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Questions raised over bloody raid to free British journalist in Afghanistan
Claims that British forces 'charged in' while release talks were under wayCosta Desperado or Costa del Sol?
Reinout gives an update on the Real Estate situation : bargains for the rich
Dubai - a the brink or at the mercy of...?
The current economic crisis has hit Dubai hard. Its western oriented economic system collapsed, housing prices dwindling below 50% of earlier values, many public works and projects canceled or postponed. What looked like the dream of a thousand nights, appears to become a nightmare for investors. A metro project, on an original budget of 4 billion dollar, now must save Dubai's economy. But can it...?.............The West and Dubai (and some other oil producers) need high oil prices to (politically and systemic) survive through this economic crisis. The West to pay its wars (against Islam) using high taxation on oil, the oil producers (many Islamic countries) to continue their dreams of rapid development. It is a paradox for the keen observer. We all are at the mercy of the factually wrecked banking industry, so is Dubai it seems. One said: "This has been the most spectacular spending mission on Earth. But it's a mirage. If complex debt structures have brought the financial world to its knees, Dubai now is the world's biggest toxic time bomb." Dubai, at the brink of recovery or, like us, at the mercy of bankers?Pure Synergy and Vita Synergy food-based vitamins and supplements
Yesterday, I wrote a story about the potential dangers of titanium dioxide, a chemical excipient used in many low-grade vitamins and supplements. Following that story, many people wrote me, asking, "Is there a vitamin that's completely free of excipients and fillers?"As it turns out, there is. It's a line of 100% food-based vitamins that contain no fillers, excipients, binders or flow agents. This makes it unique in the industry, and it's one of the reasons why, for the past several months, I've made this vitamin my No. 1 choice for food-based vitamins. It's called Vita Synergy and it's from The Synergy Company in Moab, Utah.
The Vita Synergy product is superb. There is no vitamin I've ever found, anywhere in the world, that's superior to Vita Synergy. It is 100% based on whole foods, many of the ingredients are organic, and it has absolutely no stearates (like magnesium stearate), no fillers, no binders, no lubricants and no pharmaceutical glaze (like many vitamin tablets are made with).
What this means is that Vita Synergy delivers nutrition to your body in a format that's innately recognized by your body! Many low-grade vitamin products on the market today are little more than a hodge-podge of toxic synthetic chemicals hyped up to sound like they're good for you. But Vita Synergy is completely different. Instead of chemically isolating nutrients and then combining them into a vitamin, it concentrates real foods, combines those, and then calculates the resulting vitamin nutrition that appears naturally in those whole foods.
This approach sounds revolutionary, but it really isn't: It's the way the human body has been interacting with foods throughout human history.
Diesel Exhaust Causes Cancer to Grow
...experiment, which were just published online and are slated to be included in the upcoming print edition of the journal Toxicology Letters, show diesel fumes act like a kind of fuel for blood vessels. Compared to mice breathing filtered air, an eight week exposure to diesel exhaust caused a six-fold increase in new blood vessel formation in the ischemic hind limbs and a four-fold increase in vessel formation in the mice with normal hind legs. The scientists also found more blood vessel growth in the implanted normal cells....three types of blood vessel development had taken place areas after exposure to the diesel exhaust: angiogenesis, the development of new capillaries; arteriogenesis, the maturation or re-started growth of existing vessels; and vasculogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. These findings are significant -- and worrisome -- because all of these processes are associated with the growth of cancerous tumors. And it is runaway angiogenesis that especially wreaks havoc in the human body, helping malignancies spread.High-Energy Particle Physics Demystified
With the Large Hadron Collider set to start up in November, a new book takes you inside the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
Paul Halpern has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and is a professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He is the author of 13 popular science books, including Cosmic Wormholes and the Cyclical Serpent. Read an exclusive excerpt from his latest book, Collider.
Physicist Paul Halpern explores the past, present and intriguing future of high-energy particle physics in Collider. He explains what all the hubbub surrounding the LHC is about and why physicists are pretty much beside themselves with anticipation.
Thin-Film Solar Startup Debuts With $4 Billion in Contracts
A startup with a secret recipe for printing cheap solar cells on aluminum foil debuted today, in what could end up a milestone for the industry.
Nanosolar’s technology consists of sandwiches of copper, indium, gallium and selenide (CIGS) that are 100 times thinner than the silicon solar cells that dominate the solar photovoltaics market. Its potential convinced Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to back the company as angel investors in its early days.
