HP 56548 has unusual amounts of aluminum, calcium, magnesium, and silicon -- by the same ratio as our sun has. In our solar system these elements are found locked away in interplanetary dust, meteorites and rocky planets like Earth.

This means terrestrial planets could exist around HP 56548. In fact, there is a reasonable chance that the star's planetary system has a solar system architecture with the massive outer worlds staying beyond the "frost line" where ices condense to form bloated worlds. And, a family of terrestrial planets huddled close to the star.

Simply put, the nearby presence of a twin star potentially offers a fascinating experiment in parallel evolution. Assuming that HP 56548 has at least one inhabitable planet, has life arisen and successfully evolved to higher forms over 4 billion years? If not, why not?

If 4 billion years is the typical time for the emergence of intelligent beings, then there is a civilization now orbiting HP 56548. If we dare to extrapolate even further, a technological civilization should have developed astronomy, which is at the root of modern physics. Their astronomers should have located our sun as easily as we found their star. They then might have been compelled to undertake a program of both monitoring and transmitting radio message to our solar system.

That said, it would not be surprising if SETI observations of the star came up empty handed. The system may not have an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone. Even if there is one it may not be Earth-like with oceans and plate tectonics. And, even if there is a world flourishing with multi-cellular life, it may not have progressed to an intelligent species. Or, it has a civilization but it is not as technologically advanced as ours.

ANALYSIS: Do the Meek Inherit the Galaxy?
Keep in mind that any alien astronomers on such a planet would be studying Earth as it appeared in the early 1800s. That information, encoded in light, is just arriving at HP 56948 now. Our radio and television signal leaking into space won't reach the star for another 130 years. In the absence of such an electromagnetic signature extraterrestrials may overlook Earth and scout elsewhere.
They nevertheless would speculate, as we are, whether our sun offers and abode for intelligent life. But the quarantine imposed by the physics of time and space keeps us forever apart.

Squadron of lost WWII Spitfires to be exhumed in Burma

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/19/buried-treasure-in-burma-squadron-lost-wwii-spitfires-to-be-exhumed/

FoxNews.com

Yar -- it's buried PILOT treasure!

Like a treasure chest stuffed with priceless booty, as many as 20 World War II-era Spitfire planes are perfectly preserved, buried in crates beneath Burma -- and after 67 years underground, they're set to be uncovered.

The planes were shipped in standard fashion in 1945 from their manufacturer in England to the Far East country: waxed, wrapped in greased paper and tarred to protect against the elements. They were then buried in the crates they were shipped in, rather than let them fall into enemy hands, said David Cundall, an aviation enthusiast who has spent 15 years and about $200,000 in his efforts to reveal the lost planes.

The 62-year-old man -- a British farmer by trade -- realized the fate of the aircraft thanks to an offhand comment a group of American veterans made to a friend, he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'We've done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.'

- David Cundall, aviation enthusiast

''They told Jim: 'We've done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.' And when Jim got back from the U.S., he told me,'" Cundall said.

The location of the planes, which remains a closely kept secret, was confirmed during a recent trip to the Far East country, he said.

''We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition," Cundall told the Herald.

The Spitfire Mark XIV planes are rare for more than one reason: They used Rolls Royce Griffon engines rather than the Merlins used in earlier models to achieve tremendous speeds. Griffon-powered planes could reach 440 mph thanks to the hefty, 2,050-horsepower engines.
When production of the planes ultimately ended in 1947, 20,334 Spitfires of all versions had been produced, but just 2,053 of them were Griffon-powered versions, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The planes were deemed surplus and were buried in Aug., 1945 -- potentially along with another eight later in the year. At that time, propeller planes were falling out of fashion in favor of newer jet-engine designs -- Cundall said Spitfires "were 10 a penny." British military officials decided burying them was cheaper and more practical than bringing them home.

International sanctions prevent military material from leaving the country, but a recent visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron may enable the safe exhumation and return of the planes to England.
Only about 35 Spitfires are currently flying.

'Huge' water resource exists under Africa

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17775211

By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service

Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater. 

They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface.

The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource.
Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, they stress that large scale drilling might not be the best way of increasing water supplies.

Across Africa more than 300 million people are said not to have access to safe drinking water.

Demand for water is set to grow markedly in coming decades due to population growth and the need for irrigation to grow crops.

Freshwater rivers and lakes are subject to seasonal floods and droughts that can limit their availability for people and for agriculture. At present only 5% of arable land is irrigated.

When water falls as rain or snow, much of it either flows into rivers or is used to provide moisture to plants and crops. What is left over trickles down to the layers of rock that sit beneath the soil.

And just like a giant sponge, this ground water is held in the spaces between the rocks and in the tiny inter-connected spaces between individual grains in a rock like sandstone.

These bodies of wet rock are referred to as aquifers. Ground water does not sit still in the aquifer but is pushed and pulled by gravity and the weight of water above it.

The movement of the water through the aquifer removes many impurities and it is often cleaner than water on the surface.

Now scientists have for the first time been able to carry out a continent-wide analysis of the water that is hidden under the surface in aquifers. Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London (UCL) have mapped in detail the amount and potential yield of this groundwater resource across the continent. 

Helen Bonsor from the BGS is one of the authors of the paper. She says that up until now groundwater was out of sight and out of mind. She hopes the new maps will open people's eyes to the potential.

"Where there's greatest ground water storage is in northern Africa, in the large sedimentary basins, in Libya, Algeria and Chad," she said.
"The amount of storage in those basins is equivalent to 75m thickness of water across that area - it's a huge amount."

Due to changes in climate that have turned the Sahara into a desert over centuries many of the aquifers underneath were last filled with water over 5,000 years ago.
The scientists collated their information from existing hydro-geological maps from national governments as well as 283 aquifer studies.

