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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7860966/Terrafugia-Transition-flying-car-gets-go-ahead-from-US-air-authorities.html
See also http://www.terrafugia.com/
By Tom Chivers
Published: 12:56PM BST 29 Jun 2010
The Transition was designed as a "light sport" aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features - airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance - that are required for road vehicles into that weight.
Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption - allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over the limit.
Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours' flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.
The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off. The folding wings are electrically powered.
Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot (one-third of a mile) runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.
Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety - in the event of inclement weather, it can simply drive home instead of either being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.
The company says that 70 people have ordered the car, leaving a $10,000 (£6,650) deposit each. The car is expected to retail at $194,000 (£129,000). Deposits are held in escrow, meaning that should the company go bankrupt before delivery, the money will be refunded.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Believing You Are Very Good Or Evil Boosts Your Physical Capabilities
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/04/strength-in-naughty-or-nice/
Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."
New research from Harvard University suggests that moral actions may increase people’s capacity for willpower and physical endurance. Study participants who did good deeds — or even just imagined themselves helping others — were better able to perform a subsequent task of physical endurance.
The research, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, shows a similar or even greater boost in physical strength following mean-spirited deeds.
Researcher Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, explains these effects as a self-fulfilling prophecy in morality.
“People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,” Gray said. “By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.”
Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power.
“Gandhi or Mother Teresa may not have been born with extraordinary self-control, but perhaps came to possess it through trying to help others,” said Gray, who calls this effect “moral transformation” because it suggests that such deeds have the power to transform people from average to exceptional.
Moral transformation has many implications, he said. For example, it suggests a new technique for enhancing self-control when dieting: Help others before being faced with temptation.
“Perhaps the best way to resist the donuts at work is to donate your change in the morning to a worthy cause,” Gray said.
The study also may suggest new treatments for anxiety or depression, he said, since helping others may be a useful way of regaining control of your own life.
Gray’s findings are based on two studies. In the first, participants were given $1, and were told either to keep it or to donate it to charity. They were then asked to hold up a 5-lb. weight for as long as they could. Those who donated to charity could hold the weight up for almost 10 seconds longer, on average.
In a second study, participants held a weight while writing fictional stories of themselves either helping another, harming another, or doing something that had no impact on others. As before, those who thought about doing good were significantly stronger than those whose actions didn’t benefit other people.
But surprisingly, the would-be malefactors were even stronger than those who envisioned doing good deeds.
“Whether you’re saintly or nefarious, there seems to be power in moral events,” Gray said. “People often look at others who do great or evil deeds and think, ‘I could never do that,’ or ‘I wouldn’t have the strength to do that.’ But in fact, this research suggests that physical strength may be an effect, not a cause, of moral acts.”
Gray’s research was supported by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Institute for Humane Studies.
Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."
New research from Harvard University suggests that moral actions may increase people’s capacity for willpower and physical endurance. Study participants who did good deeds — or even just imagined themselves helping others — were better able to perform a subsequent task of physical endurance.
The research, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, shows a similar or even greater boost in physical strength following mean-spirited deeds.
Researcher Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, explains these effects as a self-fulfilling prophecy in morality.
“People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,” Gray said. “By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.”
Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power.
“Gandhi or Mother Teresa may not have been born with extraordinary self-control, but perhaps came to possess it through trying to help others,” said Gray, who calls this effect “moral transformation” because it suggests that such deeds have the power to transform people from average to exceptional.
Moral transformation has many implications, he said. For example, it suggests a new technique for enhancing self-control when dieting: Help others before being faced with temptation.
“Perhaps the best way to resist the donuts at work is to donate your change in the morning to a worthy cause,” Gray said.
The study also may suggest new treatments for anxiety or depression, he said, since helping others may be a useful way of regaining control of your own life.
Gray’s findings are based on two studies. In the first, participants were given $1, and were told either to keep it or to donate it to charity. They were then asked to hold up a 5-lb. weight for as long as they could. Those who donated to charity could hold the weight up for almost 10 seconds longer, on average.
In a second study, participants held a weight while writing fictional stories of themselves either helping another, harming another, or doing something that had no impact on others. As before, those who thought about doing good were significantly stronger than those whose actions didn’t benefit other people.
But surprisingly, the would-be malefactors were even stronger than those who envisioned doing good deeds.