Two big announcements marked its coming out party: The company has $4 billion in contracts and can make money selling its products for $1 per watt of a panel’s capacity. That’s cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels in markets across the world.
Specifically, the company’s management thinks it can help utilities avoid the difficulties of getting big coal and nuclear power plants built by offering the option to build small solar farms they can set up close to cities.
“Cost-efficient solar panels such as ours can be deployed in 2- to 20-megawatt municipal solar power plants that feed peak power directly into the local distribution without requiring the expense of transmission and with a plant deployment time as short as six months,” said Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen in an e-mail to Wired.com. “Coal or nuclear can’t do that, can’t do it as cost efficient and can’t do it as rapidly deployable.”
What could set Nanosolar apart is the way the company actually gets its semiconductors to stick to the metal foil. Most companies use various techniques executed under vacuum conditions; Nanosolar prints its solar cells.
“What separates them from the rest of the companies is that they have developed a process to make CIGS cells which involves non-vacuum technology,” said Miguel Contreras, a thin-film solar researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “This is a very generic description, but what I’m pointing out is that by having a wet chemistry process, they are able to save quite a bit of money in terms of capital equipment.”
The base for their cells — the aluminum foil — is plentiful and cheap, which the company says has cost and manufacturing advantages.
Second cop chopper means 400-500 more flying hours
The Edmonton police service unveiled its new eye in the sky yesterday, almost a year and a half after talk of adding Air 2 beganAir 1, which began flying in 2001, helped police make about 300 arrests each year and assisted in around 150 ground unit arrests.
Per year, it logged anywhere from 1,000 to 1,100 hours in the air.
"It can't withstand that pace."Air 2 will become the main police helicopter, while Air 1 will be used when its counterpart is undergoing maintenance.
That will add up to around 400 to 500 more hours flying each year.
Mercedes-Benz has finally revealed spiritual successor to one of the most famous — and instantly recognizable — cars it has ever built. Although it is officially called the SLS-AMG, it will, like the car it pays homage to, be known as the Gullwing.
The 571-horsepower beauty tastefully updates the iconic 300 SL and brings restrained styling back to the Mercedes supercar lineup after the impressive, but somewhat cartoonish, SLR. The lines are long, lean and classic.
The SLS is no less beautiful under the skin.
Instead of an inline six like the original gullwing (pictured above), the SLS is propelled with due haste by a 6.2-liter V8. It cranks out 571 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. Although the car weighs 3,564 pounds, it is quite capable of eye-compressing speed. Zero to 100 km/hr (62 mph) comes and goes in just 3.9 seconds. Peg the throttle long enough and the SLS tops out just shy of 200 mph.
Just say no to the Lisbon Treaty. Again.
PM apology after Turing petitionGordon Brown has said he was sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code breaker Alan Turing was treated for being gay.
A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer.
In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.
The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming.
( I must confess I see little redeeming value in 'apologies' by those not involved to persons no longer occupying space on this dizzy planet : the word 'idiotic' whizzes by my cortex. )Suicide prevention and healing naturally
With teens going back to school and the seasons changing -now is the time to pay more attention to life and the loved ones around you. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics there are important signs to look for and think about.
- Has he/she had a lost of interest in everyday things?
- Does he/she have problems with eating or sleeping ?
- Does he/she have trouble concentrating?
- Has he or she ran away from home?
- Is he or she abusing alcohol or drugs?
- Hypnosis part of Natural Health Center
Census: Income fell sharply last year10 useful tips for a better Public Page - Netvibes
Multiple Personalized Pages
( Just as a side note : I have more than one personalized page at Pageflakes too )Did we miss the boat?
Did we miss the boat?
September 8, 2009 · 3 Comments
The nation’s President delivered a very motivational message to a group of obviously excited students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, yet many of our nation’s students missed this message intended for them.
As I was listening to it, I thought of Kennedy’s speech which inspired us to go to the moon, and how his speech led young people into being more involved in science, volunteerism, and politics; in fact, even inspiring a future president.
Obama’s speech today, no matter your politics, was an eloquent “pep talk” to the nation’s students, encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning. Yet across the nation, parents and school districts alike denied them the opportunity to participate–and I wonder in what way is that encouraging students to be responsible?
Do we not trust students (and their teachers) to analyze, discuss, and think about what they hear? And do we not want students to be inspired and motivated by leaders (whether they be principals, guest speakers, or Presidents?)
“Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. . .And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.”
Isn’t that a message we want our students to hear?