The researchers say their new maps indicate that many countries currently designated as "water scarce" have substantial groundwater reserves.

However, the scientists are cautious about the best way of accessing these hidden resources. They suggest that widespread drilling of large boreholes might not work.

Dr Alan MacDonald of the BGS, lead author of the study, told the BBC: "High-yielding boreholes should not be developed without a thorough understanding of the local groundwater conditions.
"Appropriately sited and developed boreholes for low yielding rural water supply and hand pumps are likely to be successful."

With many aquifers not being filled due to a lack of rain, the scientists are worried that large-scale borehole developments could rapidly deplete the resource.

According to Helen Bonsor, sometimes the slower means of extraction can be more efficient.
"Much lower storage aquifers are present across much of sub-Saharan Africa," she explained.
"However, our work shows that with careful exploring and construction, there is sufficient groundwater under Africa to support low yielding water supplies for drinking and community irrigation."

The scientists say that there are sufficient reserves to be able to cope with the vagaries of climate change.

"Even in the lowest storage aquifers in semi arid areas with currently very little rainfall, ground water is indicated to have a residence time in the ground of 20 to 70 years." Dr Bonsor said.

"So at present extraction rates for drinking and small scale irrigation for agriculture groundwater will provide and will continue to provide a buffer to climate variability."

The publication of the new map was welcomed by the UK's secretary of state for international development, Andrew Mitchell.

"This is an important discovery," he said. "This research, which the British Government has funded, could have a profound effect on some of the world's poorest people, helping them become less vulnerable to drought and to adapt to the impact of climate change."

Chip lets smartphones see through walls, clothes

 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chip-lets-smartphones-see-walls-clothes-203036226.html

Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book her Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects.

A team at University of Texas at Dallas tuned a small, inexpensive microchip to discern a "terahertz" band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The design works with chips made using Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor technology behind processors commonly found in personal computers, smartphones, televisions and videogame consoles.

"CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips," electrical engineering professor Kenneth O said in a statement Friday.

"The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and a transmitter on the back of a cell phone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects."
To assuage privacy worries, the professor and his team at the Texas Analogue Center of Excellence are limiting their study to what the chips can make visible at distances of four inches (10 centimeters) or less, according to the university.

The terahertz band has wavelengths that fall between microwaves used for mobile phone signals and infrared that is employed for night vision goggles.
The chip designed by O's team detects terahertz waves and shows the resulting imagery, perhaps on a smartphone screen.

O's team highlighted potential medical uses such as enabling doctors to peer easily into patients' bodies and practical applications along the lines of finding studs in walls.
"We've created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use," O said.

"There are all kinds of things you could be able to do that we just haven't yet thought about."

Making of 2Pac Hologram At Coachella

This Company Created The 2Pac Hologram At Coachella
http://tech.li/2012/04/2pac-hologram-coachella/

 by Jon Christian April 17, 2012

 

Although news of the stunt leaked days before the performance, audience members at the Coachella music festival were astonished by a posthumous performance by late hip hop entertainer Tupac ’2Pac’ Shakur, made possible by holographic technology.

The show, which featured the still-living Calvin ‘Snoop Dogg’ Broadus singing verses of “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,” was accomplished by dropping a 13 by 30 foot screen onto the stage, onto which a three layer, 1920×1080 pixel video image of Shakur was projected. That technology was invented by Dimensional Studios, the 3-D model of Shakur was created by Hollywood special effects outfit Digital Domain, and the performance was realized by AV Concepts.

“This show was by far one of the most exciting yet challenging projects we have ever worked on,” said AV Concepts president Nick Smith, in a press release. “A highly choreographed, live, outdoor holographic production of this magnitude with hundreds of thousands of people watching gave us the added incentive, and pressure, to deliver.”

The stage effect behind the illusion, which is known as Pepper’s Ghost, predates modern projection technology by more than a century.

The holographic Shakur character moved fluidly, but suffered from the “uncanny valley” effect in which non-human figures that closely resemble human beings seem otherworldly. The Shakur hologram’s too-smooth, blue-tinted and videogame-like motions were cast into harsher contrast when Broadus took the stage.

That effect was mitigated, though, by what appeared to be banter between the two.
“That’s what the fuck I’m talkin’ about,” said the Shakur apparition, after performing “Hail Mary,” his final single.

“Hey yo ‘Pac, let these motherfuckers know what kind of party they at right now,” Broadus responded, as the performance segued into their duet.

The concept for the holographic performance originated with prolific hip hop producer and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young, according to Smith. He won’t disclose the cost of Sunday’s spectacle, but told MTV that a comparable technological resurrection would cost between $100,000 and $400,000.

After the performance, the Shakur hologram disintegrated into particles of light.
AV Concepts has produced similar effects for performances by Celine Dione and Madonna. Another high-profile celebrity brought back to life as a hologram was Frank Sinatra, who was digitally recreated by Square Zero as stunt at Simon Cowell’s birthday party.

Shakur died in 1996 from gunshot wounds sustained in Las Vegas. Adding to the mystique of Sunday’s performance, longstanding conspiracy theories posit either that Shakur was killed for unpublicized reasons or that he is still alive and in hiding.

Secondary detail:

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/tupac-hologram-already-tour-plans-shakur-mother-positively-173704154.html

To give more insight into the actual making of the $100,000 - $400,000 Tupac projection—which is actually not a hologram since it is not 3-D, but a digital projection—the performance was not simply rendered from live footage, but completely created from scratch. Past footage and images were used to capture the way Tupac moved and his physical details, but the choreography of the performance is entirely new. Meaning: If people want to watch Tupac dance Swan Lake, it is now entirely possible.
TMZ is also reporting that according to Dre's crewmate Daz Dillinger, rapper Nate Dogg (who passed away last year and was widely rumored to be the hologram) was originally set to perform as the projection, but was switched for Tupac at the last minute. Nate Dogg was instead given a video tribute during the performance.