“Whether you’re saintly or nefarious, there seems to be power in moral events,” Gray said. “People often look at others who do great or evil deeds and think, ‘I could never do that,’ or ‘I wouldn’t have the strength to do that.’ But in fact, this research suggests that physical strength may be an effect, not a cause, of moral acts.”
Gray’s research was supported by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Institute for Humane Studies.
Khan Academy Delivers 100,000 Lectures Daily
http://www.khanacademy.org
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 1400+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan
About:
http://www.khanacademy.org/people.jsp
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 1400+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan
About:
http://www.khanacademy.org/people.jsp
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Virtuasphere
http://360virtualventures.com
The Virtusphere is a one-of-kind locomotion (meaning: the movement of people) platform that allows users to be completely immersed into their interactive virtual experience. The Virtusphere technology enhances virtual reality and 3D entertainment for the most immersive experience possible . The Virtusphere is a natural user interface and by it’s brilliant design provides “infinite space”. It allows users to go deeper into virtual space and interact with it. The VirtuSphere patented technology enables the user to make lifelike movements in cyberspace and delivers a breakthrough Human Computer Interface (HCI) via the most natural form of navigation - by walking.
The Virtusphere is a one-of-kind locomotion (meaning: the movement of people) platform that allows users to be completely immersed into their interactive virtual experience. The Virtusphere technology enhances virtual reality and 3D entertainment for the most immersive experience possible . The Virtusphere is a natural user interface and by it’s brilliant design provides “infinite space”. It allows users to go deeper into virtual space and interact with it. The VirtuSphere patented technology enables the user to make lifelike movements in cyberspace and delivers a breakthrough Human Computer Interface (HCI) via the most natural form of navigation - by walking.
Friday, June 25, 2010
German court legalises euthanasia with patient consent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/10414647.stm
A top German court has ruled that it is not a criminal offence to cut off the life support of a dying person if that person has given their consent.
The Federal Court of Justice acquitted a lawyer who had advised the daughter of a comatose woman to cut off her feeding tube.
Earlier the patient had expressed her wish not to be kept alive artificially.
The lawyer appealed to the federal court after a lower court had given him a nine-month suspended sentence.
The mother, in her seventies, fell into a coma in 2002 and had been in a vegetative state for five years when her daughter removed the feeding tube.
After the daughter's action hospital staff reinserted a feeding tube, against the children's wishes, but the patient died of heart failure two weeks later.
Germany's Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said the Karlsruhe federal court ruling brought clarity to cases involving terminally ill patients.
The ruling does not legalise active assisted suicide, which is punishable by up to five years in prison in Germany, the news website Spiegel Online reports.
The ruling applies to passively assisting death through the removal of artificial life support. It makes this legal if the patient has given clear consent.
A top German court has ruled that it is not a criminal offence to cut off the life support of a dying person if that person has given their consent.
The Federal Court of Justice acquitted a lawyer who had advised the daughter of a comatose woman to cut off her feeding tube.
Earlier the patient had expressed her wish not to be kept alive artificially.
The lawyer appealed to the federal court after a lower court had given him a nine-month suspended sentence.
The mother, in her seventies, fell into a coma in 2002 and had been in a vegetative state for five years when her daughter removed the feeding tube.
After the daughter's action hospital staff reinserted a feeding tube, against the children's wishes, but the patient died of heart failure two weeks later.
Germany's Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said the Karlsruhe federal court ruling brought clarity to cases involving terminally ill patients.
The ruling does not legalise active assisted suicide, which is punishable by up to five years in prison in Germany, the news website Spiegel Online reports.
The ruling applies to passively assisting death through the removal of artificial life support. It makes this legal if the patient has given clear consent.
Afghan minerals mean 'self sufficiency' in 10 years
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10412085.stm
ESTIMATED DEPOSITS:
These include vast reserves of oil, gas, copper, gold and lithium.
* Iron: $421bn
* Copper: $274bn
* Niobium: $81bn
* Cobalt: $51bn
* Gold: $25bn
Afghanistan could be self-sufficient within a decade if its mineral resources are properly exploited, its mines minister has told the BBC.
Wahid Shahrani is in London to encourage the world's mining companies to invest in his country.
He says his country has untapped mineral wealth worth in excess of $3tn.