And when do we as educators stand up for the school as a marketplace of ideas, and at least make these ideas “available” to our students?
In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Farenheit 451, (a book commonly taught in high schools), books are burned to prevent the spread of ideas. Because ideas might make people think.
When we as a culture are afraid to examine the ideas of an opposing viewpoint, when we encourage our children to block out/screen out opposing viewpoints, when we pressure our schools to block out/screen out opposing viewpoints, at what point does this become a form of censorship?
The quote of the day on my blog today, ironically, is by Indira Gandhi. It reads: “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”
How easy is it to connect? A simple recipe
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How easy is it to connect? A simple recipe
August 25, 2009 · 3 Comments
Take one part having a few Twitter contacts. Add one enthused teacher who wants to try out Skype.
Dial up a few friends on Skype randomly(who you met via Twitter). Hope someone is nice enough to turn on their webcam to demonstrate (thanks Karl) and off we go.
Now we have a teacher in Texas who might have made a contact with an ASL teacher in Colorado, and all it took was a little “six degrees of separation”. When anyone wonders about the power of Twitter or Skype for educators, case closed.
Though this experience I had today has become somewhat commonplace for some of us who use Skype or Twitter, it still never ceases to thrill me to actually talk “live” to people that I have met over the network or to see a teacher’s face when they use the tools for the first time.
And it does demonstrate how easy a global connection is–it doesn’t always require a program, a huge effort, or a large expenditure of funds. It just requires the way the network allows us to “know someone” who “knows someone” who “knows someone.” And it requires the friendliness of educators always willing to give someone a leg up, show them the ropes and be invitational.
That’s the best thing about being involved in a network, when it comes right down to it. Broadening a circle of both friends and colleagues–learning from people every day who are willing to share and learn with you–and reinvigorating what you do every day.
Loo with a view: The world's toilets with the best vistas
Boston Bay High Camp, Washington state: Few loos with a view can beat this one near Johannesburg Mountain in the North Cascades national park
Canton de Chelly, Arizona: A wooden loo at the base of Spider Rock, an 800ft sandstone spire revered by Navajo Indians
The Valley of Longevity, Ecuador: A wooden long-drop that lives up to its description, high in the Andes
Cliff-Top Chateau, France: This 'oasis of pis' overlooks a picturesque bend in the Dordogne River
Among them are remote wilderness loos, such as the ones at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia and the Boulder Pass Campsite in Montana, which overlooks the spectacular Agassiz Glacier.
Many are on sacred sites - including those in the Valley of Longevity in Ecuador, where locals are said to live to 135, and on Mount Sinai in Egypt, where God is said to have handed the Ten Commandments to Moses.
Changi Airport, Singapore: Plane spotters in the new terminal 3 can take a wee look at the giant Airbus A380
Tasman Glacier, New Zealand: An aerial shot shows just how close this loo is to the edge
Mount Sinai, Egypt: The best place to see sunrise on the mountain is said to be from this toilet, where the early-morning light floods through the bamboo walls
Boulder Pass Campsite, Montana: A wooden loo in Glacier National Park, with a stunning view of Agassiz Glacier
Guard Tower, Alcatraz: Warders at the infamous jail had an all-round view of San Francisco Bay while they took a comfort break
The loos on the lookout tower at Alcatraz clearly worked, as no escape attempts were successful in the prison's 29-year history.
But women using the aquarium toilet at Mumin Papa Cafe in Akashi, Japan, have complained of being watched by a male sea turtle.
However, the future for interesting toilets is bright, as the new men's loo in Terminal 3 of Singapore's Changi Airport proves.
Croagh Patrick, Ireland: This 2,501ft summit in Co Mayo, where St Patrick fasted
Peninsula Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong: An ultra-modern mirror and sink - and view - in the ladies' at the Felix Bar
Salir de Uyuni, Bolivia: A relief stop 12,000ft high in the Andes in the middle of the world's largest salt flats, which cover an area of 4,085 square miles
Mumin Papa Cafe, Japan: This ladies' loo in Akashi is built into an aquarium, so you can watch the fishes as you, erm, meditate. But beware of the inquisitive male sea turtle
Mount McKinley, Alaska: A real cool view all round near the 20,320ft summit of the highest mountain in North America
Mount Whitney, California: At an elevation of over 14,500ft, this metal loo was a high spot for climbers. Sadly, it no longer exists![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=02d7438a-9314-4072-8ce1-90097ff7e975)
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