New treatment for prostate cancer gives 'perfect results' for nine in ten men: research

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9206425/New-treatment-for-prostate-cancer-gives-perfect-results-for-nine-in-ten-men-research.html

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

A new treatment for prostate cancer can rid the disease from nine in ten men without debilitating side effects, a study has found, leading to new hope for tens of thousands of men. 

It is hoped the new treatment, which involves heating only the tumours with a highly focused ultrasound, will mean men can be treated without an overnight stay in hospital and avoiding the distressing side effects associated with current therapies.

A study has found that focal HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound, provides the 'perfect' outcome of no major side effects and free of cancer 12 months after treatment, in nine out of ten cases.

Traditional surgery or radiotherapy can only provide the perfect outcome in half of cases currently.

Experts have said the results are 'very encouraging' and were a 'paradigm' shift in treatment of the disease.

It is hoped that large scale trials can now begin so the treatment could be offered routinely on the NHS within five years.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will say in new guidance next week that the treatment is safe and effective and larger scale trials should go ahead.

A larger trial is already recruiting patients and men interested in the treatment should speak to their cancer doctor or GP about being referrred, experts said.

Prostate cancer is the commonest cancer in men with more than 37,000 diagnoses each year approximately 10,000 deaths.

Current treatments include surgery to remove the whole prostate or radiotherapy. Both of which can effectively treat the cancer but often cause side effects such as incontinence and impotence.
However in many men prostate cancer will not progress to a life threatening disease meaning that radical treatment risks side effects unnecessarily. For this reason, research is now focused on reducing side effects.

Focal HIFU involves careful selection of tumours, as small as a grain of rice, within the prostate gland and targeting them with highly focused ultrasound to heat them and destroy them.
The advantage over previous HIFU and other treatments is that damage to surrounding tissue is minimised, meaning there are far fewer side effects.

In the study published in the journal Lancet Oncology, 41 men were treated with focal HIFU. After 12 months, none were incontinent and one in ten suffered impotence.
The majority, 95 per cent, were free of cancer after 12 months.

Dr Hashim Ahmed, who led the study at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust andUniversity College London, said: “This changes the paradigm. By focusing just on the areas of cancer we reduce the collateral damage to surrounding tissue.

"Our results are very encouraging. We’re optimistic that men diagnosed with prostate cancer may soon be able to undergo a day case surgical procedure, which can be safely repeated once or twice, to treat their condition with very few side-effects. That could mean a significant improvement in their quality of life.

“This study provides the proof-of-concept we need to develop a much larger trial to look at whether focal therapy is as effective as the current standard treatment in protecting the health of the men treated for prostate cancer in the medium and long term.”

He said after Nice guidance is issued next week, he expected other doctors to consider using the treatment.

He said: "These results will encourage more physicians to look at it more carefully.
"If men are interested in this concept they should speak to their cancer doctror or their GP.
"The next step is a large scale randomised controlled trial. This needs to be evaluated in a timly way so men can benefit."

The research programme is led by Professor Mark Emberton, of UCL and UCLH. He said: “Focal therapy offers harm reduction – it is a strategy that attempts to redress the balance of harms and benefits by offering men who place high utility on genito-urinary function an alternative to standard care.

"In fact, the concept is not new - tissue preserving strategies have been used successfully in all other solid organ cancers such as breast cancer by offering women a lumpectomy rather than mastectomy.”
Professor Gillies McKenna, director of the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology, said: "Clinical trials, like this one supported by the MRC, are a fantastic tool for telling us whether experimental new treatments are likely to be effective in the clinic.

"If these promising results can be confirmed in a randomised controlled trial, focal therapy could soon become a reasonable treatment choice for prostate cancer alongside other proven effective therapies.”
The research was funded by the MRC, the Pelican Cancer Foundation and St Peter’s Trust.

Jacqui Graves, Interim Head of Healthcare at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We welcome any research that shows early signs of improving the outcomes of treatment for prostate cancer patients.

"Significant reduction in the likelihood of common side effects, such as incontinence, will enable men to recover better and go on to lead good quality lives. We hope that a larger trial will be supported to ensure that the UK achieves the best outcomes for men affected by prostate cancer.”

Owen Sharp, Chief Executive of The Prostate Cancer Charity said: “We welcome the development of any prostate cancer treatment which limits the possibility of damaging side effects such as incontinence and impotence. These early results certainly indicate that focal HIFU has the potential to achieve this in the future.

“However, we need to remember that this treatment was given to fewer than 50 men, without follow up over a sustained period of time. We look forward to the results of further trials, which we hope will provide a clearer idea of whether this treatment can control cancer in the long term whilst ridding men of the fear that treating their cancer might mean losing their quality of life.”

Scientists Engineer Stem Cells To Seek Out And Kill HIV

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/328023/20120413/stem-cells-kill-hiv.htm
By Amir Khan

 Stem cells engineered to fight HIV are effective at suppressing the virus in mice, according to a new study. The engineered cells are able to seek out and destroy the virus, giving hope that a cure for HIV could be on the horizon.

Previous research showed that killer T cells, an immune cell that helps fight infection, were able to destroy the virus in human thymus tissue. However, since HIV infected individuals have compromised immune systems, they have lower counts of killer T-cells than healthy patients, meaning they do not have enough killer T cells to fight off the virus. Killer T cells recognize a different peptie antigen, a string of amino acids that stimulates antibody production, than other t cells and get their name from the fact that they attack any foreign cell they come across without. A transfusion of killer T cells is out of the question because they need to be matched to the patient in the same way an organ does, researchers said.