Mr Shahrani says that mining could move the country from being aid dependent to being self-sufficient in 10 years.
The BBC's Jill McGivering says that Mr Shahrani is on a multi-billion dollar sales tour, trying to drum up bids from the world's mining companies for his country's untapped minerals.
Mr Shahrani sees mining as the country's economic mainstay in the future.
In seven years mining taxes should pay the government $1bn a year, he says, and within a decade Afghanistan could be self-sufficient.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Shahrani dismissed critics who argue that such a massive influx of money raises concerns about corruption.
"We have improved our legislation, the procedures have been upgraded and we have been getting a tremendous amount of support from our international partners," Mr Shahrani said.
"In future whatever contracts would be awarded, all the information will be published, to make sure that all the relevant stakeholders, civil society and media and parliament, will have access to the information, to make sure we will have sufficient amount of the safeguards, to make sure that we will achieve the high standards of transparency."
Security is another key concern in relation to exploiting the country's mineral reserves, correspondents say.
The first big projects on offer are in the most secure regions of the country - and the government has promised investors a special mining protection security force.
Mining companies will also have to invest heavily in infrastructure - from electricity to roads and railways, Mr Shahrani said.
ESTIMATED DEPOSITS:
These include vast reserves of oil, gas, copper, gold and lithium.
* Iron: $421bn
* Copper: $274bn
* Niobium: $81bn
* Cobalt: $51bn
* Gold: $25bn
Afghanistan could be self-sufficient within a decade if its mineral resources are properly exploited, its mines minister has told the BBC.
Wahid Shahrani is in London to encourage the world's mining companies to invest in his country.
He says his country has untapped mineral wealth worth in excess of $3tn.
Mr Shahrani says that mining could move the country from being aid dependent to being self-sufficient in 10 years.
The BBC's Jill McGivering says that Mr Shahrani is on a multi-billion dollar sales tour, trying to drum up bids from the world's mining companies for his country's untapped minerals.
Mr Shahrani sees mining as the country's economic mainstay in the future.
In seven years mining taxes should pay the government $1bn a year, he says, and within a decade Afghanistan could be self-sufficient.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Shahrani dismissed critics who argue that such a massive influx of money raises concerns about corruption.
"We have improved our legislation, the procedures have been upgraded and we have been getting a tremendous amount of support from our international partners," Mr Shahrani said.
"In future whatever contracts would be awarded, all the information will be published, to make sure that all the relevant stakeholders, civil society and media and parliament, will have access to the information, to make sure we will have sufficient amount of the safeguards, to make sure that we will achieve the high standards of transparency."
Security is another key concern in relation to exploiting the country's mineral reserves, correspondents say.
The first big projects on offer are in the most secure regions of the country - and the government has promised investors a special mining protection security force.
Mining companies will also have to invest heavily in infrastructure - from electricity to roads and railways, Mr Shahrani said.
Rats Breathe With Lab-Grown Lungs
by Mitch Leslie on June 24, 2010 2:53 PM
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/rats-breathe-with-lab-grown-lung.html
(Video embeded on link page)
For the first time, an animal has drawn a breath with lungs cultivated in the lab. Although preliminary, the results might eventually lead to replacement lungs for patients.
People whose lungs are failing because of diseases such as emphysema or cystic fibrosis face a grim outlook. Only 10% to 20% of patients who undergo lung transplants survive for 10 years, versus about 50% for heart recipients. Research to create new lungs in the lab has lagged because of their complex structure and multiple cell types, notes biomedical engineer Laura Niklason of Yale University.
Tissue engineers are enthusiastic about a technique called decellularization that involves using detergent to remove all of the cells from an organ, leaving a scaffold consisting of the fibrous material between cells. The material serves as a template for fresh cells, orchestrating their assembly and growth into a new organ. The technique has yielded implantable liver grafts for rats. And in 2008, a 30-year-old woman received a replacement for one of the lung's main air passages, which scientists had seeded with her own cells.
Now Niklason and colleagues say they have used the method to produce rodent lungs. The team started with decellularized adult rat lungs, which retain the organs' branching airways and blood vessel network, and added a mixture of lung cells from newborn rats. Niklason says that the crucial step was nurturing the would-be lungs in a bioreactor that circulates fluid—simulating what would happen during fetal development—or air through them. The cells stuck to the scaffold in the right locations and multiplied. After up to 8 days in the bioreactor, they had coalesced into what the researchers' tests indicated was functional lung tissue.