This most recent study shows that scientists can manipulate stem cells -- immature cells that can develop into any type of cell -  by implanting genes, turning it into killer T cells which can kill the virus in living mice. While the mouse form of HIV is not exactly the same as it is in humans, the infection and progression closely mimic the virus in humans, and eliminating it is a huge step forward, researchers said.

"We haven't fully developed the technology to clear them of HIV, but they are significantly suppressed in the amount of virus that's replicating," Dr. Scott Kitchen, study coauthor and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA, told NBC Los Angeles.

The number of T cells, which are depleted by HIV, increased markedly in mice given the stem cells while HIV levels decreased significantly, according to the study. The results show that not only are the engineered cells capable of fighting off the virus, they are capable of helping rebuild the immune system as well.

"We believe that this study lays the groundwork for the potential use of this type of an approach in combating HIV infection in infected individuals, in hopes of eradicating the virus from the body," Kitchen said in a statement.

There is currently no cure for HIV, but treatments include a cocktail of drugs that inhibits the disease's progression. If treatment begins early, life expectancy is 32 years, according to a 2006 study published in Med Care. Life expectancy shrinks as treatment is delayed.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases describes the risk factors for HIV as engaging "in anal, vaginal, or oral sex with men who have sex with men, multiple partners, or anonymous partners without using a condom."

Researchers noted is that the stem cells  might not be expected to attack the human HIV virus as effectively as they can in mice. HIV mutates slower in mice than it does in humans, so researchers would need to use multiple engineered cells to account for different strains the virus could mutate in to, according to the study.

The journal PLoS Pathogens published the study on Thursday.
Another promising HIV drug, this one a vaccine, began clinical trials in January. Named SAV001, the vaccine is different than previous drugs because it contains a form of the virus that has been killed whereas all previously tested vaccines contained artificial forms. If all goes well with the clinical trials, the drug could be on the market in five years, Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, lead researcher and virologist at the University of Western Ontario, told DailyTech.

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: a.khan@ibtimes.com
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com

Dual-focus contact lens prototypes ordered by Penta

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17692256

By LJ Rich Reporter, BBC 

Innovega says the lenses could be released to the public in 2014

The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision.

The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units - glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses.

Much bulkier HUDs are already deployed by the US Army and Air Force to superimpose data about targets and other status updates over users' views.

The tech could help troops enhance their awareness on the battlefield.

The iOptik system's developer, Innovega, told the BBC it had signed a contract earlier this week to deliver a fully-functioning prototype to the Pentagon's research laboratory, Darpa.
The US Department of Defense had previously funded part of the Washington-based firm's initial engineering work on the project.

"The new contract gives us an immediate opportunity to start prototyping and demonstrating elements of this new system," Innovega's chief executive Steve Willey said.

Multifocal
 
The lenses work by allowing the wearer to focus on two things at once - both the information projected onto the glasses' lenses and the more distant view that can be seen through them.
They do this by having two different filters.
The central part of each lens sends light from the HUD towards the middle of the pupil, while the outer part sends light from the surrounding environment to the pupil's rim.

By building two filters into each lens, close-up and distant light sources are both in focus
Watch more about how the iOptik system could transform how we see the world around us

The retina receives each image in focus, at the same time.

"Normally, for example, with a camera you focus on something distant or something close - but you focus on a particular spot," said Mr Willey.

"By wearing our contact lens you automatically have this multi-focus, or dual-focus, and you are doing something that humans don't usually do."

Augmented reality
 
The chief executive said he also hoped to license the technology to be sold to the public.
One suggested application would be to allow users to watch what appear to be big-screen 3D movies on their glasses - with a different image projected to each lens.
Other potential uses include augmented reality eyewear similar to that teased by Google in its recent Project Glass demo, and a device to offer gamers a more immersive experience.
The lenses are still going through clinical trials as part of the US Food and Drug Administration's approval process, but Mr Willey said he was confident the tech should be available to the public towards the end of 2014.

Innovega believes the lenses will allow the use of sunglass-style HUDs with built in projectors

 

Motion sickness
 
However, one eye expert suggested that a similar technique had proved problematic when used to treat post-surgery cataract patients.

"Two superimposed images tend to be degraded and lower in contrast," said Prof Gary Rubin from University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology.
 
"I question whether a multi-focal contact lens is the right solution.

"If you're walking around with a heads up display on, the image projected on the lens could mask your peripheral or central vision. And if it's magnifying the image or changing the way it moves when your eyes move, you could get motion sickness."

You can see more on this type of wearable technology on Click on the BBC News Channel at 1130 on Saturday and Sunday in the UK, and worldwide on BBC World News this weekend.

Indian Man Charged With Blasphemy For Exposing "Miracle"

from the website/blog of Philosopher Stephen Law:

 Letter from Sanal Edamaruka defence committee

‘FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UNDER ATTACK’
Sanal Edamaruku, well known rationalist, under
threat of arrest for exposing the “miracle”

Dear friends,

On 10th March, Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Rationalist International, flew to Mumbai. The TV channel TV-9 had invited him to investigate a “miracle” that caused local excitement. He went with the TV team to Irla in Vile Parle to inspect the crucifix standing there in front of the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni. This crucifix had become the centre of attraction for an ever growing crowd of believers coming from far and wide. The news of the miracle spread like wild fire. For some days, there were little droplets of water trickling from Jesus’ feet. Hundreds of people came every day to pray and collect some of the “holy water” in bottles and vessels. Sanal Edamaruku identified the source of the water (a drainage near a washing room) and the mechanism how it reached Jesus feet (capillary action). The local church leaders, present during his investigation, appeared to be displeased. See the investigation in detail on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUqhq9MuRG8

Some hours later, in a live program on TV-9, Sanal explained his findings and accused the concerned Catholic Church officials of miracle mongering, as they were beating the big drum for the drippling Jesus statue with aggressive PR measures and by distributing photographs certifying the “miracle”. A heated debate began, in which the five church people, among them Fr. Augustine Palett, the priest of Our Lady of Velankanni church, and representatives of the Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC) demanded that Sanal apologize. But Sanal refused and argued against them. [The whole TV program is recorded. You can watch an abridged version of it on YouTube.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJ6_ftih0s
When they saw Sanal refused to bow to their demands, they threatened to file a blasphemy case against him. And they did.

Yesterday (10th April,2012) Sanal received a phone call from a Police official of Juhu Police Station in Mumbai directing him to come to the said police station to face the charges and get arrested. He also said that FIRs have also been filed in Andheri and some other police stations u/s 295 of Indian Penal Code on the allegations of hurting the religious sentiments of a particular community. Mumbai police has announced that they were out to arrest him. It is apprehended that he can be arrested any moment.

The filing of FIRs by Mumbai police and threatening to arrest a well known rationalist who has been exposing miracles and superstitious beliefs for more than three decades is a serious attack on the freedom of expression. Clause (h) of Article 51-A of Constitution of India states that :
‘It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform.’

In exposing the said miracle, Sanal was performing his fundamental duty enshrined in our constitution.

It is distressing that the Mumbai police has chosen to harass and victimize him for doing his fundamental duty.

‘Sanal Edamaruku Defence Committee’ appeals to all progressive individuals and organizations to protest and oppose the reprehensible steps of the Maharashtra police in filing FIRs against Sanal and stand behind him in solidarity for the cause of scientific thinking and freedom of expression.

N.D.Pancholi
11 April, 2012 Convenor,
Sanal Edamaruku Defence Committee
PS. Please have a look at 'www.rationalistinternational.net'.

first universal quantum network

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/125885-the-first-universal-quantum-network-built-in-germany
By Sebastian Anthony


German scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) have created the first “universal quantum network” that could be feasibly scaled up to become a quantum internet. So far their quantum network only spans two labs spaced 21 meters apart, but the scientists stress that longer distances and multiple nodes are possible.

The network’s construction is ingenious. Each node is represented by a single rubidium atom, trapped inside a reflective optical cavity. These atoms communicate with each other by emitting a single photon over an optical fiber. Each atom is a quantum bit — a qubit — and the polarization of the photon emitted carries the quantum state of the qubit. The receiving qubit absorbs the photon and takes on the quantum state of the transmitter. Voila: A network of qubits that can send, receive, and store quantum information.

With this atom/photon setup, the scientists were able to perform a read/write operation between two labs, over a 60-meter run of optic fiber. There aren’t any photos of the equipment used, but I suspect we’re probably talking about very large machines to keep the rubidium atoms near absolute zero.

Historically the difficulty has been getting atoms and photons to interact — they’re both impossibly small, so getting them to collide is tricky. The reflective optical cavity solves this problem — the photon ricochets tens of thousands of times until it eventually collides — but even so, the MPQ scientists still only managed to successfully transfer quantum states 0.2% of the time.
In another, probably more exciting test, the emitted photons were actually used to entangle the rubidium atoms. Entangled particles exactly mirror the quantum state of their partner, instantaneously and over any distance. Entangled qubits might be able to form the basis of a quantum network with zero latency over any distance, which would make it rather useful for the intergalactic Galnet that will eventually succeed the internet. The researchers hope that entanglement could be used to mitigate the fickleness of single photons.

Back on Earth, though, the goal now is to improve on that 99.8% failure rate and to scale up the number of nodes. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet, but this advance from the Max Planck Institute could mean that quantum networks aren’t actually that far away. Like the internet, the first real quantum network will link up the world’s universities, laboratories, and military installations — and then, eventually, offices and homes.

Read more about applying Google’s PageRank to quantum networks, or about IBM’s latest quantum computing breakthroughs

The Case for Voter ID Fraud

 

 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/08/DC-Polling-Place-Holder-Ballot

O'Keefe Voter Fraud Investigation: Young Man Offered Holder's Ballot 

by Breitbart News

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that there is no proof that in-person voter fraud is a problem. He's about to see proof that even he can't deny.

In a new video (below) provided to Breitbart.com, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws--by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s primary ballot. Literally.

The video shows a young man entering a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year--April 3, 2012--and giving Holder’s name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder’s ballot to vote.

The young man then suggests that he should show his ID; the poll worker, in compliance with DC law, states: “You don’t need it. It’s all right. As long as you’re in here, you’re on our list, and that’s who you say you are, you’re okay.”

The young man replies: “I would feel more comfortable if I just had my ID. Is it alright if I go get it?" The poll worker agrees.

"I’ll be back Faster than you can say Furious,” the young man jokes on his way out, in a reference to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal that has plagued Holder’s Department of Justice.
Holder has maintained that voter fraud is not a major problem in the United States, and that voter ID would not curb voter fraud in any case.
As Project Veritas has proven, voter fraud is easy and simple--and may be increasingly common in the absence of voter ID laws.

Project Veritas has already shown how dead people can vote in New Hampshire, prompting the state senate to pass a voter ID law; they’ve also shown people can use celebrity names like Tim Tebow and Tom Brady to vote in Minnesota, prompting the state legislature to put voter ID on the ballot as a constitutional amendment.

NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
By James Bamford

Article excerpt:

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

Robot Helicopters To Single Out Pirate Ships

Posted on Slashdot.org

"Innovation News reports that the U.S. Navy plans to upgrade its robotic Fire Scouts with electronic 'brains' that are able to automatically recognize small pirate boats spotted through 3D laser imaging by bouncing millions of laser pulses off distant objects to create a 3D 'radar' image of any boats on the high seas — a technology known as LIDAR or LADAR — so that their new software can automatically compare the 3D images to pirate boat profiles on record. Having smarter robotic helicopters could ease the workload strain for Navy sailors, who must otherwise eyeball the data coming from the new Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker (MMSS) — a sensor mix of high-definition cameras, mid-wave infrared sensors and the 3D LADAR technology. Meanwhile, the Navy has begun testing other new technologies to tackle the problem of piracy — an especially thorny issue because of Somali pirates attacking ships off the coast of East Africa. Its more forceful countermeasures include a combination of lasers and machine guns, as well as swarms of smart rockets capable of picking out their own small boat targets."

Justice Dept. Rejects Voter ID Law

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-voter-id-20120312,0,2478951.story

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

March 12, 2012, 9:37 a.m.

Reporting from Houston— 

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said Texas' new voter identification law failed to comply with the Voting Rights Act and did not demonstrate that it wouldn't discriminate against minority voters.

In a letter to the state, Justice Department officials said the measure could disproportionately harm Latinos. The department blocked a similar law earlier this month in Wisconsin, and in South Carolina in December.

Last year, eight states passed voter ID laws.

Supporters of such laws, generally Republicans, say the laws protect the integrity of elections. The Texas law’s requirements “entail minor inconveniences on exercising the right to vote,” Texas Atty Gen. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a January court filing in support of the law.
But opponents of the laws, generally Democrats, say they disenfranchise minority and low-income voters.

“Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card,” Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote Monday in a letter to Keith Ingram, director of elections for the Texas Secretary of State. The letter was excerpted in the Texas Tribune.
Texas and South Carolina have filed suit in federal court seeking permission to enforce their voter ID laws despite Justice Department opposition. The Justice Department has until April 9 to respond to Texas' lawsuit.

Because of a history of voting rights violations, the two states are among 16 states or portions of states that must obtain "preclearance," or permission from the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington before changing election procedures.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder has been an outspoken critic of the Texas law. Speaking in December at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, which houses the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Johnson signed, Holder said that the new voter ID law “goes against the arc of history,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

Under the Texas law, voters must present one of seven forms of state or federally issued photo IDs at the polls, including handgun permits. Those without required ID would be given a provisional ballot, counted only if the voters present an approved ID to the registrar’s office within six days of the election, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website.

When Texas' Republican-controlled legislature passed the voter ID law last year, critics said the measure would make it more difficult for a million Texas voters to cast their ballots.
"I thank the Justice Department for standing up for voting rights," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat from Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle. "Throughout the preclearance process, Texas consistently failed to produce information showing the law would not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters. The Voting Rights Act exists for this exact purpose: protecting the ability of all Americans to access the ballot box."

http://www.colorofchange.org


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act

http://www.alec.org

Coca Cola, Kraft leave conservative ALEC after boycott launched
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-coca-cola-kraft-alec-20120406,0,5103778.story

Battery-powered plasma flashlight vs. bacteria

http://www.gizmag.com/plasma-flashlight/22075/

Battery-powered plasma flashlight makes short work of bacteria

By Darren Quick

9
inShare

The handheld plasma flashlight that can rid the skin of bacteria in an instant

An international team of scientists has created a handheld, battery powered device that has been shown to effectively rid skin of bacteria in an instant by blasting it with plasma. The plasma flashlight, which shouldn’t be confused with a plasma torch that will damage much more than bacteria if used on the skin, could provide a convenient way for paramedics and military personnel to deal with harmful bacteria in the field.

The self-contained device is powered by a 12 V battery and doesn’t require any external gas feed or handling system. The plume of plasma it generates is between 20-23°C (68-73.4°F), so it won’t damage the skin. It is also fitted with resistors to stop it heating up and becoming too hot to touch. Its creators say it can also be easily manufactured at a cost of less than US$100 per unit.

In an experiment carried out by the scientists, the plasma flashlight effectively inactivated thick biofilms of Enterococcus faecalis, a bacterium that often infects the root canals in dental treatments and is highly antibiotic- and heat-resistant. Created by incubating the bacteria for seven days, the biofilms consisted of 17 different layers of bacteria. After treating each biofilm with the plasma flashlight for five minutes, the plasma was found to penetrate deep into the very bottom layer and inactivate the bacteria.

“In this study we chose an extreme example to demonstrate that the plasma flashlight can be very effective even at room temperature,” said co-author of the study, Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, from the Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. “For individual bacteria, the inactivation time could be just tens of seconds.”

While plasma has previously been shown to effectively kill bacteria and viruses on the surface of the skin and water, the exact mechanism behind this is still not understood. Ultraviolet radiation has been theorized as a reason, but the jet created by the plasma flashlight is low in UV radiation, which adds to the safety of using the device on a person’s skin. The reactions between the plasma and the surrounding air has also been suggested as another possibility.

The international team behind the plasma flashlight consists of scientists from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sydney and the City University of Hong Kong. Their work is detailed in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics.
Source: Institute of Physics

Ray weapons

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123415/Putin-targets-foes-zombie-gun-attack-victims-central-nervous-system.html#ixzz1rARGK66z

Putin targets foes with 'zombie' gun which attack victims' central nervous system

• Could be used against Russia's enemies and perhaps its own dissidents

By Christopher Leake and Will Stewart
 
Mind-bending ‘psychotronic’ guns that can effectively turn people into zombies have been given the go-ahead by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The futuristic weapons – which will attack the central nervous system of their victims – are being developed by the country’s scientists.
They could be used against Russia’s enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade.

Fire: Putin, seen using a traditional pistol, has new weapons in his sights

Sources in Moscow say Mr Putin has described the guns, which use electromagnetic radiation like that found in microwave ovens, as ‘entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals’.