To make a lung. This video shows the procedure the researchers followed to grow lungs in the lab and implant them into rats.
Credit: Video file courtesy of Laura Niklason and Thomas Petersen
To determine whether the new organs worked, the researchers removed rats' left lungs and stitched in lab-grown replacements. X-rays showed that the implanted lungs were inflating, though not fully. Tests of gas levels in blood flowing to and from the replacement organs showed that they were taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide at 95% of normal efficiency. The researchers allowed the animals to breathe with the lungs for up to 2 hours before euthanizing them because of blood clots.
"We've shown that it's possible to engineer a lung that can perform the single most important function—exchange of gases," says Niklason, whose team reports its findings online today in Science. She describes the results as one advance in a "20- to 25-year project" and cautions that a huge obstacle lies ahead. Researchers need to identify cells—possibly adult stem cells from the patient—that can reconstruct lung tissue without provoking attack by the immune system, the problem that plagues current transplant recipients.
Tissue engineer Joan Nichols of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston praises most of the study. "It started out beautifully, it was so well done." However, she argues that the organs were implanted prematurely. The bleeding the researchers detected within the lungs suggests that the organs weren't ready, she says. Nichols recommends a much longer growth period—say, 60 days—and further testing to make sure the lungs are sound. "The answer is not just to implant and see if it works," she says.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/rats-breathe-with-lab-grown-lung.html
(Video embeded on link page)
For the first time, an animal has drawn a breath with lungs cultivated in the lab. Although preliminary, the results might eventually lead to replacement lungs for patients.
People whose lungs are failing because of diseases such as emphysema or cystic fibrosis face a grim outlook. Only 10% to 20% of patients who undergo lung transplants survive for 10 years, versus about 50% for heart recipients. Research to create new lungs in the lab has lagged because of their complex structure and multiple cell types, notes biomedical engineer Laura Niklason of Yale University.
Tissue engineers are enthusiastic about a technique called decellularization that involves using detergent to remove all of the cells from an organ, leaving a scaffold consisting of the fibrous material between cells. The material serves as a template for fresh cells, orchestrating their assembly and growth into a new organ. The technique has yielded implantable liver grafts for rats. And in 2008, a 30-year-old woman received a replacement for one of the lung's main air passages, which scientists had seeded with her own cells.
Now Niklason and colleagues say they have used the method to produce rodent lungs. The team started with decellularized adult rat lungs, which retain the organs' branching airways and blood vessel network, and added a mixture of lung cells from newborn rats. Niklason says that the crucial step was nurturing the would-be lungs in a bioreactor that circulates fluid—simulating what would happen during fetal development—or air through them. The cells stuck to the scaffold in the right locations and multiplied. After up to 8 days in the bioreactor, they had coalesced into what the researchers' tests indicated was functional lung tissue.
To make a lung. This video shows the procedure the researchers followed to grow lungs in the lab and implant them into rats.
Credit: Video file courtesy of Laura Niklason and Thomas Petersen
To determine whether the new organs worked, the researchers removed rats' left lungs and stitched in lab-grown replacements. X-rays showed that the implanted lungs were inflating, though not fully. Tests of gas levels in blood flowing to and from the replacement organs showed that they were taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide at 95% of normal efficiency. The researchers allowed the animals to breathe with the lungs for up to 2 hours before euthanizing them because of blood clots.
"We've shown that it's possible to engineer a lung that can perform the single most important function—exchange of gases," says Niklason, whose team reports its findings online today in Science. She describes the results as one advance in a "20- to 25-year project" and cautions that a huge obstacle lies ahead. Researchers need to identify cells—possibly adult stem cells from the patient—that can reconstruct lung tissue without provoking attack by the immune system, the problem that plagues current transplant recipients.
Tissue engineer Joan Nichols of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston praises most of the study. "It started out beautifully, it was so well done." However, she argues that the organs were implanted prematurely. The bleeding the researchers detected within the lungs suggests that the organs weren't ready, she says. Nichols recommends a much longer growth period—say, 60 days—and further testing to make sure the lungs are sound. "The answer is not just to implant and see if it works," she says.
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