 

Mr Putin added: ‘Such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons, but will be more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology.’
Plans to introduce the super- weapons were announced quietly last week by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov, fulfilling  a little-noticed election campaign pledge by president-elect Putin.

Plans to introduce the super- weapons were announced quietly last week by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov

Mr Serdyukov said: ‘The development  of weaponry based on new physics principles – direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, and so on – is part  of the state arms procurement programme for 2011-2020.’

Specific proposals on developing the weapons are due to be drawn  up before December by a new Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Research into electromagnetic weapons has been secretly carried out in the US and Russia since the Fifties. But now it appears Mr Putin has stolen a march on the Americans. Precise details of the Russian gun have not been revealed. However, previous research has shown that low-frequency waves or beams can affect brain cells, alter psychological states and make it possible to transmit suggestions and commands directly into someone’s thought processes.

High doses of microwaves can damage the functioning of internal organs, control behaviour or even drive victims to suicide. Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Military Forecasting Centre in Moscow, said: ‘This is a highly serious weapon. 

‘When it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot frying pan. Still, we know very little about this weapon and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it.’

The long-term effects are not known, but two years ago a former major in the Russian foreign intelligence agency, the GRU, died in Scotland after making claims about such a weapons programme to MI6.
Sergei Serykh, 43, claimed he was a victim of weapons which he said were ‘many times more powerful than in the Matrix films’.
Mr Serykh died after falling from a Glasgow tower block with his wife and stepson in March 2010. While his death was assumed to be suicide, his family fear there was foul play.

Last night the Ministry of Defence declined to comment.

Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses: 'Project Glass'

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/google-begins-testing-its-augmented-reality-glasses/

If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from “Star Trek,” don’t worry. It’s probably just a Google employee testing the company’s new augmented-reality glasses.

On Wednesday, Google gave people a clearer picture of its secret initiative called Project Glass. The glasses are the company’s first venture into wearable computing.

The glasses are not yet for sale. Google will, however, be testing them in public.

In a post shared on Google Plus, employees in the company laboratory known as Google X, including Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun, asked people for input about the prototype of Project Glass. Mr. Lee, a Google product manager and originally worked on Google mapping software Latitude, mobile maps and indoor maps, is responsible for the software component and the location-based aspects of the glasses.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” the three employees wrote. “Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?”

The prototype version Google showed off on Wednesday looked like a very polished and well-designed pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye. The glasses can stream information to the lenses and allow the wearer to send and receive messages through voice commands. There is also a built-in camera to record video and take pictures.

The New York Times first wrote about the glasses in late February, describing an augmented-reality display that would sit over the eye and run on the Android mobile platform.
A video released by Google on Wednesday, which can be seen below, showed potential uses for Project Glass. A man wanders around the streets of New York City, communicating with friends, seeing maps and information, and snapping pictures. It concludes with him video-chatting with a girlfriend as the sun sets over the city. All of this is seen through the augmented-reality glasses.

University of WashingtonBabak Parviz, who is working on Project Glass, developed contact lenses with pixels embedded in the display.

Project Glass could hypothetically become Project Contact Lens. Mr. Parviz, who is also an associate professor at the University of Washington, specializes in bionanotechnology, which is the fusion of tiny technologies and biology. He most recently built a tiny contact lens that has embedded electronics and can display pixels to a person’s eye.

Early reports of the glasses said prototypes could look like a pair of Oakley Thumps — which are clunky and obtrusive sunglasses — but the version Google unveiled Wednesday looks more graceful. There are reportedly dozens of other shapes and variations of the glasses in the works, some of which can sit over a person’s normal eyeglasses.

People I have spoken with who have have seen Project Glass said there is a misconception that the glasses will interfere with people’s daily life too much, constantly streaming information to them and distracting from the real world. But these people said the glasses actually free people up from technology.

One person who had used the glasses said: “They let technology get out of your way. If I want to take a picture I don’t have to reach into my pocket and take out my phone; I just press a button at the top of the glasses and that’s it.”

Project Glass is one of many projects currently being built inside the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main Mountain View, Calif., campus where engineers and scientists are also working on robots and space elevators.

iBrain uses single EEG

 http://www.neurovigil.com/

Transmits all brainwave data through single EEG to wireless device/phone to monitor brain activity/sleep. 

http://www.10news.com/news/30829661/detail.html

La Jolla-Based NeuroVigil Says iBrain Can Help Read Thoughts

SAN DIEGO -- A local company has released a stunning finding after performing some unique tests on the human brain, including that of famed physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking.

Almost completely paralyzed from Lou Gehrig's disease, Hawking uses face muscles to operate a voice machine.

Hawking's face muscles are slowly failing, but soon he may not need them, thanks to technology by La Jolla-based NeuroVigil."I'm very enthusiastic about it," NeuroVigil Chairman Philip Low said of the iBrain.Low created the iBrain, the world's first mobile brain scanner. Low, who first met Hawking at a conference, said he believes it can read Hawking's thoughts.The iBrain fits right over the head and features three electrodes that connect very easily.

This past summer, Low flew to Cambridge, England, and Hawking agreed to wear the device. He was asked to think very hard about doing various tasks while his brain waves were tracked.Using a special algorithm to convert the wave patterns, Low learned each of those thoughts produced its own distinct brain wave patterns, which can be mapped out.

Eventually, Low believes a computer could read the patterns and speak Hawking's thoughts."We'd like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain," said Low.That ability to decipher each person's brain wave patterns could have major implications."Pharmaceutical companies can now fine-tune the drugs for individuals. This is the first step to personalized medicine," Low said.iBrain is also being looked at as a possible way to monitor and diagnose a number of conditions -- from sleep disorders, depression and neurological disorders, to autism and post-traumatic stress disorder."This is very exciting for us because it allows us to have a window into the brain. We're building technology that will allow humanity to have access to the human brain for the first time," said Low.NeuroVigil, a small company of about 11 employees, has received a big part of its funding from winning awards.Low said because doctors can monitor the device remotely, it could also save a lot in medical costs.

--

My Editorial:

 In 1997, I created an animated visualization and presented at Siggraph conference about a concept that would require conversion of brainwaves into an audio and visual sequence.

Ideally, the brainwave algorithms would produce images and sounds in the same way that algorithms produce fractal images and sounds, and in real-time.

The idea would be for people to be able to see and hear a representation of their current brainwave state and be able to consciously alter the pattern using the audio-visual feedback to reach a target state.

In my case, the intention was to create a method for people to reach target states that are more suitable for immersion into therapeutic virtual environments, and for receiving suggestion from a therapist.

At the time, I learned that a primary obstacle for achieving such a design amongst others was in getting the many signals. It sounds like iBrain may have achieved a way of solving this particular issue.

I also am interested in dream states and would be like to see such a representation in an audible and visual form - I am interested in how these kinds of technologies might be used for achieving new forms of communication. I understand that there was some kind of audible recording of dream states achieved my a Canadian team sometime around 2002-03, I'd have to dig up my old notes.

Of course, at some point the real excitement would be to project mental imagery and sounds in real time and to record imagery and sounds from dreams - I truly believe this is possible.

I don't know whether the iBrain technology bridges any kind of solutions for producing real-time affectations, as with BCIs.  Moving objects or controlling imagery could be a matter of mapping the mind to a library of imagery and sounds as a means of communicating. That library could become a common library that people use to communicate, much like an alphabet, but only limited to the library contents of imagery and sounds, or even sensations, smells, etc.

For now, I want to know whether a more literal audio-visual representation of brainwaves might be possible as I've described (real-time algorithmic sound and visuals created as fractal imagery and sounds are created) using iBrain.

Here is a link to some of the imagery - the final animation is only about 37 seconds long - I thought about creating a loop for inducing target states or even creating a track that could be sped up or slowed down through biofeedback - again, a library that could be triggered - surely Stephen Hawking could use it:

http://fallowfields.org/wave.html

Anonymous China: Hundreds of Beijing's Government Websites Defaced

http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/322867/20120402/anonymous-china-hundreds-government-websites-defaced.htm
By Gianluca Mezzofiore 

The Anonymous hacking collective has landed in China, home of some of the most tightly controlled internet access in the world, and defaced hundreds of government websites in what appears to be a massive online operation against Beijing.

Anonymous listed its intended institutional targets on Pastebin and has now attacked them.
Anonymous Kroll claimed that hundreds of websites had been defaced or taken offline by the collective. "#China: Several hundred websites #defacedand 4659 Vhosts #hacked by #Anonymous.cdcbd.gov.cn & bbdj.gov.cn" read the tweet.
The defaced homepages carry a statement against the Chinese government along with the traditional Anonymous banner and the generational anthem Baba O'Riley by The Who played in background.

"All these years, the Chinese communist government has subjected its people to unfair laws and unhealthy processes," reads the statement. "Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall."
It contains also a message directed at the Chinese people: "Each of you suffers from the tyranny of that regime which knows nothing about you," reads the message. "We are with you. [...]The silence of all other countries highlights the lack of democracy and justice in China. It's unbearable."

The defacements also provide a link with tips on how to bypass state censorship.
The latest development came after China's state media announced an extensive crackdown on dozens of websites, penalising two popular social media sites and detaining six people for spreading rumours of a coup d'état.

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: g.mezzofiore@ibtimes.co.uk
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com

--

Anonymous claims China hack

http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/62532-anonymous-claims-china-hack
by Trent Nouveau

Hackers linked to the Anonymous collective have claimed responsibility for defacing a number of Chinese government and business websites.


"Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall. So expect us because we do not forgive, never. What you are doing today to your Great People, tomorrow will be inflicted to you. With no mercy," a message posted on the affected sites read in English.



"Each of you suffers from the tyranny of that regime which knows nothing about you. We are with you. With you here and now. But also tomorrow and the coming days so promising for your freedom. We will never give up. Don't lose hope, the revolution begins in the heart. The silence of all other countries highlights the lack of democracy and justice in China. It's unbearable. We must all fight for your freedom."



The hackers also posted a link on the compromised sites detailing various methods of bypassing state censorship, which is basically a copy of an article found on Hacktivist.me.
According to the Wall Street Journal, government-administered websites targeted by the collective include those belonging to the Central Business District in Chengdu, the Qingniwaqiao sub-district office in the city of Dalian, and lower-level government agencies in the cities of Taizhou, Zhongshan and Jiazhou.
It should be noted that Anonymous has targeted China in the past, specifically this past September when its Analytics branch posted an extensive analysis accusing fruit and vegetable producer Chaoda Modern Agriculture (Holdings) Ltd. of "deceit and open corporate fraud."

--
 http://pastebin.com/f7nFSFgq

1.   /  \   _ __   ___  _ __  _   _ _ __ ___   ___  _   _ ___
2.   / /\ \ | '_ \ / _ \| '_ \| | | | '_ ` _ \ / _ \| | | / __|
3.  / ____ \| | | | (_) | | | | |_| | | | | | | (_) | |_| \__ \
4. /_/    \_\_| |_|\___/|_| |_|\__, |_| |_| |_|\___/ \__,_|___/
5.                              __/ |                                                        
6.                             |___/                                                    
7.  
8.                
9. Follow @AnonymousChina
10. https://twitter.com/AnonymousChina
11.  
12. ###################################################
13. ###################################################
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